The GT3 is a super-fast version of the Porsche 911 made for racing and high-performance driving. It’s lighter and has a stronger engine than regular models.
The Porsche Carrera GT is a supercar made by Porsche, famous for its speed and handling. It was built in the early 2000s and is highly regarded in the car community.
The Audi RS 3 is a super-fast version of a smaller Audi car. It's known for being really fun to drive and has a lot of power, making it exciting for car lovers.
The Bentley Bentayga is a fancy SUV that offers lots of luxury features and powerful engines. It's designed for people who want a high-end driving experience.
The Audi RS e-tron GT is a fast electric car that looks really stylish. It's known for being powerful and fun to drive, making it a cool choice for those who like electric vehicles.
Four-wheel drive means that the car can use all four wheels to move, which helps it grip the road better, especially in bad weather or on rough terrain.
A hairpin turn is a sharp bend in the road that looks like a hairpin. It's hard to navigate because you have to turn the steering wheel a lot to make it around the corner.
The Nissan X-Trail is a roomy SUV that's great for families. It has a lot of space for people and their stuff, making it a good choice for everyday use.
Winter tires are made to help cars grip the road better when it's cold, snowy, or icy. They work differently than regular tires to keep you safe in winter weather.
Michelin is a brand that makes tires for cars. They are known for making good quality tires that help cars grip the road well, especially in different weather conditions.
The fuel gauge is a part of the car's dashboard that tells you how much gas is left in the tank. It helps you know when you need to fill up your car with more fuel.
A head-up display is a feature that shows important information, like your speed, right on the windshield. This way, you don't have to look down at the dashboard while driving.
The Audi UR Quattro is an iconic sports car from the 1980s that was famous for its all-wheel drive and success in rally racing. It has a unique look and is loved by car enthusiasts.
The BMW M3 is a fast and sporty car that's great for driving enthusiasts. It's part of the 3 Series but has extra features that make it more powerful and fun to drive, especially if you need space for things like a dog.
The Audi A3 is a small luxury car that's comfortable and has nice features. It's a good option for people who want something stylish and fun to drive without being too big.
The Audi S3 is a sportier version of the A3, meaning it has a stronger engine and better handling for a more exciting driving experience. It's still a small car but with a focus on performance.
The BMW M5 is a powerful and luxurious car that is part of the BMW 5 Series. It's designed for both speed and comfort, making it a favorite among car lovers.
The Porsche 930 Turbo is a famous sports car that has a turbocharged engine, which gives it extra power. It's known for its unique look and is loved by car enthusiasts.
Zero to sixty time is how long it takes a car to go from a complete stop to going sixty miles per hour. It's a way to measure how fast a car can speed up.
The BMW X7 is a large, luxury SUV that can carry many passengers and has lots of comfort features. It's great for families or anyone who wants a lot of space in a fancy car.
The BMW X5 is a fancy SUV that offers a lot of comfort and nice features. It's popular because it drives well and has plenty of space for passengers and luggage.
Air suspension is a system that uses air instead of metal springs to support a car's weight. It can make the ride smoother and can be adjusted for different situations.
An M car is a special, faster version of a regular BMW car. These cars are built for better performance and handling, making them more exciting to drive.
EV ownership means having an electric car and dealing with things like charging it and taking care of it. It's important to know how to keep it running well and where to charge it, especially as more people start using electric cars.
The Porsche Taycan is a fast electric car made by Porsche. It's designed to be both luxurious and sporty, making it a popular choice for those who want an electric vehicle with performance.
The Tesla Model 3 is a popular electric car known for being efficient and having a long driving range. It's a good choice for people looking for a modern car that doesn't use gas.
The BMW 3 Series is a smaller luxury car that is fun to drive and very comfortable. It's well-liked because it combines good looks with a nice interior and strong performance.
The BMW iX3 is an electric SUV that offers a lot of space and comfort. It's important because it helps reduce pollution and is part of the growing trend of electric cars.
The Nissan GT-R is a super-fast sports car that is very popular among car fans. It's known for being really powerful and fun to drive, often competing with much more expensive cars.
LIVE
He's now. He's now. He's now. See, I thought that was just Joe's massive delay. He was
just having me on then. No, he's being a polite gentleman and letting me go first.
Hey guys, and welcome back to the Drive Talk podcast powered by Michelin. An online one
today. How are we gents? Is it peeing it down with rain where you are?
Misery. Absolutely misery here. Apparently you guys had nice weather yesterday, but it's just
this year has been so miserable in the UK at least. It's not good. I've got to just pick up a press
card today. I've got it for five days, I think, and every single day is heavy rain all day,
and I know it's bad because the road I live on is now a river, and it does it only when it
rains really badly, and from my house all the way up to the local pub, it's about three miles,
is literally a river, and what that does is it just delaminates the road. There's pot holes,
and it's just awful. Is your press card this time on sensible tyres or are we on cup two Rs
again? No, no, it's Joe's favourite 9-11. It's the Carter Jaina 9-11T.
We've got to get talking of that Carter Jaina, Carter, whatever I called it.
We need to get Anthony back on. I was talking to him the other day. That podcast continues to get
comments and really positive comments about him, and yeah, it was really good. So watch
your space, everyone. We'll definitely get him back, but that's what a car. I bet you're looking
forward to running out. I've just driven it back from Reading, and I'm going to, so you are, both of
you are, base 9-11 fanboys, right? You always fly the flag for a base 9-11, or the most bog-o
standard one, and I am not interested in the 9-11 unless it's got a GTS interior pack. Oh, yeah.
GTS. But I've always been the kind of, the top model in any car I've bought,
and so I thought, do you know what? I'm going to get the 9-11T, and I'm going to see
what all the fuss is about, and apart from the fact, if you want a manual 9-11, it's that or an ST
or a GT3. Yeah, driving it back today, it's very, very nice.
Wait, well, your name has talked to you, if you've only got,
well, your name has talked to you, if you've only got Carrera T on the back of your Porsche.
I don't know, mate. I'm not sure they talk to me because of the fact it's bright yellow.
The colour, we all agree the colour is awful. I just think it's, it's not, it's not a colour
I would say. Although you can, if you just get the G and the S, you have got GTS.
You are one third of the way there, aren't you? I could buy a G and an S and just stick
them on the side. Yeah, this is true. Yeah, yeah. No, the colour's not great, but the,
yeah, I'm not, I won't, it's so far, having driven it from Reading back home, it's very,
very nice, and the gear shift is just, oh, yeah, very nice, very nice indeed.
Cool, I look forward to seeing what you think about that in your, in your video,
surely come and go. That'll be out, that'll be out later on today. Yeah.
Actually, my worries, I don't know when I was going to film it tomorrow,
feel like a good chunk of it tomorrow, but the weather's so bad that I think I'm going to have
to try and squeeze it in over the weekend. Yeah, we'll see. The joys of being a YouTuber in this
weather is, it's not fun at all. No, oh, unless you get away and get out of the UK, of course.
Well, yeah, so, so I think, right, I am the only car content creator, influencer type that wasn't
at the fat ice race. Everybody was there. Well, it's because it wasn't in the studio,
so how were you meant to, it's outside. Yeah, Vauxhall didn't have a, a group of people guys,
so it wasn't there. Yeah, the mocha rally car would have been perfect on that, on that ice
track. Yeah, it's been really good. All I say, all I say mate is I'm going ice driving in two weeks
in a convertible mini. Oh, nice. So yeah, that'll be fun. But no, fat, it did look mega. I mean,
some of the cars, and the one, the one I've got to say I absolutely love was the, the dude that we
met at Boxingas in his GT, Carrera GT last year. Yes. What a legend. Yeah, he was, I've forgotten
his name again. John. John. Yes. He was so nice. I actually bumped into him in the morning. They
had like a sign on registration at the Skoda dealership. I think you went there as well,
didn't you Pat? Yes, I did. And I was picking up my credentials and then, yeah, and there it was
out in the car park. And it's just like, oh, roof down. And it was like, at that point it was foggy
and about minus five. And he's there with his mate and they're in big jackets and,
yeah, fair play. But it was, it was awesome. Like I'd seen it the last couple of years,
especially last year on socials. And I was like, oh, I need to get out there one day. And,
and then this Audi studio shoot came in in Munich. And I had an RS3 booked in over that week. And I
was struggling to think of, because I just try and avoid booking any press cars at this time of
year, because it's just no, I can't, I just, it just annoys me the weather. But I had this RS3 booked
in and I was planning to take it away somewhere anyway, like down to the snow or something. So
I thought, okay, I'll drive it to the studio shoot. And then I was talking to Misha, see if he
could be at the Nürburgring, so I could pop in and say hi. And he said, no, I'm at the ice race.
And I was like, oh, when's that? And then I looked, and then suddenly it all started coming
together and fair play to the fact ice race. I emailed their, their contacts online and just
said, you know, can I get a media pass? And they were really helpful, said absolutely,
really accommodating. So yeah, so then I kind of tailored my trip around that. And I was just so,
it was so good to be there. It was great. But as you say, Pet, everyone was there. I mean,
even after I'd got back, even today, I was looking at people's posts. I was like, oh my god,
like Francis Bruges was there. And just ran, you know, I didn't see 90% of the people that were
there. But it was such a spectacle, the people, the cars, the venue. And from about lunchtime,
the sun came out and it was really, it was really cool. Yeah, I enjoyed it.
I'll have a go at that. I'm skiing behind a car. That
wicked. Yeah, that I'll be, I'll be the driver. Yeah, I'll bet you would. That could be health and
safety. And yeah, that could be hanging out the tailgate with a camera all strapped in.
Yes, I'll be snow plowing behind like a beginner on a, on a nursery slope. Yeah.
Now, there were some proper skiers there as well, because I actually, for the first time ever,
I, I, I saw Chris Harris in real life. And I, and I had a chat with him for about 10 minutes,
never talked, I've never met the guy before, never even seen him in real life. So that was
really surreal. Because I think like a lot of us, he was a sort of big catalyst for me
getting my first car that, that then sort of triggered me to start my YouTube channel in 2013.
And he was, it was, it was, he couldn't have been more charming. Because I think Chris online,
you get to Chris's, don't you? But sometimes he's angry and
still part of his character. But, but the thing that struck me is I know he's
very well educated. And he's relatively well spoken. But in real life, I found him so posh.
He was way more posh. It was way more posh than I was anticipating. So it was really,
it was like, I kept saying to myself as he's talking in my head, I'm like, that is Chris
Harris, it is Chris Harris, it is Chris Harris, because he was so well spoken. But he was, he was
there with Bentley, and he was driving a tricked up Bentayga. And the skier that he had behind,
I can't, again, I can't remember her name, but she was lovely. She was like a two time Olympic
skiing champion. So, so, and I think they just spent the past couple of days filming some promo
stuff or something. But yeah, she didn't have a problem at all, like hanging on to the back of
his car. But yeah, no, that was, it was surreal meeting him.
It's cool when you, when you do get to meet people, it's one of those, I don't know what
you're like, when you meet someone who you've kind of looked up to or followed, whether it's
a journalist like that or a sports personality or anything, you know, and he's like, please,
don't be an asshole. And when you do, and they're nice, it's like, oh, mate, let's just,
it's just all you want them to be is the, the person you imagine in your head.
Exactly. Yeah, it's bleak. You want them to be something. And also, well, with me anyway,
I'm always like, don't say the wrong thing, or don't just, just try and be cool, like try and act
cool. Like, because I was there, like, like a excited Jack Russell, just talking to him, thinking,
oh, my God, this is Chris Howes. And all I could think about was, I really want to get a photo
with him. But, but then that will make me less cool if I ask him. That's not cool. That never
did anything. It's the don't ask for a selfie. Yes, I didn't. But I walked away and I was like
dragging my feet thinking, oh man, like I might not see him again for five years or something.
You never know me, right? He may well have walked away dragging his feet going, damn,
I didn't get a photo with Joe Achilles. I think I heard him mutter that as I walked off, actually.
Yeah, you obviously invited him to come on the podcast, right?
Yeah, well, actually, I genuinely did. At the end of last year, I dropped him a DM,
and he got straight back to me and basically just said that he would love to, but he's stupidly
busy and his commitments. Also, like, yeah, I guess once he says yes to someone, yeah,
then everyone's going to expect him. I know he did that thing with Raz a few years ago,
which was quite entertaining. But, but yeah, maybe one day we can keep our fingers crossed for that.
So, so talk, so talk to us about the whole RS3 trip thing because you're, I mean, firstly,
you put a picture up of the RS3, and it was just absolutely filthy all over the back, like lovely
snow, grime, grit, dirt that you get when you drive a car in the winter. It looked wicked.
It's just like the perfect RS3 photograph. Well, what, so what, what were you going to
Germany for? Did you say a studio shoot? Oh, yes, studio shoot. And I just, I just want to,
because I do get a little bit of grief from you to for occasionally doing a first reveal
studio shoot. I've got one in a couple of weeks. In fact, no, I've got one next week.
What were you in the studio for? I can't say. Yeah, one of the embargoes lifts just after this
would go live, but the other ones around for ages, unfortunately. There were two, I could say they're
two Audi RS products. And I could say that one of them we kind of already know. And it's stop,
stop, you're going to get yourself into trouble. No, no, no, no. No, no, I'm not. It's just a special
version of a car that we know. The other one that I can't talk about. I'm just going to say it is
absolutely drop dead gorgeous. And that's all I'm going to say. They've done an amazing job.
That's it. So yes, stay tuned for that. But but yeah, the RS3 took out there. Absolutely.
I mean, it's parked outside now. It is caked in salt. And I mean, my journey home yesterday was
fast. It would have been a lot quicker if I'd given it a wash before and because it's carrying
probably about 20 kilos of salt. But it was just epic out there. Obviously, it was on winter tires.
And I took it to one of my favorite passes in Austria. It's like a toll road, about 30 euros
for the day. So it's not cheap. But you go on there and there's hardly any other cars. The
speed limits that were on there have now been all taken down, which which is great.
Not that you can go that fast because it's so icy and skiddy and it's just like hairpins and
everything. But I got up to the I got halfway up and I was filming on Monday on this pass and I
was getting super excited getting loads of flybys and I was like, Joe, you've only gone about 10
percent of the way up like the top bits the best. And I kept stopping and filming more.
And then I got to the last third, which is probably about the last 300 or 400 meters of
elevation. So the last, let's say two or three kilometers of twisties. And suddenly the tarmac
that had big snow banks was no longer tarmac. It wasn't black. It was white. And it was like,
it was ice and a bit of snow on top. And there's it's amazing because at the top there's a ski
course goes like over the road on bridges and see you're driving along and then there's like
skiers flying down. It's really cool with somebody who doesn't ski. I was just like,
this is awesome. And but yeah, as the road changed, they'd obviously laid down some gravel. It might
have been salt or something to add some grip. And I got then it gets steeper and steeper and I'm
going up this hill thinking, okay, well I'm on winter tires and I've got four-wheel drive. So I
should be okay. But I knew that as I got near the top, the elevation just gets steeper. But I was
all right going up. But all I could think about was this is going to be sketchy coming down, you
know, like it was really, yeah, exactly. It was really, really slippery. And so I got to the top
and and then I was a bit relieved to see like 150 other cars in the car park and they're all on
normal winters and not like chains or anything. So I turned around to go back down to film some static
stuff because it was just too windy and cold up there. It was like minus 12 or something. So I'm
coming back down and the first thing I did was like test the brakes and you hit the brake pedal
and the ABS triggers and the car just got just just gradually slows down but basically does
nothing. So I thought to myself, right, you've got to keep it like 50k maximum on the way down
like 30 miles an hour. So I'm doing this. And I was telling Lou this last night, I had a bit of a
momentary loss of conversation, conversation, concentration on this. There's this long straight
into a hairpin typical sort of alpine road, right, coming down. And I'd let the speed just just go
up a little bit but not much probably like 65 kilometers an hour. So like let's say 40 miles
an hour. And I was probably still 100 meters away from the hairpin. But suddenly at that point,
I was like, oh, so I've gone for the brakes. And this next bit that probably realistically took
15 seconds felt like it took five minutes because it all slowed down in my head. So I've hit the
brakes and basically nothing's happened because now I've got so much momentum and the weight of the
car and it's just not slowing down. And I'm sitting there and I've got all this time I wish I had
the cameras on because I'd love to watch it back. I would have been shitting myself. And I was trying
everything to get the car to slow down. Nothing was happening. And it was just, it was probably,
I probably scrubbed about 10 miles an hour by the time I got there. So I've turned in at like 25,
30 miles an hour. And I'm like, Oh, no. Oh, no. Oh, no. And as I've turned in, I've just like
glanced and then hit this massive bank. But I know there's a barrier behind it. But thankfully,
the car kind of kissed the bank, hit the bank and then bounced off it. And so I crawled to stop
after it. And I've got out of the car all sheepishly. I'm like, Oh my God, what have I done? But as,
as we all know from like ice driving several times, thankfully, there's absolutely no damage on the car,
not even a scratch, which is just amazing. But it was just such a horrible, it was like this is
pathetic. I'm literally running. The world's slowest crash. It was so bad. If I were you,
I'd probably not tell the press fleet manager of Audi that story. No, maybe keep it to yourself.
Yeah, I will. Yeah, I'll talk about it. No, no. Yeah, no, I was so relieved.
Yeah, I was just so relieved to come get out of the car. I got all the snow off. It was like
stuffed in all the radiators. And I was just like looking for marks. And it's like, there's nothing.
Oh my God, there's nothing. There's no marks. But anyway, and then I guess the last part of this
story without boring everyone too much about this trip, but I got back. So yesterday,
yesterday morning, I woke up in the outskirts of Munich, where the studio shoot was. And my plan
was to spend two days to get home and probably arrive home, like late afternoon today, so around
this time. And I'd said to you guys, I couldn't do a pod today because I was arriving.
Yeah. So, but I set off from Munich, and I left the hotel at half past nine in the morning to
sort of avoid rush hour traffic, go around the ring road of Munich and no traffic, no traffic. And
the ring road light is just interjected. You left at that time because that's the earliest you will
ever get up. I mean, you're never at breakfast on time. You were meant to be at breakfast at eight
and you managed to leave the hotel at half-night. How does that work with yourself? Do you set an
earlier time than which you actually come down to yourself or? You know what? I know I am late.
So, but I'm not late when it's important. So like on the Monday when I had the, sorry on the Tuesday
when I had the studio too. When it's important, okay. So it's not important when you're meeting
us and we're meant to be leaving for the X-Trail or anything like that. No, no, no. X-Trail as well.
X-Trail. How many times did you get that look at the pod? Every time. Yeah. No, exactly. You guys
aren't important. I know I could be 10 minutes late for you guys. It doesn't matter, but obviously
this briefing and stuff. But anyway, so I'd left at nine thirty when I was going to be leaving at nine.
Yes, you're right. And I hit the ring road, which is essentially Munich's M25, no traffic,
absolutely flying, de-restricted as well. So can you imagine going around the M25 at like 130 miles
an hour without like even like just no, no worries. So going around that. On a serious question,
just a quick question, because it's useful tyre advice. Yep. What's the speed rating on
a typical winter tyre? Because I remember doing a, in fact, it was an Audi RS3 launch.
Yep. And they were on winters. And I saw 150 or 155 or something. Yeah. Well, I think as with
so many tyres, I think the winter tyre speed restriction, the earliest ones I ever used were
like, I think like 129 miles an hour, something like whatever that is, V, but the speed on these
ones, they didn't even put a sticker in the car because the speed rating of the tyre was actually
higher than the limiter of the car. So they were like, yeah, they were fine. And I think, yes,
they weren't Michelins, but I know some of Michelins are also like, I want to, I want to say why,
maybe W or Y rated now, some of them. So, so yeah, you can do silly speeds with with winter tyres
on now. And so, so then I'm, then I'm going towards Stuttgart. And again, just flat out,
I was on the limiter for sections of it, which were like, sometimes it was 267. And then sometimes
it was 269. It's just a base RS3, just yeah, but anyway, flying along. But then I was like,
okay, this is silly, because I want to get, I want to, it's one of those things it's like,
if I'm going at silly speeds, number one, you can't all the way because when there's traffic,
it's just dangerous to do that. But a number two, at those speeds, you can literally see the fuel
gauge move. So there's like a fine balance. And I found that to be about 110, 120 miles an hour
was a good speed. The car felt amazing. Anyway, flying through Germany, then I cut into France,
near Baden-Baden, sort of where the border is there. Again, French toll roads, I know they're
cheap. I think it's 60 euros from the sort of Baden-Baden part of Germany through to Calais,
but it's worth it because the roads are amazing. And I was just cruising along. I just thought,
originally I was going to stay in like, in Northern France somewhere, but I got like to about
two in the afternoon. And I thought, I'm going to just go the whole way. Like I hadn't booked a hotel.
So I thought I'll save myself for 100 quid by not say anyway, yeah, all the way arrived here
last night. And 758 miles, I averaged 74 miles an hour, which includes the slowing down for petrol,
the slowing down for lunch, and all of the crawling at the Euro tunnel, obviously like queuing up
for passports and all that. It was at 79 when I pulled into the Euro tunnel, average speed from
when I left. That's legal as well. I know, I know. It's brilliant. It's such good progress.
And then even when I got in the UK, okay, speed limits lower than that. But
but there was no traffic. I just, I didn't hit any traffic throughout nearly 11 hours, which is just
yeah, I'm still quite amazed and shocked by that. And it makes any journey so much nicer when you
just don't hit any traffic because you can just crack on. But yeah, feeling a bit today.
It is, is the RS3 like the perfect trip to the Alps car?
I think it could be, you know, like I, I just loved, I loved every minute. And I think it's
such a great car. This one is a base spec car, which is still 65 grand. They do three levels,
base, black edition and Voresprung, the Voresprung 70 something. But it's got the most important
option, as far as I'm concerned, which are the newer carbon buckets, which actually at two and a
half grand, half the price of what BMW charged for their carbon buckets. So I think in my video,
which I haven't finished yet, it's going to be like if you're buying obviously by the base spec
car, still comes a head up display, heat seats, apple car comes, I was sitting there thinking,
what am I actually missing? I don't know. And then by the seats, that's it. But they, that car,
those seats, it's just, yeah, all the performance you can need. It sounds great, especially now.
I started up early on to go to the shops and I think because, because I spent all day in it
yesterday, it's probably burnt out a lot of big doors. It was that hot.
It was in northern France. Yeah, there's, there's none. When I fired it up, I was like, oh my god,
it sounds more like a rally spec, like original UR Quattro than a modern RS3. It sounds great.
So, but yeah, what a big kit. Yeah, absolutely mega. So why didn't you buy one of them then?
Instead of your new car that you've just ordered, do you like that segue, by the way?
Just saying. Yeah, that was very cool. Very good question. I mean, I honestly, I think if I was
in the market for the ultimate hot hatch and I had the money, I would, I would very strongly
consider one because there's not really much else out there that competes with it. But yeah,
M3, I just, I think practicality number one with the M3 touring, because like, as you know,
with dogs, especially Peggy is a bigger dog, having that boot. And once you've experienced it with
a dog, like Lou used to have an A3 and an S3 for years as a company car. And, and it's just such
a small, small boot to put a dog in, like there's not much room they can. So yeah, I'll blame it on
Peggy, but also just because I'm a, I love my, I love my M3s. Love my BMWs. So I'm going to say
something now. It's, knowing you as a dude, it's almost like you've been in a state of mourning
for the last 12 months over your M3s. Like as the M5. You've never really, it's so funny,
because good car, and I think you said it in the video, good car as it is, I could tell you just
never gelled with it because you never talked about it. When the cameras weren't rolling,
we were having a beer or whatever. Yeah. Whenever we went to an event, it was rare that you were in
it. It was normally parked outside Porsche Redding, to be honest.
And, and yeah, to see that video, I, it's really cool. I'm really, really happy for you,
because I think, I think you've done the right thing. Now, I've got a, I've got a question
related to your M3 Touring, because I went out to Fat Ice Race, went out there with Beckin and
930 Turbo, which was really cool. But I spent most of my time driving a BMW XM, 50p.
So my question, Joe, was you've done M3 Touring, you've done M5. The only logical step now is
obviously up again into XM, probably the full Fat one. I've got to say,
Pat, you haven't watched my ordering video, have you?
Well, well, no, I watched the first, I only watched the first few minutes, because I was
going to say, isn't that what you ordered? But yeah, you're not having a M3 Touring.
Yeah. Well, yeah, we thought we would play around with the idea of, because Tony was like,
let's, you know, that is your look, that's, that's where you've got to go. And so,
but honestly, we must have spoke about that XM for about 15 minutes. And I cut the edit down
to about three, because I thought people are literally going to, they're going to unsubscribe,
they're going to hate me. But yeah, how was your, tell us about your experience. So you,
it wasn't an XM, it wasn't like the, wasn't it, what's they call it, an XM 50e?
50e. So it's the six cylinder engine with the hybrid system, zero to 16.5.1 seconds from memory.
Yeah. It's, it looks exactly the same. Our one was white with a lovely black plastic
striped down the side of it. It looks a bit like an ambulance or a van really.
I will say it's only redeeming quality is when you're inside of it, you can't see the outside,
and then you drive it around. It's quite a nice place, like a nice place to be. It does
feel as big as it is though. It's over two meters wide, over five meters long. It's 30 centimeters
longer than an M3. And so Joe, you would have gone through Zalamzee on the way, like we were
staying in Zalamzee, and like it was impossible to park it. Like there was some streets where I
went down, there was a car parked on the side of the road, and I had to reverse back up because
I was like, there's no way I'm getting it down the, you know, the remaining road.
That's just because you had your sixer and amy head on, mate. You thought you were driving the amy.
I don't know the liturage or anything, but I wouldn't even say the boot feels any bigger
than an M3. The floor is, I assume, flat because of the batteries, but it's so high,
and then you've got the kind of solid parcel shelf as well. So the actual gap where you can fit in
a few suitcases, we managed to get in Becky's snowboard with the center seat down. Like it
does fit. I guess where you benefit in that car is the rear legroom is massive. Like it feels
like a limousine in that sense. And the rear seats are lovely. Yeah. So the rear passenger is having
a lovely time. As a driver, it's very comfortable. It's got massage seats, but I'm sure you would
discuss this in your video, Joe, of the X7. Like I think I'd rather have one of those,
or an X5, or something that goes further on the luxury and quality and comfort side of things
in space, than try and have any redeeming M features, because this one wasn't even fast.
It wasn't dynamically good. It was just a, you know, from the inside, a comfortable place to
be, but I'd rather be in something else. And maybe something with more pleasingly aesthetic
features than a Lego brick. Yeah. Yeah. I think it definitely has issues in terms of aesthetics.
But I think, I mean, that car, I hadn't even thought about until, well, you're right about
the X5 and the X7, because the X5 and the X7, you can spec air suspension. And guess what?
It then gives the car a really good ride. And it can be sporty as well, because that's what air
suspension, you know, it can adapt. Whereas the XM's biggest issue is you can only get it on springs
and because it weighs more than my house. It's 2.7 tons, I think, which is like one tonne more than
an M3, isn't an M3 touring about 17 something? No, M3 touring is about 1950. But yeah, I mean,
it's eight, that's still, that's still a small car's heavier. But I think... It's still one entire
Alpine, isn't an Alpine like a tunnel or something? Yeah. But what confuses me is,
I've only just thought about this, is the XM was launched as a unique M car, the flagship
standalone M product, right? So it was only, you know, they said it was like the M1 was
back in the late 70s, early 80s, whenever it was, which I mean, horrified a lot of people,
including myself, because it's like, how can you compare that and say that it's... So the XM,
but then because that wasn't selling, they thought they'd make the XM50E or whatever your one was
called, which is the one that all the lease deals, I mean, only six months ago, you could
get one for about 400 quid on a lease deal or something, because they couldn't sell them.
But so how does that make any sense? If you're saying this is a standalone M product and now
you're like, oh, that's not selling. Oh, we can offer you this one as well. That's not an M car.
So what is an XM50E? I mean, the XM's confused. An XM50E just doesn't have a fucking clue what's
going on. Sorry, I'm swearing. It's a fashion accessory, like it's a fashion accessory.
Yeah. Anyway, yeah, there you go. Ped, talking of, well, not fashion accessories, but talking of
hybrids. I don't know how I'm going to, I'm not very good at transitioning.
Yeah. Talk about your latest video. Is it your latest video? Your EV ownership video?
Because I watched that earlier on. It is fascinating. How's the feedback been?
Yeah. Mate, it's done all right. So the backstory of this one is, what we're all after as YouTubers
are videos that go and fly and go viral. And one of my most successful videos ever,
certainly from a revenue point of view back in the day when YouTube revenue was actually all right,
was a conversation about the challenges of owning an EV if you didn't have a charger at home.
And it was literally a 20 minute one take film and about a half an hour edit and it's done 2.1
million views. So how do you think, right, I need to replicate that. So last year, I did a similar
format and I just looked at, and this was filmed in January last year, the challenges for EV ownership
last year in 2025 and looked at all the various, the, you know, the ZED EV mandate rules where we're
going to hit the targets, any incentives, any dissentives, the state are charging, all that
kind of stuff. And I just revisited it again for 2026 because there's quite a few things
changed. And the main ones, I think for me, and I think we have, we've talked about it and you've
experienced it, but the charging infrastructure is getting way better. There's 25% increase in DC
charging this year or 2025. There's lots of new stuff going in, but it's all becoming quite expensive.
And even AC charging is expensive. I was at a Skoda launch in the Peak District and the
charges at the hotel, so they're just seven kilowatt charges, £1.10 a kilowatt hour.
That's insane. Oh no, that's, that's like 25 pence more than an Ioniti 350 kilowatt DC charger.
So would that be like a hundred, over a hundred quid to fill up a charge up a Taycan?
So there's a bit about, there was a bit about the pence per mile, three pence per mile EV tax.
The obviously we've got the, they bought back the, the grant, the 1500 quid grant or 3,700 quid
depending on the car. We've now got congestion charge, which we talked about on the podcast.
Don't, hang on, don't get me started on that again. No, no, no to people about to go, because I said
about it just basically being a way to make money and, and congestion charge was never just about
congestion and everyone said, well, actually it was, but. Yeah, but surely, hang on, hang on,
quadro cycles though, which is only a 50% discount. They are the solution to congestion.
You should have cars that are 2. something meters long and then you'd have a lot less
congestion. If there were one car, you could make two lanes in London in most places with
two Amis next to each other. So I'm getting charged 50, even 50%. What was that? Like it's like
nine quid or wherever it is now. I'm getting charged nine quid to drive my Ami around London.
That's like three full charges. Yep. Yeah. I mean, so the bit that I found fascinating is,
I mean, the video is doing all right and the comments is done. I mean, I think it's done
about 50,000 views and it's done about 1,300 comments. It's this and the comments are just
like a one liner. They're like a whole chapter and verse multiple paragraphs of people.
You're telling me people have an opinion on electric cars. I'm shocked. Which is, which is
brilliant. But I tried really hard and most people have agreed I've managed to do it to be,
to not have an agenda. I'm just, I just like cars. I think there are some brilliant electric
cars out there and there's some shocking ones. I think electric cars are brilliant. There are
some things and they're, I mean, let's talk about your trip back from Munich in that RS3.
You know, you do that in an electric car. We were talking about it a bit before we came,
before we started recording. You would have to probably add at least two and a half to three
hours to that for, for, you'd need to probably for most cars stock maybe three, four times.
And especially if you were driving at that speed, we all know electric cars are great
until they hit maybe 60, 70 miles an hour. Then aerodynamics takes over and it's incredibly
inefficient to drive electric cars quickly for a long period of time. So an EV would be,
you'd be able to do that, but you wouldn't be able to do it in the time you did it. It's just
simply not possible. But there are still people that, oh, you're a paid shill. You're doing this
and, you know, and I'm like, I'm really not. I mean, I'm not, you know, I just find it fascinating
that there's still this polarization between, you know, between, and then the other thing,
because I mentioned, I'd dare, dare, I mean, I can't believe I said something against the
Chancellor of the Exchequer and something against the Mayor of London. I'm suddenly viewing my
political views on my channel and, and that's not appropriate. And I thought better of you.
Dare I, dare I have an opinion on something. But you even caveated that by saying, I don't
want to get political. Yeah. You've got to talk about, it's not that you're getting political.
Well, the whole, let's just face it. I mean, as far as I'm concerned, all of this is political. The
whole thing is there because of politics. So how can you talk about something? How can you talk
about something in the car industry that we, this is what the podcast or your channel is about?
How can you talk about that without not, without an avoid talking about anything to do with
politics that are controlling it all? You've got to talk about, I mean, this, I'll give you three
examples of all sides of the spectrum. Zed EV mandate was bought in by a Tory, crazy Tory.
Oh, now we're going back by Labour and all of the Chinese car companies and all the tariffs
that's bought in by a Republican. So you can't, you know, that you can't avoid it. But, you know,
you can surely in this world, you can say, you can explain something and say that without
flying the flag for a political party or I mean, it just, I just find that, I find it fascinating.
But the, anyway, the video is doing okay, it's still got a way to be. So the one I did this
time last year has done like 300,000 views and the first one did 2.1 million. So I don't think
it's going to necessarily do that. But I didn't have a video for Monday, so I had to quickly film it
on Sunday. And didn't you have a, is it on our Bath 600E? Am I correct as well? Yeah. And do you
know what? It was actually a really good car. It was challenging, styling and challenging colour,
but to drive, brilliant little car to drive. It's biggest problem. And it's the problem that
Mocha GSE had, which is basically the same car and Alpha Junior has, is they're brilliant and
they're pitched at drivers cars and having fun down a B road and so on. As soon as you start
driving hard down a B road, your range just evaporates. It will do 200 miles on a good day,
drive it hard and you're lucky to get 120. And if it's cold, less than that. So where are you
going to do that? You know, you're going to drive to your B road and then you have to charge before
you go for a blast on your favourite B road and then charge before you drive home. It just,
that's their biggest challenge. These, it was only, it's battery packs half the size of a
Taycan. It's 51 kilowatt hours. So, but it was, to drive, it was really, really good. And I'd
challenge anybody who's not, you know, and it was 38 grand. So it wasn't silly money. 300,
sorry, 280 horsepower, limited slip diff, really nice car to drive. Look cool.
Are you buying one of those over, like what's, is it, is it noticeably bigger than say Renault
5 or something? It is and noticeably quicker, even than an Alpine A290.
Okay. But I mean, I've got, I think A290, it's still got the same issue. I've got a long term
are coming next, in a couple of weeks time. So it'd be interesting to spend time with that and
really understand just how usable that range is. But yeah, I think it's got the power the A290
should have. I think the A290 should be about 280 horsepower, not 220. But that's not an Alpine.
That's not how Alpine do things. So just to summarise, Pete, if I was to make you our
Martin Lewis money saving expert, what, what does 2026 for electric cars look like? Should I be
buying Chinese or does that not matter anymore? Should home charger, is that still the, you
have to have one or like where, where are we at? What's the summary? So I think there's the, the
big it depends is where you live. So if you have off street parking, then, then I think it opens the
whole EV ownership thing up, makes it a lot easier. You can get off peak tariffs, but a lot of those
really interesting, a lot of those off peak tariffs are now only available for like four hours or
five hours in the middle of the night. And if it's a really big EV, you can't charge the whole
car up in that five hour window. So you can plan your charging cycles and stuff. But so if you
can charge at home, I'd buy a used EV because there's loads of really good bargains out there
from, from like, you know, 15, 20 grand, you know, year year old car, you could get a really,
I don't know, Tesla Model 3 or Y, you could buy a Taycan for like 60, 50, 60 grand. There's loads
of options from like 15 to about 50 grand. And I think, and if you're doing the right number of
miles, the average commute is less than 20 miles. The average journey in a car in the UK is seven
and a half miles. And the average UK car is 7,500 miles a year. Wow. So, but if you're doing longer
journeys, then that's a bit different. If you, however, like you, Pat, live somewhere, I know
you've got your own understreet parking, but you haven't got a charge point in there.
No, I have no charge points. That is the saving grace of the AMI is those average journey lengths
that you say that I do. I would say my upper limit is kind of seven to 10 miles in any one journey.
It's about an hour, an hour and a half across London at a max. But the nice thing is I can
street park. And I'm probably one of the only people or vehicles where they can benefit from
the street light charges. So the ones that are built in kind of on the side of the street,
they only do seven kilowatt. The car will only take, I think three. So it doesn't really matter.
And even at 60 people a kilowatt hour, because they're mostly Shell or other other kind of
main brand backed, it's costing me like three pound 50, three pounds, 60 to charge it. So
I'm kind of insulated from those issues. But yeah, my flatmate is looking to buy a
Tesla Model 3 used one, like you said, kind of 15 to 20 grand region. It's a good value car,
but I've had to explain to him about the charging thing is that he's not a car person. So buying
a VA isn't really of any interest to him. But the cost to charge that, if you don't have a charger at
home, you might as well be putting Shell V power into an E92 M3 or something, because it's going
to cost you the same for the mileage. So that home charge is important. A lot of the comments are,
I mean, if you're on Tesla firstly, Tesla superchargers actually relatively keenly priced,
I think it's like 35, 40 per kilowatt hour. So they're not too bad. And you can pay, I think it's
10 pounds a month to have access to Tesla superchargers and their lower tariffs. And a lot of the
manufacturers have deals. So if you're clever with public charging DC charging, you're probably
going to get it 35, 40 per mile, a kilowatt hour or something. And it just takes a bit more planning.
Loads of people have commented on the video, I don't have my own charging. I've run an EV for a
number of years. It's just not a problem. I'll go and take it to my local rapid charger for an hour
in the evening. And that's all I need to do. You just need to plan around it. I don't think the
pence per mile thing, that's not till 2028. And they still haven't taken it to it.
Not to get political again, but there's rumours that they're even going to. So let's say, so here's
one. So but pence per mile charging, right? Let's say hypothetically speaking, I know this is
stretching the bounds of reality, Joe took an EV to his trip. And you did your, how many miles did
you do for your trip there and back to Munich? So in total over six days, 2150 miles. So if,
if that was an EV when pence per mile charging, you would have to pay three pence per mile for that.
Yeah. Even though it's not in the UK. Oh, right. Yeah, of course. Apparently.
Yeah. Why that's fair. Don't know how they're going to capture that data. Don't know. I don't
think the government does either, but I can't see it coming in. So I don't know. For me, to
summarise your question, Pat, I'd go, I'd look at either look at used or I'd look at some of these,
I'm going to call them high value or budget end EVs that are, they provide a lot of spec,
a warranty, really good finance deals. Dare I say it, most of them come from China or
a lot of the EV, Western EV manufacturers are now bringing cars to market that are sub 40,000
quid, even though the Bev luxury car tax has now gone up to 50 grand. So, or we'll, we'll do shortly.
So there's lots of options, but yeah. Well, I think, I think, I think the best option for 2026,
though, is it's probably the car of the year, I would say, the BMW iX3. But how do we know what
car of the year is going to be? Because we haven't had the year yet. Well, there's been like,
and no one's driven it 31 plus five. So there's been 36 days in the year so far. The car is so good.
It's already the car of the year of multiple magazines. Yeah. It's yeah. Well, I know you
talked about this recently on a on a one of your update videos, Ped, because it originally got car
of the year at what car, which was what date was what car that was a couple of weeks ago, three
weeks ago. Yeah, just for the listeners, I think it was 22nd of January. So we're three weeks into
January, and it's and it's getting a car of the year award. Yeah, I think actually, this is quite
a good point to talk about. Because like you said, you're getting your the finger point that you've
having a being biased or whatever or having an agenda, I get obviously all the time, I'm getting
paid by being but I'm getting this. We get it a lot, I think as YouTubers in general. And some
YouTubers do get paid for everything. I'm not going to mention any names, but they literally
don't get out of bed unless they're getting paid to do something, which, which, which is not what
we do. And we've talked about this recently. What's that? I'd love that. Yeah, yeah, well, it would
be nice. But yeah, but then it's a you're very then it then it turns you into yeah, then then
you're not, you know, we've talked about this recently, we both like to think of ourselves as
more of journalistic YouTubers where we give our actual honest opinion on most things. And if we
are paid being paid by a dash cam or GT 85 or whoever Michelin UK, then by the way, Michelin,
thank you very much. Yeah. Then, you know, we make it very clear in public that we are. And we talk
about that. And it's no secret. So we're not trying to hide that fact. I'll give you a really good
example. I know your mid midpoint. I got invited to pressurize for the updated MG for which takes
place next Wednesday. I got an invite from MG. And I couldn't go actually on the I could go on
the Wednesday, but they didn't have any spaces on the Wednesday. And I've just had an invite from
an agency. Yeah, right. Do the same event. What's the difference? Agency are going to pay you.
Yeah. Why are we talking about this on the postcard? MG invite me as a journalist.
The agency have invited me and asked what my day rate is. And I'm going to go back to the agency
and say, I'm not interested. I don't get paid to do car reviews. So if anybody thinks that we
get paid to do stuff like that, it's just not how it works. Especially with the Chinese stuff.
Like, I know I've had so I was talking to Audi about this the other day, the amount of
invite or the amount of opportunities I've said no to with Chinese invites where there's money
involved. Because that's where all the money is at the moment. But I think there's also three,
there's a there's the the press team inviting you, which most of the time not always but 99%
of time is not paid. There's the agency inviting you like they have paid and asked you for a rate.
But then there's also these agencies that ask you. And they're being paid to get people to come
along to the event. And they've got a bit of a different agenda because they want you to be as
positive as possible. But don't. But there's no money involved there. So there's like there's that
gray area where where they sort of they target the sort of smaller YouTubers, who they're confident
they're going to give a positive. So there's all this going on. But going back to your x3.
Yeah, it is. I went to the launch. Well, they had like a dealer launched it very
be a Nubian Coyden last week. And firstly, I mean, the car I think it's styling on it's
relatively good. Yeah, it looks it looks way better than the XM or the M5 or that sort of era.
They've really I think this newer, newer, newer class, newer class, newer class,
I need to get that right. I think that styling, it's adding the front end and stuff and the
sort of old school traditional E30 grills. And it's really come together very nicely.
You jump jump inside the interior is stunning, the fit and fit finishes much better than the
current x3, which is shocking or the M5, which is shocking in my opinion. So they've they've
definitely at least aesthetically, they've improved it and by all accounts, it does drive
relatively well. But but yeah, it's a car that's not even been launched yet officially in the UK
and the car that I know for a fact, some journalists, some journalists have driven but
not far. I just don't understand how it can get car of the year when it's not even been
released to the public yet. I mean, how much would that cost to get? Exactly. And this is
this is the gray area. And and again, I'm maybe we're biased because we're
we're YouTubers, and we're gonna, we're gonna stand up for this. But we get accused for being
biased or being paid. But the reality and again, I've talked about this lots of my channel before
years gone by, is that even though traditional magazine that you pick up, whether it's also car
or what car or any of these top gear, any of these Evo, there was there was a period where
Maserati were winning everything in Evo. And I was just sitting there thinking,
but literally everything, it was like five star five star. And then every other page was an advert
by Maserati. So I kind of put the two and two together my head, I was like, Ah, okay. And so
and that's kind of how it works with these. And I'm not saying that they're giving you bent reviews
or they're winning cars. But but if you just think about it logically, magazines and old school
sort of publications, the way that they survive is through advertising. And so, although they're
giving you traditional journalistic reviews that are apparently unbiased on paper or in their videos,
you've got to remember, through the back door, they're getting paid a lot of money by by various
manufacturers and advertising. Whereas we're not with that's that's where YouTubers aren't we're
not we're not getting money. I'm not getting money in a brown envelope through the back door
from BMW. Unfortunately, I might say good things about it, but I'm not getting that.
I've got an amazing idea. Right. I reckon what we could do at the end of the event,
we could know at the end of this year, we'll hold the drive talk podcast car of the year.
Okay. Yeah. Many manufacturers out there would like to be considered for car of the year.
Send us an email and tell us about what advertising you'd like to put on the podcast
over the next and how much money you're going to spend. And basically, the manufacturer that
spends the most money, you'll win car of the year. That that is it in a nutshell. You just
think that's a good idea. Brilliant. Well, we could also hold a we could also host a big evening
at a very expensive venue in London, and we could sell really expensive tables.
And any of the manufacturers that happen to want to buy loads of tables.
Maybe.
Write that down Pat. No one will have thought of that. That's an absolutely brilliant idea.
Well, before I get myself in too much trouble, I think we should, well, we're almost at the hour.
Yeah, yeah. But Pete, before we go, can you tell us a little bit about you've just told us off
camera that you've just given back an 870 horsepower 911? Well, it was it was a subscribers car. And
the video is dropping tomorrow, but it was a Litchfield tuned 992.1 turbo s.
Right. Wow. And and the tune. I mean, the list of stuff that they put on it from
different lots of different breathing. So all the kind of intake pipes and manifolds.
It's got incanel headers, a Krapowicz exhaust, free flow cat. And then they've also done the whole
software on both the engine and the gearbox. But yeah, 870 horsepower and 930 Newton meters.
So is that what 220 horsepower up with the stock car? What's the stock 640 650?
Yeah. Oh, I mean, that's that. That is I know, I've only just recently driven that car. And it's
I'd never, ever once put the key sound to that and thought, oh, man, I wish this had an extra 220 horsepower.
And all who owns it, he's a lovely chap. He's had some I drove a Litchfield, he had a stage four
Litchfield GTR that I drove in 2018, which was like 680 braver something. So he's got the form
and he had he's just come out of a 765 LT McLaren, which basically terrified him. He said it was
just so fast and rear wheel drive and very expensive. So he bought this 992 Turbo S and just
sent it straight to Litchfield, spent a lot of money at Litchfield. But the amazing thing,
firstly, if you're in normal mode, it just drives like a normal 911. It's just so easy to drive.
But the big difference is it's sorted out the noise because you'll probably agree and Turbo S,
they're amazing cars, but they're not, they don't have a huge amount of auditory pleasure in them.
They're quite understated, aren't they? Typically kind of German understate. Fast as,
but they don't make a huge amount of noise. This thing has got induction noises and whistles
from the turbo and then on throttle, it's got this bark from the exhaust and then you lift off and
it's got rumbles and burbles and a big cracks out the exhaust. Absolutely wicked. Wow. But apparently
it'll do 0-60 in about one and a half seconds. Did you launch it at all? I did, yeah.
It must have been up all four wheels. Unfortunately, my timing box has got a
problem with it. It won't sync to satellite, so luckily I didn't have it with me because otherwise
I'd have kept launching it. But Paul's, he's a lovely chap, but I know he won't mind me saying
this. He's got a prosthetic left leg. He lost his leg below the knee and so he can't launch the car.
So he's never launched it. So we were out driving and I went, if you launch this yet,
you and I can't launch it unless I get me kind of crutch on the brake pedal, you know,
because he can't put enough brake pedal on the brake pedal. And I went, I'll launch it. He went,
go on then. Brilliant. Is that going to be in the video? Yeah, yeah. Right in the beginning.
Yeah, because all you hear is, I'll launch it and then all you hear from the passenger seat,
because he's off camera, all you hear is, I can't hear now.
It's really good. Wow. Yeah, so way, I mean, you don't need a car that's faster than Turbo S, but
no, the way it's, the way they've, the sound, the sharpness of the throttle,
even at normal legal speeds, it's so much more of an engaging car than a standard Turbo S. It's
amazing. And like, I think we've said on the, on the pod before about tuning cars and stuff,
the, the engine and gearbox in that car will take way more than the stock power and torque. And,
and even at the levels that Litchfield have tuned it to, apparently Ian Litchfield took,
he had, he had one that he ran for a year and to fine tune everything before they actually
started putting it on customer cars. So yeah, amazing bit kit. Absolutely amazing bit kit.
Oh, I look forward to seeing that. Yeah. Yeah. Nice. Cool. I think, I think we might have some
Pat, Pat said, he's messing with me saying he's, we're frozen, so he can't actually hear us or
see us. Oh, that's why he's, that's why he's gone so quiet. Yeah, I know. You have to
watch up him, otherwise he's panicking it. Oh, so hopefully we can still be capturing everything.
Yeah, I think my, it looks, looks good from my end and you're very clear, but yeah, I was like,
why is he being so antisocial? Also, his face expressions haven't been changing at all. So I
thought, wow, our stories are really boring. I think he's not on some dodgy way. Do you want to
have a, do you want to have a quick rant about the cost of the shuttle before we finish? Oh,
yeah. Okay. Let's, let's finish on that. And actually it's quite interesting because at the
start of this podcast, I talked about talking to Chris Harris, one of the conversations we had,
he said, I'll hide you out here. And I said, I came out in the RSD on the, on the, on the shuttle.
And he was like, he just went off on one. And then if you'd listen to one of their recent,
if you listen to one of their recent podcasts that I think only went live a few days ago,
he, he rants and raves, no, doesn't rave, he rants about his experience, his recent experience
with the shuttle. Now, part of my, aside from talking to him, part of my gripe with them is
how expensive they've suddenly become. Now, I know back in the day, you could get a return,
Flexi Plus, you could sometimes pay up to 600 quid. Now you can pay about 800. In fact, I'm going
out to Germany in a week's time. And thankfully, I'm not paying for this, but a return shuttle, one,
one way is Flexi Plus, the other isn't, the other's just Standard Plus. And that works out, I think,
£769 return, which you could fly anywhere, economy class for that, you could fly BA to Australia
for 700 quid, even in high season. It's just utter madness. And the service you're getting,
we all love the shuttle. I'm not saying it's a bad thing, it's getting a bit old in places.
But if you're going Flexi Plus, okay, you get a lounge, and you get a couple of
sandwiches and an apple or whatever, but I just can't see where that money is.
I reckon I know, mate, they've had to raise the prices to pay for all the sandwiches you
nick out the Flexi Plus lounge. Well, being gluten free now, I can't even, I can't even,
I can't really do that. They did have a gluten free cheese and pickle sandwich, so thumbs up for
that, because there's something there I could eat. But it's just coming ridiculous. And going back to
Chris's rant, which I didn't know, is that if you book Flexi Plus in my head, it was always like,
if you've got Flexi Plus ticket, you can basically go and leave as you want. And that's the whole
point of it, it's flexible. But you can't do that. It's got to be, you've got to do it on the day
that it's booked for, which I guess is fair enough. But where it's not fair enough is, if you've got
it booked for like, I don't know, February the 15th, as your return, if for whatever reason,
you can't make that return, and I don't know, you got, your car broke down, or you end up staying
wherever you are for an extra day. And you forget to move your return to February the 16th.
When it gets to midnight, February the 15th, that ticket is then null and void, it's done,
finished. And so this is what happened with Chris, he turned up a day later, I think he said that
an agency or a brand or someone had booked the ticket. But he wasn't too fast, because he was
like, Oh, I can't make it today, actually, I'm going to go tomorrow. It's Flexi Plus.
It's Flexi Plus turned up, it's gone. And it's not just a case of, Oh, well, you know, we're going
to have to charge you an extra 50 quid or 100 quid. It's like, no, you've got to buy an entire,
I think he had to buy an entire return, because it absolutely, it, it, it, it voided the entire
return ticket. So you end up paying another 700 quid or something, which understandably,
absolutely pissed them off. And you hear that on the podcast. And I just think that's a bit,
it's a bit, yeah, it's just a bit, it's a bit cheeky. And I get, you know, especially this
time of year, why am I paying 600 pounds, or in a week's time, nearly nearly 800 quid in, in,
February, when it's not that busy, like last night, there was hardly anyone there saying that I got
stopped for the first time ever by French, coming back into the UK, which you do in Calais, so you
go through the French border control first in England, right? I was going through French and
I could see as I was handing the lady my passport to get a stamp and stuff, I could see there was
probably 10 French armed customs officers all lined up there. So anyway, I get the passport and as
I drive forward, they just stand in front of the car with their guns. And I'm like, oh, okay, well,
this has never happened before. And they ordered me to get out the car. They then asked me if I
had my passport on me, which I thought was slightly, I'm not going to use the word, but it begins with
the R. Yeah. Literally, 10 meters away, where you've been watching me, I've, I couldn't have got to
you without my passport. So of course, I've got my passport with me. But then they asked me,
my boot, they're looking at all my bags, and they pulled this big bag out, this cloth bag that I've
got, I put on my dirty washing, and they're like, what's it now, like, dirty washing? And they were
like, can we have a look? And I was like, go ahead, have a look. But they probably looked through
everything and my car kept asking me what I do. And you know, all this, I thought, that's weird.
Like, I mean, seriously, I'm in a brand new 70 grand hot hatch. Do you know why, mate? Because they'd
had a report of this English RS3 doing 150 down the street.
They're like, on our NPR cameras, this car left Germany this morning. How did it get here? Yeah,
you must be, it must be cloned, the plates are cloned, because we've got these plates in Germany.
That maybe that's what it was. But anyway, ran over. But, but yeah, you, I think your
autunnel needs to just be a bit careful with the pricing and stop pulling it up because
it's a brilliant service. We all love using it. But it's just getting a bit silly, cost wise.
Yeah, definitely. Yeah. Look at that, we're over the hour, dude. And over the hour,
now he's chewing his fingernails now look. I know, as long as he doesn't start picking his nose,
that'd be quite funny. But yeah, cool. Well, great to catch up as always,
Peter. I hope everyone enjoyed the podcast. Please remember to subscribe because we are
currently about 80 subscribers away from 10,000. It's been a hard grind this last few hundred,
it really has. But we are, I think last summer I checked, we were like 82 away. So, please.
Do you know what I'm saying though? Those, those, like the 10,000, or it was like when I got to 100,000,
it suddenly slows down. Any, I want to hit a quarter of a million recently on my channel,
like it just slowed down really badly, the last three or four days.
Yeah, yeah. It's those last ones. Yeah, last ones are really slow. So yeah, but we appreciate
all the support as always. Obviously, Michelin UK for continuing to support us. And,
and yeah, we'll see you at the next one in a couple of weeks time.
He's an owl. He's an owl.
About this episode
The discussion centers around the Audi RS3 and its significance in the current automotive landscape, with hosts sharing their experiences at the Fat Ice Race and a recent studio shoot in Germany. They delve into the performance of the RS3, particularly in winter conditions, and the excitement of driving it on scenic alpine roads. The episode features anecdotes about meeting automotive personalities like Chris Harris and the challenges of content creation in adverse weather. Insights into the evolving nature of performance cars and the impact of electric vehicles are also touched upon.
