In the podcast, “Ferrari Luce” is mentioned but then quickly dismissed as not what they’re talking about. So there isn’t enough context in the episode to explain what it is in detail. The only clear takeaway is that they don’t want to discuss it.
The BMW 6 Series is a bigger BMW meant for comfortable, sporty driving. It’s typically aimed at people who want more luxury and space than a smaller sports car. In the podcast, it’s mentioned because they’re talking about a specific BMW they saw.
The Aston Martin Valkyrie is a track-focused hypercar built around an extreme lightweight, high-performance philosophy. The host’s comment about being unable to close the roof highlights how the Valkyrie’s cockpit packaging is designed around its racing proportions and driver fit.
A V10 engine is an engine with 10 cylinders arranged in two banks that form a V shape. More cylinders usually means more parts to maintain, so it can be pricier to run.
“Supercharged” means the engine has a device that pushes extra air into it to make more power. It’s often great for performance, but it can mean more things to maintain.
This is a specific older generation of the Range Rover (the L322). The point here is that it’s a big, luxury SUV that can be costly to keep running—especially with very high mileage.
The BMW M6 is BMW’s performance version of a big, fast luxury car. The host is saying they still want it even if it’s not the easiest or cheapest car to own.
The Isle of Man TT is a very famous motorcycle race on real roads in the Isle of Man. The host is mentioning it as part of the Top Gear context that influenced his car dreams.
Term
F1 linkage
They’re saying the car uses engineering ideas similar to Formula 1. “Linkage” here means the mechanical parts that connect and control how the wheels and suspension move.
The Bugatti Veyron is a very extreme supercar designed for top-level speed. To go that fast safely, the tires and grip have to work at their limits too. The podcast mentions it because it’s an example of how tires can be a real limiting factor.
The Autobahn is a major highway system in Germany. It’s famous because some parts don’t have a general speed limit. People use it to test how fast cars can go.
The Audi R8 is a high-performance supercar from Audi. Here they’re talking about a rear-wheel-drive version with around 570 horsepower. They’re describing a special event where they reached about 206 mph.
PS4Ss are Michelin performance tires (Pilot Sport 4 S). Better tires help the car stick to the road, especially when you’re going fast. In this story, the host is saying the tire setup is at least part of why the high-speed run is possible.
This is a Porsche Panamera that’s a plug-in hybrid, meaning it has both a gas engine and an electric motor. The host is talking about how quickly it can build speed toward very high highway numbers.
Term
foot to the floor
It means the driver presses the gas pedal all the way down. Here, it’s describing maximum acceleration effort.
The Porsche 911 Turbo S cabriolet is a very powerful 911 with a turbo engine, and it’s a drop-top. They’re comparing how much it can pull (torque) versus another Porsche to explain why it feels different.
The Porsche 911 Turbo S is the high-performance, turbocharged 911 variant built for maximum acceleration and strong real-world punch. Here it’s described as “the opposite” of the base 992, with the host quoting a 650 horsepower figure to frame the performance gap.
“Long wheelbase” means the car’s body is stretched so there’s more room between the wheels. That usually makes the back seat more comfortable, with more legroom.
A V12 is an engine with twelve cylinders. It’s known for being very smooth and refined, which is why it’s common in luxury cars.
Term
cross-developed
“Cross-developed” means the engineering was shared or jointly designed between companies. In this case, it suggests the engine used in the BMW and the Rolls-Royce are closely related.
The Rolls-Royce Phantom is a very high-end luxury car. It’s known for being extremely smooth and comfortable, and it uses a V12 engine. The podcast mentions it because the V12 was developed specifically for that car.
A camshaft sensor is a small electronic sensor that helps the car’s computer know exactly where the engine’s timing is. If it fails, the engine can run poorly or throw warning lights.
Cruise control is a feature that lets you set a speed, and the car tries to hold it for you. It’s mainly for long highway drives to reduce driver fatigue.
The Nordschleife is the famous long Nürburgring track section with lots of turns. It’s tough on both the car and the driver, so it’s a big deal when someone takes a car there.
A pre-purchase inspection (PPI) is when a specialist checks a car before you buy it, looking for hidden problems. The goal is to reduce the risk of expensive surprises after purchase by identifying issues early.
Term
5-litre one
“5-litre” is the engine size. Bigger engines can make more pulling power, which is especially noticeable in heavier cars.
Term
Line L32
“Line L32” is likely a code that identifies a specific version of the car. It helps tell which exact variant you’re looking at.
Term
Saudi Prince
They’re saying the car was owned by a Saudi royal. That can matter because it might affect how well it was kept and what paperwork you can find.
A “book pack” is the folder of manuals and paperwork that comes with the car. Having it can help you confirm what the car is and what’s been done to it.
“No paperwork” means you don’t have the records or documents that prove what’s been done to the car. Without that, it’s harder to know what condition it’s really in.
PCP is a UK way to finance a car with monthly payments. At the end, you usually have options like returning the car or paying a final amount to keep it.
Tesla is a company that makes electric cars. The host brings it up as an example of a brand-new EV you might lease instead of keeping an older car running.
The Aston Martin V8 Vantage is a smaller Aston Martin sports car. It’s popular because it has a V8 engine and feels like a “real” Aston without costing as much as the biggest models.
The Aston Martin DB9 is a bigger Aston Martin meant for comfortable fast driving. It’s known for having a strong V12 and for being a more affordable way into the DB lineup.
The Aston Martin DB7 is an older Aston Martin grand tourer. People talk about it because you can sometimes find one for less money than newer Aston models, but it depends a lot on the specific car and maintenance history.
The Ford Transit Custom is a van made for work. People use it to carry tools, equipment, or passengers for business. The podcast mentions it as part of a practical comparison involving keys and deals.
The Volvo XC90 is a big family SUV. The host is talking about how the driving position and the way the car is angled can make visibility feel different.
Maserati is an Italian luxury/performance brand. The “Grand Sport” name here is being used as an example of a high-end Maserati you might find for a lot of money when buying used.
Right-hand drive (RHD) means the steering wheel is on the right side of the car. Because fewer countries use RHD, the supply of buyers is smaller, which can affect used-car demand and pricing.
“Car tax” is the money you have to pay to the government just to own and legally drive a car. The episode is pointing out that different countries charge very different amounts.
The host is saying that in Cyprus, it’s not allowed to get a loan to buy a car. So if you see someone driving an expensive car there, they probably paid for it outright.
The Ferrari 458 is a very expensive, high-performance sports car from Ferrari. In this story, it’s used to show that in Cyprus you basically have to pay cash for a car like that because financing is not allowed.
RRP (recommended retail price) is the manufacturer’s headline price. Here, the host argues that Porsche’s RRP doesn’t include certain UK “on-the-road” costs (like the first year of road tax), unlike how some other brands present pricing, which makes comparisons misleading.
A delivery fee is extra money for getting the car to you or to the dealer. It’s one of the add-on costs that can make the final price higher than the sticker number.
The Alpine A110 is a small sports car designed to feel nimble and fun to drive. It’s made to be light and responsive rather than just fast in a straight line. The podcast mentions it because its price has risen a lot over time.
The Aston Martin Vantage is one of Aston Martin’s sports cars. They’re saying it used to be much cheaper, and now it costs far more and you don’t see as many on the road.
The Vauxhall Corsa 5-door is a small car with five doors, made for everyday use. It’s the kind of car people choose for practicality and easy getting in and out. The podcast mentions it because the speaker remembers their grandma’s Corsa.
“The Ring” usually means the Nürburgring in Germany. It’s a very famous race track that car people use to judge how good a car is in real driving conditions.
Place
No Broke
“No Broke” sounds like the event or track spot where they went for their first lap. The speaker is saying it was their first time there and that it’s the kind of place where things happen during laps.
An oil spill on track is a contamination that can drastically reduce tire grip, making braking and cornering less predictable. It’s especially dangerous because drivers may not expect the reduced traction until they hit the affected section.
The Nürburgring is a legendary race track in Germany. A lot of car fans travel there to drive their own cars and experience what track driving feels like.
The Audi RS5 is a sporty, higher-performance version of the Audi A5. People mention it because it’s a big “dream car” upgrade compared to more basic Audis.
The Audi A1 is a smaller, more basic Audi hatchback. The point here is that you start with something like this instead of immediately going for a top sporty model.
The Porsche 911 GT3 is one of Porsche’s most track-oriented versions of the 911. It’s treated here as the kind of “ultimate dream” car someone might want at a young age.
The BMW 130i is a compact 1 Series model known for its rear-wheel-drive layout and enthusiast-friendly straight-six engine character (in the E87 generation). Here it’s described as the speaker’s first “almost new” purchase, highlighting it as an early step into BMW ownership.
Term
approved 130i
“Approved” usually means the dealer certified the used car—checking it and offering some kind of coverage—so it’s less risky than buying an unknown used car.
The McLaren F1 is a famous, very rare supercar built by McLaren. The host is talking about how much it cost when it was new and how the price later dropped, which shows just how crazy the money side of these cars can be.
The BMW M4 is a high-performance BMW model from BMW’s “M” department. In this part of the story, it’s just one of the cars the host remembers seeing at the dealership.
The BMW 5 Series is a mid-size luxury car meant for comfortable everyday driving. It’s also designed to drive in a sporty way compared with many other family sedans. In the podcast, it’s mentioned because they had a demo E60 and talked about taking a ride in it.
Air suspension is a suspension system that uses air bags instead of metal springs. It lets the car lift up or drop down, which can make entry/exit easier and change how the ride feels.
The BMW 2 Series is a smaller BMW that’s often offered in a coupe-like shape. The podcast mentions the M240i as a choice because it fits what the speaker likes in terms of style. It’s basically a compact performance BMW with a coupe look.
OPF is a filter in the exhaust that catches soot. It helps the car pollute less, but it can change how the car behaves and how people service or modify it.
Term
bronze mineral gray
That phrase is the car’s paint color name. Enthusiasts care because it helps identify the exact spec and how the color will look in real life.
Term
bronze bowler of B11 wheels
This is describing the wheels—what style and finish they were. Enthusiasts use these names to match the exact factory setup.
The BMW Z4 is a sporty BMW roadster. Here it’s just part of the story about what car the speaker owned when they were making their buying/selling decisions.
LIVE
Right. Shall we, uh, in your words, Ped, should we start this?
He's an owl.
He's an owl.
You're going to have to explain this easy now situation.
It's easy and it's now.
Yeah.
Easy now.
It's like, it's like, how's it going?
Right. Okay. Yeah.
It's, it's like this.
It's, we use it all the time.
There's, there's a, it's almost like we've got kind of a form of Tourette's
because we've got all these different sayings like easy now.
Ow, no, yes.
Well, there's much worse sayings that you could sort of important tree,
but whenever we greet each other or see each other, it's like,
easy now, Joe Achilles.
And we've done that for years.
And when, when we started this podcast over three years ago,
we did the easy now, did it for about a year.
But there was a few complaints in the comments.
I wish you would get rid of it.
So then we stopped it and then there was more comments saying,
bring back easy now.
So, well, do you know what, there's a perfect sum of what YouTube's like.
YouTube.
You can never please anyone, actually.
No, no, definitely not.
Especially on Ferrari, Luce.
Oh, that's no, no, we're not talking about that.
We won't start there.
Hey, guys, welcome back.
We are firstly, we're down here at the wonderful podium place in Newbury,
where they do lovely coffees, food.
There's beautiful cars all over the place.
There are some great cars and bikes out there.
It's a lovely E63 M6 actually in the car park.
There is.
It's quite nice.
My goodness, who bought that?
I wonder.
Someone with some class and there's a 330D over there.
And a Rolls-Royce dropper Coupe, which is proper gangster.
That is cool.
And we just managed to have a chance to sit in the Valkyrie.
Yes.
Well, sit is a stretch, really.
I mean, you sat in it but couldn't close the roof.
Yes.
I couldn't quite sit in it because my legs are too long.
Yep.
It's a tight car.
It is a tight car.
Yeah.
But I must admit, it's not on my shopping list.
I don't think it's on our guest shopping list, which we will get to in a second.
But before we do, I just want to say a massive shout out as always.
And thanks to our headline sponsor, Michelin UK,
we actually have a Formula One wheel that I dragged out of my garage this morning.
From back in the day, because that's when Formula One wheels were small.
It is.
Yeah, it's tiny, isn't it?
To think that, you know, you fit a whole break.
Are they 15s, are they?
I don't know, I should know.
But it doesn't look much bigger than that.
But yeah, I think what's that, 2006?
No, earlier than that.
Oh, what, when Michelin were...
Yeah, for sure.
2004, 2005.
Anyway, I want to introduce our wonderful guest.
We have It's Joel.
Hello, on the podcast.
Thanks for coming down, mate.
You're welcome.
It's great to have you here.
I know we have bumped into each other many times over the years.
And we were talking earlier on about an Audi event to the N24
that Patrick, Ped, and I have just come back from, and that was three years ago.
And I think, scarily, that was probably the last time I saw you in person.
Could easily be, couldn't it?
And maybe another Audi event here and there at Bista or something like that.
Oh, maybe, yeah.
But yeah, it's probably an annual sort of hello and a hug, isn't it, you and me?
It is.
And I think that's...
Ped and I are very lucky, although Ped might not think the same way about me,
because I do take the piss a lot.
But do you?
I've never noticed, mate.
Oh, yes.
No, but we're very lucky.
We're very unique that we get to see each other a lot more
because of the podcasts and we do lots of Michelin.
But a lot of, I think what people don't realise online is,
although we can all be friends, we very rarely see each other.
And when we do, it's on a press launch
and we're being dragged left, right and centre most of the time.
So it's usually a very quick high and buy.
But I've been watching your stuff.
I want to say at least seven, maybe eight years.
I mean, how long have you been doing?
When did you start YouTube?
I think I started putting videos out in around 2017.
Okay.
I mean, gosh, that is coming up to 10 years next year, isn't it?
Yeah.
And I've been full-time since sort of the end of 2020
when everyone was sort of put on hold.
I was made redundant for my job.
Yep.
And I sort of gave myself to the end of that year
to try and generate as much income as I was making in my job,
which I just about scraped through
and continue to scrape through until now, really.
Continue to blag it up until this point.
Exactly, exactly.
I think we've all done a similar,
or we've had a similar pathway to doing YouTube full-time.
And mine started full-time early 2021,
although 2020 I wasn't doing anything job-wise.
You were, Ped?
Yeah, but a little bit after,
because when lockdown finished,
I still did a bit of training online.
Yep.
But then, yeah, probably from 2022,
end of 2022 onwards, I was full-time.
Because you're quite flexible with your...
Because you weren't full-time, full-time with the job you were...
No, no, no, I ran both together for a while.
Yeah, nice.
And, yeah, how's it all going?
I mean, in those three years since I last saw you, I think,
you're married now,
you have a baby boy,
who is, what, four or five weeks old?
He's just coming up to three months now.
Oh, three months, okay.
But still, very early days, yeah.
Yep, very early days.
And how are you finding shuffling all of that sort of work life?
Yeah, I mean...
Lack of sleep.
It's hard work, but the first thing I'll say is that my wife is incredible.
I've not been told to say that.
And you are...
I can tell you've been married just a short spot for him.
And he is punching big time.
I would agree with that, yeah.
She is amazing.
We all are, mate. We all are.
Yeah, well, this is true.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
But, yeah, of course, yeah,
Audi press officer for you as well.
It's funny how it's all such a small world.
Even Pat's married.
Even Pat's married.
Yeah, this is the married roastery room.
Wow, look at us all growing up.
But, yeah, she's incredible.
And she actually throughout everything has always been an encourager.
And I'd say even a bit of a enabler for me
with some of my more interesting purchases for YouTube.
But in terms of shuffling everything,
I think I'm one of these people that's quite good at procrastinating.
Yep.
Especially if there's actually not that much to do.
So now having a little one and a mortgage
and all the rest of the things that people have,
I think I'm finding it easier to keep the video.
Good motivation.
Well, I think it is, isn't it?
Because there's a lot more to lose now, isn't there?
Yep.
So, yeah, it's all going well.
And this year so far has been a success, I think.
So I'm looking forward to wasting more money on repair bills.
I think, though, that doing what you do, I mean, what we all do,
but there's this image that when people watch YouTubers and stuff,
they're like, oh, it's YouTube money.
And if you've got a mortgage and you've now got a dependent
and you've got, you know, that's a huge pressure for your monthly income.
And, you know, if you've got a stable job with a salary,
it's kind of relatively straightforward to do that.
Being a YouTuber is tough because the revenue is, you know,
peaks and troughs depending on how well your videos do.
So you're always trying to work out, get a great video idea.
Hope it goes well. It goes well.
Hope the ad revenue comes in.
Can I get an ad into Grace?
And that is a difficult thing.
Yeah, and I think the closest thing that we have to a monthly salary
is the payment that we get from YouTube.
But as you mentioned, it can really vary drastically.
And not only it could be one month, you get a million views
and you think, oh, great, but ad revenue rates
could be really down that month.
And, you know, I think you guys will probably have the same thing where
if I think a video is going to perform well,
it tends to perform really badly and vice versa.
Really, I've never come across that before.
So, yeah, and it's, you know, we were talking about this earlier,
but there's a forever change between what seems to perform well on YouTube
and what doesn't.
Sort of, you're at the mercy of the algorithm
and you sort of have to think ahead as to what people might want to watch.
Yeah.
But I sort of stopped, I think I stopped caring about that a few years ago
and I just decided I'm going to do what I want to do.
Mate, that is the number one thing for me.
And hopefully people will come along and it's starting to, you know...
Now, you guys may well have noticed through some very subtle branding
that the Drive Talk podcast is proudly sponsored by Michelin.
Hey, Joe.
Sorry? Oh, yes, Michelin.
Yeah, I mean, t-shirts, wheel,
they bend them on a drinks flask.
But we're also brand ambassadors for Michelin
and part of that is that we are really lucky
we get to run Michelin tyres on our cars.
And I don't know about you, mate,
but the amount of people who come up to me at events or DM me on social media
and say, I need some new tyres from a car, can you get me a deal?
Have you got a discount code?
It happens all the time.
And thankfully Michelin UK have stepped forward
and they've given us a code where you can actually get up to 100 pounds
rebate on your tyres.
But don't worry, if you've just recently bought your tyres,
you could also potentially get up to 100 pounds.
And the specific code that you need to use is...
I mean, me, it's super easy.
We'll put all the details in the description of this video
or in the show notes if you're listening on an audio podcast platform.
But the code you need is DT4W26.
Drive, talk, four wheels, 26 for 2026.
And as Joe says, don't worry if you've just bought some tyres
and you think, oh, that's just typical, that's not a problem.
And if you're just about to buy some new tyres,
then you're going to get 100 quid off, which is great.
Happy days.
Good financial advice in 2026. Who would have thought?
So for those listening or watching,
and by the way, if you are watching on YouTube, please hit subscribe.
Yeah. And give us a follow.
And if you're listening, do the same thing
on whatever podcast platform you listen to.
For those who haven't come across your content,
explain kind of what kind of content you make.
What's your channel vibe, if you like?
I think the tagline that I tend to use is,
I buy stupid cars so that you don't have to.
So... Sounds like Joe.
Yeah.
That sort of sums it up.
I buy the absolute sort of anti-Christ of cars
in terms of maintenance and running costs.
So for as an example right now, I'm running a few cars,
but two of them are, which I've come in today,
a 5-litre V10 BMW M6,
which again, up there in the top 10, probably have notorious cars to run.
If you look at what they're worth versus what they might cost to run.
Yeah. Are you a good mechanic?
No. Oh.
So I sort of navigate this between doing odd jobs myself
and learning what I can.
And I've come a long way, actually, in terms of with the tools, if you like.
Not that I have half a clue about what I'm doing,
but I have been able to fix things as well as break many things.
But I have started to be able to fix things.
I think I'm down to probably, for everything I've fixed,
I'm breaking two things now,
whereas before it might have been three or four.
So you're fixing one thing and breaking two?
Yeah. Okay.
So, you know, I'm making progress.
So as well as that, at the moment,
I've got a 5-litre supercharged L322 Range Rover with 216,000 miles on it,
which is a recent purchase.
So that gives an example of the sort of appetite for cars.
You love JLR products, which for me is hilarious.
And then, you know, then you go out and buy a BMW.
You're finally like, okay, I'm going to go and buy something that's reliable.
But you go out and buy potentially the least reliable,
the highest maintenance version of that car.
Yeah. And I mean, the reason for it is because these are cars
that I genuinely lust after.
I think that's the thing to say is I'm not going into it,
thinking this is a notoriously bad car to run.
That'll be really good for YouTube,
which I'm not a very good businessman.
And that would probably bite smart.
But I genuinely love the M6 as an example.
That was one of my, that was sort of my first obtainable dream car.
Yeah.
Because of a Top Gear episode back in the day where they were...
Isle of Man TT.
Isle of Man M6 997, 911 and a V8 Vantage at the time.
In the worst weather in the world.
Yeah. And I just saw that car and I think Diamonds Forever played as it came up.
And I just thought, wow, I've got to own one of those.
Yeah.
And I think I've just been fascinated by a BMW having a V10
and the whole F1 linkage.
And the fact that it was capable of de-restricted of well over 200 miles an hour.
Yeah, which let's face it, even hypercars today.
Because nowadays it's not about, you know, there's a lot of aero involved and stuff.
And so the top speed element of all of these hypercars costing millions of pounds
actually hasn't gone much beyond that now, has it?
No. And I mean, that's a whole interesting topic.
Because I suppose if you look at things like the Veyron,
it's the tyre technology and the real limiting factor.
But yeah, the fact that that's capable of a much higher speed than a GT3 RS
or any sort of hot merc at the moment is quite remarkable.
And I saw something the other day actually that said
it is actually the fastest production BMW of all time.
Wow.
Which I suppose it is.
Yeah. Yeah, well, I suppose, yeah.
There's nothing.
What is it, 211 miles an hour?
Something that's what people agree.
Yeah.
205 on paper, I think, if you look at the gear ratios.
Have you had it on the Autobahn at all?
I've not, but in a couple of weeks I'm going.
So...
Good luck.
As much as I intend to try and see how fast it will go with a little boy,
I think my appetite for danger has potentially diminished slightly.
Because that's another thing we can talk about,
is I did, thanks to Audi UK a few years ago,
fulfill the dream of driving at 200 miles an hour on the road.
Where I took a, it was an R8, rear wheel drive actually.
So the only 570 horsepower one.
Yep.
We did 331 kilometres an hour, which is 206.
Pretty good.
Which was thrilling and amazing.
Yeah.
But it's one thing in a brand new press car,
but in a 20 year old BMW, I'm not sure.
Well, it's on the right tires at least.
It is, it's on PS4Ss, which were kindly supplied by our friends at Michelin.
And yeah, I mean, the thing is with those,
I was saying to Joe earlier actually,
but it will get up to 170, 180, memorably quickly.
I mean, it's sort of, you can't believe it's only 500 horsepower.
In Germany.
In Germany.
Or Mexico.
Or Mexico, yeah.
But it's the last 20 miles an hour to 200,
which I think takes a small country to sort of accelerate that last 20 miles an hour.
So I think it's likely I'll hit 170, 180 with ease.
Well, we're all part of the 200 mile an hour.
Oh no, we're not.
I need this to come out.
So I was about to say, but Joe got there first.
So we went 1024.
I was in the new Porsche Panamera Turbo SE Hybrid.
I saw this.
Right.
That thing goes from like 150 to 197 miles an hour.
Really quickly.
Why didn't you just do those?
Because there was a 120 limit.
Literally, I was at, was it 317, I think?
Yeah, somewhere like that.
And I'm like foot to the floor and then I just see the brake lights.
Because you have to be looking a long way in the distance at nearly 200 miles an hour.
And it just didn't, and then that was it then.
That was the last bit of clear road we had.
But we had some fun.
But that thing sat at 197.
I mean, it was just so easy.
It was unbelievable, really.
That's the remarkable thing, isn't it?
It's the refinement at those sorts of speeds.
You didn't even, I mean, you could have probably taken your hands off the wheel
and just not that I would have done it 200 miles an hour.
But it wasn't difficult at all.
Yeah, and I saw your, I think it was an Instagram reel.
The pace at which it goes from sort of 160 to 320 kilometers an hour basically.
It's just, I mean, and that's a family thing.
That's not a car designed for, I mean, it did have some outspeed.
It did have an awful lot of, what was it, 780 horsepower.
Yeah, destroyed.
Well, we had a couple of, well, we weren't racing
because you can't do that legally on the road.
But there was points where we'd come out of a 120 zone
and Ped would be in front of me on purpose and we were on the radios.
And I was like, right, as soon as you get to the sign, put your foot down.
I'll put mine down in my M3 touring, which is, let's face it, isn't a slow car.
And the pace at which it disappeared down the road in front of me
was just ridiculous, wasn't it?
It was literally, and that gap just got bigger and bigger,
exponentially started growing more.
And it was just like, oh my goodness.
I have to say Porsche in general, they've always been, I say guilty,
but it's not a bad thing.
They've always seemed to outpunch their numbers.
I mean, I think the last thing similar, I had a turbo E hybrid,
I think turbo has 730 horsepower with the hybrid system.
And that's obviously a heavy car.
And the way that that picked up pace, not that I took it to Germany,
so I couldn't really exploit it, but it's just a shot king.
I think the funny thing was, because I'd had a 911 Turbo S cabriolet
the week before in the UK, and that's 711 horsepower,
something ridiculous, and only 800 Newton meters of torque
instead of the 1,000 in the Panamera.
And in the UK, it doesn't really make sense because it's just too fast.
I mean, it's brutally quick.
So you look at a car and you go, what's the point of a car like that?
Then you go to Germany and you go, ah, I get it now.
Because if you lived in Germany and you had a commute that was on the Autobahn
and you were doing, I don't know, 50 kilometers a day or 100 kilometers in a...
It would make complete sense because you could drive so much time.
You wouldn't necessarily drive around at 200 miles an hour,
but that Panamera sat at 150, 160, like it was doing 50 miles an hour.
It's funny you use that.
It totally makes sense.
It's funny you use that example because I got quite a lot of stick a few years ago.
I had, I'm trying to think, it was probably 2023.
I had the base 992, 911, you know, A911 when it was yellow.
Yeah, oh yeah, Paddy Paddy and I had that car.
Yes, and I took that to North Wales and did my usual review with it.
And I absolutely fell in love with that car.
I thought it was brilliant.
I just thought it was fantastic.
It was a PDK as well, which I quite enjoyed.
And then obviously the natural thing I said to the guys at Porsche said,
well, I've tried that now, can I try the opposite?
Which at the time was the Turbo S.1, so 650 horsepower, so one of that.
And I took it to Scotland and I drew the exact same conclusion
as you just said there.
My main point in my video was that it's fantastic,
but I'd have the base car if it was for me in the UK.
Not only is it half the price, but it's just you can't exploit that performance.
And I can't really say on camera, the sort of speed, you know,
these big open mountain roads in Glencove,
obviously 60 mile an hour limit.
Not that I tried it at all, but you would have to be going twice that speed
to even start to feel the car moving in your hands.
So it's the fault of most modern day cars.
I did a BMW thing at Thruxton, that M experience.
And I'd have the M2 when we took it onto the Norse lifer.
And I think we said that when we drove it over Germany,
that car's so fast and so capable on the public road,
you have to be going so quick before it starts to give you that feel
that you're going way beyond the speed limit.
I got to drive it at Thruxton on a racetrack and not care about speed limits
and suddenly think, oh, man, this car's unbelievable.
Yeah, it all starts to make sense.
We can't do it on the road.
No, but then it's difficult.
We are sounding real bunch old.
I mean, I am the oldest here by some weight, well, yeah.
I've always been described as a bit of an old man in the younger times.
Yeah, you are an old man, 100%.
And if you look at the sort of spec of cars that I go for, actually,
it's definitely a car.
Do you have blue piping and slippers or?
I don't.
Do you know, there was one point where I had a seven series
and I designed some branded slippers for the back of that
because it was a long wheelbase and I thought,
oh, it'd be great for my passengers to have some beige with blue piping, you know.
That was actually one of my points because, obviously,
BMW and BMW, that was one of my favourite video series that you did.
So can you talk us through that?
Because, I mean, again, of all the seven series,
it's probably the last version that I like.
But then, watching your videos and your time in that car,
I did grow to like it more because I now, I mean, like a lot of older cars
that maybe you don't necessarily like at one point,
you sort of come around to liking.
But can you tell us a bit about that, tell us about the car,
tell us about the videos you did with it?
Because some of them did extremely well.
I mean, you got a lot of views on...
Yeah, my best performing video actually is still the first one I ever made
with what I bought back then, which was an E-66,
so the long wheelbase seven series with the V12.
It actually aspirated 6.0-litre V12,
which is essentially what they put in the Phantom,
you know, it was cross-developed.
But I think the thing that the wow factor was that I paid £5,000 for it.
And actually, that's in partial thanks to J.M. on cars,
because I bought it from him and I think it was probably worth a little bit more than that.
But yeah, the first of the video I did with that did half, you know,
600,000 views, I think.
And the pace at which it got those views was quite shocking.
I think at the time I was probably averaging 5,000 views a video.
So, yeah, it was the first time that I sort of...
You know, the revenue generated from that video was quite eye-watering for me as well,
which was interesting.
But yes, I was drawn to that based on the fact that it was very...
In terms of the litreage per pound,
you know, it's more than a litre per 1,000 pounds
and actually more than a metre per 1,000 pounds,
as I said, no, because it was 5.1 metres that car.
But... Because you lived in the back of it and everything, didn't you?
I did. Well, yes, I spent 24 hours in the back of that car.
Yeah. How long ago was that? When was your baby born?
It's just three months ago. No, it was way before that.
It was just five years ago.
Just checking to see what else is to do in the back of the car.
No, but... Yeah, that was a remarkable car.
And actually, ever since I sold it, I've been looking for them again.
And I've never been able to find one with as good a spec as that.
Yeah. Because I know you like your specs and stuff.
It had heated and cooled and massage front seats
and heated and cooled and massaged rear seats,
which I've never seen since.
Especially in the car of that age.
The Fosch.
It was in 2003. It was a 2007.
Oh, so a really late one.
It's a facelift, so the slightly less ugly
bang-a-bust-ear of the 7 Series.
And do you know what? That car, again, it was...
I think it draw people's attention because you think,
God, that's a terrible idea.
Yeah. But it didn't go wrong, that car.
I mean, apart from a few consumer rules, I put some tyres on it.
I think it needed, at one point, a camshaft sensor
or something like that, a few hundred quid.
Yeah.
And yeah, I think it had the air conditioning done.
You know, there wasn't anything that went wrong on it,
which you wouldn't think, would you?
And I think I had almost two years out of that car,
took it to the Nurbug ring,
had it on cruise control at 155 miles an hour in the Autobahn.
And actually, we did a funny video, which I thought was brilliant,
which no one really watched at the time,
but it might have 70,000 to 80,000 views now, actually.
But I was chauffeured in the back of it,
whilst my friend Ben drove around the Nurbug ring.
And I was trying to make some cheese and crackers
and drink champagne whilst we were at the Nordschleife.
So that was a lot of fun.
And a car that I missed a lot.
But yeah, did wonders for the channel at the time.
Can you take us through...
Just to give some context,
when you're planning a video series,
so you think, right, I'm going to buy an M6 or a 7-series,
what's your man-maths needed for that?
Because the difference between the kind of content you make...
Well, you do it, you buy cars for videos,
you buy cars for videos, I've never come up.
It's a bit of a gamble.
And I know you're not buying like a brand new Porsche or whatever,
but there must be some kind of calculation,
we think, that's the idea,
that's the investment needed in the car,
this is the kind of content I'm going to make,
this is how much money I need to make from the videos,
and then at the end, get rid of the car for maybe this,
to try and break even. How do you go about that?
Or do you just literally pick your phone up and go,
oh, that looks good, or see something go past and go,
or what? Do you not even do that?
You just get outside it.
I would love to pull out an iPad now with a spreadsheet
that I could show you.
So this is exactly how it came.
But, yeah, truthfully, it's quite impulsive.
OK, good.
And I think, yeah, it's just a case of I see something,
I think, oh, that's, you know, I have a long list in my head
as many of us Petroheads will do of cars that I want to own.
And I think I'm just slowly going through that.
I've always drawn to things with larger engines,
and I'm drawn to things that are cheap,
and they are often the cars that are cheap
because they're notoriously bad to run.
But I do sort of just go into it eyes closed,
to a sense that- Wow, eyes closed.
You know, I think that does, obviously,
I can get into it.
I don't think it's not really gone wrong for me yet,
touch wood, but I think it lends itself to the content a little bit
because I genuinely am taking the viewer along on the journey with me
when I first take it to somewhere, a specialist,
and have it inspected.
I genuinely don't know what they're going to say.
I guess you could argue that if it goes wrong,
that's probably a better storyline
and will probably earn you more revenue than if everything goes right.
Yeah, and it's a funny thing that I'm constantly toying with actually
because, like, the Range Rover I just bought, for example,
it's like a dream car for me, actually.
It's beautiful blue colour with a wooden steering wheel
and it's a lovely 5-litre supercharged engine.
Is that back in the day where the badges are black badge
if it's a supercharged and then green if it's not?
No, that was the 4.2 supercharged block,
which sort of was the mid-face lift 2006.
I've got the 5-litre one, so it's the actual last of the Line L32 too.
I think Clarkson described it as very chintzy with the grilles and stuff,
but this is quite an understated spec.
But that, you know, it's a weird one where...
How much was that to buy?
I paid four and a half thousand.
Four and a half grand? Stop it, really.
Four and a half thousand.
It was originally owned by Saudi Prince
because his BA gold card was in the original book pack
and I was able to do some digging.
And then it was run on a country estate for the last five years
and there's no paperwork with it
and it's in a state of disrepair, but that's a whole other story.
But, you know, I do buy these cars and they go wrong
and people go, oh, that's why you bought it.
But genuinely, I'm happy because there's content to make about the car now,
but also I'm gutted because I really just want to drive it
and take my family out in it and stuff.
But in the sense of finances, I mean,
buying one of them for four and a half thousand pounds,
as many people have commented, there's really not much to lose.
If it goes wrong badly, just scrap it.
Scrap, you know, you get a few hundred quid for it,
but people have pointed out the interior and things like that.
People would pay, you know, good money for it.
I could probably get that money back if I really needed to.
In parts, yeah.
But I tend to what tends to happen is I buy really cheap cars
that are in a state of disrepair, spend a fortune getting them repaired
and then sell them.
They're just really stupid.
But I think I really enjoy the process of bringing something back to life.
Yeah.
And it's always what I'm screaming at.
The scream when I see stuff about EVs, this and PCP,
lease deals, that, because, you know, these cars are designed
for people to sort of buy and run for two to three years
and then they get into the next one.
I think, well, how's that good for the environment?
Because it's getting manufactured.
Oh, don't get him on the environment.
And so actually running my, you know, daily driver at the moment
is an old 2010 three-litre diesel Jaguar, you know, that's probably,
you know, 150,000 miles, you know, that's probably better for the environment
than if I went and leased a new Tesla, I don't know.
Yeah, no, no, you're right.
So I've lost my train of thought, really.
But yeah, I genuinely just go after cars that I think, well, I like that.
So in a way, you know, it's quite cool.
So what have you got some cars at the moment?
And you probably don't want to tell us the kind of halo cars
that you'd really like to get, but just either so rare or difficult to get old of
or you've not seen one yet.
What's the I mean, how long have you got?
Oh, is it that long?
Is it like there's, do you know what?
I'm really, I think the 20 to 30 grandmark at the moment,
there is such a plethora of cars that I think are worth owning.
And if you look at Aston Martin, for example, V8 Vantage's,
you can get a nice example for some mid 20s.
Now, if you want it, a DB9 is even cheaper.
Yeah, DB7.
They've gone really cheap now.
I could see you in a seven.
There was a beautiful.
Oh, I can't stand the seven DB7.
I've never done one in my life with the V12.
Went at historic the other day for 12, 12 and a half thousand.
It was low mileage.
The V12 in it, wow.
They've got really cheap.
They're for nothing now.
What about the G?
What was the last one they did?
The GT, was it DB7 GT?
Yeah, I remember Clarkson did them.
Yeah, then 4th gear, 30 to 100.
That's right.
Yeah, you can get them quite cheap, 30 grand now for something like that.
But yeah, I mean, F types.
You get a Ford Transit key thrown in for free.
Yeah, exactly.
Yeah, and then if you go for a slightly DB9, it's all Volvo stuff, so.
Yeah, yeah, but that's substantial.
Yeah, well, yeah, I think I'd rather have the Volvo stuff.
Yeah, I don't have that stuff.
Oh yeah, that's what they came out with, didn't they?
And they're always angled really funny because I had an XC90 for a while.
You can't see it because it's tilted.
Well, because it's angled where it was meant to be angled for your Volvo driving position,
which is probably very different since they hadn't even tweaked that.
No, I mean, there's a lot.
I think, do you know what, we're really lucky in this country,
because whenever I buy a car like this,
the comments always come from Europe and America and say,
I can't get one of these for less than 60,000 euros,
whether it's like a Maserati Grand Sport, which is today's video,
for £15,000, a limited Maserati.
And on the continent, they're 40, 50 plus.
It's interesting, isn't it?
A lot of cars, I mean, if you even just go to France,
like they use car market is so much stronger than ours.
Our used car market has always been an absolute bargain
because we're so obsessed with buying new cars.
Yeah.
Therefore, anything that's more than, well, anything that's even a month old
is substantially cheaper than the brand new thing,
whereas you go to Australia or anywhere in Europe
and a three-year-old German car is still 70% to 80% of its price.
Whereas here, it's less than 50.
And then if you go below that, like you know,
it's 10% or 5% of its original value, and it's just like, it's crazy.
Yeah, and I think part of it is because obviously right-hand drive,
there's less right-hand drive markets across the world,
so they're not quite a desirable light for light generally.
But yeah, we're super lucky when it comes to values of used cars.
And then also, we can modify our cars.
The amount of countries that you just, they can't do anything.
Yeah, especially Germany.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, get it, yeah.
And people always loved it because, again, the car,
I've just bought this Range Rover, it's about 800 quid a year to tax.
Yeah, because of, you know, whatever.
People are like, God, that's awful.
I can't believe, you know, that puts me well off by it.
But if you go to Ireland, northern, you know,
two and a half thousand euros a year on the continent,
I think someone in Belgium said that they had one
and it was 3,000 euros a year just to tax.
Wow.
So again, we're super lucky in this country.
Go to Singapore, try and tax a car in Singapore.
It's like one and a half times the value of the car, isn't it?
It's insane.
And do you know what I found out?
Where was it the other day?
Oh, I was watching Yanomai's actually
and he's doing some stuff about Cyprus at the moment.
And it turns out if you, it's illegal to finance a car in Cyprus.
OK.
So if you're in Cyprus and you're rolling around in a Ferrari 458
or something, you're a proper baller because you own it cash.
Wow.
So that's quite, you know, that's an interesting thing.
So we are...
No finance.
I think he said, yeah, I mean, I've heard it off his video,
but finance is illegal.
I think he's though, right?
There's an argument to say that I think we've talked about this before.
The whole piece, the trend towards PCP finance in cars
over the last 10 years, because when I was growing up,
you never, I mean, you'd borrow the car,
you'd either get a bank loan or HP a car.
The whole PCP thing wasn't a thing.
But I think that trend has one made cars more expensive
because manufacturers can sell a car more expensive
because most people don't buy a car.
Can you imagine trying to buy a hundred grand car?
Yeah, yeah.
Cash or with HP, because you can't borrow that much money.
No.
The car can have a list price of whatever they want
as long as the monthly payment looks attractive to someone.
Because people don't look, do they?
They don't look at it.
And I'm convinced that's the case that, you know,
I know materials are more expensive and they moan about, you know,
economics after COVID and the EVs,
the cost of all the materials and stuff.
But I just think half of it's a, let's see, we can sell it for whatever we like.
It's bigger than a PCP anyway, so nobody cares.
Porsche 911 is a really interesting benchmark
because I think, you know, I don't do quite as much press car stuff as you guys.
So the last time I had a 911, the base one, it was 2023, I think,
and it was 90 grand plus, plus, plus, plus.
Yep.
Whereas the one I just had a few a couple of months ago, base 911, same thing.
It's 104 grand for options now.
So there's your sort of adjustment.
104 grand before, I think we talked about this one recently.
And Porsche are pretty cheeky with this.
Porsche GB, if you go onto like most car websites
like, so you look at the RRP on the road costs.
So like Audi, all the other Germans, usually they'll give you on the road price.
So that includes the first year of road fund,
which these days is really high on a sports car.
Like a delivery fee in there sometimes.
Yeah, delivery fee, all that's quite, but it's that first year of road tax,
which is really punchy on a 911.
So Porsche don't, their RRP is not, doesn't include that.
So if you look at the base 11 and you're like, that's 104, 105 grand before options.
It's another four or five grand to tax it before option.
So it's actually 110 grand before options, which is just, I mean, like you said,
yeah, because I think that yellow one, I'm sure that was 84 grand.
Was it that much?
Well, that little 84 and that had like one option on it, I think, which, which,
yeah, because it was, that was the whole nice thing about that car.
It wasn't the Bose because I remember the stereo on that was all awful.
Yeah, really definitely get the Bose.
But yeah, it's just, it's gone from 80 grand car now to a 110 grand car in not,
not long, but yeah, I still desperately want one.
Yeah, I mean, I would say to be honest, it's worth every penny.
And that is just the way of the world.
And then things do get more expensive.
It's, well, it's going to mown in there, but 911s used to be, I don't know,
like I said, 80, 90 grand, a vantage entry level.
That's the heart and used to be like 70 grand.
They were relatively attainable.
Vantage now is like best part 200 grand.
And how many of them do you see on the road?
None, but with the old ones, you used to see them quite regularly.
So going back a little bit in time, and I'm going to estimate this was like
2018, maybe 2019, another memorable video of yours that, because one of the
reasons I really like what you do is you kind of wear your heart and your sleeve
a lot and you are just you.
And a lot of people actually say that.
I think we're all very similar to that.
People that come and meet us.
At Nissan Micros, sorry, that's cool.
Oh, yes.
Yeah, I saw that.
Oh, an F-Edge.
What's that, 89?
That's quite a late one.
Fluffy dice in the back.
That's wicked.
My uncle had a C-Edge one.
C90 Cub was his number plate.
How's that?
Sorry, sorry.
Probably before, yeah, before you were born.
Might be a little bit before my time, yeah.
Yeah, it was.
I remember my grandma's Vauxhall Corsa B.
Vauxhall Corsa B.
So it had the sort of weird...
The bubble one.
Yeah, two-spread wheel.
I remember sitting in the back of that.
That was probably back in 2000, 2001.
Wow.
And they got nicked.
Imagine nicking one of them now.
There you go.
Yeah, so, yeah, I think we all, whenever people meet me and I'm sure it's the same
with you, Ped, and with you, Joel, is people always, oh, you're exactly the same
as you are in your videos.
We're not, we haven't got that online persona that some people have.
Like, we all know Tim very well, Shmi.
Shmi is very different.
Tim is Tim and Shmi is Shmi.
And it's almost like he's stage Shmi and normal Tim.
But others just play up massively to the camera and some of them are absolute.
You might need to bleep this one out.
And vice versa.
But with you, you're very much who you are on camera.
But one of my videos that I really enjoyed,
and also I don't have my emotions these days at all.
And I think as you get older, you'll find this, I get more emotional.
But I even cry watching Top Gun.
I'll just say that because Lou would probably put it in the comments or something.
But, no, but what was, was your lap?
I think it was your first ever lap of the ring in the Z4.
Yes.
And you started crying at the end of it.
Yeah, yeah.
Which was, which really like 78 years ago, and fair play for putting that
in the video, because, I mean, now it's more acceptable for, especially for men
to be, you know, show their emotions.
But back then, I know it wasn't that long ago, but back then it's not the sort of thing
that you would have expected to see on a YouTube channel.
But I thought it was brilliant.
But it really showed your, can you talk or see that sort of, that video and your experience?
Because it was your first lap of the No Broke.
Yes, it was definitely on that trip where it was the first time I'd ever been there
and the first time I would have lapped the ring in my Z4, which is the sort of only car
I had for about three years at the time.
Roof off.
What I started the channel with.
Yeah.
I think that lap, the roof was up because I think the thing that really made me quiet
at the end is it, it was such an overwhelming experience, obviously doing that first lap.
And, you know, I don't drive slowly.
I was hammering it.
I give it everything, you know, anything I go into and anything I drive, I drive it properly.
So I was driving the wheels off that thing and it did amazing actually.
And it, you know, it was, it did way better than I thought and it was fast fun.
And then right at the end, obviously, you know what it's like on Tourist & Fart.
And I don't think, I can't remember the last time I did a lap there where there wasn't a yellow flag.
Yep.
There's always something going on, whether it's an oil spill from earlier and there's some cones out.
Couple of YouTubers crashing.
Yeah, exactly.
Yeah, crunching, yeah.
But this, I think it was, yeah, it was probably my actual first lap and there was a car on fire quite spectacularly
on the last corner.
That one we stood on at N24 that time.
Yes.
And it was just, I remember going past it and feeling the heat, such intense heat.
It was a great past, this Inferno and I think just that after the whole adrenaline of doing the lap,
that right at the end of the lap and then just cooling down after I just did a hit me, sort of.
I'm not on fire, yes.
Yeah, I think I, it was, I am, I'm a very emotional person actually.
It was just for me, a really overwhelming experience.
I mean, I think it's sort of a bucket list.
It has become a bucket list, most pet trades now to go to Nürburgring.
You see it all the time on Instagram, don't you?
Sort of people doing their trip there, sort of a pilgrimage if you like.
But yeah, it was just completely overwhelming and thrilling and such a rush of adrenaline
that I couldn't hold it together at the end.
So, you know, I think it's important to include things like that
because that's what YouTube is all about, isn't it?
It's about the fact that it's not regulated and it can be unfiltered and show the true thing.
I think the thing for me has always been sort of why I started the channel in the first place
is to try and encourage people to do things that they might be a bit nervous to do,
whether it's buying that dream car which everyone says not to buy
or, you know, going to the Nürburgring and thrashing your car around.
It's all about showing it and encouraging people to do so.
So, I think including, you know, parts like that just shows that, you know,
it's a real experience that anyone can enjoy.
And you're just the normal, you're just human being at the end of the day.
We're all just blokes that love cars,
that have somehow managed to make what we do our livings,
which is, which I think you always have to stop and pinch yourself.
Yeah, I was going to say, I'll just pinch you there.
Yeah, like, well, when we're in, you know, the N24 a couple of weeks ago,
I think you said it to us, Ped, you're like, well, you said it a couple of times,
you're like, with, like some trips are a bit mundane and a bit, you know,
they're more worky, you know, you're out there, you know, you've got a job to do,
blah, blah, blah, but others are like, wow, we're out here with Michelin,
filming content with friends and, oh, it doesn't necessarily have to be with friends.
You'd be on your own, and it's just like, this, I'm doing, this is amazing.
Like, and you're doing it at a younger age, and, you know,
both Ped and I discovered it in later life and obviously YouTube's not that old,
but it is, it is cool when you stop and you think a lot of people are doing Monday
to Friday jobs predominantly that they're not happy with,
or they've got an asshole as a boss or a very corporate world where, you know,
and it's like, it is lovely having that element of freedom and you walking down
the street and seeing something awful and thinking,
I'm going to buy one of those because I love it.
Yeah, I think, I mean, you know, I genuinely just love taking risks.
Yeah, I think, I think that's the reason so many people are probably in positions
they don't want to be unnecessarily is because they don't take, they don't want to risk too
nervous to take the risk or they have so many responsibilities and, you know,
that the stakes are too high, but I think, you know, you just got to go for it.
I always reply to people saying, you only live once and it's such a cliche,
but it is really true and I think maybe in my, you know, I think, I don't know why,
but I've always sort of thought like that even from a young age that life is short
and, you know, you just got to make the most of it.
Yeah, so I tend to do things that are a bit silly and, you know,
it helps having such a supportive wife because, you know,
I turn genuinely true story, I meet my friend Charlie weekly for lunch
and he's actually, he's flies for a living.
So he's always got a strange schedule, commercial part.
He's not a pilot, he's a trolley dolly.
Oh, OK, right.
He serves people cups of tea as I like to remind him all the time,
flight attendant is the trouble for saying trolley dolly now.
He does that.
So his schedule is kind of sporadic.
So normally midweek will go for lunch, but I'd seen this car come up,
this Range Rover and it was at this dodgy place.
I thought, oh, just go have a look at that.
So we did.
So he went for lunch, went to have a look at this car.
I brought the camera because I thought just in case there's anything,
I might just film looking at it.
I'm not going to buy it, ended up getting over excited and buying the car
and coming back to my wife with a car when she thought I'd just gone for lunch.
And that was quite funny.
But, you know, she said, she said, how much did you pay?
And I said, four and a half thousand pounds.
She said, well, you know, worst case scenario, you've lost four and a half thousand pounds.
Yeah.
So that's her attitude.
It's like the amount of comments I get from men,
and be like, my wife would never let me do this.
And I do feel very lucky because she's often the one that's like, go for it.
Yeah.
What's the worst that can happen in life?
I think you've got to have, if you've got a supportive partner in us, do you?
Yeah, yeah, exactly.
And I probably would have stopped in this quite a while ago if it wasn't for her.
And, you know, I've had struggles along the way.
And also there's been times where the channel really hasn't been making money.
Yeah.
And it's been a case of, right, if this next video I've got,
or this next series doesn't work, doesn't pick up,
I'm going to have to pack it in.
I can't justify this.
But she's always been the one that sort of says, you know,
keep going, going when I've wanted to stop.
So it's massively privileged and easy to say, you know,
take a risk when you've got a support network like that behind you.
But it is, I think, really important for people to just take the risk, you know,
because that thing, isn't it, when you're looking back
and you didn't do that thing that you wanted to do, you regret it?
Yeah, I think, I mean, with age and experience and yes, you're absolutely right.
I think there's still always, you still have to have a bit of a,
bit of you that's looking to the future and kind of, you know...
Yeah, a nice stop some shares portfolio.
Something, because you know, because tell you what will happen is,
before you realise it, you start doing your retirement planning,
because do you think, Jesus, I've only got a few years of work left?
But no, you've got to do what you, I mean, I'm sure we're all the same.
We have people come up, I'd love to do YouTube.
I just had to sit down with some friends I played paddle with last week
because they're looking at starting a YouTube channel
and it was just lots of questions about the mechanics of how it works
and how you monetise it and all those types of things.
And I said, ultimately, if you've got a thing you want to do,
a passion that you want to, whether it's cars or a sport
or whatever you do in your YouTube about,
you've got to have, you know, passion and ultimately just enjoy it.
Because if you do, that'll come across on camera.
I think a lot of, I do get asked quite a lot about, you know,
running a YouTube channel stuff, I think because I have a relatively small YouTube channel
so that probably seems a bit more obtainable to most people.
You know, sort of just over 100,000 subs, so people think, well, that's not,
if you want to look at Schmi with millions and think,
I'll never get to that level, you might look at me and think, I could do that.
But the amount of people that, the main problem they've got
is they just don't start it.
You know, that's the key, it's just...
It's lazy, it's firstly having that ability to take that risk and go,
I'm going to go for it and try it.
Whether you've got a job, which we all did when we started or not.
And if you don't have a job at that time, you need some money
because the first 34 years, five years is investment.
You're pouring money into that channel
before you get anything in return and profit-wise.
But yeah, but then it's the energy and the work that needs to go into it.
And you're right, I literally had someone I was speaking to yesterday.
Oh, I really want to, it's always a question.
I want to start working with Audi, the RS5 launch.
I want to get my hands, right, how do I contact Audi
and get my hands on RS5 because I want to start a YouTube channel?
No, it doesn't work like that.
Like, it doesn't.
Like, have you got a channel yet?
No, have you put any video?
No, because I've only got my car.
Well, I only started with my car, you only started with your car,
you only started with your car, you beg borrowed friends' cars and dealership.
You've got to start somewhere and build it up.
But like, I think, again, that goes back.
And then when you do go to a brand, don't ask for an RS5,
ask for like, you know, an A1 or something.
Yeah, but no one does.
I mean, I know this obviously from people inside places like Audi,
you know, BMW, I know very well.
That's the problem as well, people instantly go straight to the top
and it's like, I just, I don't understand how you have,
number one, the, I was going to say balls, can you say balls?
Yeah, to do that.
But number two, also like, just, you know, play with the smaller stuff.
And it's like, I think if you grew up, you know,
if I grew up as a millionaire or billionaire's son or something,
you know, I'd have had the best car, my dream car,
I'd have a GT3 at the age of like 18, 19.
It's like, where do you, you kind of almost not feel sorry for people
that grew up, born into a lot of money, but like, there's nothing more,
there's nothing to aim for, right?
Like we all, well, you and I would love a GT3 in our garage,
but we're still working towards that.
And hopefully one day, you know, we'll have something like that,
but just going in straight to the start.
And I think that's what, you know, makes it so interesting.
And I love your story that you are,
you're buying cars like the M6 that's just over my shoulder there,
because that was, and mine, I remember that episode very well.
And so it would have been about what, 2005?
Yeah, yeah.
And 2004, actually, I think they had that before.
So that was way before, and it's probably one of the cars that triggered me.
So the first almost new car that I bought, it was six months,
five or six months old, approved 130i.
And I remember, so it was, I picked that up from Cotswolds BMW.
In 2006, it would have been late, like September, October 2006,
and I went into the showroom.
And in the showroom, they had a brand new M6
in what was the blue, really, it was quite popular.
No, not Monte Carlo blue, it was Intel Argos.
Intel Argos blue, and they had the red.
Oh, yes, the BMW.
Was it Imola red?
Imola red, M5, and they had both of them.
So I've gone into the showroom, I never,
I grew up in central London, not far from Park Lane,
I was always too scared to go in there, because in my head,
they would have just looked at me like, what are you doing in here?
So I always used the window shop, never went into the showroom,
which when I think about it now is ridiculous.
But, and it was right next door to McLaren, and then that became Harrod's.
And then there was that McLaren F1 that they could never sell,
which is just, again, when you think about that, I'm sure it was,
I remember it was, it was, what was the McLaren F1 when it was new?
650, and they reduced it, and it had like,
they'd crossed it with a pen, they'd crossed, I mean, this is crazy.
They'd crossed the 650 out, and it went down,
the one they had in there, I think it was down to like 550 or 500 grand.
Which, I mean, at the time was absolutely mental.
Times that by 100 now is what it would be worth, isn't it?
That's crazy.
But yeah, going back to picking, so I went to the dealership,
and I said, here I was, oh yeah, sure, we'll get the car out of the salesman,
because I'd sort of paid a deposit online.
And I remember the M4, and this guy came out,
and I can't remember his name or anything,
because it was 2020 years ago now, and he came out,
and I was talking, and he could see that I was a proper petrolhead,
and he was a proper petrolhead, which is quite rare as a salesperson,
because so many of them are just salespeople,
they're not interested in cars.
And so I was picking up the 130, and he said,
oh, you're a bit of a petrolhead, I said, oh, mate, I can't,
I'd never driven anything like the 130, I was about to pick up,
and I couldn't afford it, I took out a big loan.
I was living with my parents at the time,
I think I'd just come back from Australia.
So anyway, so he was so nice, and he said,
he said, do you know what, are you in a rush?
I was like, no, he goes, do you want to go out for a quick passenger ride
in an E60, we've got a demo here.
And I couldn't believe that I was sitting in this car
that I'd just watched on Top Gear, and we only went around the block,
but I was just sitting there like, oh my God, I'm in an E60 M5.
And yeah, anyway, so years later, the fact that, you know,
you go and buy something like that, I think that's cool,
and we're lucky that we can do that sort of thing
with our secondhand news market.
Moving on to, we've talked about the seven series.
Was that the most, and I don't want to know any figures,
but in terms of things that have gone well and disasters,
what's been your most, not profitable, but worthwhile purchase
and the flip side of that, what has been your biggest disaster car
that has cost you a lot of money, time and grief,
and hasn't returned reviews that you're hoping for?
Yeah, good question.
I think the seven series has to be up there in terms of,
if you look at sort of generated income from the content,
and the fact that it didn't actually cost me that much to maintain.
Plus, I think I sold that car for £9,000.
And you bought it for?
Five.
Oh my God, that's amazing.
So I was laughing with that one.
Shortly after that, I bought my first L322 Range Rover,
which I have to say, I mean, it's all you see on Instagram
and YouTube now is L322 this, L322 that.
It hadn't really been done at the time,
not saying I was the first to do it,
but I bought this really cheap, broken L322,
and that did really well, and that was only £2,000 that car.
Wow.
The first video made more than that.
Two grand for a Range Rover.
The first video made more than that,
which I was really happy about,
and I remember going to Guilford at the time
to meet a friend of mine to show him my latest purchase,
and I was showing him part of the car park he came over,
and I was showing him the air suspension.
I've never had a car like this before.
I was like, look, it goes up, and it goes down,
it goes up, and it goes down, and I pressed up,
and it's when I sat on the bump stops on the front,
so I had to drive him from Guilford like this.
So that was a little lesson there.
But yeah, those two were particularly lucrative.
Yeah.
I mean, lucrative is pushing it, really,
but I was able to enjoy those cars,
and it didn't cost me anything,
and I made some good content out of it.
I think they were probably profitable cars.
The biggest disaster, and I didn't lose money on this car
because I also sold it for quite a lot more than I paid,
but I did try, after the 7 Series went,
I tried, there was so much online about M lights at that point,
M140Is in particular, all the rage,
and I thought, let's go into this and get an M240i,
because that's more my thing is a coupé style of that,
and I'll make loads of content on that,
take it to Motech and do all the stuff,
because that's what YouTubers do.
So I borrowed 20 grand from the bank,
went and bought a lovely, really nice spec, actually, again,
talking of spec, this was an M240i that had a heated wheel,
electric seats, I had the ProNav,
it was mineral gray over red.
You needed the ProNav, didn't you,
because you had the lovely big glass screen as opposed to the...
Remember the early...
Sorry, but it was a 67, so it was a facelift, but not OPF.
Free OPF, yes.
So it was just the sweet spot, it was the perfect car,
and it was on these bronze mineral gray.
Yeah, yeah, mineral gray, yeah.
And it was on these bronze bowler of B11 wheels.
I remember it.
It was beautiful, I think I paid 21,000 pounds for it
from a guy up in Liverpool,
and put the videos out with that,
and the views were absolutely shocking.
Probably, I think I was probably doing six-figure views
with most of the Range Rover and 7 Series content,
which naturally, I was sort of moving on from,
because I felt I'd done everything with those cars
and wanted to try something different,
and these were getting 15, maybe 10,000 views.
Do you think that was because, A, YouTube was already
saturated with that kind of content, and B...
So it's like with Joe Killie's doing low-tech...
Yeah, that already rinsed everything.
Yeah.
Or B, or Anne B, because it wasn't what you'd kind of
built your audience on.
Yeah, I think that's part...
I think, yeah, both of those things are true.
I think, also, my heart wasn't fully in that car.
I didn't love it like I loved my 7 Series all the time.
People can tell, can't they?
Yeah, exactly. People aren't stupid.
You know, they can... I mean, emotion, you can't hide that.
So, although I loved that car, and it genuinely was so exciting,
and a bit like when you picked up your 130i,
that I've never driven anything like that, let alone owned it.
Or his M5, yeah.
Yeah.
And I think, do you know what happened as well with that?
It was expensive to insure, because it was an M240i,
and a 20-something-year-old driving it, you know, is what it is.
But, at the time, it was about $1,500 for the year,
which was a lot for me at the time.
And then, as I was living with my parents,
we lived in Hampshire.
Mum got a new job, and we moved up to where they are now,
actually, in South West London.
And the insurance went up to £4,500 a year.
Which, with the performance of the videos and all the rest of it,
I just couldn't justify, so I sold that car.
Yeah.
I ended up selling it for $24,500.
So, I made, and that was three months later.
I love how you...
I'm quite good at buying cars well.
You know, I do buy cars quite well.
You buy these, yeah, mostly cars that you'd think
would just continue to fall off a cliff.
Yeah.
You seem to buy them at the bottom.
Yeah.
And I suppose, yeah.
But I think, do you know what, I actually come to think of it.
That was before the 7th series, so I did...
That's right, I did that.
I had my Z4 at the time.
This is the second car I ever bought, was this M240i,
because I thought, that's how I break into the big numbers.
Yep.
And it didn't go well.
Yep.
And obviously, that ended up selling that car moving on,
buying the 7th series, and that did really well.
So, that's the way around it was, actually.
I mean, it's not what you ask, but there's other people out there
that I'm sort of struggle with this sort of thing.
But instead of repaying that loan, which, you know,
I've made a few thousand pounds on the car.
I could probably cover the interest and settle the loan
and still have a little bit of change towards the 7th series.
Instead of doing that, I decided it was just my money.
Right.
So, I ended up sort of going through that.
Yeah.
And spending lots of money on the 7th series,
and all sorts of crazy trips and stuff,
which was fantastic and great for the channel.
That ended up, eventually, at the end of it,
with about a 20 grand black hole that I sort of had to fill.
Yeah.
So, I think that was the point where I sold all of the cars
and had a bit of a reset.
Yep.
But that was a learning curve, and why I've sort of been
against financing things, you know, since then.
Sort of just trying to own things and manage it that way.
But yeah, I got all a bit excited there
with having this lump sum of money in my bank account.
Which I thought was my money.
So, you know, it's just a psychological thing.
We've all done that.
We've all been there.
When I, in 1999, when were you born?
97.
97.
So, you were two.
Patrick was three.
I was 25.
Pedd was about 40.
I was in Australia, and I just got there.
And because I've got a dual citizen,
I was living in a hostel in Cronulla, just south of Sydney.
And I needed to open a bank account.
So, I opened a bank account at Commonwealth Bank,
which is like their Lloyds and that west, a big bank.
And got a bank card.
Straight away, I got a call from them saying,
oh, you're eligible for a credit card.
I'm like, I'm living in a hostel,
and I've been in the country two weeks.
And this is like 20-year-old Joe.
So, they gave me a credit card with a $5,000 limit on it.
No word of it.
And at that time, I mean, there was very few occasions
when I was sober.
Within, I think it was about 48 hours,
I'd been into Sydney and maxed out.
Because in my head, I was like,
and anyone that's younger, I'm watching this.
Just...
Don't do, don't beat you.
Yeah, that limit doesn't mean that it's your cash.
You pay for it.
And I just went out and maxed the credit card.
And I spent the next two or three years
in Australia working on various jobs,
constantly paying off that credit card.
It's so incredibly easy to do.
And I think it's an important thing to talk about,
because I think there'll be a lot of people
that are either in similar situations or maybe about to go into them
that could probably benefit from hearing it.
But to be honest, to bring up my wife back into it again,
speaking, as we're speaking about credit card debt and stuff,
when I sold that car and thought that money was mine,
I went away and just met my now wife at the time.
So, I was taking her on fancy holidays
and we're doing a business class and doing this.
Because I just thought, I genuinely thought,
it was like a psychological delusion
that this was my money, I didn't have to pay it back.
Or you just think, and I had the seven series videos doing well,
I was making quite good money on the YouTube.
So, I thought, next month I'll pay it back.
Next month I'll pay it back.
Anyway, gets the point where I'm about £20,000 in a hole
and actually the revenue isn't as good right now.
And I'm thinking, oh, God, what am I going to do?
And then there was one month and I'd let my now wife
into some of my financial mishaps at the time.
She was kind of aware of it.
And I don't mind saying this on camera,
there was one month where I'd earned more than £10,000
in a month and that was the biggest month I'd ever had.
And I was really excited, just scraped over
because I did some brand deals
and I think about a million views that month.
You can do the math, but I was really excited.
And I said to my wife, I'd just made more than £10,000.
And she said, that's not your money.
And it was genuinely that point that it clicked in my head
that I'm like, oh, yeah, I've actually got to repay some of this stuff.
So, it's thanks to her again that I've been able to buy things like that
and not worry too much.
But it's so easy, especially when you're getting offered.
I get the same thing all the time on my credit card even now.
I use it for business and it's always,
we're increasing your limit, limit.
They're just trying to get you to...
And also financing, sorry, Ped.
Just like, what annoys me, that car finance is one thing.
I mean, mortgages, we all finance our houses if we own a house,
which is just madness when you look at the numbers of those.
But the other thing that really does frustrate me
is when you go into any kind of retail shop,
whether it's like, let's say, a sports shop and trainers.
And you can basically finance...
Clana.
Clana, finance anything.
And I'm sorry, if you're going in to spend £100 on a pair of Nike trainers
and you need to finance them,
you shouldn't be spending £100 on a pair of trainers.
Simple as that.
It is bad, isn't it?
It's really bad.
It's not good.
And it just puts everyone in debt,
which is what the banks and these finance companies want.
But...
It's not a finance podcast, is it?
But there's some worrying statistics out there in terms of...
It's too easy.
It's something like more than 50%...
And this is not to shame anyone,
because I'm extremely fortunate to have such a supportive wife and all the rest of it.
But it's something like more than 50% of over 30s have less than £1,000 in savings.
Which is really concerning.
And it's not their fault it's so expensive to live and to do anything now.
But also, when you go to the supermarket
and you can actually split your payments over three months,
it is very tempting when money's tight.
And it's not a good thing, I don't think, is it?
Never had a credit card.
Have you not?
You're smart.
You're very smart.
Because I had a store card once, a Burton's...
Oh, yes.
Burton's store card.
I bought a suit on a store card and just never paid it off.
And it just kept going up and up.
And in the end, I was like, this suit must have cost me like four times what I paid for it.
They were the... Oh, yeah, the...
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Interesting.
So I went in, I went in and bought...
I remember buying a suit, I was for a wedding or a...
And they went, well, actually we've got like buy one, get one half price.
And then if you put it on a store card, you don't have to pay us anything now.
And I'm like, oh, wow, you know.
So I'll go in and I walked out with it.
I mean, this would be, geez, 30 years ago probably.
But that cost me at least three times by the time I paid it off.
And I've never had a credit card since.
I've been offered them.
I had to have one with work once, but the simple rule is, isn't it?
If you have a credit card, I mean, there's an argument to say,
credit cards are free money as long as you pay them back every month.
You get your BA points for it.
You get your points.
And I know plenty of people play the points game.
And you've got your credit protection and all that kind of stuff.
So there's loads of benefits before any of the people go,
oh, actually credit cards are a really good thing.
They are as long as you pay them off every month.
Wait, have we got a subscriber that sounds like you?
Oh, yeah.
And if you're quite, or is that James?
Mine didn't.
I'll tell you one thing we did do.
I remember I'm lying a bit saying I've never had a credit card
because I bought my Mitsubishi show gun.
What car?
Pretty, my, I don't know.
That's it, the next car.
Short wheelbase, 2.8D is not the V6.
I wish I'd bought the best one.
I want one of them, the MyTech Evolution, I'd love one of those.
Wicked thing.
But I remember putting some of that on a 0% finance credit card
and just moving it every six months and then paying it off.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
So you basically got a free bank loan.
But no, I don't trust myself with it.
But you save money, you know.
I very much sympathise with people who are struggling because,
I mean, you know, and it's still tricky from time to time, isn't it?
But, you know, it's tough out there, isn't it?
To not be tempted by all of these offers.
Just buy things.
Just buy finance.
We are, we've just approached the one hour mark.
We try to keep our oversize one hour.
But before we go, I want to ask you one last question
because I'm intrigued about this.
Money, no object, what car would you like to own?
And yeah, because I'm interested because I'm...
It's probably going to be a 10 grand shit box.
Yeah, I know.
No, a five grand shit box.
Well, do you know what?
I mean, speaking at the bottom, I mean, I've got one car,
which I'll tell you in a minute, which is my absolute dream,
no money, no object, but we were just in a little garage
with some special cars a minute ago
and there was a 612 Scallietti in there.
Oh, yeah.
That is one of my...
Yeah, it was a manual.
So that's sort of way beyond my realm of possibility.
But yeah, a 45 grand 612 is definitely up there
with sort of a dream car.
But my actual poster car,
it's not like a Lamborghini Countach or anything like that.
Unfortunately for me, it's a Ferrari Enzo.
Oh.
That is my all time.
So you can tell an age thing there
because you're the age of an Enzo, right?
2002.
I'm an F40, so I'm on before that.
I just remember this magazine, whether it was Top Gear at the time,
I can't remember, I think 2002 when it came out,
it was a red car with a doors open and red leather interior
and I just thought, wow.
I mean, that was probably the car that got me into cars.
I was about five years old.
Yeah.
I tell you what, though, I'm just going to do a Ferrari thing here.
When that car came out, I remember people saying,
what a stupid name and man, is it ugly?
Yeah.
And look at it now, it's a classic.
So luce, you never know.
On that bombshell.
So, Joel, where can people find you that aren't familiar with you?
Yeah, so I'm It's Joel on YouTube.
I do a little bit of short form on Instagram, TikTok as well.
Same name, It's Joel, It's Joel Tok, I think.
But yeah, It's Joel on YouTube is where you're going to see most of my,
all of my antics with these terrible cars
that you should definitely not buy, but you can watch me buy instead.
And then buy off you for even more money at the end of it.
Yeah, maybe, maybe, maybe if you're lucky, yeah.
Well, no, check out, honestly, as you can hopefully see and listen.
If you're listening, Joel's a lovely bloke
and his content's really, really good, very entertaining,
but keeps it very level-headed.
And yeah, it's not click baity stuff.
It's quite original content.
So yeah, thanks mate, thanks a lot for your time.
Thank you so much.
I know, yeah, you're a family man now.
So it's not as easy as it maybe was a few months ago.
No, but it gives another reason to do it, doesn't it?
So I can't complain.
Exactly, I know this has been really fun.
Thank you so much for having me on my first guest podcast.
Oh, there you go, okay.
I hope you've got time for a beer because unusually,
normally this place closes at four.
Yes.
So until seven and they've got a license.
Oh, yeah.
It's really cold beer now.
That's all we've, that's all you've been thinking about this whole podcast.
Sounds good.
Cool.
Guys, thanks a lot for watching and listening.
We'll see you at another episode very, very soon.
Easy now, easy now.
About this episode
The Drive Torque crew banter about their “easy now” catchphrase and then swap stories from car meets—like getting into an Aston Martin Valkyrie but “couldn't close the roof.” The conversation quickly turns to money pits: buying high-mileage, unreliable luxury cars, and the real-world costs behind YouTube content, financing, and ownership. Along the way, they discuss Michelin sponsorship and a tyre rebate code, plus Autobahn/Nürburgring speed and track-lap experiences.
