Ferrari F50 v cattlegrid & 100mph backwards: our most memorable mishaps | Episode 42
The evo podcast
Ferrari F50 v cattlegrid & 100mph backwards: our most memorable mishaps | Episode 42
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Concept
swapped ends
Swapped ends means the back of the car slid out and the car turned around, sometimes going backwards.
Term
100 miles an hour
100 miles an hour means the car was going very fast, like on a highway, which can be risky if the road is slippery.
Term
brakes
Brakes help you stop the car. If they don't work well, it can be hard to slow down or stop safely.
Concept
Cadwell Park
Cadwell Park is a race track in England where people drive race cars. It has lots of hills and turns that make it fun and tricky to drive.
Part
carbon diffuser
A carbon diffuser is a special part under the back of a car that helps the air flow better, making the car stick to the road more. It's made from a light but strong material called carbon fiber.
Concept
all-wheel drive test
An all-wheel drive test checks how well a car that sends power to all four wheels drives and handles. It helps see if the car can grip the road and stay steady.
Term
sat-nav
Sat-nav is a device or app that tells you where to go when you're driving by using satellites. It helps you find your way without needing a paper map.
Concept
Autobahn
The Autobahn is a special highway in Germany where cars can drive very fast because some parts have no speed limits.
Car
Pagani Zonda
The Pagani Zonda is a very fast and special car from Italy that can go really fast because it has a strong engine.
Car
TVR Tuscan
The TVR Tuscan is a fast and light sports car from Britain that can go very fast but needs careful driving.
Part
front splitter
A front splitter is a piece on the front of a car that helps it stick to the road better when going fast.
Term
gearing
Gearing is how the car changes engine power to make the wheels turn faster or slower, which affects how fast the car can go.
Term
aerodynamicist
An aerodynamicist is someone who helps make cars go faster and handle better by shaping them so air flows smoothly around them.
Term
rear spoiler
A rear spoiler is a part on the back of a car that helps keep it steady when going fast by pushing it down onto the road.
Concept
Millbrook
Millbrook is a special place where car makers test how fast and well their cars can drive safely.
Car
Mercedes-Benz 420 SEAC
The 420 SEAC is a special version of a Mercedes car that is faster and sportier than usual. It has a strong engine and is quite rare, making it special among Mercedes cars.
Company
Superchips
Superchips is a company that changes the car's computer settings to make it run better and sometimes faster.
Term
manual gearbox
A manual gearbox is when the driver changes the car's gears by hand using pedals and a stick, instead of the car doing it automatically.
Car
Ferrari Enzo
The Ferrari Enzo is a very fast and special car made by Ferrari. It uses technology from race cars and is very rare.
Concept
Maranello concessionaires
Maranello Concessionaires is a special Ferrari dealer in the UK that sells and takes care of Ferrari cars and helps with racing teams.
Term
cattle grid
A cattle grid is a metal grate on the road that stops animals from walking across but lets cars drive over it. It can hurt cars that are very low to the ground.
Term
opposite lock
Opposite lock means turning the steering wheel the other way when the back of the car slides out, to keep control and stop spinning.
Term
tire barrier
A tire barrier is a wall made of tires at race tracks that helps protect cars and drivers if they crash by softening the hit.
Concept
gravel trap
A gravel trap is an area filled with small stones next to a racetrack that helps slow down cars if they go off the road, keeping drivers safer.
Concept
Radical championship
The Radical championship is a car racing competition where drivers race special lightweight and fast cars called Radicals on race tracks.
Term
chicane
A chicane is a part of a race track where the road quickly turns left then right (or right then left) to make cars slow down.
Term
rear wing
The rear wing is a big fin on the back of a car that pushes it down onto the road when you drive fast. This helps the car stick to the road better and not slide around.
LIVE
there's a particular hill in Snowdonio which is the only bit with signal and we used to call it
Bad News Hill because that's where you went. Yeah. Welcome back to Evo podcast episode 42.
This episode of Join by John, Dickie and James Say that has returned. Yes. There's a new fresh set
of teeth. It's very expensive. Yeah. Aren't they always? Aren't they always? We thought this episode
we were going to touch on close shaves that these guys have had. That sounds so wrong.
Oh, we'll find out how wrong it is. Yeah, we've been doing this for quite a while. So we thought
it's not all smooth running. So John, do you want to kick us off with not because you've
been doing this the longest and you've had the most but you've been doing this the longest and
you've had the most? Well, yeah. The magazine always looks nice and polished,
doesn't it? Yeah. You never get to see some of the dramas behind the scenes and that's been
the case. Yeah, you don't get to see Aston's uncropped photos. He'll love that one too. Yeah.
So, yeah, I remember we always just do our testing at Milbrook. Sorry, at Myra. Sorry,
Milbrook. And we'll start from the start. We cut that out, can't we? So, yeah. Back in the day.
Yeah, at Milbrook, we used to spend a lot of time there. Sure. Yeah, we did do a lot of testing.
And it was a very wet day and we were testing some middle sort of market
saloon cars, one of which was a Nissan Maxima with a V6 engine. And I was coming back up the
mile straight onto the great big apron which was soaking wet, turned into the apron and the car
swapped ends. So now I'm going backwards at 100 miles an hour. And the brakes didn't seem to be
working. I thought this could bend very badly because I knew there was a huge grass bank
just looming behind. Yeah, it's like a bolt in the end of the straight. So I sort of
wasn't slowing down much, braced and then hit the bank and went all the way up the bank, almost to
the very top. That one wasn't too bad. The wipers gave a flick and then it started to go back down
the hill with gravity on the wet growth. And there was a French drain at the bonk's gravel
and it just nosed into there. So I couldn't get it out. So they had to recover the car. And I went
to the control room to collect the keys a bit later on. And the guy said, hey, so you were
quite lucky there because there's apparently no damage to the car. So well, that is quite
remarkable. So we did find this on the driver's seat. And there's this eight inch turd. But it
turned out what it was. When the car had backed itself up the bank, the exhaust had taken soil
samples. And as it came back down, it chugged out these little soil samples. So yeah, but the car
was apparently undamaged. So yeah, that was a pretty close one. How did Nissan take that?
Would you just? Well, we asked them to check out the geo because we thought it might just tweak
something. And there was nothing they found on a geo. And there was just a slight crease on there,
the rear sort of water panel. But what caused it? You ever get to the bottom of it? No, no,
it just going too fast in a Nissan maximum, I guess. Yeah, I guess so. It's just must have been
just a bit of standing water or something. And just a bit too much input. So that was quite lucky.
But that's not the only one I've had in the wet.
Our Evo Carruthier 2010 at Cadwell Park. Yikes, that was a big one. Well, nearly a big one.
Which is nearly a big one. Yes, that was nearly an 18 inch one, wasn't it? Yeah, we
just started to rain a bit. And on the dipped back straight at Cadwell, you can get just a little
bit of water running across the track. So I think we've got a Ferrari, kind of which one it was,
458 probably. I think it was 458, yeah. And that had been fine. And then the next lap I was out
in a in the Lamborghini kind of a super together. And it was a bit more water when it
crossed the circuit. I thought I'd be fine. And I hit the water and the car is just at least
swat sideways 90 degrees to the to the circuit on the grass with the Armco whizzing past.
And it seemed to go on forever. You know, like in Tom and Jerry Cartiers,
where the same lampstand and door goes past many times. That's what it was like when we were
going up the other side of the hill still on the grass still sideways.
Like I've seen that airplane with a plane going past all the gates.
Yeah. And it just went on and on. I looked out the window and I could see the marshals post
starting to loom. This could end up very badly now. I had all this luck. But then the the topography
changed slightly. It was a little lump and the front of the car turned round, went past the
marshals post and crossed the road and came to a halt. So it was like, that was very lucky.
And then the photographer was on the radio, you just do it again.
One more with the lights on. I didn't get that. So yeah. And again, there wasn't that much damage.
There was lots of as the evidence is always the grass in the rims.
Yeah, between the wheel rim and the tire. So yeah, it had a bit of a beard of grass.
And I think some little bits of the carbon diffuser disappeared as well.
But yeah, that carried on good the rest of the test. I think it came second to last.
No bearing. Two weren't connected, I don't think.
Come on, Dickie, finish your tea.
Blimey. If you think back to performance car days, we were doing a
all wheel drive test. So that was R33 Skyline, wasn't it? When they first brought those to the
UK, we had a Quattro 20 valve. Yeah. It's Grally Evo and an Escort Cosworth.
Yeah. It's a little turbo Escort Cosworth, wasn't it? Yeah, I think that was my long term.
So which is all great. The Insugrally was the tricky one because we couldn't get one from a
press fleet because Lance here had kind of wound up in the UK shortly before that,
I think, or is around about that time. So a friend of mine, Gordon, sorry for what's to come.
He had a lovely Lord Blue, which is a dark blue Intagrally Evo. He'd arranged or agreed to meet
up with us. Was it on the Craven Arms? Yeah. Clun Forest towards Wales. So we were going to meet
up on that road, do some photography and then carry on to North Wales. And it was very early
days. So we were using Angleseep circuit just after that had opened. So anyway, we were doing
some photography waiting for Gordon to turn up. We heard him coming. He came past us at quite some
considerable speed, sort of hooted and waved, turned into a quite a long right hand corner,
ran slightly wide onto a grass verge. And it was all like we were just watching when it was like,
oh my God, this is all unfolding again in slow motion. The car was on its belly. So none of
the wheels were on the ground on the grass verge. And then it's went right into the bigger
bank with a great big tree, probably 200 year old tree. And the root ball of the tree was
where he hit us like, oh, God. And it was all a bit cockeyed, wasn't it? The roof was a bit
kinked and it still drove, but it was like, oh my God. So after saying hello to Gordon,
he then dragged the car off. And I don't think we saw him again, did we?
No, not for the test. So then we had to find another car because we were there. We had rooms
booked where it was a cover story for the performance car. So yeah, where do you find
another integral? When things go wrong on the test? Because I remember that cover.
Yeah, still it was a great, really nice test, actually. Where do you find it?
Well, we found there was a last year specialist called John Wally who specialized in integralities
and he was an absolute legend. So we phoned him up and he, did he come? I think he turned
up that evening. So like literally, it wasn't within a couple of hours. And then we drove all
we were at the circuit and then we spent another day on the road, I seem to recall. It was quite
a long, quite a long test. So yeah, we went from having no, no test, like, or a test in
tatters. And then arguably it was better because it was bright yellow. So the, so it looked better
in the, in the photos. But yeah, I often wonder what happened to the blue one, the dark blue one.
I suspect it's still in circulation somewhere. Maybe look up the registration quietly later.
But yeah, that does happen sometimes. It does, doesn't it? Well, the sort of, you get everything
meticulously planned and back in the day, more so than really old farts now,
pre-mobile phones and planning and stuff. So it must have been a few, well, there was a few
couple of early days of EVO, but without picking on you, John. Even before then, what was it?
Well, even performance car days, it was the same thing, isn't it? You have to,
everything has to be prepared beforehand and everyone sticks to it. And then if something
drops out. And that's why we have the rule, you're always responsible for the car behind,
because no mobile phone, no mobile phones. So if you get split up, you don't get the photography
that day. So yeah, that's all. Yeah, because before sat-nav as well. So quite often you wouldn't
know where on earth you were. So if you'd be following the person that knew where they were
going, so we still have that. We still try and have that rule. Yeah. It has the benefit of
upping your skills slightly, because you have to keep up with everything. That's not the case
anymore. Obviously the driver's unsublian, you know, within the Olympics. Yeah, days of driving
with the Phillips navigator on your lap to try and work out which tiny Welsh village you've
just driven through. Yeah, I don't know how we, I don't know how we did it. I think our brains
have evolved to not know how to do that anymore. De-evolved. De-evolved, yeah. Yeah, because it's
still, even with everything, the technology to date, still drops out the last minute, doesn't it?
Well, you end up with... Well, the classic is Aston, so I've dropped a pin, and then you realise you've
got no phone signal. He tears off at like 300 miles an hour. And everyone's like, and then...
What's that group? Where are you always? I'm still trying to download the pin.
So yeah, it still happens, isn't it? It's still, because you had it with, was it Nilem Duckart?
Yes. You turned up on his rights. Perfectly planned... Yeah, yeah, a couple years ago.
At this point, I have not fully admitted my own responsibility for this. Which was...
Crazy, right? Full disclosure moment now. Well, we were doing a feature in Austria. It was two
features in Wong's. We were actually going to the KTM factory at Graz, but on the way we were going
to shoot this adventure drive in the then-U911 Dakar. And I'd got as far as choosing a road in
Austria, which looked beautiful. It was going to be an amazing shoot. What I hadn't done, and
realised when I arrived, I realised it's closed over winter, and it wasn't due to open for spring
for another three days. We were three days early before it opened again. I possibly not mention
that bit. So Aston and I pulled up to the barrier, which was down, and it was like this sort of
beautiful screensaver, the other side of the barrier, this perfect tantalising road, completely empty.
And the barrier the other side was open, and we thought, should we just drive through the exit?
But there were cameras and things, and just thought, what do we do? And we were trying to look where
else can we go, but the nearest place, that the next best place would have been a good few hours
drive, and it would have put an extra day on the shoot. And we were looking through Google Maps,
and thought, well, it's an off-road car. And if we do a bit of sort of green-laying, I think this
is technically the public road, if we go this way. And we sort of went through this kind of sound
of music, kind of landscape, when across this little wooden bridge, across this little stream.
So you really did just go and tell it off, please? Yeah, we went through the woods, and then we sort
of backtracked and ended up kind of in this amazing forest trail parallel to the road we couldn't
drive on. And it actually made the shoot, it made the feature, because it made a virtue of the fact
the car could be off-road. Yeah, exactly. And yeah, we ended in this amazing kind of snowy
mountain place, which is really cool. But yeah, it was initially down to my ineptitude at
Checkingwich, which dates the road was over. I think Harry fluked that sort of job, didn't he?
Took the 340R with Gus to the clouds and past, and they'd literally opened the road
that morning when they had to end up. So they just run a plow. So a few hours earlier, that'd
have been... Yeah, they'd run a plow all the way to the top, but the snow was probably 10 feet
deep at the side of the road, so they got amazing shots of the car. And no one was on it,
because everyone presumably assumed it was still closed, but that absolutely definitely wasn't
planned. It was just lucky. You know, the best ones are often not planned, although when you do
lots of planning, it can take a while for the best ones to actually happen. Yeah,
yeah, we sort of, we took a punt or took advice from somebody. We went to do the
200 mile an hour on the Autobahn. Yeah, wasn't as much fun as it read,
because we got there and somebody has said it's this particular bit of Autobahn you need,
but you need to get up early to beat the trucks. So we had a bi-turbo, a bi-engine...
MTM. We had a Zonda. We had a Zonda. We had a TVR Tuscan. Was there in a lease, like a modified?
Yeah, there was a modified Vsauce turbo in lease. Edo, Edo. That rings a bell.
There was a roof. And there was a roof, yeah. So the roof was delivered the night before,
and they said, we said, will it do over 200 miles an hour? A lowest rift? Yeah, of course it will.
Down just near our factory, we did 214 miles an hour last night.
So we're thinking, gosh, I hope we're on the right roads to do that again. And we weren't.
We got up at three in the morning. We went to this Autobahn and it was full of trucks.
So we had to quickly regroup, drove a couple of hours across and ended up, I think it was the A8
down to Ingolstadt. But by that time, of course, morning traffic.
So we ended up stuck in a burger place at the side of the services for eight or nine hours,
waiting for the traffic to die down. So you're all knackered and eating terrible food.
Perfect prep for driving 200 miles an hour. Yeah, absolutely. But as soon as all the traffic died
down, I took the roof out and it did 201 miles an hour. That's enough. Yeah, next car. And I think
Jethro went out in the MTM, did 203, 204, just literally two junctions. And that was it. That
was the fastest car there. Left the Zonda for dead. It's had 600 and something horsepower to do it.
Yeah, it was mad. No, it was 700. Really? Yeah, 700 horsepower. And then the last car we did was the
TVR Tuscan, which they claimed would do 200 miles an hour. I think
David Viv had been out to try and do it earlier and the splitter, the front splitter had fallen off.
Yeah. And that's his arrow. Yeah. So they got away with it on that, in that instance.
So it was the last car, so we put the gear on, everybody else went off towards the hotel.
And Colin Goodwin and I went down the road in this car, this Tuscan. And
we were pretty, it was pretty obvious quite soon that it wasn't going to do 200 miles an hour.
It was Tuscan now, wasn't it? So was it 400 horsepower supposed to be here?
Yeah, it needed more than that, needed more than that. So this thing got to about, on the gearing,
it got to, I think it was 180 miles an hour. And it clearly was geared for that. So it was
never going to do 200. But the thing, the thing was shaking itself. It's like a heterodyne
funk going on. You could hardly see where we were going. So, so yeah, it didn't make 200 miles now,
but neither did the Zonda. Right. And Andy Wallace, our friend, was there on that test with...
Yeah, it was just shy, wasn't it? He's done 200 miles an hour a few times in his life.
He knew, yeah, before he managed it, if anybody could, he was going to manage it.
But the exhausts were almost blue, you know, like straw color, because they had the, you know,
had their foot down flat out for so many kilometers, and it still wouldn't quite squeak over 200.
Any particular reason why? Do they know? Did they look into it or...?
Well, Andy, I think Andy's partner at the time was working as an aerodynamicist at one of the
Formula One teams. So he must have rung her up, Nasta, for a bit of advice, because they trimmed
the rear spoiler to see if that made any difference, and it didn't, so... Folding the mirrors in.
Taping up the door, see, yeah, but it just would not do 200 miles an hour, but we did it, you
know, so we came back with the story. But better plumbing sometimes is. Fiverts, in previous with
a Tuscan, didn't instantly, the tiger panel blow out of one when he was driving one on the test?
No, that was monkey and Steve Sutcliffe and Chris, so they turned that for auto car.
So TVO had this big gathering of media at Millbrook, because they'd been these sort of
on and off media wars with Peter Wheeler, so they decided to do a big sort of proper thing,
get everyone there. Everyone could have a go at figuring the car on the mile straight,
wasn't it? So they honked off down the straight and then came flying, because you could do it in
directions. They came flying back towards us. We were all on the apron where John had reversed
the reverse part, maybe somewhere about two or three years ago. Makes a memorial bank, yeah.
Twenty years. No, it would have been nine or nine years, maybe not. 15 then. And yeah,
just we had this enormous, like, bang, and the whole roof panel just went up like a leaf.
Like a second one. And they like screeched, so it was like proper comedy time, and they sort of
came to a halt. I'm sure I'm exaggerating, but it felt like they come to a halt. They come out
like days with wax. And then the roof panel did that. Everyone was like, what the? Just happened.
Ben was there, sort of, Samuelson PR man trying to think of a way of spinning it. Smoothing it out.
But yeah, that was, that was, that was Boris Harris and Steve. I was a TVR.
My friend had it in a 420 SEAC going to the Monk. It roared off without us. We came around the corner,
that looks like a roof panel for Rob's TV. Done the same thing, had popped out,
picked up, put in the boot. So he's squinting chips. Yeah, the SEAC. So I had the same thing
with Milberg. Turbo Technics. I think it was an Escort RS from a drive jobby,
which it wasn't turbo, it was super chips. And it was the guy's wife's car, the owner of super chips.
We came up in the podcast with Julian from RaceLogic. So this, I'm going around the
bowl, Milberg doing the max speed and pop the sunroof disappeared out. And it's glass sunroof.
And I thought, ah, if I'm taking the car back, we know we've got to bring back
a handful of broken bits of glass. So I said to the guys in control, is it okay if I have a look for
the sunroof? And they said, yeah, all right. So I was walking around the banking and I found it.
In one piece. It'd be tough and glass. So it must have flopped down and got a soft landing.
I think that's the added jeopardy, isn't it, that we don't tend to have so much,
because we would always figure, we'd always performance test stuff. So we'd always try
and schedule that after we'd done the road driving and photography. After the pictures
are in the back. Exactly. But then you'd have the added jeopardy. If the weather's not looking
great, you needed to get the figurines out before the road test. And inevitably,
if you did it that way around, then you'd probably break something. Yes. Yeah, particularly
there back in the day, there's all manual gearboxes. Yeah, everything was more fragile then as well.
I think they weren't quite as apart from the timing gear that was busily engineered. Well,
that would probably fall off. Or the prints of paper would run out. Yeah, or the fifth wheel.
This shows how old I am. The fifth wheel would be on the side of the car and you'd
forget and you'd reverse over it. Oh, right. That was a common thing. So yeah, all this sort
of jeopardy that you don't see, all the behind the scenes dramas. Yeah, the last minute dramas,
which James pointed out earlier of one of the car of the years, three weeks before it was due to
happen, moved countries. That's right. Well, it was ridiculous because all the cars just started
falling out individually. It was just like this domino effect of really sorry. But yeah, well,
it's all right. We've still got eight cars or nine, then it got down to seven cars, six cars,
five cars. Yeah, got below six. That's not really a car of the year. That was a test.
That was all due to still Brexit and car may fall out and get moving cars around and a car
coming from one country. Oh, so that's why we'd forgotten all about that. That's why we get it
in the UK. It was easier to get a car into the UK than it was to get a car out of the UK.
So they all came over here and did it up in the, your first one, was it? So yeah,
all couple of weeks before we were all expecting to go down to somewhere warm and sunny and ended
up going somewhere a bit milder and slightly damp around the edge with a nice tight deadline to
write the words as well. Yes, we've got to move it back a couple of weeks to find accommodation for
15 people and stuff. So yeah, but yeah, the last minute changes, there's been a few and
sometimes for the better and hopefully no one notices. I think there's a sweet spot with
planning is if you plan too far ahead, something is bound to change and throw the whole thing into
chaos. Yeah, it depends how, how sort of stress you're prepared to get, isn't it,
of how late you leave it. And there is a sweet, as you say, you leave it to,
you know, yeah, fine. We've organized it for six months down the line and everything will change.
Yeah. Sometimes it's brilliant though, like it's proper last minute. It's like
playing on a fruit machine and every pound you get a jack of a pox, like I think you can get this,
this, okay, phone them. They've got one phone and they've got one. Yeah. And then you've got this
test that you would never have, never have thought you'd pull together. I think that was a bit like
the, when we did all the Ferrari, so a GTO, having all TF 50 and Enzo, that was, that kind of test.
The impossible tests sometimes are the ones that come together that you think, well, that's never
going to come together, but we might as well try because it would be funny to see what excuses we
get of why we can't do it. And it's like, well, he said yes, and he said yes, and sort of caught
them all off. You phone a press office, can we have a non-descript hot hatch, but no.
Yeah, exactly. What did the GTO come from? Because that was last minute, wasn't it?
That was Jeremy cutting them. Oh, yeah. Yeah. So this was a test Eva did when the Enzo was
knees over. So it was Enzo, that was 50, F40 and 28. So the Enzo, at the time, we had a good,
good kind of relationship with a guy called Sam Lee, who has a still has a crazy car collection.
And he sponsored a GT team, Ferrari GT team, they sort of revived the Maranello concessionaires
colours, and it was called Velox Motor. Oh, yeah. And they're one British GT,
don't know if they're F40s. So I got to know John, one of Sam's guys, and Sam very kindly. So we got
first drive of the Enzo in the UK, which was his car. And then he let us have the car back to do this
this big test. So yeah, Jeremy cutting him supplied the to a GTO drove it up for us as well.
Yeah, certainly. And there's a guy local to me. That was ridiculous, a guy called Robin,
who just let me have the car for he said, Oh, I'm going on holiday for three weeks, but you can
pick it up and I'll let you know when I'm back and you can bring it back. So I had this I had an
F50 stung my garage. And to the point earlier about if something bad is going to happen,
it's going to happen to the car, you least want it to happen. I didn't dare take it
anywhere other than the morning we drove up to Wales and then I brought it back home.
And even then I clouted the front on a cattle grid. I took a small chunk out of that I was like
heartbroken. And then like, Oh, God, how am I going to tell Robin Harry that I need to pay for it?
So we I was I was like, she's got to do this properly. So we ended up having it painted at
I can't remember whether it was motor technique or or Ferrari, someone like went through the whole
do it absolutely perfectly. So then when I gave the car back to Robin, I was a bit of a miss,
but it's all done. So I was gave him the car back was sort of going around the houses trying to
find a good way of telling him that. Oh, you shouldn't worry about that. I'm always doing it.
I take it around the local. But yeah, it's always always the trickiest cars and the F40
that was chapturned lens lens car. And all those turned up with it. And we
as was the way at the time, I would take the owner out, drive it beautifully,
put him at his ease, and then you guys had razz off. Do a sneaky cornering shot in it,
bring it, bring it back. No, he was very relaxed after it. You know, he saw what we were up to
and how we did it. It reminds me of a story of another. Do I tell you all about the auto car
first very first handling day? Oh, yeah. Castle Q. Well, they they got a Ferrari for that,
which was pretty rare at the time, because Ferrari, you know, back then, well, that wouldn't
be a Maranello concessionaires, wouldn't it? It would have given you the car before Ferrari.
Yeah, we're a thing, an entity. So yeah, it's a pretty special thing to get Ferrari.
And being a young roistered oyster, I was doing some of the handling shots at it was at Castle
Q. And Peter Byrne, ex of motor was was doing the shots. So he knew he was going to get the shot.
And I've done a couple of cars for him, but ran Quarry Bend,
there's a lovely oversterer, five series, five, three, five, I,
and that I thought I'd got my, got my inside, take the Ferrari out.
Why's all your Magnum? I was a black one, completely different.
308 GTB got into the corner, got on the power. This is going to stop turning.
Rampant 230 horsepower. Yeah, cool. Yeah, I can tell you. And Peter Byrne got the shot,
looking the other way. Yeah, this shot while he was running away.
He never ran away, Peter. There's a Marshall post, Marshall's post on the inside of the corner.
And he's got this series of shots of the car getting more and more sideways, me looking
the other way. And it just goes past the end of the tires.
So anyway, back to the pits, dusty car. Anybody that listened to that?
It's a nice car, but a little bit spiky, a little bit spiky at the limit.
And they went, oh, get on with you, you know, can drive something else, get in your system.
Anyhow, about 10, 15 minutes later, the news editor had taken the car out and had done the same thing,
but hadn't been going quite as quickly or got the opposite lock on quite as quick.
And the tire marks went straight into the tire barrier.
Straight to the scene of the accident. Straight to the scene of the accident,
which is a shame for Mr. Michael Harvey. Oh, did I say that?
So yeah, that was keep the newshounds out of their deaths, that's what you'll say.
That's probably spoiled our relationship with the Ferrari for another couple of years.
We need to get asked on it because he's one who's got all the dirt on all of us.
Yeah, because he's got, he's got like a retirement file.
He's got photographic evidence.
Just one more with a bit more hair.
I'm not going to say Epstein.
But he's got the dirt on all of us.
But Sam Riley, the videographer, I discovered has got a folder for funny journalists,
so he's kept all the clips.
But we're hilarious, aren't we?
He just asked, he just asked, he's shit on camera.
It's all right, Sam, that's a good one.
Yeah.
So I'm sure Aston's got the same...
But there is a rule, isn't there?
Never let the photographer drive.
No, but there is getting to the stage where we need to,
we need to start photographing them.
Yeah.
Because they seem to make it look...
Well, it's the job swap feature.
It is a job swap feature.
That needs to happen.
I did, I did let the photographer on the first Mini Cooper launch drive.
Because I thought the car was completely foolproof.
Yep.
But not photographer proof.
Geez, we got so close to the edge in Italy.
You know, you get those roads that go around the edges of mountains,
and there's just a block and then there's some rusty metal in between.
God, you can skittering into there.
Well, it's just their way, isn't it, of revenge,
because they've had to sit next to you for two days.
Yeah.
Pretty much.
And they said, can I drive back to the hotel?
I don't know, I'll get in one.
We are.
I'm totally a near missus.
I did, a recent one was in the Roberto.
But on track, so I suppose it's forgivable, isn't it?
And I thought I'd got in there.
I thought I'd got away with it, but then he came out in the corner.
I happened to be looking at the side of the car.
Why is it facing the wrong way and why is Dickie not in the car?
I just thought, like, can I stat it for asset?
Very neatly parked.
I, yeah, out of a tight hairpin I may have.
And to be fair, the track was mixed condition.
No, it was, yeah.
Patchy wet drive.
But I ended up having a spin and I shut my eyes
because I thought I've run out of any useful input here.
So I'm just going to shut my eyes and I open them.
And it was perfectly parallel parked up against the
tire wall barrier on the inside, like literally
that close.
I think it was just a build up of mud from the wheel sliding sideways
that acted like a boy for a boat not hitting them.
It was like one of those Guinness World Record parking attempts.
Yeah, it was like a rough, swift kind of effort.
Yeah, that was very good.
Well, you made to pick all the mud out of the tire spikes.
I had sort of scooped it with like pottery throwdowns
and that sort of clay that was stuck in the wheels.
But yeah, that was.
Only in the wheels?
Very close.
Clay anywhere else?
No, nothing.
No soil sand falls this time.
Yeah, there is nothing worse than having to sort of the cleanup
of sort of shame of wiping the mud off the side of the car
and picking the mud out of the spokes.
I've still got some photos of Jethro from doing cornering shots
in his VXR.
Were you?
Sorry, we're broken the fourth wall.
Pointing at Aston.
I can't remember who was photographing it,
but it was a proper rally spec.
Got the back wheels down in the ditch
and he just kept his foot in, grabbed itself up and out
and I was parked around the corner waiting for it to appear
so I could go.
And you could just see from the body language of the car
and him and he got out and he was in hysteric,
like crying like Jethro does,
but there was mud and grass plugged all the way around.
It's like a frilly sort of on the rear wheels.
Another close one.
Any one that you could get away with
and it's a jet wash job is fine, isn't it?
Yeah, yeah.
Jet washers may be picking out the mud.
It's always when it's raining, doesn't it?
You always put a bit of a full jet wash in the car
and the rain to get the mud off it.
Get clouds of earth all year from underneath.
Or you do one side of it and think,
I've got away with it and then you look underneath
and think, oh, right, I need to get underneath
and pull the mud out of it.
James, you must add a few pro-shaves.
You spend so much time on track.
Yeah, I mean, there was the time
when you rode a car the year a couple of years ago
but let it drifted nowhere near where I was intending to go.
And we did have to jet wash a particular car on that
and tick a lot of stones out of the brake disc before it did any.
Yeah, it's like, don't drive.
Yes, there you go.
Yeah, so there's a picture of it on the...
Yeah, we put it on a low loader and took it back.
And the crane out of the mud.
Yeah.
Johnson Palmer's freshly graded, seeded.
Yeah, because we took a drone shot later
and there were this sort of perfect time marks
in the freshly manicured...
You might see it on the sub's cover of a car year issue.
Well, I don't think it's on that wall, is it?
Yeah, I was back again at that circuit recently for a car launch
and they've taken that gravel trap out in its time like now.
So I don't know if it's because I spoiled...
I think they knew you were coming.
Yeah, they laid that on a special call.
Tailors, I think, yeah.
But yeah, speaking of corners on racetracks,
Johnny mentioned Cadwell Park earlier,
which is one of the more unforgiving tracks in the day.
But the only season of racing I've done,
I did a year in a radical championship in 2016
and it was the test day before the race itself.
And a radical around Cadwell Park
is one of the most fun things you can do,
sort of car track combos.
And I was getting a bit giddy.
And after the mountain where the car goes light
and sort of goes up on one wheel or takes off slightly,
there's this really fast sort of right left chicane
just afterwards, forgotten the name of it.
But I was just sort of dabbing the brake and going through
and I had the theory.
I thought the front end is so good on this car.
I don't think I need to touch the brakes.
I think it would go through with just a lift.
And my theory was disproved.
And it rains that morning.
So I just touched the grass on the way out
and it was just like a tractor beam.
As soon as I touched it,
it sort of pulled the car to the barrier.
But luckily, because it's a bike racing track as well,
they had those amazing kind of squiggy,
can't remember what they're called,
not tech pro, but something like that,
kind of squiggy bag things.
And so it went in forwards.
And then the car kind of slewed round at the back
and the rear wing touched the barrier.
And the team said,
I was the only driver they've ever met
who'd crashed a radical forwards,
but broke the rear wing because it comes on in.
Yeah, but it was fine.
No damage at the front at all.
But the barrier had done the job.
It didn't, even the tracking was fine.
It didn't even put the tracking out.
So they stuck a new rear wing on the back.
That's what they wanted to do,
but it's too late to change the name
on the entry form at that point.
So I've still got the rear wing at home.
So this wing's no good for us.
Either we put it in the bin
or you take it back as a souvenir.
So I was in a Vauxhall Adam press car at the time,
as I somehow managed to put it on the roof.
I did mock up a picture with it like that, actually.
But yeah, I've got that hanging in my garage at home
as a souvenir.
When I worked at another magazine,
there's a particular hill in Snowdonio,
which is the only bit with signal,
and we used to call it Bad News Hill.
Because that's where you went, yeah.
But we had, it was 2018 car, wasn't it?
Which was, we were quite fortunate
that the delivery company that bought said car,
the delivery driver was staying with his brother
who lived not too far away.
So when the said car ended up off the road,
we were able to phone him up and say he'd come,
you know, exactly where he were
and how to get it back on the road from where it was.
Was this the Alpine?
This was the Alpine, yeah.
Well, that was so weird, wasn't it?
Because we heard the driver had had an off.
I don't know, I can't see any evidence of it.
And then it slipped under the barbed wire, hadn't it?
Got under so it'd come out of the right bank.
Yeah, out of the right hander.
Yeah, he'd done that and then gone straight,
turn sharp, left and down the bank, hadn't he?
But managed to find the widest opening
in the between fence posts as well,
because it was really tight, but this was a big opening.
Well, I think someone had obviously taken the post out
of the fence and they'd just left the barbed wire.
Which was loose, so that just went,
it went under the barbed wire and then just sort of,
I guess, to bog it all the way down there.
But we couldn't find it.
No, oh wow.
We drove past, we went, where is he?
Oh, when you turned around and came back up,
could you see it?
But on the way down, you couldn't.
A bit of that fire put a coat in the ditch
and I phoned my mates and we've dropped,
where are you?
We've driven past this corner.
And we were so far down the embankment,
they couldn't see us, it was dark.
That's valet parking, isn't it?
Yeah.
Obviously we were sympathetic,
so we macked in the second one next to it.
Because they sent us an identical alpine.
But with one number out on the number,
so we just photoshopped that next to the other one
and just sent it to the PR.
With you and another one.
You wouldn't believe it.
It didn't go down well, that, did it?
No, no, it still doesn't spake continually.
But the other close show was the launch of the 360.
Because you drove a 911 down from Reading.
Well, these were the days when Ferrari
really didn't like comparison tests
unless they'd been sied off by the lawyers, almost.
A long story short, we'd done a twin test
and we were waiting for the bus
to take us back to the airport.
And the PR guy sidled up beside,
just down in my shoulder and said,
I hope you haven't done what I've heard you've done.
And I was just turning around.
So we did it on the cover last month,
if you want another cover, we have to do it with it.
And the PR lady, Ferrari, started to tug at his shoulder,
to his shirt, jacket.
There's a call for you, Tim.
No, no, in a minute.
And he was, I was in his sights.
He said, no, you really need to take this call, Tim.
And it was from AutoCar.
He'd just driven there, 911, into the back of their 360.
And I saw the PR lady a couple of months later,
at Silverstone.
He said, yeah, that was amazing, wasn't it?
You know, one of it was all this shit,
heading for your fan.
And then it went the other way.
That was a close race.
So yeah, thank you, AutoCar.
Saves us a right roasting that.
Before we annoy anyone else, should we wrap that one up?
Oh, really?
Just go, just go, I was near this whole book, yeah.
Always keep notes.
Yeah, but they've also kept notes on YouTube.
I know, that's what I want to get in first.
Well, let's say there's anyone else you want to upset.
No, not today.
There's another day of that for another one.
Save that for another one.
Okay, we'll call that one, bring that one to an end.
No biscuits this week.
John didn't bring any.
Cheeky.
After the Kit Kat Orange debacle from last episode.
Thank you all.
James.
Thank you.
Thank you, John.
We will see you on the next one.
Thank you very much.
About this episode
A lively chat unfolds as John, Dickie, and James share their most memorable automotive mishaps, from high-speed spins and unexpected off-road detours to last-minute test car swaps and close calls on challenging tracks like Cadwell Park and Milbrook. They recount tales involving iconic cars like the Ferrari F50, Enzo, and Lamborghini, revealing the behind-the-scenes chaos and luck that often accompany car testing. The hosts also reflect on the challenges of planning shoots before mobile phones and sat-navs, highlighting how spontaneity sometimes leads to the best stories and photos.
Original notes
The creation of an evo magazine feature involves a number of moving parts, and while they all come together for most, there have been occasions over the last 27 years where things haven't gone quite to plan. Stuart Gallagher, Richard Meaden, John Barker and James Taylor recount the most memorable mishaps.
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