Collecting Addicts Episode 62: Bicester Scramble, Best YouTube Videos & Driving Gloves

Collecting Addicts Episode 62: Bicester Scramble, Best YouTube Videos & Driving Gloves The Collecting Cars Podcast with Chris Harris · Apr 26, 2024

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Car

Lotus Can-Am car

The Lotus Can-Am car is a type of race car made by the Lotus company for a specific racing series. These cars are built to be very fast and lightweight, making them exciting to see on the track.

Car

Oldsmobile 1957-58 coupé wagon

This is a classic car from Oldsmobile made in the late 1950s. It's known for its large size and unique design, making it popular among car enthusiasts.

Car

Land Rover Series

The Land Rover Series is a type of vehicle made for off-roading. It's known for being tough and can handle rough roads and conditions.

Part

intercooler

An intercooler is a part that cools down the air that goes into the engine after being compressed. Cooler air helps the engine run better and more efficiently.

Car

Mercedes-Benz SL

The Mercedes-Benz SL is a luxury sports car that looks really nice and drives smoothly. It’s known for being comfortable and fast, which is why many people admire it.

Concept

Formula One

Formula One is a type of car racing that features very fast cars on tracks. It's known for its exciting races and advanced technology.

Car

Mclaren 91 Mclaren

The McLaren F1 is an extremely fast and special sports car from the 1990s. It’s famous for being one of the fastest cars ever made and has a unique design with three seats.

Car

Ferrari 125

The Ferrari 125 is one of the earliest cars made by Ferrari. It has a powerful engine and is significant in the history of racing cars.

Car

Ferrari F40

The Ferrari F40 is a famous sports car made by Ferrari in the late 1980s. It's known for being very fast and lightweight, and it was designed to celebrate Ferrari's 40th birthday.

Car

Ferrari F189

The Ferrari F189 is a race car used in Formula One during the late 1980s. It was built for high-speed racing and is part of Ferrari's history in motorsport.

Term

Rosso Corsa

Rosso Corsa is a bright red color that Ferrari cars are famous for. It's often seen on their race cars and represents their history in racing.

Car

Brabham BT44

The Brabham BT44 is a race car used in Formula One, a top-level motorsport. It was built by the Brabham team and was notable for its design and speed in the mid-1970s.

Term

replica

A replica is a car that copies the look of a famous car but isn't the real one. It's like a costume version of the original car.

Term

Can-Am car

Can-Am cars were race cars used in a special racing series in North America. They were built to be very fast and had unique designs to compete in races.

Car

Ferrari

Ferrari is a famous car brand from Italy that makes very fast and expensive sports cars. They are known for their racing and luxury features.

Concept

Restomod is a term used for cars that are old but have been updated with new parts to make them work better while still looking like the original car. It's a way to enjoy classic cars with modern features.

Car

Porsche 356

The Porsche 356 is one of the first cars made by Porsche. It's a small, sporty car that many people love for its style and performance.

Brand

Aston Martin

Aston Martin is a brand that makes very fancy and fast cars, often seen in movies like James Bond.

Car

BMW M5

The BMW M5 Touring is a fast and spacious version of the BMW 5 Series. It's designed for people who want a luxury car that can also carry a lot of stuff and go really fast.

Car

Mercedes-Benz AMG C63

The AMG C63 is a fast and sporty version of the Mercedes-Benz C-Class. It's designed for people who want a powerful car that is fun to drive.

Car

Lancia Lambda

The Lancia Lambda is an old car from the 1920s that was special because it had some new ideas for how cars were built. It’s considered a classic and is admired by car fans.

Term

airbag lights

Airbag lights are warning lights that tell you if there's a problem with the car's airbag system. If they are on, it means the airbags might not work properly in an accident.

Car

Porsche 911 GT3

The Porsche 911 GT3 is a special version of the 911 sports car that is built for racing and high performance. It has a powerful engine and is designed to handle very well on the track.

Part

carbon bucket seat

A carbon bucket seat is a special type of car seat made from lightweight materials. It's designed to keep you secure and comfortable while driving fast or making sharp turns.

Car

Buick Regal

The Buick Regal is a comfortable car that has been around for a long time. It’s known for being spacious inside and is a good choice for people who want a nice ride.

Term

driving gloves

Driving gloves are gloves made for driving that help you hold the steering wheel better. They can make it easier to feel the controls of the car and improve your grip.

Car

Ferrari 275

The Ferrari 275 is a famous sports car from the 1960s that many car enthusiasts admire. It's known for being stylish and fast, and it's a sought-after model for collectors.

Car

Ferrari Daytona

The Ferrari Daytona SP3 is a super fancy sports car that is very fast and looks amazing. It’s special because it celebrates Ferrari's history in racing, making it a favorite among car lovers.

Car

BMW 735

The BMW 735 is a high-end car made by BMW that offers a lot of comfort and good performance. It was made during the late 1970s to mid-1980s.

Part

Alcantara steering wheel

Alcantara is a soft, suede-like material used in car interiors. Some people think it’s not suitable for regular cars because it might wear out faster than other materials.

Car

Volkswagen Golfs

The Volkswagen Golf is a small car that many people like because it's easy to drive and has a lot of space inside. It's popular for being reliable and fun to drive, making it a good choice for many drivers.

Car

Porsche Boxster

The Porsche Boxster is a fancy sports car that you can drive with the top down, making it fun for sunny days. It’s known for being fast and stylish, which is why people often talk about it.

Car

Suzuki Cappuccino

Car

Honda S500

The Honda S500 is a small sports car from the 1960s that helped Honda start making cars. It’s known for being light and fun to drive.

Car

Honda S660

The Honda S660 is a small, sporty car that was made recently and is popular in Japan. It’s designed to be fun to drive and has a cool look.

Car

Nissan Skyline

The Nissan Skyline is a cool car that became famous for racing and has a lot of power. People love it for its speed and the technology that makes it special.

LIVE

Just, I'd say, that is the most enjoyable day with cars I can remember for a very, very, I was about eight years old.

I just couldn't believe, I've only read about this thing and then it just drives past me with some dude wearing a full bit.

I've just started to calm down and now I've just seen what he said and I've just seen his on board and I thought, good on you.

Go and land one on him. Be like a proper racing driver in years of old.

Hello, and welcome to the Collecting Addicts podcast, episode number 62. Someone's favourite motorway, not mine.

And the good news is that myself and Chris Cooper are on the turf, so this is going to get lively.

Oh, Edward's on it. Oh, everyone is.

Leo's going to be on the gym tomorrow.

Right, here we go. So we're going to start off with a little recap of what we've done in cars this week.

I'm going to start with Neil Clifford because he normally has done the most interesting things in cars this week.

Well, I don't even think we spoke about the previous week, which was our members meeting.

So I had members meeting. I could talk about that for an hour.

I could talk about my lovely Saturday evening spent with Manish at a very, very lovely place called Kiklo Spaces in Petersfield,

where we, well, we, I was just an attendee, but Manish did a lovely personal overview of the center movie for a few people.

That was really lovely. Well done, Manish.

But I won't talk about any of those. I'm doing a Chris Cooper.

What I'm going to talk about is Bista Heritage yesterday.

I'm sure we're all going to talk about that because I think most of us were there.

The element I'd like to talk about, and by the way, the tickets, it's easier to get a ticket for Taylor Swift than a ticket for Bista Heritage.

I think they're restricted.

Bless them on the number of people, because you could probably sell three times your amount of tickets,

because it is the new number one automotive event in the UK, obviously apart from collecting cars, coffee run, but it's brilliant.

But what I'd like to talk about particularly for 30 seconds is not necessarily all the cars.

Every single car you could possibly have a name was there is the people.

I took one photograph, and that is always a good sign for me that I've enjoyed myself with human beings as opposed to on my own looking at cars.

I enjoy both. But actually, it's bloody good for your mental health, getting out and about, seeing other humans, other lovely people that love our little world of automotive.

And I recognize sort of just chatted away for three hours, had a few lovely coffees, saw lots of mates.

Just brilliant, just brilliant.

And congratulations to our good friend, Philip, and the gang at Bista, because they've nailed it.

It's absolutely splendid, and there should be more of them.

I know that probably again, for mowny neighbors, they can only do three or four a year.

They could be monthly. It's where my peoples go.

Yeah, here, here, here, here.

They used to do four a year when they started.

They did.

I think they did four last year, including the flywheel.

Not a June one, though. It's next one's October.

Yes, which is when they started selling tickets today. So if you want a ticket, go get online now.

Yeah, yeah, it's lovely, you know, just great. Sorry, Chris.

I had lots of nice speaks with people.

And I had a chat to these three young lads who were a part of some sort of Oxford University

motor sport club, and they had done some racing and they were just nice young people.

And I found myself, as I often do, sounding like such an old twit.

But they were saying, they were just gushing with what was what was available to see and touch.

And that normally there was a, so that's my daughter off you go.

I'm doing a podcast. I'll call you later on and I love you dearly. Bye, bye.

And I have just got a voice note from Chris Harris.

And they and they and they said also, not only do you see a lovely car, but there's normally

an interesting person that's bought the car next to the vehicle to tell you the story of the car.

Yeah, I just said this. I'm so glad for you because I never had that might.

I think many of us here are car enthusiasm and motorsportism was internalized.

It was either you watched it on the telly normally against the family's wishes or you read

motorsport or auto car on the Tuesday or the Wednesday afterwards.

But now there's a chance for young people to go there, see the cars, talk to people.

I just think it's fantastic.

Well, I tell you what what Bista heritage, the scramble is for me.

It's like a sort of three dimensional real internet.

You know, the internet gave us this access to the cars.

But now you can actually go and see the cars.

I was talking to someone and that Lotus can am car just drove past me.

Did you see that?

I honestly, I needed a shit out of my eyeballs.

I was excited.

I just couldn't believe I've only read about this thing.

And then it just drives past me with some dude wearing a full bit.

It's amazing.

For me, the obviously the site that leads itself to being, you know,

you've got to walk around and move about.

And there just doesn't feel like there's any sort of VIP area or VIP parking.

You know, you can sort of mill around and there's this car.

You know, there's something amazing, you know, everywhere.

Yeah, no, it's it's the best event in the UK for the gathering of people like us.

Yeah. Yeah.

Chris Cooper, I'm much on Chris in the evening and I'm allowed to.

What would you like to talk about?

So I second all of that.

I think it's almost like I've used this analogy before.

And I thought about it yesterday because you get this weird,

really, really peculiar, over excited anxiety of I want to go and look at everything.

And it's quite, I don't know whether to go.

I went yesterday with with Phil and Cam and Lynn, my wife came with as well.

She she came with a few years ago, let's all go together.

And it was really lovely, quite cold day for those who were there.

But it was really, really lovely.

And you just wanted you say, I want to see everything.

I want to take all of them home.

They're just the people think it's really interesting.

A lot of people, I'm sure everybody, all of us who were there yesterday.

Some very nice people who listened to this podcast came up to us sort of all

through the day, really.

And the thing that I found most.

Extraordinary about it, really, was.

Because you kind of think we would kind of think the people listen to this.

They're all old farts like us.

And there are some, I'm sure, wonderful, old, fartish people.

But a lot of they're all young.

They're all they're all all the ages.

And like you said, monkey, with your three chums from Oxford Motor Club,

a lot of young people and sort of dads with their kids were there.

And I said to a number of people yesterday, I feel really optimistic

about our passion because there are young people enjoying it.

As you said, we didn't have that when we were their age.

And it's just one it was just really, really, really lovely and wonderful.

And you could spend all day there every weekend there talking to people about stuff.

There was an an Oldsmobile 1957 58 enormous coupé wagon thing.

Just come in the main gate, talk about it later in terms of how many things

could you fit in the boot of it?

I mean, I would never have thought I would have found that extraordinary,

but just the variety and old Land Rover series and the intercooler,

you know, our chums there with the wonderful McLaren's ahead is all is all very lovely.

And monkey, you did a very entertaining turn in the shed

to a very engaged crowd of people looking at.

It was very good. It's very good.

But there's another story it's related, as I wanted to tell.

So and it relates to something we talked about a few weeks ago.

Remember, I told a story about an SL 600 I saw.

Yes, by chance up in Scotland, driving down the A 93

between Ballata, actually, you know, it's between bankers.

It's a boy on the 93 come out of the downroll decide.

I only saw it because we were stopped there for a while on the way out

and the petrol tank was reversing into the petrol station.

I just look around and I noticed his service station.

And I thought, I'll look at that on the way back.

Last week, I had a little note from somebody called Johnny.

I've asked him whether I can share this.

And he said, OK, so Johnny Gordon, it's about you.

And he said, he said, you wrote to me last week.

And he said, I hope you don't mind me contacting you in LinkedIn, blah, blah, blah.

If you haven't guessed it, this is about the SL 600 in a Boeing.

Immediately after seeing the episode on that Friday morning,

I decided to contact the Boeing service station to acquire

about the availability of the car.

It was on, in fact, on sale privately.

And the service station was doing owner a favor.

They gave me his number and I called him.

He was a lovely gentleman who was curious as to why almost 18 months

after the car being on display, there was suddenly an enormous amount

of interest in his SL 600.

I don't think I was the first to call.

I told him about collecting addicts, poor chap.

And how would it come to be on the episode?

He wasn't aware of the podcast, Lucky Fellow,

but confessed to as a petrolhead, he should probably watch the show.

So I sent him the link.

He talked through the history of the car.

I won't say who it used to belong to, but it used to belong to a pilot

of a very well known international entrepreneur

who recently gave up ownership of a London football club.

That one. Yes.

So it had done 81,000 miles and had considerable amount of work done

at the SL shop in Stratford-Aven.

Those lovely chaps who were there yesterday as well.

I'm showing everybody their lovely cars.

MOT had expired in November.

We have a three year old boy here in his wife,

and we were looking for a more family orientated touring estate car

as a second car. This is the best bit.

But we just couldn't resist the opportunity to get our hands on an SL

600 V12 instead.

Couldn't get up there, so he bought it.

And it shipped down to where he lives in the northeast of England.

He sent me a whole bunch of photographs.

He and I have changed a few notes about it.

And he said, he sent me a note over the weekend.

And he said, it's been fascinating to see our three year old boy,

Gene, interacting with the car.

The way he acts with the SL compared to the test that we have,

he explained that it used to be in California.

So I guess if you live in California, you end up owning a test book.

He obviously doesn't have any preconceived views on electric vehicles,

but his level of excitement and interaction towards Mercedes is incomparable.

He loves it.

This is the most wonderful and uplifting story.

And I was so pleased, Johnny, that you wrote because it just gave me

faith that there are people out there still prepared to do mad barking

mental things on a whim because.

Petrol still courses through the veins of the nation.

So he sent me some photographs and I've said to be in touch.

And so we'll keep you updated and Johnny, keep photographs coming.

But so the people we met, Neil's right.

It's about the people in our past.

So brilliant.

We've had a lovely week in cars and Johnny, well done for buying

the Aboine SL 600.

That's fine.

I wish I had it. I want 600.

I've only got 500. I want 600 now.

Manage, what have you done this week?

Well, a couple of things in reverse order.

I have to say, I love the members meeting to start with.

That was really one of the most exciting afternoons ever.

We got there on Sunday and I have to say I was looking forward to hearing.

And seeing Gerhard Berger drive that 89 Ferrari.

I mean, I can't I can't explain.

For me, that is the most beautiful modern Formula One car.

Full stop.

I just and I stopped there.

That's a really, really bold statement from someone like you.

I think I might agree.

But do you really think that is the most beautiful?

I think it might be, mightn't it?

The Leighton House was closed and you are.

But that might be it, mightn't it?

I get better, more beautiful, even than the Jordan.

You know, the 91 Jordan is a hell of a beautiful car as well.

88 McLaren, the 91 McLaren, but the most beautiful car

is that high air box 89 Ferrari.

It's just it just like that.

In fact, in 1994, the Museum of Modern Art did an exhibition on Ferrari.

They had the original Ferrari 125.

Then next to it, they had a Ferrari F40.

And next to that, they had the F189 and it just they just

there was something about it through the next to each other in that beautiful

Rosso Corsa that just used one.

Yeah, that just that just makes sense.

Anyway, I do know Gerhardt a little bit and he called

while we were driving and he said, Hi, don't rush.

It's not running.

And I looked at my phone and I was actually I was actually going to cry.

I know this sounds terrible.

I was this little kid.

I just have never, ever seen one on the road.

I've never heard one with the engine running and I just I couldn't believe it.

And he said, basically, they had a technical problem from the day before

with a technical problem day before it was just belching oil smoke.

I I have no idea why I think some kind of seal or gasket must have been the hole

in the engine that's often where oil leaks out of.

Just honestly, Chris, I can't laugh about this even now.

It was anyway, so we got there and he pinged me and said,

meet me by the car.

So we went and the whole idea was he was going to show.

But he was besieged.

I think it's the only way.

And he did that Clint Eastwood thing.

He did a few photos with people.

And then Clint Eastwood's famous thing was always give people autographs

and people like just never stop walking.

And that's basically what he did.

He just walked and I mean, what was incredible was probably 30 people

must have said hello to me and talked about the podcast.

The vast majority of whom were young.

So, you know, that whole atmosphere is desperately infectious.

Then we had lunch, which was a lot of fun.

Met his youngest boy and his cousin.

We were just talking about something that we may or may not do in the future.

And and off he went and I, you know, wandered around like all of you.

I found two Brabham BT44s, one in the original white before

Bernie got on the ship, then one in that kind of Count Rossi martini colors.

And I found Bernie and I said, I've finally seen one.

And he said. They're Redo's.

They're not the original car.

Just ruined it.

So apparently they're built off plan.

I mean, they're apparently perfect, but they're replicas.

They're not the real thing.

So we wandered over, had a look and then I heard a can am car

for the first time in my life going very quickly.

And a thousand horsepower without any kind of turbocharger,

without any kind of energy recovery system, just going past you at one hundred

and fifty miles an hour.

Is that that's the petrolheads dream when a can and when a ton of can am cars

comes in my life, that feeling through the body is just brilliant.

My body was shaking.

I had just ridden me out the whole thing.

It was just I'd say that is the most enjoyable day with cars.

I can remember for a very, very, I was about eight years old.

Well, I mean, just literally all day.

It was the most incredible experience.

And then my second silly little experience was I bought Ferrari.

I bought it.

Does that mean the podcast is over?

I did a little tiny shout out.

You're talking about this to heritage.

You fucking did what I bought the Ferrari.

I bought it. I did it.

I bought it. I paid for it.

It needs a few little bits and pieces doing that.

It's so gorgeous.

I've called her Lola.

She's this metallic black.

She's her name is Lola.

You know, she was a show girl.

She was a show or her name was Lola.

I don't know whether that should be a fast hand clap or a slow hand clap,

but Manish, I feel like those times when we were sort of 16 to 18 years old

and young men would have significant moments in their lives.

And when they would share those experiences,

you tap them on the back and say, well done.

Thank you.

I'd like to shout out to Hangar 136 at Bista Village

because and another little shout out to Mr. Cooper and Mr. Clifford

because Mr. Cooper in his fantastically avantula way,

straight for eternal way, when he heard I was interested in the car,

just got on the phone and said, oh, is this a legit car

because this is a mate of mine.

And it came back with a couple of thumbs up.

And then the wonderful Mr. Clifford tried to find me,

someone to look over the car, email the person who basically is looking

after the car to sell it and said, the thing is actually beautiful.

Had all the bits and pieces done in my last little shout, that would be

if you're a bit of a novice at this like me

and don't quite have the balls to get on to collecting cars,

which I feel I may ascend to now that my buying a car for myself,

the dignity has been offered.

I am you could do so much worse than end up with a very nice man

called Lawrence Porson, who will show you the car.

He will let you sit in the car.

He will let you drive the car and he will not bother you

because he's a couple of steps ahead of you.

He knows whether you want to or you don't.

And he's just very kind and he gently takes you through the process.

And I have to say I've never been happier, more excited or more impatient

than I am right now.

I am the middle of that then diagram.

The real addiction starts here.

I know.

A lovely start.

Alternatively, you could crack open a good bottle of malt

and get big on collecting cars tonight on any old stuff that you see.

So there's two ways to this.

I think Lola was a man in the in the in the I think that was a point.

Exactly. Lola, Lola is a canine car.

Lola's alter ego is a canine.

Yeah, no, no.

What a heartwarming story.

But it's a bit like getting to the end of the Sopranos,

you know, we got we walked into the restaurant where the family's dining.

Is that the end of the podcast?

No, it's not it's not the end.

It's just the end of the beginning.

OK, right. OK, right.

I like nicely put.

Edward, what have you done this week?

Well, I'm not going to go too much over Bista, but obviously Bista was great.

And thanks for everyone who came and tapped on our shoulders.

And thanks for the podcast.

You know, it it sort of started with five of us just having a chat

and to know to know you enjoy it so much means a lot.

And there was a lovely gentleman that walked up to me that, you know,

I drove from Central London and it took me at six thirty in the morning,

fifty five minutes to get to Bista.

This is why you share this.

Why do you share this stuff because an hour

little run up for a sort of a cough what I thought was a coffee morning.

But now you need all day and it is an all day event.

This gentleman came from Plymouth in his tier seven.

Four years old, totally original.

And he has owned it for 20 plus years.

So brilliant. Well done for you for driving from Plymouth.

And then the other thing, Neil and I finished last week's episode

when we said one thing we need to talk about is

resto mods and copies or what was that word did we use?

Replicas, replicas, replicas. That's right.

Yeah. And we were we were quick to put down the chisel.

Now, only on a Q plate, only on a Q plate.

But you know, this we have our views and we are allowed our views.

But I want to apologise to Sadie

and Sadie put a comment in the on the YouTube channel.

Sadie is 60 years old.

She back in California in the day,

she restored a three fifty six notch back by herself.

And when she moved back to the UK,

her husband bought her a chisel speedster and she loves it.

So I don't think it matters about the car.

It matters about the person and who drives it more than anything else.

Anyone can make a car be cool.

I probably couldn't make a chisel speedster look cool because I'm not cool.

But Sadie, I just from reading your note, I bet you make a chisel look cool.

Chris and I in New Zealand met a lady called Choppy,

who is a helicopter pilot.

You can imagine a lady in a male dominated world called

Choppy, who's a helicopter pilot.

She was a cool dude as well.

Sadie, you probably need to meet her.

And then my final point, and this goes back to our motorway chat the other day.

Where would you like a motorway?

Why does the M40 go from three lanes heading towards London into two lanes

and back into three lanes again?

I think it's not is it Beckinsfield or before Beckinsfield?

It's a pinch, there's a pinch.

Should that one junction highway?

I think it might be it might be high welcome.

Yeah, it's a nightmare on a Sunday.

It's back to about that is.

Yeah, it is always backs up under the what's that all about?

Any that needs that needs fixing.

It does.

Along with although not have to say one of the things after our little chat

about Potholes this week in cars for me.

You suddenly notice how bad the worse than I ever realised and remembered.

We're recording this on a Monday evening and some of you may have seen

in the papers or Internet today.

Our esteemed Prime Minister was giving us speech and on front of his lectern

was a little sign saying stop the boats when in fact it should have said.

Yes, yeah, this was this was sent to me by somebody who writes in my LinkedIn, Brandon.

So Brandon had this done.

So Brandon, well done.

We're going to stop the Potholes and I've got one final thing to say,

which was about which was about cars.

These windscreened lists, very expensive cars that Aston Martin, Ferrari, McLaren,

and I don't know who else built those.

They made no sense.

Until Elver put a windscreen on the El or McLaren put an Elver on the windscreen.

That is a great looking car.

Yeah.

Yes.

Yeah, it was an original Elver racing in the Menders meeting.

You had held on to the intonation of the word car.

It made me think there was another word coming, but there wasn't.

That was the end of your sentence.

All of us, I think, were waiting for the next word.

You didn't say car, you went car almost like an Australian.

What have you got in the cars this week, Chris?

I've always had a good week in the cars because I'm always in the cars.

So last Tuesday, I woke up in a bit of a funk.

I didn't really like anywhere and I do this sometimes.

And I just thought I've got to go away and travel the end of the week.

I'm going to drive down to Cornwall to my favourite spot.

I'm going to get up early, make sure if I wake up at five or get in the car and drive down.

I got in the old M5 touring, drove down to see my friend Tony down in Cornwall,

went down to look at the beach where several members of my family appeared to sort of be buried.

And I walked the dog and I spent another day bonding with my M5 touring, just reminding me

how great the motor car is.

I couldn't have done that in a train.

I didn't want to be with other people.

I was hermetically sealed in my own little shithole seven plate box.

Just me with my audio books.

There's a romanticism and there's something sophisticated about the motor car,

but I can't explain to people that don't love them.

But I couldn't have done that in any other way and that day couldn't have ended as well as it did

unless I'd had a motor car.

I couldn't have done it on a train or a plane or a boat or anything else.

So last Tuesday, I was just reminded it could have been and it could have been any car.

I just needed to be a car.

It could have been someone else's car.

Just so happened it was mine that day.

I then went abroad and I drove a new Aston Martin which is in Bargo.

So I can tell you it's an Aston Martin.

That's about it.

I think it looks great, but I can't say anything else or I'll get sued.

I don't want to be sued by Mr. Stroll because I suspect he's dealing with his son's

out first at the weekend, but that's coming later in our FAT.

And then I went to the scramble and I won't say any more about the scramble

because everyone's already eulogised about it, but it's really quite a great event.

And then I've had two lovely things go wrong with my old cars.

I'm realising I am ultimately a masochist.

Anyone that loves old cars is a masochist.

Not only are you willing to accept things going wrong,

you kind of want them to go wrong.

When they're not going wrong, I reckon you're humming a bit and ticking,

going, well, when's it going to go wrong?

So I got involved in a really good sort of, I wouldn't say dice.

I got involved in a situation where I got to demonstrate how well my old M5

performs against the modern AMG, a C64 Pro to AMG.

And let's just say the old M5 held its nerve rather well.

But as ever, the light came on, meaning it had shitted lambda sensor.

So every time you accelerate hard in the B105, sensor goes bang.

And this time it went bang.

But then all my airbag lights came on and all my

tensioner lights for the seatbelts came on.

So I've got the full Christmas tree on.

She drives beautifully, I phoned Darren and I said,

I think she shit herself and he went, no, no, no, they always do that.

So she's in a bit of a struggle.

But this morning, the yellow GT3 did something, it's only done once before.

Because I've done so many miles and I've abused that car so much

that I am discovering things about it that probably no one else is.

First of all, the gear lever is, I've put a video up on my Instagram.

I'm on my fourth or fifth gear lever now.

They fall apart if you use them.

They weren't designed to do that.

And also, as of today, I'm on my second seat runner.

I have the carbon bucket seat, I'm very lucky,

with the handle that's just under your left kneecap.

It's so perfectly placed.

You lean forward and she's just there in the palm of your hand.

It's a lovely handle.

Yeah.

But the handle came off today in my hand

and detached itself from the seat runner.

And it's done that before.

And it did it before at 32, I wrote it down at 32,000 miles.

And this has happened at 970,000 miles.

So I can tell you, categorically, that the handle

lost about 32,000 to 5,000 miles.

And then it's done that before.

And that's what happens when you live with a car.

You learn these things.

So, and again, thank you to everyone that came to Bista.

That needs no more utilising.

It is for me.

And I think, actually, Neil and Edward nailed it there for me.

There's something about the fact that there's no VIP area.

There is no special area.

It's a meritocracy in a way that, let's say,

certain other events in Sussex aren't.

And I think it should be celebrated for that.

Moving on, I'll start this one.

It's a bit too much for me at the moment,

but I'll get through it quickly, all right?

Driving gloves.

So, I drove past the car on the way to the scramble.

And as I drove past this car, I could see it was a similar mark

to the car I was driving.

And I waited for that sort of...

Not a bug jam, one of those,

but normally, someone gives you the wave.

I'm sure enough, this person gave me a wave.

But as they raised their right hand,

in a slightly regal fashion to acknowledge me passing,

I saw they were wearing a driving glove.

And I had a moment...

Was that singular?

Actually, the bloody good question managed,

because I don't know if it was...

If it was singular, then we're dealing with a serial killer.

No, that's cool.

If it's singular, I reckon that's super cool.

Bit of Michael Jackson.

Anyhow, so I've seen the glove.

I've seen the glove.

I've had one of those sort of internal cacophonies in your head.

I've gone, I like the fact that we're in similar cars,

and he's waved at me, and I've waved back.

I'm not sure about the gloves.

What judgement I'm making now?

If he's wearing gloves, what do I think?

And my initial reaction was,

I think he might be a bit of a nutter,

because he's wearing gloves in a street car,

because it's got a covered roof, and he doesn't need to...

And I suddenly thought to myself, I'm overthinking this.

Just put your foot down and go.

And then I thought, I need to share this with my fellow addicts.

So what do we make of driving gloves?

Over to you, Neil Clifford,

who, for those of you who can't see it,

is wearing a pair of driving gloves now.

He's wearing a pair of driving gloves at the same colour as my pants.

But these match the colour of my interior of my Spada, isn't that?

I thought you'd see something else there.

I'm glad you stuck to the Spada.

Right, you're all a bit out of control.

Neil Clifford, what do you make of driving gloves?

Chris, what car was he in again?

Sorry, was it a vintage car?

No, it wasn't. It was in a Porsche.

Ooh.

In a car that was made after 1975.

I like a driving glove, but I don't really wear them.

I wish I could.

For me, it's a bit like the bow tie.

I love a bow tie.

It's like the cravat.

It's like braces, let's say, or the bowler hat.

Or in fact, the thing I think is the mosaic,

which I used to wear in my mums, actually.

Oh, that's a bit of an embarrassing thing.

Riding boots.

Love a riding boot.

It'd be a delivery that just came in.

Carry on.

I think these things are a little bit from the olden days,

but it's sad that we...

It would be lovely that fashion came back,

and maybe it will, because that's a great thing about fashion.

Maybe it will come round that we'll all be...

want to dress like Steve McQueen again, you know?

Did he use driving gloves in that movie?

Well, I can't remember, but I would imagine in his 275,

he had a lovely pair of old driving gloves

thrown in the center console.

The only issue with driving gloves nowadays,

which, of course, one doesn't do this,

is unless you have the very posh ones from Hermès,

you haven't...

Not many of them got the little metal button in the finger,

so in case you need to look at your phone,

when you stop, of course, not when you're driving,

and that would be illegal.

But those may play Hermès.

Yeah, well, other gloves are available,

but they have a little metal button

in that finger there, on both gloves,

so you can use your phone and not take your gloves off.

Oh, you wouldn't want that?

Well, I think we're all a little bit addicted to our phones,

aren't we, when we stop for our little coffee

and we've still got our gloves on.

Well recovered, I like the word stop,

well recovered, Neil, very well.

But I think all of those things,

particularly the riding boots,

in a sort of bony M sort of way.

Is this a bit of a bony who?

Bony M, don't you remember those?

Yeah, sorry, yeah, as you were, yeah.

I just think it would be lovely if all that fashion came back,

so I'm a supporter of God.

Very good being, by the way.

I do wear them in my 70s Lamborghini.

Well, Neil, where are those driving gloves from?

Connelly.

Connelly, they're beautiful.

Right, we've got one in favour.

Ed would love it, driving gloves, yes or no?

So I did, when you shared this topic this morning,

when I woke up and I thought it was Tuesday,

we were recording,

and I thought I'm not sure I've got much of you on those,

and thinking about it today,

I respect the fact that certain people find driving their cars,

and it might be a particular car,

it might be all their cars, a religious experience,

and they have a process.

They get in the car, they turn the ignition on,

they warm it up, they hear the fuel pump stick,

they put their gloves on, and it's all a part of the occasion.

I'm going for a drive in that car or my car or whatever it is,

and I love the fact that some people make and have the ability,

because I don't personally,

have the ability to make a real occasion out of driving their cars,

or a certain car.

The other thing I really love, and this is also a rare thing,

there are certain cars that come out.

Before you say anything else, can I just congratulate you

on the most fantastic summary of the way that someone might prepare,

and the specialness of a drive?

That was fucking brilliantly put there, but carry on, sorry.

So, there is a car I remember buying back in my days at Dick Lovett,

which was a Ferrari Daytona,

and not the person I bought it off, but I think one or two people bought it from,

not the person I bought it from, but one or two people previous.

His original driving gloves were in the car,

but also so was the pencil and the notebook,

which he documented every single drive he did in the car.

A logbook.

Yeah, and I just love the fact that someone took the time to,

and I actually, when I bought my singer, I tried to do the same thing,

and I think I got to about four drives where I forgot to write the mileage

and where I fueled it and where I went,

but I just thought, yeah, that sort of spiritual approach to driving your car,

I've got a huge amount of respect for.

Do you think Alan Clark wore driving gloves?

Yes.

I think he did, yeah, he must have done.

But if you go back to these books, and you buy them at those old jumbles in Buley,

look 1966, ten quid for every edition of motor.

For that month, for that year, and if you go back and look in,

that was another magazine, look in, do you remember that?

Anyway, that was really shit looking, but if you go in here,

there will be driving gloves for sale and, you know, driving shoes.

Yes, and people felt those safety caps.

People felt, they bought the right, here we go,

John Certy's driving gloves, look, I'm so blind, I can't read it,

perfect control and comfort from these touch thin leather gloves with ventilated fingers,

chamois leather buckle and elasticated wrists available in black only, black only.

Sizes, small, medium and large, 69 pence, whatever, shillings, I don't know what it was.

Look, those little books.

Brilliant.

That is brilliant.

Does it say the perfect finish every time?

I would say there is something of the condom about that description.

There is, yeah, also Finn and Cameron, if you can hear this and you're in the background,

don't give him another beer because he's way too chopsy already.

Very well.

But Neil, as you've just shown that those magazines that you bought for £10 from Pewley,

I don't know if my father, my mother definitely won't listen to this podcast and I'm sure my

father won't because I'm on it, but I wonder if my mother thinks it was a good investment,

leather bounding all of my father's motorsport and autosport magazines over about 30 years.

I think that's a really, today I was in the motorsport UK head office today in Bister

and in sort of the little sort of staff welfare area.

There is, I found I could have been, I could still be there now.

There was a whole bunch of old copies of motorsport magazine,

autosport, the adverts, both the classifiers because we remember when motorsport had adverts

from car dealers in the front and the back and early 1980s BMW adverts and 735s, just wonderful.

And there was that felt cap thing, that sort of the safety cap, somehow this little peaked cap,

like a little sort of peaked cap thing, it was the little layer of felt which must have been

about a quarter of an inch thick. Somehow this is going to save you from decapitation or worse

because you had, it was probably the Stirling Moss or the Tony Brooks or something, safety cap.

Hot fuzz. Sorry, what's that, what's that got to do with the clubs?

I'm just thinking at that era you could have all of those things were fine.

Lovely. They were fine and I think they are, they should be fine, they should still be fine.

They can still be fine. Hot fuzz, the movie, the movie that Quentin Tarantino.

Can I say that just very quickly, my wife produced that movie.

Well, she'll be pleased to hear.

Okay, stop there. That is in my top five funny films ever made.

Well, you'll all be pleased to hear. I mean, the boys can recite every single line from it.

You can't be serious.

And they'll be pleased to hear, they can and we watch it the whole time.

Quentin Tarantino, no lesser person than him, describes it as the perfect movie.

He could not improve it in any way.

Can we acknowledge one point after the road traffic accident when he's, when they're by the wreckage

and the female PC stands there and the bloat that does the sort of Somerset Norfolk accent,

whatever it is, just goes tits.

I'm glad you raised that scene because that's the scene I was going to because the

David David Threlfall, the actor who plays the

slightly lovey and over the top theater producer with his leading lady, who's also his lady.

In that scene where Sergeant Angle stops him, the guy is wearing driving gloves in his.

Is it a sub convertible?

It is.

He's got the driving gloves.

That's how perfect Hot Fuzz is.

He's definitely a serial killer.

Alcantara steering wheels have no place on a road car.

They're just not necessary.

But if you did, then, you know, when we go on track, you'd wear these kind of silly things with

the little rubbery bits on these things.

Rubbery bits are really important.

They give you grip.

Even when things get slippery, they give you grip.

But they're a new invention.

So I'm a bit of a hoarder.

So I keep old stuff.

The one thing you shouldn't do is keep your old racing gloves from 25 or 27 years ago

because they were leather.

And the only way to go, the way that you had to activate the leather was to wet them

before you got in the car.

So every racing driver would have their mechanic or whatever come up and wet the glove.

So then it would grip the wheel perfectly.

But if you didn't have any sort of water on that, you'd spit on the bloody things.

And honestly, over time, they're not great.

You leave them in a box.

Everything goes a bit purple and green.

They're not ideal.

But the modern rubberized glove is quite the invention.

It really is.

It is.

There was a guy in Leska.

Chris Cooper, what about driving gloves for the road?

They're not for me personally.

But I celebrate those of our listeners and viewers who think that string-backed leather

accoutrement to the digits is the height of everything.

I celebrate that.

In fact, I raise my big glass to them.

You need to be running the United Nations, Chris.

If we just did a yes and no podcast, it would take about three minutes.

I know, Chris Cooper.

Someone get Chris Cooper another mat of lager.

No, no, no, no, no, no.

Manish, how do you feel about the driving glove?

I own a pair of driving gloves.

For the Audi or a review of driving?

No.

You don't do any driving, for fuck's sake.

They're just for walking.

They're just gloves.

Slightly draughty gloves.

Right, okay.

I'm going to have to get control here.

We've jumped the shark.

So, Matt, to be clear, Manish is just totally got draughty gloves.

Neil Clemens points out he doesn't drive, so they're just gloves.

Right.

I'm having an image of me wearing nothing but driving gloves.

The only reason I have a pair of driving gloves today,

I'm with Mr. Cooper.

I mean, if it's your thing, it's your thing.

But when I wrote a script called The Bentley Boys,

and I wrote it, it's supposed to be a feature years ago that producers

bought me a gorgeous pair of Bentley driving gloves and some Bentley goggles.

And I've never worn either.

Do you have them to hand right now, Manish?

I'm sorry.

You should wear them in the front.

That's all I have to say.

Can you do F1 now, please?

Because I'm going to go to the Bentley Boys room.

I've not done my driving glove bit,

and I've budgeted at least 11 minutes for my story,

so you better sit in time tonight, all of you.

Right, here we go.

So there's something about the driving glove that I think has been...

This is in defense of driving gloves.

They've been unfairly treated by people like me.

They have been pigeonholed as an accoutrement of the Roman,

and I think it's unfair, and we need to change this.

I watched an episode of Inspector Morse last night,

because I love my morses,

and also my internet shit itself,

and it's all I had downloaded on my iPad.

It's a 1990 episode called Driven to Distraction,

where Morse has to... You might have seen the one.

Basically, he thinks the bloke that's done the murdering

is a wrong and a slippery character who owns a garage

and has some nice fancy cars,

but it's actually a guy who is a driving instructor

around the back of the facility,

and the iconography of this episode,

the wrongness is all centered around the fact

that he commits these crimes wearing driving gloves,

and there's lots of beautifully shot scenes

where he leans to his glove box to take out his tape

and whatever he uses.

His apparatus of murder is in this glove box,

but it's all... Everything is sheathed

in these bloody driving gloves.

So, I did a bit of research this morning.

It's amazing how often a director reverts to the glove

as being something that's just fundamentally wrong,

and particularly the driving glove.

So, I think it's been unfairly treated.

Chris Cooper's researching there furiously,

and I'm worried about what he's going to show us,

given that he's seven pills-ness down.

No, no, it's okay. Keep going.

Okay. So, in a roundabout fashion,

I feel guilty that I've judged the driving glove the way I have.

I don't actually want to use them,

but I'm not sure they should be a signifier of ultimate wrongness.

Is that our first summary?

I think it's a good summary.

Yeah. Okay, good. There we go. Moving on.

Formula one. That was him there.

Yes, him. He was the one who did the murdering.

Yeah, they used...

They did some of the scenes at Crowthorne, didn't they?

Yeah, yeah.

Around the test track.

Yeah.

Was it in a Vauxhall Omega, or something like that, or a Carlton?

It was a Carlton, yes.

It was a Carlton. It was the Carlton that did the skids.

Yeah. Quite the skids as well.

This is the only place you can come to for stuff like that.

Because, yes, it was a Carlton,

and it also was a...

It was a higher-range model,

because it didn't have wheel covers.

And at some point, Morse went fully lit, locked up.

And this chap here, very nautually, you say,

before he's reaching for the knife, nicely done.

I think he does do that.

Right, Formula One.

So, the race itself, Chinese Grand Prix, not that spectacular.

Well, there were two inverted commas races, weren't there?

But there was lots of kind of fisty cuffs

and interesting team situations,

lots of dynamics worth exploring for the next eight minutes.

Manage, go.

My shout-out is to Mr Lando Norris.

And before we get into the Vista Cards,

a certain Mr Harris once corrected me

when I had a bit of a rant about tires, tires, tires,

ruining Formula One.

And a certain Mr Harris said,

Manage, Formula One has always been a tire-limiting formula.

And I went, yes, you are right.

And that's why I don't think anyone can praise Lando enough.

He was, in those high-speed corners,

we have a certain employee of McLaren's son who works for us.

And occasionally, we get a little bit of fruity intelligence.

And he just said that in high-speed corners,

he was pretty much untouchable.

He was just braking at exactly the right point,

enough steering angle to get the car around the corner

without any slippage or correction at all.

And he was doing it lap after lap after lap.

And that, if you look at the very first part of the race,

he was going to eat it up.

So shout out to Lando and Norris.

But my absolute favorite moment at the last 48 hours

has been the transcript of Daniel Ricciardo going,

I'm fucking pissed off.

He actually uses the F word.

And it's like, he's just completely wrong.

He's talking about a stroll junior.

And I just love the fact that he goes,

in that situation, you look at the car ahead of you.

You look at the car ahead of you.

What is his head turned?

I've seen his on board and he's looking at the corner.

But the PS delivery instance is the Lawrence Stroll in,

have you seen him in the, what's it called, in the pen?

And he gives us an interview and it's great.

He just goes, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

It's a, I suppose it's my fault because I was behind.

But I don't really think that's right.

And then just to nuke that to another level,

Aston Martin's official Twitter blamed Max Lischtappen.

And that was the absolute cherry on the gate.

Max Lischtappen apparently slowed the pack down

in a safety car thing, thus triggering a chain reaction

that one normally finds on a motorway

and the totally innocent Lawrence Stroll back ended, rear ended.

Poor Danny Ricciano, which also actually screwed Oscar Piastri's race.

There were two diffusers that were somewhat shattered after that.

So, you know, there it is.

Beautifully summarised.

No, Kevin, did you watch it or not?

Or did you follow it?

No, no, no.

What time is it? Four in the morning?

Eight in the morning.

It was an eight.

Was it not five hours by then?

I was driving to Pista.

Was it of any interest to you whatsoever?

Yes, it was.

I was listening to it on Radio Five Live.

And it was all a bit shy, wasn't it?

Because Lewis was getting pissed off and I was annoyed about that

and he was like 15th and then he ended up in ninth or whatever.

Obviously Max won because he's the best and he's got the best car.

Well, it came second Lando, right?

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

And then Alonso, right? It was good.

So he's a bit...

It was good and then he wasn't good, yeah.

But didn't he come third? No.

No, no, no, no, no, no, no.

Way down in the end.

Oh, okay.

Yeah, took an extra stop and put some sauce.

Chris Coop, what do you think?

So, I think Mercedes are in dreadful trouble.

Not much else to say about Mercedes, really.

I think it was very interesting that Toto agrees.

Lewis agrees.

Well, it's interesting in one of the interviews,

Toto actually referred to him as Hamilton, not Lewis.

Yes, definitely.

Oh, that's getting a bit sort of putting your affairs in order.

So, yeah, they're a bit...

I thought I quite liked the Ricciardo rant at Lance Stroll,

for two reasons.

One, because it was at Lance Stroll.

And the sort of the friendly guy,

hey, I'm the smiling guy, you know, bit of Ricciardo,

disappeared, and he was properly stoked.

And he actually said, I've just started to calm down,

and now I've just seen what he said,

and I've just seen he's on board,

and I thought, good on you.

Go and land one on him.

Be like a proper racing driver in years of old.

Beyond that, I'm struggling to be excited about it,

if I'm honest.

The Sky thing, you know, they're on the sort of the budget,

coverage of F1, anybody's been watching it.

They don't fly everybody out there.

So, the anchor, which this week was Simon Lazenbly,

and the two expert pundits, Dill and Corun, they're in Isleworth.

So that does...

You do lose a little bit of sort of the banter and so forth,

because in lieu of that, we had Nico Rosberg,

looking...

I thought he looked like he put on quite a bit of weight,

and he had a slight odd haircut as well.

I didn't take to his haircut, but apart from that,

I mean, Landon was really good.

I think the other thing I thought was interesting,

so far this year, Oscar Piastri,

when he did that sort of easy going to Alpine,

no, they've issued that release without my permission.

I'm going to McLaren, I'm the best thing ever.

And you could have thought Landon thought,

oh, God, I've made one match.

And last year, Oscar did really, really well.

This year, Landon's gone up a level.

Oscar must be thinking, wow.

Yeah, that's cool, that is.

Yeah, I think he's doing really, really...

He's gone up a level.

But yeah, we can't help but wait until something changes.

The 20, I've had a rant about this.

If I've read it correctly, the 26 rules, the 2026 rules,

because the manufacturers stipulated,

because they're the ones driving it,

because they're the ones that produce the engines.

50-50 split between internal combustion engine power

and battery power.

I'm a failed engineer.

That still makes me an engineer in my book.

So part of what happens then is that the petrol engine

runs the whole time to run the generator

to charge the battery.

So you know those London buses you see,

going around where the engine sounds like it's revving,

even when they're stationary,

and then the thing moves and the engine doesn't change.

That's sort of, if I understand it correctly,

what we're going to get in Formula One cars in 26.

Who thought this was a good idea?

No.

It's the same petrol, so I think no.

No.

Yeah, this is brilliant.

Chris, Edward Lovett, what do you think?

I've almost got nothing to comment.

Other than the only thing I will say

is I knew what time the Grand Prix was on,

and I left London at about 6.20 on Sunday morning,

and we were getting set up with the team at the event,

and it came one minute to eight,

and there were about five or six of us

scrabbling around.

Right, who's got it on their iPhone so we can watch the stars?

I go.

Yeah, it's time to go.

And I always love and have always loved the start of a motor race.

Yeah, standing start.

Well, the standing start, but also you want to watch the first lap,

because if a stop and gets punted off at the first corner,

then there's something different going to be happening.

If it's raining, anything could happen.

So we watched the first lap, and as he came into the first corner

for the second time, he had so many car lengths on number two

that we were just like, right, let's carry on setting up.

And when I watched the recap when I got into bed last night,

it was a very quick sky recap on Facebook,

and it was exactly what we predicted,

apart from Alonso's great run into the first corner and killing his tyres.

Yeah.

One thing I took from it that was interesting is I thought Nico Rosberg was mostly woeful.

I don't like offering my opinion of commentators and people on television,

because I know that I had a shit television career and I put my hands up to it.

But there's something about him.

He just seems to cut turn up shit on everyone that was really good.

And there's not much positivity about it.

And there's sort of a certain amount of shard and people do things wrong.

And a shocking lack of sympathy for those of the conditions that they're working under

when they're in the car.

And he must know more than anyone.

Occasionally he'll say, you sit low, that's difficult.

But surely he's the person that could tell us, like Martin Brundle used to,

how difficult it really is.

Because ultimately, they're all our heroes.

We want to hear them, we want to hear how difficult it is for them and how great they are.

We don't hear them being reduced to being the status of normal civilians.

But he did say one thing that caught my ear.

And that was, he was talking about tire degradation,

deg being the word of the last three years.

And that one of Red Bull's tricks, they think,

is that they're using the aero to cool the surface of the tire.

And I hadn't really thought of it that way.

But it suddenly opened my mind just how clever Adrian knew he is.

Is he managing to flow air onto the rear tires, the surface of the rear tires,

to keep them cooler?

And that's what's helping Max keep the tires cool.

It's certain stages during the race.

It might just be that Max has got the Midas touch through his right pinkies.

I don't know.

But the idea that Adrian's head is so far beyond everyone else's,

that three years ago, he thought, I know, we're going to have problem with tires.

I'm going to see if we can put air onto the surface of the tire and keep it cooler.

Just left me for about 10 minutes during the race,

think sort of ruminating, thinking,

I think that's far ahead of the game.

Are they really doing that?

What do you think?

Do we think they're doing that or not?

It could be.

Yeah, it could be.

We'll never know.

Something for Paris MP3.

I'm not sure it was a talent.

Oh, how Rosberg.

Sorry, just the, this is not a political thing, but clearly,

China just feels like it's somewhere you don't necessarily feel you want to watch a Grand Prix.

And it's the wrong time.

As Neil said, when was it?

4am, 7am.

It's sort of like Japan, which is a bit further away.

You kind of like, I want to get up and watch that Grand Prix,

but I'm just not sure if China has an attraction to get up and watch a Grand Prix on a modern circuit.

It's good, but it's produces a bit more.

The sprint race was interesting in that bit out the back of the circuit.

Those sort of the twiddly bits, as I might call them.

And I do think that the spirit, I mean, Lucid won the sprint race.

He did too, just in case anyone was fretting over my,

of a few words last week about Nelson Piquet Jr.'s demise in the 2004 British Grand Prix Super Cup race.

Lewis, what Lewis did to land there was essentially what I did to Nelson Piquet Jr. in 2004.

In case anybody's wondering, I was mad.

I've been to the Shanghai circuit.

Two things you didn't know about it.

It's nowhere near Shanghai.

It's in a sort of industrial state about 50 miles away.

And I've driven two cars around it.

One was a single-seater that had a weird engine in it from a local manufacturer.

And the other car I drove around it was a London taxi, as you do.

And it's because they just bought the taxi.

That's it.

That's it slightly going into T3.

And that is, they just bought a commentary car company, whatever.

So they said, and I turned up there to drive, I thought I was going to drive an AMG.

And they said, we haven't got one of those, but we've got a London taxi.

You've got a couple of laps.

So I did.

And the first lap was seven minutes, something, because she struggled down the back straight.

But I have driven a London taxi around there a few times.

So I shot that one, actually.

It's a good, that's nicely loaded.

Adrian knew he didn't go to Shanghai because I saw him drive his Valkyrie out of Salon Privé

on Friday night into the traffic.

And I thought, you cool bastard, just smoking a Valkyrie out onto the embankment.

So is that a statement to say they've got the race sewn up anyway?

Well, I didn't ask him, to be honest.

But as you guys probably know, the 15 Valkyries all lined up at Salon Privé.

Frankly, it was very impressive.

You see 15 of those.

I mean, I've got to make who's got one.

And I saw that drive out as well.

And there's nothing else like it, whether it's mega reliable or whatever.

But I'm told they fixed all the electronics.

It is a very visually impactful thing, like it is an early Countache.

It's pretty impressive.

So I asked my fellow addicts.

This is pretty much a one word answer, not too long this one.

The conventional measurement in journalistic circles for many years,

for the size of a boot or a trunk,

depending on which side of the Atlantic you're listening to this podcast,

has been measured in golf bags.

I find that slightly odd.

It was always manufacturers boasting that you could fit two or one golf bags in your car.

I love golf.

In fact, I love watching the Masters last weekend.

But I do love golf and I'm a big fan of the game.

However, I accept that many people don't like golf.

So I want to open up to the floor to my fellow addicts

to give us a different metric of a unit of size that you might use to test

or to describe the size of a boot.

I'm going to go straight to Neil Clifford, please.

What would you use?

Well, golf was really big before, wasn't it?

But I think everyone's now converted because everyone's more into their health

and their longevity and their protein.

And golf's a bit of a lazy, bloody sport, isn't it?

Everyone wants to talk for life for longer and not eat chips and have pints of beer at the bar.

You don't want to be away from the wife and the kids for all day because golf takes all day.

So everyone's bought bikes, haven't they?

So the bike has replaced golf.

So either it's a bike instead of a set of golf clubs,

or if you haven't got a bike, you've gone and bought a cockapoo.

So I think you can measure the size of a boot with how many cockapos you can fit in.

This is why I ask these questions because I get these wonderful answers.

Neil Clifford, thank you very much.

Manish, what would you use as the new non-golfing metric for the size of a boot?

When you drive a car once every four weeks.

Three boys in the car with you, three cricket bags,

and the cricket bag becomes the metric.

You have to get three cricket bags in, and that's the end of it.

Yeah, okay, three cricket bags. Edward, what do you say?

Edward?

Well, I'm just, I'm written down here, but none of them make sense.

The best answer I've got written down here is bodies, I think.

Bodies. And I'm going to caveat that.

I don't mean dead bodies.

How many mates can you fit in the boot of your car?

If you're in Cornwall because you want to go to the pub and you don't want to walk.

So I'm going to use bodies.

That's my only sensible answer that's not sensible because it doesn't deserve one.

Edward, how old are you?

Why does that matter? I can go in the boot of a car.

I'm going to say this with a sense of trepidation now.

Chris Cooper, what are you going to say?

Well, Moise and I talked about this earlier, and we had dogs breed to be determined,

or bodies or body parts thereof.

If you chop the bodies up, it's a bit more space efficient.

Do you know you can bury up to four bodies on your own land,

whether it's a back garden or a farm, up to four bodies before any regulatory intervention

or oversight at all.

So on the farm here, we've got two bodies buried.

We've got space for two more.

People who watch the Clarkson's farm thing, every farm has a Caleb and a Gerald.

We have a Keith and a Jack, they're kind of our Caleb.

And we had a Barney who was like Gerald.

He's buried in the farm.

I mean, he was dead.

I mean, we didn't just bury him.

And Lynn's father was buried on the farm as well.

So we've got two bodies buried on the farm.

That means before regulatory intervention, we have space for two more bodies.

So just FYI, no questions asked, bit of cash, we can sort you out.

So I think you'd have, when I saw that old automobile at Bista yesterday,

I looked at the boot of that and I thought,

I reckon you could line bodies up in that four and a half without having to chop

or bend arms and legs or pull the head off.

It's such a big boot.

So I reckon body parts.

Dog breed is good, but, you know, they get a bit stuffy and, you know, fidgety.

So it's got to be bodies.

I think whole bodies is the metric.

Not parts, whole bodies is the metric.

So I wasn't so stupid.

And then that's not a five.

I thought you were stupid.

No one's ever called you stupid.

But many of them were not stupid.

Your teachers may have done that, but they'll rue the day.

Now, I would say, most of you got this spot on,

there's an obvious metric that no one uses.

And that's a bag that's allowed inside the cabin of an aircraft.

That seems to be one of the things that many will carry in a car.

So why the motor industry has decided to use the golf bag?

Most people don't play golf.

And it'd be handy to know that if you were going to go, for example,

to the airport in your Boxster, you could get,

each of you could have a cabin bag that went in the front of the bag.

That'd be good information to know, but no one seems to know that.

So cabin bags for me is one of them.

The other one is what I call knuckles full of supermarket shopping bags.

I like coming out.

I like knowing I've got my knuckles full.

I don't want two bags.

I want three on each side.

I want to drag them like this, and I want to get to the car.

But there's nothing worse than getting to the car and going,

shit, I can't get them in the boot.

Or I can't get them behind the seat.

So I'd say it's cabin baggage or knuckles of supermarket shopping.

That's two good ones.

That is a good one.

Although if you have got shopping,

you've got to fill the whole boot floor full of their shopping bags,

so they all sit up against each other.

But don't you carry stuff in the boot

to mean that you can fill those spaces?

I've always got stuff that I can make sure I fill.

When the shopping's not in there, that stuff rattles around.

It does.

God, I've forgotten.

Or you put it, my favourite places in that little space behind

the drivers and passenger seat and the rear seat in the footwell.

I think you can get enough for a hungry growing family,

at least a weak shopping for a hungry growing family,

in an average family saloon.

You could get enough shopping bags in there.

Or if it's a monthly shop, you could fill the whole boot.

But in an old automobile that was a lovely person who brought one to Bisty yesterday,

I think you'd need some dead bodies as well.

Otherwise, they're going to rattle around.

When was the last time you did a shop for a month

for a young growing family, Chris Cooper?

I did once.

It amazes me.

We have a delivery come every Sunday morning

and you literally couldn't fit another thing in the fridge.

By Saturday night, at the end of the week, it's empty.

Can I just say, there is something quite interesting

about the psychology of the day of Yorikado.

So if you are a Sunday morning guy, we are a Monday evening family.

Okay, to be honest with you, my wife, it comes at 8am.

It comes at 8am on a Sunday morning.

That is two things up to be, for sure.

That's just extraordinary.

I'm sorry, Edward.

Right, guys, we're moving on to the two car garage.

This is beautifully written on my eyes, so that's not very good.

Are we coming back to 296s and F8s next week?

Yeah, we're going to have to, sorry.

You're a sort-after-business turnaround specialist.

I don't like the intonation there.

You're a sort-after-business turnaround specialist

returning to Western Tokyo for a six-month contract.

You've negotiated a 30 million yen,

about £150,000, a company car allowance,

and while there is no age restriction,

the customer's environmental credentials stipulates

this must include one K car for city use.

K car is a small car that fits certain dimensions

and capacity regulations for Japan, their timing.

The limit is 660 cc.

However, your weekend car has no limitations,

other than it must be Japanese,

so you'll be able to indulge in your driving addiction

on surprisingly interesting roads in the nearby mountains

and attend the odd track day and car event with old friends.

If you exceed the business turnaround targets,

you can retain any unspent allowance

and the cars will be given to you

with export costs to the UK included.

I like the way that was written.

So, and that was Pauline, the car fan.

Well written, Bob.

Just to confirm, the max length of this car is 3.4 metres,

the max width is 3.1.48, and the max height is 2 metres,

and it helps you reduce your taxes, tolls,

and insurance in Japan.

Well, the maximum height of the car is 6.4 inches tall.

No, the maximum height is 2 metres.

Yeah, that's 6.44.

Yeah, they look ridiculous, but they're great cars.

It's like an AM car regulation, isn't it?

Yeah, it's great.

So, let's go.

Chris Cooper, you start with your two cars, please.

Okay, so I've also got quite a few.

But you've already got two.

You've got two.

So, I think, I think the weekend car,

I may have mentioned this before another,

but I really, the more I look at them, the more I love them,

it's the Lexus LC500.

It's got the motor that God made.

There'll never be another naturally aspirated

VA like that.

Hand-built, Lexus, wonderful VA.

The K-car was really interesting.

I went through Suzuki Cappuccino,

because, I mean, you would, wouldn't you?

Suzuki, small milky coffee.

That's your choice.

Thank you very much.

K-trim 170 is a K-car that the new K-trim owners

who are Japanese wanted them to produce.

But I think you'd go back in time, Honda S500.

The original Honda car.

The original one, yeah.

Pretty, pretty little thing.

If you get 500 of Japan.

Yeah, I think, you know, unfortunately,

I'm not a sought-after business turnaround specialist

returning to Western Tokyo,

or indeed any other suburb of Tokyo.

But if I was, that's what I'd have.

You've undersold yourself there, Chris, a little bit.

No, no, it works for others.

Or are you telling us something that we...

If others wish to confer Western Tokyo status upon one,

I would gratefully receive it.

Edward, he did it quickly, so let's be thankful.

No, Clifford, what are you going to choose?

Honda Cube.

Yeah.

Because every time I'm in Tokyo, I'm like,

oh, I want one of those.

They're so cool.

Yeah, that's cool.

Like a Rubik's Cube driving along the road.

And I'd have an R35 Nismo.

Yes.

If you're going to go Japanese, you can't buck about.

You've got to go the whole works.

And I've just about done it for 150 grand.

And I'd love to bring that back.

So that's cool.

Nismo, black.

Black Nismo.

Okay, I love it.

Manage, what are you going to have?

Mazda R360.

Looks like a reliant Robin, but with four wheels in sky blue.

Gorgeous looking piece.

And I'm going to go for the Chris Harris NSX.

And I think you can just about buy one for the money.

10 grand on one, 140 on the other.

Bomb.

Nice.

And things.

So Edward, what are you going to go for?

So I've gone very modern here.

And I'm probably well below the budget.

So when we're out in New Zealand,

and I'd never seen one of these before,

but the Honda S660, Mugen Type R spec.

Yeah.

It's just, you know, I didn't know what it was.

It's such a cool looking thing.

Yeah, it's such a cool looking thing.

I did Google K cars earlier on just to see what it told me.

And one of the pre-selected bits of information

dropped down in Google.

It says, are K cars safe?

And it said, not if you're the driver or the passenger,

but yes, if you're another car.

Yes, if you're nowhere near.

I promise you I'll send that, because there's no,

that is absolutely what it said.

It's very good consumer advice.

Yeah.

And by AI.

Yeah.

And in terms of the modern car,

you want that forbidden fruit that you can't have.

And it doesn't necessarily need to be expensive,

the forbidden fruit.

And maybe a K car to a certain degree is forbidden fruit.

But they did that GR MN Yaris special edition, didn't they?

They launched about a year ago at the Tokyo Motor Show.

It wasn't a big change.

That was I think.

Don't stand for get ready with me.

Is that, I see that on the internet all the time.

Oh, it's GR WM.

Yeah, that's not.

This is just, it's 20 kilos lighter, a bit more torque

and a load of carbon everywhere.

And that was good.

If you're doing a few track days,

and I haven't driven the hills of around Tokyo,

but I'm guessing they're tight and curly and wonderful.

And I'm guessing a Yaris would be a pretty good car to go and do that.

Would be.

I think we've done quite well here.

So, the K car, there's only one K car for me,

and it came to the UK in a weird way.

And it was another one of these weird dihazes

that had a one made by a temperature called,

I'll read it out for you,

the Dihatsu Quare Abenzato TRXX R4.

And we had a long term one when I started,

just after I started at AutoCart,

and it was utterly batshit crazy.

It would do 60 in about eight or nine seconds.

It would top out about 105.

I also got involved in my first real road rage incident

in one of those.

And I'll tell you, I was on the A329,

and a bloke nearly had me off the road in it.

I don't think you could take it seriously,

because if you've not seen a K car before on a UK road,

it looks like it's half a car.

It looks more ability scooter than car.

And this bloke nearly had me off the road.

So, I was incensed, and then he was swearing at me.

So, I followed him into the service station,

the shell, what is the shell station near Bracknell.

And I was, I got out to say to him,

did you see what you did there?

And he was just laughing.

He was just laughing at my car.

He could not take me seriously.

And when I said, you nearly killed me, he said,

have you seen your car?

And got in his car and left.

He couldn't take me seriously.

So, there you go, that was a lesson learned.

And the other car, Neil's almost right.

It's got to be a Skyline.

But for me, it's got to be R33,

because I want a manual gearbox.

And it's the Skyline of my start of my working career.

It's got to have some V-spec bits on it,

probably about 450 horsepower.

It's got to make some whooshing noises.

And when I speak about them,

I don't understand why I've never owned one.

So, there you go.

Avanzato.

What colour?

I want that purple colour.

Purple.

Yeah, it's a purple.

I love the purple.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

How many of those, did you buy one of those, Neil, or not?

Did you buy another R33?

I had a 32, a 34, and a 35.

Didn't have 33.

We need to get 33.

It's a bit, it's a bit, it's a bit roundy for me.

I like, I bought the, I bought one off of,

who are the guys up in Liverpool?

It all hurts, middle hurts.

Yeah, off Middlehurst, a 32, his own car,

for like 17, 9, 9, 5 on Piston Heads,

and thought I'd, you know,

legend entrepreneur, sold it for 22, 9, 9, 5.

They're about 50 grand now.

Yeah, they were all his own cars.

But my R34 was one of the,

one of 20 original UK cars in grey, the R34.

So, 50 grand now.

Andy Middlehurst is turned into a good wood legend as well,

hasn't he?

He is too, yeah, yeah.

Very quick round there.

Well, here we go, here we go.

So, we're going to now...

I don't think we got managed yet, have we?

Yeah, we did.

Yeah, we had fun.

Jesus Christ, Edward.

So, we're not doing music this week,

we're doing some YouTube videos.

We're going to be quick,

because my better half is going to punch me in the face,

unless I get out here quickly.

So, here we go.

Edward Lavitt, what's your video choice on YouTube for this week?

Fine, I'm not going to try and fully describe it for you,

but you can go and Google it when you hear it,

but the link will be somewhere here.

But if you Google Samir, you're breaking the car,

you will have a great laugh.

Now, this is not the normal rally accents that we hear

in a rally scene,

like we do Finnish co-pilots and the Welsh co-pilots

that we know particularly well,

but this hopefully will give you a little chuckle.

I can't wait for you to watch that.

It's unbelievable.

Neil Clifford, what are you going to go for?

You know, I've been down a big YouTube live aid black hole.

My brother was asked,

my brother was in the roof live aid,

doing the lighting, did it for free for a mate.

And I'm like, do you take any pictures?

He's like, no, I didn't take a camera with you,

I didn't think it would be that good.

You're like, oh, my God.

And the obvious one is the Queen, 20 minutes ago,

everyone's seen that.

The U2 live aid, even if you like U2 or don't,

it's just incredible.

That whole concert, there's nine hours on YouTube,

actually, you completely lose yourself.

That was sort of their first big break, wasn't it?

Yeah, it's incredible.

Yeah, that's what I'd watch.

Manish, what are you going to go for?

There was a TV series in the early 70s,

I think it was called Salem, following the HMS Arc Royal.

And there's a very, there's a very, very, very beautiful,

I found it utterly inspirational section,

when you see the planes taking off and doing some,

yeah, buccaneers and fairy gannets as well,

and some seeking helicopters.

And it was all Tim Pig Floyd's wish you were here.

And the little twist in this is that the BBC,

when they released it, couldn't license the music.

So they've put some subtle shite on,

and I couldn't find the original.

But some very clever person out there,

has rather beautifully put a live version of Pink Floyd

over those exact bits.

So I've sent the link, and it just makes my heart stop.

That's good.

Every time I see it.

Yeah.

Do you listen to it?

It's got Stuart theme music, wasn't it?

It was, again, but I am sailing.

And Chris Cooper?

I got two, so the voice of me.

No, no, no.

You need to keep one up your sleeve.

Be your own chrysalis.

But the one, it's a skyline thing.

I went through a Bathurst wormhole this afternoon.

There's a 1987 Bathurst was biblically wet.

And there's a clip, it's just of this, about three and a half minutes.

The two wheel drive one, where he sideways on slicks.

Then sitting in a two wheel drive skyline.

And the Australian commentator is going,

oh yeah, he'll take it really, really sensible here.

And he's like, you know, up over the skyline.

And then down the big dipper.

And he goes down the corner all straight.

And he said, you know, he'll take it easy here.

There's a big crest in the middle of the corner all straight.

And he just unweights the car and after goes.

There's a very young Richard Haye, commentating on that,

with his dad Neville Haye and a whole bunch of the Aussies.

He's always, oh, he'll take it very easy here.

And on the screen, he's just going mental.

So that's good.

Then seat in 1987 Bathurst, Nissan Skyline.

Peter Jackson sponsored Nissan Skyline.

I think the reason why these are so interesting

is we get to lose ourselves in YouTube for an hour.

And it's a terrible wormhole.

And I'm increasingly aware of the fact

there's so much content out there now

that's been surfaced that's so good.

You can forget the films that really resonated

when you first discovered YouTube.

So I'm trying to go back to those and get this one.

I think many people who listen to this will.

If you just type in Norma M20 on board.

N-O-R-M-A, Norma M20 on board.

That is the one.

It's just, if an alien landed and said,

what's driving, I'd give them that.

That is the one.

The ordinary piece of drive.

It's an amateur person, a Norma M20

with a six-cylinder BMW engine in the back of it.

And he goes up this French hill climb

as a closed public road in a fashion

that is so remarkable.

But the noise, the physicality, the driving is all there.

So just type in Norma, we'll put the link up,

but Norma M20 on board.

That is remarkable that you've just named that one.

That's probably what got me into YouTube.

It's just driving, isn't it?

Driving, driving.

So thank you very much.

The French Wallace Menges,

who is the British free time British hill climb champion.

He's an amazing town at British...

I meet him every year, are night champions.

And he did that French hill climbing a couple of years ago

and he said they are the mentalist bit.

Anything French hill climbing.

If you've got Chelsea Walsh in your head, start again.

Yes, this guy is insane.

Okay, thank you very much for tolerating us

and our alcoholic beverages on episode 62.

Neil Clifford is showing us his driving gloves.

It's been a pleasure having you

and we will hopefully deliver some more content for you next week.

Bye-bye.

0:00

82:56

Lotus Can-Am car

Oldsmobile 1957-58 coupé wagon

Land Rover Series

intercooler

Mercedes-Benz SL

Formula One

Mclaren 91 Mclaren

Ferrari 125

Ferrari F40

Ferrari F189

Rosso Corsa

Brabham BT44

replica

Can-Am car

Ferrari

restomod

Porsche 356

Aston Martin

BMW M5

Mercedes-Benz AMG C63

Lancia Lambda

airbag lights

Porsche 911 GT3

carbon bucket seat

Buick Regal

driving gloves

Ferrari 275

Ferrari Daytona

BMW 735

Alcantara steering wheel

Volkswagen Golfs

Porsche Boxster

Suzuki Cappuccino

Honda S500

Honda S660

Nissan Skyline

About this episode

Original notes