My week in cars: the Autocar podcast Nov 19, 2025

Classic car show, lap land, a great-handling new Vauxhall

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49:07

Company

Anderson EV

Anderson EV makes chargers for electric cars that are both smart and well-designed, focusing on quality and style.

Car

Skoda Octavia

The Skoda Octavia is a roomy and practical car that many people find to be a great value. It’s good for families and is known for being reliable.

Car

Škoda Octavia

The Škoda Octavia is a small car made by a company called Škoda. It's known for being roomy and dependable, making it a good choice for many drivers.

Car

Skoda Trekker

The Skoda Trekker is a car that was made in New Zealand using parts from a Skoda car. It was built locally to meet certain rules about how much of it had to be made in the country.

Car

Škoda Trekker

The Škoda Trekker is a small SUV made by the Czech company Škoda. It's not as tough as some off-road vehicles, but it's cheaper and easier to find.

Car

Vauxhall Mokka GSE

The Vauxhall Mokka GSE is a sportier version of the Mokka SUV. It has features that make it more fun to drive, as part of Vauxhall's effort to bring back its sporty image.

Car

Opel Astra

The Opel Astra is a small car that is popular in Europe for being efficient and practical. It comes in different versions, which makes it a good option for many types of drivers.

Car

Astra

The Astra is a small car made by Vauxhall, often used for everyday driving. It comes in different versions, some of which are sportier than others.

Term

horsepower

Horsepower is a way to measure how powerful a car's engine is. More horsepower usually means a car can go faster and perform better.

Car

The Chevrolet Corvette C8 is a sports car that's known for being fast and stylish. It's different from previous Corvettes because its engine is located in the middle of the car, which helps with handling and performance.

Car

Opel Mokka

The Opel Mokka is a small SUV that looks good and is easy to drive around town. It’s a practical choice for people who want a bit more space without getting a big car.

Brand

General Motors

General Motors, often called GM, is a big company that makes cars. They own several car brands, including Chevrolet, which makes the Corvette.

Term

spring rates

Spring rates measure how stiff the springs are in a car's suspension. Stiffer springs can make the car handle better but might make the ride feel rougher.

Part

Torsen mechanical limited slip differential

A Torsen limited slip differential helps the car's wheels get better traction by sending power to the wheel that has more grip. It uses gears to do this instead of clutches.

Part

anti-roll bar

An anti-roll bar helps keep the car stable while turning by connecting the left and right sides of the suspension. It reduces how much the car leans during turns.

Term

roll stiffness

Roll stiffness is how much a car resists leaning over when it turns. More stiffness can help the car handle better but might make it less comfortable to ride in.

Part

McPherson struts

McPherson struts are a type of car suspension that combines the shock absorber and spring into one piece. They help support the car's weight and improve handling.

Term

steering rack

The steering rack helps turn the car's wheels when you turn the steering wheel. It changes the wheel's rotation into movement so the car can steer.

Car

Alfa Romeo Junior

The Alfa Romeo Junior is a small car made by Alfa Romeo, designed to be fun to drive and stylish.

Car

Abarth 600e

The Abarth 600e is a sportier version of the Fiat 600, made to be faster and more fun to drive.

Car

Peugeot 208

The Peugeot 208 GTI is a high-performance version of the standard Peugeot 208 hatchback, known for its sporty characteristics and agile handling. It is designed to appeal to enthusiasts looking for a compact performance car.

Car

Corsa GSE

The Corsa GSE is a sportier version of the Vauxhall Corsa, aimed at making it more exciting to drive.

Car

Vauxhall Mokka

The Vauxhall Mokka X is a small SUV that is stylish and practical for everyday use. It’s a good choice for people who need a bit more space but still want something easy to drive.

Car

Citroen Saxo VTR

The Citroen Saxo VTR is a small, sporty car that was popular with young drivers. It was known for being fun to drive and was often offered with incentives like free insurance for new drivers.

Car

Citroen Ax

The Citroen AX is a small car that was made in the late 1980s and 1990s. It was known for being economical and easy to park, making it great for city driving.

Term

PCP

PCP is a way to finance a car where you pay a deposit and then smaller monthly payments. At the end of the agreement, you can choose to buy the car or return it.

Car

Vauxhall EV

Vauxhall is a car brand in the UK that makes electric vehicles. The Vauxhall EV is one of their electric cars, which are becoming more popular as people look for greener options.

Car

Mgbs

The MG MGB is a classic sports car from Britain that many people love for its good looks and fun driving experience. It was made a long time ago and is now considered a collectible car.

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Hello.

Welcome to the AutoCard podcast, My Week in Cars with Pry here.

Stephen Cropley over there.

Hello, Steve.

How are you going, mate?

Yeah, pretty good, mate.

Because, well, you know why I'm particularly good, mate, is that did you know that it

was a Black Friday and Cyber month in the upcoming next few, whatever's?

Yeah.

I try and sort of shelter myself from that.

Well, yeah, but well, don't show it to yourself anymore, mate, because

Anderson EV is doubling its usual offer, giving My Week in Cars listeners a 100

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Isn't it?

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Not bad, eh?

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Listen, Steve and I are going to be talking...

Oh, Anderson-EV.com for more details and the phone number is...

You'll find there.

Steve and I are going to be talking our respective AutoCar columns

and a bit more besides over the next hour or so,

including your correspondence.

I might do Tony writes in the second half

because I have to think about what he said.

It's about wheel sizes.

Okay.

It's a good question.

But Tim Monk Mason writes from New Zealand at AutoCar at Haymarket.com

to say, Chaps, what you were looking for in the brain's filing system

was the Trekker, which was the off-roader

based on the Skoda Octavia of the time.

Oh, indeed.

Do you remember those?

I do.

In fact, funnily enough, I came across a photograph of the thing

a couple of days after we'd been talking about it.

Oh, really?

Wouldn't you know it?

What are the chances?

I think it was bobbed up because of the 130th anniversary of Skoda.

Oh, I see.

Yeah.

Well, Tim says, here in 1960s, New Zealand,

we had a closed economy and strict import restrictions

but sold dairy products to various communist states.

The Trekker used rolling chassis from Skoda with local bodies

and somehow achieved the critical 70% minimum local content

ruling as to bypass import restrictions.

They were designed and built here in New Zealand

with a small number of exports.

And though they weren't land Rover capable,

they were cheap and importantly available,

so fulfilled a need.

Thank you, Tim.

Well done.

And listen, look up the Skoda Trekker

if you don't know what it is,

because I had a vague idea of it before.

Kind of looks like a Lego idea of a defender

or something, doesn't it?

You know, they just, they're not...

All right, I thought, yeah.

Looked all right.

Looked fine.

Shall we talk first, Steve?

Shall we talk?

Well, what about this Vauxhall you've been in?

Oh, well, yeah, we don't do loads of...

We don't do loads of reviews, do we, on this,

but that's fine, because the listener says

we don't need loads of reviews.

But last week, I was out driving,

which is why I wasn't able to record this pod with you

until this morning.

Yeah.

The Vauxhall Mocha GSE,

which is the rebirth of Vauxhall's sporty brand.

VXR, yeah.

VXR, effectively.

Yeah, they've had a GSE model on the Astra,

I think, but it's more like a trim level, I think.

And I think there may have been a grand land,

but now they are starting to get serious

about selling sporty cars again.

Let me run you through what they said,

because it's basically, it's 270 horsepower-ish,

or they're about 275, I think.

So it's quite a lot.

Yeah.

Listener, if you can hear what I think is a C8 Corvette

outside in the car park.

Yeah.

Maybe.

That is around, I think, actually,

the Mokka lads have got that at the moment.

Yes, listen, so it says for you here,

and actually, I think that little bup of horn

is when you lock a General Motors product,

they maybe do that?

Yeah, American.

Yeah, that's it.

Yeah.

Anyway, the Mokka is...

Well, they sent through the bump.

I'm going to read some of it out to you.

Actually, I was going to read my summary of it.

And it was like preparing for a launch of a hot hatch

in 2007 or something.

So the Mokka sits 10% lower than standard.

Spring rates are up 49% front, 35% in the rear.

There's a Torsen mechanical limited slip front differential.

36% accelerative lockup, 34% night braking.

There's a new 30.8 mil rear anti-roll bar,

which increases rear roll stiffness by 189%.

Overall roll stiffness is up by 48%.

There's a new knuckle on the McPherson struts at the front

so that the new 20-inch wheels can clear

and have the same turning circles before.

But there's a new steering rack,

which has got faster steering ratio, et cetera,

and so on, et cetera.

And, mate, it was really good.

It was a ride, bro.

Yeah, well, I think fine.

The roads were fairly smooth.

But, yeah, it was you chase out something.

Were you in Germany?

No, in Spain.

Okay.

But still, it was, most of the roads were good.

Actually, there's some really decent driving roads as well.

But it's a Mokka, which is not traditionally

a car bought by people after an exciting vehicle.

So it's a slightly strange car, I think,

to sort of relaunch the GSE brand with.

But the short of it is they are going to

relaunch the GSE brand properly

throughout the Vauxhall range.

And I think the same underpinnings,

the tuning's obviously different,

but similar underpinnings are sitting underneath

the Alpha Junior and the Abarth 600e.

Wow.

But then the Peugeot 208 GTI,

when that returns,

we'll also have a sporty chassis

and likewise a Corsa GSE

when that turns up, we'll do the same.

And I think they'll be really cool.

I think they'll be genuinely,

this was really good to drive,

genuinely really good to drive, really well controlled.

It just lets you lean a bit,

it gives you a bit to lean against,

but then mid-corner bumps don't throw it off at all.

They allow a little bit of torque steer through

back when it hooks up

and it's just like, I was unexpectedly,

and I know you should go in with an open mind,

but it is a Vauxhall Mokka, right?

But it was great, really great to drive.

I think it's got a really, really terrific chassis.

Isn't it great to see them fight on a bit?

I think it's good.

I mean, their boss has been in the news just recently.

In fact, I think we had interviewed

an auto car business

and he was full of determination.

Yeah, I liked him a lot.

Yeah, he was there last week, Steve Catlin,

and he was, yeah,

they know that Vauxhall needs to do something a bit,

I think, because it's getting pressure from

not just the budget brands and the premium brands.

If that wasn't hard enough,

then all of these Chinese makers are suddenly turning up

and it can't sell cars at their prices.

So it's got to do something.

And I think there's a recognition that it needs to do something

to grab you and go, you should buy one of these.

Yeah.

And if that is the rebirth of a sporty brand,

that's a good thing.

I think also there are, you know,

you don't find that in descriptions of Chinese brands,

there's any concentration on things like suspension details

and, you know, ride heights and stuff like that.

No.

And I, perhaps that's what's going to be the European USP.

Yeah, maybe it is.

Until the, until, and if the,

you presume at one, at some point,

they will do like the Korean car manufacturers

are now doing suspension and chassis and stuff as well.

But in the meantime, maybe cars that feel better

is the European way of doing things.

Yeah.

Because they can't match the pricing, can they?

So, but I was...

Good to see him fight on

because we missed the VXR cars when they went missing, didn't we?

Yeah, I think so.

But it's also nice that you go and drive an electric car at all,

but an electric crossover in particular,

and there is something beyond range and price

and interior kit to talk about.

There's like, actually, you will enjoy driving this car.

Yeah.

And I thought it was, I mean,

I think it needs something like a corsage.

Remember back in the, when I was a younger man,

Citroen would offer you,

I think you had to be, maybe you had to be over 21

or maybe you had to be over 18.

They would offer a Saxo VTR or a Citroen AX, whatever,

with free insurance for young people.

Yeah, PCP.

And I had made two, had those, and they were great.

And there's just something really attractive about

just the idea that they could do a Corsa,

big bold colors, some cool graphics,

and an offer which is attractive.

If you buy a Vauxhall EV at the moment,

one of the incentives is they give you

50,000 Tesco club card points.

Wow.

That's not bad, but it's not very exciting, is it?

So, if you buy a Vauxhall EV,

you might get some cheaper fish fingers or something.

Give an incentive that's a bit more...

Carly.

A bit more carly.

I think they could be on to something.

Yes.

And if it's insurance, that's really helpful.

That would be something.

Yeah, that would be something, I reckon.

I don't know if that's prohibitive or not.

But let's briefly, I know we've talked a lot

about the Alpine A290 recently,

but you've tried a lower powered one, have you?

Well, I tried, there are two models.

There's the 180 and the 220, in effect.

That's what they call them.

In BHP terms, it's 178 and 218 or something.

But anyway, I had to go in and I found the 180

was everybody's perky and enjoyable and so on

as the more powerful one.

So, I took a look at the torque rating.

They're only 5% apart.

And it happened so often that cars that have got

quite a lot more horsepower or so it seems

are actually very similar in torque

and that seems to be what you use most of the time,

at least short of the top end anyway.

So that 180, which saves you about five grand, I think,

is a bit of a good buy.

Yeah, I don't want to dwell on it too long

because we've talked quite a lot of Alpine.

We really have done Alpine today.

But I think, yeah, it's nice to start seeing

some competition come in for those cars.

Yeah, very nice.

Which is a good thing.

Should we talk the classic motor show?

Well, indeed.

God, I hadn't been to...

Well, I went with a mate from my locality

and we took his 11 plate,

so 14-year-old Scirocco R,

done 126,000 miles.

And what a car it was.

It was from the era.

Do you remember the era of Golfs and Scirocco

is when they were all very carefully overlooked

by Ferdinand Pièche who was still around

and they spent far too much money on the Golf 5.

Yeah, they did, yeah.

And so the VW wasn't making much money

but the cars were finished like Mercedes-Benz

or Toyota's.

And this is one of those.

The car is...

For a car that's done 100...

Well, as we were saying to one another,

it's been around the world five times.

Absolutely.

Great. Really good.

Comfortable, perfect trim.

Really good.

What's the Scirocco based on the 5?

And it stayed in production a bit longer

than after the 5

because it was built in a factory in Spain

and the 5 was placed by the 6,

but the 5 carried on in the same way as

a couple of Golf variants.

Yes, I think it did carry on.

I thought they were great, though.

It's finished, particularly was a bit of a legend, wasn't it?

It actually drove the rest of the...

you know, the astras and focuses of the time

drove them forward fairway.

Just the way the focus had driven

the rest of them forward

by having an independent rear-end.

I thought they were great.

Yeah, I remember thinking they were great.

I think I did the first launch of it

and we drove a BMW 1-2 something down

to the one-series Coupe.

Somebody drove a one-series Coupe down to the launch

and we did a twin test back-to-back

and the Scirocco won from memory.

I think I wrote it.

Excellent.

It was a good car.

Really good car.

Anyway, off we went from Gloucestershire

to the NEC in Birmingham

and the classic motor shows

are absolutely immense events.

It's massive, isn't it?

You would need a couple of days

and a fair bit of patience to see everything

because you do get car blind.

But we set off of all things to visit a mate

who was manning the DKW stand,

another local guy,

and what a great bunch of people they are

that get up there

and just promote their favourite car

for several days over a weekend.

It was such a happy bunch

and I ran into a bloke called Paul Collins

who had just restored

the last of the DKWs

just before it was about to turn

into a Mercedes-Benz, this thing.

It was still a two-stroke engine

but he had restored it entirely

with his own hands.

He had painted it himself.

Beautiful paint job.

Immaculate paint job.

And he had also sewn the upholstery

and he'd managed to find

a supplier in America

for this sort of silver-flect upholstery

fabric of a DKW

which they'd made for him.

He said it was pretty expensive.

He then purchased an industrial sewing machine

and sewed it himself.

Taught himself how to do it first?

Well, he'd learned on other cars

but he basically had done it with his own hand

having taught himself everything

and it was a restoration job

any restoration firm would be proud of.

Amazing thing to see really.

That's really cool.

I'm very envious of somebody who will do that.

Let's see, having the sort of determination

I suppose.

The place was full of such people

and lots of other things besides cars for sale

and more widgets

and you could possibly climb over.

Yeah, I did go

but I didn't spend as long there as I should have done

but I did pop up.

You were under the whip, weren't you?

Yes, but I made my excuses to get away and see it

and I really enjoyed it.

I really enjoyed it.

It's enormous.

Did you

you wrote not very long ago

about a state of grace with your car collection?

Oh yeah, yeah.

Did you walk around

and have any moments of thinking

I could really want one of those?

Oh, God, it's just stupid, isn't it?

If I really let myself go

I doubt if I could keep it down to two dozen.

Oh, really?

It's just, I see something all the time that I like

but the plan is to keep it down to five.

Five's as many as you can possibly do.

Have you got five cars?

Well, the Peugeot.

I just bought this Peugeot 205.

And that makes it five.

That makes it five.

Okay.

So we've got the Cooper S, the big Ford.

The orange thing, the A110 Duster

and something else I've forgotten now.

Now the Peugeot.

Yeah.

I was there for about three hours in the end.

I could get and I'd almost gone round thinking

I'm all right here.

I've got cars that will do most of these things.

A Frugal family car which I find is interesting

in the A2 and I've got the Imp

which by the time it's had its engine conversion

it gets quite a lot of track stuff up there

when there's some rally escorts

and stuff like that.

But I think actually my human imp could do that sort of thing

and then we've got the Defender

which that's the Defendery things and Old Beetle

which just does some cool stuff.

There's some great looking beach buggies.

I thought I really like those.

But the body ones honestly the bugs are the best.

I kept looking at the...

It's just such a cool thing.

So I was fine and I was nearly out of the door

and then I saw a Geneta G4

and I thought I do absolutely love those.

They're so small.

Yeah.

And they're so...

I don't know.

They're so pretty.

So pretty, yeah.

And I just could...

It was one of the...

They're made by dare I think these days

rather than Geneta.

Okay.

I think you can build them yourself.

I think they're affordable in...

Not easily, easily affordable

but they're not, you know, beyond...

I think if you were thinking you might buy a used 911

you could probably have a dare G4 instead.

And there's just something

I don't know what it is about them.

What's under them?

Do you know?

Is it Master H5 or something?

I don't know.

I mean they've got their own...

I don't know what they...

I'm going to look it up.

I'm going to look it up Steve.

While you tell me about...

I don't know what you can tell me about next.

How far are we in the podcast?

We're 19 minutes in.

Let's quickly do these...

If you start telling me about the Silverstone

lap of lights.

Oh yes, I will.

And then I'll see what's under the skin

of a Geneta G4 these days.

Well Silverstone have for the last few years

I think based on the museum.

They've got this into their head

that they'll decorate the circuit

and then they invite people in

in exchange for 50 quid to bring their...

bring a carload of people.

And you do a lap of the circuit at night

with all this light show and lasers everywhere

and, you know, neon Father Christmases

and God knows what.

And it looks like a thoroughly good thing.

All I've done is to see the pictures

and unfortunately in our family

there are no sproggs unfortunately.

You know, the people are all old

but I've got half a mind to do it anyway

just to enjoy it because

I've been selling it to other people a lot.

I mean if we had any youngins

around grandchildren or something

I'd take them up there for sure.

Such a good thing.

It does look spectacular on the pictures doesn't it?

I don't know how it does it.

I mean they still run the track during the day

and stuff do they for track days?

I suppose.

Testing and stuff.

So it must all be over-hidden to the sides.

It seems to go from, you know,

a couple of weeks before Christmas

into January.

So I suppose they're low traffic times.

And I gather they're pretty successful.

They used to call it Lapland.

Oh, that's very good.

I think they got into traffic.

They got a letter from Father Christmas going.

Mate, no.

Hang on.

But it's a really good thing anyway.

I just think they deserve a real pat on the back

for just coming up with a good idea.

So I think we might even go up there and do it.

That'd be cool.

We got a, on that,

do you remember we ran a supplement called the B road BAFTAs?

Oh, yes.

Yes, we got a letter from BAFTA.

Following that.

And they were upset.

Yeah, saying, yeah, they were very nice about it from memory.

But yeah, they were, yes, they were, they were, you know,

but they were just like, you can't, you can't really do that.

Yeah, it's funny.

I suppose although BAFTA will have been something

that their audience will have called it BAFTA

rather than them, weren't they?

Yeah, I suppose.

The dare G4 could have afford Z-TEC 1.8 or 2-litre Ford

cross-flow engines also fitted to some cars.

And then a mate of mine said the other day

that they fitted one litre of engines to some of them,

but I don't know what those would be.

Original, I don't know what those were.

What are we triples?

Or is that too late?

Would have been something early, I guess,

in the original G4s when they did those.

I could look that up again during the commercial.

One litre, of course.

I don't know what that would be.

I'll look that up as well.

There would be, there will be a listener.

There were 997 Angliers, weren't there?

And there were, there were one litre A-Series as well.

Yeah, the original car, it appears to be fitted

with a 1.3-litre engine.

Longitudinal, that would be, yeah,

typical engine options started with a Ford Kent engine

ranging up to the Cortina's 1.5.

Some were fitted with the Lotus Ford twin cam.

Can you imagine?

That'd be good.

Sounds good too.

Yeah, that's, yeah, I could.

I'd like, and they just, I don't know,

there's something about them that I really,

the front-engine rear-drive don't favor very much.

Ah, really good.

Spot on.

And lovely view over the bonnet.

Yeah, it'd be fantastic.

It'd be fantastic.

I think it would do a lot of jobs as well.

You know, it'd be a great track car.

A nice fast road car.

But I bet, depending on how it rode,

I suppose, and how well the heater worked,

it might be quite nice to go out

of an evening in, I wonder.

I bet.

Oh, the other, the car that I did get exercised over,

and I think I always will, is Lotus Cortina.

They will serve some beautiful Lotus Cortinas.

I actually owned a Lotus Cortina for a few weeks.

But the one I bought was not up to it.

And so I sold it on.

It was, I still deciding whether it was a stupid thing

to do or not.

To sell it or to have it in the first place?

To sell it.

I think it was probably tens of thousands of quid

worth of work to make it.

Oh, really?

To make it right.

But it was a Mark I.

And you know, the one everybody talks about.

And maybe one day, you know, if the, I don't know,

win the lottery, I'll get one.

Yeah.

You could get one made by...

Driven.

Ah, yes.

But what's Team Dynamics who run some touring cars,

Matt Neal's operation, they make them from scratch.

That's right.

And he races one at Goodwood, doesn't he?

I think you're right.

Yeah.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Or he and his mates, probably a few of them.

Yeah.

And I think if you wanted one that was as peachy as possible.

Yeah.

But I think, I don't know how they do it.

Do they start with a new shell or do they buy an old shell

and redo it?

I don't know how it's...

I don't know whether you could start with an old shell anymore.

I don't know.

The new shell anymore, sorry.

No.

I think you would have to come to them with something or other.

Rita will look that up as well.

Yeah.

But I guess I'm sure I've written about it.

Well, you see, it's a two-door shell you need for a start.

Yeah.

I mean, I was probably stupid to sell it.

I should have just improved it on the go.

But it, I don't know, lost patience.

Yeah.

And it was disappointing.

Yeah.

It was disappointing, but I didn't give it a chance, probably.

I think I was shaping up to buy the A110 and that has turned out to be a rather...

Well, that's a pretty good buy, isn't it?

Yeah.

Because I know you sort of swap cars around a bit.

But do you think you'll keep the A110?

I will.

I think I will.

It's hard to see it being replaced by anything in that line that I would want more.

And to sell it and get something else would be quite a big outlay.

And I doubt whether the reward would be there.

Yeah.

It's just so usable as well, isn't it?

Yeah.

All the time.

And they look nice.

You know, when you stop and get out of it, you think, oh, that's my car.

Yeah.

It is halfway through the show.

So we shall take a short commercial break to tell you two things.

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It feels good, doesn't it?

I mean, all filthy commercialism aside, it actually feels good

to be talking about something that you think is good.

It does.

It really does.

Because we know people who have gone to work in the car business.

And when I talk to some journalists and I say, would you move to the car industry?

And they go, I could go to X company or Y company or Z company.

But they wouldn't countenance any others because they just couldn't possibly see themselves

working for a company's products they don't like.

And what, as you say, Stephen, what all of the commercialism aside,

it's very nice to be talking about somebody whose products we rate.

I'm very happy to be partnered with them.

Anderson-EV.com for more talking of products that we like very much.

The AutoCar archive and subscription offers early bird Christmas deals are available

until the 1st of December.

If you go to themagazineshop.com, you'll find it.

If you go to magazineshop.com, you'll find it's even more specifically.

I think we've got 13 issues for less than 32 pounds.

And that gives you access to the full 130 year and two weeks AutoCar archive.

Love it.

And it's brilliant.

It is brilliant.

And you'll get a subscriber extra email every Friday,

which is an extra piece of editorial copy.

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written by a staffer of some kind.

Sometimes Steve, sometimes me, sometimes Matt Saunders.

Richard Bremner.

Richard Bremner does a very nice one.

Who else is on the list?

I can't remember.

Oh, Richard Lane.

Yeah.

Okay. Such a good writer, mate.

He's an annoyingly good writer, Richard.

There's a few about that.

Yeah.

And there's a few we found in the archive out there.

I was just about to say, talking about the archive, you know,

once you, once you discover that, you'll never be bored again.

No, no, no, absolutely not.

Absolutely not.

AutoCar at haymarket.com is how you can write to us.

And I kind of got two letters here.

Have I talked about the Audi A2 enough already this week or?

Nah, go on.

Give it a, give it a rev.

Every time people keep writing to us.

I still, I still keep hearing from people writing about it.

And I've got to write a feature.

I've got a, well, I've got a cut down a feature ever so slightly

when I tried to get a hundred to the gallon out of it.

That will be coming in.

Hmm.

Maybe I went, yeah, maybe I'll do this letter in a couple of weeks time.

Okay.

When I've done the, when I've written the feature

and I've done the maths better.

Okay.

So let's do this one from Tony Wright who says,

I was born in 1973.

So a lot of my brain loves a wheel setup where the rear wheels

are larger in diameter than the fronts.

As a kid, seeing an American hot rod

or the thought of riding a rally chopper was just the best.

However, why do some cars have this setup in today's day and age?

BMW M5, the Porsche 911 Turbo, et cetera.

I know looks a subjective, but personally,

I don't think it does anything for the appearance.

So is there a technical slash engineering reason why

some car makers still use this setup?

Says Tony Wright.

What do I think, Steve?

Well, I can, I've actually got something to offer on this.

I can, I can remember talking to a bloke,

the former road tester used to work for Ford,

also used to work on auto car called Jeff Howard.

And he explained to me once that the load that a tire has

to withstand before breakaway is a total of what's

delivered sideways and what's delivered forward.

So if you, if you've got a lot of poke going through a wheel,

you know, and it's sort of delivering,

it's trying to drive forward.

That is what reduces the grip sideways.

That's why it steps out.

And therefore bigger tires on the back are necessary

because if something like indeed like the Corvette CA

outside the door, it needs big tires so that it can deliver

forward motion and still deliver grip sideways.

That's, that's my understanding.

Yes.

I also, yes, I also think that.

And I, there is also, it's, in short, Tony,

it's very complicated.

It's the manufacturer might fit a larger diameter wheel

on the back, but you may also consider the fact that

they've, they've actually fitted a smaller wheel on the,

on the front.

And the reason they may have done that is because

it has less rotational inertia because it's a bit smaller,

but it still has the right kind of contact patch size

and shape that they want.

Yeah.

Because if you go wider with a contact patch,

so if you fit a wider tire or wider wheel,

but the loading on the car stays the same,

the contact patch may not get any bigger,

but it becomes a bit wider,

which will give you more lateral grip,

but not necessarily only more longitudinal grip.

Yeah.

So if you go up a wheel diameter,

an inch diameter on the rear,

you will probably, but not necessarily,

make the contact patch slightly bigger,

but you may be, as you say, Steve,

you may make it longer,

which is good for longitudinal accelerative grip.

Yeah.

But then there's also the tire wall stiffness.

So if you had a certain size tire on the rear,

but it was only a 20 inch rather than a 21,

you may have to have a,

to get the rolling diameter that you want,

you may have to have a tire with more sidewall,

which means that you have more sidewall flex,

which means that you have less steering precision,

even if you've got that on the,

even a sort of stiffer sidewall on the back

can assist steering precision.

Yeah.

And, you know, slip and stuff.

Basically, there's about three dozen things

that can tell.

Yeah.

And there's still, there's also packaging, isn't there?

You know, some, some cars,

you know, have a lot of intrusion

of the wheel arches into the cabin,

and therefore the smaller the front wheels,

the better.

Yeah.

There's just, it's a, it's a real balancing action.

It is.

And then also, I guess,

because it happens on mid-engine,

rear-engine sports cars a lot,

I'm sure that the aesthetics come into it too.

Yeah.

There's a lot of blockiness around the rear.

And with the hardrods.

Yeah.

And you need a bigger wheel

to try and disguise some of the bulk at the back,

and you don't need quite as big of one at the front.

Yeah.

I did a pre-production development drive

in an Aston 10 or more years ago

around a test track,

and they were just tuning the electric power steering

at the same time.

Laptops open on the passenger seat,

and I said,

how many sort of things can you change of the steering?

And he said,

well, there's about 1200 parameters

you can change on the power steering.

I was like, where do you,

where do you start?

I said, well, we've kind of got a vague idea

of where we should be to start,

but yes, we could change up to 1200 things.

Wow.

And so that's just on the steering.

So imagine that throughout the entire chassis.

Yeah.

And that's where you end up with manufacturers going,

you know,

what would be really helpful

to change a inch on the rear just to prevent

a squidge on turning or whatever.

It sort of explains why some do it well

and some don't, don't it?

Yeah.

Oh, yeah.

Doesn't it?

Yeah.

Doesn't it?

There's no one answer is the short fit Tony,

but thank you very much for the note,

and I will come back to the Audi A2

from Tom probably next week,

because I'll have written the thing.

But Tom's got some really interesting stuff

about cost per mile on his...

Did he send you that as well?

Or not?

He did.

Yeah, that's right.

Yeah, really interesting.

Yeah, I remember reading it

and thinking we needed to reflect on it.

Yeah.

The short of it, mate,

the short of it is I am just now on the cusp,

whereas if I sold my Audi A2

for what I think is market value tomorrow,

having done the miles I've done,

I think it would cost me naught pence per mile.

Oh, fantastic.

But if I keep it,

which I am now going to,

obviously I will start paying per mile.

But I think,

because I paid so little for it

and because I think of what they're worth,

I think I'm now at the cusp of just going,

if I sold it tomorrow,

I'd have all those miles for free.

How many miles so far?

Well, almost 10,000.

Really?

Yeah, and I thought I'd do 1,500

and then sell it.

That's because...

Well, just because I didn't need it

and, you know, it just...

No, because your other half uses it, right?

Well, everybody uses it, mate.

Yeah, really.

It's just, yes.

I use it all the time.

Yeah.

That's the truth of it.

I use it.

I jump in it to go...

When did I take it last week?

I took it up to...

Oh, I went out for...

Can I...

I went for lunch with a former exec

in the car industry next week,

who may become an exec in the car industry again,

but wasn't at the car...

Anyway, I went to coffee and a machine

on Friday lunchtime in foul conditions

and I thought,

what shall I take?

I'll take the A2.

Yeah.

An hour's drive,

well, a 50 minutes drive.

I just thought, yeah, that would be nice.

It won't skate over the water's surface,

but it'll do, well,

not quite 70 to the...

Something happened.

What happens?

Why does fuel consumption go down

ever so suddenly?

I did put the back seats back in the other day.

I suppose that's carrying...

Would that have been rolling resistance or something?

Well, I don't know.

It's probably carrying an extra 40 kilos

because I took the back seats out

to do the economy run.

Could have been a headwind, of course.

It might have been, yeah.

But it usually averages around 75

and it just suddenly dropped to about 68.

I will bet you that that's a headwind.

Yeah, maybe.

Because, you know, if it was rubbish weather,

there's probably swirly winds about there.

Yeah, it was raining.

Well, it was in that storm, whatever.

Swirly winds?

Yeah, it was pretty squirmy.

Well, mate, honestly,

headwinds.

I suppose Peter on full and wipers are going

and it shouldn't make a difference,

should it to a diesel?

Should it?

Anyway, yeah, I think you're right.

It'll be that.

Let's talk Quentin Wilson

because you knew him quite well.

Yeah, I knew him very well.

I launched a little magazine

called Buying Cars.

The reason I'm here now

because my magazine was bought by Haymarket

for whom we'd both now work.

I had this being my bonnet

about the used car industry.

I didn't think people understood

what was being done to them by car dealers and so on.

We produced this monthly.

It was a long time ago, 1989.

We launched it on the first day of the recession, I remember,

which is a really dumb thing to do.

But anyway, in the first issue,

I put in a little item in saying

we need real live voices from the used car industry

for people who understand the car trade.

In came this letter on a letterhead

which was Fast Fleet, signed by Quentin.

He and his brother, Ashley,

were running this business called Fast Fleet.

They brought used cars out

that people had had for three-year business contracts

and sold them.

That was their business.

And he wrote this letter saying,

look, I know about this.

And he did.

And he just wrote with this kind of eloquence

and clarity and interesting style

and all the rest of it.

And it was perfectly obvious

that he could do this job.

So he became a columnist in the second issue.

And that is where his journalistic career started.

And we worked away at this for a couple of years

and he was always a big part of it.

And he helped us buy cars in the auctions.

For a while I drove around in a Montego estate

and we had one of those old square-bodied granadas

take the kids to school, all kinds of stuff.

They were great times.

And he was very helpful and friendly

and he was very kind to help us get up for it all.

And then one day we got this phone call from BSB.

Do you remember the people before Sky?

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

They were the square-real people.

And they were launching a motoring program

run by this bloke, Mike Smith, remember him?

Yeah.

Mike Smith was going to do this radio program.

He said,

we've heard about your dopey little magazine.

Do you want to come over to this location?

And we'll, you can tell us about it.

And so I was about to set off over there

and Q was around, Quentin was around.

So I said, why don't you come over?

And over he came and I was duly interviewed by Mike Smith.

And Quentin started talking about this car,

just walking around and saying what was good

and it was perfectly obvious that he could do that.

So they filmed him walking around this car saying,

you know, the first thing you've got to know about

XR3Is is this and the second thing in that

and the rest of it, look at this, look at that.

And he produced a piece to camera,

which apart from being a bit too long,

could have been transmitted on the...

Unfortunately, the Mike Smith motoring program

didn't prevail.

I think BSB got bored by Sky or something.

Anyway, it failed.

So we got hold of the piece of video

and sent it to Tom Ross,

the producer of Top Gear,

who saw Q walking around an XR3I

and thought, this bloke can do it.

Jeremy, I believe, Jeremy Clarkson also saw it.

And together they got him over

and that is where his television career started.

That's superb.

I only met him once, but everybody says,

mate, what a lovely chap he was.

Really good bloke.

I mean, pretty smooth.

I wouldn't have wanted to...

As Jim Punter,

I'm not sure whether I would have wanted to

buy a car from him

because he was pretty fixated

on getting the absolute maximum number of five

as out of you.

But he was a fantastic bloke and he knew a lot.

And the story I love was he...

His dad was a professor.

His mother, he had a sister, I think,

who's an opera singer.

They're kind of upmarket people.

And I remember standing in the auctions

and he was about to buy a bunch of Sierras.

And I said,

looks like you're going to do well today.

OK, today, mate, doesn't it?

And he said, I think we can take their trousers down today, Stephen.

It was just a terrific bloke.

Yeah, yeah.

Finally, I think today,

what's happening with your mini?

It conked on us.

It didn't actually conk,

but up came a

bad warning just saying that it needed

that the gearbox, it said,

gearbox oil

reset needed.

It was difficult for the dealer and for us to understand

whether the oil level was wrong

or that it needed some

tweakery to the eight-speed box

in auto.

We presumed it was both things.

My misses is not at all keen driving around

cars with warning lights on.

So we retired and

it took us

seven or eight days to actually get organized

because, as you know, dealers are

up to here with service appointments.

They keep it like that in order to make money.

We couldn't get set for some days.

So the steering committee had to drive around

in the duster.

She'd long forgotten how to use a manual gearbox.

So there are a few adventures in the first day or two.

But in the end,

she's now saying,

what a great car this duster is.

Oh, really?

But the Mini is, as we speak,

about to come back to us

in having been serviced.

There was really nothing much wrong with it,

but we just don't.

Mini warning lights are,

they really shout at you.

Oh, really?

The world will end unless you go and see your dealer.

Some of them on BMWs say that

or they will flash up something,

something, something, something you may keep driving, don't they?

Yeah, some of them say you may keep driving

and other ones do not.

Yes. This one says,

this one was saying you may keep driving, but

you immediately want to sort of shout at the dashboard.

Well, how long may you know?

What's going to happen if I do?

Yeah.

My Defender has a

very large screw in the tire of one of them,

which cannot be, is just on the edge of the

tread so it can't be repaired.

But it's just worn enough

that buying one is no good, really.

So I should really buy them both

across the rear axle because that's

what it needs.

Yeah, but thankfully

I have a spare and

I can change it

and because otherwise

they couldn't fit it in,

our Diaries, their Diary and my Diary

doesn't match up for six days.

But it's amazing, isn't it?

If you do get scuppered,

you can get scuppered pretty badly.

Properly and you need your,

well, you need your A2 Duster.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, something around.

Yeah, otherwise you could be in,

yeah, because yes,

when I saw the

size of the,

I set off driving

because I don't know about you Stephen,

I don't check my tyres before I

set off on every journey.

As long as they look round, that's okay.

But as I was driving down the road and I had this

and I thought, well,

there must be a stone or something like that.

I'll stop and I'll check.

Yeah, exactly. I thought I'd better check

when I stop and I got out and I could see this thing.

It must be a, I don't know,

it must be a 13mm head, I would think.

So I don't know what size bolt was gone.

I'm going to ask them.

But anyway, so it needs doing,

I did say to them,

do I have to do all four?

Because last time I did two, I got a letter from a reader going,

I think I'm four by fours. You should do all four tyres at once.

I thought, I can't,

I can't bear that.

Anyway, so I said to the guy at the

tyre place, I said,

should I do all four? He said, no, it's okay.

You'd be right. You'd be right with two.

As long as you do them across the axle, you'll be okay.

And then I get a better spare because

that will come off the one

side and it's better than the existing spare.

So, you know,

it's better all round, but it's just

I could do

without pain. There's another place

for the money to go. Yeah, exactly. This month

in particular. Yeah, it's one of those.

Anyway, I think that

brings us pretty much to

the end of this week's My Week in Cars.

We've talked DKW,

Classic Mode Show, Quentin Wilson,

A290,

Mini Silverstone Lapper Lights,

and the upcoming Vauxhall Mockers.

We'll talk a bit more Audi A2 again,

sorry, next week. No, don't be so

either. Look, there's a... I'll tell you what.

You're about to be elected

president of the owners club, I reckon.

I'll tell you what is useful, the owners

club forum. Yeah? Yeah, brilliant piece

of kit. Brilliant. Just for technical

advice. So, there's really quite a lot of... Oh,

yeah. Yeah, there's people who will keep

these things on the road, I think, indefinitely.

I wonder what will...

I do wonder sometimes what will

make it...

I mean, if somebody drove into it because

they're so hard to repair, but what would

put it off the road, eventually?

What do you run out of? Yeah.

You know the little flap

which has the service flap in the bonnet?

So, the bonnet isn't normally removable.

You have to physically remove the bonnet

by undoing a couple of things. Oh, no.

But it's got this little service flap that pops down

and there's an oil filler

slot that slides out,

filling the oil in, and then there's a hose

that goes down somewhere into the

bowels of the engine to fill the

oil. Because if you pull the bonnet

off completely, the actual

normal oil filler that you would usually use on

a car is basically

hidden right underneath the sort of scuttle

on the road, so you can't get to it very easily.

But

I think over the years

these oiler hoses start to

perish slightly, these filler hoses.

So now people are going, well, I want a new

one, and somebody else goes, yeah, but you can't find

there are 120 pounds if you were to buy one.

So somebody

sort of makes one or they make something

else or they just go, look, you just

block it off and then use a funnel

to get to the cap, which is I think

what I will do if mine ever breaks.

But I wonder

what it would take

to put an old car, what does it take

to put an old car off the road eventually? If you can

buy the bits and there's an owner's club

who support it

and 3D printing is available

for bits that might be out of

production.

How long can I keep it? How long can it go?

Well, I mean, we were talking

MGBs a few weeks ago.

Look how they, you know, what have they

been around since the 70s

of the end of the 60s or whatever

it is. They

they can't be stopped, can they?

They just

I suppose you can build one from scratch,

can't you? Yeah, you wanted to.

Not quite the same with an A2, I suppose.

But then it won't rust, will it?

Well, that's the thing, yeah. But does it fatigue

what I'm thinking is

does it fatigue and do the spot welds go

at some point? Does it just lose all

sense of structural rigidity

or not?

And I don't know. And if it does

can you

weld it back? Yeah. With a good

somebody who can weld aluminium

or what? I don't know.

I don't know. I might find out. Yeah, you might.

Somebody you're writing with any. Actually

the forum probably knows. Oh, they probably do

know. Yeah, I wonder what the

highest mileage A2

is. I bet there's loads still in

daily use. Yeah, there'll be

200 and you know. Yeah.

Mine's a mere 160.

Listener, thank you for joining us.

Steve and I will be back this time

next week. In the meantime

Anderson EV

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And we like them. Damn good. Yeah.

We have probably seen it. Yeah.

Steve, are you

around? We've got us talking. Yeah,

I can't remember, to be honest.

I had a bit of a beating last

week. So

I haven't really

focused on this weekend, even though we're

halfway through Monday. Yeah, another time.

Yeah, let's worry about that later.

All right. In the meantime,

thanks listener. See you next week.

Cheers mate.

Mijo.

Yeah.

We have Fred Meyer.

Yes.

Check. Check.

In Fred Meyer.

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0:00

49:07

Classic car show, lap land, a great-handling new Vauxhall

Škoda Octavia

Skoda Trekker

Škoda Trekker

Alfa Romeo Junior

Abarth 600e

Corsa GSE

Vauxhall EV

Mgbs

About this episode

Original notes