Christmas Special with Gordon Murray! | The Car Podcast #67

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Hello and welcome to the Christmas edition of the car podcast.

Before we even start some housekeeping to manage, how do you survive the man flu in December? Tell me now.

Okay, I will take two grams of vitamin C a day. I take the magnesium supplements and I take some

vitamin D supplements. That will help you. Will that help Chris put his reindeer up behind him?

My day. He's just done a PR on that reindeer. He's all the medical man without the man flu,

but no, the two of us have the man flu, two of you don't, but he's about to, he's sort of abusing

his reindeer behind him. You know, if that time of year, if you're a reindeer,

for those who use the Cooper laborers, Cooper is wrestling with a line drawing reindeer

that he can't establish in his rub. And take one aspirin a day.

Always do that anyway. Okay, I'm going to find some energy. We're going to kick it off with

first point. I love this. You're a very successful Scottish racing driver having a family

Christmas that you'll verbally ski lodge. You can just be Neil. You also have fantastic hair.

What is parked in the five car underground garage? Oh, Neil goes first. He posed the question.

Okay, I know a few of these very successful Scottish racing car drivers with homes of VBA.

Some of them are taller than others. Some of them have more hair than others. Some of them

are faster than others. Some of them are more intelligent than others. But they're all wonderful people.

The one thing they have all in common, and this is true story, is they all of them have an

integrale. That is the Scottish racing car drivers, VBA car of choice. One is white, one is red,

but my favourite, and I shouldn't have sold it, obviously, is Lord Blue.

A Lord Blue integrale, I would then have, you have to have one four by four,

for the family, for picking up your mom at the airport, for errands, for winter tires,

all that shit. They normally, these people, these friends of mine, have Audi,

but I don't like Audi, so I would have Range Rover. I would have the new Range Rover.

Actually, one of them is swapped to the new Range Rover. I would then have to have a 911,

because in any garage, you have to have a 911. What do you have? You either have a 911,

Turbo S, or my choice is a DACA. I've got that wrong. I can't change mine.

I'm winter tires. It's the only 992. I really like it's fair to say.

Sorry, Neil. For a moment there, I thought I heard you say winter tires. That couldn't possibly

be the correct surely. This isn't my choice. This is my Scottish racing driver friend's choice,

and therefore he needs winter tires, because he's not... What would you need, Neil?

I would just keep them on summer tires, because what could go wrong?

I'd then, OK, you have to have some Italian, because when you're in Switzerland,

and what I know about my Swiss friends, it's very nice in summer,

but even in that company, I understand that. We have two Italian cars. One winter,

one winter, semi-winter car. I would have that Lamborghini Storato.

One of the cars, one of those. In Brown, mega cool. Probably the coolest car, the coolest

friend I've got. I'd have a Storato, and then I'd have one classic for the summer,

for striving down into Milan for lunch on a lovely spring morning.

Either a Stratos, or a 250 short wheelbase.

I don't know. That's quite tough to be if I put that out there as my choices.

Podcasts for the people. Well, this is race car driver,

who's obviously got a few bottles and has got a housing verbiage with the five car garage underneath

his house. Kind of shit cars, can you? No, can't fault it. Can't really fault it.

I've just realised I've made a big error here with mine, so I'm going to pass you over to

Manage, whilst I try and correct it. In true Christmas spirit, I decided to ignore the first part

of this question and not make him Scottish, not make him a rally driver. I just decided to make

him Bernie Eccleston. I've also changed this to start. These are the five cars I would get

Bernie, partly based on now, and not dissimilar thinking to yours, Neil. I think these are a bit

a bit 360, summer winter, summer autumn. I think a Range Rover L322, because I just love those.

A really minty, but I'd get it in white with navy blue and hiria, because that's just so Swiss.

You see those things coming down? It's just a great. The other thing I would get is the Mercedes

300 SL-Gullwing door. You get that gun metal with ox blood interior. That is a hell of a start car.

Brackets, he has one. Close brackets. Then I think, because I love you guys so much, you've

so converted me, it would have to be a Ferrari FF. That's your all-wheel drive. All four of you

going out for lunch. That would be dark metallic green. I always forget what it's called. That Verde

Metallisato, whatever it's called. Beautiful. What's it called? It's a Zeltveg. It's a Zeltveg. I'd

have that with a tan interior. A nice low mileage version, one of those. I think just a stunning car.

You'd have to have a mini-cooper, navy blue. I would getholstered with Kuyio inside. I think that

just the coolest summer car. My final one for the summer drive would be an e-type Jaguar convertible.

You want it in British racing green with black leather interior. That's your summer drive up

to the olden park at Beside. Anywhere, make you move it on. Going for a coffee or perhaps that

brilliant sausage that they make there and at the chalet eagle and have a lovely afternoon drinking hot

chocolate, watching the people skating in the little park. Lovely stuff. Chris Cooper.

Well, I haven't actually once met the very successful Scottish race. I have met him at the

Joe McCarrie thing, but otherwise I don't really know him. He's a very charming. His hair does do

good hair. L'Oreal needs to buy one of his follicles and replicate them in some way. I don't know

Bernie. Well, I don't really know what I'm doing here kind of thing, but I think I've done this

properly. I would say my pal Roger, who does listen to this podcast, also has a little

residence in Verbia and is acquainted with your your your chum and he was I should have asked him

actually, well, what is in the garage, but I thought that was rather too, well, that's rather too

prying. So I've come up with my own answers. Some of them overlap. You definitely have an FF

Ferrari, because it's not a pure age sandwich. I don't think you could do that

be seen in daylight in the pure age sandwich. Even though I think technically it's probably

very impressive and I think secretly it would all quite like driving it. It's probably quite good.

The Lusso thing is a good example of it's trying too hard. We said this last week, I think

the boundary of cool is has it trying too hard and Lusso just slightly does. I also would have a

911 Dakar. I'd also have a 911 Dakar. And I think the aforementioned Scottish racing driver

had one kneel. You'll know this, but did you have a green one at some point?

I think so. I think it was at Bister, at Bramble in January, and it was even I could tell it was

the coolest car. They're clear glass. Yeah, beautiful wheels. None of the silly accoutre

more. You could specify none of that badging and stuff. It was really, really cool.

Come for seats. Come, yeah. Then I got serious. Then I got serious, because this is

Verbier and it could be very, very snowy. And you know, there may be a moment where only that would do.

It's a Unimog. Oh, yes. It's a Unimog with people carrying. It's a Luxobage Unimog. I think

Unimog's just, there's no way I could justify the functionality of a Unimog. I just want, it's

that Tonka thing. It's that we grew up with it. A Unimog with big chains, not studded tires.

If you're serious, you need chains. I was an underbitter on one of them once, and thank God,

because you actually need a H2V license. I think some of them you probably do. Yeah. That's

how you do it. So I think a proper Unimog, if an Armageddon of snow and avalanche, Biffel Verbier,

God forbid, you'd be the coolest man in town, because you could get everybody out. I thought about

the Italian thing, because I thought about a panda four by four. And I thought, no, everyone's

going to do that. So I'd have a 20 year old Renault Scenic RX 4. The four by four one,

slightly lifted. I just think that would be so cool. So cool. Okay. And then I think you've

got to have a Range Rover. How many cars do you have in? It's fine. This is the fifth one.

And the other one I'd have would be one of those. It's a Kingsley improved Range Rover LSE.

So the normal wheelbase one, hard dash, lots of lovely stuff done to it. It could let you down that.

I think it's been Kingsley Fide. Yeah, it's okay. All of the stuff that could let you down has been

fixed. That would be nice. I don't know whether our particular Scottish racing driver would like

that, but this Scotch is not quite a racing driver. Would love that as my five car garage.

If I had a Shelley in Verbier, which I don't with the garage, which I haven't got, I would love that.

Pretty comprehensive eight car list there. So I've got some doubling up here.

Integrally, yes. Yeah. The obvious panda four by four. Sorry, cliche, but you'd have that.

It's a good car. Good choice. You're going in the original. Yes. You're going there and back

in a G63 sadly, because that's what you go there and back in, isn't it? Now, I read this as a winter

only. So did I? I think that's fine. It doesn't say that though. It doesn't say that at all.

So I've made assumptions. I mean, know what they are. They're the mother of everything.

So I've gone for an MST mark two S-court on studs. One of those. That's okay. They make a sort of

RESTO mod style. They're beautiful things. Look on their website. MST mark two S-court,

Banzai engine studs. And also, you need a 911. You're right, but I've gone for a tattel

safari car on studs because I'm a bit familiar with them. That's good idea. I think that would

be good for me. So those are my five cars, rather unimaginative. I'm afraid, but I hate to say,

I didn't, I'm not sure I read the question correctly. So I've got no, basically when it gets the

summertime, I'm a bit goose, aren't I? Yeah. Can I borrow your 250 short wheelbospeed now?

Yes, you can. Next up, here we go. This is, this is brilliant. This is name the car equivalent

of a Brussels Sprout. I mean, perfect. What's it going to be? Manish.

Do people like Brussels Sprouts? Can you just do it quick? Yes. So this is a good car then.

Is this a good car? That's why this is a good question. I'm, I think when it comes to actually

eating them, I don't mind, but the idea of a Brussels Sprout, they just smell so dreadful

when they're being bought. I mean, they literally, I think they stink out of house when they're being

boiled. I think it kind of, there is, you know, that kind of cabbage water thing. It's just, it

is, it's one of those nauseating things at Christmas. I think if you can dollop enough butter on

it and fill you ask with other aromas, basically cinnamon based, I think you're okay, but just the idea

of a Brussels Sprout. Anyway, Brussels Sprout is sort of on a matter of egg for a bit crap, a bit

blah, a bit sort of whatever. And I think there is only one car for me. And it is the all-wheel-drive

modern Ford Capri. I just think that is a Brussels Sprout. Yes. For car, was it Brussels Sprout? That

is it. You can't get them in green. I had a quick look on the configurator, which is such a pity

because I think that car in green, it is, it is the global Brussels Sprout car. Electric four-wheel

drive, blah. I mean, I can't argue. I interpreted this slightly differently, Chris Cooper.

I actually forgot when we were doing this question, so I just wanted to think about it while

Manage is talking. I, I love Brussels Sprouts. Brussels Sprouts, I'm going to say something now,

which, which might convey the impression that I know how to cook and I do cooking on Christmas

day, neither of which is true. Lynn, I'm, you know, sorry, if anybody takes away from this,

that I do anything on Christmas day, other than put the crackers out and open a bottle of wine.

But I think if you steam them, help me here, guys. If you steam them, so they're not very, very mushy,

and they're quite crunchy, and you do them with lardons and bacon and chestnuts and stuff.

It's just the nicest little, little thing to have. So I think, I think it's the aerial no-mad

of the Christmas lunch. I think it's the aerial no-mad of the Christmas lunch. I just think it's,

it's not for everyone. It's little. I know that's a bit, I just think it's just, I think

Brussels Sprouts have bit of bacon, add on some chestnuts, not overcooked. It's when you overcook them,

put them in water in this sort of like gaseous soup of nuts. No, that's not what Brussels Sprouts

should be. So I think they're lovely, and I think an aerial no-mad, which is not for everybody,

it's an amazing thing, and it just works. They'll love them. Aerial no-mad, no Clifford.

Brussels Sprouts for me, I think they're so overrated, they smell,

they are required and needed, because it's a visual merchandising thing for me.

A Christmas dinner? Yes, and we mask them with cream and bacon and nuts and all to get rid of

this disgusting taste of the Brussels Sprout, and then you're busy picking out the nuts and picking

out the bacon, and it's the only thing that gets left, because obviously it then gets moved

to the Boxing Day bubble and squeak strategy. So I think they're totally overrated, no one really

likes them. I like them, I think they're underrated. I think they're fake, I think people fake

their love. No, I really like it. It's about to be a tradition of this. That might be true,

and they're cool in green, and everyone's like, oh, I really, I love those, I love those.

It's to me, it's the Audi RS6, because I've owned a number of these cars, and they stink

like a Brussels Sprout inside. I think you've spilt milk in your car. Everyone I've bought,

admittedly, I've never bought a new one obviously. They smell of farts and cigars and dogs,

and I think that's, to me, the equivalent of a Brussels Sprout, and actually their crap,

the BMW or a Mercedes is so much better, so I think it's such an overrated,

bloody thing, and we all fake our love for them, and they're shit.

Wow, Rudolph is not hurting. He's gone for it, right? I've never heard the Brussels Sprout

referred to as overrated. Yeah, exactly. It's the ultimate underdog vegetable. Most people hate

them. They do. I love them, and to prove that, I eat them year round, and I really do love them.

Yes, I do. I viewed this question this way. I think it's a Christmas version of Marmite.

In other words, it's a Marmite car. It's a Marmite vegetable. You either love them or you hate them.

No one's ambivalent about the Brussels Sprout. No one goes, I'll take it or leave it. Most people

either hate them. They hate them because they've prepared it at school in that awful, overcooked way.

I get that and sit in their own juices. It's done correctly. They're wonderful. I love them.

So for me, the ultimate Marmite car, and if a fish could come out of the screen and punch me,

it would now. It's the Land Rover Defender because so many people love the defender, that they

actually go to London where they shouldn't be and have a meeting where Cooper goes. A lot of

people like me and most of the farming population in the UK aren't that keen on them because your elbow

is hit stuff and I've gone into the reasons why I don't like defenders but there we go.

For me, it's the defender, but I don't feel strongly about the defender as Neil Clippet does

about the RS6. That's interesting because you don't like the defender,

but you do like Brussels Sprouts. Well, you asked the car equivalent of a Brussels Sprout.

Yeah. That's my opinion. It just said what? It's a good one. I think that's actually the best.

I think that's the best analogy.

Cool.

Of a mine.

Obviously, apart from everybody else's, they're all equally brilliant.

Yeah, that's right. We can squeeze one more in here. So let's go for,

I like this. Name one after market car accessory that you would like as a person that is for sale right now.

Chris Cooper. I have to say I've gone quite large. I've gone quite large.

And you know, everything's for sale, isn't it? Really?

So I've gone for Silverstone Circuit. Oh.

It's definitely after market. You buy it after you bought the car

and I think it accessorises the car nicely. So honestly, I did think about, you know,

I've got lots of other things that you could do, but I thought, no, it's Christmas.

I've brought a spirit of Christmas to the remaining questions in here.

And I think Silverstone Circuit would be the after market accessory that if it was for sale

and everything's for sale really, that's what I would like.

Well, I mean, this is the most aerial no math Silverstone circuit.

It's been a long year. Yes, it has. Wonderful. Manage, what would you have?

Go on on that basis. I'd quite like to have Suzuki, if I was sourced.

That would be a nice circuit. You could have done. It's Christmas.

I really thought about this and there is something that I love to put into Lola,

but it's very after market, but I've been given a bit of advice not to do this.

I mean, it is no, no, no. I just love chrome pedals and that's one thing I don't have.

I don't have chrome pedals in the car. And I was told that they're potentially very dangerous

because they're, you know, you can slip. And I didn't know this.

Nuvilar, not Nuvilaria, Scari apparently spent all his time because he'd seen several drivers

killed slipping on accelerators and more importantly brake pedals. He used to spend his time

sanding down his chrome pedals. I mean, literally sit there and just try to try to make them

a little bit rougher and buffer so that he wouldn't lose his grip. But that is what I was thinking

about as the ultimate aftermarket 456 accessory, just getting some chrome pedals, little chrome rest.

I thought they were. I thought 456 did come with chrome pedals. No, they didn't. They're rubber.

They are rubber. I had new rubber ones put in, but I just think just it will look great. I am now

a little bit worried about the idea that you put some chucker boots on start slipping or some

rokes and stuff. I mean, did it? Can I ask my learned friends? Have you had problems with slippage

in other brake pedals ever? My yellow car has metal pedals and yeah, it's fine.

Yeah, you can have the little sort of, the sort of the race bit will be rubber

but or some sort of synthetic thing, but then you have chrome around it for sort of aesthetic and

loveliness reasons. I think with an automatic, you're not a big risk.

No, you're not. I don't know. No, particularly if you've got the right tires on.

Right. We will find, we will find for you chrome pedals for 456. Thank you very much.

OMP must do a set. No, Clifford. I am known slightly for my love of charging and boost,

boosting cars. And I have all sorts of weekend dilemmas about C-Tech and what's that other one?

Ring and the numerous aftermarket, both boosters. What's that other one? What's the booster one?

Noco. Noco. Yeah, they're brilliant. They are. Noco is a good. Noco is a good. I'm not sure

about the C-Tech thing. We need to talk about that another day. But anyway, but I've had numerous

genuine recommendations from my fellow friends, Instagram friends, of course, not real friends,

but I see them as real friends. They are real friends. They are my new AI, Instagram friends,

for the best company that does charges professional professional quality and boosters is a company called

G-Y-S, which is a French company. The website is called something weird like G-Y-S welding. I think

they're there. G-Y-S. Go your shitter. Yeah, exactly. It's welding, professional welding stuff.

Okay. But you go on that website and I've no connection. This isn't a paid, this isn't a paid

speech. There's a lot of boosters and a lot of charges on there, and they all look very high quality

in French. So if my wife is listening to this, because of course she doesn't, because she gets

bored shitless by our podcast, because they're all the same, bless her. G-Y-S. Have a look. G-Y-S

welding looks really great. It's one of those ship websites where everything's really, really

tiny because it was done in 1998 as a website. But I think it looks very professional and

high quality. So if anyone is listening to welding, the G-Y-S pack pro 800. Chargers, boosters. Yeah.

Oh my lord. Doesn't it look good? But these have got wheels, Neil. They're a bit big on,

they've got that. Yes, look at that. Look at that. That could really help my weekends. I have to say,

I quite like one of those as well. Can you read that out to me please, what that product's called?

It's the G-Y-S pack pro 700. There is 800. Read it out. Read the letters together please.

So it says it's a G-Y-S, go your shitter. G-Y-S pack. No, it's a G-Y-S pack. It's a G-Y-S pack.

Oh, sorry, because my brain, I don't have that half of my brain. I don't think that doesn't

translate in French, the G-Y-S pack. Do you know what? It starts motorbikes, cars, motorhomes,

petrol and diesel engines instantly. And air buses, buses.

I've had a proper Christmas presents, A, buying them, a B. I don't even like receiving them

was such a miserable bastard. But I'm going to get this myself or give the link to my wife

for my birthday in February. I think you should ask for, go high.

There's the G-Y-S pack. I'm not going to say it the other way. The G-Y-S pack pro 800

open brackets, UK closed brackets. I think that one has been designed for that particular

specialization we have in those cold, clammy damp mornings, when any other kind of G-Y-S pack

alternative won't do. I have been recommended this by lots of people as well. If you want the best

boosters and the best trickle-charging machines, that is the company.

Okay. You just imagine the logline G-Y-S pack trickle-charger.

Anyone in France who had doubt listens to this podcast and they want to sponsor us for a numerous

amount of booster packs, we are available. Actually, in France, the G-Y-S pack trickle-charging

to boost you. I have to say, we're not a commercial bunch. We've just said we've given a massive

shout out and it's at last was, do you France is giving us some money? Isn't that how it works?

I thought that's the other way round. Oh shit. In my CEO book. Oh shit. We bugged that up.

This one is very easy for me. It's a little bit shameful. I've had a few, you'll see on the back

of my telephone, I've got a quadlock case. Now, I've seen these on the visors of certain racing

drivers. I've seen them in the shops and they kindly sent me a couple of bits and bobs. And I have

to say, it's game changing. It's a motorcycle and you have cars and other stuff. It's so good.

It really is. It's sort of you click in place, but the best one of all they do is they do a thing

that goes into a cup holder with a sort of wand that comes out of it that you can then click into.

And it stays down here and it's stable and it works and it doesn't break. It's such good quality.

And when I got to co-drive on the Safari rally the other week, I got there and I realized I didn't

have anything on my phone in the car and two people had quad locks in their rally cars.

And I was so immensely jealous because they didn't move and they were brilliant.

So I'm probably doing myself out of some sponsorship here. But honestly, the quadlock stuff,

if you've seen it and thought I might have a go, the only downside is the case is quite heavy

because it's got a magnet in it. But other than that, it's honestly the stuff is so so good.

May I ask a question, sir? Yeah. I'd also love quadlock and I use them, particularly this lovely

little wallet thing that clicks on the back like that. Yeah. So what is that, Neil? Just explain to us.

That is a little wallet thing that I keep my credit card in and my past for my office thing

and it goes on the back there like that. And I don't carry wallet anymore.

Doesn't it bugger up all the magnetic stripes on it and stuff like that?

No, no. You're too negative. It doesn't spend all the money in your credit cards through some sort of

like, no, osmosis conspiracy of spending. No, no, no, but quadlock is really good. The one question,

if anyone is available for quadlock to answer me a question about their products,

the stickiness goes away on the, those the beautiful high quality plastic things with the

sticky round thing that goes on your windscreen. And it's amazing for the first month or two it works.

But if you start moving them around from car to car, the stickiness goes away and I've tried to

re-enhance or bring back to life the stickiness of the plastic thing by licking it. Obviously,

that's the first thing you always do. I lick everything. Yeah, you just lick the thing.

Yeah. But you've got to start there. How you get the stickiness back would be a bit,

if I could get that for Christmas, that would be lovely because it's sticky. Is it actually sticky

as in some sort of like adhesive style rather than a vacuum? Not a vacuum. Is it like this bit here?

No, no. On the product, you buy the old stick thing that goes on the windscreen of which this connects

to. It's all lovely. The quality is very good. I'm not being negative. Please don't upset,

don't be upset, quadlock. So the sticky round piece of clear, high quality flex number is

enough. It loses its stickiness and I can't figure out. I've got about four of the bloody things

and they will not stick to my windscreen anymore. Can I just sum up the situation? So this is now

the second manufacturer in the last 10 minutes that we have eulogized about, neither of whom we had

the foresight to think about any kind of commercial arrangement in advance. And we have pushed that boat

down that little... But it's now so far that we're now apologizing about asking them.

We're fucking good at this. But I've even been on to frequently asked questions on the quadlock

website to see whether there is a solution for the stickiness reinhancement.

It's fittingly in the background here. So if someone tries to ring in, he's able to,

there you are, boss. Hopefully we'll get a call in about two minutes. Yes. So quadlock, please help me

because I love you. Does Oscar Piastry enjoy quadlock products as well? Yes, he does.

Does he not? Or is it just land though? I think it's Oscar. No, it's Oscar.

Is it? No, is he sponsored by quadlock? Yes, he is. It's one. He's one. He's one.

Our esteemed producer is on the screen. Oh, is it? Oh, there you go. Brilliant product.

Two syllables, quadlock, yep. Australian. Yeah. Dick insider.

Here we go. We're not going to start with the next one yet because I'm hoping that some more

darling image will cut this out. Is that from the same marketing department that created the

the easy start little spray for cars called start your bastard? Yeah, YouTube, Dick insider.

Dick insider. It's really, it's really, it's really good. I didn't make any other kind of drinks.

Dick, it's not actually real. But if you YouTube, the fake advert for Dick insider, it's really good.

It's the cider from the Dick insider. I can't make it up, can you?

I still think that Australians just swear better than anyone else.

Such high quality when they sell. Yeah, did you imagine walking into Halford's or

another auto factor and motor factors suppliers are available? And going up to the

chap in the county thing, I can't see where it is on the shelves. And say, where's start your bastard?

You couldn't do that over here, could you? No. So I remember when motor magazine in Australia,

when the when the Impressor went to the bug-eyed look, it had that sort of round headlight in about

2000 and two or something. Yeah. We were all trying to understand how to express how

disappointed we were with this new starting direction. And motor just had on its headline,

what the fuck have they done to the Rex? We were all we were scrambling around for the words

and they just nailed it with a swear word. It was mad. Right. Okay, so I'm going to

preem this now. We've got a special Christmas two car garage guest coming up. Here he is.

On the button, Gordon Murray, the best person on the planet. Can I introduce you to my friends,

Neil Clifford, Manish Pandey and Chris Cooper. Hi, folks. Hi, Gordon. This is our Merry Christmas

podcast, Gordon. And I post to you a two car garage, but I'll read out what I wrote to you.

It is as follows. We want you to choose two cars, one for everyday use and one for weekends

and special days. Both must fit with his lightweight philosophy and neither can have been designed

or built by him, i.e. you. So you can't choose any cars you designed or built, which is a bit tricky

because I think we all like a McLaren F1 in there or your current supercar. So what will you be

choosing, Gordon? To all of you, all of you guys familiar with the Bentley Continental? Yes,

yes. Well, it's not that. Someone's seen my Instagram, yeah, yeah. This one was actually an easy

one for me because I've already got the car. I'm for 16, up until seven years ago, for 16 years,

my everyday car was a smart roadster. And who was that? That was my 10 o'clock Tuesday alarm.

I do apologise. Yes, so for 16 years, up until seven years ago, my everyday motor car was a smart

roadster. The little smart, with the Bravis chip in it. And I couldn't find anything else

that was equal parts like fun, small, and a challenge with the gear change. So it was something

that, the reason why I like things with the challenge is it makes you drive, you know, the little

Fiat Ciquitento, which was my everyday car for a while, it's got a crash box, for example. It

forces you to heel and toe. So that's the sort of thing I like. So to replace that, I've been waiting

and waiting to sort of find a lightweight fun alternative. And it just wasn't anything around.

I drove a Porsche. I thought it might be the rear engine Porsche, the, what's it, the

Cain? I borrowed one for a week, but it was sort of too good, really? If you know what I mean,

a little bit too big and too heavy, but also too good. So when the Alpine announced the A110,

the aluminium car, it was a complete no-brainer. And that's been my everyday car for,

well, there you go. That's a real car. 1100 kilos. Okay, it's not a manual, but actually,

for everyday driving and the traffic, it's quite good to have something that you can leave in

auto. I never thought I'd say that, but it is true. 100%. So that was quite an easy choice for me,

really. And I use the car literally every day. It's a magnificent car. So you've got two fellow

owners here, Neil and Chris have both got one tenths. We need a club. We do. Manage needs one.

I will, I will, you know, I will. It's there's so few cars that are small and light and just

fun these days. They all got ahead of themselves with the marketing guys every year seem to think

they need to be bigger, heavier, more, more kit on them. And every time they do that, it's a step

away from the driver involvement and the fun. How quickly, Gordon, when you got the cars,

did you realise, oh my god, this is great. I tell you what really bulge me over is I'm

the stickler for the balance, every designer on the planet has the balance ride and handling. Yeah.

I don't like nasty crashy secondary ride with all the fillings fall out your teeth. They have

potholes and things. German cars are terrible for that. The secondary ride of German cars is

just dreadful usually. And all the cars I do and I design have got a lot of attention paid to

the secondary ride, you know, the bumps and lumps sort of thing. And my initial holy, holy grail for

that was the Honda NSX when it came up. It had a fantastic amount of compliance with a very clever

system on the front suspension. I think it had over 20 millimeters of longitudinal compliance,

which is for a sports car is really a lot. And then the Lotus Evora took over from that. Yeah.

That was a very good balance between the A1 10s better than both those cars. In fact,

I benchmarked it for T50. Did you? Yeah. I think it's a great town car. I use it. It's the only

car I like driving in London where the roads are so hot for exactly the reasons you said.

Small footprint, a lovely compliance secondary ride is amazing. And I think do you have the

pure model or you've got one of them? No, I had the launch edition. I haven't driven one of the

stiffer ones. I don't think they're quite right. Although I'm about to because I had one of those,

you know Zagato just built 19 A1 10s with a long tail. Well, I ordered one of those and that's

just arrived. And that's based on the R chassis. Okay. I think the R or the S, I can't remember.

You used to come back and tell us what you think when you've driven it. Yeah. So next spring,

I'm going to take that out. The roads around here are filthy at the moment, so it's not worth it,

but it's an all-carbon car. I have to say the build quality is very good. The

carbon work, the shut gaps and things are very, very good on it. I'm impressed.

And I'll be driving that next spring. So do you think it's feasible to make a car of that

quality and that performance and make any money from it? I keep looking at that car and think,

how do they make any money from it? Answers are probably don't do they?

You're talking about the long tail? Yeah, I'm talking about just the A1 10 in general.

Yeah, I think with 19 cars, you must struggle. Yeah, yeah.

I'm 10 into the US. I don't know why, really, but you would have thought that it's sold a ton of

those in the US if they could. I think they would have, but probably they didn't have the budget to

make it federal compliant. It adds, for example, even on our supercars, it adds 40 million to the

budget to go to the US. 40 million. Wow. It's a lot of a key difference,

is Gordon. What is it? Mainly a different emissions. So you've got to remap the engine completely,

but the big one is believe it or not, well, you can because it's America. You've got to do all

the crashes with unbelted occupants. It's legal. It estates to where seat belts everywhere,

but evidently 50% of the population don't. So you've got to do all the crash tests again

with more dynamite than the airbags and unbelted occupants, which means we do something like

30 crash tests to make a 100 cars a year. Wow. Wow. That's not a good example.

Gordon, does the A1 10 count for your special car? No. What's your special car going to be?

The special car, I did ask you, if you remember, if I could have a classic car, and normally my absolute

go-to car for taking out on special days, holidays and high days would be a series three or four

Lotus Alain fixed head coupe without a doubt. It's still the best sports car I've ever driven.

However, I am getting a little bit tied. I drive classic cars all summer, and then I go back

to the Alpine when the weather gets a bit mucky and stuff. So I rotate my cars every year. I

rotate 10 cars every year. So I drive different classic cars all motorbikes. You do get a little bit

tied of the missing fifth gear, the missing up of the windscreen and the rear windows and even the

side windows, lack of proper heating, lack of aircon when it gets hot, and those things actually

start detracting. It's fun for one day, but what saved the day, loved and more hate them, are

Ristamods. And my choice for that is absolutely categorically my alpha, alpha holics. It's essentially

a GTA R, but in a Zagato junior body. And that is the most fun. It's got electric windows,

it's got aircon, it's got proper heating, and it's it's comfortable, usable every day,

but it is fun with a capital F. It was a toss-up to be really honest. It was a toss-up between

that and the S-core twin-cam that Retro Power built me. But the alpha, I've always loved that shape.

It was a bit of a momma shape when it came out. Some people hated the wedge, some people loved it.

I was on the love side. And I just loved that little car. I've done a couple of track days in it

already. And yeah, okay, the secondary ride is a bit harsh, but you can put up with that for fun,

you know, for taking it out on a weekend or driving it to Goodwood, or I've rallied it twice

on historic rallies. It's just my go-to car, it's 910 kilos, 230 horsepower, and it's so well

sorted, the balance, you know, you can drive it, you don't need a steering wheel, you can drive it

on the throttle once you get a loose, you know. And it's built 10 miles from where I'm sitting,

the bank's boys should be very proud of their work, they really do. I'm doing another little

project with them at the moment, actually. Yes, I've heard about this. I'm not going to say anything,

it's special. In your, with your own land, Gordon, the thing you must say about the 4-speed gearbox

is really interesting. Have you ever, no one's listening, just between us, have you ever found yourself

changing into the imaginary fifth gear, which isn't there? All the time. Yeah. All the time. And

they were all the same. And because, and because they didn't have the luxury of fifth gear,

fourth gear has to do top speed. So what you've ended up with is a fairly evenly spaced ratio

gearbox, which means that you're revving the nuts of it at 80 miles an hour. Sorry, 70 miles an hour.

I suppose I did the retro mod off the land, didn't they, really? Because if you want,

if you want a modern land, and we can talk about at least as well, I suppose, but it's really MX-5,

isn't it? Well, yeah, they took half a dozen of them over to Japan when they were designing that.

Did they? Yeah, it is, it is sort of a high volume version of an land, really, with the weight

distribution and the layout and stuff. Unfortunately, it's just not built for grown-ups. I can't fit in

it. How do we campaign to make smaller motor vehicles? That's the thing gets me good. I had a ride

in your amazing T-50 and it's so little, that's what strikes me, is it's a small car,

is you options on the road, you can place it on a road, you're not, you don't just sit there,

you can find it by white lines. It's smaller cars, don't we? I know, I know. Well, actually,

funny, you should say that, because the last week I bought two, they literally got delivered

last week and I've only driven one of them so far and I'm driving the second one today, fun

enough, going to sheltered in it, and I wondered about whether I should mention them because I've

bought them as an alternative occasionally to the A110 to go to work in. And when I go to

a windscreen, I've got a lot of little narrow back roads and a smaller and more fun, the better.

But I'm not sure you guys aren't going to laugh at me when I tell you what they are.

Go on. One is a, excuse me, a fair pander, 100 HP. Yeah, brilliant. It's great.

Good. I said, you'd laugh. No, no, no, no, no, no, no. And the other one is a car that's always

fascinated me to the point where nearly bought one when they came out, it's the original aluminium

Honda insight. Yes, yes. 840 kilos, 60 miles to the gallon. And they've always looked fascinating

to me. So I've got one of those with about 60,000 on the clock, which is low mileage. That is

really good. Yeah. And the fair pander is, I've already been on internet looking for how you can chip

the engine. And how much is that way that fair pander, 100? I think it's about 900 from memory.

It's 870 or 900. The Honda's with air conners, 838. Really?

It's a lovely shape. And that shape of that Honda looks slightly odd at the time, but now

it just, it looks, it looks cool. It looks cool when it came out. I've been staring at them

for years. And I just thought this one to make to make it even more interesting. This one was

being sold at auction for breast cancer. So, you know, there were a lot of people bidding on it.

So it went to a good cause as well. So it was great buy, actually.

Good. I'm going to have a big search on. Yeah, they really are. What other small cars interest you

Gordon? Let's talk about that. I just had a add up actually. My collection, I've got, I've got 55 cars

under 800 kilos. You've got all of them. Pretty much. I mean, you've had, I think you've been

down to Gordon's garage. Haven't you, Chris? Yeah. What's the first iteration? Oh, okay. You

must come back and have a look at the current one because it's grown a bit since then. But they're

all small, yeah, they're all small, pretty and light, basically, and interesting. Yeah,

yeah, sort of 55 cars under 800. Yeah, fascinating. Gordon, Mary, thank you so much for joining us.

So good to you, looking so healthy and smiley. It's a difficult couple of years, but it's great

to have you fighting fit again. And we can't wait for samples to more of your products. Thank you

for joining us, Gordon. Have a great Christmas. Have a great Christmas.

Bye-bye, Gordon. Cheers, guys. Cheers. Bye. Perfect. Wow. Fantastic. Who was that? How

are you? I love that. 55 cars under no, I mean, that's, we have to go and see that. That'd be

lovely. I wanted to ask him how many of those were Brabans from the 80s. There's a lot of

Zagato's. Alpha Zagato's. Yeah. Yeah. It's not refreshing to have someone that that lives by

a philosophy and absolutely hears to it. You know, that's what he does. First of all, I went to

GMA. His Alpine is right outside, parked outside the door. It's always there because he loves these

small lightweight sports cars. He's got no interest in the big heavy stuff. I'm utterly ashamed

that he saw a picture of my Bentley Continental T. Obviously he thought that was really funny.

He actually nailed me there, didn't he? Sharp as a tank. Can I just ask a question to you two racing

drivers? Okay, two and a half. There are, there's concept of power to weight. But he's talking about

something completely different, which is just the concept of absolute weight. And there is a difference

isn't there? Yeah. I mean, it's to do with, you know, polar moment of inertia when you turn the

steering wheel. From where does it feel the cars turning and how quickly does it feel that it's

turning without artificial things like fast racks or silly suspension? And essentially,

you asked a really good question of him, which was when did you first think that's a really

wow car? And I think I immediately thought of when I went to, I know you don't do test drives

now, but I thought, I need to see whether this is all that is made out to be. And literally

turning out to show room entrance. Yeah, it was like, we can go back now. Yeah, it's 100 yards,

you can tell that car is definitely 100 yards. And that sort of, it floating, that sort of,

he's right. Second view, I was quite a technical sort of thing and I never quite sure I

describe it well. But you know, when you feel it, you're using a bigger heavier car.

The Alpeners, I'm so, I feel even prouder and happier at this Christmassy time to think,

you know, we've all we all like the Alpener 110, but he's not like Gordon describing

the way it does. It's fantastic. What a hero. Yeah. Well, the phrase, the Lotus engine is always

used to describe the way that a lightweight car works on a British road is it breathes with the

road. Yeah. I always thought that was a nice phrase. Yeah, just breathed with the road.

Yeah, there you go. Now, moving on. Yes. In your cracker, you can receive a set of keys for any

car to enjoy on Boxing Day. What would you choose? I'm going to go first to manage.

I have shared this with you guys in the past. I am when I'm walking in the West End, if you walk

up Clujest Street, any kind of random day in May fair, you will see a beautiful James Bond

DB5 in Silver. It's been perfectly restored. The registration plate, I think is DB1.

Is it B1? Sorry, B1. Yes. I mean, I think it's a million-quid plate, isn't it? Yeah.

So, if I had a Christmas cracker and I had the keys to that car for a day,

I would be extremely happy. It's a stunning car. When you see it with that background,

because Clujest Street looked like Clujest Street for, I don't know, 150 years. You can actually

imagine Sean Connery just getting out of that car, you know, popping into a club around the corner,

getting back, going to Trumpers, buying himself some grooming products, getting back into that car,

legging it at home. It's a stunning car. It's worth walking up Clujest Street to look at it

in context. I saw it last week and it absolutely immaculate. Yeah, it's like a brand new motor car,

probably, isn't it? Neil Clifford. This is tricky for me. Well, it's not tricky. I've had the

great pleasure of driving most sorts of cars. So, I was really racking my brain to say,

what have an eye experience that would be, that would be something that I really would like to.

And I concluded basically that I want the keys to a Sheeran.

Don't hold back. Well, there's lots of Sheerans around at the minute in line. I do it everywhere.

No, there is. It may not be in Cheshire, Morse and Albans, or where we, you know,

sleep. But if you go into Mount Stry, I was there last night working. There were three Sheerans,

there was, you know, and I think I've never experienced thereon. I've never experienced Sheeran

at all, both passenger or driving. I've experienced most other stuff, Laferari 918, not ownership,

but being in one, all the sort of Ferrari, Porsche, things. So, if I wanted a new experience,

just to feel the Sheer speed, but frankly, as much quality, you know, if I read about the Sheeran

or the thereon, I'd love to, yeah, I would love a navy blue Hermes Orange Leather,

Sheeran keys, where would I go? God knows, but I would just head north for two or three hours and

zoom around way I was and come back. I think it's a spectacularly good looking car.

So, that's what I'd have. Sheeran, we can have what we want managed, what do you

have? I've already stolen that. I was very little. It must have been

1970s. I just think to remember one, my father, I've said before, my parents were in that

Scottish generation that left Scotland. They were either doctors or engineers or racing drivers.

And a lot of them left the UK after the war to go be engineers and doctors or

other. My parents lived in parts of Africa. My dad was a mining engineer. And when he came back

to the UK when my brother and I came along, he worked for a French cement company running a cement

works on the North Kent coast. And I remember occasionally this French family,

must have been his boss, would come to our house, this little sort of little housing estate,

a little bit called Sean, graves end in Kent, North Kent. And that Christmas, one Christmas,

he'd given my parents this gift of a box of Christmas crackers. And in this Christmas cracker

was just the, it's still one of those most amazing extraordinary Christmas memories.

In this Christmas cracker, there was a match box, Silver Shadow came out of the cracker.

So cracker like this. And when you opened it, I can't tell you how exciting that was because

it was a Rolls Royce. And we've said this before, you know, Rolls Royce is the metaphor,

is a sort of, you know, are they rich? Have they got a Rolls Royce?

They got a Rolls Royce there. And it was like, it couldn't, so, and it just, it was extraordinary

sense of excitement because it was so utterly beyond our world. And I thought the match box version

was really, really cool. So in memory of that this year, I'm going to put this,

ah, it's that little match box size. It's a Bentley, which our lovely friend Ben, we had

from Bentley gave us each one of these that we had dinner with him a while ago. I'm going to put

this in one of the crackers, this is going to go away because it'll rattle a bit heavier than the other

ones. And it won't have plastic spoon in it, it'll have one of these. I'm going to put one of these

in the crackers that Christmas round our table, just to see the look of excitement when that pops out.

So, I guess the answer to the question is, the keys that I would love to see

in a cracker on Christmas Day would either be a 1970-something Phil Vashado

or if Ben is listening to this and he has the time to arrange it in time,

the keys to that. I think this is one 75th scale. Is that the, because they're all sort of

the same scale, I think there might even be smaller than 175th, I don't know. Matchbox Lesney

was the the manufacture of those things. I think it was bought by Mattel in the late 90s and

then all went to Macau anyway, so that's what I would look for in my Christmas cracker.

Wouldn't it be great if Ben's second surname was Tlee?

Benjamin Terence Lee.

I think I'd just like to have a early 70s 911 to go for a driving. I just, I like the idea of

trying to start it, making sure I didn't flood it. We just all six to pick up and just go for a drive.

I've not driven a basic one for a long, long time. I don't care if it's an S, a T, an E,

I don't really give a monkey's, but just to hear that engine and just to go for a recreational

steer on Boxing Day, the way from arguing families and all that sort of nonsense, just to clear the

head. I think just for me an early long bonnet 911 is being too long and I want to drive one.

Yeah. Next thing. Now you have to drive to Rome, nonstop next week for New Year's Eve party

with Luca, that's Montezemolo. Choose a new Italian car to take you and your partner in comfort

with enough luggage space for a week's holiday. I'm going to go first. I don't normally go first

because I need to get this out the way because there's only one Italian car.

There is. Who's? So I'm going to say it first. It's an Al from a Julia quadriffolio.

Oh, it is just the sexiest saloon car on the planet and we all have to own one at some point.

Yes. I've ruined it for the rest of you. Neil Clefford, what colour is your quadriffolio going to be?

No, I genuinely haven't gone quadriffolio. Oh, I've gone quadriffolio, but not Julia.

I suppose you. Yeah. Yeah. Well, I said this challenge deliberately, but just to show

how difficult it is to buy, unfortunately, a good Italian car. That's really tricky. And I started

on the YTS scheme 1983 in the Fiat garage in Portsmouth, Cannons, in the parts department.

My first day there was the Fiat Uno car of the year with the flags outside and the X19 finale

dark green with the five speed 1500 in the corner. And I'm like, this is the fucking best job ever.

And now it's difficult to buy a good Italian car. They almost don't exist anymore.

Well, certainly it's a bit of a challenge. So I was either, of course, you can go super car.

And I did think about going the new, what's it called? A mouth fee.

Yeah. So good reviews. And I'm warming to the looks of it. I'm not totally convinced.

Frankly, everyone else that I know thinks it's the best looking Ferrari of all times. And maybe,

you know, you start best looking Ferrari of all time. There we go.

A lot of people say it's a very attractive car. Both Roma,

it's a, everyone says it's a pretty car. I don't quite see that, but I struggle with, you know,

maybe I'm wrong. Maybe it is a pretty looking thing. But then obviously I set the challenge

of the luggage. Now, of course, a man can travel for a week's holiday with his wallet and a pair of pants.

But if you decide to take someone else, maybe the amount he's a bit of a challenge, I think actually,

if he's a decent looking car, it sounds like shit, though, is the problem. But most cars do sound like

shit now. So I'm going, the Stelvio. And it's still available. I went on the website last night to

think maybe it maybe that car, maybe that's another car that's disappeared. You can actually order one.

I know it's not the Julia, but I think it's actually as a four by four thing. It's quite a pretty

bloody thing, actually, I think. So I'm just like stink as well. Yeah. It's interesting. I saw,

was it on Instagram, one of the magazine's car magazines saying that the amount he might be the best

Ferrari the company, the car that the company makes at the moment. I remember. Yeah. Yeah. I read that. Yeah.

Um, uh, man, I'm afraid I have gone for the quadrifoli, oh, black, black. I just think with that little

clover on the side when you see them in black, that just one little green detail. I see. You see

the monster? They're not that common. But what they do make me stop and look, the proportions are

just exactly right, aren't they? The only thing I would say is they're a bit bigger than you

imagine when you see them in real life. I think you'd have no problem at all with the luggage.

And I'd say I've never traveled anywhere with just a wallet and a pair of pants. I'm sorry. I mean,

Tariya overnight bag and we're talking about just an afternoon tea somewhere. I cannot travel light.

Well, um, uh, Chris Keeper. I read this a bit differently. Of course.

I read this a bit differently. I'm not sure I've read it correctly. In fact, I'm sure I've written

read it wrongly. Um, so I read it to say, and I saw it, I did like you, Neil.

I saw it as an important celebration of Italian automotive capability.

Um, so I went down the wormhole of Italian coach builders.

Ah. Um, and uh, I then took a wrong turn and ended up with Dutch coach builders, but I thought

ah, um, I think you would go to a, a touring or one of those businesses. And you'd say

I'd like you to build me one of those. Yep. It's not fucking Italian though, is it? Well,

if it was made by touring with Italian love and passion, Neil, all the things that you, you sort of

were behind the question when you asked it. I think even though it's, and I forget the name of the

Dutch business that actually did this, this one of this thing and it's sort of a corniche underneath.

Beautiful. But, but there's something beautifully Italian about the ambition and the beauty and

the passion of that. So it's Christmas. We can all make a wish. Um, and you know, we all, we all have

our, we all come to Christmas with our own perspectives and questions and challenges about

how happy or otherwise time to do it. So I thought bollocks. If I'm going to have a Christmas wish

and I've been invited to Lucas New Year's Eve party, I'm going to say to touring with the

kind permission of the Dutch chap who built this thing as name I can't remember my apologies.

Um, there'll be one of those corniche shooting breaks with the luggage in it and everything

about it was just lovely. So I did, I'd be really happy with the quadrufolio if that's what they're all

say. To lovely summary, little moral message for the times, but you still can't read the question.

No. No. So we love you dearly. Let's move on to our two car garage. I wonder if you read this one.

Have read this one. Here we go. Santa Claus has been deregulated

the help. Yeah, I wrote this one. I have read it. Yeah.

To help good Santa fight off the bad Santa, you must choose two cars. One that's fast and

commodious enough to get him and his costume through the snow first on Christmas Eve. The second

is for fun to remind him of flying like Dasha, comments and Rudolph. Budget commensurate with being

good podcaster this year. So spend what you want. Something big to put all the president,

something fast to put the wind through your hair. Let's go to manage first.

Well, this is big enough, but this is Santa's car. I think it light weight, because the light

weight was to keep it, but it is the Bentley Super Sport. I love this beast. It is the beast.

Is that on car garage? No, it may not be. It may not be. It may not be. I don't think there's one.

I don't think there's one there, but since it was Christmas, it will be one one day there.

Exactly. I think since it was Christmas, I think if you go on the wish list on car and

classic and put that in, you'll get the first one. But can you just see Santa in one of those?

Can you imagine? Sack in the passenger seat. He is going to be carving through the traffic,

but I think most traffic's just going to stop and stare, because that car is so sexy.

I have gone car and classic with the next one, and it is not a car. It is the Ducati 959. I think it's

plus Paginale. Paginale. Now, it's sort of Santa-beared YT Silver with Santa Red Wheels. I think that

is going to make you feel as if you are flying through the sky pulled by some turbocharged reindeer.

I think they are my two, and that is on car and classic. It's actually available on December

the 30th. That's the kind of thing that I would almost buy just to put in the living room.

You just keep it in. It's just so good. Who would buy a sculpture over that?

I almost did that. If I had done that, the only place it would have been safe for me to put

it in the living room. It is a living sculpture, isn't it? It's a little Michelangelo, but it

works. 100%. It's so pretty. Little Clifford. Right, here we go. I am buying. I am buying two

lightweight, lovely, lovely little cars. One, which I used as a two-car garage, 7, 6 weeks ago,

actually went and bought. There's a whole story to this car, which I won't bore everyone,

but the Lotus Elise in purple. The story of this car is, I was spoken to the owner. I was spoken

to the guy that originally ordered it. He did go to Lamborghini and got the paint and went to

Lamborghini and got the Blue Interior to match his SE30. This is the amazing thing about

car and classics. Tom, we need more money, is that this website is Bloody Brilliant because you

can find these amazing cars on there that suddenly I'm such an entrepreneur. It's going to be

worth a bloody fortune once I've spent a fortune making it work. That's the one car I've already

actually bought. We are putting our actions where our mouths are. Then, clearly I can't

bloody find it, I'm buying a Lotus Cortina. You know what, I've never owned one. I think

they're so cool. The bizarre thing about the Lotus Cortina is you can go on car and classic,

which I've done. You can find one for 30 grand, 40 grand, 50 grand, 60 grand, 70 grand, 80 grand

because it's such a difficult car to buy because once you start reading up all, it's the very early,

the first 100 with the why suspension on the back with the special type of connectors between

the navigation special. Don't miss shit that I don't understand, but obviously I've chosen the

most expensive one because if you don't know what you're talking about, probably buying the most

expensive one is the good art from the top and work down. What could go wrong by buying the most

expensive one? I've bought a Lotus Cortina because that paint work. Look at that, look at the back of

that. It's so fucking cool. That green, whatever it is, and this is the 88th car like who cares,

the 88th very early car, number 88th on the production line and therefore it's 95,000 pound

as opposed to the other one right next door to it on the website. It's 49,000 pounds because I don't

know. Who's that Scottish racing car driver that unfortunately died this? Jim Clark. Jim Clark,

Jim Clark farted in this one. That's why it's where double the price. That's what I'm buying.

Open the doors and we'll lose half its value. There's a photograph of Jim Clark walking past his

car in the west end. How many prezzies can he get in the boot? Loads. Quite a lot. It's in some

Europe's family car of choice. It's actually a big car isn't it? Named after one of the coolest

ski resorts. You can have a sat in one of those cars. It's a gorgeous thing for their

lovers. It bequeathed its tail lights to a wonderful TBR. The 400. Chris Cooper.

So I think on a rare occasion today I might have done this properly. So the commodeous but quick

car would be, and there's only one, I was thinking about Gordon when we were thinking about

doing this. It will be this. It's a mini 1380 rally or replica. We all know that the mini blitzed

everybody in the Monaco Alpine snowy rallies in the 60s. Don't need a four wheel drive. You just

need a mini like that sort of bloody French disqualified it. So I think that will be the commodeous

because they're just, they are tardists. I've got a mini. My first car when I was a student was a

mini. And you look at me staying next to the mini thinking which orifice are you going to enter

that car to get into it? That's never been said out loud before. So I think mini would be great.

And then, then, and actually Gordon sort of said this.

You know, where is it? There is on car and classic. Here we go.

We might have chosen this before. It's an Alane S4. Yeah.

And I think four speed. So both of these start, what the land starts on the auction 31st December,

the mini on 1st of January. I'm going to ask Gordon so many questions.

Yeah. Yeah. That land. It actually looks really really nice. Why would you choose the coupé,

not the soft top? You can, Gordon, you could ask him a thousand questions. Couldn't you?

Such a good. Well, he's getting back when he's tried his, yeah, his thing. That's what I would do.

Um, I've got, I think I read this correctly. I think I've won this. I don't often win these,

but I think I won this. First of all, fast with space,

760 kilogram payload. One of those crazy CXs that was made.

Well, those think the newspapers. This one was actually for something else,

but it's made by the totally unpronounceable pitch, they're called, was it? There we go.

Pitch pops. Yeah, it's a Dutch thing. Yeah, it's pops. But they're fabulous cars with such history.

So one of those, because Santa can fit all the president there and go as far as he wants,

because they used to do 180 comes right in there. And now I get a funny feeling that Mr.

Claus was a Cosworth fan, because he liked that turbo boost. If you want to feel speed boost

is the way forward, because it loves you in and then it just surges. So for Mr.

Claus, white, RS Cosworth, wing, everything. I mean, what would I've, I can't tell you,

Rudolph is quivering at that suggestion. The prices of these things are just gone nuts.

Car and class has got loads of stuff. There is a range, but some of them are over £100,000

pounds. Wow. Yeah. But I suppose they are poster cars on it. There's a whole generation

that's just one of these. I would have, I still think they look the absolute balls. They're wonderful

cars. So for me, crazy CX and a cosy. Do you mean nice? I think you might have won that.

Okay, okay. Right. Moving on to the music. So yesterday, everyone read the very sad news that Chris

Rhea had passed away. I'll be open on it with you. I tried to get him on the podcast for Christmas

this year, because Chris has always been the great supporter of all automotive media. In fact,

he's often quoted saying he wanted to be an F1 journalist, I'm a motorsport journalist

before he became a musician. I only met him a handful of times, but he was always funny,

up to speed, love the detail and a true obsessive like us lot. If he had a, you know,

two pounds in his pocket, he'd spent two pounds buying a car. He was like us. He was

an absolute addict. And so we're all really, really sad that he's passed away and that we never

got to share a laugh with him. I was really sad when I read the news because I just recall him telling

me a brilliant story about driving his 550 Maranello when Princess dies, she was on because he said,

well, the road's required. So I thought I'd go for a good old drive. It wasn't anti monarchy. He just

said, well, when are the roads ever going to be quieter? And he went for a long drive in his 550.

It's a great loss. And I think there's going to be an obvious music choice in a minute. So I'll

move across to the other three. I'm going to choose that one, Naz. You can choose another one, all right?

Let's go first to Neil.

I'm resting piece, Chris. Last Christmas is my, I chose my favorite Christmas song last week,

which was E17. So my second favorite is Last Christmas by Wham. Same here. Yeah, it's great,

I love it. Manage. I was going to go classical and say something like, should we have a nutcracker

by Chakowski, but I think Christmas has to be a little bit schmaltz-y. I think it really does.

And I think the ultimate schmaltz-y, it is actually, Schmaltz-y, but emotional song is,

when a child is born sung by Johnny Mathis, I think that really makes me think of Christmas.

That's a Christmas paper. So I had driving home for Christmas. And very well said, Chris,

it was all really genuinely sad and, you know, resting piece and all best wishes to his family.

I didn't know him, but I met him a couple of times, quite 25 years ago, when he was quite close,

he was a big catering fan, some of you know, he'd really race them, probably just before I started

racing them. And so he was always in the catering sales office, down in catering. Andy Noble,

who now runs, classic and sevens at Brandt Hatch, would have known him really, really well.

And he was such a fan of the car generally. I put on my Instagram today, a little clip that I saw

this morning that Goodwood had put up. It was a film of him revealing his, the replica sharpness

for Ari, he had made for the film, the Pacione, the Phil Hill, well, F1, Championship winning car.

And they had Phil there, blessed him as well, God rest his soul. And just the humbleness and the

slight sort of, you know, awkward sort of, well, I've done this thing and, you know, and, you know,

this is how I've done it. And it was lovely. So, um, yeah, bless him. So I think the only

one I would choose would be, and I read yesterday about where it came from. I think we all knew

road to hell. It's about the M25. It's specifically, if I read it correctly, the bit driving out

of London on the M4, you go past the Heathrow junction, and then you have to bear to the left because

the M25 is always horrible. And I did that on Saturday. And so, yeah, I'll have those two. Rest in

peace. And I'll go with driving home for Christmas, because it's a great tune. When you hear it on

the radio, you do tap along, don't you? He just, he knew how to ride a lovely tune. So, um, a sad

note, but on a more uplifting note, thank you so much for sticking with us, um, this year.

Manage wants to say something. Well, I just wondered if we could do a completely shameless plug

because it's Christmas. Yes, you can't go on. Can I do that? Um,

Rostolian, a fellow Rostolian of Mr Harris, um, really old friend of mine loves dogs, and we all

really love dogs. So she's got a little online business. She's not sponsoring us, but it's called

the Honeypop collection. And she does all kinds of things from dog champions to bombs if they hurt

their paws or noses. It's all completely vegan. It's not tested on animals. It's really, really

wonderful stuff. And, um, it's called the Honeypop collection. And if you want to log onto it,

and you put in CHF 15, there's a little discount code for you. And just trying to drum up a little

support for a small online Rostol business. Well, I've got some somewhere and we've been putting it

on my dog's paws and he loves it. So there you go, fully endorsed. Thank you.

Anyone else want to plug a local business while we're here?

French boosters.

So general message, thank you so much for sticking with us this year. We've loved having you along.

So we're all a bit sort of under the weather and lacking energy. It does feel a bit like that,

but it wasn't gone wonderful. Enjoy time with your loved ones and your not so loved ones. Go out,

have a drive, get in the garage, get the charges out, do car stuff, watch car films,

go and check your tire pressures, go and do stuff that you don't normally do, interact with your motor

vehicles, read car magazines, just indulge in your passion because we love you for it. And we'll

hopefully see you again next week.

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Christmas Special with Gordon Murray! | The Car Podcast #67

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