A lively discussion unfolds as the hosts delve into the intersection of automotive culture and personal stories, all while celebrating Halloween. They share anecdotes about their favorite cars, from classic muscle to modern electrics, and debate the evolving landscape of automotive journalism versus influencer culture. The conversation touches on the emotional connections to vehicles, the nostalgia of past models, and the challenges of adapting to electric vehicles. With humor and insight, they explore what makes a car truly special and the impact of societal changes on car ownership.
Ghosts, Gearboxes & Great Stories | BCG Podcast w/ Jeff Bailey & Imthishan Giado!
Classic cars, haunted highways, and the death (or rebirth?) of motoring journalism! In this lively BrownCarGuy Therapy Session, Shahzad Sheikh (BrownCarGuy) is joined by fellow automotive media veterans Jeff Bailey and Imthishan Giado for a deep dive into how the car world - and the way we write, film, and talk about it - has evolved.
They discuss whether car journalism is dead or just rebooted for the influencer age, how understanding your audience really matters, and why EVs, range anxiety, and modern car design are reshaping everything. Expect humour, nostalgia, and brutally honest insights about writing, creating, and surviving in the ever-changing world of cars and content.
Plus: haunted roads, electric Minis, oversized modern cars, classic BMWs, and how sound — or the lack of it — is killing the joy of driving. If you love cars, car culture, and good conversation, this one’s for you.
📚 Featured Topics:
- EV range anxiety & charging chaos
- Why classic cars get more attention than supercars
- The real difference between influencers and journalists
- How sound defines driving emotion
- The behavioural psychology of car ownership
- What audiences actually want from car media
- Haunted highways and the cars we’d take to drive them
🧠 About the Guests:
Jeff Bailey – journalist, author, publisher, songwriter, entrepreneur and all-round motoring raconteur.
Imthishan Giado (in Dubai) – car journalist, and co-founder of Motoring Middle East.
Hosted by Shahzad Sheikh – aka BrownCarGuy.
🎧 Listen, laugh, and argue along!
💬 Drop your thoughts in the comments: Is car journalism dead — or just rebooted?
👉 Don’t forget to like, comment and share
Visit and subscribe: https://BrownCarGuy.com for more motoring stories, videos and updates!
SUBSCRIBE for more motoring news, car reviews and insights!
"I'm driving an L322 Land Rover, because that's what the algorithm told me to write about."
The Land Rover L322 is a model of the Range Rover, which is a luxury SUV known for being very comfortable and capable of driving off-road. It's a vehicle that can handle tough terrains while providing a high-end experience inside.
The Land Rover L322 is a model of the Range Rover, produced from 2002 to 2012. It is known for its luxury features and off-road capabilities, combining comfort with ruggedness, making it a popular choice for both urban and adventurous driving.
"The Hellcats and the Challenges were cheap, fun. That was their point."
The Hellcat is a powerful version of the Dodge Challenger and Charger cars. It's known for being very fast and having a big engine that makes a lot of noise, making it popular among car enthusiasts.
The Hellcat is a high-performance variant of the Dodge Challenger and Dodge Charger, known for its powerful supercharged V8 engine. It represents a modern interpretation of classic muscle cars, offering extreme horsepower and performance.
"The Hellcats and the Challenges were cheap, fun. That was their point."
The Dodge Challenger is a type of car that's designed to be fast and fun to drive. It has a classic look and comes with powerful engines, making it popular for those who like muscle cars.
The Dodge Challenger is a classic American muscle car that has been revived in modern times. It offers a range of powerful engine options, including the Hellcat variant, and is known for its retro styling and performance.
"All muscle cars should have been. All the dealers and then the manufacturers got greedy..."
Muscle cars are fast cars that usually come from America. They are known for having big engines and looking really cool, making them fun to drive.
Muscle cars are high-performance vehicles, typically American-made, that emphasize powerful engines and aggressive styling. They became popular in the 1960s and 1970s and are known for their speed and performance.
"But I certainly hope that I have had a few Range Rovers mind you. Yeah. Well, they get given the money."
The Range Rover is a fancy SUV made by Land Rover. It's known for being able to drive off-road and has a lot of luxury features, making it popular with wealthy people.
The Range Rover is a luxury SUV produced by Land Rover, known for its off-road capabilities and upscale features. It has been a popular choice among affluent buyers since its introduction in the early 1970s.
"...I thought, oh, this is just what I want. A black Daihatsu Estate."
The Daihatsu Estate is a type of car that's designed to be spacious and practical, often used for families or carrying larger items. It's made by Daihatsu, a Japanese car company.
The Daihatsu Estate is a compact estate car produced by the Japanese automaker Daihatsu. It's known for its practicality and affordability, making it a popular choice for budget-conscious buyers.
"...this is exciting because it's quite rare now. BMW 735i in Luxor, which is a sandy metallic, sandy color...."
The BMW 7 Series is a big luxury car that is very comfortable and packed with high-tech features. It's known for being one of the best cars in the BMW lineup, often seen as a symbol of wealth and status.
The BMW 7 Series is a full-size luxury sedan that represents the pinnacle of BMW's engineering and design, known for its advanced technology and comfort. It has been a flagship model since 1977, often associated with luxury and prestige. Discussions often focus on its features, performance, and status as a luxury vehicle.
"You had the E30, didn't you? The E30 335i. And it's just like you say, the reaction that you would get."
The BMW E30 335i is a popular car from the late 1980s that many people love for its sporty feel and good looks. It's part of the 3 Series lineup and is known for being fun to drive.
The BMW E30 335i is a classic model from the 3 Series, known for its sporty performance and iconic design. It features a powerful inline-six engine and is highly regarded among car enthusiasts.
Brands Hatch is a well-known racetrack in England where many car races take place. It's a fun place for fans to watch fast cars and exciting races.
Brands Hatch is a famous motorsport circuit located in the UK, known for hosting a variety of racing events, including Formula 1, touring cars, and motorcycle races. It features a challenging layout and is popular among racing enthusiasts.
"...I saw a Capri 1300 go the other day for 15 grand in it."
The Ford Capri 1300 is a classic car that many people love for its sporty look and feel. It was popular in the past and is now sought after by collectors.
The Ford Capri 1300 is a classic sports coupe that was produced by Ford in the late 1960s and 1970s. It is known for its stylish design and sporty performance, appealing to enthusiasts and collectors alike.
"...I want to relive my youth and just do that. And, you know, it's, I mean, my first car was an MG Midget. They used to call me a Midget Driver,..."
The MG Midget is a small sports car that was made in the 1960s and 70s. It's known for being fun to drive and is often loved by people who enjoy classic cars.
The MG Midget is a small, two-seater sports car produced by MG from 1961 to 1979. It is known for its lightweight design and fun driving experience, making it a popular choice among enthusiasts.
"...but I did swap it for an Audi 100, you know, the very first series going way back to 1970."
The Audi 100 is a car that Audi made starting in 1968. It was popular for its stylish design and was one of the first cars to be very aerodynamic, which helped it use less fuel.
The Audi 100 is a mid-size car produced by Audi from 1968 to 1994, known for its innovative design and technology for its time. It was one of the first cars to feature a drag coefficient of less than 0.30, which contributed to its fuel efficiency and performance.
"I bought 1984 Celica Supra. You know, had the pop-up lights, I had the wear shape, a straight six engine..."
The Toyota Celica Supra is a sporty car from the 1980s that had unique features like headlights that pop up when turned on and a powerful six-cylinder engine. It was considered stylish and fun to drive.
The Toyota Celica Supra is a sports car that was produced in the 1980s, known for its pop-up headlights and straight-six engine. It was a popular choice among car enthusiasts for its performance and styling.
"You know, had the pop-up lights, I had the wear shape, a straight six engine..."
Pop-up lights are headlights that fold down into the car when they're not needed, making the car look smoother. They were common in sporty cars back in the day.
Pop-up lights are headlights that retract into the body of the car when not in use, providing a sleek appearance. They were popular in sports cars during the 1980s and 1990s.
"...but he drove a Lincoln Continental, originally,..."
The Lincoln Continental is a big, fancy car that many people think of when they imagine luxury vehicles. It's known for being comfortable and stylish.
The Lincoln Continental is a full-size luxury car known for its spacious interior and elegant design. It has been produced in various generations since its introduction in 1940, often associated with American luxury and style.
"Lincoln, Mark V, Bill Blass edition. Which is that one?"
The Lincoln Mark V is a large, luxurious car from the late 1970s. The Bill Blass edition had special features and designs inspired by the famous fashion designer Bill Blass.
The Lincoln Mark V is a full-size luxury coupe produced by Lincoln from 1977 to 1979. The Bill Blass edition was a special trim that featured unique styling and luxury options, reflecting the fashion designer's influence.
"...I was driving an X5 yesterday and it was stressing me out. So I swapped,..."
The BMW X5 is a high-end SUV that offers a smooth ride and lots of features. It's designed for both comfort and performance, making it popular among luxury car buyers.
The BMW X5 is a luxury midsize SUV known for its performance, comfort, and advanced technology features. It is part of BMW's X series, which includes various SUVs and crossovers.
"...I swapped it out for my smart car, the 4-2. And brilliant. No stress at all..."
The Smart Fortwo is a tiny car that can fit in small parking spots. It's great for driving around the city because it's easy to handle and park.
The Smart Fortwo is a compact two-seater city car known for its small size and maneuverability, making it ideal for urban environments. It is designed to be efficient and easy to park in tight spaces.
"...you've got to avoid the potholes because there's no suspension in it."
Suspension is the part of a car that helps it ride smoothly over bumps and holes in the road. Without good suspension, the ride can be very bumpy and uncomfortable.
Suspension refers to the system of springs, shock absorbers, and linkages that connects a vehicle to its wheels. It helps absorb bumps in the road, providing a smoother ride and better handling.
"I mean, my dad's Honda Civic in 86, I think is one of the last boxy ones"
The Honda Civic is a small car that many people like because it's dependable and doesn't use a lot of gas. The 1986 version had a square shape, which was popular back then, and it's often mentioned because it shows how cars have changed over time.
The Honda Civic is a compact car that has been a staple in the automotive market since its introduction in 1972. Known for its reliability, fuel efficiency, and practicality, the Civic has evolved significantly over the years, with the 1986 model being one of the last to feature a boxy design. It is often discussed for its role in popularizing compact cars in the U.S.
"on the bloody Nurburgring of all things. So it is not a compact car."
The Nürburgring is a well-known race track in Germany where many car manufacturers test their vehicles. It's famous for being difficult and is often used to see how fast cars can go.
The Nürburgring is a famous racetrack in Germany known for its challenging layout and is often used for testing and tuning high-performance cars. It has a long history in motorsports and is considered a benchmark for automotive performance.
"Even my little Type R, which is about as my little, about a strip down as you're going to get is still massive."
The Honda Civic Type R is a special version of the Honda Civic that is built for speed and performance. It's designed to be fun to drive and is often used in racing.
The Honda Civic Type R is a high-performance variant of the Honda Civic, known for its sporty design and powerful engine. It's popular among car enthusiasts for its handling and track capabilities.
"...you've got loads of E-Types. They're ten of penny, which were the thing in the day..."
The Jaguar E-Type is a classic sports car from the 1960s, famous for its sleek looks and fast performance. Many people love it for its style and history.
The Jaguar E-Type is a British sports car that was introduced in the 1960s and is known for its stunning design and performance. It is often considered one of the most beautiful cars ever made and has a strong following among classic car enthusiasts.
"Austin 1800. When's the last time you saw one of those? And I saw one the other day in which was, and it wasn't a classic car show."
The Austin 1800 is a car made by the Austin company in the 1960s and 70s. It was popular for being roomy and having some unique design ideas for its time.
The Austin 1800 is a compact car produced by the British manufacturer Austin from 1964 to 1974. It was known for its spacious interior and innovative design features, including a transversely mounted engine.
Car
Hillman Eve
"I saw a Hillman Eve recently. And I was like, whoa, Hillman Eve."
The Hillman Eve is a car made by a company called Hillman, which was known for making smaller cars in the past. It's not very common today, making it interesting to see one.
The Hillman Eve is a rare model produced by the British manufacturer Hillman, known for its compact design and unique styling. It was part of the Hillman brand, which was popular in the mid-20th century but has since become less common.
"...he had a Sunbeam Stiletto, which was the fastback version. We were sober when he drove because it always broke down."
The Sunbeam Stiletto is a small car made in the 1960s. It has a sporty look and was designed to be fun to drive, but it had a reputation for breaking down often.
The Sunbeam Stiletto is a compact car produced by the British manufacturer Sunbeam in the 1960s. It is known for its sporty design and was based on the Hillman Imp, featuring a fastback body style that contributed to its unique appearance.
"You know, if it was a Corolla or an Accord or Civic, whatever,"
The Toyota Corolla is a small car that many people buy because it's reliable and doesn't cost too much to maintain. It's been around for a long time and is often talked about as a good choice for anyone looking for a simple, everyday vehicle.
The Toyota Corolla is one of the best-selling cars in history, known for its reliability and affordability. It has been a popular choice for drivers looking for a practical and economical vehicle since its debut in 1966. The Corolla is often mentioned in discussions about dependable compact cars.
"I said, I'm not having one of those XC90 things."
The Volvo XC90 is a large SUV that can carry many passengers and their belongings. It's designed for families and has a lot of safety features, making it a great choice for road trips.
The Volvo XC90 is a mid-size luxury SUV that offers a spacious interior, advanced safety features, and a comfortable ride. It's known for its family-friendly design and high-quality materials.
"I said, we'll go for the V90 estate, which is a lovely car."
The Volvo V90 is a stylish station wagon that provides a lot of space for passengers and cargo. It's designed for comfort and has a premium feel, making it a popular choice for families.
The Volvo V90 is a luxury estate car known for its spacious interior and elegant design. It shares its platform with the Volvo S90 sedan, offering a blend of practicality and style.
"...it suddenly made me think, wow, like Aston Martin DB9 had 470 horsepower. So a 6-liter V12 has got the ..."
The Aston Martin DB9 is a fancy sports car that looks really beautiful and is very powerful. It's known for being a luxury car, often seen in movies, and is admired for its style and performance.
The Aston Martin DB9 is a luxury grand tourer that combines elegant design with powerful performance, featuring a V12 engine. Launched in 2004, it has become a symbol of luxury and sophistication, often associated with James Bond films. The DB9 is frequently discussed for its stunning aesthetics and driving experience.
"...pe. Like, oh, you can make your BMW as fast as an M3. And I did that."
The BMW M3 is a fast and sporty version of a regular BMW car. People talk about it because it's known for being really fun to drive and can be made even faster with some upgrades.
The BMW M3 is a high-performance version of the BMW 3 Series, known for its powerful engines and sporty handling. Since its introduction in the 1980s, the M3 has become an icon in the sports car world, often celebrated for its blend of luxury and performance. It is frequently discussed in the context of tuning and performance upgrades.
"But it isn't. And the whole thing is that this is why a Mazda MX-5 is so great because it's greater than some of its parts."
The Mazda MX-5, or Miata, is a small sports car that many people love because it's light and really fun to drive. It's a two-seater, making it perfect for those who enjoy a simple and exciting driving experience.
The Mazda MX-5, also known as the Miata, is a lightweight two-seater sports car celebrated for its engaging driving experience and affordability. Since its introduction in 1989, it has become a favorite among driving enthusiasts for its simplicity and fun-to-drive nature. The MX-5 is often discussed for its balance of performance and value.
"Like, we love playing with our 20-30 year old Land Cruises out in the desert, because there isn't that much ..."
The Toyota Land Cruiser is a big SUV that people love for its ability to drive off-road and handle tough conditions. It's known for being very reliable, making it a great choice for adventures.
The Toyota Land Cruiser is a full-size SUV known for its off-road capabilities and durability, with a history dating back to 1951. It is often regarded as one of the most reliable vehicles for rugged terrains and has a loyal following among adventure enthusiasts. Discussions often focus on its longevity and performance in challenging environments.
"...think it is self-indulgent. Which is the greatest 911? Is it the GT3, the ST, or the RS 4.0?"
The Porsche 911 is a famous sports car that many people admire for its unique look and fast performance. It's been around for a long time, and car lovers often debate which version is the best.
The Porsche 911 is a legendary sports car that has been in production since 1964, known for its distinctive design and rear-engine layout. It is celebrated for its performance, handling, and engineering excellence, making it a favorite among car enthusiasts. Discussions often revolve around its various models and performance capabilities.
"that one of my favorite electric cars is the BMW i4 m50 is because of the soundtrack that they got ha..."
The BMW i4 is a new electric car that looks like a sporty coupe and is designed to be fun to drive. It's part of BMW's move towards more environmentally friendly vehicles while still offering great performance.
The BMW i4 is an all-electric gran coupe that combines BMW's performance heritage with modern electric vehicle technology. Launched in 2021, it offers a blend of sporty driving dynamics and sustainability, making it a significant addition to BMW's lineup. The i4 is often discussed for its innovative features and electric performance.
"...n, but I would quite like to go in that new Dodge Charger to see, what is a frat zonic chamber sound thing ..."
The Dodge Charger is a big car that looks tough and can go really fast. It's popular because it combines a lot of space for passengers with a powerful engine.
The Dodge Charger is a full-size sedan known for its muscular design and powerful engine options, often associated with American muscle cars. Since its introduction in the 1960s, the Charger has evolved from a two-door coupe to a four-door sedan while maintaining its performance-oriented character. It is frequently discussed for its blend of performance and practicality.
"... invariably, the ITP car park just filled up with Camaros and Rams and Dodgers and stuff like that"
The Chevrolet Camaro is a sporty car that many people love because it looks cool and can be very fast. It's often compared to other muscle cars like the Ford Mustang.
The Chevrolet Camaro is a classic American muscle car that has been in production since 1966, known for its aggressive styling and performance capabilities. It competes directly with the Ford Mustang and has a strong following among car enthusiasts. The Camaro is often discussed for its performance variants and cultural impact.
"I had to go rescue him. And I was in the family CRV and I hadn't fuelled it up. And on the way back, ..."
The Honda CR-V is a small SUV that many families like because it has a lot of space inside and is very reliable. It's a good choice for people who need a car that can carry both passengers and cargo comfortably.
The Honda CR-V is a compact SUV that has been a popular choice for families since its introduction in 1995, known for its spacious interior and reliability. It combines the practicality of an SUV with the comfort of a car, making it a versatile option for various lifestyles. The CR-V is often discussed for its family-friendly features and fuel efficiency.
"Honestly, never, ever. But whereas in my Porsche Cayman, it was like that all the time,"
The Porsche Cayman is a sporty car that is known for being fun to drive and having a stylish look. It's a bit smaller than the 911 but still offers great performance, making it a favorite among car fans.
The Porsche Cayman is a mid-engine sports car that offers a balance of performance and handling, positioned between the entry-level Boxster and the iconic 911. Since its debut in 2006, the Cayman has been praised for its driving dynamics and sleek design, making it a popular choice among sports car enthusiasts. It is often discussed for its performance characteristics and value within the Porsche lineup.
"...ot hundreds of the things and he's got a Mercedes SL Supercharged 55. And so in Dallas, it's pretty ho..."
The Mercedes-Benz SL is a fancy convertible car that is known for being very comfortable and fast. It's a luxury car that many people admire for its style and smooth driving.
The Mercedes-Benz SL is a luxury roadster known for its performance, comfort, and advanced technology, with a history dating back to the 1950s. It combines sporty handling with the elegance expected from Mercedes-Benz, making it a popular choice among luxury car buyers. Discussions often revolve around its design and driving experience.
"... I'm quite happy with that. But I'd also go for a Rolls Royce ghost. There you go."
The Rolls-Royce Ghost is a super fancy car that is all about luxury and comfort. It's known for its beautiful design and powerful engine, making it a symbol of wealth and high status.
The Rolls-Royce Ghost is a luxury sedan that epitomizes opulence and craftsmanship, known for its powerful V12 engine and exquisite interior. Launched in 2009, it has become a symbol of luxury and status, often associated with the wealthiest individuals. Discussions often focus on its design, features, and the prestige of the Rolls-Royce brand.
"Come on, go on then. Alfa Romeo Spider. Alfa Romeo Spider, all right."
The Alfa Romeo Spider is a classic sports car from Italy that many people find very stylish and fun to drive. It's known for its unique look and has a special place in the hearts of car lovers.
The Alfa Romeo Spider is a classic Italian sports car that was produced from 1966 to 1993, known for its stylish design and spirited performance. It has a strong following among car enthusiasts who appreciate its unique character and driving experience. The Spider is often discussed for its classic appeal and role in automotive history.
"I'm always a mood guy. Bewick Grand National. GNX."
The Buick Grand National is a powerful car from the 1980s that is known for being fast and having a cool black look. It's become a favorite among car fans because of its unique style and performance.
The Buick Grand National is a high-performance version of the Buick Regal, produced in the 1980s, known for its turbocharged V6 engine and distinctive black styling. It has become a cult classic among car enthusiasts for its performance and unique character. The Grand National is often discussed for its place in automotive history and muscle car culture.
"Wow. A black GNX, which only came in black. And if you were talkin..."
The Buick GNX is a special version of the Grand National that is even faster and more powerful. It was made in limited numbers, making it very rare and desirable for car collectors.
The Buick GNX is a limited-production performance variant of the Grand National, known for its enhanced power and distinctive styling. Released in 1987, it is highly sought after by collectors and enthusiasts due to its rarity and performance capabilities. The GNX is often discussed for its status as an iconic muscle car.
Select text to request an explanation
And then he gave the book to them, and they read it, and they pissed themselves laughing.
Can I say that?
Massive.
There's a model of it right here.
Go on, look at that.
It's got a visual aid, right?
It's got an edge.
You know, we feel that electric is encroaching upon 130 years of fun that we've been having
with the internal combustion engine.
But are we stuck in our ways?
All the best.
All the people were lunch magnets, as I like to call them, or, you know, at the
raising station.
Fifty.
I love the soundtrack that they got hands in with to put in it, because it just adds
that extra element of, you know, sensation.
You need the sound.
You need some kind of a sound.
And I really like it.
I was looking for exactly the same as you were saying, I was thinking, I've made
my mind up.
I just want him to tell me it's a good choice.
I think that's the typical influence is like, look, I bought a GT3, but today I'm doing
something ridiculous.
I'm driving an L322 Land Rover, because that's what the algorithm told me to
write about.
I'm no Prince Andrew, but the...
No.
I certainly hope not.
And I'm like, do you realize where you are?
And they're like, what do you mean?
I'm like, have you seen the price of petrol here?
And have you seen the space we have on our roads?
Whilst you're here, you should go out and buy the biggest goddamn V8 you can
buy.
It's got this mini thing that goes, woo!
You can turn that off, dude.
You know, it's not a problem, is it?
It's a button.
You just go off.
So you could balance what people wanted with our own muses.
But now journalists disappeared pretty high up their own arseholes.
You roll up and it's going, buh, buh, buh, buh, buh, buh.
And my next door neighbor, he said, guy, that sounds good.
He said, I thought they were all electric now.
Yeah, I was living and breathing the story.
I was literally, I'm not even joking when I say I was dreaming about
the characters.
I would wake up with a thought going, oh, that character wouldn't do that.
You know, that sort of thing was happening, you know.
He was on a plane in Rwanda of all places.
Of all places.
Yeah.
He wasn't being sensed to Rwanda, was he?
No.
And I'm not getting that spatial awareness that I would normally have
if I was just sort of looking around sort of thing.
Instead, I'm trying to remotely, it's like trying to pilot a remote
control car.
I don't feel like that's me anymore.
Do you see what I'm saying?
I'm not that interested.
Am I making any sense?
The Hellcats and the Challenges were cheap, fun.
That was their point.
They were cheap, easy and accessible.
All muscle cars should have been.
All the dealers and then the manufacturers got greedy and made the
cars so expensive that the audience couldn't afford them anything.
And I was the editor of Car Magazine, you know.
Why were you doing this?
You were the editor of Car Magazine.
I was the editor of Car Magazine.
So anyway, I can't believe it.
Oh my God, I was.
Yeah, I was.
Anyway, so.
Well, it's the opportunity and you should never pass
opportunity.
That's one thing I've learned throughout my whole life.
Never pass an opportunity.
Also interesting, you know, I went through back through some of my old
UCB stuff since you mentioned it.
Yeah.
And I thought, oh, this is, I remember writing this is a look to the date,
October 2000.
Oh, that was, yes, it was a quarter of a century ago.
Can you, I mean, seriously, can you believe it, you know?
I mean, how time has passed.
I mean, it doesn't seem that long ago when we were.
It doesn't.
We were borrowing cars from owners and clubs and taking them that to that
airfield and shooting them and all that, you know.
Yeah, absolutely.
And, you know, good times.
We had a good load of laughs.
And, but, you know, some of the stuff that I was writing back then,
of course, I had the back page sign off, which was a bit of an honour.
And, you know, a lot of the anecdotes that I was putting in there.
I think this is still fairly relevant, you know.
And so have you done that thing?
Because I've done it.
I mean, I've, because I've gone back even earlier sometimes and I've
gone back to like when I first started out, you know, in 1989, 1990.
Yeah.
And when I start to think about how did I even write then?
Because I was in the Middle East.
I was in Jeddah.
I didn't have access to, of course, there was no such thing as the internet
and didn't have access to anything and, you know, no library, no nothing.
And I wrote these articles about cars and, you know, all of this stuff.
And now I look back at them and I'm like, they're not bad.
And then the second part of that is like, how did I do that?
You know, it's like, how did that even happen?
I find that.
I don't know if you've found that if you've read your Oolah's book at all.
Have I read my own Oolah's book?
It's a fair comment, because to be honest with you, just before you say
whatever you're going to say, but I do sometimes look, they're all behind me.
I do something I look at my book and whenever I look at them, I find false.
So I cringe for what I was going to say is because I wrote a novel called
Big Swinging Dicks and I read it on the tube the other day and I'm laughing at it.
I think this is really good.
Hold on. You've written this, but I don't recall it.
You know, it's it's it's I'm reading your book because I don't
recall any of the writings.
No, well, this is the thing because now with the Oolah's files
because, you know, it's been reasonably well received.
It could do with more sales if you're watching out there by copies on Amazon.
Absolutely.
But but it has the feedback has been fantastic.
And I think it's like over 50 reviews on Amazon and they're all pretty much
four stars and above and and several people have said when you're writing a
sequel and I'm like, I don't even because I never intended it to be
a series.
I intended it to be a one-off, a complete story.
And of course, you leave a cliffhanger because you always do.
You know, you just leave a door.
You leave a door jar, that's it.
But then I start to think and then I'm like, OK, I'll have to go back
and reread the whole thing and reintroduce the characters to myself,
you know, because I was writing it and I'm sure you found the same thing.
You live it.
You live it.
And then honestly, you dream those characters were in my dreams.
Yeah, it was great.
Absolutely. It's great to talk to someone who's done it because the
number of people who say to me, oh, I could write a book.
I've got a book in there.
Yeah, you try it, mate.
It is really difficult because you've got to live it.
And, you know, in my book, there's a scene where they land in
in Moscow at the airport there.
And I researched that thoroughly.
And I could actually I had a dream.
I was dreaming about the those horrible concrete walls
in a Shuminesco airport and and and all of the sort of grimy characters.
And you live it and that you have to because you can't describe it otherwise.
I mean, those videos that I've been doing that you might have seen,
they take days and days to do because there are 70 different scenes in each.
And you have to basically prompt each of those scenes.
And I use about five hundred words per prompt.
So five hundred words per prompt.
Correct. You have.
And this is why people go, oh, it's just AI.
You just press a button.
Well, if you do that, you get rubbish.
This is a lot of people think that.
But the more you know, the more you realise that you actually have to teach it.
Yes, you do. And the prompts you have to train it.
Prompts are so important.
The more information you put in, the better it is.
So I actually take an awful lot of time writing the prompts.
And that's how it comes out.
And I uploaded one yesterday and I was really pleased with it.
And that's the series as well.
It's a girl who gets into contraband in Miami
and tries to get away.
She ends up in LA, then she ends up in Hawaii.
I'm going to ask you in a minute if you intended to write a sequel to that.
Before I do that, for those of you joining us, because it is two parts one,
we are expecting a third guest.
But as usual, Imtoshan is probably hopefully he's going to join us a bit later on.
He's always a little bit late with these things.
Don't forget, he is in the different time zone.
He's in Dubai.
But I'm already joined by my good friend, we go way, way, way back
as we were just discussing a moment ago, something like 20 plus years.
Quarter of a century.
Quarter of a century ago at Use Car Buyer magazine.
And did I get to know you when I was at Parker's or was it Use Car Buyer magazine?
At Parker's as well, wasn't it?
Yeah, quite a way back, you know.
And Jeff is a journalist.
He's a he's a marketing expert.
He's an entrepreneur.
He's a publisher.
He's a songwriter.
We'll get into that in a minute.
He's a serial car buyer and of course, like me, he's also an author.
And actually, before we went live, and if you may have caught some of that
conversation, we were talking about because we both got novels out to minors
of the U.S. files and yours is was it Big Swinging Dicks?
That's correct.
So tell us a little bit about that.
Is it automotive related at all or is it entirely separate to automotive?
Well, there are cars in it, but it's about some of the
some of the unsavory characters in the city of London in commerce.
And you might think, well, this is really boring.
It's dull.
But when I'm looking at some of the Amazon reviews and completely
unprompted, most people are saying I expected this to be dull.
But actually, it it made me laugh out loud.
So it's it's a lot.
Let me ask you this, because, you know, I I'm sure you feel the same way.
But when I was doing the writing process and I was loving it, I was in it.
As we were discussing earlier, I was living and breathing the story.
I was literally I'm not even joking when I say I was dreaming about the characters.
I would wake up with a thought going, oh, that character wouldn't do that.
You know, that sort of thing was happening, you know, and I was really in it.
I was immersed in it and I was loving it.
And of course, you have to love it when you're producing something like that.
But until you put it out in the big wide world,
honestly, you don't know if it's any good or not, right?
It could be utter rubbish.
You know, did you have that fear as well?
I did.
But quite soon after it was published, a friend of mine, who's
he's some sort of jet setter, he was on a plane in Rwanda, of all places.
Of all places.
Yeah. And he was he wasn't he wasn't being sent to Rwanda was.
No, they were paying you a lot of money, danger money, I think.
But they he said that he was sitting on this plane.
And there's two guys sitting next to him.
And suddenly he said, I just laughed at some of the turn of phrase
situation your character was coming out with.
And these guys were we laughing at.
And he said this and then he gave the book to them and they read it.
And they they pissed themselves laughing.
Can I say that? I'm sorry.
And and basically they they said, well, where can we get this book?
And they were, you know, they were really enthusiastic about it.
So so total strangers.
So I think it's difficult.
It's a bit like reading your own press, really.
And, you know, if you're I can't imagine being Prince Andrew, you know,
would you read anything about yourself? I don't know.
But but I'm no Prince Andrew.
But I certainly hope that I have had a few Range Rovers mind you.
Yeah. Well, they get given the money.
They are, you know, talking of get given range overs.
I remember there was a friend of mine.
Now, we should probably discuss this
when him to sign it on, but it was a friend of mine back in the UAE.
And he was this is probably maybe 12, 13 years ago.
And he was hanging out in the showroom for a land
of which is the Al Dara showroom and happened to go around the back.
And he saw a line of pristine first generation Range Rover boats
and they were immaculate.
And he's like, what's the story with these cars?
And the guys, they were like, well, they actually came from the palace
and basically they were part of a batch of cars that they bought
and they parked them and they'd forgotten about them.
And then they found them and they were like, let's send them over to Altar.
I get them service, get the get fluids, change and stuff.
See if they still run.
And they said, we don't really know what to do with them.
So he said, well, I want one.
So they asked the palace and they said, yeah, sure.
So and he got it for some really silly money as well,
because they really couldn't be bothered.
They're like, yeah, if somebody wants one, you know, we'll talk about it.
There is a there's a program for that or there was because I have one.
And in Hemmel Hempstead, there was a dealer.
They used to send them to this guy in Hemmel Hempstead, weirdly, all places.
But they did.
And I was having a look and I thought, oh, this is just what I want.
A black dayo estate.
And it was the top one, you know, with all the kit.
And anyway, so I was chatting with the guy.
I said, yeah, this was this belongs to Prince Charles.
All right.
I said, all right, OK.
They said, yeah, and, you know, there's a few dog marks in it and things.
But it's it was Prince Charles's knock around car, if you like.
And he used to keep it up at Balmoral.
And anyway, so I bought it and I thought, wow, I wonder who's been in this,
you know, the sort of the history of this this particular car.
Of course, now it's the the the King's car.
Yeah, it was exactly.
Yeah. So they do they do exist.
No, no, no, that went years ago.
OK, just as you know me, if I've got a car for more than six months,
it's a good one. Yeah.
But you know, that's got provenance.
That would that could have been worth it.
Oh, I was going to ask you now was because I was having
because we were just before we went live.
We were just talking about our novels
and the expectations of the sequel.
It's been quite a few years since you wrote that book, hasn't it?
Yeah, it's it's a good 10.
And so was that was was it something
that you ever thought about or are you still thinking about
that maybe I should write a sequel to it?
Yeah, I've written my sequel.
Oh, as you know, the editing is the the real
what takes most of the time writing it once you're in, you know,
in the in the groove is fairly straightforward.
But it's the editing and reediting
and what the publishers want and what have you.
So my mind's in the can, but it needs the editing finished.
But I just haven't had time for it.
I won't tell you what the title is
because it's too rude.
Well, well, I will actually it's called ball busting bitches.
There you go.
Yeah, the perfect companion book to bring.
Absolutely. Yeah.
At least on the shelves, it gets it gets some attention.
But I found to my
detriment with the original one, Big Swing in Dix.
The publisher said, yeah, it's good.
It will get attention.
They said, but but, you know,
you could have problem when people Google it.
And of course, I did subsequently find that
because if you put Big Swing index in, you get you get about 16,000
responses in Google of 70s guys with big moustaches.
So, yeah, I think you need to be on the VPN before you do that.
Yeah, exactly.
So in your in your as you just mentioned there,
your serial car owner and seller.
So what cars have you got at the moment?
At the moment, nothing too exciting really.
I've got a BMW.
Well, actually, this is exciting because it's quite rare now.
BMW 735i in Luxor, which is a sandy metallic, sandy color.
Hang on. So what year is that?
And what what what what is your number is that?
It's an E32 1989 and my father bought it new.
When he died, he left it to me.
And I've had it longer than he had it now.
I've just had it detailed.
And the detail is that this is incredible.
And it's done 54,000 miles from you.
Wow.
Full history, full service history.
It's immaculate.
It's I guess the thing with this is that
it's a very rare color combination.
Most of these have black interior.
This one's got a light beige.
And it's a sandy out sort of champagne color outside.
And it's the only one left of this model in the UK.
Still on the road.
It does look absolutely stunning that car.
Yeah, it is.
In fact, I've had Aston Martin's, as you know,
and all sorts of stuff and Porsches.
But when I brought this back from the detail
as the other the other week,
I parked it up in a lay by just to take some photographs
whilst it wasn't raining.
And this car stopped and two guys got out.
And I thought, oh, here we go.
But they came up and said, my God, you just don't see these.
It's immaculate.
And they were swarming around there.
And then a couple of trucks went past.
And it's like, boop, thumbs up, you know.
And I'm thinking, I've never had this sort of reaction
with any of the sort of high end stuff I've had.
So it's, there is this thing about classics
and the cars, you know, because you've seen it,
it looks fabulous.
And I'll never sell it.
It's just, it's just in the, in me.
No, don't, don't sell it.
Because I'm regretting telling,
because mine was also 1989.
You had the E30, didn't you?
The E30 335i.
And it's just like you say, the reaction that you would get.
I mean, you know, you wouldn't get that reaction
if you were driving a Ferrari or a Lamborghini or whatever.
In fact, case in point, I do some stuff for the driver's union,
which is a big supercar club, multi-mark supercar club.
And they do this thing at Brands Hatch
where they do the live demo runs and what have you.
And one time, and also they parked the club members' cars there.
So they got, you know, top of the range,
Ferrari's, Lamborghini's, McLaren's, et cetera, et cetera,
you name it, all lined up.
And in the middle of that, I parked my BMW.
And I sort of put it in the corner a little bit
because I was like, okay, you know,
it doesn't quite match this crowd, you know.
But I tell you what, what was the car
that was getting the most attention?
It was a bit embarrassing, I think, for the supercar owners
because everybody kept sort of sauntering up to the BMW
and wanting to chat about that, you know.
And it's incredible because the attention that it gets,
and even when it's out on the road and stuff like that,
and cars like, you know, your car and that one,
because it's such a part of the fabric
of automotive culture and automotive history
that anybody that sees that immediately is like,
my dad had one, my uncle had one, I used to have one,
or they have some story to tell about it.
And it's incredible how, you know, people relate to that.
And it's an incredible nostalgia trip.
I used to call it my time warp car.
Well, yes, of course it is.
I mean, and there's a school of thought there
because when you look at fast forwards,
or even not so fast forwards, you know,
I saw a Capri 1300 go the other day for 15 grand in it.
Geez. But it's because it's exactly the same thing.
It's that, oh, we have one of those.
We used to go down to Canberra Sands in it,
you know, that sort of thing.
And it's, you want, when you get to a point
where you might have an income that's reasonable
and a bit of disposable, you might think,
I want to relive my youth and just do that.
And, you know, it's, I mean, my first car was an MG Midget.
They used to call me a Midget Driver,
which I was quite short in those days.
And the thing I found with it though
was that you couldn't pull the girls
because they go, I'm not getting in that.
Oh, why?
Well, I have to, I can't wear this short skirt
and I can't get out.
And, you know, and it's too small
where you couldn't bring in knees and elbows
or anything like that.
You would not fit in it.
Yeah, yeah.
So, I swapped it, sadly,
but I did swap it for an Audi 100,
you know, the very first series going way back to 1970.
It transformed my sex life.
Go on, elaborate.
No, I can't go any further.
Now that you've gone down that route.
Although I would say, the reason I've gone,
it was because my dad wouldn't let me use Volvo estate.
He said, son, he said, that thing's got a six foot
load space for the seats down.
You're not having that.
It was something that I was mentioning on the last podcast
that we did with some of the guys.
And I was talking about,
because you just reminded me of what you said there,
in that how a car can actually dictate your life
or your personality, you know.
So in the sense that when I got that,
I bought 1984 Celica Supra.
You know, had the pop-up lights,
I had the wear shape, a straight six engine,
you know, had the digital dashboard.
For the day, it was a cool car.
I mean, this was in the early 90s that I had it.
And all of a sudden, I found that I started to dress differently.
And I started to take more care about how I looked
and how I presented, you know.
Because suddenly you thought, well, you've got a cool car,
you've got to look cool enough to be the owner of that car.
Absolutely. The things are intertwined.
I mean, some of the cars that I've had,
I guess I've imitated fantasy.
I mean, one that I've always wanted.
So I was in the 70s.
I used to love this TV series, Canon.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Frank Canon, he was a corpulent detective.
That's fat to you and me.
Yeah. I think we can say fat.
And he had a little mustache and, you know,
he was not anyone's idea of a sex symbol,
but he was pretty cool.
But he drove a Lincoln Continental, originally,
Continental Mark IV and then Mark V as the series went on.
And I've always liked those.
I don't know why, but I like American cars anyway.
But I thought I'd love one of those.
Anyway, I was in Miami and I was chatting with a friend over there.
And he said, I'll take you down to the car place.
So I went down to this dealer.
And in the corner of the showroom,
which is a massive warehouse,
was this Lincoln Continental Mark V, 1978, Bill Blass edition.
And you might not know what that is,
but it's Bill Blass is an American designer,
was an American designer.
He had this thing about blue and white.
So it was white with white leather and white vinyl roof.
And it had a blue streak along the side.
I thought, I've got to have that.
How much is it?
He said $1,200.
I said, I'll have it.
It needs a bit of work.
Anyway, I shipped it over.
And there it was in rural Gloucestershire at the time
with these little lanes.
And this massive sort of 20-foot long two-door Lincoln.
Yeah, so that was that.
And I knocked about in that around the Gloucestershire lanes
for about a year because I enjoyed it so much.
Now, it's an amazing car.
It's one of the best ones out there.
A good buddy of mine that I grew up with in Saudi Arabia
was a massive fan of the Lincoln.
Anyway, we are finally joined by Imtoshan.
Hello, Imtoshan.
You decided to join us.
By the way, can you go landscape?
Can you go landscape?
Hold on, just rotate by 90 degrees.
There you go.
All right, there we go.
Yeah, that's better.
At some point, that might correct itself.
Didn't do it.
Didn't do it.
Let me leave and do it again.
Yeah, leave and come back in again.
Let's see if that works.
But anyway, it's a glorious machine.
It really is.
There was a song came on the radio the other day.
Son, you're going to drive me to drink it
if you don't stop driving that hot rod Lincoln.
And I thought, oh my god, all of the memories flooding back of it.
I wonder where it is now.
I mean, they are such epic things.
I mean, literally, it is rolling art, isn't it?
It's rolling theater.
It's just absolutely incredible.
There you go.
There you go.
There you go.
There we are.
So Imtoshan, meet Jeff.
Jeff, meet Imtoshan.
Hi, Jeff.
Jeff, I've worked with for decades.
We worked together for a quarter of a century.
And Imtoshan, I've probably worked with longer than anybody else.
We're out in Dubai.
He was not together on Car Magazine,
and then we founded Motoring Middle East.
And now he's a freelancer.
You've done Millimilia and all the rest of it.
And he was with us last week.
We were talking just now before you came on
about the Lincoln Continental,
about cars that shape your personality.
And Jeff bought a Lincoln.
When was that?
How long ago was that?
That was around about 1990.
Wow.
So what?
Drive the Lincoln around.
Do we say door Lincoln?
Lincoln, Mark V, Bill Blass edition.
Which is that one?
White leather, white vinyl roof, and blue strakes.
Oh my God.
Oh, this is the 70s era.
I was thinking the 60s one there,
sort of the on jar.
The 70s.
Yeah, that was it.
Yeah, so you can see it.
Bill Blass, there's only one color scheme.
And that's that.
Yeah.
What do you have?
And it was inspired by the TV show.
What was that?
Cannon?
Frank Cannon?
Yeah, Frank Cannon.
Yeah.
We're all just kids.
We just want to be like in our TV shows.
That's what I hooked up.
Of course.
No, we were actually,
we were talking about this just now,
that, you know, the...
This is cool as shit.
Pardon my French.
This is a cool car.
It is cool.
Oh my God.
Yeah, as I say,
but the round the really narrow lanes
of where I used to live,
I was very well known
because, you know,
once you drove that down the lane,
no one else could get through.
And it was just so easy.
A driver as well.
People think, oh my God.
Easy for you,
but maybe not easy
for the other people
chatting the road with you.
Correct.
But that's,
but see,
that's exactly what we're talking
about this earlier.
That's exactly what I find now.
You know,
fast forward to,
you know,
35 years.
And I find that
if I'm driving any sort of
normal car
around where I live,
you know,
it's traumatic
because what's happening
is the roads are still no wider,
but the problem is
everyone's driving
in the middle of the road
because we've got potholes.
So you come around the blind bend
and think,
wow, there's a transit van.
And it's right in the middle of the road.
And so it's very,
very stressful.
So I was saying this to Shazad.
I was driving an X5
yesterday
and it was stressing me out.
So I swapped,
I came back home
and I swapped it out
for my smart car,
the 4-2.
And brilliant.
No stress at all
because,
okay,
you've got to avoid the potholes
because there's no suspension in it.
But even if you do avoid the potholes,
you've still got loads of road
because it's so small.
And then you get where you're going
and you can park it in the Tesco Trolley Park.
It's great.
It's so much bigger now.
Like,
I mean,
my dad's Honda Civic in 86,
I think is one of the last boxy ones
before they started
with all swoopy
and pinniforina style, right?
The one that I've gotten out of the Type R
is massive.
And not only is it massive,
it's wide
because it's wide body
because it's developed to be
on the bloody Nurburgring
of all things.
So it is not a compact car.
It is more like a small,
compact semi-detached, you know?
So it doesn't actually
fit anywhere.
Here's the thing with this
is that
that I've
one of my
current cars
is an electric mini Coupress.
Okay.
And I thought,
I'm just going to dip my toe
in the water and see.
And it's a great car, actually.
It actually handles
and it's
got a great turn of speed.
Of course, 100% torque
at any speed is
it's just better
than the petrol version.
I've driven all of them.
This is far better.
Anyway,
but I was looking at the other
I thought, I'm trying to park it
and it's the
level three model
with cameras everywhere.
And,
and,
you know,
it's got a 360 bird's eye view.
I think I still
I'm still having trouble parking this.
And I thought,
well, anyway,
so I
I sort of followed my hunch
and I went indoors and
and I had a look
at the size of a full desk.
Oh, because I've been watching
the Sweeney,
another one of my sort of heroes.
You know, I can't
I look at all the 70s cars on it
and the mark one full desk
school that Jack Regan was driving
in this
and I thought that don't look very big.
Anyway, so I went indoors
and I googled
the
the dimensions of both my mini
and the mark one full desk.
Well, do you know what?
They're identical
within a centimeter.
Identical.
So what was actually,
you know,
reasonably big car in the 70s.
You know,
my mini is the same size.
So it isn't a mini
and it just isn't.
It's just
so this is how things are ballooned.
You're quite right
about, you know, the Civic
because that's what's happened.
I don't know why they just don't
rename the cars,
you know,
once they go up a level.
Well, that should be the newer
court.
I mean,
the Civic is the new,
the current Civic is bigger
than the original court,
way bigger than the original.
Yeah.
My city is actually
I also found the same things.
So with my BMW E30 that I had
with 1989,
which at the time
was a upper executive level car,
the new mini,
the current mini,
is the same width
as that was back in the day.
So it's incredible.
But I'm glad you said that
about the parking
with all the
because I'm glad that
I'm not the only one
where now you have all the cameras,
you've got the 360,
you've got the cameras
and the mirrors
and the fenders.
And yet now I find it more
problematic
than I ever did
without the cameras.
And I haven't quite figured out
why that is.
No.
Because of the seat pillars.
Because the seat pillars
are massive now in these cars.
Because of the styling and blah,
blah, blah.
The baseline is high.
I think it's disorientation.
You see what I'm saying?
Yeah, I do.
Because once you're there
and you're looking at the screen
and I'm not getting
that spatial awareness
that I would normally have
if I was just sort of
looking around sort of thing,
instead I'm trying to
I'm trying to remotely
it's like trying to pilot
a remote control car.
It's I don't feel like
that's me anymore.
Do you see what I'm saying?
Am I making any sense?
I'm pretty good at remote control cars, I must say.
I think that's an advantage
of being young.
The advantage, the difference.
We are young.
Young at heart, gentlemen.
Young at heart.
The thing is, right,
you are exactly right.
You can't drive these cars
because you're used to
looking at them on screens.
I haven't turned my head
in years
to see what's behind me.
In absolute years.
I tried it the other day.
I didn't know of her.
Yeah, I'm not a fan of it.
I'm not a fan.
I still do that thing
where I put my arm around the seat
and then I go back,
look like that
and then just reverse,
you know,
but it's a little bit,
some things hurt now
when I do that.
I don't know why.
It's like a piece.
It's all well and good
being in your garage, right?
But then we,
it's when,
because car,
why does this happen?
It's because car companies
have tried to make
everybody happy.
So your mini's
got to be able to seat
a family of five
and take their shopping
and be electric
and have cameras
and it's gotten big
and fat
and heavy
and complicated.
Same for just about every car.
Even my little Type R,
which is about as
my little,
about a strip down
as you're going to get
is still massive.
I got a little model of it
right here.
I got a little one.
Look at that.
I got a visual aid, right?
I just unboxed it today.
It's lost its value.
What about Hot Wheels?
Yeah.
And the Type R now
has to be able to also be
a shopping trolley somehow.
But you look at an old
EG6 from the 90s, whatever.
That car can be made into a race car
because it has nothing in it.
It's funny you mentioned that
because I was at a garage
just the other day
and in the garage
they had something buried
inside there
that they would work.
They had a paint shop
and next to the paint shop
there was something in the corner
and I like caught my attention.
I was like,
do you mind if I just come in
and I went inside
and I'm looking at it.
This is a Civic Coupe.
It was like an early 90s
Civic Coupe.
I was like,
where did you get that from?
I mean, back in the day
there were no big deal.
That's an American
and seeing it now it was like,
whoa, it's a Civic Coupe.
And it looked fantastic.
But I guess this is the thing
because we were talking about this
in the show before you got here.
We were talking about
bread and butter cars from the past
that they don't exist anymore
because they're all scrapped.
Whereas you've got loads of E-Types.
They're ten of penny,
which were the thing in the day.
But cars from that same era,
say, I don't know,
Austin 1800.
When's the last time
you saw one of those?
And I saw one the other day
in which was,
and it wasn't a classic car show.
It was actually on the road.
It was a Warsley 2200.
So it was the old Land Crab.
But it was a Warsley.
Wow, this is rare as
Rocking Hall's menu, you know.
I saw a Hillman Eve recently.
And I was like, whoa,
Hillman Eve.
And I think I remember
the first time I ever became aware
of a Hillman Eve,
I was going to primary school.
I was walking to school
and it was a junction
and somebody cut one up.
And the Hillman Eve,
they took avoiding action
and he immediately did a 360.
Wait, well actually,
I think he's talked about
the rest of his length.
With Hillman Eve,
they were very tail happy.
A friend of mine
from school days,
when we were just out of school,
we used to go down the pub
and we had a designated driver
and he was,
he had a Sunbeam Stiletto,
which was the fastback version.
We were sober when he drove
because it always broke down.
And we'd have to get the bus or something.
So no one could drink
because we,
it was in the middle of nowhere,
this thing would break down
and it would usually be there.
I tell you what though,
this stiletto isn't half cool though.
It is cool now.
It wasn't then,
it overheated all the time.
And that's really cool looking.
But it's an interesting car.
You know, of course,
one of the few cars made in Scotland
because in Glasgow,
I was going to make a negative comment there
but I won't because
it was pretty rough.
Gots people,
you're okay.
But being diplomatic though,
it's a safe space guys.
Mind you,
to talk about being diplomatic,
I was following something this morning,
a car and it had a bumper sticker on it.
And it said,
Jesus saves,
but Reeves takes it back.
Oh, that's actually quite good.
That's what I thought actually.
It was obviously quite a new bumper sticker.
We've already had it for a year.
But we touched on coupes
and it was one of the things
that you wanted to talk about, Jeff,
was the four door.
And you know,
because back in the 80s and 90s,
I remember the Japanese would turn
all of their cars into coupes.
You know,
if it was a Corolla or an Accord
or Civic, whatever,
they had to have a coupé version of everything.
And now we hardly have any coupes at all.
What's the last one?
Compromised.
You could use them every day.
They had a boat.
They were just slightly smaller stands.
They're not like they have to be.
They didn't have to be on the Nurburgring.
They were just kind of
for people who were young
but didn't want to be old.
Exactly.
But I mean,
the Capri was the archetypal one.
I mean, that was the thing.
That's not the purpose of a sports car.
You know, that wasn't really a coupé.
You know what I mean?
I agree with you,
but the Capri is actually that cool.
But a Civic coupé is for a person who's like,
I want a Civic,
but I want to be a little bit flash.
Just a little bit.
But you see,
what I've got to say to you is that
because you're on the other side of the world,
Civics have never been cool over here.
Oh, out here they're never cool.
No, no, I don't agree.
They've never been cool here.
They've just been, you know,
jack boxes.
But the thing is that they're not
because they've always had fantastic engines.
They've handled well
and they've been bloody reliable.
So from that point of view,
I agree with you on that.
But, you know,
I can't be responsible
for the way the British look at style
because, you know,
if you put a Civic and a Capri up for sale.
Can I ask you, Jeff,
and also can I ask you
from the point of view
of being a veteran motoring journalist as well,
do you think,
because, and actually,
because I will know
why I'm getting out
because we've discussed this a few times,
do you think that there's been a certain bias
in the British media through the years,
especially, you know,
if you look at the 80s and 90s
against Japanese cars?
Yes, well, 100% there has been.
And the further you go back,
the worse it is.
And of course, motoring journalism has changed.
As you know, Shazad,
you know, when we were starting out,
Yonks ago,
it was a different type of landscape.
But you had to know something about cars.
I mean, I look at some of these influence,
local influences on YouTube.
Some of them are really good,
but some of them are just awful.
You know, they don't actually know about the product.
And that's, I mean,
there's somebody who I like a lot.
You probably know her, Tish,
who runs also social.
I was chatting to her.
I saw her the other day,
we were at the Suzuki event.
Yeah, I was chatting to her the other day.
Wasn't the same one, was it?
Same place.
She's got a good style about it.
She knows what she's talking about.
She knows, but the thing,
why I think she's a proper motoring journalist
for the era,
is because she relates the product
to the people buying it.
Whereas, I think, way back,
the journalist was using superlatives on staff
when you think, well, hold on,
I can't even fault that thing.
And it's not relevant to me.
And certain things like,
oh, the handling is absolutely fantastic.
But if it doesn't do what it says on the tin,
I get your family in,
you're not going to be interested.
And so the number of car enthusiasts
compared to the overall population
is relatively small.
People want the product to do
what they want it to do.
They're not worried about the final
empty degree in handling.
I'll give you an example.
Sorry, I'm monopolised in this conversation.
But the trouble is,
if I should,
he doesn't have me on very often
because I just keep talking.
But the Volvo,
I decided she wanted to get the dogs
in the back of a Volvo estate.
I said, I'm not having one of those XC90 things.
I said, we'll go for the V90 estate,
which is a lovely car.
It's basically the same floor plan but lower.
And you don't get any abuse either.
Volvo estate is cool.
XC90 is an SUV.
And you get the middle finger all the time.
So from an image point of view,
this was great.
But it was the T8.
And I had it pole-star tuned.
So it was putting out 470 horsepower.
And it suddenly made me think, wow,
like Aston Martin DB9 had 470 horsepower.
So a 6-liter V12 has got the same horsepower
as a 2-liter Volvo.
Because that Volvo was supercharged,
turbocharged, and electrified.
Separate propulsion means...
Anyway, the thing is, bought it,
and it was very quick, obviously.
Yeah, 0 to 60 in 4.8 seconds.
But the thing about that is that
when it comes down to the image,
it's one of those vehicles that
doesn't elicit any negative response.
Whereas if you're driving something like a Mercedes-AMG estate,
it has a different connotation.
We were talking about this very fact earlier.
Volvos, although people think they're boring,
they're pretty cool.
But again, coming back to my original point,
it did what it said on the tin.
It could get three dogs in all your luggage
and all your Christmas hampers
and God knows what else.
And it was great.
It did everything it said on the tin.
However, I didn't like the handling,
being a car refusieist,
because of course the battery,
although the battery sits down the spine of the car,
as opposed to underneath,
it's fairly well balanced.
But you could feel the weight.
You put it into a corner
and the understeer just wants to go wide
because it's just got that huge mass to it.
Whereas she had a Volvo estate T5 turbo,
just a turbo version before.
And that was quite nimble.
It felt like it was a ballerina compared to this.
This felt like Mike Tyson.
Although in a straight line,
it could out-drag the DB9.
But it had to go figure.
But it wasn't fun.
And so going back to the doing what it says on the tin thing,
you've got to ask yourself,
did it do what it said on the tin?
Yes. Was it fun? No.
So I'm rare.
I'm just one of those motoring enthusiasts.
But I can guarantee 90% of the people who bought that
didn't buy it for its handling finesse.
You know.
Can I tackle Jeff's points in order
since I've been making mental reports?
Go for it.
Yes.
Let's go in reverse order.
The issue with your Volvo is,
you tried to make it do something it wasn't meant to do, right?
So the tune is a nice thing that they sell you on in Europe.
Like, oh, you can make your BMW as fast as an M3.
And I did that.
I had a BMW on me as fast as an M3.
But it wasn't an M3.
Because when you throw it into a corner,
then you think, ah, it doesn't have the bushings.
It doesn't have the shocks.
It doesn't have the stiff everything.
It still kind of leans a bit.
I can make it sort of do it.
But it will never be an M3 in the way the steering is geared
in the rack and the brakes and the angle and the camber
and the blah, blah, blah.
Never get the power upgrade is what I'm saying.
Because it's a trap.
They sell you a bit of money.
You'll never use the power.
Do you mat 100% to the floor?
No, you don't.
Can I just demolish that argument?
Because it isn't horsepower that you get with the Polestar tune.
This is the Volvo approved one.
It's torque.
It's torque.
And that's what I'm big on torque, not power.
And the torque changed the way it drove every day.
But I think the amount of extra horsepower was 10
with that upgrade.
So it wasn't giving it loads and loads of power.
It was just giving it loads and loads of extra torque
where you really wanted it.
But I do take your point in the old Max Power days
when that magazine was ruling everything in 1995
was that you just bolt a straight through exhaust
on a 1-liter Mini or something and it'd be great.
But it isn't.
And the whole thing is that this is why a Mazda MX-5 is so great
because it's greater than some of its parts.
It's not powerful, but it's nimble.
It handles.
I mean, you'll know this when we go to Milbrook for the Society
of Motor Manufacturers driving day.
You can take it on the high-speed bowl
or the one I like is the mounting, the outpine,
of course, where you get hairpins.
That's pretty much exclusively what I do.
I never go on the bowl.
No, I don't either.
There's no point.
You get a car which you think is going to be absolutely fantastic
and you get to one of these hairpins
and it's like, whoa, this is not so good.
Whereas some of the, the one that got me actually
this year's one was that little Honda Electric.
I can't remember what it's called.
It looks like a bot.
I didn't drive it.
I didn't drive it.
I can't remember what it's called.
It just looks like a telly.
Do you mean the Honda E?
No, it's not that.
It was the, was it Honda?
Actually, now you've got me because I drove it.
I can't remember what else they had there
because I don't think they had that on me
because that's been out for a few years.
It might not have been, but it was as a motoring guy.
I should remember it, but.
But that's the other problem is that, you know,
nowadays I'm forgetting.
I even, when I walk down the streets,
I can't recognise half the cars anymore.
As a kid, I wouldn't know that.
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Now back to the video.
One thing that got me there, what you said, Imtoshan,
are you finally admitting what I've told you for years,
that modifying cars is bad?
Leave them as they,
because Imtoshan's a big one for modifying cars.
And I've always said,
leave the cars as the manufacturer intended.
Because that's how it's meant to be.
Kind of sorter.
Kind of sorter.
Like, it depends.
And I'm being semi serious here.
Like, I think cars that are pretty quick to begin with,
you have a harder job.
Cars that are average,
you can take them to very interesting places.
I think modifying really works with off-road cars.
If you have a decent off-road car
that hasn't been fettled by the manufacturer,
you can, as long as the options are there,
you can go pretty wild.
Like, we love playing with our 20-30 year old
Land Cruises out in the desert,
because there isn't that much that you can do
that you have to be precious with it.
With the newer stuff, for example,
a Defender Octa,
what the dickens are you going to do to it?
It's been honed to within an inch of its life.
Nothing you do is going to make it better.
And to be honest,
the envelope of performance is so high
that it is downright dangerous.
The latest Raptor R I drove in the desert,
I think I did a lap to the dunes and I came back,
my legs were shaking.
I'd never been that fast in a car before off-road.
And I've been doing this for a while.
And I just said to my friend, I was like,
I was just going to kill somebody.
That thing is 700 horsepower.
It goes up to like 120 kilometers per hour.
I think that's about 70 something in the dunes,
going uphill.
And when you lose it,
it's going to be bloody spectacular, you know.
But on the road out here,
I mean, the same thing as the UK,
you can't go that fast, etc.
You can't do anything.
There's not much point of making a car faster.
So you haven't done anything for your Civic then?
No.
What's the point?
I think I put on exhaust.
Because knowing you, that's unusual.
Because every new car that I've ever seen you buy,
you've always gone and done something to it.
But what would I do to the Civic?
I mean, the suspension is, you make it soft.
I mean, you just, you lose the character
because it's kind of compromised in ways that I like.
You can make it softer, more comfortable.
It's not a big deal.
I would put a noisier exhaust
because we're stuck with your European regulations.
So they exhaust the shit.
Actually, we can get away with loud exhaust out here.
So I'd like to put a nice louder exhaust.
That is it.
The car, as it is, is great.
Because it's not perfect.
I think perfection is really boring.
I just touched on the point that Jeff made earlier again about
what people, influences,
and specifically in British journalism, right?
So actually, I was going to ask you, Prashan,
because just to enlighten everybody,
in the last few years that you were doing in Milimilia,
you were actually handling PR.
You were doing PR.
So you were on the other side.
So you were handling journalists and influences
and stuff like that.
So you've clearly seen the progression
of how that whole landscape has changed.
And it has been a stark change, ladies and gentlemen,
a stark change.
But not all bad and not all good,
like anything else.
Because let's be honest, Shazad,
in our time,
there were plenty of journalists
who were not Harry Metcalf.
There were plenty of people who weren't, you know,
the guy from Auto Car.
I always forget his name.
The great one.
All the great Australians who ran Auto Car.
They've cropped Lee.
It's cropped Lee.
Yeah, cropped Lee.
And Gavin Green and all these people,
you know, they weren't all the best.
A lot of people were lunch magnets,
as I like to call them,
or, you know, at the grazing stations.
But not everybody was great.
And just like that,
not everybody influences bad,
not everybody influences great.
But the difference is an influencer
is telling you what they like.
And a journalist is trying to suss out
what you would like the audience.
That's the difference right there.
That's my point.
Yeah, that's my point.
One is completely pointed at you
and the other one is pointed at themselves.
And a lot of people, it's like,
I'd really like to know what Brad Pitt would drive.
And the answer is he drove a bunch of G500s
in the early 2000s when he still drove himself,
which just kind of makes sense.
He actually wanted the first people
to get G500s in the US.
But I don't really want to know every day
what a celebrity is doing,
because as you say, there's no relatability there.
There's no relatability.
Like somebody's used to driving,
you know, Aston Martins
is then going to review my Hillman Imp.
He's going to either find it very shit,
very amusing or very boring.
But it's not helping the person
who wants to buy a Hillman Imp
or the person who wants to be amused
by a Hillman Imp.
You know what I mean?
So I think that's the typical influence.
It's like, look, I bought a GT3,
but today I'm doing something ridiculous.
I'm driving an L322 Land Rover,
because that's what the algorithm
told me to write about this week
or talk about this week.
But, you know, out here in the Middle East,
because I love British journalism,
as you know, I've worked in it,
but it's very different out here.
You guys are very, very focused
on what people think
or specifically, what would the neighbors think?
I'd never be seen dead in XYZ.
You know, I'd never be seen dead in Assab.
I mean, if I was the right person in Assab,
you know what I mean?
I wouldn't be seen in a Hyundai or Kia or a Civic.
In Dubai, people aren't like that.
You know, people are practical.
There are your flash mob, etc.,
but they're there.
But most people are like,
does it do what I needed to do?
Does it drive?
Does it do the things I want?
It's much more consumer journalism,
which I like because there's no bullshit.
Having said that,
as you said, Jeff,
I have no bloody idea what half
these cars are on all these days.
Somebody called me up yesterday and said,
I can't decide,
and this is an absolutely true conversation,
between an avatar and a 212 BAW.
And I just put there like this.
I was like, what is that?
He's like, what do you think of them?
I just feel, you know, what should I buy with the BAW?
And I'm like, I don't even know what you're talking about.
I don't know what you're talking about.
Sounds like a load of BAW to me.
It's been working journalists here
that none of us know what these cars are.
I had to Google it while he was talking.
In the end, I said to him something very simple.
I'm like, okay.
But you know, you've got to listen to people, folks.
You've got to, I think, as journalists,
and Shazad knows me when I feel about this, right?
We don't do enough listening to people.
There was a time in the 70s and the 80s,
to some extent the golden era of the 90s,
where we were perfectly balanced between doing what we wanted to do,
whether it was drive to Morocco in a Testerosa,
you know, or do a group test with a bunch of,
you know, Range Rovers and patrols or whatever,
or the latest superminis.
We could balance what people wanted with our own muses.
But now journalists disappeared pretty high up their own assholes,
thinking that nothing was ever going to happen.
And they just started doing stuff that to me is so self-indulgent.
I think there was a wonderful intercooler article,
and I love the intercooler.
I'm not going to cast shade on them,
but I think it is self-indulgent.
Which is the greatest 911?
Is it the GT3, the ST, or the RS 4.0?
And I'm like, who cares?
Who cares?
They're all great.
What difference does it make?
I'm losing my mind.
Well, look, I just want to add something there,
because like you said, I mean,
this thing about what do journalists want
and what do consumers want,
and this is something that I learned actually at Parker's.
We left the door open for influencers.
We left the door open.
Well, no, but this is the thing.
It was the thing about what people actually want.
And this is something I learned,
I realized at Parker's and used Carbure magazine,
because we would interact a lot with the actual,
you know, readers and audience and what have you.
And what you got to realize after a while is
that they weren't really looking for advice.
What they were looking for was corroboration.
You know, what they were saying,
we've already, in our head somewhere,
we've already decided that we want this car
and we want some expert to tell us
we're making the right choice.
That's all they actually want.
And so, you know, I, and I'm just not nervous,
I developed the policy that if,
if I could see that somebody really wanted something,
I'd be like, yeah, yeah, you should definitely get that car.
You know, I remember like talking to somebody in Dubai,
and he was getting it, he used Aston Martin,
and it's like, oh my God,
oh, you are going to have such repair bills on that.
Oh, you know, and the dealer's not going to help.
And I was, but I looked at him,
and I listened to him, and I saw the passion,
and I said, dude, you should go buy the Aston.
You lied to his face.
Yeah, I lied to his face.
I'm like, dude, and the thing is sure enough,
he sold it a year later
because he was having too many problems with it.
But for that one year, boy, did he enjoy himself, right?
Look at this.
Because he had an Aston Martin.
Because he had an Aston Martin, not a BAW.
If the Shen, you were talking about Harry Medcalf earlier,
and I'm just going to corroborate Shazad's story here
because when I was thinking about this mini,
I already had a petrol Cooper S
that I was fiddling about with.
I thought, there's too many things go wrong with this.
I'm fed up.
You know, I don't want to crawl under it every weekend.
So I got rid of it.
And I thought, right, I think I'm
going to go for one of these electric minis.
Some great deals around because of, in fact,
no one wants electric apparently.
And so anyway, I was looking at it.
And the first thing I did was I went onto YouTube.
And of course, Harry Medcalf comes up.
He's testing it.
He's got one, yeah.
He's got one.
Has he got one?
Has he bought one?
No, no, he was testing it.
And I was looking for exactly the same as you were saying.
I was thinking, I've made my mind up.
I just want him to tell me it's a good choice.
But I was really disappointed because, you know,
it went through the card, but he spent so much time
talking about the sound generator, you know,
it's got this mini thing goes, woo.
You can turn that off, dude.
You know, it's not a problem, is it?
He just, it's a button.
He just goes off.
So that's it.
So he liked it or he didn't like it?
He didn't like it.
And he was loving it for ages.
I mean, quite a disproportionate amount of time.
And I thought, well, you turn it off.
It's not, it's not big, big.
Is it?
I mean, what's it really like as a,
as an owning proposition?
I mean, I mean, I would just interject
and conversely say that one of the reasons
that one of my favorite electric cars
is the BMW i4 m50 is because of the soundtrack
that they got hands in with to put in it.
Because it just adds that extra element of, you know,
sensation.
You need the sound.
You need some kind of a sound.
And I really like it for that.
But you can always turn them off though.
You know, I was just talking to my missus
just before we came on.
And we were talking about that clip
I sent you with Rory Sutherland.
Yeah, we'll come over to that.
And we were discussing it.
And we thought it was quite good,
good, I don't know, the way he sort of unfolded it.
And but she said, well, the thing is though,
with electric, she said, I agree.
There's got loads and loads going for it.
She said, but the trouble is,
if you're an enthusiast, the sound.
I said, yes.
I said, but I'm awful sound generators.
I said, because, you know,
any little oik can stick a fat exhaust on his 1300 fiesta
and make a lot of noise.
I said, you know, the younger people,
like they, in fact, some older people do,
I mean, I had in the bath and that was,
I was used to press the open exhaust button
before I went anywhere.
And I'm not exactly a spring chicken.
But there is that.
But the newer bath, I don't know if you've driven one,
the electric has a generator on the outside
as well as inside.
So, you know, you roll up and it's going.
One next door neighbor, when I borrowed one,
he said, guys, that sounds good.
He said, I thought they're all electric now.
I said, it is.
He said, but it's making the noise.
I said, yeah, I know, but he said.
Well, I really, I don't know if they've got them there
yet, Imtoshan, but I would quite like to go
in that new Dodge Charger to see,
what is a frat zonic chamber sound thing that it's got?
Because I like sound, you know?
I don't think anybody,
I don't think we're thinking about bringing it here,
but at the moment,
Stellantis is in all kinds of trouble
and the cars are not selling out here in Dodges.
After belatedly, after years and years of us telling them,
they are finally slashing prices
because they got ridiculously expensive.
The jeeps in particular,
which were their cash cow just doubled in price
and people stopped going off road.
So, yeah, there was,
and the Hellcats and the challenges were cheap,
fun.
That was their point.
They were cheap, easy and accessible.
All muscle cars should have been.
All the dealers and then the manufacturers got greedy
and made the cars so expensive
that their audience couldn't afford them anymore
and the kinds of people who were buying them
weren't the kinds of people who actually liked muscle cars.
They just bought everything else
and they were bored and they wanted into the Dodges showroom,
you know what I mean?
They was not actually the kind of...
Well, you remember Imtoshan, you know, like,
when I, when we were at ITP
and I was the editor of Car Magazine, you know,
why were you doing this?
You were the editor of Car.
I was the editor of Car.
So, anyway, I can't believe it.
Oh my God, I was, yeah, I was.
Anyway, so you'd get all the...
Because ITP was the biggest publisher in town in Dubai
and they'd hire a lot of British expats
to come and work for them
and invariably they'd find their way to my desk
after they've sent it down and everything like that
and they'd be like, you know,
what car should I get?
And I said, well, what car do you want?
And they'd be like,
oh, I really fancy a GTI and this and that.
I'm like, well, why do you want a GTI?
Oh, because I've always wanted one.
And I'm like, do you realize where you are?
And they're like, what do you mean?
I'm like, have you seen the price of petrol here?
And have you seen the space we have on our roads?
Whilst you're here, you should go out
and buy the biggest goddamn V8 you can buy
because this is the only time
you're going to be able to do that.
And invariably, the ITP car park
just filled up with Camaros and Rams
and Dodgers and stuff like that
because people are like, yeah,
just buy the biggest V8 I can, you know?
Well, it's the opportunity
and you should never pass the opportunity up.
What's one thing I've learned throughout my whole life?
Yeah.
Never pass an opportunity.
If it's there, grab it.
Coming back to this Rory Sutherland thing,
I don't know if you've got a chance to watch it,
Imthoshan, but are you familiar with him?
Nope, no idea where he is.
I have seen a few of his videos.
He's like a marketing guru.
And he was talking about the whole thing
about understanding or the transition to electric.
And he said, what if the roads were reversed?
What if actually we'd had a, you know,
actually, Jeff, you explain it
because you sent it through.
Yeah, I mean, but basically his premise was
if we'd been driving electric cars for 100 years
and then suddenly an engineer came along and said,
hey, I've got this great idea
and invented a petrol engine in 2025.
So, yeah, everyone says, well, okay, that's brilliant.
So what does it involve?
Right, well, it involves, you need a big lump of iron.
You need some about a thousand moving parts in it.
And then you need a sort of a tank to go with it
and put explosive material in it.
And then you run that material into the thing
with a thousand parts and you make explosions.
And I go, whoa, hold on.
And you can't fill it up at home
and it's dirty and it's smelly and it makes a little noise.
But I mean, I think the point that was being raised there
is that are we caught up in our ways?
We feel that electric is encroaching upon 130 years of fund
that we've been having with the internal combustion engine.
But are we stuck in our ways?
Are we just holding onto something
that was never truly good in the first place?
Or is it just the nature of programming?
Or what is it exactly?
Or is it an emotional pull?
Well, I can answer that, I think, is that
because part of my toolkit is behavioural science
and is what makes people do things.
Because you'll see an advert and it'll have thousands of clicks
and you'll see another advert that has hundreds.
And the reason is that you've put something on that one ad
that's inspired someone to take an action, i.e. click on it.
And it's the same with absolutely everything
and it's certainly the same with electric.
And I'm not an evangelist for electric,
even though I've bought an electric car.
I've got all sorts of cars.
But I do realise that electric is bloody good.
It ticks virtual the boxes.
I think there's two things, expense.
There's a perceived expense,
which I think the manufacturers are addressing
with these smaller cars, which is great in my book
because I love small cars.
The smaller the better, make them small.
That's got to be good.
But secondly is the perception of range anxiety.
And some of them makes this point in his vid,
that you can have range anxiety in a petrol car.
Look at Stormzy.
He ran out in Camden High Street the other day
in his Lamborghini.
And so it can happen to anybody car there.
I remember a particular episode when I had got to rescue
one of your predecessors, him to shine,
it was John Saxon, when he demolished his golf
over in the empty quarter on the way to Lihua.
He never quite made it to Lihua.
I had to go rescue him.
And I was in the family CRV and I hadn't fuelled it up.
And on the way back, we were literally like,
I literally had turned the AC off
and everything just gliding along, hoping, hoping.
And there's a tiny, did you know this?
There was a tiny little petrol station at the Sheikh Hamad Museum.
So there's actually a, there is, there's one petrol pump there.
And actually that's where we filled up.
That was crazy.
But yeah, that was, that was range anxiety
like I've never had in my life.
Honestly, I didn't want to run out of petrol
in the middle of a desert.
Well, exactly.
I mean, this is the thing in the UK.
We don't have a desert.
Well, I suppose we do in some ways.
It's a cultural desert.
The, but the thing is that you're always going to be near
some sort of the top up place.
And I mean, I was, I drove down to, I don't know,
there's about 120 miles the other day.
And I, and the mini had 220 on the clock.
I thought, that's fine.
I took it easy and I got to where I needed to go.
But I thought, you know what?
I've got to come back as well.
And I'm going to do that in a couple of days time.
So what I'll do is I'll zip into Cobham services
where they got loads and loads and loads of charges.
And I'll easily fill up there, you know, try one.
No, out of order.
No, that one's not compatible with you.
And, you know, there's a lot of fiddling about
and it was raining and I was swearing a lot.
And I just thought, oh God, you know,
but if I could have actually literally had five miles in it,
that would have been even worse.
But I had loads and I just thought, oh, I'll do it later.
But I think that, to me, is the biggest issue
with electric cars.
There was a massive perception of I'm going to run out
and it's going to take me ages to fill it up
if I'm somewhere where, you know, depth of night.
If you're a girl who's vulnerable and it's black
and you're in some Godforsaken, dark car park,
you're not really going to sit there for an hour, are you?
So, but I think there's what they should have done.
But we're all politicians, aren't we?
But what they should have done, instead of virtue signalling
like they do, is say, right, let's be pragmatic about this
and phase the fossil fuel ones out
as we phase in the electric or hydrogen
or whatever it's going to be.
And that way.
But, it's a different world view
on the other side of the world, isn't it?
Where, okay, I mean, there is a token not towards electric
but I think there are parts of the world
where there's no way that they're ready to give up
on the internal combustion engine.
We have everything electric on sale here thanks to China.
So, we have access to cars that you can only dream about
in the UK and mainland Europe.
We have the full range of Chinese cars
and I would say more than most parts of the world
because of our proximity to China.
But the reality is they haven't been that many takers.
The kinds of people who bought them are well-off dabblers,
as I like to say.
People who are like, oh, I'd like something different this year.
I'm going to have an electric car
and they all got arranged over in the back.
So, they're not relying on it to get anywhere.
For them, they have their own charging, etc.
It's not a problem.
Structure.
I've seen in China now the latest infrastructure
is you can dump a ton of charge in about 20 minutes
way more than most people need.
They're really, China's so far ahead
that they don't make sense for them to go to,
but they've been investing in it millions and billions of one.
But on the other hand, we in Dubai haven't
and most of the world hasn't.
So, one part of the world has shot off into the future.
The other half is living in the past.
So, this mismatch, much like our cultures at the moment,
is the problem.
We can't decide and China is like,
okay, we're not going to dictate the future
to everybody else.
And everybody else doesn't necessarily want to have that.
Like a lot of these Chinese cars,
the thing about Dubai is,
and I don't know if it's the same in the UK,
I couldn't tell you, cars here are your personality.
They're not about even though we need cars to get everywhere
because we don't have a proper public transit system
that can really get you to every part of the country.
Inside Dubai, you're pretty much okay now,
but everywhere else you need a car.
A car is you and you are your car.
So, a lot of people say that car,
I need to represent me in ways
outside of being practical or pragmatic.
And a Chinese car is actually fine
because the Chinese car now tells people,
oh, I'm forward thinking.
I've got technology.
I've got the future.
I'm not tied to old brands.
So, a lot of the young people are like,
we don't care about your old brands.
But people who are enthusiasts,
they're not touching Chinese cars.
They're not touching electric cars.
Can I add something there then?
Because if I look at my portfolio of motors,
I've got the smart car.
I've got the seven series.
I've got the electric minis.
So, I'm right up to date.
I'm ancient with the BMW
and the smart is just left field.
But frankly, I can get into any of those cars
on any particularly given day.
But I've got to be in the right mood for each car.
Okay, so I'm lucky to have several.
But the thing is that sometimes
I just want to drive the smart because
not only do I like it,
I love what it represents
because nobody can have a go at me.
I've never been flipped off in a smart.
Honestly, never, ever.
But whereas in my Porsche Cayman,
it was like that all the time,
everywhere, every junction.
You know, it's not very nice.
They're not.
Don't come over here.
I mean, that's quite nice.
Save yourself.
Why you can't do that?
It's actually technically illegal.
You could actually be,
you know, you'll get arrested for it.
For what?
For showing somebody the burden in the UAE.
Well, I remember that next time because,
I mean, I don't do it myself
because I've been,
my American friends have educated me out of it.
I think it's the best way
because I was in Dallas
and I'm driving along and this guy
I said, I'll give in their finger.
I think I do.
Don't do that.
I said, why?
He's got guns.
Yeah.
Oh, that's a different reason.
You know, I mean,
I actually went out with them
out there a few months ago
and we were sitting there
in their living room.
And my mate, he's an ex-DEA officer.
Okay.
And he's ex-Marine and all the rest of it.
So he knows how to handle guns.
He's got hundreds of the things
and he's got a Mercedes SL Supercharged 55.
And so in Dallas, it's pretty hot.
And then he said, right, okay,
we've run out of gin.
I said, all right.
And he says, look at his watch.
I said, it's quarter to eight.
We can just get down to the liquor store.
So I said, fine, okay.
So we're just going out the door.
He said, which one do you want?
I said, what do you mean?
He said, he's pointing to his gun cabinet.
I said, well, he said, well,
are you going to hold up the place?
In with the Glock.
And that's it.
So we're on the way there.
And I said, man, I said, this is crazy.
I said, why'd you need a gun to go to the liquor store?
He said, they always get robbed at closing time.
He said, so you've got to be protected.
And that's their culture.
And so when he says, don't flip someone off
because you'll get shot.
In Texas, they've got a concealed carry facility.
So basically, you don't know who you're looking at
and who you're talking to.
And that really did actually focus my mind
on doing it back here.
So you never know who you're dealing with.
So I thought, okay, well, I'll just not do it.
In fact, I've got cut up this morning.
It's very morning by someone just coming to a junction,
car cut it off as they do right across.
So I hand it up.
And I just went like that.
And I heard this on the hall.
And the old flip-off came and everything.
And I'm thinking, well, you were clearly in the wrong there.
But again, the behavioral psychology comes in
because I went like that.
They had to have the last word.
It's human nature to think, well, I didn't do anything wrong.
Or even if I did do something wrong,
I'm not going to fess up to it.
So they probably felt better by answering back.
But I didn't do any hip-hop and put my hands up.
No, to be honest, now you can't over here.
It's very dangerous because of the increasing,
not so many guns, but increasing stabbing.
What have you?
Yesterday, there was a news item.
This is in London where these guys and scooters
are stealing people's bicycles, wielding an axe.
They're literally, they're pushing these bikers over
with an axe and then attacking them with an axe
just to steal their bicycles.
I mean, this is how bad things are getting here.
It's absolutely crazy.
Well, that's an interesting point, show.
They can just interject there because I was thinking about this
and all these Aston Martins and stuff that I've had,
and Porsches and that, I don't feel the need for one anymore.
And the part of the reason is this very,
this change in social structure, I suppose,
because if I'm driving the smart, for instance,
I'm classless and people can laugh at me, I don't care,
but it's fine.
There's no way someone's going to get annoyed.
Whereas you're driving something flash
and you're perceived to be flash,
if you're outside the right area and you're in a wrong area,
you're going to attract attention and all the wrong attention.
And I don't want that.
So I'm sure I'm not alone.
And so now, with things like that mini, the smart,
they're below the radar type things, you know?
Not a problem we have in UAE, is it, Intitian?
I have a simple solution to all of them.
I'm just poor.
I can go anywhere I want, man.
I can go anywhere at all.
Nobody's going to rob me.
They look at him and he's like, yeah, he's fine.
He's doing worse than we are.
It's a good solution to all the problems of the world.
But I do want to sort of ask the question to the panel,
do journalists, who knows what people want?
I'm kind of obsessed with this idea now.
Do we as journalists know what people want
or do influencers know what people want?
I think influencers don't necessarily know what people want.
Influencers are very good at what they're doing.
This is not to distract anything from what they do,
but they're greater content.
So they're single-minded about their content
to the point where very often you see with influencers
that it's repetitive content.
It's exactly the same format every time
because they've stumbled or they've mastered
something that works for them and they'll just do that.
That's not relevant to a service they're providing.
That's just relevant to the views that they're getting.
In terms of journalism, I think some journalists
that are actually dedicated that are doing this
for the right reasons will try to understand
what the market is, what the audience is
for every specific car, and try to analyze it
on that sense.
It's like I've always said, you're not reviewing
the car for yourself.
You're reviewing the car for your audience,
and that's where you should look at it.
So I think that, yes, we do try.
We do try.
And at the end of the day,
like going back to what we were saying earlier,
it's almost, if you're actually in contact,
if you're talking to somebody or you're messaging somebody,
the main thing to do is to find out
what exactly do they want?
Because what they want is what they've already decided.
And what they want from you is corroboration
to say they're not making the ultimate bad decision,
which in most cases they're not,
because there's no such thing really
as a bad car anymore.
Although I've heard that,
why is it Stepwell B09 or something?
A bunch of journalists were slagging that off
at the dinner the other night.
So I don't know, maybe there is such a thing
as a bad car, but most cars are pretty good.
Anyway, what do you reckon, Jeff?
Yeah, well, I have to totally agree with you on that.
It's the good influencers do, in fact,
reference their customer, if you like.
Basically, they're viewer and they'll review the car
for the people that are genuinely looking
for that sort of car.
The worst ones, the ones who have no reference points
and no barometer whatsoever,
all they're interested in is what they think of it
for themselves.
And there are loads and loads of those.
In fact, there are too many.
The problem is that YouTube has made it very easy
and easier over the years to just set up your own channel
and call yourself what you like.
And that doesn't apply to you, obviously.
But you can tell with your 36,000 subscribers,
you're giving everyone what they're after.
You're genuine, informed.
But like I say, that hasn't come from working
in a digital space.
And yourself, of course, are all from print backgrounds.
That's correct.
And we're all basically trained journalists.
So we've come up through that whole process
of understanding the point of getting information,
packaging it, and supplying it in a form
that the audience wants.
Yeah, absolutely.
But again, I think the other issue here is that,
I mean, as you know, I published a classic car magazine.
Oh, I do.
Because Chaz Ab was writing for it.
And a very good column as well.
Thank you.
But ultimately, we had to close it because of lockdown
and no footfall in the stores.
You know, you can't just have all the overheads
and none of the siles, which was devastating
because we were really cutting through.
We were using all of our analog expertise
and basically putting that into the digital age.
Because we had it on the app.
We could get it on an app.
You could read it all sorts of ways.
So whichever was your chosen way of reading something,
you could get it.
And that was quite unusual from the off.
But that aside, I think the landscape in the last five years
has shifted even further in that I'm looking at,
what do you call it, YouTube?
And the number of shorts on there, just phenomenal.
And there's a lot of this doom-scrolling.
There are people just scroll through the shorts and things.
And because people's attention span with a busy lifestyle
now has got so small, you know, a minute is too long
for some of these people.
You know, you think, my God.
So this is where it's going.
You know, you need to sort of condense your message
into a minute these days.
That's the way it's going.
I don't know where it goes from here
because it's exponential.
I think I was reading somewhere the other day
in an esteemed journal that we've had more change
in the last five years than we've had in the last 30.
And humans can take change.
We're very adaptable species.
And that's on record.
But what we can't do is adapt too quickly.
So if we're being asked to adapt as quickly as we are now,
we become very unsettled.
And you've only got to look at the mood.
I mean, I don't know what it's like in the Middle East,
but it certainly is here.
I detect a very unsettled sort of mood in society.
And I genuinely feel it's because of the sheer pace of change
that we're expected to absorb.
And you hear all the politicians talking about this change.
Well, you know, nobody wants change to happen overnight
because if you do, you become very destabilized.
And so again, this is another part of the problem,
I think, is that because everything is moving so quickly
as humans, we're just not used to...
We're not programmed to do that.
Because basically we're still animals.
We're talking all of attention spans.
We have gone way, way over our haunted hour.
But before we clear that up,
Ibrahim was just asking,
he's, this is on the live version of this broadcast.
And he said, well, obviously,
I don't think he's talking about you, I'm just asking,
are either of you going to be at the NEC show, classic show?
I'm still not 100% sure about it.
He did mention that Harry Mackoff's collection
is going to be there as well.
I think he's selling some of them.
Yeah, that's one of the reasons I'm going to go,
because I think that's going to be quite an interesting show.
I mean, the trouble is though, Shazad, with you,
you're still mourning your baby.
So going to see other classics there
might sort of put you over the edge.
Yeah.
I've still got quite a while.
When you sent me a picture of your 89.7 series,
I was like, oh, you know.
Yeah, Shazad went into his bottom lip was quivering.
It was.
It really was.
It really was.
So we haven't got a picture.
We could put it up here.
I will add it to the edited version.
But before we go, I wanted to ask something,
because this is Halloween, it's Halloween week.
And last year I did a feature where I compiled
the most haunted roads in the world.
So I wanted to ask each of you, if you were commissioned
to do a feature where you actually had to go and drive
these most haunted roads in the world,
what car would you use and why?
OK, I've got three, I think.
No, I said what car?
You've got to choose one.
Come on.
One car.
OK, it'd be a Lamborghini Marciallago.
Really?
And you know why?
Not even a Diablo, but a Marciallago.
No, no, the Marciallago, because that's Spanish for bat.
Fair enough.
And it's a Lamborghini anyway, so I'm quite happy with that.
But I'd also go for a Rolls Royce ghost.
There you go.
Impeachan.
Hold up.
You've got one more.
Come on, go on then.
Alfa Romeo Spider.
Alfa Romeo Spider, all right.
Impeachan.
What is the Alfa Spider Scream Halloween or ghost story?
I don't know why this is called the one you're learning.
Spiders.
I mean, it's tenuous.
I'm going to give you one car, I'm going to break the mold.
This gives you one car.
Thanks.
But I think something that suits, I'm a mood guy.
You know this, Shizal.
I'm always a mood guy.
Bewick Grand National.
GNX.
Wow.
A black GNX, which only came in black.
And if you were talking about it, I would say I think it only came in black.
Yeah, yeah.
80.
85, in the mid 80s.
85, so yes, yes, 85.
Yeah, that was, that's still a seriously respected bit of kit.
And it's very dark and sort of, yeah, yeah, a good one.
Good one.
Very good.
I'm going to go for an obvious one.
Very obvious one.
Dodge, dodge demon.
Dodge, dodge demon.
Come on.
Come on.
It's badass.
It looks the part.
I just called a demon.
Come on.
What else are you going to go?
Take another one.
The only problem is the number of petrol stops you have to make on this trip.
Well, you could have had AMC Gremlin.
No, he couldn't have.
You know what, let the puns continue in the comments
because I think we've started something off there.
But this will be great.
Anyway, thank you very much, gentlemen.
Thank you for joining me on this latest therapy session from the Brown Car Guy.
Thanks, guys.
Next week, I think I won't be doing a live one at least next week,
just for anybody that's tuning in because I'm going to be,
what is it?
There's a show at Paul Moll, the RAC thing.
RAC club, yeah.
Yeah.
So I think I'm going to be there on this Saturday.
So probably we'll give next week a miss
and then we'll be back the following week
or unless I do a recorded one in between.
But thanks very much for joining us
and we'll catch you all again very, very soon.
Thanks a lot, guys.
Thank you.
Shout out time, guys.
Thank you so much.
Hey, if you enjoy my content, why not get involved?
Buy me a coffee.
You can do that either of these links.
Or if you're watching on YouTube, buy me a thanks
or take out a membership.
It all helps.
It really does.
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