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Ferraris, Fumes & Feeling Burnt Out – BCG Therapy with Sy of Drivers Union
Ferraris, Fumes & Feeling Burnt Out – BCG Therapy with Sy of Drivers Union
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About this episode
A lively discussion with Si from Drivers Union covers a range of topics including the challenges of content creation in the automotive world, the rising costs of car events, and the changing landscape of classic car ownership. They share experiences from recent car shows, including a Ferrari Owners Club event, and debate the future of iconic brands like Lotus and Jaguar. The conversation also touches on the impact of electric vehicles and the frustrations of navigating London's traffic and regulations, all while maintaining a humorous and engaging tone.
Topics:
content creation
car events
classic car ownership
Ferrari owners club
Lotus
Jaguar
electric vehicles
London traffic
automotive regulations
Cars:
Audi R8
Bugatti Veyron
Buick Century
Ferrari 250 GTO
Ferrari 275 GTB
Ferrari F355
Ferrari F40
Ferrari FF
Ford Capri
Ford Mustang
Jensen Interceptor
Lotus Esprit
Peugeot 308
Polestar 3
Polestar 4
Porsche 911
Porsche 914
Porsche Cayenne
Proton Preve
In this latest BrownCarGuy Therapy Session, I sit down with Sy from Drivers Union for a brutally honest, no-fluff conversation about the state of car culture in 2025 – and why, despite everything, we keep showing up.
We kick things off talking about the burnout of content creation – whether it’s YouTube, Instagram, or photography, the effort-to-reward ratio has never felt more lopsided. If you’re a creator, or just someone trying to keep the passion alive, you’ll relate.
Then we dive into the skyrocketing cost of car events – when did it become £55 just to park up and walk around? Have the best events like Hampton Court Concours and Salon Privé become too elitist for the everyday enthusiast? Is the community slowly being priced out?
We explore the new car price madness – with even average motors now hitting £35-50K, are people finally turning back to cool, characterful classics instead? We get nostalgic for stuff like the Lotus Esprit, and question whether it's too early to be ripping out engines for EV conversions while battery tech is still evolving.
Plus:
🔧 The cost of parking in London
🚗 The generational divide in car enthusiasm
🎥 Creating quality car content in a thankless algorithm
🔥 Why Dubai’s car meet culture (Car Middle East, Motoring Middle East) was so special
🤔 What the future holds for the car scene – and should we rebuild it?
This isn’t just a chat – it’s a therapy session for petrolheads. And if you’ve ever asked yourself why we still bother with all this car stuff in a world that seems to be turning against us… you’re not alone.
📣 Drop a comment if you relate to anything we talked about.
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Technical
Too Afraid to Ask
Car
Porsche 911
"I had the Audi R8 owners club, found out I lived. Well everybody's unhappy with you, so the Aston Martin guys are unhappy with you, 9-11 guys are unhappy with you, the Audi R8 guys are unhappy with you, who do you want"
Car
Ferrari A275 Ferrari
"You had one at the last Festival Italia. It was a 275 Ferrari that was there. And it's nice to see stuff like that out and about."
Car
Ferrari F40
"... I would go out on the drive and we would have an F40 of us. And at that time, 2005, an F40 was the sam..."
Car
Peugeot 308
"...hen you've got, you know, the people with the old 308s and they were like 20,000 pounds."
Car
Ferrari A250 Gto
"But you talk about Goodwood and I remember a few years ago, somebody crashed a 250 GTO in one of the historic races."
Car
Polestar 3
"You got one outside? I've got a Polestar 3 outside at the moment. Now, this Polestar 3"
Car
Proton Preve
"...To be fair, it's the same thing happened at Salon Preve as well. They do move the cars."
Car
Lotus Esprit
"...ecause they are celebrating 50 years of the Lotus Esprit and apparently there's going to be a lineup of"
Car
Jensen Interceptor
"...d away, then he came back then he bought a Jensen Interceptor and a TBR. But he had a Lotus Esprit V8"
Car
Buick Century
"us brilliantly over the last more than a century so suddenly turn it into a public enemy number on..."
Car
Porsche Cayenne
"yeah you know it's like my Cayenne the previous time they took off the bit at the bo..."
Select text to request an explanation
Are we live on OnlyFence as well?
Only if somebody's paying.
Do I have?
I shake my chest, especially these people that are stupid.
Oh, no, you did, did you?
Oh, man.
I'm pregnant.
Welcome everybody to another session, another therapy session, quite frankly, for Brown Car
Guy with Si again of the Drivers Union.
I don't know why he's come back again after the abuse he got last time, but there he is.
This is why I'm in a different location.
All right.
I had the Audi R8 owners club, found out I lived.
Well everybody's unhappy with you, so the Aston Martin guys are unhappy with you, 9-11
guys are unhappy with you, the Audi R8 guys are unhappy with you, who do you want
to upset this time?
Well, they found out where I live and they started buzzing me, driving past my head
buzzing me, but because it's not a supercar, it will be very quiet.
Oh, no, there we go.
And the burns have already started.
So how's it been going?
What have you been up to since last time that we spoke?
Oh, last time, let's see.
Well, Sunday I was at the Ferrari Owners Club concourse.
Right.
I just bought at Goodwood, which I've been a member for about 20 years now.
It was a great event.
I met up with a lot of old friends, lots and lots of Ferraris.
I took loads of photographs.
I uploaded them to the drivers union Flickr account, if anybody wants to have a look.
Is Flickr still a thing?
You know, I still use Flickr because I take hundreds of photographs, thousands sometimes.
Like, for example, the brand's hedge photograph, which I uploaded 599 photographs.
And then, you know, members or owners can download the higher risk versions for free.
Yeah.
Very good for that.
Whether anybody actually goes in and has a look at it, I don't know.
You see, the operative word there being for free, and I don't know if you notice,
but I just put up a few days ago, I put up a video on YouTube about content creation.
And because I was chatting to another friend of mine about content creation
and how the whole system works and how YouTubers survive and do what they do.
And there's this assumption out there.
People tend to think that, you know, YouTubers, just by the dint of being a YouTuber,
that somehow, you know, you're cash rich.
You know, YouTube's just sending you bagfuls of money along with a replac or whatever, you know.
And the reality is it's not.
It's a trickle fee.
And unless people, if people enjoy your content and if people,
because at the end of the day, like you do, you should go out and you carry this heavy camera gear around with you
and you shoot all these cars and all these photos and all these events, you know.
And it's not paid work.
It's free work that you're doing, you know.
And at the end of the day, people can either, I mean, even if people just appreciate you
by, you know, liking and engaging with the content.
Because I say to people, people say to me sometimes,
oh, I love your content, but you haven't been posting for a while.
And I'm like, dude, I post every single day.
The reason that you're not seeing it is because you're not engaging with it.
It's not enough to just let it run on the TV whilst you're YouTubeing
and just let it go on to the next thing.
Because if you do that, then YouTube assumes that you're not really engaging with the content.
You don't necessarily like it.
It's just on in the background.
And it won't necessarily show you content from that creator again.
So, you know, from one end, you can support your favorite creators
by going on Patreon and Kofi and whatever and supporting them or even on YouTube.
But at the very least, hit the like button.
Leave a comment, share.
That's costing you nothing.
But you can't imagine how much that helps content creators.
But again, going back to what you were saying, it's like, yeah,
you create all these beautiful imagery,
which you are an amazing photographer, Si.
God, I'm just blowing hot air up your ass now.
Why not?
But you are a brilliant photographer.
It's possible.
There you go.
And you are a brilliant photographer.
You put out some great imagery.
And, you know, it'd be nice, you know, for people to say, Si.
Brilliant.
Well done.
Thank you.
The problem is, on Flickr, there's no like button as such.
Oh, well, that's true.
Basically, you just wasted the whole 10 minutes I just spent ranting.
It was a complete waste of time.
Well, the thing is, you've got to post all the time.
And I really don't have the time to boost it,
to select the photographs.
As for YouTube, God, you know, because I used to be,
technically, I'm still in my professional cameraman.
And I've got all the equipment.
But I don't want to do it anymore because, you know,
I remember once I was doing, I was filming the Geneva Motor Show
for Amazon.
And, you know, I'm wearing this really big rig with these big cameras
because there, you know, the more equipment you have,
the more impressive you look and the more likely
people are going to talk to you.
And I was lunch break and I took my stuff off.
And I'm looking.
I'm sitting next to this guy in the press room.
And this guy is already editing and uploading the videos.
And I thought, well, what's the point in me doing it?
And the other problem is anybody can do YouTube.
If you've got a mobile phone, you've got a mobile phone.
Yeah.
You can go out, take a video, create a YouTube account,
bang, you're there, you've done it.
Yeah.
I mean, this is true.
This is true.
But, you know, but even then, I mean, you know,
again, it's easy to say that it's that easy.
But actually, it's not always that easy.
It's never that easy.
You know, I mean, nothing is ever that easy.
No, it's hard to get people to watch it.
Yeah.
Now, for example, I did a video many years ago of Nigel Mansel
playing a video game.
Oh, wow.
Right.
Legend.
It was in Docklands.
And I was filming him during the day because he was leading a,
I think it's a rose.
No, Jaguars.
He's leading loads of Jaguars, I think it was.
And he was on a bicycle when it's been done for charity.
So I was filming the whole thing.
And I filmed him playing a video game and I uploaded it.
And I've got about 270,000 views, but I've got 980 pound for it.
There you go.
And I thought, hang on a second.
But I looked at the stats and most of the views are from Japan.
So maybe they get paid more money from Japan.
Yeah, there are some countries that get paid more.
I don't know if Japan was on there,
but certainly like, for example, America,
you tend to get paid more than you would for some other countries.
I know another YouTuber who told me this story.
He does a lot of car videos.
He still does a lot of car videos.
And he did a video of a dog protecting a cat against a fox.
A dog protecting a cat against a fox.
Okay, all right.
He wrapped his video.
And even he said he was just,
you don't need to do the fox properly.
It was just this fox trying to get the cat
and the dog was protecting the cat.
And there was no violence or anything.
We're holding each other.
How much money did he make?
Go on.
£24,000.
Wow.
In that one video.
Yeah.
Right.
We're in the wrong game.
We need to be doing something.
You know, whereas if I did a documentary video
of an interview with somebody,
I'd be lucky to get a couple of files.
I should interview the local foxes.
That's what I should be doing.
That might help.
Animals is where it is.
So now I've said,
no, I'm not going to do any more filming
because it's hard work.
It is very hard work.
And that's the point.
But I mean,
so let's go back to the Goodwood thing
because you were saying,
oh, by the way,
try to send to yourself on the screen a little bit
so that viewers can see you.
You can see your beautiful visage.
I was going for the...
This is my cinematic thing
because you always go all turn aside, you see?
So I'm not used to going in the middle.
That's like...
So if there's any Bollywood fans out there,
the old Bollywood movies,
if you remember the old heroes,
there was one particular hero called Manoj Kumar.
And if you watch any of his movies,
he took that to the extreme
because not only would he be at the side of the screen,
but he would like half cover his face.
So like every scene, he'd be like this, you know,
as if he was thinking or he was hiding, you know,
and just to make him even more mysterious
and charismatic.
This is my good side.
This is your Bollywood actress side, is it?
That's the hero side.
My porn side.
That's the only fan side.
This is my radio side.
But anyway, Ferrari's a good one.
That's right, yeah.
Yeah, if you get a chance.
I don't know if it's going to the public,
but if you have a Ferrari, you can drive him for free.
I've been a member for 20 years, as I said,
and it was great.
It was lots of Ferrari to had a concourse.
The only thing that I was a little bit disappointed with
and I do not blame the Ferrari on his club for this,
because it's happened lots of events.
There was none of the very old special cars.
The very rare cars.
Because they're now owned by collectors.
And the collectors have them hidden away
because they were 20, 30 million pounds.
Even the guys who've got the normal Ferrari,
the three awaits have gone to now 9,500,000 pound.
They sort of keep them in the garage.
I don't want to bring them out.
So there was a lack of those kind of cars.
I think that's really happening everywhere now.
I mean, I think classic cars are wonderful.
I love classic cars and of course,
it's always amazing to be in the presence of
high-end, exotic, rare, exotic.
You had one at the last Festival Italia.
It was a 275 Ferrari that was there.
And it's nice to see stuff like that out and about.
But I always personally, I do find it quite ridiculous
when the values of some of these cars
get into the 40, 50, 60, 70, 80 million.
You know, at that point to me, I mean,
what is the point of that car?
Because that's a car that can never be driven on the road.
At that point, it's just too valuable to be,
to even tarnish its tires with the tarmac, you know?
2005, 2006, 2007.
Around that, that was a golden period,
I think for me, certainly.
Because I would go out on the drive
and we would have an F40 of us.
And at that time, 2005, an F40 was the same price
brand new 430.
140,000 pounds.
So then you've got, you know,
the people with the old 308s
and they were like 20,000 pounds.
Dino's are 24, 25,000.
They would all come along and we'd do it.
But now, you know, F42 million pound,
after you sit on the road.
Dino, you know, a quarter of a million pound plus.
308s are approaching 80,000 pound plus.
But on the other hand though, it's quite funny
because I remember a few years ago,
you're talking about Goodwood.
And I don't normally talk about Goodwood
and I'll come back to why.
But you talk about Goodwood and I remember a few years ago,
somebody crashed a 250 GTO
in one of the historic races.
And you thought, oh my God,
and I spoke to a few people and I'm like,
oh my, what an expensive accident, you know?
And the thing is like somebody,
they put it into perspective for me
because they said, well, yeah,
but you know, that car is probably insured
for 70, 80 million pounds or whatever.
So instead of crashing it, repairing it,
it's miniscule to the value of the car
that it'll easily be covered
and then you've just added more provenance to the car
because now it's that Ferrari that crashed at Goodwood.
So in fact, they don't mind.
They're cheap to repair
because it's based on cheap metal,
dimple engines,
dimple bits you can put together.
Yeah, just fiat parts.
Well, not even fiat parts.
Like our folk parts would play, really.
But you're looking at stuff now,
if you smash, someone did a video,
someone crashed a video,
I think it was a Ferrari FF
or GTC, a GTC.
That's going to be
mega money to fix.
I mean, how much is a GTC now?
It's about 180,000 pounds.
But to fix that, that's written off.
Yeah.
Well, the modern cars are.
I was just reviewing a Polestar.
Polestar 4.
You got one outside?
I've got a Polestar 3 outside at the moment.
Now, this Polestar 3
is so weird because there's a Polestar 3
and there's a Polestar 4.
The 4 actually slots below the 3
although the 4 is faster.
I don't know what they're doing at Polestar, really.
But the pricing.
So the price of this car
starting for the range
is just under 70,000 pounds
for a family friendly
EV SUV.
That's the starting.
The long range dual motor.
The long range dual motor
goes up to 75,000 pounds.
That's what it starts at. 75,900 actually, I should say.
This car,
this test car that they've sent me
hasn't even got all the kit.
No, listen, listen, listen.
Hasn't even got all the kit, right?
It's got Pilot Pack, it's got Plus Pack
and one or two other things, right?
85 and a half
grand.
85 and a half grand
for a family SUV.
When the heck
did normal, regular,
basic Polestar as a Volvo, right?
When did they get so damn expensive?
I mean, it's actually shocking.
Five grand is just the Plus Pack
on the car
which admittedly includes a 1600 W
Bowels and Wilkins stereo system.
But even then, and it doesn't even have
the Performance Pack which is actually
another optional extra.
So, oh my God.
What did you say?
I just saw, because
a buddy of mine was checking it out.
We were looking at, I think it was on
Collecting Cars and it was
a 1990 Porsche 964
backdated
to a 1970s style
target.
Beautifully done, blue with tan leather interior.
Really, really gorgeous car.
And I think that one just went for 75 K.
And you go, right, 75 K for that
or 75 K for a brand
of one of the Volvo.
Yeah, you're going to go for the Porsche
and leave the family at home.
We're getting old.
That's what it is.
You know, we're just, you know,
like I said before, you know,
give it another 10, 20 years
and we'll be like the smokers standing outside
buildings, you know, chugging away.
We'll be like in a gas guzzlers
and people pointing at us and saying,
oh, it's this guy.
Look, polluting everything.
Well, this is it.
I mean, as the guy
with the supercar club, you know, the biggest,
you know, I think we established the biggest,
I think we can get away with saying
the biggest multi-marked supercar club in the UK.
And the fact is they're all
supercars and now supercars
they've been clamped down, we spoke about this
last time, they've been clamped down on London.
They're starting to, I feel
there's this kind of propaganda starting to happen
against supercars, you know,
trying to turn people off supercars.
I mean, how do you and your members feel about that?
I mean, that's just like, do you feel picked upon?
No, I don't feel
picked upon.
That's a
very good question, actually. I'm not sure how to answer that.
I mean,
firstly, everyone
hates driving in central London, you know.
Well, that's a no-no now anyway.
I
drove in
central London
on, gosh,
it was Wednesday, but I took my cheyenne.
I just didn't want to take the Ferrari in because
I can traffic
and the gearbox is always sticky and stuff like that
on the left-hand box.
I think we are slowly getting there
to becoming persecuted because, you know,
not only because
we are driving petrol cars,
but also because it's a symbol of wealth.
And you also
think, you know, someone's been laid off,
someone's working really hard
and hasn't got money to pay for the bills
and food and the kids have ever seen somebody
drive around in a very expensive car.
Then I think
that
is what's going to happen.
But having said that, Si,
as the point I was just making,
I'm in the 85 grand.
That used to be supercar money not long ago.
So now we're not even talking supercar.
We're talking anything brand new,
big-ish looking with like 20-inch
rims on it, that's already an in-your-face car,
isn't it?
So Chris Ellis, hello.
He says, Aston, he's so happy.
Si's pics are amazing. There you go.
You got Minotaur myth.
Chaz here.
He's waving. Oh, F355
thing that he is.
He has. Ibrahim is saying,
don't forget to like the video, folks.
Thank you, Ibrahim.
That's what I think it is.
Yeah, I think it is a pink 355.
Yeah, so that's him.
And we've got Adam joining us.
Good afternoon, you two handsome fellas.
I like Adam, whoever that is.
I like Adam already.
He's got eye problems.
That didn't last long for the ego, did it?
Ibrahim, okay.
I'll come back to that question in a minute.
Places. Smash that.
Polestar's are geelys. Yeah, Polestar's are geelys.
Or so is Volvo's, because Polestar
was an offshoot of Volvo.
So yeah, but then, so is Lotus.
And so is the London taxi company,
London Electric Vehicle Company.
Ibrahim is asking us,
will either of you be at Hampton Court concourse?
I will be there
all day Friday
and all day Saturday,
because I'll be taking
probably 2,000 photographs
for,
because I do the books.
So I, so we're London,
because London Concourse at Hampton Court Palace
is by this union.
So I, at London Concourse, I took
3,500 photographs.
You know, you just, you just, you know,
you just went over that really quickly.
But just worth emphasizing,
Driver's Union is partners
with two of the most amazing concourse
shows in the Southeast.
That's fantastic. And Brandt's Hatch.
Yeah, and Brandt's Hatch.
Yeah, of course, yeah.
So, so actually,
next weekend, Sunday,
what we're going to do is we're going to take
about 50 British sports cars,
Spoopy cars and classic cars there.
We're going to do the demo runs and everything.
We take up a lot of the area.
So we do free shows with them.
They give us free tickets. They really look after us
and they're really lovely people.
I'm doing a book about that as well
for the photographs I've taken.
But the following Hampton Court Palace
are fantastic events.
So those people who don't know,
because people get confused
and blend in Palace.
Because there's two events.
And they kind of overlap at the same time.
And that's the thing. Well, I will say to everybody,
well, I will say to everybody, being impartial,
not being a partner either, but being impartial,
don't bother with blending in Palace.
Just go to Hampton Court.
That's my view. I've been to both of them
and that's what I think.
I'll take something about blending in Palace.
What are you doing now?
They've introduced a 75-pound ticket.
75 pounds ticket.
Normally it's 350 pounds.
Oh my God.
75 pounds. You can go.
And Wednesday and Thursday is a great event
because it's a concourse event on those days.
How much are the tickets at Hampton Court?
Hampton Court is a lot cheaper.
I'm not sure.
I'm going there because
we're going there as a club.
So on the Friday,
we're taking 30 cars
and we park up inside the event itself.
It's lovely.
We get there early in the morning and spend the whole day.
They're fantastic.
On the Saturday,
I think it's always a better day, the best day
because that's when the Konga cars drive in
in the morning.
Really good to see them all moving about.
And this is key.
I'm just sorry to interrupt you,
but I think that is key.
The Hampton Court is a place
where you do actually see the cars start up and move
because also they also go up to the main podium.
We know the lake in the middle.
You can see them, you can smell them.
It's brilliant.
To be fair, it's the same thing happened at Salon Preve
as well. They do move the cars.
But at Hampton Court,
I think you actually see them driving in from outside.
And you have 70, very, very rare cars.
So we park our cars
in the gardens themselves.
So we have 30 cars.
On the Saturday,
we have
three cars from our club
from our concours,
the top three winners of our concours that you were at,
that you were one of the judges,
they're going to be in a club trophy.
So I'm near taking photographs of them
seeing what they do and how they do
and everything.
And then on a Sunday
we've got 32 cars going.
But I'm not going to be there because it clashes with Silverstone
because it's a big Ferrari event
at Silverstone the same day.
And is Blenheim at the same time as well then,
this year?
No, Blenheim's changed.
This week.
So that was smart.
I don't know why they both clashed at the same time.
Normally they would clash.
I don't know why they did that.
I'm friends with both of them.
I think the official reason is
is because there are
other big concours events
happening on either side.
Also good with revival.
So it's very hard to fit in that kind of time.
So it tends to clash.
This year is the first time in many years
later on separate weekends.
It'll be good to see
how the reaction is and if the crowd
is greater for that reason.
So Ibrahim says he's going to be at Hampton Court on Saturday.
We'll see you there on Saturday.
I'll tell you another reason that I'll be there on Saturday
and not on the Friday.
I normally go on the first day but this year
I'm going on Saturday and I'll tell you why in a minute.
And he says that he
paid 55 pounds
for his
Blenheim Palace Supercars
on Sunday
and the Rustible on Saturday.
He paid 55 pounds for the ticket.
And this is the other problem
is the price of tickets of these things.
I remember a few years ago
I put up a live post from
hello2e30bob
who's watching us on Instagram.
So I put up a live video from the Silverstone Classic
and I said come down guys it's great
you can see all these cards.
And then immediately I had some messages from some of the viewers
and they were like dude it's too expensive
the price of the ticket, price of getting there
price of parking, price of eating
multiply that by a family of two or three
or four or whatever.
And suddenly you're looking at maybe several hundred pounds.
And I guess that we are privileged and honoured
that I always go with press passes
so I get press tickets.
So I never end up paying.
But when you think of it from that point of view
then you realise it is a costly, costly outlay
for a lot of people.
Yeah.
I do get people once
they put a ticket, they put this and that.
We have to understand this
and I understand because I've been organised as well.
The problem is if you want to go to a particular venue
it's going to cost money.
So for example Hampton Court Palace
well you know the organisers of the
Conference of Elements have to pay Hampton Court Palace
to do that.
Then you've got a lot of
support.
You need security, you need people to help
the marshalling.
You've got the admin and it's a lot.
It brings up London Court Palace especially.
I'm surprised they actually even make a profit.
It is very, very expensive.
Yeah.
And costs rise every year.
It is getting more and more expensive
but I'm not going to blame the organisers.
It's the venues.
It's just a rising cost.
It's just a rising cost.
And if you have an event that's very, very,
very successful
then obviously the venue is going to turn around
so they must be making lots of money.
Oh, it's great.
So let's up the price.
So in the previous life
in Dubai
we started a very small meet
while I was still at Car Magazine
and we started
cars and burgers type
meet. We started with like 25 cars
at Fat Burgers on Jamera Beach Road
and after car Middle East
we continued them.
We moved to a venue in this near Burj Khalifa
and they grew
and they grew and they grew.
We took up space at Festival City
and one year we had
and I don't know what happened that year
because we booked a certain space
with Festival City
and then the amount of interest we saw
that we were getting on Facebook
because for some reason it started to go viral
across the UAE and we thought,
okay, that's not going to be enough
for the other space. They gave us a space.
I went down there. I counted space.
I went down there personally and counted
potential for 7 to 800 car parking space
and I thought, that'll be fine.
That's okay. We're sorted.
On the day we basically
blocked out the entire area.
There was a traffic jam all around Festival City.
It was the biggest car meet that
Dubai had ever seen till that point.
It was estimated that over 11, 1200 cars
turned up that day.
How much was the entry?
How much was it? It was free.
That event was free because all our events
up to that point had been free
because the reason we had created the events
was just a social gathering.
It was just because we wanted to meet other car people
and we wanted to do that.
So we did that and then this thing just snowballed
and went crazy.
We freaked out because
this is the Middle East. If you mess up,
if anybody has an accident or a kid gets hurt
or something like that, we're in trouble.
So we freaked out. Fortunately, the Dubai police
are beautiful.
This is a big shout out to the Dubai police.
A lot of them are car guys.
A lot of them were actually our friends.
A couple of them were friends.
Even the CID turned up and we thought,
okay, that's it. We're going to get arrested.
But no, they mucked in. They helped.
They were fabulous.
But the dangers are there.
So like you say, the next one that we did after that
is we did it properly.
So we had 30 marshals.
We had security. We had fire and ambulance
marshals. We paid for that. We paid for lighting.
We paid for bathroom facilities
for portable toilets and stuff like that.
So we paid a lot. We then, of course,
had to get sponsors in.
So at the end of the day, what actually happened?
It was moderately successful.
We didn't lose any money. We just kind of
broke even. But it turned into
such a big fath.
It just turned into worse.
It was work.
At the end of it, me and Imtoshan,
my business partner and buddy, we sat down
and said, did we enjoy that?
And we said, no, we didn't. We didn't enjoy that.
We hated it every minute of it.
And the whole idea of the meets was
that we would meet car people and have fun
and just have a laugh. And it wasn't a laugh anymore.
So we stopped. And we literally, that was it.
That was the last one we ever did.
And a victim of their own success, those meets.
But it was good to see that other people carried.
Now, I think there's an organization there
called Flat 12. And they do
fantastic meets in Mums of Park
and places like that.
So it's a great opportunity that we kind of helped kickstart
that sort of phenomenon.
But nonetheless, I completely understand
is that if an event is successful,
the costs go up exponentially.
And then you do get into a position where you go,
okay, well, we have to charge for this.
So I can completely relate to that.
It was this event called
Morton House Supercars
run by
I used to, he's a lord.
I used to call him Lord Veyron.
Because he had...
And he's a really, such a nice...
You know what? No, I hated him
because you know what?
He was young, really handsome
and a lord. And he owned
Wilton Manor House.
Literally like a gazillion acres.
And he was a really nice guy.
He's probably still a really nice guy.
I think he's still got a Veyron.
I think he's got a bigger car collection now.
It's probably got the... What's the one after the Veyron?
It's got Chiron or whatever. It's got one of those.
I think he had a 288.
I don't know.
But he organised a really...
He organised a meet at Wilton House.
We used to go there, a few of us used to go there
and he got bigger and bigger.
Then he introduced a hill climb
and a track day in the morning
before the actual event.
And it was all done for a charity as well.
So he wasn't even making money. It was all done for charity.
And then reached stage where it got bigger and bigger and bigger.
And it was just
too much headache, I think.
I remember talking to one of the organisers
and he said it was just...
It cost us.
It ran away because
you get to a stage where it has to be better than last year.
And what do you do?
It could be bigger.
And then you've got more cars and more marshals.
And it became victim of its own success.
Victim of its own success, exactly.
It was a lovely meet.
There were fantastic cars that were going there.
So similarly to events that aren't happening
because Ibrahim is asking, do either of you know
what the car show is on Olympia?
No, I think that's been canned, isn't it?
It's done, isn't it?
Yeah. Is that the one that used to be at Excel first?
It was at Olympia.
Then it moved to a park just after the COVID days.
And then I think it moved back and forth
for a bit and then it just disappeared.
I think the organiser of that actually moved...
I can't remember his name
but I think he moved to Qatar or something.
Well, the first time they did it at Excel
it was really good because they had an indoor track.
And it was really...
That's right, yeah, yeah, yeah.
But what happened was every year it got smaller and smaller.
So the first year was the best one.
In fact, they had...
They had about five or four, whatever,
pools, massive,
and then it just got smaller
and then smaller.
Because then they were relying on people,
on businesses to advertise to come along
and have stands.
And these days people don't want to have stands
and they want to pay for stands.
And that's the trouble.
And then there's only so many sponsors
and exhibitors that you can reach out to.
And then they've all got to look at their budgets
and with everything the way that it is
with diminishing costs and everything,
people go, well, is it worth it?
Is it not worth it?
There's another event that I'm involved with
that I won't mention right now.
But again, the last year that they did it,
they had three great years and then the last year
it just went flat.
And you could see why it went flat
because they got too ambitious too quickly.
Because you've got to be careful.
You've got to pace yourself, pace the momentum.
And you know, I think at some point
if you decide that this is your ceiling
it's okay.
Do you know what I mean? It's not like you say.
The need to be bigger, better, flashier.
Maybe there isn't a need.
Maybe it's like, okay, I have a meet every year
and I get 100 cars, that's enough.
That's fine. I don't need 200 cars.
There you go.
And I'm guilty as the rest
because I do the Tribes Union Board
each one's got to be bigger and bigger.
The last year I did it too big.
Next year I'm going to come down a bit.
So why are you going to go on Saturday
to Hamptonville Palace?
Because I was going to explain that, wasn't I?
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Because they are celebrating
50 years of the Lotus Esprit
and apparently there's going to be a lineup of
I think it was 10 really nice esprits
or special, you know, with provenance
and all that. Esprits are going to be there
at Hampton Court.
So yeah, so I'm going to go.
So normally I go on the first day
but I think I'll go on the Saturday
because the esprits will be on the Saturday
so I want to go see them.
Because you're a big Esprit fan.
I love the Esprit. You can see it.
It's over my shoulder, just there.
People that are watching this rather than listening to it
I'm actually pointing to a shelf behind me
and on top of the shelf are two cars.
On the top of that shelf are three
things that are
mobility things which I probably love
probably more than anything else in the world.
Enterprise.
Well, as you spotted, the other thing
is the Starship Enterprise from Star Trek
and then the third thing up there is the
1968 Fastback Mustang
from Bullet.
So you've got the Bullet Mustang, the Lotus Esprit
and the Starship Enterprise is up there.
So yeah, those things up there
and you've got, who's that you've got?
I just like women.
You just like women, okay, that's fine.
So for those that are watching this.
He's got a poster
of a lady behind him.
For those that cannot see this
visualize a naked lady.
See, this is why you've missed out.
If you weren't watching this live on YouTube
or Instagram, you missed out
because it's just a big picture
of a naked lady right over his left shoulder.
So we're talking about
Lotus Esprit, have you driven
Lotus Esprit?
Yeah, I have. I went
in 1990, very early on in my career
I visited the Lotus Factory
and that's when the Elan had come out.
You know, the modern Elan
had come out.
So I went down there, I was writing an article for
I think it was Arab News, Arab News or something like that.
And I went down there
and I got to drive the Elan
and I got to drive the Esprit.
So this was like the, I think the Peter Stevens era
Esprit there at the Lotus Test Track
at the Boomerang Track that they got
around the back of the factory.
And it was absolutely fantastic.
The memory of that drive is still
like I've driven, as you know, I've driven so many things
I've done so many things but the memory of that
is still burned into my head.
And then years and years and years later
I did a review of a V8 Esprit
in Dubai belonging
to a friend of mine over there.
He moved away, then he came back
then he bought a Jensen Interceptor and a TBR.
But he had a Lotus Esprit V8
and we took that for a drive
and if you watch the video
I can barely get the words out at the beginning of the video
because I'm just, basically I am a kid in a toy shop.
You know, I've just lost it.
I've lost the ability to speak.
I loved the Lotus Esprit, I've always loved it.
You know, Spike loved me
and all the other Bond films following
and I like the Mark III.
So I've driven too.
First when I drove, I couldn't actually drive
because my legs, my thighs
were stuck to the steering wheel
and I couldn't move the steering wheel.
So I don't know what happened there.
Then I drove a V8 Turbo
and I was a bit disappointed.
It didn't feel, I don't know, I just remember
it was about 20 years ago.
So maybe I should drive one again.
But I still would like...
No, I think the problem was that
the problem that they had with the V8
when they first came out
was that the exhaust was too quiet on it.
The noise was too quiet.
The sound didn't felt a lot better.
So I think that was like the standard thing to do on them
is just to change the exhaust.
I think the one in Dubai that I drove
I think that had an aftermarket exhaust on it.
So that was great.
I think the only problem was the air conditioning
wasn't working. So on a hot day in Dubai
you want the air conditioning working.
But other than that, it was absolutely terrific.
Never meet your heroes, but I do love the Esprit.
So I think, yeah, meet your hero in that case.
Because talking about noise and sound
it's something interesting.
Have you ever heard of musical roads?
Yes.
They've just introduced it in Dubai, actually.
They've got it in Hungary.
I saw a video.
I don't know if you can hear it.
There you can hear it.
So it's a car.
It's going on.
So to those people that are...
I don't know if you can...
You can't hear that.
Can you hear it?
Yeah.
Just about.
So for those people who are listening
rather than watching
Si was just showing us a video
these are basically roads
where they have painted
these strips on the motorway
on one side.
So if you put one of your wheels
on that as you're driving along
I guess if you do the right speed
according to the tempo
which I guess would be the highlighted
on the motorway then you basically
end up with music.
That's what you get.
And you know what?
If up mayor can't listen
he'll be thinking that's a great way
to make revenue.
Let's put it down a whole street.
We'll rent it out
so you can have driving down
you have a theme tune of some like
Chanel or whatever.
Well first of all, yeah of course
he listens to the brown car guy
and secondly
we're like that
and secondly
there is nowhere in London
that you could get a car up to a speed
where you would actually be able to get some music
out of the road.
Literally you take the damn Finchley Road
Have you been to Finchley Road?
Is that three lanes on each side?
20 miles per hour limit.
What the heck is that about?
These 20 miles per hour limits have done my head in
Finchley Road
in 1992
I was driving down it
in the 90s and nearly ran over
and killed Liam Gallagher
for more aces.
There would have been a slit in the space time continuum
if you had done that.
Literally I'm driving
and I see him he's back across
and I can see him and I'm like oh that's Liam Gallagher
and I'm missing by about half a foot.
So you're the reason they put the speed limit
on 20 miles per hour.
I was in the 90s.
20 miles per hour you're so busy looking
at the speedometer
you don't know what you're doing
and it's just
as I said I drove down on Wednesday
it's 20 miles per hour here
30 a day but you don't lose track
you don't know what's happening.
It's absolutely crazy there's some roads up near
the South Hall West London area
and literally I mean look
there's Kingsbury High Road just where I'm living
there which it is you go fine
because there's shops and there's people are shopping
and they're crossing and blah blah blah
and that's fine if it's a school that's fine
if it's a hospital it's fine.
I'm driving along West London there's South Hall
there's a tree lined road
it's a tree lined road there's no shops
there's no nothing there shouldn't be anybody there
and the whole thing is set at 20 miles per hour
and the 20 miles per hour on a road like that
you literally feel like you get out and walk faster
than the car you're driving it's absurd.
Yeah I you know what
we're talking about 10 miles per hour remember
at some point it's like where does it end
10 miles per hour
there was some talk I hope it was a joke
but there was some talk but they say
look they say at 30 miles per hour if you hit a pedestrian
you know you could kill them if you're 20 miles per hour
etc etc 10 miles etc
look the reality is if you hit somebody at 20 miles per hour
you'll still kill them the reality is you shouldn't be hitting
anyone because pedestrians should not be
in the road have we all forgotten our green
cost code come on
I think if you want to stop any casualties
at all just
banned cars from the whole of the UK
banned cars from the whole of the UK and nobody goes anywhere
this is the other thing
this is the other thing that people don't realize
is that when car is made public enemy
number one what they seem to
forget is that for the last
130 years or so
the car has advanced
human capacity in every
possible way whether it's commercial
social leisure
emergencies taking people
to education taking people for jobs
taking people in every possible
way the car has served
us brilliantly over the last
more than a century so suddenly
turn it into a public enemy number one
I'm sorry but no stop talking
sense stop talking sense exactly
this is not the right place we talk about
damn right
what am I thinking what
is wrong with me right
but that's bonkers I mean
the reality is you know we got to put these things
into perspective and I think the trouble is
is the complete and total lack of
common sense in the world right now
you know when you look at these things sometimes it's just common
you look at it like I said
I'm not against 20 miles per hour limits
where they make sense but when you're on a road like that
if you look driving 2am down the road in south
with nothing but trees on each side you go
why is that 20 miles per hour
it doesn't make any sense just a little
bit of common sense in so many things
would make the world a better place don't you think
I was at this event
and I bumped into this chap
and we started talking and I said well
what do you do for a living
he works for the
some high position
in the mayor's department
whatever the first thing he said
what about motoring what do you think about motoring
he goes well motoring is actually
at the bottom of their list
it's like you know
was that every journey counts
if you got a car
it doesn't
but this is the thing
every journey counts right
so I don't really drive into central London anymore
and even driving across London
it's not a lot of fun
so was it last weekend or the weekend before
I don't know but my wife wanted to go down to Green Street
which is near you actually
it's on Ilford side
and I said well we're not going to drive
let's just take the tube
so we go down Jubilee line
up to West Ham across to Upton Park
right and so getting there was okay
wasn't too bad on the way back
severe delays
severe delays and every single
train got packed
it got packed to the point at one point
we just had to get off the train
and stand on the platform for 10 minutes
because we were literally suffocating
because there's no air conditioning
the trains are ramped it's hot
all delayed all the trains were like
the time between the trains was over 10 minutes
on each case
and they were still packed at one point
we literally had to get off
because we were just feeling claustrophobic
and it was literally hard to breathe
so we got off the train
the reality is when you put it that way
and you go where every journey counts
but you're not making it any easier
why aren't there air conditioning trains
why can't you make sure that on a busy weekend
when families are out shopping
because they're a delay
yeah I know I'm very really going to train
saying that I did use the Elizabeth line
recently we're from London
to Oxford Street and it took 20 minutes
it's fantastic
but if you're going to go shopping
and I don't want to sound like a stomp like I do it
but if you've got expensive shopping
you don't want to be on a train going to East London
and sometimes you just
oh if you want to be late
I don't know I think the mayor
I can understand what they want to do with the cars
and pollution and safety
but I think they're
literally are cutting off their nose despite their face
yeah
I mean you know
I studied in London
I grew up in London, I studied in central London
I was reminiscing with an old buddy of mine that I met up recently
and at one point we were all in college in central London
and all three of us had cars
and all three of us were driving into London
I guess that's a bit excessive
but back in the 90s you could do that
and after college we'd then drive around just for the heck of it
you know because you could do that
but now none of us contemplate driving into London at all
that's how much has changed
I used to love going to London
you know it's like the old super cars
so for example super cars you know
you see them down Slone Street
Slone Street they've changed it now
it's all different, they've made the road narrower
and it's not as friendly
so all the cars, super cars moved over to Mayfair
I forgot the name of the road
but it's the road there
it's just not fun anyway
I mean I'm supposed to be organising an event
in October
to celebrate my 20th anniversary
the first event, first drive ever did
which was in central London
which was central London
in October 2005, so 20 years
and I thought I'd get loads of Ferraris around
and we'd go for a drive
but now I'm thinking we're going to get stuck in traffic
and then you get hit
with fines for sound
you'll get hate posters on the cars
I mean honestly it's like what is going on
and I'm thinking there's not much point
doing it, maybe we might just meet up
in one of the parks
have a coffee and that's it
but you can't really drive
because even going through traffic lights
three cars go through
and then it's a red light
and then you've got to wait and then
it doesn't work anymore so the old days
are the London runs
they've just died down
and I think it's a deliberate attempt
because it's not just the U-Lays
congestion charging and everything else
but it's actually the infrastructure of the roads themselves
because if you look at the way that they've put in
cycle lanes and ballards
and one way systems
I mean they've done everything possible to
frustate the flow of traffic
so it's not, it's a pollution in London
apparently this is a weird thing
despite the fact that cars have got clean air
despite the fact that we've got U-Lays
and congestion charging
in 2023 stats I think it was
pollution in London actually got worse
because they've deliberately bottled necking all the traffic
they're making it actually worse
they're taking longer to get
so years ago I decided to take a car
into London
I had an electric car so I thought
let me go into London, I used to do a run
from one end of London to the other
because I used to work at a newspaper in west London
and I used to take it to central London to get bromides done
this is back in the day
and then take it over to the printers in east London
so I thought let me retrace that route
the moment I entered London
everything that I used to do
the moment I entered London in 10 minutes I got lost
and the reason I got lost is because they've changed everything
so the shortcuts that you could take aren't there anymore
the rows that you could take have been blocked
or turned into one ways or low traffic neighbourhoods
or they put ballards in them or whatever
so they've done everything possible to then drive you onto the main arteries
and then put you all into the same congestion
same load of traffic
thereby making traffic worse
thereby making pollution worse
and it seems to me that this is just not good city planning
and I was getting a ticket every month at one point
a ticket every month
yeah going through
not supposed to go in cars not allowed at that time
when you get the parking tickets
then you've got
parking in central London now
I was there the other day
it cost me 40 quid to park for like 4 hours
that's crazy
it should be a parking ticket
do you remember in the old days
with the old parking meters
you could put coke can rings in them
not that I did
I never did that
I just
I never did that
and now people use the blue stuff
but I never know
I was actually quite well behaved
it was cheaper then
yeah exactly
go on a Sunday or after 6.30
and it's free parking
but you've still got to pay the U-List
yeah U-List
so it's nothing, it's not free
so we're just getting old
these young kids are used to it now
this is the other thing
when it comes back to
the Polestar and what have you
I mean
I drove them around
I'm like okay it's very expensive
for what it is etc etc
but then when my kids get in the car
they're like wow look at the tech in here
look at the stereo
to them they're like wow this is really cool
so it's a whole
inspirational thing
you failed as a parent
failed as a parent
I have failed as a parent anyway
because my kids don't drive
which is terrible
you failed as a parent
so if you're driving a Polestar
does that make you a Polestar
so I put that in the review
you should do
you should do
but you remember the Polestar
was actually the sporting
and the BMG is to Mercedes
or M Sport is to BMW
Polestar was to Volvo
that's what Polestar used to be
because Polestar used to run their racing teams
and the BTCC etc etc
and so they turned it into electric
is that the Mustang
and now they've turned it into electric brand
and the Mustang
there's the Mustang
there's Ford are doing these incredible things
because they got the Mustang Mach-E
which is the electric
and it's actually not a bad car
but it's forgivable because you still get
a V8 Mustang so that's cool
but then they did it with the Capri
and the Capri I think
is universally despised
because you can't take such a
fabled and famous car name
as the Capri and give everybody
a bland electric SUV
and expect people to accept it
but the Mach-E is not a Mustang
a Mustang is a two door
coupe sports car
that's a hideous piece of shit
the Mach-E
I mean I like to have been at the meeting
at Ford HQ
Mustang yeah yeah
yeah it's cool yeah we make it four door
we'll make it big
and square and boxy and that's going to be the Mustang
and now they turned around and said
sorry look at the heritage
what do you mean?
John Wick is not going to drive that
but then they did it again
what about the Capri?
those people who are probably designing
behind there probably don't even have driving licenses
but here's the thing
again if you talk about generational stuff
and you go well
if I was seeing
Capri's been out a while now
it's been out nearly a year I think
if I was seeing loads of Capris on the roads
then I would say okay it's a generational thing
I don't really care about the heritage
they just go okay it's a nice new electric car from Ford
but I haven't seen any
I have not seen a single Capri on the road
the new one
I've not seen a single one
conversely I have seen
other electric cars
you know what I've seen a lot of
is these new Chinese brands
Jaco and Omada
I've actually reviewed them
I can't remember the name
I reviewed them at SMT day a few years ago
I've seen some crazy deals
because I'm seeing a lot of people buying those cars
but I haven't seen a single brand new Capri anywhere on the road
do you know I see a lot of these electric cars
a lot of Chinese ones
these are Chinese
Chinese and
and I see the back of them
I don't know what they are
they don't have any logos on them
I can't tell the difference
in a lot of these cars now
they all sort of morph into one generic piece
and also there's this trend now
knowing for car people like us
and I guess for kids as well
that like to do car sporting
manufacturers are not putting badges on cars anymore
so even if you take the Polestar
you're expected to just know
that that's a three or it's a four
or it's a whatever
there's no number or there's no badging on there
that tells you what it is
yes there's a Polestar badge but that's it
so how are you supposed to know which one it actually is
and with a lot of these modern cars
which like you say
are all harder and harder to discern the difference between them
you know unless they actually
if they just take the badging in the name of it as well
it's like how are you supposed to know what that is
if I paid for the top of the range Polestar
I want to have that badging on there
to tell everybody I had bought the top of the range Polestar
yeah
you know it's like my Cayenne
the previous time they took off the bit at the bottom
you know so
people don't know it's the bottom of the range Cayenne
yeah yeah yeah but that was
that was the badging as in the old days
yeah if you had a 318 and you take that badge off
and just put an M badge somewhere on it instead
you know
I don't want to take the Cayenne badge off
otherwise people will think you said my can
I don't want people to think I've got my can
because it's a bit small
you should drive
the can's a bit smaller I'm on the Cayenne
yeah
I'm a bit of a badge snob as you could probably tell
yeah but you know what
that's the day seeing you though isn't it
that is because of the other day
you need to have a Mercedes you know because you need to show
all the Kandan that we have a Mercedes therefore
we made it you know that's what it's all about
right
you had an S class as well did you
it's horrible worst car
you know the GCSE just happened
now so you know people all the
so my sister was saying how you know
our relation just texted me saying
his son's got X number of
first A's or 9's or 10's
and that's what it is it's a very big
oh look what I've got
we do want to show
but then that's part of it
but this is something I think the manufacturers are missing
a trick on because those cars are just getting
samey and looking the same and sounding
the same one they don't sound like anything anymore
and the badging is not even there
so at one point like how are you
going to be able to discern between the
hierarchy of who's got a really good car
if all the if your local residential
street has just got a line of
anonymous looking Chinese electric EVs
then how do you stand out from the crowd
you know
you know do you think there's a master
plan for people for the manufacturers
that's what they want us to do just to have
just been driving around in boxes
basically and brand it's not the
manufacturers I don't think it's the manufacturers
I think it is governments you know because
manufacturers ultimately see manufacturers
are in a lot of trouble right now
because manufacturers have always relied
on brand and on the
on the ideology of their brand on the heritage
of their brand but right now they're having
to strip away their brand look what Jaguar
is doing Jaguar is having to
completely reinvent his brand you know
and to a point where
a head guy and fire the
sorry they got rid of the
the CEO
the CEO just left
and the design team I think the design team
they're working with or not I don't know but that was big
I mean they've ruined it I mean Jaguar
how can you stop
if you stop making Jaguars what's happening
with the dealers
the my local dealer shut down
yeah because they're not making any Jaguars for one year
so what are you going to sell what are the Jaguar dealers
going to do they're going to come back in a year's time
with a whole range of electric cars
I'll tell you what let's have a conversation about this in a year's time
let's see
I don't think it's going to happen
I you know like somebody said to me
or maybe it was you I can't remember but somebody said
you know which legacy brands do you think are going to die
as soon as and I said well I think Jaguar's on the chopping block
that's for sure
the Lotus remember Danny Bar
yeah
the Geneva Motor Show
three new little concept cars
in one strike you know
three or was it four
was it four definitely there were three
they had loads of models and I remember
we interviewed him at the Geneva Motor Show
and he was like really it's going to be fun
and I was like and I was thinking
I'm behind the camera I'm thinking
you're going to design
create build
everything
and it never did
it was all smoke and mirrors
it was all like show show show
they even came out with a really glossy magazine
that literally I think went for three or four issues
and that was it because they were just putting a load of money
into basically it was a facade
it was just like showy it was like look
look at what we can do there was nothing actually going on
which is ironic really because Lotus is an engineering
you know Lotus is an engineering firm
that's what they do
but these cars were literally just re-bodied
cars and stuff like that that's all they were
they haven't learned a lesson so they've turned around and said
what was it that's press release going out
saying was it a rumor I don't know
but it was all in the media that they're going to stop
production
take it to America
no that was a rumor then they had to come out and deny it
yeah
so I don't know I don't know what's happening with Lotus
I mean they need to build a note that's free
they need to build another that's free it's as simple as that
but also
Lotus was all about
what was it
what was the famous saying reduce weight
and then add lightness that was Colin Chapman's mantra wasn't it
and
they've done the complete opposite
increase weight and add batteries
that's what they've done now
so
when you go into the Lotus showroom
there's one now just near
Piccadilly
and you go in there and you see the
I don't even remember the names now what are they
there's the Electra
they all begin with E
but there's Electra and not the Amir
Amir is the sports car
not the Avaya but the Saloon one anyway whatever
you go there and they are
they are just not
a Lotus in your head you just look at them
and you go that is not a Lotus
because that is not what Lotus was about
Lotus was never about the kind of cars that they're trying to sell now
and as far as I'm aware
they're struggling to sell them
you know they're struggling to sell them
because I think that
and this is the trouble
it's the same trouble that I have as a YouTuber
if I create videos I have to be mindful
of what my audience is already expecting
from me in order to consume those videos
car companies have to remember the same thing
they have a ready customer base
they have to service that base in order
to meet their expectations
not just decide oh you know what we're going to abandon years
of building lightweight, fun, exciting
visceral sports cars
and go in big bill lumpy EVs instead
because that's what our customers want
because they can get that elsewhere
you know they can get that elsewhere
what they come to you for is sporty, sporty drives
and I think that's what they miss the boat
but is the market still there for sporty cars
I think there will always be a market
there for sporty cars it won't be huge though
it won't be huge but it will always be there
as you know
have you come across a longbow
a what? a longbow
it's an electric sports car
I'll send you a link to it later
I think it's called a longbow
it's an electric looking car
two seater
they're going to try and bring it
and they're 995 kilograms
with electric batteries
there's a company here
maybe it's the same car we're thinking about
but there's a company here that's coming up with a new type of battery
that allows them to do something very similar
quick charging, low weight
it goes back to the conversation we were having before
where
a lot of companies at the moment are converting classic cars
to electric
whilst that's good it's a good idea
especially if it's a car that's being restored
and the engine was dead anyway
so that makes perfect sense
you're trying to future proof the car which is great
but part of me feels
that it might be too early
because battery tech is still evolving
so you convert a classic car to electric
now you're just going to have to convert it again in 5-10 years
because when we get solid state batteries
or other batteries
we need a battery like this that'll charge a car
to be honest
it's the same thing because that's still a lithium-ion battery
but we're looking at things like solid state batteries
and there's other formula batteries
that are coming through the pipeline
which could change things quite dramatically
both in terms of
the range that you'll get out of them
and the charging speeds that you'll get out of them
and they're also looking at stuff like for
bikes and stuff like that
where you just swap the batteries
so you just take them out and put a new one in
so you pull up at a petrol station
and you just go right
out and off you go again
so we're still in early days really
I like the smell of petrol
well maybe that will be available
as a perfume won't it, that will be cologne in the future
that's the way to do it
it's a really tricky one
it's hard to get a handle
on where things are going right now
because the industry
I've said this to somebody the other day
they say I've been following
the car industry for 35 years
and whenever you meet directors
and CEOs and MDs and people like that
they're always sitting there quite smug face
and quite self assured
because in their head they're already thinking
10 years ahead because that's the way product plans work
and the reality is
that when you see them now
when you speak to them now
you see this look in their eyes where they're like
they haven't got a clue
nobody has a clue of what's coming next or where we're going
and I think this will be interesting
you know food for discussion
for future podcasts
I'm sure
where is the industry going
what's happening to it, does anybody really know?
yeah
anyway I hope everybody has enjoyed
our second
well I think I've done
this is probably the third brown car guy therapy session
but the second one was Psy
so thank you once again for joining me today Psy
and thank you all the people that joined us
and watched us
comments, suggestions, whatever
I will of course this was a live stream
but I will of course download this and re upload it
in better quality onto the main channel as well
as a permanent podcast
and hopefully we'll try and do this again next week
lovely
thanks a lot
take care everyone, see you all, bye
it really does
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