Collecting Addicts Episode 61: The Solution For Potholes, BMW The Ultimate EV Machine & More!
The Collecting Cars Podcast with Chris Harris
Collecting Addicts Episode 61: The Solution For Potholes, BMW The Ultimate EV Machine & More!The Collecting Cars Podcast with Chris Harris · Apr 19, 2024
The Ferrari FF is a luxury sports car made by Ferrari. It has a unique design that allows for more space and is known for its powerful engine and high performance.
The Alpina B10 3.3 Touring is a special version of a BMW car made by a company called Alpina. It has a more powerful engine and a unique design compared to regular BMWs.
A Q plate is a type of license plate in the UK for cars that are either very old or have been changed a lot. It can make the car worth less money because it shows there's uncertainty about its history.
The Mark One Escort is an older model of a small car made by Ford. It was popular in the late 1960s and early 1970s and is often seen in car shows or modified by enthusiasts.
The Lamborghini Countach is a famous sports car that looks very unique and is known for its flashy design. It was made a long time ago but is still very popular among car lovers.
The Toyota MR2 is a small sports car that has its engine in the middle, making it fun to drive. It was made in different versions from the 1980s to the 2000s.
Battery electric vehicles are cars that run only on electricity and have no gasoline engine. They are better for the environment because they don't produce exhaust fumes.
The Tesla Model Y is a small electric SUV that's known for being roomy and having a lot of cool tech features. It's popular because it can drive long distances on a single charge, which is great for people who want to go green.
The Tesla Model S is a fancy electric car that looks really stylish and can go super fast. It's one of the first electric cars that made people excited about driving without gas.
Battery electric vehicle technology means cars that run only on electricity stored in batteries, not on gasoline. This helps reduce pollution and is better for the environment.
The EQC is a fully electric SUV from Mercedes-Benz. Some users found it didn't have enough range for longer trips, making it less practical for everyday use.
The iX xDrive40 is a new electric SUV from BMW. It's designed to be high-quality and offers a different driving experience compared to regular gas-powered cars.
Car
BMW EQC
The BMW EQC is an electric car from BMW. Some people think it has issues with weight and performance compared to other electric cars.
The BMW i5 is a new electric car that will be fancy and eco-friendly. It's part of BMW's plan to make more electric cars that are both nice to drive and better for the environment.
The BMW 6 Series is a fancy car that comes as a coupe or convertible. It's designed to be both sporty and luxurious, making it a great choice for people who want to drive in style.
The BMW 3 Series is a smaller car from BMW that is known for being fun to drive and stylish. It's often chosen by people who want a sporty yet practical vehicle.
The Daihatsu Terios is a small SUV that is good for city driving and can handle some off-road conditions. It's known for being reliable and economical.
Car
E63 AMG
The E63 AMG is a fast and luxurious car made by Mercedes-Benz. It's part of their E-Class lineup and is known for having a strong engine and a comfortable ride.
The Citroen 2CV is a small, classic car from France that's known for being very basic but cute. It was popular because it was affordable and easy to drive.
The BMW M4 is a sporty car that's built for speed and fun driving. It's designed to be exciting to drive, with a powerful engine and sharp handling that makes it stand out.
The Porsche 911 is a famous sports car that's loved for how it looks and how it drives. It's been around for a long time and is known for being really fun to drive fast.
The Renault Clio V6 is a special version of a small car that's built for speed and fun. It has its engine in the middle, which is different from most small cars, making it exciting to drive.
The BMW M3 is a sporty version of the regular BMW 3 Series car. It's known for being really fast and fun to drive, making it a favorite among car lovers.
The Chevrolet Corvette is a cool American sports car that's known for being fast and stylish. It's been around for a long time and is popular among people who love driving.
The Ford F-350 is a big pickup truck that's really strong and can carry a lot of weight. It's popular for people who need a tough vehicle for work or for towing things.
The BMW 5 Series is a nice, comfortable car that's great for driving. It's known for being smooth and having lots of tech features, making it a popular choice for people who want a luxury car.
The Porsche 959 is a super-fast car from the 1980s that was really advanced for its time. It had features like all-wheel drive that helped it perform better than many other cars.
The Lamborghini LM 002 is a unique luxury SUV from the 1980s that's really powerful and tough. It's special because it's one of the first SUVs made by Lamborghini, a brand known for sports cars.
LIVE
Once other real car manufacturers start building EVs,
you'll get an EV with a Jaguar or a BMW effectively thrown in for free.
Should it become a national government issue? Of course it should.
The idea that local boroughs should be responsible,
you know, those boundaries don't make any sense whatsoever.
As Birmingham Council is bankrupt,
just can we put a bid in for it? Can we buy Birmingham? What does that work?
Hello, and welcome to the Collecting Alex podcast, episode number 61.
I'm not telling you any statistic about the number 61,
because I tried it two minutes ago and it went wrong and I'm re-recording this.
So Chris Cooper can foster Oscar straight away. Here we go.
We're going to start with the bane of all of our lives.
I believe it's the only topic that unites every single person that uses roads in the UK,
be they cyclists, illegal moped users, supercar drivers, lorry drivers.
It is, of course, potholes. There's no one in this country that likes a pothole.
I believe that's a fair statement. Neil Clifford, how do you feel about potholes?
Look, not to be dramatic. I can never be accused of being dramatic or over exaggerating things,
but it's completely bloody ridiculous, isn't it?
There's these potholes are the size of being in London in 1945.
You know, I'm old enough. My mum had me when she was 44, bless her.
So my mum was in the war and she used to tell me about how they used to sort of try to rebuild London
in the late 40s. It's like that driving to work at the moment.
I live out in the countryside and some of these potholes are about four inches deep.
They're even on the M25 now, aren't they? And what I find, I suppose what I'm curious about,
because I'm sure there are thousands of people working for us as taxpayers in the local councils
with coming up with all these wonderful plans and wonderful new machines that are going to fix
these things for us. I'm sure that is all being done, but I haven't seen one person fixing a pothole
in the last six months. And even two or three years ago, you see these machines out,
wouldn't you, with blowing out all the dust and filling it full of new tarmac and flattening it
down and men doing the work. And I was all quite proud to be part of a country that was relatively
organised and not a third world country. But now, I think everyone's just given up, haven't they?
You know, I think it's... There is a reason for this. No, well, look, the car is not the enemy,
the van is not the enemy, the lorry is not the enemy. You know, it runs the country, doesn't
it? The GDP of whatever, whatever the GDP of the UK is, 2.7 billion with a sixth, fifth or sixth
bigger, well, we're slightly bigger than France, which is good. Give me a lot of pleasure. With
sixth biggest economy in the world, I think, but we've got, you know, a slow growing economy,
hasn't grown really for 10 years. People need to get off their arses and go and fix this stuff.
You know, we've got to be very careful not to sort of become a bit ranty. But, you know, roads are
the archeries of the bloody country. And we really should get out there and, you know,
where are the AA, they're not on Radio 4 talking about it, where are the... There's no one moaning
about it. We should be as drivers and not just people that enjoy driving sports cars, lorry drivers,
all these guys driving into London, building stuff, fixing stuff, driving around the country.
It's a pain in the bloody arse. And we could put men on the moon and invent Wi-Fi and Bluetooth.
We can't fix holes in the road. I mean, it wouldn't be acceptable in Germany or France, would it?
No. What's the reason, Chris?
It's to do with the Local Government Finance Act. Local governments in the UK can't borrow money.
So, local governments are dependent on only two sources of finance,
central government grant and council tax. And since 2000, the Local Government Finance Act came
in 1988. I know a little bit about this. This is a little Chris Cooper explains.
You do know a little bit about a lot, don't you? I do.
By the way, if you want to make a cup of tea or go and get a pan of soft drinks now would be a good
time. So, since 1988, in the first 15, almost 20 years of it, only two councils had a Section 114.
I know because my firm worked for the first on London Borough of Hillingdon. London Borough
of Hillingdon was the first council to declare bankruptcy in the modern era. In other words,
they couldn't afford to pay their bills, couldn't borrow money, spent all the council tax, blah,
blah, blah. So, they were taken over by a guy called Councillor Ray Puddyfoot.
He was a local accountant and he completely transformed how local governments worked.
He was the leader of the council for I think an unprecedented 22 years, got re-elected every four
years. And he treated like a business. He was a local accountant. He lived at Borough the whole
time. He'd been chief executive of the, what's the heart hospital? Hairwood, the heart trust,
the Agdee McCuban. He knew how to run things. Yeah, hair field. He knew how to run things.
And we did a bit of work with him, helping him sort out how to do adults, how to run things
properly. And when we, when we sort of done that, he said, you should do this for other local
authorities. And we tried working for other local authorities. And it was a completely
heartbreaking experience because just the quality of so many of the leadership and the executive,
it was just very, very hard. So I think part of the difficulties, they can't borrow money,
they're a bit stuck, quality of the leadership. So if you get section 114 notes, so the most
obvious race one, Birmingham, Birmingham City Council with bankrupt. There is a structural
weakness is the answer is the, is the boring answer question. There's a structural weakness
in the financing of local office, not just in England, but in Wales and Scotland as well.
It's so bad. It's so bad. Yesterday, I was in Basingstoke, visiting the extraordinary
headquarters of the automobile association, Fannham house, a beacon of motoring loveliness
in Southern England. And it's got one of those pay by phone app things, which didn't work. So
there's a telephone number on the little board to phone the local council. And you find it's
Basingstoke borough council is not Hampshire, it's the city council. And the first thing on the
little sort of press one if was potholes. The first press one was potholes. It was just a whole
number just for itself was potholes. The other reason why they're so bad is it's because this
means been so much bloody rain rain. Yeah. It's a hydraulic hydraulic sizing effect of car.
It's not fraud. People think it's frost. It's not actually because we don't get frost these days,
but we do get rain. So when the tire goes over a puddle, a pothole full of rain, the tire,
that sort of smack hydraulic sizes and just craters. Anybody who went to Goodwood this weekend,
if you drove from Lavent, the little beautiful little pretty village along the north side of
the airfield, just as you come out of Lavent, quite narrow road on the way going east towards
the airfield, just on the inside, there's a massive pothole. I mean, literally, you could
live in it. It's massive. It's about six or seven inches deep. Yeah. Quite wide. So, yeah,
you'd rip a wheel off. So yeah, I'm with other countries have, you know, problems, but there
is something peculiar about, and it may just be the unique way in which local government
is funded that potholes have just fallen over the edge of literally priorities. So
around Tom Neil, we've all, we've all lost to, I think we've, I've lost two wheels and
no, three wheels and three tires in the last year. Yeah. And obviously, you know, you can't,
you can't claim. I wouldn't want to claim in a way. I don't mind it every three or four years if
you lose a wheel, you know, you don't, you don't want to bring up and start doing the
trying to sue the council, any of that malarkey. We're all too busy, aren't we? But
I mean, there must be hundreds of wheels getting done every sick every, every week in the UK.
Not in the London. Sorry, carry on. They used to pay out if you made a claim 20 years ago,
but now they just tell you to go away. Yeah. There's no potholes in the London of Borough
and Kensington, Chelsea. I bet you I could find one. I bet you I could find one. But what do you
think? Honestly, I'm not driving in the countryside enough. And they're on the M25 edge. Well, yeah,
but I'm, I'm, I'm in, I'm in London. I just, I really haven't been driving outside of London.
But are you being serious? You really reckon there are no potholes in London? Well, yeah,
but pretty much, yeah. Oh, what's this park? Our street. You drove to Goodwood,
by the way, I'm not saying it's not a problem. I'm just saying, you know, if, if, if I'd
smashed a pothole, I'd be here moaning about it in Portugal last week. I did notice these two
lovely men with a yellow van driving ahead of them. And they, they were just scraping
you asphalt into all the, all the holes in the road as you drove down. And then someone was there
behind them, fixing them all as they go. Chris is saying basically, you know, in, in our great
modern world, where all of this stuff is demise to councils, basically, there just isn't enough
government money. And it's not, I mean, it's not just a question of I actually, you know,
my hospital was Hillington, and it was run by, you know, by Hillington. And when you're really
struggling without making this too political, but when you're struggling to pay for sort of social
services, get beds open in hospital and finish staffing rotors, I wonder where potholes sit
in the list of priorities for your average maximum and just stick some at the bottom,
you know, you don't want a 24 hour wait in, in casualty at Hillington hospital. So you go,
well, you know, certain amount of money, this is the priority,
something more, and you also said rain, you know, wonder what's causing more rain.
Who knows?
Did anyone see Dubai? Have you seen any of the pictures of Dubai?
Yeah, we were talking about it just before you joined the call, yeah.
It's not just about money. It is. It's not just about money.
Yeah, you can see, you know, again with that being too political.
But you've said that, you know, they're, they're fixed in what they can spend.
Nobody's giving them a grant to spend more. I mean, this is such an obvious
sort of, you know, motoring policy. And I'd probably a big vote winner.
So central government said, right, do you see Rishi Sunak yesterday?
There was a nice photo of him looking at a pothole.
He looked like Steve Davis. His head was so low on the tarmac,
getting his head around what this thing is. I mean, I think it may well have been the first
one he'd ever seen. Yeah.
He's ever driven himself.
If we could, if we could forget a message to him, say this is an absolute vote winner,
just central government fill the potholes.
I just wrote my glossary rugby club. Passing a rugby will likely never pass one before.
All embarrassing. Right. So I'm going to step in here and tell you that because I,
and few of you, few of my fellow podcast will know this.
I am a bit of a conspiracy theorist. I do believe there are people out there doing
bad things for the wrong reasons. And I don't trust anyone.
I walk down the road five in the morning when the sun's come up, looking behind me,
because I think someone's going to run me over. I still believe it's,
I still believe it's the persecution of the motorists. I think someone somewhere
is making sure that the roads are in as poor condition as possible.
I think, I think it's, I think the local government situation is a very convenient way
of helping the anti-motoring lobby make sure that the roads are as shit as possible
so people don't want to get in their cars. It's a persecution of the motorists.
How much revenue is generated to road fund licenses, all sorts of taxation.
It's a national disgrace, the state they're in. The local government situation,
well, was brilliantly pilloried by yes minister back in 1981 or 82, that wonderful episode
when it comes down to fallout shelters. And they've got, they've got the London
borough of Thames Ditton, I think they call it, has declared itself as being
pro-Russian and anti-nuclear. And therefore they don't feel they need a fallout shelter,
but it's found that they do have one and they're all looking after themselves.
It's an amazing episode. Go and watch it. But again, it just shows the dislocation of local
government. Should it become a national government issue? Of course it should.
The idea that local boroughs should be responsible. You know,
those boundaries don't make any sense whatsoever. Anyhow, I've, this is, this is the reason I've
asked this, this topic or post is that somewhere from JCB got hold of me a few weeks ago and said,
we've got a machine that can fix the potholes of the UK. They've developed a piece of wizardry,
which I've got up here, which is called Pothole Pro. More of this later. Okay. Here it is.
It's, you can't really see it there. There we go. There's Pothole Pro. This bad boy.
Oh, she's gorgeous. She's gorgeous. She rocks up. She's even got a tagline. She's got a tagline.
Cut, crop, clean with one machine. I mean, that's my first word. Cut. Stop it.
And it's, and I've spoken to their PR man, sorry, PR man headed comms, the retro comms,
and he's just said no one's buying it. So of course local authorities have no money.
They don't want to buy the machine, but I still think there's a way through.
How much is it? They are waking up to this. So the brilliantly named Edmund King, I think,
is about to start a bit of a pothole club. I think we'll need to have a good old-fashioned
campaign in the newspapers. I think it's going to be part of it. I'm going to go and drive
Pothole Pro in the next couple of weeks. Hopefully one of the addicts will come with me. Love you.
It all come along. Let's go and fill in some potholes because it is a national disgrace. And
also, you know what? It's all very well. If you drive into a pothole in your bloody Ferrari FF,
and you bend the wheel, I'm sorry for you, but you'll probably get another car bought out,
and you'll go along in it, or you'll find another wheel. I don't know how that works.
But if you want to push bike, and you're a nurse going to work, and you drive into a pothole,
and you go over the handlebars, the consequences are different. This is the one issue, I think,
that unites all road users in the UK. They're just, it's not safe. It's not that it's...
61. 61, this episode, is also the number of years of service. So Anthony Banford is now in,
as he leads that business. He's had his 60th, you know, they have great companies that it is.
They have long service hours. They have one for him. He has 60 years of service. So he's now in
year 61. Amazing. It can repair one in eight minutes, about eight minutes. The stats for this
thing are, if there are a fleet of these things creeping about the UK, the problem would be solved.
Even though I'm a conspiracy theorist in that area, it is difficult to square that with the amount
of money that he's sloshing about in certain areas of the country. It's not a political podcast,
but I do think to myself, if you're the sixth richest economy, or if you were to boast to a
foreigner, we're the sixth richest economy, and then drive them from Bristol to Easton in Gordano,
they'd probably go, well, what are you spending it on then? Because you're not spending it on your
roads, are you? And it's a problem for those of us that love nice cars. We have a similar issue
about 20 something years ago. I'd say 22, 23 years ago, the roads again, managed to fall into an area
where no one was responsible or accountable, actually. Chris Cooper would pull me up on this.
When roads fall into an area where everyone can put their hands up and go, not my problem,
we have a problem. My late mother had bought, or I bought for her, a car from Edward's local
garage called an Alpina B10 3.3 touring. It was a sexy car, and it was all the money. Actually,
soon after that, the Levitts bought their first jet. And I can remember my mother phoning me
working going, oh dear, the wonderful wheels doesn't look right. And I went, okay, Alpina's then had
I think it was an 18 inch, beautiful Alpina design wheel with the multi spokes, beautiful.
One of the great looking wheels. And I saw it had a big dent in it. I thought it must be a bad wheel.
Anyhow, I've still got all of the wheels from the B10 touring. I've got 17 bent rims that she
did in three years on the same road, driving to the golf course. I remember saying to her,
could you just avoid the potholes? She said, not always convenient, dear.
They were, in all fairness, those Alpina wheels, they were quite soft as well.
Okay, well there you go. They were a bit bendy. So I think, so prepare yourself soon
for the campaign against potholes, featuring collecting cars and other users.
Chris, can you explain to me, not on this podcast, but on another telephone call,
as Birmingham Council is bankrupt, just, can we put a bid in for it? Can we buy Birmingham?
What does that work? Okay, I think that's a smart move. Okay, we'll talk. Yeah, Alpina.
You do inherit one or two liabilities when you do that.
That's part of the discussion. A load of potholes.
And not all of those can be stopped.
So how hard will it be?
Every week we share an agenda and it's normally quite straightforward, lists what's going to be
talked about, gives people a chance to prepare themselves. One of our number is two things today,
he's a year older, and also he doesn't like being kept out of the loop. And I just wrote down
Edward's fact. Something happened to Edward on Sunday that I think
generated the most interesting thing I've heard about motor in the UK in years,
which is ironic because I asked this question of our fellow Alex last week. I said,
what's the most interesting thing factoid you found out about motor cars?
And Edward was two days late to the party. Edward, tell us your story.
So I went down to the members meeting on Sunday and I came back into London. I went and had a
early dinner. I had a beer and then I did get in my car and I drove home and on the way home,
I thought I might actually have another beer. So I pulled up and parked in Chelsea and popped
into a pub and I thought, actually, no, I'm not going to. And I got straight back into my car and
drove off. And then a police car appeared behind me and I was like, oh, shit. So I thought,
I'll take a little left here and carried on up the road.
Bang it down two gears and then disappeared.
No. And then I thought, no, I was being very sensible. Bear in mind the registration number
on my car is 999 cop. So I might have antagonised them and the car was bright green. So I thought,
I'll take a little left here. If he follows me here, there's no way that he wouldn't be taking
this route. And then I thought, oh, he's definitely after me. And then so I took a,
then went on to the main road. I went on to Old Brompton Road and I thought, right,
I'm going to go and fill my car up. And I went through the light, which was just turning orange.
So he jumped it behind me and I was like, okay, here we go. And then I turned into the petrol
station, got out of the car, got under the fuel filler cap and started filling the car up. They
pulled up behind me and I didn't even look at them for the moment. I thought, I'm going to ignore
there even there. And then these two very nice chaps got out of the car and walked up to me. And
he goes, and they were very pleasant police officers. And they said, you know what we want
to talk to you about, don't you? And I was like, I can't believe I bought it in Lizard Green.
I was like, I was like, yes, I do. There's no front plate on my car.
They said, yep, you're right. And he said, unfortunately for you, we've been chasing
people around London all day, which is another topic I said about, which was driving like a
twat in a city, you know, not cool. But they've been running around London chasing
Lamborghinis and things around all day with no front number plates. And I said, look, I've got
no excuse, write me up. And so as the guy was taking my details down, asking for postcode, etc.
The other one said, I hope this hasn't happened to you before, because in a minute,
you'll have a Q plate and the car will be worth half. And I was like, what do you mean? I'll
have a Q plate or the car will have a Q plate. No, no, no, well, if you're a if you're a repeat
offender with that car, whilst the DVLA, because do you know that you don't own that number plate,
the DVLA own it and they they rent it back to you, you might have paid a massive price for it.
And I was like, okay, so what are you saying? He goes, well, if you're a repeat offender,
we'll just stick a Q plate on the car. And you can never take that Q plate off that car again. So
it'll be worth half, mate. Oh, my day. How good a fact is that? That's good. That's king factoid.
Neil mentioned you mentioned a few times recently about a Q plate. I don't want a Q plate, but I
thought a Q plate was for a car that you can't register in a normal manner, or is a like a home
made catering or something like that. But he just said, we'll stick a Q plate on it and it'll be
worth half, mate. Yeah, technically, Q plates are applied to cars where the age or and or identity
is unclear. So in the years when we were growing up, when there were kick cars and, you know,
Frankenstein's monsters of old Mark one escorts with and kick cars and Q plates. That was why it
sought there's a bit of a gray area on this. So people like the Eagle E types people have been
quite worried about it because, you know, how much of the original E type is there. So
they're quite right. So if they can't, if there's no front, the rationale is if there's no number plate,
we cannot be sure of the identity and or the age of the car. This will learn you.
It just because there are still some clever people that work in the civil service because
someone has applied and have choose piece of law to a serial piece of law breaking and it
come up with I think the cleverest solution I've heard in years. It is. Yeah, I think it's a very
it certainly made you think immediately. And, you know, if people knew that was the consequence,
they would consider their actions. Did you ask why you did it? It's a weapon against Edward.
Well, he didn't ask me why I did it, but I do have the plate in the front and I have it has
been raised before. And I'm not, I think some some cars do it setically look quite good without a
plate on the front. However, I just don't want to drill holes in the front of the car. And the
stupid thing is I've been sent the full size sticker number plate to fit to the front of the car,
which he said, well, that's not legal. And the other one said, no, no, no, it is if you've got
a full size sticker, it is legal. And it's in my glove box. And the only reason I haven't fitted
it is because of my OCD. And I'm worried there's going to be lots of air bubbles under it. So,
I was waiting to go to someone like Topaz who put a bit of their spray on it and make it
I got Topaz to do mine. Yeah, exactly. Mine wouldn't be straight. Yeah, I think it's really
clever. I don't I understand all sorts of weird car behaviors where people are naughty and flat
the law and none of us none of us are saying that we don't break a law every single day. So,
there's no piousness here. But the front plate when I don't get I just don't get I don't see why
you should be able why should you be allowed to hide yourself from the speed cameras that can get
the rest of us. I just think it's absolutely ridiculous. And if you haven't got a front number
plate on the car, then frankly, you can wear it. I just don't. And also, they don't look better
without a front number plate. They look like a bloody face without a nose in America. I wouldn't
have raised this subject. I thought I was going to get a telling off from you pipe down.
Why should why should you I'm going to the whole in this country speed cameras but which
so can you play motorcyclists should they have that their bloody on your shoulder should your
chin bar have your license plate number on it because they're completely in media speed cameras
as well. Well, you'll be very happy to hear Chris I didn't get away with it and I will be receiving
100% pound fine through the post in the next eight weeks he said. My new registration is Q999 cop.
I can't wait to see a share on driving around high parkour to stop and then go
so on a Q plate mate what's in it Jag V12.
I mean a Q plate car is it any car any car the coolest car in the world put a Q plate on
it. It's not cool anymore. It's the it's the bottom of the food chain on registration plates.
It's just it's terrible Q plate. When did you last spot a Q plate. I don't think I think I've seen
one. I'm not almost almost ever I would have I would have seen one on a kick car or something.
You know where I saw one on one of the cars. I'm pretty sure that Gordon Murray built himself
one of those tiny little Dutton's do you remember the Dutton yeah and he he built it with Bravan
parts and it's got a Lotus twin cam this amazing thing that he built and I think it's 78 79
that had a Q plate on it yeah as did kick cars had Q plates and there were loads around when we
were younger weren't they people kick the kick car seems a bit bigger. Here's a weird tangential point
Q is not a letter that was used on conventional number plates hence the reason why it could be
ployed for this reason. If something is denied us we normally think it's cool because it's rare
so that letter would be rare but the but that letter was associated with shit boxes wasn't it
it should be a really you should everyone should crave a Q on that one plate it should
be more valuable but it was rubbish. No but it's like that it's the Lamborghini kuntash isn't it
with a Rover VA and you know like a shit steering wheel it's just associated with a dodgy car isn't
it yeah the MR2 they've got turned into a 355 yeah exactly oh god yeah we have one of those on the
tv show. A chesil 356. No a chesil speech is not too bad. That reminds me. No I'm not sure I disagree.
This reminds me. You've got several million quid for a real one I tell you what there you go
subject for next week replicas and uh and those things are they worthwhile? Yep.
Not everyone can afford a real C type. No but it's just a Q plate as long as it hasn't got a Q
plate I don't mind it. Yeah if it's got a Q plate can you pay to put a private plate on it? No no no once
it's there it's there. Pass the point. Unless you can prove there's been and that's why it's been a
fuck because actually they shouldn't have disappeared technically because the law hasn't changed.
Yeah let's leave that one there Mr Cooper shall we? There we go. Very good.
Let's talk about BMW's surprising electric car results from last week. So Mr Musk has just laid
off 10% of his workforce that's not good for anyone because we don't want people losing their jobs
but BMW those sneaky little mentioners have suddenly started doing rather well with their
electric car range apparently outstripping VW Group and Mercedes quite comfortably. Chris Cooper
why do you think this is? So the numbers are interesting. I'm glad you asked me this question.
So BMW in Q1 so January, March 2024 increased like for quarter for quarter like for like this
until last year it's Bev battery electric vehicles as opposed to Bev by 29% 28 29%
VW Mercedes and other popular premium brands and Tesla all went down.
Why did BMW and just for comparison so and BMW also celebrated this by saying we've sold our
one millionth Rodney battery electric vehicle ever. Tesla have sold about 5.8 million EVs
ever. So they're sort of catching up. My theory because the overall level of battery electric
vehicle sales globally has slowed. The UK is now the only country that has both potholes
and no domestic tax incentives for retail electric vehicle sales or a company car
incentives been noted. So my explanation is to why in a marketplace which has slowed globally for
EVs every other manufacturer's figures what's BMW done differently. My guess is there is a
couple of things. One is they've actually got some quite nice cars. The I4 is doing really well.
I think the I4 looks quite nice. Quite well priced. The Tesla model range is getting a bit
old. I know it's now sexy because he's got a Model S 3 and X and Y but that is about the
only level of attractiveness. Once you look there they're a bit I've always said this when
once other real car manufacturers start building EVs you'll get an EV with a Jaguar or a BMW
effectively thrown in for free. So I think Tesla is now finding that challenge of other people
have got battery electric vehicle technology but it's in something called BMW. BMW done
spectacularly better and I suspect it's a combination of they've really put a leg on
in incentives to the dealers. Edward you'll know a bit more about this and other model ranges.
Mercedes model some of their EVs are just not quite there yet. So yeah I think it's a number of
relative factors which says well done BMW for bucking the trend of the otherwise slow
marketplace and the I4. If I had to buy an EV right now I'd probably buy an I4.
I think I went to saw a friend last yesterday in Cornwall. I fancied a bit of Cornish Coaster.
My friend Tony who Chris has met and he's a bit of an Oracle on stuff. He knows lots about his cars.
He was one of the early adopters of an EQC by Mercedes which him and his wife quite rightly
said was pretty much useless. They live just south of Newquay and they couldn't get to Exeter and
back in it on a warm day. So it really was just a chocolate fire guard of a car and once the lease
ran out they've now got. I'm looking it up. This is interesting. I don't really know. I used to know
every car on the road. The BMW model range this confirms how much choice they've got. I can't
really spot them all. There's so many different layers of them. Yes there is. I drive an iXx drive
40 I think from what I saw yesterday is what they've replaced it with. Similar sort of money.
They just said it's a totally different quality of product. Mercedes car is a conventional
ISE based car that's been converted to electric which we all know is an ultimate disaster.
It weighed the EQC weighed 2.7 tonnes because it had all the downsides of the
ISE architecture with some battery strain at it. The BMW weighs a lot less. It's just a superior
product in every single way. They don't have lots of cars do they? I mean it's incredible.
But a lot of the commentators that judged these results last week
put it down to the extraordinary offerings from BMW that there's so much choice
that if you walk into a BMW showroom there's probably an electric car for you whatever that means.
You should be in marketing. The other thing that I thought was extraordinary was the
ultimate electric car genius from me is Matte Rimac who makes the supercars. He congratulated
publicly BMW on their results because of the the broadness of their range despite the fact that he
works for Porsche which is a very confusing statement but I do think BMW is having a really
good crack at it and I was followed by the big IX SUV yesterday which is a complicated looking
machine but when it's not your chaff with its big bloody teeth like that and its eyes like this
it's an imposing machine. It really is. Neil Clifford, you hate electric cars. Does this
sound new or do you think BMW doing a good job? I think they're doing a great job. You read those
results. They're obviously right on their game. They're selling more of everything. It's a record
year for BMW in terms of volumes completely so not just electric everything and I suppose
they've done they're great engineers. They're nice cars to drive aren't they? The
systems and the dash and all of that integration works lovely where the Mercedes thing is always
a bit of a struggle and you don't understand that silly nipple thing and I don't like all of the
electronics in terms inside the Mercedes. I think BMW are just great engineers. It's a super good
brand isn't it? If you've got a bit more money and you don't want to be in that sort of middle
land of Tesla and VW and MG and Chinese things you've never really heard of but they're a bit
cheaper and they're probably okay but God knows you've got a bit more money. It's sort of a Rolex
of cars isn't it? It's a status symbol. It's a cool brand. It shows you're being successful.
It shows you're going somewhere. You're not like you're a little more elevated maybe than
your neighbour. It's a brand thing as much isn't it? Who has seen the XM on the road? I've seen one.
There's not one answer in me that could tell you it was attractive but bloody hell it's an impact
machine isn't it? Was it black with the red bits around the side? It was was it?
It was in the globing and the bloody grill was lit up. It looked like it had just driven in from
the future. I've got to say I think there's some really cool design cues in that car but
the black one with the red strips around the window. I think I took a photo of you when I was
in New York of that car. That's a weird looking design. I mean you said something recently Chris
which you know I didn't realise because obviously I'm not in your world in terms of knowing this
stuff but it resonated when you said the BMW people just care about driving a bit more
and you can tell can't you? When you drive a BMW it's more pleasurable than the other stuff.
It does feel different sorry. The XM is a hybrid isn't it? It's um yeah yeah it is a hybrid.
I don't know it's just for BMW I think when I thought about this and they actually had an
amazing solution almost a decade ago which was the i3 and if you think about the i3 it was just
so unconventional so purpose built and I know I mean I know literally a dozen people
who bought one of those over the last decade. Every single one has sung its praises.
Everything about it from the way the doors open to its range to its comfort to its build quality
and I think what's quite cool about what you're all saying is we're living in a world of massive
financial engineering I get it and it makes you incredibly rich if you can shift a pebble now but
what's really great about the story is they make something wonderful and it's not just a wonderful
back to basics thing they make great cars and they're able through their financial products to
get these great cars to people the only car I remember I considered for ages in terms of hybrid
the only thing I considered was the five series touring to drive around remember how many times
I said you know and we talked about the i4 I mean I think it was almost a year ago
as literally it's it's just such a great looking car yes you just buy it it's definitely the best
looking electric car out there. Have you seen the advert there's a US market BMW i5 advert
with Christopher Walken yeah the gag in the advert is the people he's driving from a restaurant to
somewhere and everybody meets that day does the Christopher walking you know impersonation you
know you know what this needs is more cowbell that that impersonation and the the point of the
advert is there's only one Christopher Walken and there's only one BMW and ultimate driving machine
I thought that's bloody right yeah well done then the what just flicking through their models here
this is what I think they've done right that that's a that's an X2
do you know if it's anything different between the two of them
no exactly they've designed a BMW because of what BMW owners like and the electric
version looks exactly like the combustion engine version and that's what people want they go into
a showroom they see the car they want to buy and it happens to be electric and they're happy with
that you go into a Mercedes showroom you look at an E63 AMG wagon it looks fucking brilliant
and then you look at some EQS bollocks and you think why does that look like that I don't want
I totally get the fact with an electric car you don't need to design it like a conventional car
but BMW have had customers for years and years who just like the look of the kidney grills they
like the look of the five series touring and when they want to go and buy an electric version
it needs to look exactly like the 530 diesel they've owned for the last 20 years and that so
it's far easier for them to make that choice they're not consciously buying an electric car to a
certain degree they're just buying the replacement to their five series touring words of wisdom yeah
it's true but they better get used to some bigger kidneys because they're running out of space for
them kidneys so the new seven series is just going to be a kidney grill it's incredible
there's a brilliant post on Instagram where someone's taken some kidneys off an E213 series
and put them onto a new car and then taken the new ones and put them on the three series and
they don't it looks like it looks like a three-year-old wearing its mother's bra so let me um let me
now pass us on to we've never done this what's your best run out of fuel story I mean let's just
start off the time is 7 49 a.m Neil Clifford you've got until half past eight
the funny thing is I don't really run out of fuel very often actually because I was thinking oh I
must have loads of stories of running out and of course I sort of do a little bit and ring the wife
and I'm five miles up the road in a land rover and she brings the can and but very rarely do I
I'm normally my story that I've got if anything is I used to run out of money
yeah and even when I had my first posh job with my company car because I was at a level as a grade
five I didn't get a petrol car so I had the car but I didn't have the money to put the petrol in it
so when I used to go to work I used to have to drive behind my mate Paul because he was a
higher level than me and he had a petrol car because I had about seven m you remember the m b na credit
card yes I had three of those I had a silver one a gold one a premier one all with 39.99
percent apr which I didn't really understand at that point it's just you owed seven grand
and every month five percent come out your bank account and then you went to your went to your
cash point the day you got paid you didn't have any money left because m b na had taken all the money
um that was so this is a captain of industry speaking you know we all had the m b na thing
well you know it was normal right you could phone up and they'd say what's your name you'd go
johnny briggs they'd go your card's in the post there were no checks they did and then every
month they'd write to you and say we can increase your credit limit from two thousand pounds to
four thousand pounds and you're only you're only I don't know you owe three grand and you'll get a
four hundred pound interest bill every bloody month they were making billions they were I'm
trying to remember how all that ended well you could then claim yeah when you with many bottles
yeah when banks decided that they were in the marketing money business and it turned out that
marketing money was quite easy giving it away very my biggest challenge was frankly for the first
10 years of having a car was I didn't have the money really to put the petrol in the car so I had
to drive behind my mate most of the time because he had a yeah and then he would get a bollock in
because his his account his petrol account was twice everyone else's because he was filling my
car up at the same time
uh Edward love it's got a fun to Edward's got a great answer to this which he wrote in our
in our whatsapp group can you repeat that please Edward I think I wrote I'm too organised I've
never run out of fuel what type of person runs out of fuel which I wish I had a romantic story to
say my Bentley gauge was sort of not reading correctly and I had not got stuck on the M25
that the the only time I could have done with some fuel and didn't have it was 20 years ago
driving through France when there had been some massive storms and we were running very low on
fuel and as I said I always like to I know where I'm going to pull over and get my fuel so it's a
particular service station and we pulled into that service station and the storms had taken out
the electric there's no electricity there so we had to wait for eight hours at the petrol station
until they got electricity back so we could get some fuel well yeah I've had that yeah manage
manage just someone who fills up once every quarter this can't really be a problem for you
the only time I've ever come close is in Tobago actually and one of these are wonderful Daihatsu
terriers says we um normally they're terrific cars you just literally you you get this thing
completely brimming when you get out of the airport and it it normally goes the full two weeks
and I remember there was this my my son used to volunteer at um a place called the Corbin wildlife
reserve where they you know they look after birds and lizards and snakes and I used to drive him
there every day and I remember I think we were on day 13 out of day 14 and out of courtesy we would
always fill the car up I realized it was below empty and I must admit I was doing a bit of
formula one lifting and coasting up and down the hills of Tobago and we literally made it to the
fuel station a great place called Plymouth and the guy just he just looked at it and he went
you're running on fumes you're running on fumes yeah it was 30 quids worth of petrol later we were
at F plus so never never absolutely run out I'm afraid this was your topic Christopher did you
run out of fuel this week yeah by any chance oh no actually it was probably one week I didn't
but I had when I've run out of fuel so many times I can't really I can't recall them all
and I could and if someone reminded me of seeing by the side of the road I'd go oh I've forgotten
that one so it's happened many many times I think a couple standouts I can remember having a white
E 63 AMG the normally aspirated one last shape and my daughter would have been about four
and if I used to run out so regularly in that thing because I hate fuel fuel four courts I'm
so disorganized I don't really care and I'll if it gets to naught I'll keep going I still think
I like to know whether naught means naught as well so me there's that whole jeopardy
turns out in many German cars it does yeah funny I said I sent my then four and a half year old
daughter um uh with with the fuel can I always carried in the car because I knew it was gonna
happen to the forecourt to get some petrol she was so used to doing it but I got massive I got a
massive ticking off because she shouldn't have been doing it but Zanthi is brilliant at that so
she should have been uh she should have been doing it anyway I once I once ran out as I rolled on to
a forecourt in a Ferrari FF causing absolutely mayhem because there's a fuel that fuel system's
pressurized and if you if you break that seal or something goes wrong it causes utter mayhem so the
whole dashboard lit up and it had to go back to Edward's family and they sent me a bill for about
a million pounds so that was my fault um but I can remember some really funny ones because
they're they're instances where as a human being you're suddenly put into a strange situation of
vulnerability uh and quite often you can be in a very fast car yes it elicits incredible human
reactions I think my favorite one of all if you break down in a 2CV and you've got no fuel the
chances are people will be lovely to you they'll just think there's a hippie or there's a person
that likes old cars but if you if in 2003 you break down in a 996 turbo going up the steep uphill
bit on the M5 is it so on the M4 as you get towards Bristol does that steep uphill bit as you get to
the arms brain to change so I'm going along there and my my 911 turbo just cuts out it just cuts out
and I remember what the story was do you remember those quarter nerds out there the four wheel drive
996's and 997's actually had a saddle tank in the front which would go over where the front
differential was for the four wheel drive system but the the sender for the fuel gauge was on one
side of it so if you if you filled the car up fully it the both bottom bits were were connected
were connected you were full up but what could happen was you could let the thing empty the
sender would drop down if you only then put in half a tank the sender wouldn't go back up with it
so if you didn't fill it up more than half it would stay on empty and then you were playing
jeopardy you had to remember how much fuel was in it and I got it wrong so I'm going up the hill
and it just cuts I was going to play gold for the friend and I pulled over on the left and I got out
and it took no more I phoned wife friends to help me out it took no more than a minute before the
first shout from the cargo and I got four shot then I got another whacker and I got a I got a lot
of high quality abuse Nazi stuff all the other stuff a little bit of racism as well it was all
you know standard stuff really on the M4 on a Saturday morning but for me the coup de grace
was a motorcyclist that came past and he tried to give the international symbol for
wanker them because with a full face helmet on you can't shout wanker but he was going on a fair
old clip on a Suzuki bandit so he stuck his left arm out and went like this and gave him the international
symbol for a wanker but he's going so fast his own arm hit him in the face and then he fell off
his motorcycle about a hundred yards up the road no yes he did and I didn't I had a bit of time on
my hands I went I went long to see how he was and once I'd seen he was okay I just looked at him
left him on the ground moaning and walked back to my car but I do um yeah I do run out of fuel
quite a lot I've got another another good one I can remember my very dear friend Andrew Frankel
borrowed my long loan Clio v6 from me it was a second a second phase one it was black had the full
oh the special car yeah it was really special car and he borrowed it and I got a I got a
message in fact it was well past midnight small hours of the morning saying what do you never
told me that the fuel gauge in this thing read oddly and I was like oh I've never really tried it
it goes well the computer says it's got 25 miles left and it's just run out on the M4 and I went
so I said Tom I'm saying to him so you've trusted a Renault fuel gauge Renault fuel gauge in a car
that's been converted to have his engine at the back it might be that I wouldn't trust it you're not
being helpful or something and then and then we we laughed about it in the pub so I've I've run out
in a Peugeot 607 going to London I remember that a diesel one it said that that again said it had
10 miles left and it didn't I remember running to Heston services and the person in front of me
bought the last fuel can in which point I was thinking this is a problem so then I got into a
bidding war he paid a tenner for the fuel can I had to give him 30 quid to buy the fuel can
so yeah I could write a book on these things I always carry a fuel can in any old car
yeah 70% of the time I'd remember fire extinguisher obviously these two things
don't really go together petrol can for the petrol and a fire extinguisher if I've got
a car older than I don't know the 80s I'll try and have those two things in the car
either Spain or France this would have been a good a factoid last week
one of them you can't carry fuel in the car with you yeah during when they had the
remember we had the fuel process in 2000 2000 yeah that's when BMW launched the E46M3
I remember driving through France and Spain with Steve Sutcliffe worried that we wouldn't get any
fuel so we put 20 little green cans of fuel on the back shelf when we got to Spanish customs
they said come here please get all of that fuel out of the car now don't be so silly you can't
do that in Spain right poor old Chris Cooper's been gagging to say something there so one of the
reasons we've touched on this before you're not OCD Chris in remotely in the way that I am because
OCD is about anxiety yeah and nowhere is anxiety felt more than will I run out of petrol yeah
so what's the worst thing that could happen um it's the anxiety of the unknown that's what
anxiety is anxiety isn't rational so and you know we talk about this a lot on our little WhatsApp chat
what is nicer than seeing a full fuel gauge in a car yeah it's a well-being full bank account
mate much happier with that you know but this is you know this is this is a car podcast not
sort of you know but full fuel tanks are lovely they sort of they they're the epitome of well-being
so you sort of I sort of fill up there's a big difference really motoring and you know because
I do stuff on boats and marine stuff um when you're in a boat you fill up when you can not when you
need to because you never know when you're gonna not find fuel blah blah blah and I'm kind of the
same in the car I like filling up when I can so I know whatever the eventuality there's 500 miles
worth 350 miles of range what it is so I'm in the marine world well I used to do lots of yacht
racing years and years ago I might mention before and I did my got halfway through my yacht master
training and there was a bit in the yacht master training where they said okay what do you do if
you get caught on a lee shore in other words bad weather the winds blowing you onto the shore
you get caught on a lee shore you've got problems with propulsion and steering what you do and the
training course basically says never find yourself caught on a lee shore with problems with propulsion
and steering your stuff mate of mine has just done his ppl and he said yeah there's something
in ppl like that he said if you have an engine failure and you're flying at night wait until
you get to 500 feet and then you put your landing lights on to try and find a field and he said if
you don't like what you see just turn the lights off again yeah that's all you can do I'm a bit
like that with sort of not wanting to run out of fuel although yeah I've got two two quick stories
um Frank Bieler ran out of petrol in the first stint of the 2003 Le Mans race it was the only
year Audi didn't enter because Bentley kind of took the lead the Bentley won that year and Perry
McCarthy original stick was in the car and I raced with him in 2004 in Porsche Crera Cup and we were
in the race program which had my name in it and Michael Schumacher and Perry was there and he's
telling this story he said because he could have won that race and they ran out and Frank was trying
to overtake some panors into the pits and thought I can't back off but the panors accelerated that
Porsche occurs faster so he had to go past the pit had to go past the petrol station that was it
I would say yeah um and that was the race in which 2004 Super Cup I put Nelson PK Jr in the gravel
trap at the old Abbey chicane because you run out of fuel now a bit of hip and shoulder I just
didn't like him we had a driver what's like I'll do running out of fuel my other running out of fuel
story does involve a Ferrari FF ah yes who was that uh in fact it's my only running out of fuel
story not quite running out of fuel story and it belonged to a very generous friend who might already
have referred to his own FF in this podcast uh so he lent it to me did Mr Harris I didn't tell him
I was going to take it to Cornwall he discovered I'd taken it to Cornwall when I called him from
a petrol station on the A30 in some distress because we were driving out of St. Morse and I
thought and it was quite low in fuel I thought well it's a nice car you can only put Shell or
SO 99 octane fuel in this car yeah I thought I know there's one on the A30 there was a BP one and
some Texaco ones no that's not that's not good enough that's not good enough for monkey's car
and the range was 25 26 miles so I thought well I know there's an SO one just up beyond
Bobman I'll stop there and going down the hill it just all is the whole dashboard went
berserk with lights and shit and stuff and call the dealer call the owner call yesterday
in a Ferrari call the dealer is a different different message altogether mate it is I got
you get call your dealer or call your service centre there you go yeah that one
yes the one go to dealer so I got into this SO service station thinking I'm mortifying
in bad I've broken monkey's car so I called Matthew and said what do I do
said monkey doesn't know don't tell him what do I do he said you're gonna have to call the AA
the Ferrari assistance um they're just gonna laugh at you so I put some fuel in it and I did
every Ferrari owner knows this put some fuel in it turn it off go and have a cup of tea
come back turn it on again hey presto yeah it worked but not without me having told everybody
because I was so embarrassed so yeah I have done it once I had a failed four-wheel drive system
and non-responding diff on an ff yesterday and you just pull up turn it off turn it on again
I mean it's like a three-year degree in IT isn't it yeah turn it off turn it on again and it works
give it do you know we used to have an NHS IT helpline that sort of Hillingdon Mount Vernon
and literally that was you'd wait two hours to speak to an IT person that was always the answer
it was brilliant it's sort of the answer mainly isn't it
do you know why I put Nelson P.K Jr in the gravel trap at the average UK because
you didn't like him you said there were four there were four British drivers Barry Horn me
what a couple of other ones and on the Friday of the race meeting Herbie Blash who kind of ran the
supercar and Nelson P.K was in the celebrity car he was doing British F3 at that time so he got the
five of us into the race enter and obviously because his dad used to race with Brabham so
Nelson P.K Jr was 18 at the time arrived with two quite young ladies one on each knee and we sat down
in these chairs and Herbie said Nelson how are you really nice to see you I saw your mother
earlier she's lovely how's your dad please send him my love anything we can do for you this weekend
just let us know we're here for you Nelson your family and then he turned to the rest of us Barry
Horn me and one on the blue I can't remember and said right everyone hates you you're all
Cambridge University netball teams if you step out of line if you do anything wrong
you'll never race again if you put it in the barrier no one cares we're not here for you
you're all so I thought that's not very nice so on the first lap the melee of the first
wrap of a supercup race I found myself alongside Nelson P.K Jr going into the Abbey Chacune
and I don't know what happened but suddenly the next thing I knew was he was in the gravel
we're not editing this out the way yes what's the statute of limitations on a disciplinary
at the motorsport UK um I think I'm past that and I think he's got he had bigger problems with
causing accidents than I did well said right it's summer of 1987 and you live in Miami
life is good you're running a successful business importing flour from South America
business is so good that money is not a concern however space is you only have room for two cars
one must be able to carry three of your business associates and the relevant equipment needed
in the flower selling business the other car must be something rare something exotic
something that won't be outshined by anything when you park in front of the nightclub both cars
should have a correct image successful flower importer and distributor um I'm going to start
with Edward Lovett please I fucking knew that was going to happen I disregarded 1987 okay we'll come
back to it but but but I'm going to give you my answer anyway because it's it's the it's the right
answer and I'm sure they did some version of it well I have to do it because you might because
one of them is from that era and I don't want anyone taking it exactly okay so my first choice
the car to transport your friends of the business around was going to be a relatively modern
Maybach 67 Landerley that they did if which I think DJ Khaled might have one
but it's yeah it's it's not um they didn't build that in 1987 so I'll come back with something
but the sports car is the Gianni and yearly Tester Ross a spider
the silver car the silver car with the blue leather yeah okay there you go it's automatic
I think you got that wrong that's the goodies car not the baddies car I'm with you okay Chris
Cooper you can go next so uh it's got to be if it's 1987 it's got to be and it's in America
it's got to be the vector w2 okay yes yeah we can't see that it's a bit dark the vector
w2 which had a million horsepower or it could be that um Sledgehammer Corvette that did
well well well well well well you were allowed one there's baddies the the other one it's very
important so Alan Kuhn who uh suggested this very well written one must be able to carry three
of your business associates what's the best car for carrying three people
in mclaran f1 it's pickup truck pickup truck got to be and the relevant equipment needed in the
flower selling and distribution business there's a lot of equipment required in there probably some
scales to make sure that the flower is in the right proportion we're going to the into it we're
drilling into the description it's three plus the driver so that's four no it doesn't say that
it doesn't say that that's why Alan's rid is so well needs to carry three of your business associates
yeah so there's three of them and one of you doesn't say that well who's driving the car then
the three might associates now you're carrying them therefore you're driving one must be able to
carry three of your business associates and the relevant equipment it doesn't say three of your
business associates and you Alan's written this very carefully it's a pickup truck so you'd have
you'd have a Ford f350 done in that big monster truck stiley a bit like you know in the film
clear and present danger no it's a roadhouse what about the one in roadhouse at the end yeah
so you'd have a big Ford f350 one with the big real arches yeah and sort of the double tyre rear
axle yeah big julie a julie yeah you know oh yes very cool okay Neil Clifford right you're all so
off the bloody mark it's embarrassing the obviously needs to wash some of this flower so he needs to
buy what are not only the most expensive but the coolest cars of 87 this guy's a bit of a dude
he may well be a flower importer but he's got taste so he's got he bought the two coolest cars
that came out in 87 they are the BMW m5 e28 which is d badges yeah it's got a big boot
chris will know they've got a massive boot i do think he's carrying four people i think that
three person thing is a little bit prudently but i'm being prudently okay i'll give you that
but but nevertheless you're you're you're technically right i'm sure but i think it needs four people
even five because you might want to have your girlfriend in the middle at the back or something
but they're more importantly he's going to Germany they've just released the 959 he could go f40 but
959 just come out in 87 he's got the first one he's actually got the s with the single mirror
and he's gone guards red white wheels single mirror 550 brake not 450 and he still owns it
it's worth three million could now so he's it was an investment yeah i need you when he gets out
yeah yeah whenever he goes whenever he goes through the channel tunnel the sniffer dogs
go nuts for some reasons yeah so um uh manage what's your choice i think they're all too tasteful
i think 1987 i decided to uh just watch every single episode of miami vice i could yeah quickly
watch scarface after that and then delved into uh the most obscure movie by michael man band of the
hand which had lots of porches in it loads and loads loads and um i think i think the big cup has
got to be a lamborghini lm 002 the extension yeah that's good that's good i mean you pull up in that
with your business associates who have a couple of kalashnikovs and some microscales and one of
those things that counts cash that's what you need and you you basically no one's going to
mess with you you turn up with that thing and um yeah the other car i you know it wasn't an episode
of miami vice i think it has to be the 1987 lamborghini kuntash quatra valvoli but with the side
skirts with those awful little tester ossa air intakes you know just at the back that's an
anniversary no no no no no no no before that it's okay yeah yeah yeah five thousand qv it's got the
wing it's got the really ugly skirts it's got the great big boxes around the federalized one yeah
that i think you go white on white with that one i think you just go white on white that
that just says powder that just says flour i think you i think you've all had a
fair stab at this but when you've heard what's about to follow you'll realize that you've you've
been found wanting oh no so this flower salesman his only contact with the cars that he might
want to buy in the future will be able to afford was through a particular card game wasn't it of
course it was top trumps because there was no car tv there was no youtube he had a packet of trumps
and there were two cars in a particular packet that fitted the bill perfectly when he had the
cash and the resources he bought them the first for carrying himself and his three associates
and the paraphernalia the apparatus of the flower trade is a w126 500 scl there wasn't a 560 by then
i don't think or there might just have been but it's gone to amg i mean it's got all it's got the
big six-liter amg with the big carb on it it's got some fancy wheels but the rest of it is standard
yeah there might be some thick glass just in case his rivals get angry with him but whilst he's over
there collecting it he sees a car with a Mercedes engine that looks like a weird shaped supercar
and it's called the is dira imperator oh yes he buys one of those because there aren't many of those
in miami so he's gone to miss 80s is and i still think the imperator is the finest named most
ridiculous looking car ever someone turned up at the nirburgring in tourist and foreign in one not
long ago and and the snappers blendies went went mad but i think w126 from amg and then the
imperator i'm sorry that's winning yeah that's winning yes i can have that okay well done
yeah okay so um some music this week um i drove i'll start i drove to uh corpsman about yesterday
and i put a load of random music on i was listening to some old beck good god he's a
talented man isn't he there's some fantastic old album from beck but then i got in a bit of a
clash wormhole and um forget what a brilliant band they were and i have to say train in vain
played very loudly in my e61 m5 is a truly brilliant tune go and put it on your car today
straight away uh manage what's your tune heli song imagination raunchiest video ever as well great
song sexy as hell very very good tune edward as i was driving into the petrol station with my
in my lizard green car thinking the police they're not going to pull me over i was listening to
paul van dyke foreign angel bit of bit of dance music on sunday afternoon before i got busted
chris creeper i spent the weekend uh down the members meeting and say with some lovely friends
bosom hoe uh who looked after us wonderfully and on the radio going backwards and forwards a
couple times it came on and i haven't heard it for ages but it's just such a stunning
beautiful song god only knows by the beach boys oh great love of it a beach boys yeah uh nil cliford
i've been mainly listening to sarday sharday sharday sharday matthew um paradise
oh great so a good song she was she was amazing wasn't she 1984 85 i just left school
didn't even have an mb na credit card at that point when i when i was um when i was a medical
student i met this guy was a very very big guy from wales accent coming and um he used to make a
bit of money as a student being a um a bouncer and i remember meeting him on a monday morning
he looked quite frazzled and he just said oh they call me too i can't anymore they just basically
i just can't do they called him to look after sharday for the weekend and he just he looked
just like mesmerized i said are you okay he just went she was beautiful you know she she
did live aid if you go through though you know we you can spend nine hours watching live aid on
youtube can't you but she she did live aid you know that diamond life album that mid 80s feeling
everything was possible i mean that was a time of my life that yeah and um i wish it was like that
now okay really well i've done a positive uh i'm gonna go and run out of fuel my fellow addicts
will hopefully remain the anxiety and you will hopefully hear from us next week for episode 62
thank you and goodbye
About this episode
A lively discussion kicks off with the universal frustration of potholes in the UK, highlighting their impact on all road users. The hosts debate the responsibilities of local councils versus national government in addressing this issue, while also introducing a new pothole-fixing machine called Pothole Pro. The conversation shifts to BMW's surprising success in the EV market, outpacing competitors like VW and Mercedes, thanks to their appealing electric models. The episode wraps up with amusing anecdotes about running out of fuel, showcasing the hosts' humorous takes on their motoring mishaps.
JCB may have created a simple one-machine solution for potholes, but fixing them is bureaucratic hell at council level. Our Addicts discuss their universal frustrations on the topic.
BMW has posted the latest numbers on their EV sales and they seem to be doing better than anyone else.
Some of our Addicts have different approaches to dealing with life's inherent uncertainties, so some of them have more stories than the others about running out of fuel in interesting places!
All of this and more, on episode 61 of the Collecting Addicts podcast!
