Building Supercars From TEMU & Battling Legal Threats From Manufacturers - Chris Slix
Road To Success with Benedict Fowler
Building Supercars From TEMU & Battling Legal Threats From Manufacturers - Chris Slix
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Car
Audi Q3
The Audi Q3 is a small luxury SUV. It’s the kind of car people buy for a mix of comfort and daily practicality, and this segment is basically saying the newest version is even better.
Car
Ferrari LaFerrari
The LaFerrari is a very famous, very expensive Ferrari supercar. Here, they’re talking about seeing one being built with rough materials, which is surprising because you’d expect a car like that to be extremely well-finished.
Term
fiberglass
Fiberglass is a lightweight material used to make car body parts. How good it is depends on how carefully it’s made and finished.
Concept
track-focused
“Track-focused” means building the car to be better for driving hard on a race track. The speaker is saying it’s easier to make something look and work like a race car than to copy a supercar’s perfect showroom finish.
Term
roll cages
A roll cage is a strong metal safety frame inside the car. It helps protect you in a crash and makes the car feel more solid.
Term
revs
“Revs” refers to engine speed, usually shown on a tachometer. In stripped-down builds, the revs are often the most critical information for the driver, so they may be displayed prominently on a minimal screen.
Concept
fit-and-finish
Fit-and-finish is how “clean” and well-made the car’s parts look when everything is put together. If buttons don’t line up or panels sag, it makes the whole interior feel lower quality.
Concept
body kit
A body kit is extra parts you add to a car to change how it looks. It usually includes things like bumpers and side skirts, and it can take work to fit it correctly.
Term
wrapping it
Wrapping is when you cover the car’s paint with a vinyl film. People do it for style or protection, and it has to be applied carefully so it doesn’t peel or look messy.
Concept
resale value of the car at the end
They’re talking about how, at the end of a project, you can still sell the car. That sale price can help cover what the build cost, even if the videos and sponsors didn’t pay for everything.
Car
Bentley
Bentley is a luxury car brand. If you’re thinking about a Bentley instead of a sports car, you’re usually looking for a more comfortable, upscale ride.
Term
supercharged
Supercharged means the engine has a device that forces extra air in. More air usually means more power, so the car can feel much faster than stock.
Concept
chopping off rear quarters
This means cutting off big sections of the car’s body near the back. It’s a major change that can make the car harder and more expensive to fix later.
Term
electric range
Electric range is how far an electric car can go on battery power before it needs charging. They’re saying the car can do about 40 miles if he wants to drive on electricity.
Term
OBD2 port
The OBD2 port is a plug in your car that lets tools “talk” to the car’s computer. It’s how you can check what the car is seeing and why a warning light might be on.
Term
fault codes
Fault codes are error messages stored by the car when something goes wrong. A scanner can read them so you know what system to check first.
Brand
BMWs
BMWs are one of the car brands that many phone-based diagnostic tools work well with. You can often read error codes and view live sensor data.
Concept
initial buzz
“Initial buzz” means the early hype when people first hear about a project. In car videos, that early excitement can help the series get more views at the start.
Concept
6x6
“6x6” means the vehicle has six wheels and is set up to drive all of them. It’s cool for off-road, but it usually costs a lot and can be harder to live with than a normal four-wheel vehicle.
Term
windscreen
The windscreen is the big front glass you look through when you drive. If it’s missing or damaged, the car can’t be finished safely, so parts delays can hold up the whole job.
Term
fuel tank
The fuel tank is where the car stores its fuel. If it’s damaged or needs replacing, you can’t complete the car until the right part is installed.
Concept
salvage
“Salvage” refers to a vehicle that has been declared a total loss by an insurer, usually due to major damage or theft recovery. Salvage cars can sometimes be rebuilt and resold, but their history can affect value, insurance, and legal paperwork.
Term
rear-wheel drive
Rear-wheel drive means the back wheels do the work. That can make the car feel more fun and responsive, especially when you drive it hard.
Company
Chroma Concepts
They’re talking about a specific body shop (Chroma Concepts) they like to use. The point is that the shop can do the detailed paint and finishing work really well.
Concept
Singer
“Singer” refers to Singer Vehicle Design, a company known for restomods based on the Porsche 911. Their cars are famous for being extremely limited, highly customized, and priced in the millions.
Concept
hush-hush
“Hush-hush” here describes keeping a project secret to preserve anticipation and surprise. In automotive builds, this often means not revealing specs, parts, or the final outcome until the reveal.
LIVE
Picture this, a curve in the road, a change in plans, well, what do you say?
With the all-new Audi Q3, the answer is always yes.
Yes to adventure, yes to escape, yes to performance, yes to comfort, yes to right now.
Because saying yes without hesitation, that's real luxury.
The all-new Audi Q3, made for the yes life.
How many months have you been working on a project that you can't tell your audience about?
I've already started it, I'm in too deep now, it's going to get expensive, it's going to get scary
and I'm not going to see any of that money back for a long time.
I think it will be the best car in the world.
See, a trip to China was eye-opening.
There was some things there, I was like, that's awful, but then there was the flip side to it,
but even then when we went to the fake markets there, they were a bit hush-hush about everything,
they were like, oh yeah, you can't film, you can't do this.
How on earth are they getting away with it?
The GT2 CS sat on your drive, there are going to be any more TV builds.
They just keep getting better and better, so until the point where they don't get better,
I feel like that might be when they stop.
Did you think they were going to be as good and creative as they were when you went there?
Chris, every one of the last four to five builds that you've done,
especially the Timi ones, you've told me,
now I think this is the last one that I'm going to do from Timi,
but then another one just seems to crop up like the GT2 CS sat on your drive just out there.
So are there going to be any more Timi builds?
Do you more fuel to do them after your visit to China?
I can promise or confirm nothing.
This is going to be an absolutely excellent episode.
The thing is they just keep getting better and better,
so until the point where they don't get better,
I feel like that might be when they stop.
Does that make sense?
Did you think they were going to be as good and creative as they were when you went there?
What, when we went to China?
Yeah.
Okay, so yeah, a trip to China was eye-opening.
There was some things there, I was like, that's awful,
but then there was the flip side to it where this is like brilliant.
It's amazing.
Like you wouldn't have ever expected it to be this high quality.
So like the first car we went to see was the LaFerrari.
And I was trying to be as polite about it as possible,
but I'm sure you could see in the video which we did and hopefully the guys could at home,
but it was being built about fiberglass, rusty rebar, spanners.
It didn't work a car that was ever going to be a highly polished product,
but on the flip side of it, there was, you know,
companies were literally churning out their own thing, their own designs,
being super creative, which was kind of refreshing,
especially considering everything we looked at out there,
because everything was so copy, copy, copy, copy, copy, copy,
at the end to finally get to find somewhere that's got an original idea I thought was quite nice.
I think we have spent so much time talking at the pub,
talking on podcasts about what's the next build.
The question with car rebuilding is always, what's the next build?
Where'd you go from here?
If this come up crashed or this come up crashed?
But after a trip like that,
I was really fascinated when they showed the kind of Lamborghini concept car,
you know, the one they'd only made one of.
Does that now open a door to be like,
well, hang on a second, maybe I can build a car that has been made,
but has never been publicly sold.
From there, I don't know, I don't know.
If you understood the differences between what they were building
and what the real thing should be, it's a world apart.
So it would never be, it would never drive correctly.
It would never sound right.
I don't think it'd ever have the right feel and the rights.
I think it's hard to put your finger on, it'd never have that feeling.
Where with everything else I've done previously,
all those cars have had the right engine for what I'm trying to copy.
The rights, you know, body width for what it should be.
Where with that green Lamborghini you're on about,
it was, you know, the suspension arms were fake.
Everything about it was fake.
So it was just kind of, it was more,
if you did it really well, it would be a showpiece.
I'm sure it had a diesel engine as well.
Anyway, the engine wasn't particularly spectacular.
So it would be so far from what the original idea should have been
that I don't think it's actually something that I'd want to build.
But you're pretty good at finding the individual pieces.
You've even done a video on building a Pagani engine
from that Mercedes that you got.
When you went to China, were you always in the mindset
that you're just focusing on the engine for that build?
And when you came back, did it give you the thought
of I could actually maybe put this in something
that resembles a Pagani?
Maybe, yes, it's possible.
But I suppose you don't want to...
I don't know. I think that would be more fun for me
to plonk that into something a bit more lair-in-ridiculous
and make something a bit more track-focused.
Because the thing that you've got to take your hat off to
with companies like Pagani and Koenigsegg is
their fit and finish is impeccable.
Like the way they finish those cars is out of this world.
And I don't think I would ever be able to copy that
unless I had millions of pounds to put into a project.
So the only way to make it so it would look good
is to make it more race car.
So more function over form, roll cages, bucket seats.
I'd describe it like a standalone ECU screen
rather than a proper dashboard to really simplify it
and making it more Zonda R-esque.
So it is just stripped back, raw, basically no windows,
no air con, nothing but an engine, a screen that gives you
your revs in your gear and that's it.
That's the only way I can see that working.
So are you better off doing that in something
that looks like a Zonda or in something Kit Car?
I'm not really sure.
You mentioned fit and finish.
Can you give us an example of your builds,
of one that you're the happiest with fit and finish
and the least happy with fit and finish?
Yes.
The Porsche fit and finish is almost perfect.
We could put that next to your 3RS
and I feel like you'd be...
There's not really much difference.
And then on the flip side of it,
I think the GT, when we did that originally,
it was okay, but over time it sort of deteriorated a bit
so we had to revisit it and rework it
because the panel seemed to move around as an exterior thing.
But then on the interior,
I think the GLE is the biggest example of a bad job.
So with staple showing,
you've seen the inside of it, haven't you?
There's buttons that don't fit, broken bits, loose leather,
everything's a bit saggy, everything looks a bit useless.
And that just goes to show that it's not an easy thing
to achieve what these companies achieve,
even if you do go and throw loads of money at a good company to do it.
Good company.
And this also tests your mindset
because the YouTube channel and actually delivering a video,
a big one every couple of weeks,
even a Mark II one every other week,
is built on you've got to sit behind the computer,
you've got to edit that content,
you've got to be proud of what you've shot,
you've got to be late at night in the workshop
putting everything together.
You need to go into it with the right mindset.
I saw from a friend perspective with your Mercedes build,
the latest one, the interior, the GLE,
it did make you to test that car for a little bit, didn't it?
Oh, absolutely.
I looked at it after we put it all together
and I was like, this is rubbish.
Now we've got the car working.
I realise it's not rubbish,
it's just the interior jobs rubbish.
And it is soul destroying.
So you obviously spent all that money on the car,
all that time in the videos,
all that time rebuilding it,
getting the body kit on, wrapping it,
doing all this stuff, getting it complete,
and then you get, you know,
spending £12,500 on this interior.
Not a small amount of cash.
And then you get it back and it is as rough as it is
with bits hanging off
and that company blaming us for breaking stuff
and it is soul destroying.
Because that was supposed to be the cherry on the cake,
not the turd on top of it.
I think most people may be surprised to hear
that you actually spent £12,500 on that interior
because I think we live in a world where
your channel's got just such a huge amount of subscribers
and views per video and everything.
I think the audience expects everything
just to be a free beer or a shout out
or something like that.
But it's not.
Give us a roundup.
Let's take that car and crash in the chilli.
You've paid £12,500 with the interior.
What bits can you sort of get
and there's a mutual benefit and what bits can't?
So in terms of freebies,
well, the body kit was not,
should we do what's free or what's not free?
Better both.
Okay, so body kit we paid for.
Wrap was supplied but I fitted.
So that was free.
The wheels we paid for,
interior obviously we paid for.
Turbos were free.
Remap was free.
And everything else we paid for.
So it's only £52 on the bit.
Two things I can think of that we didn't pay for,
which is the turbos, the remapping.
That was it.
They basically paid for everything.
Which is hard because the videos then have to generate
that level of views to justify the cost of these builds.
But is it still doing that on a build-by-build basis now?
That's a really hard calculation to make
and I'd love to figure it out for myself,
but we still manage to somehow continue going.
So I haven't figured out the maths completely
and I think we have somewhere the videos
don't necessarily add up to the full,
like the revenue through the sponsors
and everything like that, add up to the full cost of the build.
But then we've still got the asset of the car at the end
is something I've got to remember.
So like the Bentley, for example, hasn't been a loved car
on the channel.
It's done okay, it's got us by,
but it's not been setting anyone alight.
It's not been sparking a passion at anyone.
So as far as I'm aware anyway.
So that one has not been a profitable build at the moment,
but we've still got the asset of the car at the end
so we can sell that and hopefully that means
that we've not lost out.
Of all those builds of recent,
was there something that you've bought like the Bentley
when it comes up on Copa or something like that?
Like the next day something else comes up,
you've spent all your cash in it, you're like,
Oh no.
It nearly happened, it did.
I think there was a,
when I was trying to buy that 911,
there was a consensus at the same time.
I was like, oh, maybe it's time for a Bentley.
No one's done one in a long time
since Matt did his in, you know, years ago.
I thought maybe it's something different.
Maybe it's a breath of fresh air.
Let's give it a whirl.
Let's try it out.
And I was kind of deciding between the 911 and that.
And then miraculously,
both of the cars disappeared off Copa anyway,
so I couldn't make my mind up.
But is there been one?
Yeah, I think there was a McLaren,
which I could have got for very cheap,
which I regret buying,
but I bought the GT4 just the week before.
So I was spent out then.
It does happen.
It does happen.
But I suppose that's the art,
and it's been able to get yourself in the position
where something like that does come up.
You can pull the trigger on it
and hold on to that project until you're ready,
which we're getting closer, but we're not there yet.
The Ferrari you sold,
the Porsche was the last car you raffled, the GT4?
Correct, yeah.
But then you've held on to as many cars as you can as well.
What is currently in the garage?
The garage contains, well,
what my garage or spread across the UK?
Spread across Leicestershire.
So, well, it's not even Leicestershire,
it's just across the UK.
So yeah, we've still got,
at home at the moment,
I've got the 911 and the E92M3,
the supercharged one.
At the unit, we've got the GLE,
the AMG GT, Mickey Souvre,
oh, I can say it now,
because the video will be out
by the time this one goes out.
Brand new M5, which we're building for my dad.
Then at the body shop,
we've got the Bentley and the McLaren.
We've got the, does the engine count as a car?
If it's going in one, then yes.
We've got the Pagani engine in Leicestershire somewhere.
That's, I'm sure I'm missing one.
There's one I can't tell you about,
so we've got 10.
That one's not in the UK.
So 10 complete vehicles
by the end of the year, potentially.
Maybe not the Pagani engine,
but it's still got a lot of hot water there.
At what point,
if you keep amassing car after car after car after car,
do you ever just sit and think about on the sofa,
open up a museum here?
Does that ever go through your mind?
I don't know if it's interesting enough for that.
It's very rare that all they're complete and working.
So they're not reliable cars most than anyway.
McLaren, definitely not.
You've seen how bad that's been.
It's had the whole shebang.
We've covered it before.
We don't need to go over it again,
because I might cry.
But yeah, I think it's very rare
that something's either not having work done
or it's in its complete form or whatever it is.
So I think the most,
if we were ever to do that,
I think the most we could ever put up
with the size of the collection at the moment,
if I wanted to use one of them,
it would be like three.
So the GT2 CS is finished.
You're moving on to the M5.
Yes.
Will that have anything to do with this China body kit
T-Move style of video that we're used to seeing?
Probably not.
The car's so new.
It was owned by someone for weeks before it was crashed.
Is that new?
So it paid 120 grand, drove it out of the dealership
and then pretty much drove to work in it a few times
and then ruined it.
Is that new?
So I don't think, firstly,
there is any body kits to turn into a Rolls-Royce.
Okay, I can see that.
But I don't think there is.
And also, the end goal for it is different.
I want it to be back to being a solid car.
It's so fresh out of the box.
We should be able to repair it
and it will be as it was, brand new car,
no wear and tear.
It should be solid.
We may make it a bit tricker,
but I'm not talking anything as extreme
as chopping off rear quarters
and trying to make it into something else.
So funny you said that though,
because that shows that your mindset
has shifted into just a new lane just a little bit,
because to even be like,
oh yeah, we can turn this BMW into a Rolls-Royce.
I don't think that's something
that you just said a year ago.
I don't know if it's possible.
Anything's possible.
I don't know, you've been to the right place
to see if it is or not.
But we could turn it into our own thing,
I suppose, if we really wanted to,
but it's not the end goal for it.
I think it's not a car that particularly,
like it excites me,
but I wouldn't be dying to own one.
The idea of that car is to try
and keep my dad out of buying an electric car
because he's dying to buy a Taycan.
And we can't allow that.
It's just not on really.
So, born with the financials of a,
not a Tesla, a Taycan are useless.
So they just fall out their arse
and no one wants to buy them.
So if you do buy one,
you're probably stuck with it.
Secondly, it's electric.
Thirdly, it's going to have battery issues,
I'm sure, at some point very soon,
because he's going to be buying
at the lower end of the market.
And I just don't want my dad
driving an electric car to be on this.
You feel like you're doing the world a good thing.
Yeah, absolutely.
Yeah, absolutely.
I feel like it's,
with the M5,
it sort of makes sense for him
because it's more,
it's got more tech in it,
newer tech than the Taycan he'd be looking at buying.
Costs about the same to buy.
Okay, this one might be a bit crashed.
But also as well,
it's got enough room for his golf clubs.
He can do 40 miles on electric range if he chooses.
And he's got 700 horsepower
for when he fancies a rip.
I feel like that's a pretty good alternative
to a Taycan.
And by buying a Crash BMW
and rebuilding a Crash BMW 2,
a Crash BMW,
there's no legal challenges
or hot knowledge rock.
Which must be a little bit of a fresh air
because what must you have been thinking
when you went to China?
Take me through your mind.
So do you usually walk around thinking,
how on earth are they getting away with this?
Yeah, a little bit,
because it is very borderline.
And bear in mind, for me doing it,
I'm an individual.
So I'm just documenting
what I'm doing on my cars.
They're not cars I'm building for other people.
They're not,
it's not a thing I offer as a service.
So from that side of things,
I'm not making a profit
of building those cars
and selling to someone else.
But with China,
that's exactly what they're doing.
I'm sure that is exactly what
these companies would hate.
But they don't want to see,
if someone's messing around
with their own car,
I guess that's okay.
But if someone's messing around
with their car
and then selling it to someone else
for a profit,
that's where the problem is
when they're copying their work.
Does that make sense?
Yeah, we're on it.
So how, yeah,
I don't know how they do it.
I'm sure in China,
kind of copying is much more allowed.
But even then,
when we went to the fake markets there,
they were a bit hush-hush about everything.
They were like,
oh yeah, you can't film.
You can't do this.
You can't like,
you've got to come to this door.
They were kind of checking you.
They went through,
like took you through to these places.
So I was a bit,
there's obviously something
they're a bit,
being a bit cheeky with,
but it's hard to figure out
in China,
if they're allowed or not.
Do you know what I mean?
So yeah,
I'm not,
I can't figure out
whether it's,
do you get any like,
they feel protected by their country?
Like,
China just goes,
yeah, go for it guys.
because they're all about
industry making stuff.
A little bit,
because I think a lot of the
companies out there,
government-backed,
that's what's so alien about it.
So the government
invested in those companies,
maybe not the body kit companies,
I'm not sure,
but I know that
the Chinese government
invested in some of these companies,
so they're more successful.
So they can sell the products
more all over the world
and then China
in the long run gets
more of the world's money,
right?
So,
maybe they are more protected
by the government,
I'm not sure,
but I know here,
we're definitely not.
So I don't think
here it would work.
Could you figure out
why everything was so cheap?
Because they've got
a pretty good standard
of living across board
in China.
So the fastest growing
economies in the world,
yet you visited
the guy's house
that owned
that body kit company
and here
that would have been
like two,
three million quid,
no word of a lie.
And it was like 300 grand.
Is that because like,
they've just made
everything themselves there?
I think so.
I think they're not.
So,
one,
there's less red tape.
So I think they're less
caught up on health and safety
and HR departments
and all this sort of stuff
that we get lumbered with.
Second,
I think they've got so much
material there
because they've got so much land.
So they're going to have
loads of stone.
They're going to have loads of this
and have loads of that.
And also labor costs
are so cheap compared.
That's the one thing
that is cheap there.
have you been to China before?
No, okay.
So I went to South Korea,
but I don't know how similar it is.
I'm not sure either,
but for a taxi
in an electric car,
so a brand new BYD,
a luxury taxi
from the airport
to our hotel
was 50 minutes
and cost us about
eight quid.
Wow.
Yeah.
That is cheap.
And also the energy there
is cheap as well.
We were looking into
how much it cost
to fully charge an electric car
there.
It was about a pound.
So are they just everywhere?
Yeah.
You've got this thing
called Alipay there.
So it's like an app you have
instead of having a car
or anything like that.
You just run everything off that
so you can get a taxi.
You can pay for things in shops.
You can pay for your public transport.
You can see where you want to go to eat.
Like it's all on this one app.
It's pretty smart to be fair,
but it also that feels like,
I feel like everyone in the UK
had hate that
because then it's,
everything then becomes digitized.
So when base apps,
when currency becomes almost irrelevant,
I feel like that's where it's at.
And to go there
and use it,
it's like this is interest
and this is easy.
This is quite good.
But then you think about
would that work back here?
I don't think it would.
I don't think people
would be very happy about it either.
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Do you think you were quite
baffled by the fact
that they were
doing a lot of the designs
based off pictures?
That was impressive.
That was very impressive.
So that side of things,
you know,
that helps me out
knowing that I could go right.
I really like this kit you do,
but can you make this spoiler
look more like this car?
And they'd be able to do that.
I think that was interesting.
So if I was to plan that far ahead
and say,
yes, I want to build that car,
but I want to make it my own
and I want to do this and the other,
the fact that we could do that
was obviously fun,
but it adds time to everything.
And unfortunately,
the world of YouTube time
is not on anyone's side.
So you haven't got kind of
time to go and buy the car,
then decide the kit
you want to put on it,
then decide you want to make changes
to that kit,
then they've got to manufacture that
and then send it.
Like you'd probably be adding
six months on to the process of it.
So would that be something
that I'd have time to do?
I don't think it would.
So I feel like even though
it makes it possible,
we'd have to be very scheduled
and happy and comfortable
where I currently to be able
to think that far ahead.
So talking about workshops and tools,
the audience may have noticed
we've actually got one of these
on the desk in between us,
which I used in my GT3,
which I drove alongside the van
on the way up here,
because I actually had a warning
like pop on,
probably something to do
with my crazy exhaust.
And then this cleared it
straight away and I felt
a million bucks better.
But what is this
a little device on the desk?
I know that you use them
all the time.
OBD-11 is like the
ultimate kind of pocket sized
OBD reader.
So all you have to do
is stick it in your OBD2 port
and then using your phone
you can access all sorts of
things like live data,
fault codes, coding,
all those sorts of things.
Works best on BMWs,
Minis, van group cars,
Rolls Royce 2.0 to Lexus
and I think Ford in the USA.
But it does like
basic diagnostics for any car.
So is that the same
in mechanic terms
as those great big iPads
usually with rubber covers
that you're seeing
kind of in workshops,
people working on cars?
Does it do the same stuff?
So for all those brands
we mentioned,
it does kind of
all that and more
because it can do
dealership level coding.
But obviously basic diagonal
and the rest of the cars
available as well.
So anything with an OBD2 port.
So the things that you can't
do with those huge screens
that you pay thousands
of pounds for
is turn on certain features,
deactivate certain features.
So on your BMW
that you're going to be building.
Can't you switch on
some mental headlight feature
which is like yellow headlights
or stuff that would be
because don't BMW charge
optional extras for stuff now
that you can unlock
with one of those.
Probably, yeah.
And I think one that I'll
probably be doing that is
because on new cars
if you have a speed limit
fitted to anything
fitted after
or speed warning
or something on anything
after a certain year,
I'd imagine with that
you can probably turn it off.
Don't quote that.
Don't just claim that.
Not 100% sure,
but I'm pretty sure
you can turn off those sorts
of warnings.
Things like seat belts.
So when you've got,
you know, for me,
I keep, you know, laptops
and stuff on my passenger seat.
Sometimes it sets off
an annoying beep.
I can just turn that off.
All these sorts of things.
Super handy.
But then also
when it comes to maintaining
your car as well,
you can do like
oil service resets on the dash.
You can do brake fluid resets,
all these sorts of things
that you'd normally have
to go to the dealer for
and they charge
hundreds of pounds to do it.
And I think if you are like me
and you're not someone
that understands necessarily
anything to do with cars,
when a warning light comes on,
it could put more fear in me
than it necessarily would you.
So being able to just plug
something in easily
and find out what it actually is
and get rid of it.
So it's out of sight
out of mind sometimes.
Or if it's more persistent,
know that it is actually
something that I've got
to deal with.
It is very handy
and you can grab
one of these too
and you can do it
with a discount.
OBD11 have actually
sponsored this video
and if you use code RTS
you will get 20% off
one of these little devices.
I've left the link to the OBD
in the pinned comment
of this video
as well as in the description.
Head over there
and grab one.
Well, take me into your mindset
because no one
would have seen those things
including myself
if I hadn't of watched
the video on it.
And everybody I'm sure
that's like a regular channel
viewer who's seen the video
and pop up and go,
okay, he's not building a car
but let's give it a go.
And it's absolutely flown
like a million views.
You obviously went away
with your friend for a week.
He was out there on business.
Tom, you both got to do stuff
and you thought, well,
I may as well maximize the time
and film all of this
and film the process.
Was that kind of your mindset
rather than I'm making
a one out of 10 million
view video?
That's always the aim.
You're always aiming
for a one out of 10.
One out of 10
if you're not fully understanding
the YouTube is,
is ranked,
sorry,
is that video
that you've just released
in relation to last 10 videos
you play on the same amount of time.
So say, for example,
in the first day
you get 300,000 views
and then in the last videos
it ranks it based on that.
And one out of 10 is good.
But you're always aiming for that
because one out of 10
means growth.
It means new audience.
It means all these things.
So it's fantastic.
So you're always trying to think
and new ideas to try
and achieve that basically.
That's the ultimate goal.
It was always a hope to do that
and I wouldn't have gone
to China unless I knew
there was something
I could have filmed there.
So it was always planned
to do that.
But I thought
it was always an exciting idea.
I thought it's a side
that no one really gets to see.
And yeah,
this seems to work.
So I can't complain about it.
The bit I'm comparing it to
is yes,
you always aim for one out of 10.
But you know,
if you make another video
on the Bentay,
it's likely not going to be
a one out of 10
because you need the initial buzz,
that initial excitement
about the actual build series.
Is that quite hard
or should you just lock into
the mindset of,
we've just got to finish this now.
We've just got to get through it.
Sometimes, yeah.
Sometimes it's like, right,
it's not the most popular car
but you owe it to everyone
who is watching that
and who is enjoying it
to finish it.
Because the last thing I want
to do is have a car
that's a 50 grand car anyway.
It's not rubbish.
It's still a Bentley.
It's still a nice car.
So I don't want to have that car
just sat outside,
gathering dust and never being used.
That needs to go back on the road
and it's very close.
So yeah,
there is an element
of that sometimes.
We just need to get it done
so we can forgive and forget
and move on.
The more you go along
your YouTube journey,
development of the channel,
growing in subscribers,
growing of the garage,
are you more affected
by the 10 out of 10s
and the one out of 10s now
compared to maybe our first podcast
two years ago
or less affected by them
in terms of like your mood?
I think it's probably the same,
honestly.
I thought I was all right with it
when we were releasing
the string of Bentley ones
and I was just like,
oh, it's okay.
It is what it is.
It's not going to be the end of us.
It's not the end of the world
but then I realized
I'd had a string of not great
and then we get a one out of 10.
I was like, oh,
I feel like a new man.
So maybe it does.
Maybe it does.
It still has you by the balls
in reality.
But hey, honestly,
it spins me around by having everything.
So yeah, I thought it didn't
for a bit when I was having a bad string
but then I realized how much better
I feel when things are going well.
When things are going well,
is that when you realize
what you do it for?
You finish this GT2 CS,
talk us through how that actually feels
coming from the first build
you ever did on the channel
with Nissan's
and getting into your first Aston.
That must have felt incredible at the time
and now there is a literal like
GT2 that looks as good
as the real thing.
Sound the drive.
Like how does it feel to drive those cars?
Do you ever take in like
it feels as good as it would
driving the real one?
I think you'll have to have a go later
and that is probably you've drove
the closest thing to that car.
You'll have to let me know how it is
because I've not driven a real 2 RS.
But to me,
that is how I'd imagine it to feel.
It feels to look at.
It looks incredible.
The fit and finish is almost as good
as the real thing.
It's faster than the real thing.
It handles really well
and handles really tight
and feels very race car.
Like to me,
that is the experience
I would have expected
getting a 2 RS.
So it feels like you've worked really hard,
bypassed the Porsche route
and then got something
maybe even slightly better
for cheaper and you've worked
your arse off to get it.
So it feels incredible.
Yeah.
When you've physically fitted the panels,
which I would never understand
because I could never do it
and put the wheels on
and tightened up the bolts
and done absolutely everything
and seeing the development of the car
go from completely crashed
to then how it is.
That's the bit that you say that
well, I might have driven
one of the real things you haven't.
You don't know what it feels like.
I do wonder whether it feels more special
to own a car like that
than it does just being able
to buy the actual thing.
Possibly.
Possibly.
Especially with a car like that though
because I mean,
the Porsche notorious for
they use a bit of this on that.
They use this on that
and the 2 RS I don't think is a particularly,
it's a very cool thing,
don't get me wrong.
But they're not
making groundbreaking technology with it.
They essentially took a GT3 RS
and put the Turbo S engine in it
and then just turned it up a tad.
So it's more mechanical,
which also means it's probably a little bit easier
to work on as a project.
Yeah, yeah.
It's like, it's
for me that car is,
it's all about feeling speed really
and then the look is a byproduct.
So how much faster than the Mercedes?
Do you think you're going to race
like all of your ultimate bills together?
The LT is pretty quick.
I mean, it literally
shoots flames or catches flames.
It'll be the quickest.
It'll be the quickest,
especially on a quarter mile.
Without a doubt.
I'm probably on track as well.
How much by I'm not sure.
Do you think you'll end up racing
all of them together?
I think it'll be fun too.
It's just logistically
getting them all to somewhere where I can.
It's that, isn't it?
You don't realise until you've got
the 10 vehicles that having,
do you think you have
at any point 10 run at the same time
all together?
Yeah, probably.
Probably.
How well and how long forward I know.
Without one catching fire
like the McLaren nearly did in Marbella.
All right.
Well, moving on.
The competitive side of you,
a bit like racing
all the cars against each other
and seeing which one does best.
Are you also trying to tick off
every one of the supercar brands in your head?
Like, okay, I've done a Ferrari.
I've done a Porsche.
I've done a Bentley.
I've done a McLaren.
Do you ultimately want to tick off
all the others?
Absolutely, yeah.
Absolutely.
I don't want to stop anywhere
in particular, you know,
but I'd like to just get
more and more crazy with it.
And I'm sure you want to know
kind of what the things
I've got in my head
that I think we could do.
And there's some crazy ideas
and not all of them are
necessarily brand related.
It's kind of just fun ideas.
I think could work.
So, like, I know there's a company in Russia
which makes a G-Wagen 6x6 kit.
So, 6x6.
Yeah, there's 6x6.
So, one dealing with Russia
at the moment is a controversial thing.
So, I don't want to be getting involved in any...
It's not my job to be a political man.
That's not my role.
So, I don't really want to get involved in that.
So, going and seeing the kit
is probably not the best idea,
which I think is fair.
But building one would be cool,
but it's very expensive and unfortunately
kind of end up with a useless car at the end.
The G-Wagen is super usable
all by four through dog in the back,
loads of boot space,
use it like a van,
but then you've got a V8.
It's fantastic.
But then as soon as you put the 6x6 kit on,
it's basically a massive pickup truck
with six wheels that you can't park anywhere.
And there's going to have
no fuel economy.
It's going to be the most useless thing ever,
and ultimately end up costing
north of £300,000.
Do you think...
Because it's also possible to take
like a Lotus,
which do get crashed as well.
And I've seen like the company Hennessey
in the US has made some pretty crazy things.
Like, I think their first Hennessey venom
was based on...
Based on the exesia.
Do you think that kind of thing's possible,
or do you think you then get back into the legal water
because it's more of a boutique brand?
They'll see everything going on?
Well, no, because there's...
there's nothing...
nothing stopping us from messing with a Lotus.
And it's something I've been considering
for the Bugani engine.
I was thinking of essentially
doing what they did,
chopping it in half,
lengthening it, widening it,
and then letting that accommodate the V12
and the gearbox.
It's just whether the proportions
then become a bit ludicrous
in the like rear end size.
We may be okay, we may not be,
but that is one of the options
that we've got for where that engine
eventually ends up.
Do you think you're so much more open
to the ideas of doing those things
because of how much more experience
you gained since you started doing that?
It definitely seems more possible,
yeah, definitely.
What do you notice in like day to day
in the workshop,
like you and Mickey may be doing
that takes you like, I don't know,
X amount of time now
that would have been like a week
back in the day or something?
There's not really anything job-wise.
Obviously having ramps
and all the right tools
really does speed things up,
but it's ultimately,
knowing something goes wrong,
is how quickly you can,
you know, get your head around that,
accept it,
realize there's no...
it's not gonna make any difference
whether you get annoyed
or upset about it or not,
and then solving the problem,
basically.
So that's all we're doing
all the time is problem-solving,
so when you come across a new problem
you can't get too upset about it
because you enter that world
when you buy these cars
and when you take on these projects.
So you've got to accept
that that is your role,
that's your job,
and yes, it may cost you more money
than you thought,
yes, it may end up making loads more work,
and you thought,
yes, it may end up delaying videos,
but sort of accept it,
shrug it off, deal with it,
and crack on, basically.
And I think that's the thing
that's changed the most
is my acceptance of things going badly.
When the GLA, though,
did push you to the edge
with how you felt about that interior,
as you said earlier,
and all the things,
would that be the build
out of all the ones you've done
on your channel
that was the closest
to not being completed?
Have you ever got that way
with a car?
No, I mean,
because it was very close anyway
at that point.
It was all bolted back together
with doors, structural repairs,
everything from the start
of that video
when we went to do that interior
was, you know, almost in place.
It was just like a windscreen.
I needed a windscreen,
I think, and a fuel tank,
and a couple of other bits.
And it was good to go.
So it was,
that was more a delay in parts
rather than a delay in,
because it was so new,
or relatively new,
they still make that car.
So the factory ends up
stealing their own parts
to make the ones on the production line
and then put them on backorder
so you can't buy them,
which is fantastic.
What's one of the builds
that you really wish
you wouldn't have had to have sold?
Probably
either the Alpha,
I really miss that car,
or the Ferrari.
So the Ferrari.
No, the thing is,
there's something about,
I assume,
I really like my mid-engine cars,
you know I do,
but the saloon stuff is really,
I still think is really special,
because it's so much more usable.
You can drive that to work
every single day
and it won't bat an eyelid,
but then it's still lairy,
it's still fun,
and it's cheap enough
where you're not so worried
about wrapping it around a tree.
So you can have
a little bit more fun
and not think,
if I smash this wheel
it's going to cost me
a gazillion pounds.
I think that's where
I'm starting to see
a little bit more fun
and excitement as well.
So it's a toss-up between the two,
both Italian cars,
both kind of have the similarities
as well to be fair,
but yeah,
quite like both of those.
And what's been the least favourite
car that you've rebuilt
that you were probably expecting
a bit more from?
The RS3,
I've said that a zillion times as well,
it's like,
it's just meh.
There's nothing inside.
Which surprises me that someone like you,
because you've always been
about German performance cars.
Really, that is what
runs through your veins.
Yet you're choosing
an Italian saloon
over the German saloon.
It's not what I'd necessarily expect.
I think because
the F chassis has,
it's,
sorry, the F chassis,
which is the BMWs of the
Equal Time to the Alfa,
I'm talking about.
The sound of them is so bad.
They drive brilliantly,
but the sound is awful.
And the Alfa just has
a little bit more flair
and excitement.
And it kind of gives you that like,
oh, it's sort of got
supercar bits in it.
That's how it feels.
But then it's still usable
and still feels sporty
and all that sort of stuff.
So I think that's why I like that car.
And it sounds a little bit better.
Now, not only
are you having to do
all the work on these cars as well.
You're also having to do
all of the editing as well, right?
Talk me through
who currently works on the channel.
Is it literally you
and Mickey grinding out
everything that you say?
Yeah.
So as me and Mickey,
obviously,
doing everything that you guys
can see on the videos.
And then Vinny,
who works funny enough,
I've never met this guy,
but he's a friend of Jack McNeil's.
So I can trust him.
But he works,
he's down south somewhere
and he works on the second channel
edits.
He deals with posts on Facebook,
on some of the things.
But he does all that side of stuff
and is sort of,
he's nipping up,
working more and more and more bits.
So that's kind of taken
a bit of pressure off.
But yeah,
everything that you see
on the main channel
in regards to stuff
being filmed as well
is me and Mickey
and then sometimes
lives on the camera.
Well, I know you don't mind it
because it's what you always
dreamed of doing.
It's what you love doing.
We're not looking at like
talking about this amount
of work in like a negative way
because I know you're loving
doing it.
But just give the audience
an idea of what
a genuine week looks like.
But Monday to Monday.
Yeah.
Okay, yeah.
So get up, coffee,
drive half hour to work,
have another coffee,
get on with work.
And yeah,
so it's working all day
trying to solve problems,
fix cars,
film,
deal with the back of house
stuff.
So the accounts of this,
come home,
probably get back about
6.37 on average
and then it's working
until about 11-ish
editing every night.
And that's a pretty
much a typical day.
Yeah.
To do one main video
every two weeks
and one more two-video
every week.
Probably.
Did you ever expect it
to be so much
when you started doing it?
I thought it would be
the complete opposite.
Then really?
Didn't you?
No.
That's a good question.
But I think maybe
I came into it a little bit
sooner than what you did.
I didn't realize
it would be as hard
as what it is.
So when I thought,
when I was detailed,
I thought,
if I can get this YouTube
thing to take off,
then I'll probably
only work like 30 hours a week
and I'll have time to get
into the gym more
and do things which I enjoy
more.
Get into golf a bit,
do this, do that.
I have time to do
none of that stuff.
So I was kind of
expecting it to go one way.
But also as well,
you've got to remember
the standard of the videos
that are being put out
compared to three,
four years ago.
It's so different.
There's worlds and worlds
apart in it.
So before we used to
make a video on
fitting wheels,
that was your video.
There's your week's work
done.
Then you can share that
another one for the next week
and another one for the next
week by doing
physically not a lot of work.
Where now,
buy the car,
rebuild the car
and take it on a road trip
in one video.
So it's not
like, it's not quite
the same thing anymore,
is it?
Where do you think
that ends?
Is there like a ceiling?
I think that is
probably the ceiling
unless maybe you're doing
two cars at the same time
and doing that.
But there's no,
it's always the next
and the next and the next.
And we always wonder,
there's obviously
bigatties everywhere
on the internet
and your videos too,
like the one that you
saw in China.
And what was always said
while the bigatties
at the top,
like where do you go from there?
What do you think the answer
is to that in this world?
Because YouTube has
ever changed.
And is it something that
you actively think about?
Well, in terms of like
car, you know,
traditional car rebuilders
like mats,
like saving salvage
like the others is,
I think the limit
is what you can physically buy.
So it's,
no matter how much money
you've got,
if it's not for sale,
you can't buy it, right?
So if someone does go
and crash
Lewis Hamilton's Zonda
again,
that car probably won't come
up for sale.
So that is your ceiling.
You can't really go above
that, I think.
Or you're not going to go
and get a 250 GTO
because once it gets
crashed, it's going to get
repaired on the hush and then
put back into someone's
private collection.
So do you think people
will start watching less
once all the cars are ticked
off?
Or do you think that
it will continue to grow
and people will be more than
happy with the alfromares
that get crashed?
I think there's just
a market for all of it,
isn't there?
I think some people
want to watch the ultimate,
the next thing,
the biggest thing,
then some people want to
watch the more traditional
cars being repaired
so they can transfer that
to their own car at home.
And I think there's
something for everything,
but I suppose the point
I was making before
is with what I'm doing,
the ceiling is kind of
wherever you build it.
It's funny,
because you mentioned
the word traditional
in there,
traditional car rebuilders
and probably referring
to Dean, Matt and Freddie.
Yeah, the first three
that we can kind of remember.
Freddie is sort of
escaping that anyway
because he's going very
custom with his P1,
which I'm quite excited to see.
Yeah, no, great.
Very exciting.
But it's quite funny
because I think if someone
were to,
which many people are
across the country
in America,
everywhere,
start their journey now,
they'd look at you
probably as one of those
traditional lot as well,
because there's just been
so much time
that has passed between
when you started
and now now,
really,
in the grand scheme of things.
Do you think there is
enough room
for more people to join
or do you just think
it's almost a road
to failure
because it's just so hard
to get the views
when there's so many channels?
No, but sometimes
you've got to talk about reality,
like when something
is oversaturated
and there's too much
and you're competing
with people that are
literally rebuilding
an entire car in a video
or two videos, etc.
Is it possible
or is timing a big thing?
I think it definitely
makes it harder to
come up through,
you know,
to sift through the bottom,
you know,
make that start on YouTube.
I don't think it's impossible.
There's still people coming up.
There's, you know,
there's still people
who have started out doing it
and making a living off it
and being successful in doing it.
So even though I think
it makes it harder
because there's more people doing it,
it was still,
you know,
look at when I started doing it,
that was probably harder
than when Matt started doing it.
So that was still,
that market was growing.
So I think the only thing I can say
is the longer you leave it,
the harder it's going to get.
So you may as well start doing it sooner.
And do you encourage people
to get into it?
Why not?
I think it's more the merrier, isn't it?
I don't think there's
a downside to it.
If anything, it's...
I think the only downside,
sorry,
is the prices of cars
and co-part,
which really should be illegal.
How much has that changed?
It's creeping up.
I think it was already seeing
that boom in price
and over lockdown
and stuff like that
until when I started out doing it.
So I was on the end
of that boom
and so I haven't really seen them
be super cheap.
But it does seem to be never ending.
You see a car,
you're like,
all right,
my kind of rule is
you'll probably be able to buy
the car you want on co-part
in its crash condition
for half the value
of what it would be to buy it
in showroom condition.
But then you've got
a category S marker,
so the car is worth 25 to 30%,
maybe even 40% less
than the one in the showroom
when it's repaired.
It gives you such a little window
that it just doesn't make sense anymore,
especially with like
the Ferraris and stuff like that.
It's...
Mathematically,
I can't see how anyone
can make a living off it anymore,
especially trying to enjoy it
by dabbling in different cars
and doing a bit of this,
doing that,
doing the other,
unless you're just doing the same car,
week in, week out,
and you just buy
a ton of Ford fiestas,
all from co-part,
and you end up with a ton of spares
and you understand exactly
how they're put together
so you can turn them out quickly
and you can paint them yourself.
I can't see how you can
make money out of doing it.
Which is pretty direct
from the person
that literally does it
every other week, isn't it?
And that's the beat that's cracked up,
is the bit that you've lost
is the like bit of headroom
that was in them,
the little bit of mud.
What was the last car
you bought outside of co-part?
And how much stuff do you
actively get sent to you
during the week and stuff?
So I bought the M5,
wasn't through co-part,
the 911 wasn't through co-part.
The 911 I don't think
I got a bad deal on, actually,
because that was
such a low mileage car.
Yes, it had been categorised,
unfortunately,
but the original owner
actually bought it back
from co-part
before the auction ended.
Somehow, through the
stratosphere of what we do,
I managed to get in touch
with him after he bought it back
and got him to sell it to me,
and I think I paid 37 for it.
It sounds like a lot of money
for a crash Porsche,
but that car,
even though it's a Gen 1
of that shape,
would probably be 80 to 85 grand.
So I'm like,
well, I've already under
my 50% margin,
so it's got to be decent.
And I think,
even though it felt like
quite a bit for it at the time,
I really, really wanted that car.
I've been talking about it
since the GT.
It was so funny,
because it just seemed to be
that every 911
that came up on co-part
was either a GT2.
For some reason,
I don't know
if you'd ever talk about that.
There is a lot of GT3s crash.
They're just rear-wheel drive
and fun to rag it,
like the red line, didn't they?
So I'm guessing sometimes it bites.
Every week on co-part,
there's either a GT3 touring
or a normal GT3,
but it meant for you
that the ones that weren't getting crashed
were the four-wheel drive Turbo Ss.
They're probably just being driven
as dailies and a little bit calmer.
And they just never came up, did they?
We were waiting for what, two years
for the right Turbo or Turbo S
to come up,
and ultimately I had to settle
for the one which,
because the ideal car to do that with
would be a 991.2 Turbo S.
You already get ceramics.
You already get centre locks.
It's already face-lifted,
and I could not get that car
from anywhere cheap.
So I had to sell
for the older-shaped Turbo
and then do all of those things to it,
which made it a bit more expensive.
But I'm happy we finally managed
to get it ticked off
because it's been wanting to do for so long.
Somehow, if you're actually enjoying
this episode of me and Ben
waffling rubbish,
then make sure to subscribe
to the Road to Success podcast
because Ben really needs
all the help he can get.
I know you did a, say, challenge,
a project at one point
which was rebuilding a subscriber's car
on the channel.
We didn't know how it was going to perform
and it was going to overperform
and to perform
and the people were going to love it,
get on with it.
Would you do that again?
Eeeeeeeeeee?
Never say never.
Yeah, I think I'd rather buy it
and then just give it to someone random.
Do you get that every week?
Like, do you want to repair
my granddad's car?
He's done this.
A little bit, yeah.
The problem is for me,
I would rather
give someone a car
at random from the subscriber list
than, you know,
take on the responsibility of,
like, this is my car.
You need to look after it.
If something happens to it,
it's then your fault.
Oh, you scuffed the, you know what I mean?
I'm not saying like it's a big deal
and it'll get sorted,
but I've been fixing someone else's car
and opens up a whole other kind of worm.
So I think it would be
easier and nicer for me to
buy a car with the intention
of just gifting it to someone.
Yeah, that does make sense.
You have to constantly be thinking about,
there's so many things
where the project isn't there.
There's where it's come from,
what are the rules
we're doing the project,
how much legal jeopardy
am I putting myself in?
By taking on this challenge,
what is the mechanical side,
and then there's the unknowns, isn't it?
Out of, like, those things,
the legal, mechanical unknown,
what are you most fearful of
on a project?
It depends on what the project is,
ultimately.
So if it's, say, the Bentley,
for example, the Boson footnote,
excuse me,
the thing I'm most fearful of
with that is the engine.
So when we had the nightmare with that,
I was like, oh, no, this is,
this is a worse scenario.
Because the engine to buy a second
hand is like 15 grand.
So if something happens to that,
a car which you thought
isn't too badly damaged,
that's going to be the biggest,
I can't fix that,
it just needs replacing.
So that's going to screw you over
financially,
and you're not going to recoup that
because refitting a standard engine
into a Bentley on a car
which already isn't doing amazingly well
is going to be painful.
Speaking of pain,
what is the hardest moment in the last year?
You have to name any names or brands
or anything,
but what has been the scariest
or toughest or hardest challenge
in the last year to get over mentally?
I think it's trusting people,
which is an interesting one, I think.
So I think we've,
you know what we're going to be
doing this year,
and annoyingly,
I can't really say too much at the moment,
but we've had to take a huge,
huge leap of faith, basically,
with a few different companies,
and probably the most expensive car
I've ever bought,
that they can essentially
orchestrate what we're trying to do.
So obviously there's so many parts
that are going into this project
that are coming up
that we've got to send one bit here,
one bit there,
one bit to somewhere else,
so we can get it done
in a decent timescale
and we're not waiting for years
for a car to be finished.
And learn to trust people
in doing that is never,
never easy.
Sometimes easiest to handle
these things yourself,
but again,
time is,
I need to use the time I've got right now
to put out videos right now,
so if I was doing that myself now,
there wouldn't be any videos going out,
because it's,
it's that much of a job
to try and do all,
all the maths I'm figuring out,
all the bits you need for the engine,
all the,
the 3D scans and this and that,
and it's just unmanageable.
No doubt the audience
will feel a slight sense of frustration
about hearing a build.
This is fair, hearing a build being teased,
that you can't talk about.
Do you want,
do you enjoy doing this teased bit
or are you like,
guys,
I just really want to tell you
what we're doing.
No, I don't,
I don't,
I'd rather put it out,
but I also don't want people to feel like
we made a huge mistake
with putting the Pagani engine,
Pagani engine video out too early.
100% yeah,
because people have been
waiting too long now for the result.
So it's been four months,
well,
three months,
sorry,
since we posted the original one
and we're hoping we get the next one out
within a month
and we've just been messed around
and messed around with parts
and so much to the point
where we're trying to find
different solutions now
to be able to get this out
at some point within the next month or two
because it seems like there's no light
at the end of the tunnel
with the original routes we were taking
and that's the thing I hate the most,
to put something out for people,
get them excited
and then let them down.
So just give people,
because I think that also
earns such a level of respect
and something that they obviously don't know
you should not allow to talk about it.
But roughly,
how many months
have you been working on a project
that you can't tell your audience about
in the background?
You're like,
okay, so how many months
have you been putting in as time?
How much time and visits and trips
and energy have you put into something
that you haven't even released a video on yet
and how unusual is that?
At least a year, isn't it?
You've been as involved in it as I have, really.
You've kind of seen every step of the process so far.
Well, I think I have the idea, but...
Yeah, yeah, whatever.
So, yeah, I think it's at least a year.
It's at least a year, isn't it?
And you've been out to other countries,
flown around Europe,
flown around the world,
drove around Europe as well, yeah,
and yeah,
multiple video calls to hear there
and everywhere, fixing stuff,
stripping stuff down and...
And where are you now
on the emotional success of
I think this is gonna smash it
and does your journey doing that?
There's the first video, you know,
24 hours later, you can have the result,
whether it was a good idea or not, on your phone.
Do you go, like, sick idea?
Uh-oh.
Sick idea?
Uh-oh.
Like, is that how it is?
It's definitely got its complications.
It's definitely got its complications
because I'm trying to do the nails
and the future stuff at the same time.
It's how much can I do the future stuff
and film it
if it's one in a different country
and two, I'm busy working on what I'm working on
at the moment.
But in my head, the thing that I see is,
like, so we're starting off here
and, no, sorry, let's say the graph's here
and goes this way in time.
And I think the amount of success
also depends on the amount of time.
So as time passes,
this one does this
because it becomes less and less extreme.
I'm keen to get it out as soon as I can,
but I don't want to put a video out
and then make everyone wait for six months.
It's like playing chess.
Yeah, you're trying to move your pieces around
and hope that your move pays off, basically.
And do you think that will be
the next build after your M5
that you're doing?
Or do you think you're going to have to find
a stopgap in between?
I don't know because we've been working on it
physically working on the car now since
maybe September
and there has not been
one new part going on yet.
There's been a lot of design,
but not one new piece has hit the car yet.
That must feel frustrating.
It's worrying. It's worrying.
The money is coming out of my account.
Is this a semi-similar
scenario to what happened with your interior
on the Mercedes?
Are you starting to get the same feelings
of like,
I get that feeling because I feel like
it's a little bit out of my control.
Imagine you kick a ball down a hill
and you're like, I want that ball.
That's your money.
There it goes.
I've already started it.
I'm in too deep now to be able to turn back.
It's going to get expensive.
It's going to get scary.
I'm not going to see any of that money
back for a long time.
But I think the end product
should be so worth it.
It's going to be the best thing
that's ever come out of this channel.
I think it'll be the best build
the internet has ever seen.
I think it'll be the best car
in the world.
Well, that is extremely exciting to look forward to,
but it relies
on looking after other people
and trusting other people.
I remember at one point you were even interested
in building a paint shop next to your
current unit work.
Only for use for ourselves.
This is my point.
Is the goal or is the challenge?
How much of the other work of that other spend
can you bring in house yourselves?
I think the reality I've seen
on the other side of that is
since saying that I've spent a lot more time
within a body shop that's really high quality,
the amount of work that takes
to achieve a standard that's that good
is hours and hours and hours.
Even though they churn them out for us fairly quickly
in terms of the work they do,
the amount of man hours and those bits
is crazy because obviously they've got a whole team
of people working on sanding this, polishing that,
painting that all at the same time
and to get them to that level is tough work.
For us to bring that in house,
I think I've realised that not only would I have to
invest hundreds of thousands of pounds in equipment,
but then I'm going to need to take a bunch of stuff.
I don't think it makes sense.
I think I'm better off sticking with this body shop
with guys at Chroma Concepts, absolute legends
and just getting the best standard of work
but only when I need it rather than spending
all that money to have all these people
and all this equipment, I don't think it makes sense.
Do you think there is a world in which in the future
and we talk about like the lifetime of channels
and where it could go and what it could go into?
At the minute like Restamont's
one of the biggest things out there,
you know, that we do a project with my agency, TWR.
We run all that website.
They've done the Chakir XJS
and they've created the Supercat,
which looks absolutely nuts in my opinion
and drives insane.
Your company's like Singer.
You've got companies now rebuilding Ferrari F355s
and on this JWW.
Does it ever Luto of Luto?
Something like that.
They're really cool and I love them.
Would you ever build ten of a CS or Chris Slick's
version of something for the audience?
Yeah, definitely.
But the problem is the money side of things,
like the problem with Restamont's
is because they're so unique and so individual
and so limited production,
they're inexpensive,
really expensive, like millions.
I look at the singers,
they're all like millions a pound plus, aren't they?
I think.
Yeah.
So it's like, unfortunately,
not everyone's got a million pounds
to go and throw at a car.
It's the real world and I'm in with those people as well.
So it's, the ideal for me would be able to,
yes, let's do it, but let's do it in a way
that makes it more attainable than,
you know, millions of pounds and all porches
and that sort of thing.
I think it's, there's definitely a hole somewhere.
There's a way to do it where it doesn't cost that much money,
but everyone's still happy at the end.
So they get a cool car.
We've made a little bit of money.
Everyone's happy and there's a,
you know, ten of these cars rocking around all over the world.
Does that matter to you a lot?
Because you always try to make everybody happy
and you're realizing the more people that you take on
and employ and work with,
it's just not happy,
it's not possible to keep all the people happy at once.
I think we've all seen that, haven't we?
You know, sometimes you end up being friends with two different people.
Those two people don't get along and it's, you see,
you employ two different people,
three different people, four different people.
We've all seen it.
There's arguments in workplaces.
People argue with each other.
That happens as it is, but you want to try.
So what's your relationship with Mickey like?
Me and Mickey are good.
Me and Mickey are really good.
There is times where he frustrates me
and there's times where I frustrate him.
It's like, it's almost like brothers in a way now.
You know what I mean?
It's like you sometimes have a little bit of a fight,
but at the end of it, you're all, you know, hugging and making up.
It's fine.
So you obviously care about your audience a great deal.
Yeah.
Riding to comments, taking on feedback,
things that have been said.
Sometimes like a comment can actually lead to something
being fixed on a car that you thought didn't think of that.
So...
Yeah, absolutely.
A trip to charity that you never thought you'd do.
Yeah.
Or a trip to charity that you never thought you'd do.
What was that going with?
That was that directly a result of something from the comments?
Sort of.
It was kind of like an idea.
It's like, you know, that's a really good idea.
I just don't think it's good.
And then it sort of just ended up happening.
It just kind of all fell into place.
I was like, yeah, that's...
Thank you.
Because everybody's...
Maybe I owe him some money.
From knowing Chris, he would not be the sort of person
that I think would go to like a country further than Europe
too easily because he can be fussy with food.
Is that fair to say?
That's not me.
Come on.
What do you mean?
Give me an example.
Well, I've been trying to get you to come to America for God knows how.
You're just not interested.
American food is not the one.
But I thought you'd maybe be...
India.
I would not...
Yeah, I wouldn't be eating food in India either.
But I just value my time.
I don't want to spend it sat on the toilet.
That's fair.
Yeah.
Did that not the case in China?
That was mint, yeah.
If you like bubbly fish and milk, then yeah, it's fantastic.
Didn't you eat turtle?
Yeah, eat turtle, yeah.
Scram the turtle.
Yeah.
Was that your idea or was that Tom's idea?
Basically, when you're sat in China, I think it's kind of like their thing is having dinner
is very sociable.
So you end up having a big round table and a big old lazy Susan in the middle of it
just spinning around with like basically just loads of different dishes on it.
So you just sort of tuck it in as this table spins around.
It's a great atmosphere because it's like, oh, try a bit of this, try a bit of that.
Oh, here comes a beer.
Everything's good.
And you don't really pay too much attention to what you're eating because it all just
looks like food.
But then when you pick one out, it's got a bit of tortoise showing it.
It's a bit like, well, we're in Rome.
What else was there?
Swim blooders.
That was an interesting one.
If there's anyone I was just thinking that I could see from the YouTube space in the
UK launching a beer brand, it would be you.
Oh, I don't know about that.
Looking at Whistling Deez was like, this is a great idea.
Look, I am partial to one, but let's not let it ruin our lives.
But obviously there'll still be parts of the audience listening that are like, well,
hang on a minute, you can't do this to us.
You can't tease this insane, crazy, mad project.
And not like, like, come on, mate, because they almost feel like you're their friend
watching every week.
You know, there's like that genuine sense of connection.
Why can't you?
Why is it so important to still wait for the first video and not just tease that?
Because if I give the idea, it ruins the surprise.
And without the surprise, it's not shocking.
And without it being shocking, I don't think it's got the same appeal anymore.
To be fair, I'd remember the lengths you went to to surprise Mickey with his car.
Yes.
Yeah, 100%.
And the surprise is everything.
Without a surprise, if you, the day you say if you walked into a car dealership one day
and bought a car, it's not very surprising.
If you got, took out your house blindfolded, put in the back of a car and then took to
a car dealership and the car was wrapped up in wrapping paper and then you got to unwrap
it and you had no idea what you'd get.
How much more of a surprise and how much more shocking and exciting is that?
I think that's the same thing I'm trying to create by keeping it a bit hush-hush.
Because if I leak the idea now, it's just going to ruin it.
Do you worry at all?
And maybe you don't.
There is no problem at all.
But going back to that, do you worry about the next thing, the next thing, the next thing?
Finishing a build like the one you're going to do will just make you go like, oh my God,
I literally can't believe we do that.
I can do any of that.
But then you start to worry about what the anything could be when you've reached the top
and like being like, oh, what do I do now?
I suppose your limitations, I was about to say your limitations is going to have four wheels,
but with a six by six, that's not the case, is it?
I mean, who knows?
Who knows what's going to be possible with the way technology is coming in and how fast
it is and being implemented.
I think it's the things that we didn't think were going to be possible.
20 years ago, we're going to start becoming possible.
So the reason I mentioned it is because many of the people listening will have job security
and like these things of do I go and be an entrepreneur and do my own thing and deal with
life in this way?
Or I've got this sense of security of like, I work for the public sector, I do this and
I've probably got 20 years of job security and thing.
For you guys, are you literally just looking at it on like a month by month or a sixth
month by month basis and going, yep, we're still good.
Yeah, but I'm still here.
It's still sort of working vaguely and we've got some things in the pipeline.
That's it.
I think that's the best way to live.
You can't focus too far on obviously I've said I've been planning ahead a lot, but if
you do spend too much time doing that, you ended up doing anything now.
So you've got to balance those two things.
I think you cannot get too bogged down.
Well, let's not get too bogged down in the rest of this conversation.
I think an hour with you is an absolute great chat.
Sure, that's enough for you.
Yeah.
Thank you, Chris.
Thank you so much for appearing on the podcast again and giving everyone an hour of your
time.
My pleasure.
Love you guys.
Love you.
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About this episode
Chris Slix talks about a China trip that opened his eyes to both the quality and the shady side of replica supercar parts and “fake markets,” plus how that experience shapes what he’ll build next. He breaks down the brutal reality of YouTube car projects: costs, legal gray areas, and the emotional toll of bad fit-and-finish—highlighted by a painful £12.5k interior job on a Mercedes GLE. He also shares his garage lineup, the plan to rebuild a crashed BMW M5 for his dad, and how he manages workflow, trust, and constant “teased” progress.
Original notes
Make sure to use code RTS at https://go.obdeleven.com/RTS for 20% Off! Unlock Apple Car Play and Diagnose faults on your car, anywhere, anytime! Chris Slix sits down for an in-depth podcast interview covering everything from his China trip revelations and the realities of building a YouTube car channel from scratch, to his most ambitious secret project yet — one he's been working on for over a year without releasing a single video.They discuss the highs and lows of his wildest builds — which cars had near-perfect fit and finish, which ones fell apart, and the soul-destroying moment a £12,500 interior job came back looking like a disaster. Chris opens up about the financial reality behind the channel, what he genuinely pays for vs what's gifted, and why the Bentley build just didn't hit like the others.You'll also hear about future build ideas including a Pagani-engined track monster, a Lotus widebody concept, and one mystery project he describes as "the best build the internet has ever seen." Plus — the competitive side of Chris, why surprises are everything, and what a typical 6am to 11pm work day actually looks like behind the scenes.Don’t forget to subscribe to our channel for more exciting content about your favourite shows and celebrities. Hit the bell icon to stay updated on all our latest episodes👍 Like, Comment, and Share this episode. Join our discussion in the comments sectionCheck out Tweak: https://www.tweakuk.com/🔗 Follow Us:Instagram: @Roadtosuccessofficialpodcast@benedictfowler
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