Chris Slix on Why Expensive Mods Don’t Make Sense | EP50

So you don't know what you're going to need to fit it.

You don't know if it's going to line up.

You don't know if it's going to be snapped in half and you get it.

Like you have no idea that you're just going to roll the dice.

It really is.

Well, the McLaren one was 25 grand, so the kit was more than the car.

Wow.

Admittedly, it was a full carbon kit.

It was a lot of money and you don't know if it's going to be any good.

It could just be like, well, this is rubbish, not going to make the car.

And I've just thrown that amount of money down the drain.

Hello and welcome to another episode of Talking Shop.

Again, we're on the road at the Slicks Garage with the man himself, Chris Slicks.

Hi, guys.

Make sure to like, comment, subscribe and let us know who you want on Talking Shop next.

Thank you for having us, mate.

Thanks for going down.

Yeah, I'm glad we're doing it here.

I think it feels right that we're in a workshop in the cold.

That's it.

Experiencing it in real.

We're experiencing what you're experiencing now.

It's a little bit surreal watching you on YouTube

and then obviously seeing it your old place as well.

And then seeing you come here and then come in here, it's, yeah, it's mental.

Everyone says when they come here, it looks bigger on camera.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

In fact, I said exactly the same thing.

Did you? Yeah, yeah, yeah.

There's not as much room as you think.

Do you know what? No, but it's still a very good space.

So I suppose compared to what you did start with.

I mean, it's what I can't, how many times more it is than that.

The last one was a double garage.

So that was probably, this is probably five, six times the size,

probably even a bit more.

That was tight.

It was, I remember when I finished off in there,

like last card in there and I think start to finish was the X3M.

And it was tight, really tight.

Like we had these little quick jacks that almost touched the ceiling,

like you open the doors, it would be against it.

It was tough.

Yeah, not only was it tight for a car,

it was everything to take off a car and back on the car.

You realise when you do take apart a car,

you've not just got the size of the car that you're working on,

all the bits off the car, then each was the size of another car.

So it's, yeah, it's nuts.

Yeah, it's amazing how literally, like you say,

like you've got this car in and then you take everything off it,

you'd think, you know, at least the car's going to get some.

No, it's just the exact same space that it takes off.

And now you've got all this stuff.

It's amazing how much they cram in, actually, to a car.

You realise it when you went into my garden,

because obviously I was working from home before

and there was just piles and stuff everywhere.

That was the one thing that was nice when I moved here.

I managed to be able to have a garden.

Yeah, home is home.

Yeah, exactly.

Yeah, I like it.

But the very few people that don't know who you are these days,

I suppose, who are you and where did it all start for yourself?

So I'm Chris Slicks.

I don't know which camera to look in.

There's so many.

All of them.

Perfect. Yeah.

So I'm Chris Slicks.

I basically rebuild, crash damaged cars

and then turn them into a better version

of what they are on the cheap.

Yeah, I think that's a good summarisation.

So it comes across that that way.

Little little warm up question for you.

We always we always ask, what does what does success mean to you?

What are you happy with?

I think it's freedom, freedom.

Yeah, that's the main thing.

It's kind of been able to do what we enjoy

and vaguely make a living off it.

I'm not so, you know, I'm not bothered about having a massive house

or anything like that.

Nice cars to be able to relax.

And obviously look after Mickey and Ross,

cameraman and mechanic.

And that's the main thing for me is to be able to.

Yeah, enjoy myself.

Enjoy myself and relax doing it.

Yeah, drive all the cars you'd ever.

Exactly, fake versions of the cars.

Disquinting that.

We were just talking about this earlier, actually.

I think the niche you've got with the kits that you've put in the cars,

it just makes that car 10 times what it already was.

Yeah, 100 percent.

And I'm also a bit of a believer as well

that the manufacturers aren't fair in the way they price stuff.

They don't change that much.

And then they'll charge three times more for it.

It feels like a bit of a concert.

I kind of especially would start with a crash damage car

if we can kind of spend roughly what the original car would have cost

before it was crashed and then end up with something

with like a grade and all the bits of the factory

upgrade to turn into the special version.

Then you probably get a 95 percent of the experience

for like 30 percent of the money.

And if you've never driven the proper version,

you don't know any different.

Yeah, exactly.

Yeah, you won't go.

All this doesn't feel quite like, you know, the steering angle

isn't quite the same.

Yeah, exactly.

Unless you are the stick.

Yeah, I don't think you've mentioned it.

But this is not always what you've done.

You were in detail in business, didn't you?

Absolutely.

Yeah, well, it started off my...

I've had a very strange career path really.

Tell us more.

Well, I started from college.

I did music in college, which is completely opposite

to what I am now, I suppose, in a way.

You taught me some things because, you know,

producing music is very similar to producing video.

It's just video is another layer to that project.

After that went into sales.

Wow, yeah.

So they tied in together really well.

I started off in a window sales company.

I did it for a year and a half,

and then went into selling sofas.

And then after that, I sacked all that in,

went back to the window company for two weeks as a manager.

I decided I hated it and started my own detail in business.

I did it for seven years and sold three years ago,

I think it is.

Yeah, three years.

It's been pretty varied.

Yeah, yeah.

Yeah, sure, sure.

I spoke a good grounding with a little bit of everything there.

Yeah, I suppose it's taught me like a little bit of a few things.

So it's been quite handy really.

Did you get involved with...

Because obviously, you can't just take these things apart

and put them back together again without learning a thing or two.

Yeah.

So you're in detailing, obviously.

I presume you met Matt and that's how you gained the mechanical knowledge.

How did you...?

Sort of, yeah.

So I...

Yeah, detailing...

Going way back, I went to school with Liam, who Matt bought the RA for.

So me and him went to school together.

We were driving around together,

then I passed my driving test and doing all sorts of stupid stuff.

So that's how I know Liam and Liam and Matt knew each other through BMX him.

Yeah.

It was all kind of there to begin with.

Then when Matt obviously got into doing car YouTube and stuff like that,

I ended up going down to clean his Golf R, was the first one I did for him.

I filmed a video on that, blah, blah, blah.

It wasn't very good, but never is when you're starting off early, is it?

But yeah, I just ended up kind of getting friendly with him.

Obviously, we were already friendly with Liam

and just helping out a little bit down there.

I didn't really...

I don't think he'd have trusted me to work on his car then,

because I wouldn't have trusted me.

You only figure stuff out by breaking stuff.

So it's just kind of getting in there and having a go, really.

Which if I did more of when I started my own channel in terms of working on cars,

that's probably more when I figured that stuff out than maybe doing stuff with Matt.

Yeah.

I suppose when you're being thrown in the deep end, you've got no option.

That's it. It's make or break the channel.

If I can't do this, then who is?

Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, that's it.

So when I've... Any cars I had before I started doing YouTube,

I'd just give them to someone else to do pretty much everything.

Sure, yeah.

And then I was like, oh, OK, well, if I'm filming it, I've got to do it myself, right?

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

That's it, you learn from mistakes and what the rest?

Yeah, absolutely. I've made plenty of mistakes.

Yeah, yeah.

I'm still learning, so it's plenty more to make.

Yeah, do you do the same?

Because I think, like, when you take things apart, obviously,

how do you even remember how to put it all back together again?

Are you literally watching your own content?

Sometimes, yeah. Yeah.

Sometimes, you can kind of see it with all the stuff.

We've got this Bentley engine apart at the moment.

There's a table full of stuff over there.

Yeah, we try and put all the bolts back in the right places we took them out of,

but it's never easy.

You always end up putting something on, taking it back off to put some elks back on,

and you put the wrong bolt in the wrong place, and it snaps.

Yeah, it just happens. It's one of them.

The more you do it, the better you get at it,

the more you kind of learn a process which works for you.

But, yeah, there's still... I think it just comes with time.

Sometimes, when you've done a job a few times,

like, OK, that bit's easy now, so I know what those bolts do,

where they go, this, that and the other.

But, yeah, it's just, I suppose, organisation is the best way of remembering it.

It's still not great at it.

Is there a car or a manufacturer you've worked on?

It's literally just like, this is nothing like anything we've done before.

Do they do something completely against the grain, shall we say, compared to anyone else?

Something that's completely counter-intuitive.

I'm sure there's a lot of that.

Yeah, probably McLaren.

OK.

If only enough I thought you were going to say that.

I love McLaren. It's brilliant, but it just never works, ever.

And then you park it up for two months, and instead of it,

like, some cars, so you're leaving from it, and they get better.

They sort themselves out a little bit.

That does the opposite.

Things just, more things break, and more things break.

So you can't sit there and leave it, but there's just a few things on that,

like, the hydraulic suspension is like nothing we've ever worked on before,

and you're trying to figure out how the hell that works.

Even where the gearbox bolts in is a bit strange,

like, everything about it is just done a little bit,

like, they've just started with no one else's blueprints

and just done it themselves, and gone, that works, that'll do.

That'll do, that'll do.

If not, the looney ringers in complain.

Yeah, or they'll book in and have it in the eyes.

Yeah, they'll make more money, yeah.

Because you do have one of the early ones, don't you?

It reminds me of the 2015, the 650S, yeah.

So that's basically the 12C with the facelift.

So it's basically the first one they made.

It has every single problem.

Is that McLaren I've ever come across?

Yeah, pretty much, pretty much.

So we're still, even now, we're trying to sort it out,

and there's constant, this needs doing,

we did have that sorted before, but now that's broken again.

Yeah, yeah.

It does not make sense.

Have they improved, then?

Have they, like, because, obviously, Matt's got...

I've got no idea.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I don't know if I'll buy another one.

So someone crashes it.

Yeah, potentially.

Yeah, unless I can get one really cheap,

I don't know if I'd do another one again,

because it's, they are all very similar as well,

like the 570 and the 650, very, very similar.

Yeah.

Same engine, same gearbox.

I think the same suspension.

All right.

It's slightly different, but not much.

There's not a lot that actually change about them.

Yeah.

It just seems to be the price and the headlights,

and that's about it.

Yeah.

Yeah, sure.

Yeah.

I suppose, just going back a little bit,

what was that moment that you maybe,

when you were doing your detailing, you were thinking,

why do I go from here?

I want to do a little bit of YouTube.

Well, that was sort of what stemmed it, really.

Yeah.

I remember, me and my mum and dad are very, very close.

They're very business-minded, and the one thing they said to me

when I started off doing my detailing was that

you're always going to be limited by the amount of hours you've got in your week.

Yeah.

There's only so much you can do, so it's either you take on stuff,

bigger premises, bigger overheads, bigger risk, bigger this,

and then how much can you charge for detailing a car?

Your limit is probably £50 an hour, and that's...

You're pushing it, really, especially when you're doing normal people's cars.

Sure.

You're not in a crazy affluent area.

So that was sort of the thing that was always in my mind when I started.

It's like, I'm going to be limited here,

and I don't necessarily want the risk of a unit this size with detailing,

trying to pack five, six cars in a day,

having five, six members of staff,

because let's face it, cars and staff are probably the two worst things

in any motor-related business, because they're both unreliable.

Even if it might have been down to the customer, it might be like,

oh, my car's broke down, I can't get into here, blah, blah, blah, blah.

I've got to push it back, and you only find out on the day,

so then you could end up with a member of staff,

and there's thems, and you've lost all your profit for the day.

So that was always the thing.

I was like, OK, there's got to be another way where I can do what I love for cars,

but in a way where my hours are uncapped.

So with YouTube, obviously, you're only getting paid like a penny per hour, basically,

but if you can do a million hours, it doesn't really matter, doesn't it?

Exactly, that's it.

So you started your channel.

You already knew of Matt at the time, did you?

When I started my channel, no.

We knew of each other, from when we were younger,

but not ever interacted or anything.

So yes, I'd started my channel, started making videos around the detail and stuff,

and then probably, I think, 5th or 6th video,

I was like, OK, let's go and see if we can do something with them.

And that was when the Golf R popped up, which was ideal,

because it was super mouldy and disgusting and haggard.

Couple of content there, isn't it?

Yeah, it was. It was pretty nasty, but I think we just did a 10-minute video,

and it looked pretty good at the end, to be fair.

I think it was a popular car on his channel at the time as well, which helped.

That took us from less than 100 subscribers to 2,000 or something like that.

So that was a good boost and a good start off for that.

But then, instantly, that was a bad move in terms of YouTube,

because you've got 2,000 people which you're interested in, Matt,

and then only maybe 200 of those that are actually interested in detailing.

So you end up with more subscribers than the views you get in,

which is a bit of a strange look.

Yeah, it certainly seems these days where the content...

Although it's a very similar content,

it's also a very different content, obviously, with yourself,

with the kits and stuff you buy.

I think Matt's got a different sort of way of doing things.

Was there a time very early on that maybe you were maybe concerned equally vice versa

that the content was a bit similar?

Yeah, absolutely.

I think that's kind of why I was keen to find something to switch it up.

The thing that I've said it before,

I've kind of always done the body kits, and I never even realised myself.

So the first car we did was a 350Z, which I fitted,

a fake Rocket Bunny kit to.

So then the one after that...

That wasn't crashed when I got that.

It was just a high mileage, bad example, basically.

Once we got rid of that, it was a BMW E82-135i,

which we did a 1M kit on.

After that, V8 Vantage with a V12 Vantage kit,

TTS into a TTRS.

So I've kind of already always done it.

Maybe subconsciously, at the time, didn't quite know that you were...

Yeah, exactly.

So I think the first one I did where...

I'm trying to... I could be wrong.

I think the first one I did where I didn't actually put a kit on it

was a Mark 8 Golf R.

So I was quite far in by that point.

And I never really realised that that was my thing

until probably getting on two years ago.

I was like, ah, right. That's what I like doing.

That's the bit I enjoy.

And then I think now people have started to realise that more,

and that's kind of become my thing,

and the thing that I specialise in.

Absolutely.

But I didn't even clock that that was my thing.

People love it.

Yeah, absolutely. I think people like the idea

of kind of building something cool on the cheap.

Because, like I said, you can have 90% of the experience

for a fraction of the money.

Why would you not enjoy that, right?

Yeah. Yeah.

Do you get a bit of an inkling or a bit of an idea

what these kits are going to be like before they get to you?

Or is it just... Absolutely no idea.

The only thing you know is the material it's made out of.

That's it.

You've got a picture of it all spread out on the floor

and what material it's made out of.

So whether it's fibreglass, carbon,

or a mixture or whatever it might be.

That is all you know.

So you don't know what you're going to need to fit it.

You don't know if it's going to line up.

You don't know if it's going to be snapped in half and you get it.

You have no idea.

So you're just going to roll the dice, it really is.

It's a shame there's not, you know, somewhere in the UK

where they're stored and you can go look at them first

and see one with it fitted up and this, that and the other.

But there's probably not that big a market for it to be able to do that.

No, it just literally arrives in a crate and that's it.

Yeah. But you can see one behind you.

The puzzle.

Yeah. It's a strange thing getting them delivered

and opening them up.

You'd never know what you're going to get.

It's like Christmas Day. It's really odd.

Because we're not talking either a couple hundred quid.

They are.

It's a bit of a risk.

The McLaren one was 25 grand.

So the kit was more than the car.

Admittedly, it was a full carbon kit.

It was actually quite nice.

There was a few little bits on it, but there is on every single one.

But it was a lot of money

and you don't know if it's going to be any good.

It could just be like, well, this is rubbish.

Not going to make the car

and I've just thrown that amount of money down the drain.

I've never had to do that yet,

but it could definitely happen.

I think we've seen it with when other people bought kits

that they just don't fit.

It's quite simply that they're designed for the wrong car

that could be designed and based off a GT3 car

and don't work on a road car.

They just don't know sometimes.

And that's basically something that you can't really send back either.

You could try. I don't know how well it would go down.

It's not really...

I can imagine there'd be some curveballs.

I don't want to have to try and do that,

but one day you might have to.

Can we go content with it?

Be a good video, especially if I've got my money back.

I'll make money on one.

We see with Matt and the Revuelto,

he didn't quite like it.

Have you had a project where you're like,

it's absolutely buzzing to get it finished

and then you've had a little go on it and gone,

yeah, no.

I'm actually driving it or kind of the end result.

Bit of both.

The RS3 I thought was one of the most underwhelming cars.

When I first got it,

we were driving it up and down the farms.

It was rear-end damage, but all the trucking had stayed in place,

all the radiators on, so we could drive it,

just not on the road.

And we were launching it up and down the farms.

I was like, this is brilliant.

And then I got it out on the road and I've never had a drover car,

which has made me want to fall asleep more than that.

Really?

I never get tired while I'm driving,

but in that car, I could do two hours

and I was like, OK, I need to stop now.

It's sort of like that point-and-squirt type

former, isn't it, four-wheel drive.

It's too safe.

I think so, yeah, I think that's what it was.

I think in my head, the engine sound

was more intoxicating than what it was in real life.

I don't know whether that's because we kind of kept cats in it

and silences and stuff like that.

I think maybe I would have enjoyed it more

if we went a bit more asbo with it.

But yeah, I couldn't gel with it.

And even I don't know what it was about it,

like I've got cars like Stiffer,

but that one just ended up giving me back pain as well.

So that's an old ace.

I've got a grey air coming through now,

so I'm getting to that point.

But that's the car that you took to the Arctic Circle, isn't it?

I remember watching that thinking, I need to do this.

The ice drive thing at the end, that was the best bit.

100%. It was unreal.

And to be fair, even though I hated that car,

the whole drive there, the whole drive back,

surprisingly on the ice, it was actually all right.

I thought it would just be understeering everywhere,

but you don't have to kind of drive around

the way it's set up, but you could kind of go

into the corner with like nothing on,

big boot of power, get the back end out

and hang it there, it was all right.

It was actually really good for that, so...

Yeah, because you went with Mickey Toki's...

Was it the I-30N? I-30N, yeah.

Ben went in his GR, the RS, wasn't it, as well?

It looked like a really good...

And then Ethan went in his M3.

Yes, of course he did.

He slammed that into like...

It wasn't like an ice wall, but it was like a...

It was like a big kerb of ice.

He just slammed it into the side of that and went,

I'm just going to park.

It was really good, honestly.

That's an occupational hazard taking cars to the Arctic Circle app.

It genuinely is a little bit worrying,

because you get there and it's like, I want to enjoy myself,

but if I've been this car here,

then I've either got to leave it here and get it back or...

There'd probably be some sort of fine, as well,

for dropping a load of oil on the ice,

because it is a lake for the end of the day, isn't it?

Yeah.

So probably like some sort of clean-up fee, I don't know.

Yeah, no, sure. Yeah, probably will be.

Lake or Road.

It was definitely a lake.

I think it was like 40...

40 centimetres thick ice.

Jesus.

Nicky just said he sat in that tent with a boat,

so he was driving around on water.

It's pretty weird.

Yeah, mad.

As you start to work on more mental projects,

like the Pagani project and the Bentley's, etc,

does it start to become a bit of a nightmare?

One, because obviously sourcing the parts is expensive,

but are they harder to work on than a RS3?

It depends which part of the car you're looking at.

So the Bentley, for example,

suspension-wise is just an Audi.

So it's just like an SQ7.

There's nothing particularly fancy about it.

You've just got a slightly bigger bolster on a hatchback.

That's the only difference.

If anything, that makes it a bit easier,

because everything's a bit more like a lorry.

It's just big bolts. Everything comes out.

It's quite easy.

The engine on the Bentley is a nightmare.

So over-complicated.

So many little bits that are packaged in strange ways,

and that's the nightmare part of that car,

because everything's so tightly packed into a relatively small space.

It's always going to get more complicated, I think.

Yeah.

But I think when we're doing something more custom,

like with the Pagani engine,

the Mercedes 6-litre,

because we're going so aftermarketly

that we can now simplify it,

so we can get rid of all of the annoying bits,

like the VVT system,

like the adjustable cam system,

and just make everything as simple as possible.

So when it does come to work on that in the future,

everything's accessible,

everything's neat, everything's tidy,

compared to how they packaged it with all these bits

to make it better for road driving,

which we're not bothered about.

We can customise it to be easier.

So safe to say you take them apart and go,

yeah, no wonder why these get wrong then?

Yeah, absolutely.

But it was new technology 20, 30 years ago,

which now is the time to change.

The funny thing is,

we took the Pagani engine apart,

and it was probably one of the best condition engines we've seen,

even though it was leaking oil out of everywhere.

It's 30 years old,

and we bought it in a shell of a car

like it was destroyed.

Oh, I saw it, yeah.

It was better than the E92 M3,

it was better than the McLaren,

it wasn't really anything wrong with it.

So it's just going to be all the stuff that bolts onto it,

all the ancillary stuff,

all your breather systems,

all your hoses that leak and all this pointless stuff

which does things that you don't care about.

That's all the bits that goes wrong,

especially on the more complicated they get.

Active engine mounts on that,

ridiculous money,

like three grand for a pair,

just for two engine mounts,

and why don't you just have one that's not active?

Yeah, that's it.

You do not notice the difference.

I've never got into one like the GLE,

for example, that has the same thing.

The only difference you notice is that the car shakes a bit more

when you put it into sport mode.

That's it.

Is it just not worth it?

No.

Someone's good idea somewhere when they design it.

Yeah, great when it was new.

When I was 10 years old,

it's going to fail, be expensive,

and be a nightmare to sort out.

As you say for yourself,

under warranty, whatever, not a problem.

I'll get most out of that,

but it comes down the line, that's where things can start.

Yeah, warranty is never going to be me.

No, no, no.

Is there a bit of technology

or something that they've put on a new car

that you think is overrated

or absolutely pointless or stupid or whatever?

And it's the one that's an overrated mod?

Yeah, I mean,

there's a double-edged sword to the first question,

because there was one on the GLE 63

which I'm driving around in at the moment,

which at first I hated it.

Hated it, which is like the kind of auto-steering thing

that it does on motorways when you put the cruise control on.

Like adaptive type.

So I didn't have the tracking done when I first tried it

and I was like, this is scary, it's pulling me all over the road,

this, that and the other, and it was all fine when I turned that off.

And then I was just like, I'll forget about that.

I got it all on, been driving it around for a while,

then I was driving down to the body shop on just Wednesday,

so two days ago.

I thought, I'll try it again now, it's all sorted out.

And you can just sit there,

no feet on the pedals, basically just a hand on the wheel,

we're not really doing anything,

it just basically drives you to your destination.

I was like, okay, so I hated this and now I think it's brilliant.

It adapts to all the changing speed limits that we have here

and all of these things.

So maybe when I do just want to go somewhere

and think about driving particularly,

not too hard anyway,

you just set that and it's actually all right.

So it does it.

We used to have it on our company cars, didn't we?

The old ones, yeah.

Yeah, that's it.

Again, manufacturers seem to have gone backwards now

that you get less on the cars than what you used to.

But it is right, you press one button,

you almost sit back and just let it drive.

You just have your hand on the wheel,

watch the road just in case it doesn't do anything

and that's it.

I counted eight seconds, eight seconds between it tells you

to put your hand on the back of the wheel again,

you can get away with it.

What are we doing taking hands off of it?

I don't know.

That's dangerous.

My passenger was saying this.

Yeah.

In the mod wise,

that's what was the most pointless mod.

It's got to be F1 rain lights, I can't stand them.

It really is.

I can't see myself ever putting one on a car.

I know the GT has got one but it's actually a reverse light.

So that's how they come in.

It came with a hole in the bumper already.

That is a good one.

I can't stand them.

Or just rear fog lights in general actually,

I know that's a battery fitted thing.

People driving down the road with those on,

nothing more annoying.

Especially when the weather is bad, but you can see them.

So you don't need it.

And then you just get in blind and then you get annoyed by the fact

that you're getting blinded by that car and not paying attention.

And that's it, a bit of rain, a bit of something.

I always tell people,

you're not actually supposed to use your fog light

when it's a little bit foggy.

You're supposed to use it when visibility is lower than 100 meters,

which is actually

pretty much never.

So you don't need them on.

It drives me bonkers.

Especially when you get stuck behind them for ages.

You're just literally staring at it.

Well, most new cars now don't have fog lights.

It's in the headlights itself, isn't it?

On the front, yeah, but on the back.

Just like one.

We should just go around super gluing the buttons for.

OK, sounds good.

We could do this on a night.

Do you have a childhood favourite car

and has that sort of change now

that you've been able and privileged to drive

all these nice cars?

It's weird because obviously we've had

a lot of, not a lot,

but we've done kind of a nice

array of cars now.

So like in terms of supercar wise,

supercars were always my thing.

We all grew up watching Top Gear.

We were like, that's the cool thing, right?

So we've done McLaren,

which I never thought that was kind of

out of the three main supercar manufacturers.

That has always bottomed my list.

That's turned out to be the one I've enjoyed the most so far.

Then it was Ferrari.

Then it was Lamborghini was always at the top for me,

but we've not done Lamborghini yet.

I think it's because I just want to save it

for when it's the perfect one.

Because then I know when I've got it,

I won't want to get rid of it.

So it's got to be either gaardo wise,

really like the rarer gaardos,

like the superligueras or something like that.

You know, the Huracan range didn't...

It sort of missed the mark.

Got a little bit of Golf Ari for me.

Aventador is still very cool.

Mercial Argos is very cool.

So they're the ones that are like Lamborghini wise

that really I want to wait for.

And I'm hoping they're as good as I think they are

when I get to it.

So you're quite like a savage car.

Almost one that you have to be careful in

because it might kill you.

You have to drive it.

You've just got to be kept alert.

It's got to be a little bit spicy.

It's got to keep you on your edge

and you can't just sit back and relax.

And if you can, then it's got to have something else

that makes it good.

I suppose that's probably why you got on with the X3M so much

because it did both of those things.

It was such a...

I mean, I've had an X3 myself.

I know how comfortable they are, how nice they are

but then on yours, especially that other side

it had to it, like...

Yeah, just tap that little M.I.C. and smoke it everything.

Because I saw the drag...

Me and Micky were talking about earlier, the drag race videos.

It was literally, I would take it, well, beating everything

that you raced on.

The only thing it couldn't beat was a thousand horsepower

by a new Ferrari. Crazy.

It should be illegal.

I know, I know.

Electric vehicles.

I would say when you get overtaken by these electric MGs

I'm like, no, there's something wrong.

I'm sorry, this is wrong.

I'm not a problem here.

It's demoralising.

I'm not surprised.

But do you miss that car a little bit?

Sort of, a little bit.

The GLE is the perfect replacement for it

because it's a little bit more geared towards

daily driving, not saying the X3 wasn't,

but it's a bit comfortier, a bit bigger,

a bit more...

Brash is probably the word I'd use for it.

It's a little bit more...

I don't know, it's just a bigger, better car,

but the only thing it's not is a little bit faster, it feels.

For the X3 you planted that and it was savage.

This kind of has a V8 swell and pushes you back

and the whole thing goes like that.

It's a big waft, which, to be fair,

it's probably...

I do quite a lot of driving now.

It's like half-hour.

It's a unit each day, half-hour here, half-hour back.

Quite regularly go down to Guildford,

where the body shop is, that's like two, two-and-a-half hours,

two times three, so it's quite nice

to have something to cruise around.

And then when I want the middle ground,

something like the M3, where it's still very, very daily-able,

but is a bit more savage, a little bit more fun,

I've kind of got all fields covered really nicely.

Summer car, winter car,

and then a spring car and the weekend cars.

I like that.

I do miss the X3 a little bit

because it was so...

You couldn't beat that car in terms of speed.

And then just being able to hop in it, use it like a van

and then you bump into something

which you want to smoke and it's just gone.

That was in a bad way, that car, as well, wasn't it?

Yeah, yeah, two-bent chassis legs

and twisted seats, twisted dashboard.

I actually found out the story about it

after putting the videos out.

So the guy used to own it.

He was at a wedding.

I think they were all drunk, but it was on private land,

so not so bad, I don't think.

Like a legal...

Yeah, but then he also then piled eight other people into the car.

Nice.

Crushed it into head first into a wall

and that's why all the seats were bent, the dash frame was bent

because each seat basically had two people in it.

There was so much weight that no one was seat-belted.

The headliner, though, was like a face in the sun visor.

So someone obviously had a full face of wedding makeup

straight into the sun visor.

That explains a lot, then.

Yeah, and that's why all the interior was twisted up

which I couldn't figure out at the time

because I've never had anywhere like seats are twisted,

dash frames are twisted,

and it was from the weight of the people hitting them.

Can you imagine at the time you're thinking, what?

You started hitting something really fast or...

I think it was probably a combination of both.

Again, once I was doing it, it was solid, it was beautiful.

Yeah, what a car, what a car, yeah.

And McLaren hasn't sat on fire yet, has it?

Yeah, oh, not again, no.

Sometimes that's had the whole list of issues.

The only thing that needs now is to go into water, I think.

Yeah.

After that, it's ticked every single box.

What's the game, it's a...

Tick-tock tell or whatever it is.

You know what I mean? Yeah, I don't.

You could start doing durability tests,

like the whistling diesel from the McLaren.

It wouldn't even make it out of the door.

Honestly, it wouldn't.

Well, it can be fixed.

It can be fixed, yeah.

It's been on fire, crashed four or five times

at a matter of times,

been upside down,

used by a track experience company

which is basically the same as riding a car off.

Yeah.

What else has it had?

And I've owned it.

Then it's been on fire.

At that moment, it must have been like...

It's just so scary, though, really,

because... I was just glad that I caught it.

Yeah.

Because the point it was at is, like,

in a way, not that bad.

But it could have got worse.

But bear in mind, I'd only gone into the shop to get a drink.

So if there was a queue in that shop,

I could have come out and the car couldn't go on.

Yeah. Because you took that car on quite...

I can just remind you, I can't remember.

I went in the car in the end.

Yeah, I went to Marbella.

And that could have happened at any one of those points.

Yeah. Absolutely. And also, as well, there,

it was, like, 45 degrees at some points.

So why did it not happen when it was there?

Why did it happen when it was 22 degrees?

Look.

It was pure look. Just down the road from the unit.

Yeah, that's just a bad bunk, I'd say.

But if it was going to happen, I guess,

then maybe you caught it at the right time.

Yeah, the spot from there to here was very cheap.

It might have been a bit different otherwise.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

It was the ideal situation for it to happen in.

I had a fire extinguisher in the passenger seat

and also other fire extinguishers

at the petrol station.

So you emptied that one, grabbed another big one,

emptied that, grabbed another emptied that.

So, dare I say, a car one might not have been enough

to really put it away.

Potentially. I just didn't want to risk it.

Do you have more confidence

driving a car that's literally just come

from the dealerships, from the OEM,

or that you know inside and out

because you've put it together?

Oh, definitely, like a brand new car.

Definitely a brand new car.

Whenever you've worked on a car, it doesn't matter what it is,

you could have done a small job or a big job.

You always, like, first driving it, it's like radio down,

listening for noises.

Okay, we're all right. It's relaxed a bit.

And then you drive it for a week,

especially with the standard or the way

that these pulled apart and the amount of work

we've got to do. It might be fine for two or three weeks

and then you start hearing a noise

and then you get this and then you get that.

So, you're always on the listen for something

and you're just hoping that it's not the chassis leg

that you've put on is now falling off.

It's like a suspension knock, not a glue failing.

Have you found anything you've changed on a car

or like we were talking about

you altering some stuff on the engine

just to make it more reliable

or less complicated?

Is there something that you wish

you could almost pick up the phone to

some of the one of the senior engineers

and be like, no, no, no, you're doing this all wrong.

I've found something.

Again, it just comes back to McLaren.

They're so overly complicated.

When all that stuff works, it's brilliant,

but even from new, it doesn't work.

It's so common for stuff to fail.

And one of the guys, sorry,

Dave, who's doing the engine build with us on that V12,

he used to work at McLaren

when they were developing those cars

and he was saying to the people

who were designing all these systems

like, it's not going to work.

It's going to be overly complicated.

There's going to be issues down the line.

They're going to be known as unreliable cars

and obviously they didn't listen

because it's now all come true.

So you do just want to go in there,

give someone a shake.

But you'd like to think now it's what

10 years since my car came out

and you'd like to think they're getting to the bottom

of some of these issues, but I won't know

for another 10 years until I get one of the newer cars

and then see how good or bad they are.

Yeah, I think we're certainly the McLaren.

I think they have got better.

I think they have got a lot better.

I don't think you'll ever get...

Sounds like they couldn't get worse.

Yeah, I don't think you'll ever get no problems,

but from what I hear from a few people

that we know have got them,

that they are...

Did you hear about the Artours?

No, but I think you're going to tell me I am.

This is all hearsay from me

but from what I understand,

apparently a bunch of the Artours were setting on fire.

So there was a bunch of customers' cars

that were supposed to be delivered

and then just got sent into a blender.

Some of those parts may have been took off.

Some of those parts may have been sold to me

to put into my 650s.

Yeah, yeah.

You may see some Artours,

some brakes lying around.

I'm piecing bits together now, yeah.

Brilliant.

They're still having problems.

Especially when they're trying...

It's alright to say with the recipe

for the 650, the 570, the 720,

that's kind of remained the same through its bloodline.

So you'd like something that can refine that,

but then when they start trying to bring in something new,

like the V6 Hybrid,

they seem to be having the same problems again.

The P1 though,

is there any specific issue that seems to have?

It's just going to be the same

because you wouldn't believe how similar they are

to the 650.

They're very, very scary, isn't it?

Yeah, it is. It's basically the same engine.

I think it's still a 3.8,

so exactly the same engine, just with a hybrid system.

Suspension

has some of the trick features, but again,

very, very similar works in the same way.

They are very, very similar cars.

I just imagine they are better maintained

because they're an asset to people

who own them, not saying mine isn't,

but they are worth a lot of money,

so when you start it, no warrants on the dash.

I'd imagine they regularly go in for servicing

and faults to be fixed and this and that,

so they're probably just better maintained.

Yeah, it does a road trip. It goes to McLaren,

it comes back and they repeat the process.

And they're probably doing a thousand miles a year

and really, let's be real, maybe even less.

I'd imagine it's probably just down to better maintenance

and more picky owners,

they probably want it to be.

With it being over a million quid, you want it to be perfect.

Yeah, ideally, yeah.

You've seen the W1, that looks quite sick.

I like that.

People are hating on it first.

I do think that with a lot of new cars,

everyone hates on them at first,

like the new BMW is now,

the G chassis, everyone hated it.

The ugliest thing ever.

Those grills at the front.

I got one and actually,

I was that person when they first came out,

I went, I hate that.

And now I've got one, I'm like, hmm, cut that out.

I've just learned that about myself and I've just learned to go,

OK, right, some of the news come out,

let's not hate on it, let's just think of it in a positive way

and then hope that I do actually grow to life.

And I think once it's more accepted,

I think once they're on the road more,

you see them,

you can understand why

he's more trained

to sort of like it.

Have you seen the new BMW design language

for what I assume is going to be the H chassis?

A little bit.

I know what you meant there.

Yeah, little bits.

Is that going to be the new...

IX3M, I've seen some of the design language for, yeah.

Yeah, I've not seen too much of it, but apparently.

No, so it all comes down to the front end, mainly on Bs,

so it's always been like,

that's the bit you remember.

It seems to have, like, in the middle,

there seems to have got rid of the big grills

and then replaced it with two kind of like

Bugs Bunny-style teeth and then the light bars across.

Right. I think it's great.

Yeah, I thought you were going to say, ah, I hate it.

But no, you like that one then, yeah.

Yeah, I think it will look good.

When you get the M3 version of it and this, that and the other,

you've got to look at the current M5

to see kind of what the M3 is.

Where it's going.

Which, again, actually, yeah, people hate it when it comes out.

Oh, it's heavy.

But now, everyone's like, I'm five.

I'm five, you know, what a car.

But I suppose it'll be interesting

to see what they put in that engine wise as well.

Because people, they're all about going

hybrid, not hybrid, different type of six.

You'd like to think, because

Mercedes had such a flop going into a four cylinder

that they won't make that mistake.

Because they've put the four cylinder with the C63

and then backtracked, I think, and then gone back to a V8.

I think they're back on a V8 though, yeah.

So for BMW to go down to a four cylinder,

it seems like a bad move.

So you'd like to think it sticks with a six.

Yeah.

I suppose you don't know, do you?

All yet to come.

Or it could be full electric.

Oh, no.

That's been never something mine again.

Now, Talking Shot wouldn't be possible

without our title sponsor, Eclipse Diagnostics.

If you work on commercial vehicles,

vessels or machinery, you need gel test.

The UK's leading multi-brand diagnostic tool

from Eclipse.

Plug it in, run a scan, and you'll get

the OEM fault code, the components

linked to the issue, and a clear

step-by-step guide to fix it.

No head scratching, just results.

And it's not limited to one or two brands.

Gel test covers all manufacturers and models.

So whatever roles, sales,

or shows up at your door,

you're covered.

It also goes beyond diagnostics

with dealer level functionality,

ECU programming, calibrations,

DPF regions, and loads more.

Plus a huge library of wiring diagrams,

repair manuals, and OEM technical data.

Tightening talks, reference measurements,

the lot.

So you can get the job done right

first time.

With Eclipse, you're backed by world-class technical support

when you need it most.

Inquire today and quote code

TalkingShop to get a free cable saver

with your diagnostic order.

Training at your premises also included.

Thanks Eclipse.

Now back to the show.

Yeah.

But I suppose one question

that I did want to ask is,

it certainly comes across that

I suppose a bit of frustration really

when you finish a project like the Ferrari,

you've got it to how you want it,

it's beautiful, and then you've got to sell it

to make room for something else.

Are you a bit sad then having to go

like, I'll talk about that.

The Ferrari is a prime example because

it looked beautiful, drove perfectly,

no faults.

From day one, from the day we bolted it together

and it was unpainted, it had zero faults.

I was like, this is brilliant.

But the fact is

that one wouldn't have been driving it much

over winter anyway.

So it would have been sat in the garage,

probably developed a couple of faults.

But the money that we could get out of it

to use that in the future on something else,

it opens up our eyes and so much more.

And also, when the McLaren works,

they are very similar cars,

both twin-turbo, both mid-engine,

both two-seaters, they are very, very similar.

And the McLaren is unsellable

because I've told everyone how bad it is.

And the Ferrari was very, very sellable

because of how good it was.

And it was worth twice as much, regardless.

So it just made sense for that one to go.

Yeah, well, worlds are a very funny place

and you never say never.

It might circulate back round one day.

Yeah, that's it. It's just gone for a bit maybe.

Or to build another one.

To be fair though, I do think

I would have rather have done the 458

and either put it back to standard

or a speciale kit or something like that

because then it is different to the 650.

So I've not got two of the same car.

Yeah, that makes sense. Essentially.

No, I've got that.

But you live on them.

What's available at the time as well, isn't it?

I'm not going car shopping with 20 of each car for sale.

You've got to see what's about,

see what's damaged, see what you can get for cheap

or whatever it might be

and then make your decision based on that.

It's always an element of settling, I guess.

That car's for sale now.

And that's why I need to make a video.

You've got that waiting on you, so you might as well.

No, absolutely.

I suppose...

Is road trips then something

that is also

a bit of your content?

Build a car, let's do something with the car.

Is that just for mainly enjoyment?

It's a bit of both.

They end up being very, very stressful.

Organising everyone then who comes

because we do not organise a thing.

We get in the cars, leave,

and then once we've left them we'll book a ferry,

book a train, and then book a hotel each night.

And people find that stressful,

so they leave it up to...

I'm used to doing it now, it's fine,

because there's too much to go wrong

for us to book anything,

so you could have someone run out of fuel,

and it's stupid, and then that push you back

and then you won't be able to make it to the hotel

you wanted to make it to, so you better just go in

as the wind takes you.

But then you have to organise all that

They are really, really fun.

I haven't mastered the art of getting

the same views on the road trip stuff

as what we do on the build stuff.

One that did well,

the hair transplant one,

that did well, but I think it had a great concept.

It was a long drive,

driving somewhere where a lot of people

thought you couldn't drive to.

Even though it's very, very simple,

but it seems that far,

and it seems like you have to go over some sea

or something in your head, didn't it?

Yeah, so that was good.

I think I had a good ending

in terms of getting my hair done,

but it's kind of...

I bet a lot of people found your content

from searching for hair transplant stuff.

Did you get one?

I've had one for you.

Was that like five years ago now?

Four or five years ago?

Yeah, yeah.

At the time I was like, oh, this is traumatic.

I was worried at first,

and I hate needles as well,

so obviously having thousands of needles,

that didn't go down well.

What they didn't tell me was

don't have any caffeine,

don't have any pain killers.

I don't know why,

but for the last few weeks before the transplant,

I must have had loads of headaches,

and I must have been drinking a serious amount of caffeine,

because they kept asking me,

do you smoke?

I was like, no, I don't smoke.

They were like, you're bleeding a lot.

I was like, no, I'm out of my mouth,

and then I was a bit grim as well.

Do you have it in the UK?

No, I did it in Turkey.

We flew over, we didn't drive,

but they're awesome, they're really good there.

Really professional, everything's clean,

it's not like having it done in the country.

Yeah, you didn't have it done in a bar.

Probably be more comfortable having it.

I haven't seen what the places are like here,

but if it's anything like what we're used to with doctors,

I'd rather have it done there than here.

I think there's more mistakes and problems here

than going to Turkey.

I don't want to open that kind of worm.

No, no, no.

But it's true though,

because my mate had one in the UK

and then he came with me to Turkey to have another one,

and when he got there,

the doctor instantly knew,

oh yeah, you've had a hair transplant already,

and he's like, you had it done in the UK, didn't you?

And he's like, yeah, I can tell.

That's what they said to me,

because I went out to do it with the doctor

that did mine the night before,

because I messaged the first place,

and he was like, any chance we can work together on doing this?

I want to drive to Turkey, film the videos.

I'll watch your videos already.

So yeah, I went out to dinner with him

and he was telling us about that,

and he said there's so many people that haven't done it in the UK

and then come to Turkey,

but I'm sure if you went out to dinner with a doctor from the UK,

they'd say the same thing.

Yeah, probably.

We've got a dream three car garage.

Three car? That's not enough.

That's not enough.

And maybe let's put a caveat on it then

that you would have to rebuild.

I'd have to rebuild?

500.

Is there any limit?

No, no, no budget.

No, no. Dream big. All the money in the world.

There's too many to pick from.

It's like picking between each of your bones.

There's got to be a Lamborghini in there.

It's got to be a special Lambo.

I need a daily which would probably be...

It again depends where I live.

What is the best daily nowadays?

Well, I could be really cool to daily a six by six.

That would be really cool.

Imagine me making a cab for the back of it as well.

You are not getting down to Guilford or something like that though.

Some of the roads down there.

You might have to go off road.

That's what you could have, right?

I thought that would be a cool day,

but wouldn't necessarily work around it.

What else?

What have I got left? I've got a super car of some sort.

Now you've got to go a hyper car maybe then.

Yeah.

Or it could be a weekend toy that you're not too worried about.

So you just take it for a little blast.

It's a little beta.

Well, the money's an object. It doesn't matter, does it?

That is your beta.

You're not picking the fiesta, are you?

I'll probably go for some sort of Pagani.

I haven't felt a lot of utopias,

but quite like the wire aisles.

You can't really go wrong with them.

You have to road convert it because that's a whole other job.

That's true.

As a kid, I was obsessed with those spikers

and the Dutch.

I don't know. I absolutely loved them as a kid.

I feel like the real nice thing to have,

if you had a really nice lounge,

more of an ornament.

I can't imagine driving that well could be wrong.

No, no, no.

I imagine they...

Because they're quite mechanical, isn't it?

Quite boaty, aren't they supposed to be like,

boat-inspired or something?

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I'll show you mine.

No one's going to know what that is.

Anyone's going to know what that is.

Another car that cropped up recently on co-pars.

I thought, that'd be cool to do.

It wasn't crazy damaged, but I thought

that's the biggest issue with it.

No one's going to have a clue, which is a BAC mono.

People who are into cars know what that is.

You said to someone else, is that a Pax machine?

Was that not a Ford engine?

I think it was an aerial version, wasn't it?

I think so.

It's a single-seater.

I think it had a Ford engine of some sort,

probably some sort of tuned-up Ford.

I don't even know myself.

No, I feel like it's a Focus four-cylinder.

Sounds about right.

And then just weighs absolutely nothing.

What a recipe.

I think it went for about £55,000, £60,000.

Really?

Again, it was one of those cars.

I could do it for myself, and I was getting rid of the GT4.

I was like, I kind of need a track car, but then...

Is it worth that amount of money to own for me at the moment?

Probably not.

Yeah, no, I got that.

Have you still got the GT4?

We raffled that off.

He never actually saw the car,

so he sold it before he'd even picked it up.

Oh, no.

Which is not the worst.

I think he would have had it had he not gone through a situation

that he'd just gone through, so he needed to buy a house.

Essentially, he'd won a house deposit.

So another guy came and picked it up,

who bought it off him for still a decent price.

I think he paid £30, I don't want to say to be fair,

in the 30s for it.

I spoke who won it, so...

I did enter that conversation thinking that would be nice.

It was solid.

It looked like a good car.

6-7 track days, isn't it?

An issue with the ABS, which might just get sorted.

That was the second one I did, and that was it.

Did he mix things about the GT4s?

Overall, there must be a solid...

What I found interesting was that 981,

which is the one mine,

seems to be holding its money better than the 718.

That's interesting.

That's why I keep hearing anyway.

I forgot that.

It wasn't a 718, was it?

Of course, yes.

They're a good car anyway.

I can't imagine they changed that much.

Talking Porsche,

there's a certain build,

two builds going on very similar at the minute.

Oh, Jamie.

We just had Jamie on last week.

What a guy.

Did you speak to him about it?

He got his take on it as well,

and it was quite exciting.

Did I hear his take first?

Have you got a copy of his take we can reference?

Do you know what?

I can't remember the VIA one out last week,

but you can probably input that in the video.

From what I feel,

I think he's quite excited

about the chance

of having both cars

at the same time finishing, really.

I like the competition.

Yeah, sure.

I think you have to collab at the end.

It's got to be done, isn't it?

I think it's quite cool that we can...

It was just by chance.

It's one that I wanted to do.

It was actually the second T-Mobile

that I wanted to do after the GT,

but I've just been waiting that long

for the right car to come up.

Ideally, I would have got a Turbo S, not a Turbo,

because then I would have had things like the ceramic brakes

and centre locks.

That would have made it easier,

but couldn't get once

to go and buy that stuff.

But it's just by chance.

I made it there first

about a week or so.

That's going to upset so many

GT-free owners

and GT2 owners.

I've seen it painted now.

It's coming back.

It might even come before you guys are left.

If it hasn't, you can hang around

and it looks really, really good.

We've gone to the nth degree

on detail on this one

because all of the stuff that Porsche do to it

that is visible basically

is so replicable.

We've done all the interior on it

with everywhere they paint on the stripes

and the logos and stuff like that.

We've done all that in paint rather than do it in stickers.

We've gone really, really to town on it.

There's not much to tell you

that it's not a genuine one

and it's going to be faster than a genuine one.

We've graded everything arm-wise,

suspension-wise, brakes-wise

over the standard car,

so it should be pretty close to the GT2 RS.

Bill Stein doing some custom suspension for us

based off their B16 coil-over

but then it's going to be valves

very, very technical

but 20% stiffer in sport mode

than the 2 RS

but then as standard in comfort mode

so it's got a really, really harsh change

between the suspension settings.

So when you press that button

stiffen it all up

it should be as sharp as a 2 RS

Are you keeping this one?

Yeah, that's it.

I can't get a better one.

I think the 992 is cool

but it's going to be mega, mega money for ages.

We considered doing a 992 Turbo S

and then getting a 3 RS kit

to build the 2 RS before Porsche did.

I thought that would have been cool

but there was too much money.

There's still 80, 90, maybe not that much.

70, 80 grand probably for a crashed 992 Turbo S.

It's too much dash.

By the time you're finished

it's more than you could probably buy

Yeah, exactly that.

So it's just been silly

but I think I prefer that era of Porsche anyway.

Much nicer to work on definitely

but

it's one of the iconic ones to me.

I'm looking forward to seeing both cars

finish

and see who's done what differently.

We said it straight away to each other

on Instagram and we were like

OK, we've got to fake some beef now.

Because that's it.

People don't realise actually

you are talking about it.

We've done some stupid stuff together anyway

like we know each other well.

We've spent 24 hours straight in a Eurus

with Mark McCann together

so we've done some silly stuff together.

We already get on like there is no competition.

It's just chance.

You could see it as bad chance

the fact that two people are in the same project at once

or it's cool because then

everyone watches my videos

and there's people talking about Jamie's car

then go over to Jamie's channel

I don't see a problem with it.

I think Jamie's

certainly excited as you

about what the final product will be.

And the great thing is about it

people are going to compare them

and if you're doing something different to him

there's going to be that.

If he does his stripes in vinyl

everyone's going to hate him.

Imagine he's going to build his

with slightly different ending intentions

what mine is.

I'd imagine so.

He hasn't said specifically

but going on what his content is

how fast can it go?

I'd imagine he's going to be built

to do a quarter mile

but then when he gets to wherever he's going

because it's only four bolts to take the wing off

or six bolts to take the uprights and the spoiler blade off

you can get there take the spoiler off

do a six quarter mile wing back on

looks like a Taurus again.

I think that's how he'll build it

even though it is ridiculous in a straight line

it's more for track

even though it's four wheel drive

I can't wait to see it race a legit one.

If we're going to race

I think we need to do a quarter mile race

for his side of things

and then something on the track

how I've built mine

I'm excited to see it

we've just got to figure it all out.

It's nice how back to back you've had

a puck I see that could be both talks about it a bit

so yeah really good

absolutely

yeah so

I suppose

I'm going right back to the start almost here

but how did this place come about

because

you went from the garage

and then was it just a case of

I've had enough of this

I just needed the space

the garage was tiny

I don't need to wear now

but I knew of this place

because of someone else on the estate

and they said these units

were being built or converted even

there used to be pigs in here

I thought was it pigs or potatoes

pigs

being converted into new units

go have a look

it's not going to be ready for a year anyway

just put my name on one and I'll have it

hopefully in a year's time it all works out

luckily you didn't put pen to paper

or put a deposit down

it happened quite quickly

for the channel

not for you

because I think in one video

it's pretty much empty unit

that's what I wanted to do

still building the cars but still nipping in here

doing a bit

until it was to a point where we could move in

and actually do some work in it

it just seemed to make sense

moving with it like bare floors

and nothing in here

it's echoey anyway but it was even more echoey

because there was nothing in here at all

but it's just changed things so much now

I've been able to

literally have a couple of cars

being built at the same time

I've been in space because if I was working at home

to have a camera man

a mechanic at your house all the time

it's a little bit strange in a way

especially in such a confined space

it just doesn't make sense

it just gives us the opportunity to open a little bit

it would be better if we were doing it in Miami though

wouldn't it?

I'm fine with it here

I feel like it keeps you humble

it keeps you awake

if the boys say they're cold

the only thing to say back is work harder

because

I've said we'll get heating

but we just need to get to a million subs

we've got to keep working

there you go

episode two will be in the warm

and then you won't see any breath

it's genuinely not that bad

as soon as you dress for it

I used to work outside detail

I'm hardened to it really

but I'm used to it

Mickey's used to it

for a long time

he's on a computer

but you mentioned Mickey

that must have been

a strike a look

someone to be with you

help you

show you a few

me and Mickey are a great combo

we've got two very different sets of skills

he can teach me what he knows

I can teach him what he knows

the stuff we don't know

hopefully we can figure it out together

we're obviously very different

in terms of background

so I think it's nice

to have chalk and cheese together

if you have two people

you can do the same thing

it's a good combination

absolutely

the knowledge that he has

I suppose he can look at something

and go

yeah that's fine

maybe not had seen that before

from yourself

you'd maybe think

second opinion

I had that with the X3

I had the X3 before Mickey

I just ended up speaking to

Daz at Darkside

he paints all of Calvin's cars

he's very local to me

I sent him a picture of the car

I said yeah but is anything fixable

he says yeah but with money

but is it fixable

as long as it's fixable

we can get to the end of it

and I've not just throw it all down the drain

it'll be okay

we've got obviously the buffer of having the YouTube ad revenue

if we need it

to not rely on the actual car

being worth the value of the repair

that makes sense

so you can fight through it

whereas if you're doing it just as a business too

it could be a nightmare

you've got to be very careful what you buy

that's why cars get rent off so fast these days

is because is that worth repairing

no we'll ride it off

we got off at a new M5 the other day

25 to 3000 miles on it

I've only seen one photo

it doesn't look horrendous

it definitely doesn't look any worse than that

we've got the engine out of that now

but we didn't know that at the time

I think because the price of parts

and getting them

they'd rather go

I think even more so with the hybrid stuff

you probably need a specialist tech working on it

whereas hourly rate's more

you need to always go through this crash

therefore you have to change all of these modules

because they all store data

then you need coding

then it's to be connected to Germany

you have to send it back to the factory

that's probably something ridiculous

that's kind of what's put me off that car

I don't blame you at all

so that's where Mickey's been able to help

with visualising things

yeah we can stick it up on it

I've done one like that before

they've put together like this

so he can

look through all the damage stuff

and see the good bit

and we went to look at that co-part

and the only bit that mattered

on that car really was the tub

if the tub's okay

everything else can be changed

there's no structural work

we're kind of dug in through this pile

of bent up stuff

that's all crushed

we can just see the tub

that bit is fine

looking back the tub is about four grand

so it didn't really matter that much anyway

you can see the good bit of it

it's the hassle of changing it

I know you got it back to the bathtub anyway

but you're not finished there are you

you've still got a lot more to take off

we only stripped off the back end

it was half a car

where to do a tub change

you've got to strip it down to a pile of parts

so you've got to take everything off it

and then the last bit you took off

is the first bit you put back on the new tub

so you're just going to have a workshop

full of pipes

and suspension bits

it would be awful

I'd love to do it though

that's worth doing again

as Mickey was saying earlier

gone from his background before

to where now he's

playing gravity with you

being noticed and being appreciated

I think it's such a cool switch-up for Mickey

because it happened so quick for him

he ended up doing

I think it was Matt's car with the guys at the machine shop

and then come and do the Porsche

meaning really got on the GT4

meaning really got on

what a great dynamic

that comes across well

and celebrating the success

with the car that you have to remember as well

I can't afford to do it every year

unfortunately

but I think people

definitely appreciated

I saw what a good thing

you did there

was looking after him

thanks for everything you've done

I mean he'd only been working for me for two months

he could have seen you

he still has that option to be fair

it might be some daisy questions

maybe I should but

I think it was good

I do get a comment a lot

he's like give Mickey that car

doesn't quite work

he's like I'll get Mickey a supercar

I haven't even got myself a working supercar

we've got the McLaren but it doesn't work

it's all with time

I'd love to get Mickey another car

at some point I'd love to get Ross a car

my parents I'd like to get anyone

but it's all with time

if you do rush it you burn yourself to the floor

then you've got no money to make another video

and you can't continue

it's all going to be recycled back into the channel

but if you look at how the channel is done in a year

you're killing it

I'm annoyed by the last year

we fell 25,000 short of my goal

half of it

250k last year

500k this year

25k short

which is outrageous goal in the first place

because YouTube is

very tough

I was saying to Ross

that's the first time I've ever set a challenge

in terms of YouTube not met it

but I was like we've came pretty close

do you even get anywhere near that

you've done very well

my goal supposedly for the end of this year

was millions

wish me luck

that's it

no doubt

it's a big number

massive number

you're doing the right thing

fixing broken stuff and staying out of trouble

what a job

you're not under the thumb

of a boss checking what you're doing every day

what you do

is whatever you want to do

sort of

there's pressure that people don't realise

is that

I'm very like

we are very dependent on getting videos out

to make a living

to pay the bills

and to fund the next bit

when you've got people messaging

you're getting lazy

I've not loaded for two weeks

but something's gone really wrong

we want to make sure the video is right

but then you feel that pressure of people

I wouldn't post it

or advertise

I want to put a video out

imagine the BBC on Wednesday

back in the day

when we were kids saying

top gear's not going to be on this Sunday

I think it might have happened at one point

did you punch someone?

possible

but even the way they recorded that

I know they filmed the road trips and stuff well in advance

but they filmed

the studio bit that week

it was always as you saw

they probably filmed it on Wednesday

it was that tight

it's going to be fairly easy to edit it

sure

because they were just putting the filmed bits

into the live show

almost live show

in studio

you could almost actually do it live

but they were probably swearing too much

bit of a risk

I've said it a few times

YouTube as we see it now

is new era top gear

100%

there isn't anything else

car wise on TV

you've got a grand tour

coming back in with you

that would be interesting

I'm very interested

how it's

took by the audience

you can't replicate it on TV

it always feels unnatural

it would be nice for them to continue the grand tour

but in a different path

I think to try and do the same thing

it's a little bit how

top gear went back to

them trying to be clerks

and trying to be

but yeah

different angle

I think that could do pretty well

they've already got an interesting character

with that Francis

train guy

maybe they should do a train segment

I won't watch

I think I'd watch anything he put out

he is funny though

so funny

is it a character

it's got to be

he wasn't like that five years ago

no

if you google him from five years ago

he's just

it does really like trains

100%

it's always a super exaggerated version

YouTube is a little bit exaggerated

it's a hyper exaggerated version

genius in a way

because he's got himself all the way on to tele

he's got some crazy stuff off

like shouting at trains

yeah it's impossible right

literally

literally yeah it's crazy

some quick fire

quick fire questions to close

right so

are EVs future

or fad for christians?

both there's a place for every sort of car

so I think we're going to have different fuel versions

for different people's applications

do you think they'll eventually

penalise you for

having a

no electric car?

I think so short term

long term no

because the synthetic fuel thing

no doubt is going to come into play

if you look at technology from

say the 90s

a video player was

you months wage

and they're saying the synthetic fuel is like

10lb litre

but once they figure out how to make it cheaper

it'll come down to about the same price

it'll be usable

yeah favorite mod you've put on

a vehicle

one that you lock the car and you lock back

like yeah

there's always the body kits in there

this is my thing

it's like the biggest transformation

so yeah it's got to be body kits and paint always

BMW or Mercedes

I can't answer this

let's sort of look at your faces

they do two different jobs

BMW is very like

driver orientated very connected and Mercedes

uber luxury all the time

so Mercedes do luxury better BMW

do actual driving better

Lambo or Ferrari

yeah okay

you like the brash loud in your face

V12s

I'm not saying Ferrari don't make some brilliant cars

especially with V12s so they're both great

it's always been Lambo for me

I've got a model with one upstairs

I've got a picture of me driving

one of those ones

like a track experience

day from when I was a kid

so it's always been that

yeah nice okay

anything else you've got coming up

there's only so much we can talk about

there's only so much going on

and there's only so much I can say

Porsche's coming back from body shop

hopefully today but we're going to finish it off

before we put the video out so it's still going to be a little while

and it's been slowed down a little bit by Christmas

so that'll be coming soon

when's this going out

be I think a couple of weeks

I've already seen this but we've got something more

coming for this

which is slightly different to what we've done before

in terms of kits still along the same kind of lines

but is very very different

to all the kits we've seen previously

what else

anything else we can think of up there

there's a music

yeah

I can tell you off camera but I can't

we won't expose you

we're working on things at the moment

for things we might put out in six to twelve months

we just want to get ahead on them

because some of these projects take so long

people get bored

we don't want it to turn to another one of those

never-ending YouTube projects

so we just want to be able to either

film it in a way where we can just go

10 weeks out from finishing this car

let's post every single video

one week after the other

or do it kind of six months

when we're in

it depends how we are financially

and then kind of do one every month

so keep it ticking

so it's constantly moving rather than

being a three month delay and nothing happening

while it's being painted or it's getting a roll cage

because of a lot of downtime there

people don't realise actually to paint a car

it's not just a day job

especially with the kits and stuff as well

they just need

that perfectionist touch

and we can only get them so far

so it does take the body shop a little while

to make sure everything is

standard they're happy with

the body shop we use now absolutely mega

they're doing all sorts of stuff

you can't talk about

do you want to?

a load of the McLaren stuff

but a lot of other stuff as well

which is way way way better

than what I take

they're really proper perfectionists

it's a shame because the guy

I work closely with

the fit and finish of everything

Alex

I think he's going to Dubai

which is a bit of a shame but maybe that's

the perfect excuse for me to go over to Dubai as well

I think there's enough cars out there

to get crashed

I saw a video

of just how many crashed cars

are there

and they're just not even attempted to be fixed

they're just dust on them sat there doing nothing

it seems a shame

someone's got to fix them

someone owns it but they either move away

or whatever it is

there's money and there's money

it's just

I was there as once as a kid

and there was a

I think it was a Ferrari

all smashed up and it had

just a blood and bits and whatever all over it

and it had hit a camel

I don't even think that is traffic

it's like in a pheasant

I don't know how that happens

you'd like to think you'd see it

but I suppose they are sand coloured

that's it

I'd also think

when the more

rawl is at the right word

they're going to get sandblown

I know where

that's true

there's a camel

you might slip on the sand into the camel

that's a bad day

rebuilding that might be a bit messy

camel

V2

there we go

camel power

there we go

we've warmed up now

good place to finish

well if you enjoyed this episode

make sure to like, comment, subscribe

and let us know who you want on Talking Shop Next

you

Chris Slix on Why Expensive Mods Don’t Make Sense | EP50

About this episode

Lamborghini Huracán

Request an Explanation

Want to learn more?

Help improve this episode

More from Talkin' Shop