F1’s Hybrid Mess & The £150k ‘High-Risk’ Cars

Welcome back to The Gassing Station, the podcast that goes digging through the Pistonheads forums

like Lola has been digging through its history by creating a new version of an old car.

You've seen quite a lot of these co-hosts, Sam Sheehan, and you've actually been out

to go and see this at the rack.

Yes, at the RAC Royal Automobile Club.

James made it and cycled there as well, kept rocks up in my suit with my shirt and my tie

and a helmet on.

I feel like James May would be on a Brompton of some kind.

I was about to say he always made it.

He cycles it.

No, I was on my road bike.

No, I was on my rubbish road bike.

But the car, wow, what a surprise.

I knew it was going to be a bit, it was going to be amazing because it's a continuation

of the iconic 60s racing car.

But this thing has so much innovation in it that it isn't just for listeners who don't

currently have over a million quid in the bank continue listening because stuff in this

will be relevant because I thought it was going to be one of those continuations where

you go, that's cool, but I'm never going to be able to afford one.

So I'll look at the pictures and then forget about it.

Exactly.

But actually, there are so many of them.

So many.

But this T70S is, I mean, from just looking at the article, it just looks like a continuation

of an old Le Mans car.

So what's, how can that be innovative?

Well, I'm going to give you a good new story from the British Isles because I think it is

proof that when we do stuff on a smaller scale, mass production, maybe not in every sense,

but certainly the smaller scale innovation, we're very, very good at it.

And this is perfect evidence because the magnesium structure of the original car,

which I know had its issues with some famous fire related things.

Don't get magnesium hot.

Don't set it on fire.

But what they have done is in order to make this car extremely sustainable, and by the way,

the S in T70S, they say stands for sustainability.

They have not only run the car's Chevy V8 small block on sustainable fuel,

Coriton, which I ran my MX5 on recently, Coriton Sustain.

They're not only running on that and they're not only producing a road and a race car version,

developing it entirely on sustainable fuels.

But the magnesium is made using, I'm going to get some of this wrong now, scientists.

If anyone's listening, I'm sorry if I get this wrong.

Electrolysis powered by solar energy that uses seawater.

So what they do is they use solar power to do electrolysis.

And then that takes salt out of the seawater, which is where they get the

key chemical ingredients for magnesium and they produce it from that.

So this isn't, as they said, importing magnesium from Asia,

which is normally what people do these days.

It is making it in the UK on our shores sustainably.

So that's a really cool story.

And the best thing is, is they reckon they can not only do this for special cars like this.

And by the way, they're only going to make about 16, I think of these.

So it's not exactly going to be, you're not going to see one on the roads very often.

But they reckon they can turn that production method and other similar ones.

They've got lots of other sustainability stuff in the car,

up to like volume levels where they could potentially offer it to other brands.

So I'm not pretending that the next Renault Clio or something is going to get this in its structure.

But, you know, there might be a super car or even race car chassis that use this kind of tech.

How incredible is that that a car from the 70s can be used to have these kind of,

or be a platform for innovative technologies?

I think you get this straight.

Is it still a magnesium chassis?

Yeah, there are very small amounts of carbon fiber in it because of,

because the race car is actually FIA homologated as a continuation car.

So it can be raced in historic racing.

The road car will be different for obvious reasons.

They've still got the Chevy small block,

but they're going to have to put loads of WLTP and all the kind of emissions stuff on it.

Beyond the EU, by the way, it's going to have to be globally certified.

So you'll get them in strict markets as well, apparently.

Wow.

But yes, it is still magnesium and the race car will be very, very true to the original.

I mean, it's 203 mile an hour car, 860 kilograms, 104 decibels at the exhaust.

That's not too bad.

Yeah, not too bad.

Yeah, I guess it has to have some filter.

I don't think they normally do that.

The thing is the difference between a decibel is actually quite a lot.

So the difference between, let's say, 100 and 110 is significant.

Yeah.

So because I'm a massive nerd and I really love sound when it comes to racing cars,

a Le Mans prototype, a hypercar, is limited to 110 decibels.

Yeah.

A GT3 car at Le Mans is limited to 100.

So it's, and the difference is the difference between something that sounds great and quite

loud to something that's nearly silent.

That's because 104 is very usable.

I don't know if that's a full chat.

I assume it is.

But anyway, the cool thing about these old Lola's, if you've not seen them from the rear,

is basically the whole back end.

If you've been to Goodwood Festival of Speed or the Revival, you've seen cars like this,

especially at the Festival actually, where the back of the car is ultimately just a lot

of mesh and then just massive engine.

And it's a small block, but it looks so cool.

Bring that back.

I just love the idea at the back of the car.

They just go, let's not spend any time styling this whatsoever.

Just put some lights, mesh, and let's see the engine and massive exhaust.

Do you know, I almost forgot about the potentially more interesting point from the

general, if you're not massively into sustainability, then you'll go, oh, that's cool.

But, you know, it's just, you know, some special metal.

There is an H-pattern gearbox in the road.

In the race car, it's a proper, you know, original spec gearbox,

which means it's going to be very hard to use at low speed.

Because of that, the road car is getting an H-pattern manual, but it's a shift by wire.

And I put my hand up.

Johnny Herbert was there, by the way, at the event.

Oh, nice.

Yeah, great guy.

Going to be speaking to him at the annual service this year.

Yeah, 90s F1 winner and just super, super happy man.

You can just see.

He's a cool guy.

Yeah, he's just a great guy.

He, anyway, I put my hand up and said, how does this H-pattern feel like a real gearbox?

Because I'm imagining it to be like when you went down to the Sega Rally machine at

Hollywood Bowl and you sort of click-clatted the manual.

There wasn't much engagement in that.

I could see the engineer in particular smiling when I asked my question.

I was like, how does it feel mechanically real?

And he went, well, and he gave me this really brilliant answer.

And ultimately it was, they actually have, while it's shift by wire,

you're not mechanically connected to the gearbox.

There are components at the bottom of the lever.

They talked about having like actual transmission components to simulate the feel.

So it's going to feel mechanical.

It's going to feel, you know, it's going to have some weight to it.

But also at the same time, apparently it's permanently helping you.

It's very hard to stall.

You're not going to crunch the gears like ever.

So it's going to be easy to use, but it's going to feel like you're doing a lot of work.

Have they done it for an ease of use thing?

Because I'm like, what's the point in doing your shift by wire?

Apparently the race car gearbox is very, very, very difficult to use at low speed.

It's fine at high speed.

And I'm sure you can rev match and stuff at high speed.

You're not going to rev match as you roll into weight shows.

No, no, the choice of shopping.

I chose there.

I didn't choose at all.

Yeah.

I've got a weight shows near me and it's full of old 70s and old cars.

So that's very accurate.

But yeah, it's Britain.

We are very good at doing these kind of going mass production,

not quite so much, but low volume, just getting the most you can out of spending not a huge

amount of money because this wouldn't have been built on an endless budget.

So for it to be debuting these incredible technologies that are, and I never thought

that we would be talking about sustainability with an old 70s Lamon car that's running on

sustainable fuel.

But yeah, yeah, I think it's absolutely fantastic.

And it's a lot more exciting, dare I say.

Then our first subject of today.

I've tried avoiding Formula One's speak on the Pistons podcast because there's so much

more to piston heads than so much more to cars and motorsport than Formula One.

But it's a it's a massive talking point and you'll have all of these podcasts out there,

Formula One podcast that will be going right into the nitty gritty of things.

But I wanted to go, what's the pH view of new F1, 2026.

So what's happened is we've had three races so far.

And because of the horrible things that are going on in the Middle East at the moment,

there are there's a gap where there would have been the Bahrain and Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.

So there's going to be it's almost like a a sudden spring break spring break.

Yes.

But not the cool one where they go.

Everyone goes to Mexico and we're all teenagers and American and just getting too drunk.

No, I think it's mostly the FIA in a room rocking backwards and forwards,

crying because they've got some things to figure out with these new cars.

So I was having a dig through the forum and we have a dedicated Formula One forum on piston heads.

And conveniently, Tangerine Sedge has started up a poll which has started at the start of the

new rule. So it's unhappy with the rule changes on the fence and happy with the rule changes.

Before I get into those results, we should probably talk about for those who aren't following

Formula One and maybe don't care why it's so significant.

Because coming into the season, everyone's going, oh, it's the biggest change in Formula

One history. And you look at it and you go, well, they were they were 1.6 liter V6 turbo hybrids

before. They're still 1.6 liter turbo hybrids. They still look like Formula One cars.

What the heck's changed? Yeah. And why did it need to? And why did it need to? That's

a really very good point. Obviously, we could get into a side argument of like, well, it needed

to change, but why did it need to change into something that looks the same? That's the point,

isn't it? I was not going to a V10. I was listening to a podcast. It was the race podcast on the way to

in this morning. And they did talk about that. We have no affiliation with them,

but a great great motorsport podcast. And they were talking about how much the landscape has

changed since these these rules were conceived. So what happened essentially was before 2026,

we had Formula One cars that had 1.6 liter engines with a hybrid system. The 1.6 liter turbo

V6 was producing the majority of the power. But there was an electrical element to

talk fill the turbocharger. So they essentially drove like naturally aspirated cars from what I've

heard. You had two electric generators, one on the rear axle called an MGUK,

and one on the turbocharger called an MGUH. So it meant that when they were driving around the

lap, there was actually quite a lot of ways for the car to recharge the battery. And so you never

really had this instance of cars running out of power in a lap. And it spooled up the turbo,

didn't it? It did spool up the turbo. Yes, it spooled up the turbo. So when they

drove off the line, they were incredibly fast. And so what they've changed for this year is that

that stays the same in the fact that there is a V6 hybrid with a turbocharger. Which they're all

saying is a different engine, but it's kind of very similar engines, right? The spec seems

the same on paper, but it is vastly different. So before they were making the majority of the power,

now these V6s are only making about 55% of the power, which I think is roughly 400 horsepower

or something like that, or 500. I don't know. It's all done in kilowatts now. I've heard it's

about 400 kilowatts. So what that means with 55% of the power coming from the engine, there's now

45% coming from the battery, because they wanted to make the cars a lot more what they would say

road relevant is everything was moving towards electrification. Yeah. Hybrid things are more

prevalent than ever. Electric cars are more prevalent than ever. Well, we can't go fully

electric because Formula E is fully electric. Let's go and do this because the manufacturers will

love it. Well, yeah, there was some difficulties with that because by doing this rule set, it

meant that it got Audi or the VW group interested. Porsche were going to come in, but they went,

no, actually, we're not going to do this anymore. It went over to Audi and Audi said,

we're only really going to come in if you've got this 5050 split. And we'd like to recharge the

batteries using the front axle. And then everybody went, well, hold on a minute. You've been at

Le Mans and you know how to recharge batteries through front axle regeneration. So we're going

to ban that. Yeah. So they can only do it off the rear axle. But then they went, well, that the

turbine, the MGUH, that costs a lot of money as well. So we're going to get rid of that because

all the Formula One teams know how to do that. So Audi were like, yeah, if we get rid of that,

then you'll have cheaper, supposedly cheaper engines to produce, less complicated.

And it just means then that you've got a car that relies very much on electrical

energy that doesn't have nearly as much options to recharge the battery in a lap,

which means they're horrifically energy-starved. Yeah. It's really bad marketing, by the way,

for electric and hybrid cars. This is like the time when I took my dad out in the winter in

an Alpha Junior and I was like, oh, dad, the electric cars are great these days. And then we

got not as much range as expected because it was minus two or whatever. And it was on the motorway.

And he's come away from it, even though there are so many good electric cars going, he now thinks,

there's nothing good out there. They're all pants. And I think a lot of people are watching this

going, oh my God, is this what the technology's like? Exactly. I don't want to have anything like

this. And it's because they've backed themselves into a corner. So what happens on a lap, if you've

not watched any of the races, is that the cars don't have enough power to get down a straight.

Yeah. They don't come to a standstill. But the painful thing is that, so we're coming,

this is a week after the Japanese Grand Prix, you've got the incredible complex about the back

of the circuit. You've got 130R, which used to be quite a ballsy, full-flat left-hander.

And then you have a bit of a straight into a chicane. Well, now, because these cars don't have

enough battery to deploy for the full straight, they're running out of steam before 130R. So

when you're riding on-board with them, they're coming off throttle five, six hundred meters

before the corner. Or it sounds like it. I guess their feet are buried into the front of the car.

Feet are buried. I was going to say the carpet, but they don't have carpets.

What can happen is that the kinetic motor on the rear axle can run in reverse to charge the

battery. So as they're coming in, they call it super clipping, where the motor is actually,

the electric motor is running to top the battery up while they're approaching a corner. So the

drivers have got their foot pinned to the floor, but the car is slowing down.

Have you heard the controversial thing about the FIA broadcast, the FIA broadcast is

pausing the speedo on the halo. Not a good look. And it was convenient that the

on-board pole lap from Kimmy Antonelli cut out on the approach to 130R. But I've looked around

and that did look like it was a genuine technical problem, but it just didn't. Because there was

that thing of the speedo was freezing when it hit the top speed and then not decreasing

at the engine tone was clearly decreasing. That was an innocent mistake by the look of it,

but it's because there's less broadcast from the drivers as well, which is a bit odd.

So anyway, so you're watching the racing and because you've got this mismatch in,

you've not got full output from the two powertrains going throughout the lap,

it means that teams use their electricity at different points in a lap. So one driver could

be at full pelt and the other one could be recharging. So you get these horrific 90kmh

closing speed. That was the accident in Japan, wasn't it? It was massive. Yeah, so dangerous.

Has driver Oli Berman had an accident because he was going substantially faster than another

driver who was recharging. So you have these massive closing speeds, he went to go and avoid them

and then had quite a big accident and had a bit of a limp after. He looked quite damaged after.

On the flip side, so that's quite a negative view of it of where you're going, these cars are power

staff, but so if you watch on a lap and qualifying, it's a bit rubbish. But on the flip side, the

people are saying, oh, this is actually quite entertaining is that you have so many more

overtakes now. I've watched all three races and I must say the first two, I was like,

I kind of came to watch this because I was expecting a train wreck and there were

some pretty rubbish moments, but it was actually quite fun. Yeah, it's quite hard to predict.

When there's a duel going on, a battle going on, it's quite hard to predict who's going to win it

because it's not like DRS days where someone closed up on someone, they DRS, they DRS, they

DRS took them on the straight and then they just drove away. Or maybe they had to fight a little

bit, but generally they'd drive off. Whereas this, yeah, you've genuinely got like five,

10 lap long, back to back battle. 100% swapping places. It's kind of the formula one dream.

It's all people have wanted is that, you know, back and forth, like you get in MotoGP, two bikes

just going at it lap after lap. And it's just never happened in formula one. I think even in 2021,

when it was so close between Lewis and Max, it usually resulted in crashes. There was that famous

there was that 70s race. I'm so ashamed that I can't remember any of the drivers.

Dijon. Yeah. It had its moments in the past when there was less downforce in particular.

Absolutely. But you're right. In the modern era where we've had a lot of downforce in particular.

And usually that's only over a very small handful of laps, over a foreground predistance. So for

something like, you know, in China, for instance, you had the Ferraris going camera and tong for

lap after lap after lap. Yeah. And it was genuinely brilliant. It was really great racing. And from

from what I've heard that was or read, it's not like I've got an ear to the ground in the paddock,

there's that they genuinely were that was nothing to do with with battery management.

That's kind of how they were racing. So that was cool. We had a little bit of it in Australia.

That was cool. And then in Japan, it all just felt a little bit fake. You have Lando Norris

saying that he was over he was overtaking Lewis Hamilton because he didn't want to. It's just

that his battery was deploying and Lewis's was was recharging. So he has to overtake him. It

means they get to the next straight. Lando's run out of battery and then Lewis has got his

battery. So just re overtakes him and they call it yo yo racing. Yeah. So it's in some instance,

you get these if it's there's lots of twists and turns, you can get some quite interesting

overtakes. But what we had in Japan was a lot more just, Oh, I'm going to breeze past you and

you're going to breeze past me and you're going to breeze past you and vice versa. And it's

yeah. So that in a nutshell is what's happening. You've got a lot more overtakes. Some people

think it's exciting. Some people think that it's false. So this poll was ran. Have you seen the

results yet, Sam? I have. And I'm really surprised by one bit of it. I'm really surprised by. Okay.

Well, I'll just read the results first. So we've had 343 responses up by quite a bit from what I

said yesterday. So I'm happy with the rule changes, 38%. Yeah. On the fence, 38%. Happy with the rule

changes, 24%. Now that surprised me that one. I thought it was going to be more like 12%. I

yeah, yeah, I thought it was going to be an absolute no one was going to like it.

But as I said, you know, it's it's one of these things where

there are a lot of fans of these new rules. And I can definitely see why.

Jess and Joel says, I'm not happy with having to lift off at the end of a straight to harvest.

The fact that in car footage is cut to prevent you from seeing this is clear enough. It's criminal

that totally agree. It's really, it's just cheeky. However, they say, but I am happy that the cars

seem able to follow each other for a few racing laps. So currently on the fence, but I fear Spa

will be a real fast. Yeah. God, they're going to use all that energy to Garpo Rouge. And then

they're going to be like, Oh, no, battery spark and actually be worse than Monza. Yeah. Monza,

you've got the really big stop at the chicane, the really big stop at the next chicane. Yeah.

You got the lesmose. And then you've got the really big stop at Ascari. So you've got quite a

few chances to top your battery up. But with Spa, yeah, they're going to be running out of power

at the bottom of a Rouge. And then just imagine if they just don't have enough grunt to get up

radion and over Rouge. That's going to be a problem. Yeah, they're just stuck at the bottom.

The annoying thing is, is these cars, I mean, this area of car as well, because they've changed

the aero, they're a little bit more, they're not quite so glued to the ground, you know,

they've lost the ground effect. So we're not seeing these cars attack and arrive into corners

at the speeds they should be, where we could be, you know, we had previews in some of the earlier

races where drivers will, especially in the testing phase when they were still trying to get to grips

with them, they were sliding around, they were, you know, power oversteer moments and oversteer

into corners and things. And now, because I think then they're aware of, especially the fact that

they're going to be slower on the way into a corner, they're not attacking entrances to corners

and stuff in it. We're losing so much from the, I think the chassis and the aero this year could

actually be really, really, really, really good. I think it's moved in a right in the, in a very

good direction. And they've got active aero now. So I mean, you've had DRS before, but now the rear

wing drops and the front wing drops as well, which is kind of cool. You know, I think active aero

has kind of been quite a, something that I've kind of hoped they would have done for a while.

And I mean, I would even be happy if they tried active suspension again, just to go kind of really,

you know, with Formula One, it's kind of pick and choose your technologies. It's like, it must

be cutting edge technology so long as it's not this, this, this, this, this, this and this.

But it's interesting you talk about the sliding where after Japan, well, during the Japanese

Grand Prix, Lewis Hamilton kind of dropped like a stone and he was going, oh, I've not got any

power. I've not got any power. And he was basically a sitting duck for a race where I've read that

apparently that might be the way that he was driving the lap. And it's not. And so basically,

he was having wheel spin. He was attacking the corners so hard that he was having wheel spin.

And that was completely screwing up the algorithm of the deployment. So it meant that he actually

didn't have any power when he needed it because it was being used in parts of the lap where,

because he was getting wheel spin. And there's another factor in that of where the previous

race in China, Leclerc had a lift in one of the corners because they're quite slippy cars.

He lifted off in one of the corners. And when he went back on power, it tricked the system

into thinking that he was on a different part of the circuit. And then it just gave him full

pelt. So he ran out of power for the straights. And therefore he's three, four tenths down in

qualifying. And he looks like an idiot. But it's like, no, it's just because that's so,

so the precision that you need with these cars actually really quite, you could look at it as

being quite impressive because it's, you have to be millimeter perfect. Because if you make a mistake,

you're punished for the whole lap, if not more. Because then once you get into that spiral,

you're out of power and then you're attacking to try and get it back. And it's not very pure,

though. But that's, yeah.

Not quite. I mean, so Mergie says, why has F1 decided years ago to be seen as green? All the

drivers come in on private jets as do the president, prince, slash lord of the tracks.

There's always a fly by from this was when he said that was like, yeah, there is always a fly

by of jets. You think in Abu Dhabi, they, they roll out an A380 and they're like, look at this.

And it's like, it's not the best kind of like cleaning message really, is it?

So much driving is done by all fans and anyone involved. There is Formula E to offset F1.

Tons of other motorsports like Le Mans and IndyCar don't bother with being environmentally

friendly. So why have F1 decided to do that? I think Le Mans has tried extremely hard to be

environmentally friendly. I would counter this one quite hard because I agree with a final statement,

go back to full fat V10s, but we've discussed this before with synthetic fuels. Because Formula

1 isn't just about that event. Formula 1 is about the bigger picture of the world. It isn't, it

didn't start that way. Obviously, if you go back to the origins, it was just a bunch of

gentlemen who were a bit bored after World War II, you know, going, we need to get a bit excited.

But it has become that hasn't it? And as you discussed earlier, like with luring Audi into

the sport by offering a powertrain setup that would help them develop their road cars better.

And Formula 1, I think does need that avenue to keep the teams in. But also being great,

whether you believe in being fully sustainable or not, I think most of us would agree that we

probably need to improve efficiency in cars and probably try and decouple ourselves from the

global oil supply as much as we can. And I think I do agree that it is true, three jet flybys and

an A380 doing a lap over the track, not eco friendly, but the knock on effect of teams

making vast improvements in engine efficiency, trickling out into the hundreds of millions,

if not billions of cars on the road eventually, that that's the bigger picture, isn't it?

Yes, exactly. The Formula 1 calendar is not clean, but the effect it has on motoring,

potentially is cleaning. Didn't the hot V come out of Formula 1?

Yeah, it did. Yeah, it did. It's a split turbo. There's loads of innovation that's come out of

Formula 1 that has driven efficiency improvements, obviously power improvements, but also efficiency.

And MGUH, as I believe, does Porsche use MGUH? I think they technically use an MGUH for its

hybrid turbos. I think so, yeah. I think what the new 911 Turbo S would have, what would be

considered an MGUH. So there is some definitely some trickle down. And I think there's, in that

case, it helps. And in here, there is definitely, you know, it's going to accelerate technology.

So while it looks rubbish now, you take a 2014 Formula 1 car, which is when they first introduced

the V6 hybrids, they sounded rubbish. They look pretty pathetic. And then right at the end of

the full cycle, they sounded way better and they were rapid. I mean, so, so fast. And that's all

just because of technology being pushed. That's what Formula 1 is all about. And that's the kind

of the glass half full tape that I have of this is that it's rubbish now. But imagine in a few

years if they left it and it was, they genuinely went 50-50 and they made it work. You'd go,

this is great because it sounds good. And they're using less fuel. And it's not only that, this

year is also the first year where they've got 100% sustainable fuels.

Yeah, that's really important. And the fact that the solutions are different, like every team is

innovating in a different way. And it's kind of like the tire war days where having a, you know,

working close with your manufacturer got you an advantage through your tires. And the same is

true with the fuel now. Like I know they're kind of capped in many ways. They can't just have a

runaway process, especially with spend. But there will still be advantages to be had with the fuel.

So it's pushing innovation. So and that's why that final point on that post I agree with if we

had sustainable fuels, go back to full fat V10s. Let F1 be the pinnacle. Yes, with sustainable fuel.

I would say, I quite like, so Anthony Hamilton, Lewis Hamilton's dad's doing a new hybrid, it's

called hybrid V10, which is a kind of the dream really. It's hybrid V10 from one single seater

cars. And I think that's kind of what they need to do. These rules were conceived at a time where

the whole world was going to electric cars and petrol cars were absolutely going to be phased

out. That's all changed in the last six months, if not, you know, less than that. And, you know,

hybrid is or electric is not the only option. Yeah, it's a multi solution future we're going for

multi solutions. So I think having formula with the hybrid element is still cool. I like the idea

that they had in the early in the late 20s, 2000s and early 2010s of curse. So push to pass electric

bottom. So you have, let's say most of the engine is producing the power. And then let's say you get

100, 150 horsepower electric shove that you get for X many seconds a lap. And that is your overtake.

So instead of having DRS, you can then use your electric power to try and do the passes. I think

that makes well and defend as well because that's the key thing because I'm a big fan of defensive

driving. I think it looks really interesting. It's really entertaining on camera because you're

watching drivers really calculate where they do the next move. I love the days of racing when

you'd have to think 10 corners ahead and probably 10 laps ahead to plan your move. Whereas now,

as you've said earlier, like it's kind of like, Oh, I've got a massive deployment of power. I'm

going to overtake now. Whereas prior, you know, back in the old days, it was, it was like, I see

he's weaker on this corner. I'm going to make sure I sacrifice my entrance to the two corners back

in order to get me a better rolling start down the straight. So I'm close into that bend and then

you make the move. Kers would work with that because you could defend and attack at the same

tool. Well, you might be able to relate to pro five T, which I think is crossed. Yeah. Who says

met a fellow F1 fan yesterday, he's in his seventies and usual old school F1 crowd. I said,

the only thing I figured out is some sort of correlation between F1 fans and a terminal,

never happy attitude. I guarantee if they tweak the rules and we get back to being unable to follow

dirty, active aero trains, the same lot will be moaning how it's not as good as the first few

races. Nothing is ever good enough. Nothing will beat the old days. And it's, they've got a point.

It's sometimes it's a little easy to just kind of brush the, you know, we always say the good

old days are better. But you know, I look back in it and I started watching in the mid to late

2000s where they were sprint races, you know, they had traction control when I was watching.

This was full fuel loads by that point, was it? And this was still refuelling and they were

groove. Okay. Cause this group tires when they were not changing tires. Cause that era strangely

was quite exciting because the tires would wear down into a slick. And by the end of the race,

they'd finished basically on slicks and somehow we're going quicker and quicker. That was amazing.

They were sprinting for an hour and a half. That's exactly what it was. And the races

were a different now. So in the last few years, it's all been about tire or the last decade.

Yeah, which is another transformation might happen. Whereas back then they were there were

sprints, but you would also have some really freaking dull races. It would be someone just

take, just run off into the distance and it's like, okay, well, yeah. And there was no overtaking

field. And, and you know, I remember Monaco 2008, Adrian Sutil was up in the points in a,

in a force India. And that was like, Oh my God, a backmark is actually in the points. And that's,

you know, the slowest team last year was scored well over 30 points. I think, you know, it was

like everybody was doing quite well. So, you know, it's a lot more competitive. It was a lot

more competitive in recent years. And it's still as competitive. I think that it just needs to be

a bit more of a happy middle ground. I think that they just pushed the technology way too far. And

I feel like it's, it's easy to think a point. I don't really think it's anybody's fault. I think

they need to do this kind of thing to get the manufacturers in because the manufacturers that

help kind of bring the money and, and, and bring show the support and adds more cash aid to the

sport. And they were only going to do that by making it more eco friendly. But then when you

put it in the hands of the engineers, they're going to go, let's go and make the most efficient

thing possible. And they don't really think of the product. I actually think, and I know we

couldn't do this because like you mentioned, to lure the likes of Audi and they had to change the

rules. But in a way, the current chassis aero setup with the end of last era's powertrain setup

would probably have been really sweet. 100%. I'm always all for the V8 V10 sound, but I have to

admit the powertrains as they ended the last era were really good. You know, it was quite,

they sounded quite good. They put the mics in different places. They were picking up all the

different like crackles and cackles, especially in the Honda engine, that Red Bull setup.

They sounded quite an entertaining powertrain. Yeah. Clearly usable, clearly manageable,

clearly reliable. Stick that in today's era aero chassis. I think you'd have such a great series.

The cars are genuinely better this year. I think they look better. They, yeah, they look way more

raceable. They look so much better. You're right. And that's a positive thing to end on. I actually,

what I would add in, I think tyres, I know they threw in the tyre wear stuff, you know,

to make tyres aggressively wear down decade or so ago in order to jazz up and kind of make a bit more

variable points of variable in the race. So at one point, some persons, one driver's on a good

tyre, the other ones on a rubbish tyre. Yeah. But the ultimate result of that is, is that if

they're not currently in a battle, they're just saving the tyres. I think we need to get to a

place where the tyres are, they have a bit more longevity in them and, you know, allow drivers

to push hard as well. Because that before we switched to this rule set, you know, you were

very aware that they were protecting the tyres. Yeah. That's not formula one as well. Absolutely.

It should be flat out. 100%, which is what Max Verstappen agrees with. And, you know,

let's talk about him potentially retiring at the end of the season. I think some people could

look at it and go, oh, he's just throwing his toys out the pram because his car's not fast enough.

Him doing the Nurburgring 24 hour, if you've got a spare ticket and you're like me for company,

I would, I'm a great guest. I'm a great guest because I would love to be there because I think

him being at the N24 is the coolest thing ever. I would love, apparently Lance Stroll's doing GT3

in Aston, Paul Ricard soon too. I love this idea of the drivers going,

this is quite boring. I kind of need to scratch the competition itch. Let's go and do something

else. If they could go and get Leclerc and Hamilton in the 499P for Le Mans and Alonso

and a Valkyrie, it would just be the coolest thing. So formula one's loss is the rest of

motorsports gain. I think that's correct. Back to more PhD things. We have a car buying challenge

to sink our teeth into. This one comes from Roka 1976 and they say, following a recent inheritance,

I am interested in a pension pot car. I am 50 with a decent pension, house paid off,

and enough rainy day savings. I think I'm happy to take a high risk approach and punt on a high

value car with an idea to sell when I am 60 to 65 and release the capital. I would like something

usable for fair weather use, circa 2k per annum, and I think it needs to be 100 to 150k

to maximise the strongest return. Wow, what a brilliant place to be. 100%. Thoughts so far

based on potential desirability due to end of era features, whether it's NA manual limited numbers,

brand image. So that's a 2018 991 GT3 4.0 litre manual, 992 GT3 4.0 litre manual, 430 Coupe manual,

Gallardo Coupe manual, Gallardo Balboni E gear, BMW M4 DTM slash GTS, Jankiewa Project 8.

Interested to hear your thoughts and suggestions, no E46 M3s please, and other classics.

Older classics, but yeah. So this is obviously, they're approaching this with the view of

investment. I have to do this because it's of the world we live in. This is not going to be

financial advice and we can't do anything that's for sure going to be going up in value. Never

take advice from me. Never take advice from us. This is, you know, buy at your own risk,

but we're just here to have some fun and kind of suggest cars that if we had 100 to 150 grand

that we were going to buy and enjoy and if we sold it for more money, then happy days. Sam Sheehan,

this was so much fun to do. I really enjoyed this. It's the biggest budget we've had to play for

with for quite a while. What have you found? I rushed into the classifieds when I saw the

price bracket and I went, oh my God, this is amazing. And immediately plucked out because you were,

I think you'd gone to the kitchen at that point. So you'd had, you'd lost your opportunity to

possibly choose the same car. I've gone for the McLaren 600 LT out the gates, but then

I would have done that. As he highlighted, when you read out the actual description,

it doesn't tick all the boxes because it's turbocharged. To be fair, reading back,

that wasn't the criteria is that it had to be manual limited numbers. It was kind of

desirability based on some of those things because they've got a Balboni e-gear,

they've got an M4 GTS, that's turbocharged. So annoyingly, when you found this, I was like,

no, it's not going to do the job, but it is. You and I both rate this extremely highly.

And specifically, Spyder, which I've chosen. It has to be the Spyder, because carbon tub,

meaning that it was only, if I remember correctly, 40 kilos heavier than the Coupe.

It kind of is negligible. Just as rigid. Yeah, exactly. In terms of handling and even insulation,

really, because there's so much engine noise, it's not the most refined car, is it? It's negligible

in that regard. But you can take the roof off, which is a great thing to do. But at higher speed,

you just drop that rear screen. I've mentioned it on it before, as have you. Yeah.

Tailpipes, that fire, blue flames into the sky. I mean, it's so cool. It sounds amazing.

The only thing is you might need ear defenders, because I remember when I drove it and I was,

you know, window down the whole time, I remember my ears were ringing for like five days after.

It's because, yes, you have literally exhausts right next to your face. It's amazing.

It is absolutely sublime. And the regular 570S engine sounds pretty dull. Yeah.

The 600LT engine was much more characterful. Oh, so I mean, as he said, it's all exhaust,

but that's fine. It had, to me, it reminded me of a 90s Indy car, like that kind of course,

hard V8 sound. It wasn't, it wasn't, you know, thumpy or even high-pitched. It was,

it was somewhere in the middle. Amazing. Key thing as well for the appreciation, aside from it being

an amazing car is that obviously they only built these for two years. So, you know, as far as I

can see, while no official figures are out, there are no more than 2000 coupé and spiders combined.

So, you know, I don't think it was a 50-50 split, but if it was, it's a thousand cars out there.

If I remember correctly, it wasn't limited by numbers. It was limited by time. Exactly, yeah.

But I don't think they sold huge, huge amounts of them. I mean, there's always ones available.

There's some quite, most of them come in quite jazzy colors, but this one's a little bit more

muted. Yeah. And there was another one on, actually, for a little bit more money, but it had higher

mileage. And I just chose this because, you know, you can put the money to the petrol.

There was a higher mileage one, 20,000 miles rather than the 10,000 miles of this. So,

it's still pretty low mileage. This one comes in kind of like a Crayon-y battleship gray

with carbon fiber and, which was a expensive cost option. Yeah. And also green, sorry,

orange highlights. Yeah, McLaren. Yeah, so it's very McLaren-y spec. I love it. I think it looks

really very smart. Actually, when you have those stripes on the diffuser, not to everybody's taste,

but it just makes you realize how unbelievable and huge that Venturi is. It's massive. 135,000

pounds. So, right, slap bang in the middle of the budget. Anything else? Yeah. So, this is quite

contrasting, actually, but I mean, still epic and probably has higher increase in value potential,

because I've gone for a Ferrari 612 Skaglietti. Oh, yeah. Of course, that means, oh my God,

I mean, it's a manual gearbox. It's a click-clack, you know, metal gated. Let me get a picture of it

so I can just get doubly. It's a, yeah, it's a four per gated manual. Oh, my God. One of the

last gated manual Ferraris. Yeah, 2005. It'd be that in the 430. It's got to be. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Oh, no, it was the 599 had a, it was like three that they made with manuals, but still. But that

still absolutely was, yeah. Stunning car, this Skaglietti, of course, the V12 engine as well.

I mean, this is a beautiful spec as well, because it's in, it's in that grayish silver titanium,

yeah, with a red leather interior. It is stunning. I mean, 130,000 pounds, 36,772 miles. So,

it's been used a little bit, you know, that's pretty good because you sometimes see these cars

with like 12,000 miles on the clock. So, that's nice. It's been used, but clearly been loved.

And this is just as far as I can tell, going to keep going up and up and up. That is a,

that is a villains car as well from a 2000 spy film. That is a villains car for sure.

It looks absolutely fantastic. We've, we've mentioned these before on, on much, much,

much earlier pods. But yeah, it's, I still look at these and I think, why did people have a

problem with these when they came out? I think they look absolutely stunning. I think they're so

simple. And I think maybe that was because the, at the time, kind of aggressive, sporty looks were

becoming the norm. And Ferrari very much went down that route, whereas this was a lot more

restrained. I think I look back on this now and I think it looks super duper pretty.

Very, very pretty. 129, 990. Yes. And look at the, they didn't oversize their wheels on stuff like

this then. It's beautiful. Stunning. Different, but also still, I think very special, of course,

is a, is a facelifted Honda NS. This leaves a lot of cash in the bank. It's only 106,000 pounds.

Five, five, a change from that as well. 55,000 miles just over, just under that. But of course,

this is a manual V6. This is a facelift. So it's not the center, you know, era pop-up headlights.

I mean, the car, but mostly the second, they did do a little bit of work underneath, but it was

like, if you get into one of these, the interior is 1989. Yeah. There's, you know,

you've got like, roost leather and it's absolutely adorable. Does that have to

have a cassette player? Go and click it. Yes, it does. There you go. That's, yeah.

That's how little they changed it. These sound fantastic. And the driving position is one of

the best I've ever experienced in the car because the scuttle is so low. And so you feel like you're,

you are sat on the road. Yeah. And they sound fantastic. Clearly, brilliantly balanced. I

mean, you only have to watch five seconds of the onboard with Senna driving the early one to see,

wow, this car is, it doesn't look, it's got like a bit of movement in the suspension. I've never

driven one, but they clearly have, because it's the days where cars weren't heavy. So it's got a,

it's got a bit of squidge in the suspension, but clearly fantastic body control, seems to rotate

lovely, beautiful sounding engine, as you said. Gearbox, of course, Honda do manuals very, very

well. Yeah. And the car that you can actually use on public roads without getting arrested.

Yes. Because it's only about 300 horsepower. Yeah. And yeah. Whereas the McLaren. Gentleman's

agreement 276. Yeah. I mean, I think, I think there were a bit more than that. But yeah,

the McLaren, I mean, you'll just lose your license immediately. Exactly. So yeah, good,

good suggestions there. I was going to throw in, I've not picked this, but because I think they

kind of called out, but there is, there is actually a Balboni Gallardo in, they are cool on

110 grand. I think they did a manual one of those as well. This one is the e-gear, but yeah,

110 grand for a Balboni. Yeah. Probably, dare I say, the sweet spot of the Gallardo range.

Maybe just the right, because when they facelifted it, I think they did it really nicely. And then

they did another facelift and I think they took it a bit too far. Yeah. Yeah. They lost the original

charmed in that. Yeah. I have got some very intriguing picks that are all very different.

The first I'm going to go with is maybe a slightly more obvious choice.

It's a Lotus Evora, but because there's all sorts of different grades of Evora. You can get them

relatively inexpensively. This one you cannot. It's a GT430, which is one of the final Evoras,

if I'm correct. One of 60 cars, manual gearbox, 430 horsepower, 3.5-litre V6, but it benefits from

a heck of a lot of aero. Yeah. It's got a big old wang. It's got a big old splitter. It does. Yeah.

It is very track focused and will sound utterly divine. Yeah. It's a black, so it's a metallic

black wheel. So it's a slightly more murdered outlook. I just think this is the kind of thing

where on the surface, it looks, obviously, it's very track focused and it's going to be quite

engaging, but it feels like a nice balance of being special. It's limited. It's going to sound

fantastic. It's going to drive brilliantly, but it's also quite usable from the performance

standpoint. Yeah, it is. So, you know, an Evora, they never made them ridiculously powerful.

This is as about as fast as it got, but it's just going to be usable. You can actually use that

power when you're out and about, and you can go and take it on track and not worry about it too

much. And it's a lot of, so the steering feels going to be terrific. Obviously, it's pretty light,

so yeah. Absolutely. There's not a lot of, you know, when the Amira came about, obviously,

there was a V6 version of that and it was a very well reviewed car, but I do think these Evoras

are going to be looked back on extremely, extremely fondly. Yeah. I mean, yeah, the V6,

the thing is, is obviously as well, at the time, these, you know, the Amira, the V6 has

engaging as good and as good as it is. He does feel, I don't know, it doesn't quite tick all the

boxes in today's world and the price as well is quite expensive. Whereas, you know, you've got

a foot for the same price for a new Amira, not particularly highly specced up. You can get

the, like, you know, bells and whistles Evora. And I think I would probably go for the Evora,

to be honest. Yeah, I think I would. I mean, look at it. It looks like a bloody,

it looks like a GT4 race car. It does look like a GT, which I think it's probably because it

kind of almost is. Yeah, exactly. Although it's got a big old supercharger on it.

So that's my first choice, 94,995, which leaves loads of money left in the bank.

And I also think you wouldn't be super precious about it.

Second choice is not obvious in the slightest. Well, I guess when you're paying with a 100,000,

150,000, that's the budget option. Seeing as though you went for a Japanese classic as your

second car, I'm going to do exactly the same. I can't believe we've not bought one of these

up on the podcast yet. Yeah. But it's a 2001 Nissan Skyline GT-R Spec 2, VSpec 2.

I always remember these from Gran Turismo. R34. Yeah, by the way. R34. I mean, that exactly

Gran Turismo era cars. I always remember them really well. Never really understanding all

the little specs and stuff like that. Didn't really matter. They were cool.

Yes, exactly. Well, I remember when playing Gran Turismo as a kid that I thought the NSX

was underpowered and now I have been as a grown-up. I'm like, you stupid little boy.

Well, on the gate, I do remember playing and watching the Speedo go up slowly,

but obviously when you're experiencing that Speedo growing.

Yeah, exactly. Well, I just put a Stage 4 turbo in it, mate.

It feels quick in real life. Oh, yeah. Absolutely.

And these are bloody quick.

These are absolutely rapid because they were officially, again, a gentleman's agreement,

280 to 300 horsepower. I think it's believed that they lose a lot more than that. I think 330

to 50 was the conservative estimate of what they were really doing.

And they're tough engines, aren't they? I mean, the R35 is possibly the toughest.

You could basically double the power with standard everything.

Well, they were just so wonderfully over-engineered because it was like they tried to keep the power

down because, you know, 300 odd, that's still keeping a lid on it. I mean, these things will

comfortably do a thousand horsepower with some modifications. This one doesn't quite have

that extensive modifications, but it does have some really good high-end Japanese aftermarket

gear on it. Loads of HKS stuff, Gredy stuff, the odd little Nismo bit. I think the body kit is Nismo.

It looks great. Definitely. It's subtle, but it just adds just that little bit more aggression to

it. But I think of this, you know, they didn't want old, old classics. I just think of something

like this. It's got 50,000 miles, so you can use it and not feel bad about it.

But these are now eligible for US import. So, I mean, the values are, they've been around

150 grand for a while, but you just can't help but think there's always going to be demand for one

of these. I can't see them crashing. I don't know, obviously, but it seems like the sort of car that,

you know, you can really go and enjoy it and you'll find that someone else will be out there that

really wants to enjoy it as well and will probably pay a premium for it. So, yeah, 149,995, 50,000

miles. It's only had, as far as I can see, one owner in the UK. It's a Japanese import, which also

means that you're paying JDM import car tax, which isn't as high as what you're paying for a UK car.

So, yeah, it looks fantastic. It's in fantastic condition and a slightly different way to enjoy

your 150 grand, not the traditional supercar, but I would really enjoy this from the investment

potential as well. I mean, there is an argument that they're currently at their peak because

people of the age that were in their 20s or younger like we were at that time are the lucky

ones who've got that amount of cash are currently doing the buying and in 10 or 20 years, maybe the

car interest, the peak will have arrived at the 2010 era cars. There is an argument for that.

That being said, early 80s, you know, hot things are still flying out for big money. So,

well, 1976 says that they are 50 so that when they were kind of in their 20s and 30s, this is when

the car would have been at its peak. So it might actually be, I was thinking, oh, it's kind of

people like our age. And I was like, no, actually, it might be very much a 1976 street.

That being said, I think my surefire, I saw this and I was like, it's got to be this.

Limey. Aston Martin Vantage GT8, one of only 150. Yeah, that's good. These are ridiculously cool

because this one in particular is a manual. So you've got the GT8 was the V8 version. They also

did the GT12, the V12 version. And I love the V12. I believe these got some bits from the

GTE racing car. It certainly looks like it. So you've got a wing, you've got a much bigger diffuser,

you've got a quite pronounced splitter at the front. Lots of stickers. Canards. This one's got,

I mean, it's in the, I can't remember what they got. It's like an almondy green color. So it's

quite like the, you know, that Aston Martin distinct kind of faded green. It's that with

highlighted yellow stickers all over it. But I think this one is a little bit more acceptable

because it was a bit more closely linked with the racing car. And that looked, it had a very

similar color scheme. Exactly. Yeah. So that's absolutely fine. I mean, with the advantages

as well, the later you go, the better they get. These are one of the runout cars. So it's a 2018

car. I think they stopped producing them around then. So it's really kind of the ultimate version

of the V8 Vantage manual, 440 horsepower, 4.7 liter V8 with hopefully some race car goodness

bits on it. 149,995. Yeah, just in budget, five pound change. This is the car I'm going for,

Sam. I think it's, if it was my money, I think this is the car I would go for. What are you

picking? Do you know what my heart calls for the 600 LT Spider? But because of this,

this PH's request for a real appreciating car, I think for me, I have to go with the 612 Scalietti

because I just feel like that's, you know, V12 manual Ferrari. I mean, can almost guarantee

a 600 LT is going to appear on one of our lists as well. So there you have it. So I'm going with

the GT8, Sam the 612 Scalietti. If you're listening to this on Spotify, you can actually vote on

who's picked the best car. It's something I just like to lord over Sam or vice versa. But if you

think we've done a rubbish job, then I will be putting up links to the original topic in my

story on the piston heads homepage. Just go and click on there. Put your own suggestions down

and just let everyone know how rubbish we actually are. You can also check out piston heads

auctions. We have new cars appearing all the time. Nothing quite fit the bill for this. In fact,

we actually just had a 570S that sold recently that would have been, I think, bang on for something

like this because it actually had a few little MSO bits on it, which is quite cool. That sold

for £73,000, including the buyer's premium, 31,000 miles. It was in blue with a MSO aero kit.

Yeah, really, really cool. It's a lot of car for the money. It's just a pair of, you know,

skyward pointing exhaust away from your 600RT, isn't it? Absolutely.

I made a bit of a boo-boo with our last one because I was going to bring up a car that,

when we actually went to go and talk about it, had sold. But it was an American car that was

famous for some ridiculous warning stickers. That is the topic for our final topic on this

podcast. It's started by Donkmeister. It's called Strangest Manufacturer Warnings.

And they say, some years back, I was the proud owner of an Aprilia. I believe that's a motorbike.

Yes. And they say, in the handbook, it had the words,

this vehicle is made of non-edible parts. Do not attempt to bite, suck, or chew any part of

this vehicle. I don't think it warned against drinking the fluids mind. They sold the same

model in the US. So at the time, I put it down to avoiding litigation on that side of the pond.

Has anyone seen some frankly odd manufacturer warnings? Oh boy, is this such a good thread.

The first one that comes from Random Car Chat is a warning sticker that you'll find

on a Koenigsegg, something we can all relate to. And it says, it's basically a warning for

opening the door too close to a curb because the way a Koenigsegg door opens is it kind of

goes out and then up, which means if you're next to a curb or a particularly high curb,

you could, the door would just go and smash straight into the curb, which is,

I mean, when it's made of carbon fiber and very, very jazzy paints, is going to be

cripplingly expensive. And that's something that all Koenigsegg owners are very conscious of,

is not spending too much money. No. I mean, this is an issue I face all the time,

just even with my Clio, when I've had passengers hop out, open the door, because it's lowered a

little bit, and they bang the bottom of the door into the curb and I'm there like, oh.

That is genuinely. It would be worse in a Koenigsegg. They should not be friends anymore.

Legolas has found a warning in their, has found a warning in their, what is this, an

Audi A5 infotainment system that has a caution for air raid. Stoke on Trent as well. In Stoke

on Trent. Yeah. Don't know how an air raid warning comes up on your sat nav, but there we have it.

Jack G. This is good. So if you have a BMW police car, there is a warning for leaving your gun safe

open. Yeah. An image of a gun in an exclamation mark. Exactly. Very good. It's kind of like,

imagine buying an ex police car, not realizing. Yeah. And you leave the boot open and it's like

gun alert. And you go, what the hell does that mean?

It's the things that you never know when you're not driving police cars. What have you got there?

Oh, this is quite funny. So I didn't, I've never seen this. We've had Alpines before,

but I've never read through the manuals. By the way, for anyone wondering,

because I've often seen this on forums going, oh, they haven't read the manual. This is how

you do this thing. We don't often get manuals with the press cars. They don't come with them,

to know why. But if we had one for our A110s and we borrowed those, we would have found out

that the location of the spare wheel in an A110 is, as illustrated in the manual,

by a wheel on the passenger seat in a box. It's on the passenger seat and it's buckled up.

Just the craziest thing. That's hilarious. So you either have a passenger or a spare wheel.

It's the best excuse for not having someone come and ride along with you. And they go,

oh, you've got a spare seat. Can I jump in? No. Actually, my spare wheel is on.

Spare wheel. And you can come and see. I've got a roof full of a recent yellow band around it to

warn people that, yes, there is a chair on it. I'd rally spec it and put it on the roof. Yeah.

That'd be a way to do that. I was at a car sales storage place recently that I can't say the name

of. But they had a car there that was veiled. And I was scratching my head about it for ages. I was

like, what on earth is that? And then I gave up. So I was trying to guess all the cars in the room

that had, I'm a strange man. Travers on it. Yeah. And then I got to this one. I'm completely lost.

And I said, it's an 037 safari. So it had the ballbars at the front. Yeah. It had a tire on

the roof. On the roof. Yeah. And it was just an 037 is one of my favorite cars of all time.

And I completely lost it. You can guarantee, though, that has no warning stickers on it

whatsoever. Yeah. Because once something goes wrong, you're not fixed. Did you know on the

subject, this is a slight diversion, but it's still related to warnings of sorts. Or I suppose

this person should have had a warning. You've got a BMW that's automatic. Do you know why

BMW automatic cars modern ones, I suppose, when you open the door, if it's in drive, it'll

automatically go into park? I don't know. But it infuriated me because I experienced this recently

when I got my tires done of when I parked up and the guy said, oh, can you come bring the car over

here? And I said, oh, yeah, sure. I was literally getting out the car. And I said, yeah, sure,

no worries. And as I went to go in, I kind of just closed the door a little bit and then couldn't

move, jerking. And he came over and he was just like, mate, it won't drive with the door open.

And I felt humiliated because I was like, I've only had the car for a month or two.

I just felt like such an idiot. Well, so why is that? So I up until about an hour before

recording this, I thought, oh, it was something to do because obviously the US is famous for

everyone suing everyone. So I had been told it was to do with an American owner that, I don't know,

a couple of decades ago, had jumped out of their BMW while it was in drive and then had been run

over by their car. And then they sued BMW, won the case, and then BMW changed it so that they

could protect themselves more than more so than the people because they don't assume people jump

out of rolling cars and get run over by their own cars. I thought it was a story that happened in the

US turns out not only did it happen in the UK, amazing, but it happened with a celebrity

who's name I didn't know, but I know the band he's from, Brian Harvey, who was a

singer in the boy band East 17, ran himself over in 2005. And I believe he won the case.

So that is why, thanks to East 17, your BMW automatic puts itself in park.

Absolute goal of doing something like running yourself over and being like,

this is someone else's problem. What a way to go. You didn't go, he was fine.

You exactly. It's quite funny. I have found speaking of thinking about things that would

be in America, I was having a look to see what some of the most ridiculous American warning

signs can be because there's, it's not, it's nothing against America in the sense of American

people. It's more that there is a, there is a, a suing culture. Yes. And so there is a,

you have to be a bit more careful of if you do do something like run yourself over.

There's, you can usually find somebody else liable for it. So they slap warning stickers on

everything so that if you do do something, they can go, you were warned. And, you know,

therefore, so the, the obvious one is the warning sticker that you get on a dodge viper. And it goes,

warning, serious injury can occur. Hot exhaust pipe below, door opening, avoid contacting

this area and the exhaust tip, which does seem a little bit on the obvious side.

I don't think K-trooms have that warning and they have the most exposed side exit exhaust.

I think it's because the warning is that you burn yourself once and then you never do it again.

Whereas maybe setting your trousers on fire from a dodge viper. But then again, you look at it and

you go like, the reason it's there is probably because someone has done it and therefore they've

had to go down the route of chicken and egg thing. The other one that I found was on apparently on

Porsche Boxsters in the US that has a warning on the flip down sun visor that says that if you put

a child seat, you know, it was a warning of the dangers of having a child seat in the front,

because they say, you know, it's still an abacus. Children are dangerous. Exactly. Children are

dangerous, evacuate. But it suggests that the best way around the safest thing to do when you put

your child in the car is to put them in the rear seats. That surprises me. Yes. I did actually

just see, by the way, an image of a horrific accident. Everyone swiped in America again.

Why is it was in America? Not always in America. This was a coincidence of a kayak that was split

in two and you wouldn't have wanted to have been in the back seats of that. So typically,

my mind, the front seats are the safest bit because that's where all the attention is for

crash structure safety stuff. And Porsche Boxsters. And of course,

Boxster's got a problem with that. Yes. The Porsche Boxster, there is only front seats.

There is no rear seat. So yes, having so I think the idea is potentially it's come from a 9 11.

I was about to say that must come. Yeah. But it's all the idea of if you're going to take

your child out, put them in a car that has rear seats. But if you only have a Porsche Boxster,

you'll see that warning and go, what on earth can I do about this?

I wonder if it's because on the 9 11, you've just got so much metal around you on that rear

bit because the rear window is such a tiny little triangle, isn't it? You've got a load

of metal. But yeah, that seems so counterintuitive. And of course, yeah, the fact that Boxsters don't

have a race seats. And lastly, I couldn't find a I couldn't find the the actual sign. But we've

all seen it before of where it's don't ingest the the internals of your battery. Yeah. Because it's

not a drink. It's a battery. Has someone done it before? I hope not. If they have, it's like,

yeah, I just yeah. So yes, if you've got some more ridiculous warning stickers on your car,

I think the more it's more interesting if it comes from an EU or British car, because we're

we're not usually bothered with suing people. It's just it's just a bit kind of like,

so if you find some ridiculous warning sticker, then go and drop it into the the topic again,

I'll leave a link to it on the story. But otherwise, that's it for another episode

of the gassing station podcast. Thank you ever so much for listening to Sam and I

rambling along. If you enjoyed what you listen to, we'd really love a five star review because

it just helps us know that we're on to the right track and also gets the podcast out to more people.

Sam, anything you'd like to add before we say goodbye? No, but I really do hope that we can

all go out there and encourage Formula One to get back to doing non-clipping racing because

this podcast has been powerful, I think. Yeah, I've expressed views of piston heads, forum users.

Yes, exactly. All 343 votes. Yes. Yes. Let's let's up those numbers and then maybe we can make a

change. Yeah, I'll tag I'll tag Formula One, you know, in the post. Absolutely. Oh, that'll get

the reaction. Well, let's circle back when I see you next Tuesday.

F1’s Hybrid Mess & The £150k ‘High-Risk’ Cars

About this episode

Renault Clio

Porsche 911

Ferrari 499P

BMW M4

Lamborghini Gallardo

BMW E46

Mclaren 570S

Mclaren 600LT

Ferrari 612

Honda Ns

Lotus Evora

Lotus Amira

Nissan Skyline

Aston Martin V8 Vantage

Audi A5

Alpine A110

Dodge Viper

Porsche Boxster

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