Next Alpine sports car, sleeping with the Highway Code
Annotations will appear as you listen
0:00
52:31
Car
Ford Capri
The Ford Capri is a classic car that Ford made, known for its sporty look and feel. It was popular in Europe and aimed to be a fun car without the high price of other sports cars.
Car
Volkswagen Id4
The ID.4 is a new electric SUV from Volkswagen that doesn’t use gas. It’s good for the environment and has lots of space and tech features for drivers.
Car
Nissan Navara
The Nissan Navara is a type of pickup truck that Nissan makes. It's known for being tough and good for both work and outdoor activities.
Brand
JLR
JLR is a company that makes luxury cars and SUVs, including brands like Jaguar and Land Rover. They are known for their high-quality vehicles.
Car
Land Rover Range Rover
The Range Rover is a fancy SUV that can handle tough roads and looks really nice inside. People like it because it’s great for both driving in the city and going off the beaten path.
Car
Range Rover Sport SV
The Range Rover Sport SV is a sportier version of the regular Range Rover Sport, offering better performance and luxury. It's built for people who want a more exciting driving experience while still enjoying the comfort of an SUV.
Concept
suspension
Suspension is what helps your car ride smoothly over bumps and turns. It's the system that connects the car's body to its wheels, making sure you have a comfortable ride.
Car
Jaguar Type
The F-Type is a beautiful sports car from Jaguar that goes really fast and looks amazing. It’s made for people who love to drive and want something special.
Term
Ingenium engine
The Ingenium engine is a type of engine made by Jaguar Land Rover. It is designed to be efficient and light, but some early versions had problems with a part called the timing chain.
Car
Land Defenders
The Defender is a tough SUV that can go almost anywhere, making it perfect for outdoor adventures. It’s built to last and is popular with people who love exploring nature.
Car
Alpine A110
The Alpine A110 is a small sports car that is fun to drive and has a classic look. It's known for being light and quick, making it enjoyable on the road.
Brand
Caterham
Caterham is another British car brand that makes very light and fun sports cars, especially known for a model called the Caterham Seven, which is based on an older design from Lotus.
Brand
Lotus
Lotus is a car brand from the UK that makes lightweight and fast sports cars. They are famous for their good handling and racing history.
Concept
mid-engine
Mid-engine means the engine is placed in the middle of the car, which helps it handle better and be more balanced when driving. It's often found in sports cars for better performance.
Brand
Stellantis
Stellantis is a big car company that makes many different brands of cars, like Jeep and Peugeot. It was created when two companies joined together.
Car
Renault Sport
The Renault Sport Spider is a fun little sports car that’s very light and quick. It’s designed for people who love to drive and enjoy a thrilling ride.
Car
Renault Clio
The Renault Clio is a small car that many people use for city driving. It's known for being easy to park and having good fuel efficiency.
Term
V16 engine
A V16 engine is a very powerful engine that has 16 cylinders. It's designed to make a lot of power and is usually used in fancy or fast cars.
Car
Cadillac V16
The Cadillac V16 is a really old luxury car that had a huge engine with 16 cylinders, making it very powerful. It’s famous for being fancy and is a collector's item today.
Company
Cosworth
Cosworth is a company that makes powerful engines for cars, especially for racing. They are famous for their work in motorsports and have built engines for many well-known car brands.
Car
Aston Martin Valkyrie
The Aston Martin Valkyrie is a super-fast car that combines a powerful engine with electric motors. It's built for speed and performance, making it one of the most advanced cars available.
Term
conrods
Conrods are metal rods in an engine that connect the pistons to the crankshaft. They help turn the up-and-down movement of the pistons into the spinning motion that powers the car.
Term
RPM
RPM means how many times the engine spins around in one minute. Higher numbers mean the engine is working faster and usually producing more power.
Concept
Formula One engines
Formula One engines are super-fast engines used in racing cars. They are built to go really fast but can sometimes break because they work so hard.
Brand
Nissan
Nissan is a car company from Japan that makes many different types of cars. They are well-known around the world and have factories in different countries, including the UK.
Term
horsepower
Horsepower tells you how powerful an engine is. The higher the horsepower, the faster and more powerful the car can be.
Term
power to weight ratio
Power to weight ratio compares how powerful a car's engine is to how heavy the car is. A lighter car with a strong engine will usually be faster and more agile.
Car
Jaguar E-Type
The Jaguar E-Type is a famous sports car from the 1960s known for its sleek looks and speed. Many car enthusiasts admire it for its design and history.
Car
BMW 320
The 3 Series is a small luxury car from BMW that’s fun to drive and feels sporty. It’s popular because it combines comfort with a nice driving experience.
Car
BMW 320d
The BMW 320d is a model of the BMW 3 Series that usually has a diesel engine. It's known for being efficient and good for long trips.
Car
Lamborghini Countach
The Lamborghini Countach is a famous sports car that looks very unique and has doors that open upwards. It's known for being very fast and powerful.
Car
Mercedes-Benz Eclass
The E-Class is a stylish and comfortable car that feels very nice to drive. It has lots of cool features and is great for people who want a luxury experience.
Car
Mercedes-Benz Aclass
The A-Class is a smaller, fancy car from Mercedes that’s great for city driving. It has a nice interior and lots of tech, making it a good choice for younger people.
LIVE
A.C.A.S. powers the world's best podcasts.
Here's a show that we recommend.
Hello hello, it's Brooke DeVard from Naked Beauty.
Join me each week for unfiltered discussion about beauty trends, self-care journeys, wellness
tips and the products we absolutely love and cannot get enough of.
If you are a skincare obsessive and you spend 20 plus minutes on your skincare routine,
this podcast is for you.
Or if you're a newbie at the beginning of your skincare journey, you'll love this
podcast as well because we go so much deeper than beauty.
I talk to incredible and inspiring people from across industries about their relationship
with beauty.
You'll also hear from skincare experts.
We break down lots of myths in the beauty industry.
If this sounds like your thing, search for Naked Beauty on your podcast app and listen
along.
I hope you'll join us.
A.C.A.S.T. helps creators launch, grow and monetize their podcasts everywhere, A.C.A.S.T.
dot com.
Hello and welcome to the AutoCart podcast at My Week in Cars with Pryor, Steve Gropply
over there.
Good morning, Steve.
Good morning, Sport.
How are you?
Very well.
Thank you, mate.
I have to tell the listener about our sponsor, Steve, which is Anderson, the design-led home
electric car charging company, and they have just launched, did you know me, a designer
upgrade event which offers up to £100 off of all premium design options, colors and
facials on their chargers, making it easier for customers to choose a charger that works
for them with a limited time offer that means you can get their premium colors for the Anderson
courts or their special edition wooden and carbon facials, makes those more accessible.
The discount is up to the value of £100 and it ties in with that color swatch service
that we told you about last week, whereas if you go to the website and visit the product
pages, you can request a color swatch and they will send you one and then you can put
it up against your wall and see which one you would like the best.
Very good.
Visit Anderson-EV.com for more details or search Anderson.
They have a concierge service, a seven-year warranty, British designed and made and they'll
look after you.
They will.
On this week's pod, Steve and I are talking our respective AutoCar columns and a bit more
besides, including your correspondence, you can write to us, AutoCar at Haymarket.com.
What letter shall we do?
Maybe Matt from Serbeton who says, question for you both, unless it's been answered before,
which is how do car manufacturers end up rebadging another company's car?
You mentioned the other week that the Ford Capri was a Volkswagen ID4, Mercedes had
the pickup that was a Nissan Ormitsubishi, says Matt, it was a Nissan wasn't it?
It was a Nissan Navarra, is that what they call the pickup?
Yes.
I can understand when they're part of the same overall ownership group like when door
handles or lights are borrowed from a sibling company, but when another manufacturer picks
parts from someone else like a chassis and electronics package, is this a failure to
get there and act together or do they take a shorter term view that they're filling
a gap?
Can it really be worth it from a brand and profit perspective?
It's a bonus question.
Is there an eBay or Amazon for car manufacturers that we don't know about?
Oh, God, I don't know.
Is that where they go?
Is that, you know, they log on and go, could really do with a chassis for my new upcoming
D-segment SUV?
No, I think there's so much cross-fertilization in employment, you know.
Somebody who's worked for Chevrolet goes to work for Daewoo or something, you know, not
Daewoo, but goes to work for Daiatsu.
They just know stuff.
But no, I think, isn't it the case that, I mean, you're the engineer here, mate, but
isn't it the case that manufacturers, I mean, in the case of these Fords, what they want
to do is fill the showrooms, give the dealers something to do, and preferably hopefully
have some service business as well.
So it's just a matter of keeping the pipeline full.
And of course, for the supplier, for the supplier of the raw components, it's economies
of scale things.
So, you know, if you can make 40% more chassis, you can do it cheaper.
Because you'll tell me, the Capri is not built in a Volkswagen factory, presumably.
It's built in a Ford factory, or is that not the case?
I wish I could give you an answer.
This is where, you know, in all the best football commentary, somebody asks a question and the
bloke that doesn't know the answer says, you've just chucked me under a bus.
Sorry, Stephen, I've just thrown you under a bus.
I don't know, but I should find out, because I'm about to write a story about that very
car.
Oh, well, there you go.
Yeah, so Matt, we'll update you on that one, because we'll find out.
But yeah, it's a, is it a recognition that a manufacturer has not pulled its finger out
itself well enough if it's borrowing a chassis wholesale from somebody else?
I suppose it depends if that was the plan in the first place.
Yeah.
It shortens the lead time, presumably, because you don't have to do all the expensive R&D
work.
Yeah, and compliance is, you know, throw it against the wall and so on.
I think, yeah, I think it's, in Ford's case, it's dramatically a reduction of engineering
and testing.
They needed it.
They really needed it, remember?
And actually, I wonder in the case of JLR, because we drove the Type 0-0 prototype the
other week.
And they, speaking to some of the engineers there, they said, well, we looked around at
what we had.
We did not have a platform that worked, which is why they decided to invent an entire new
Jaguar electronic architecture platform for that car themselves.
But I would imagine, Matt, that part of that early conversation is, well, could we borrow
a structure from somebody else that would do it?
In fact, they did say that, didn't they?
They said, we are going to have a look around first.
Yeah.
And the decision came back just because of the Jaguar.
They're going to build very low, very long, long nose.
There was nothing like it.
So they just had to do it themselves.
And as you've said, this week...
What, in my column last week?
Yeah, last week.
Yeah, they've got much more ambition than many people.
Oh, yeah.
Yeah, so, yeah, should we talk that bit of my column from a couple of weeks ago?
Because I don't think we mentioned it in last week's pod in the end, we ran out of time.
But yeah, I wrote a thing saying that JLR is never short of ambition when it comes to
making new cars.
It strikes me that they always, every time I go on a launch and there's something new
to tell us about, you know, with the SVR, Range Rover Sport SV, it was this 6D suspension,
the new, clever, really clever suspension.
And they always keep with a Jaguar Type Zero Zero is like, well, we couldn't really find
anything that works.
So we've invented an entirely new platform and they're not a massive car company in the
great scheme of things.
You know, they sell, what, half a million cars a year and they're a big company sells
10 million cars a year.
But JLR still go, well, what the hell?
Well, we'll do it, you know, and that I wonder, because they don't always finish top of customer
reliability surface.
I wonder if their exposure to things is higher, because if you, if Mercedes Benz
introduce a new engine or and put it in some cars, there may be 10% of their cars are fitted
with that engine.
So if there's something, if there are some niggles, initial niggles with that engine,
well, 90% of their cars aren't affected.
But with JLR, they made the Ingenium engine and early diesel ones have a bit of a propensity
for the timing chains to stretch a bit.
So some people have to go in and open them up and put a new tensioner on and stuff like
that.
That that engine was in loads of their cars.
So it wasn't in 10% of them.
And like my TD five Defender engine, great engine, lovely engine.
Obviously.
So this goes back a long time because that engine was developed in the 80s, 90s, whenever.
I think early ones of those had plastic dowels between the head and the block and they sort
of warped a bit and you could get some head gasket issues, but they replaced them later
on with metal ones, which don't do that.
But at the time, every Defender was fitted with one of those.
And I think, you know, so I admire their ambition.
And sometimes, you know, I think they're I want to how much ambition is right for them.
Yeah, because the reason people like Defenders, people will buy a Range Rover Sport SV is
because they're so good because they're so capable that they then go, well, is it going
to be as trusty as a Toyota?
Well, maybe not, but I love the car so much.
Yeah, yeah, that's certainly the message you hear all the time, isn't it?
That exposure is an issue, I'm sure.
Yeah, yeah, it must put a put a strain on the people doing the pre production testing,
doesn't it? Yeah, it does, doesn't it? Yeah, yeah, it really does.
Yeah, what should we talk about from your column that's in this week's mag?
Let's talk. Oh, you spoke to some bosses from Alpine the other day.
Did you? Yeah, Philip Creef, Philippe Creef.
Three years for the past three years, the boss of Alpine,
his job is to produce seven new cars in seven years.
He's done two and a half of them so far.
OK, the next one is going to be one next two are going to be big car, big, big deal
because next year, they're due to launch the electric A110 sports car and a
long, a longer wheelbase two plus two version of it.
And both coupé and convertible versions of both.
That's a big job.
Well, as a 110 owner, I found myself thinking
I'm going to be confronted with a.
I mean, I don't nothing says I have to buy one,
but that the an electric version of my car is going to be on the market.
And I found myself speculating on whether what it would be like.
And I talked to him about the car.
And it seems to me that the performance, the range, the.
Styling, the accommodation.
Are all going to be improved a bit.
It's going to have a 300 mile range.
It's going to be a nice low.
He says the seating would even better than in my car,
which is find a little bit hard to believe.
But he says it'll be better.
But it'll be electric and it'll he won't have an engine note
and a gearbox and all the rest of it.
And I was just wondering how I would feel about that.
And I I I like the guy and I liked his message.
And I found myself thinking I might give it a go eventually.
Yeah, I think I'd like to let him produce a couple of years worth of them first.
Yes. So do you think the battery pack will not be under your feet
if it's going to have a better driving position than yours?
Apparently it's piled up behind you.
Right.
In a way that we first saw, I don't know if you remember years ago,
Lotus had a cooperation with Caterham, didn't they?
And do you remember that?
They showed a.
Yes, I do remember that.
They showed a car with a with a with a battery
that was in effect to where a mid-engine transverse mid-engined power pack would go.
And that allowed you a bum to be on the floor
and the pedals to be in the correct position and so on.
And that's pretty much what they're aiming at.
And and I like the idea of it because he says the way distribution will be right as well.
So it sounded good.
The Lotus Caterham.
I'm sorry, I've just I've just dived on to the internet as you as you talk about it.
That is not the car that has become the Caterham Project V.
I don't think so.
No, I think that's a different.
It's a different thing machine because the.
Caterham.
In.
God, Caterham got sold, didn't it?
And and it was Tony Fernandez.
I've been for a time.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
When they were in F1 and they had all kinds of ambitions to do all kinds of things.
Yeah, yeah.
And the Alpine was going to be.
Oh, yes.
A cooperation between Stilantis or between.
Tavares and Lotus and it went wrong.
Some of I mean, I'm sure some of that survives
because all the all the stuff about some, you know,
the styling and the size and so on must have stuck around somewhere.
But I think this is this is new work.
So and this Alpine will make any noises?
Not really, I don't believe they may I haven't heard.
I mean, Renault in various Renault Sport cars really quite a while ago.
Do you remember as a Clio that you had a modifiable engine note, for instance?
Yeah, you could select.
You make it sound like a Manks Norton, couldn't you?
Yeah, couldn't. Yes.
Yeah, there was some kind of bike crazy you could make it sound like, couldn't you?
And also like a multi big multi-cylinder via a six of V six, maybe.
Yeah, but yes, I quite fancy the BRM V 16.
You've ever heard that?
Have I heard that?
I must have heard that.
That would be mind you.
I mean, there's no reason you couldn't do it as an aftermarket download bonus,
you know, log on to your phone and download the noise.
If you want to download a new noise for your car, you could do that.
There are various sound files available that allow you to play yourself a BRM V 16.
And of course, there are as well as the cars, the original cars, which were very unreliable.
There have been some sort of tool, tool room replicas now that that's
perfectly reliable and sound just the same.
And they honestly, it's it's a blood curdling noise.
Yeah. And the new Bugatti is going to have a V 16, isn't it?
Yeah. That's it.
Is that Cosworth V 16?
Yeah, I believe so.
That'll be a thing, wouldn't it?
Nine thousand RPM.
Yeah, I keep on thinking how great they are Cosworth, too.
You know, they've done the Murray engine.
They've done the Aston engine and they've done there.
Oh, the Aston for the Valkyrie.
Yeah. And they've done the Bug.
It's pretty good, isn't it?
It's not a bad line up.
I, yeah, I wonder
how much, not that they use any common parts or anything else, I'm sure,
but how much I mean, there must be a lot of shared knowledge when somebody comes in
and says, I want an X cylinder engine that revs to X thousand RPM.
They go, yep, that's OK, we can do that.
We know. Yeah, I'm sure.
Because there's all sorts of weird stuff that I can remember talking years ago
to a bloke at Cosworth called Nick Hayes, who was who was telling me about how
when you when your engine's doing 14 thousand RPM, the Conrods stretch.
So you have to be you have to be careful,
you know, because they come to a halt for a micro nano, what not?
Yeah. Before the reversing direction.
And that puts enormous loads on the pistons, which stretches the Conrods.
And when you design your head, especially your high compression head,
you have to make sure the clearance valve clearance, of course,
allows for the stretch in the Conrods when it's doing 14 thousand RPM.
Isn't that a thing? It is really.
And I mean, I mean, electric motors are simpler.
I think they really sure are.
The other thing I loved about that,
I just love talking about it, was he he always talked about the problems
with granating formula one engines being that they always let go under load
and they're always pulling a huge number of RPM.
So let's say they explode at 15 grand just to stop in one second.
Is hundreds of maybe thousands of cycles.
So, of course, whatever you see inside,
you aren't going to open it up and see a sort of crack in a piston.
You're just going to see because that was several thousand revs ago.
Yeah. So it's just going to be a lot of shrapnel. Yeah.
Amazing.
I presume you have to design an engine like that to be a bit shrapnel proof
because you wouldn't want to kill anyone, would you?
Oh, yeah, I don't.
Yeah, what do you do?
I don't know the story about Graham Hild blowing an engine one time.
I think on a starting grid and having bits go down
down the collar of his driving suit, you know, back.
I fancy that.
I don't fancy that.
I mean, yeah, I mean, like, well, 9000 RPM is
well, I'll work it out in a minute, but that is an astonishing number
of times a second that the crankshaft is turning around, isn't it?
So I mean, 9000 divided by 60.
So it's 150 times a second that cranks going around at 9000 RPM.
So even if it's unthinkable, it is.
And all that gas flowing so quickly and all those valves opening
in a piston behaviour of the piston rings, the behaviour of the lubricant.
It's it's when you when you just try and visualise it, you can't.
No, no.
And that is 150 years, whatever it is, of internal combustion development,
isn't it? Yeah, extraordinary.
Who might be building cars in the UK?
Well, there are various people.
This I picked up on a story that Robert Lee in The Times ran.
And he was talking about three opportunities for
I'm trying to think who they are, Cherry and JLR.
And another couple, somebody working with Mini.
And what the hell was the other one?
There are three of them anyway that that.
That could.
Do deals that that.
Take up unused manufacturing space in the UK and that what that would do is.
Bump up the number of cars made here from 600,000 odd to 1.3 million
or something or up 80 percent, I think, which is a government target, isn't it?
They want a million plus 1.2 million cars built in the UK by whatever it is.
2030, 2035, something like that.
But they just like a.
But the thing that's great, of course, is that.
As we know, for every line worker, there are, you know, a dozen elsewhere in the system.
Yeah, make parts and, you know, provide services and so on.
So suddenly, if you if you can make that kind of massive increase in production,
you're obviously making life better for a lot of associated industries.
And Robert Lee, smart guy, have you met him?
Is it really? No, I don't know.
I don't think thoroughly good bloke knows everything.
Yeah.
He says there'll be people who sort of take a grim view of the fact
that the Chinese might be the ones that rescue the British motor industry.
Yeah, which I which I which I understand.
I have sympathy with that viewpoint to an extent in the same way that I slightly
resent my train fares, the profits from those going to the German taxpayer
because that's who owns my local train company.
I think that's a shame and the water.
Yeah, I think that I know.
I think that's something to get the water done.
But by the point he makes is that had we had the same qualms
about the Japanese rescuing our industry 30 years ago,
we wouldn't have an industry to be rescued.
So which is also a very fair point.
So, yes, JLR has been talking to Cherry,
proposed potential of Nissan and Dongfeng in Sunderland
and Mini and Great Wall in Oxford.
Great Wall already makes minis in China, doesn't it?
So it is I think they make the mini electric in China already.
So it's so it's not as if these things are not happening really.
And you know what?
Nobody seemed to think it was an awful idea when.
The European manufacturers were building cars in China.
No. And now suddenly you think, oh, hang on a minute.
This is yeah.
Well, also, you know, who is it offering the opportunity
to the Chinese in Sunderland?
It's Nissan, you know, Nissan.
I mean, well established in Britain, but not a British company.
But not a British company either. No.
So it's also mixed up that I think to be stiff necked about
is difficult. Yeah. Yeah.
I think what to me, I mean, probably too political for this.
But but to me, it's about the advantage of having jobs for people who live here.
Yeah. And that, you know, if my neighbour got a better job
than he might have had, then good luck to him.
And some of those cars will be exported anyway.
So I mean, we said 80 percent now, don't we?
Europeans might not like it.
But there it is. Well, you know, they build cars, too.
So it's all. Yes, it all works out.
Do we know how likely these things are to happen
or how advanced any talks are or anything like?
I believe the the the JLR cherry talks have been in the news.
And the, as you say, there was already a link between
BMW and Great Wall. Great Wall.
Yeah. So I don't I don't think it's pie in the sky at all.
And the thing we know is that the Chinese, in order to
hurdle the various barriers that have been put up across Europe,
the Chinese need to manufacture locally or nearby to to beat the tariffs
Yeah, that would make Chinese branded cars.
Would it make them even cheaper or are the manufacturing costs higher here?
But the tariffs are lower.
I don't know. It's interesting that I think it.
Because one of the reasons that some manufacturers say that
I've had MDs of European car companies say to me, they say,
you know, we can't sell. I can't sell cars at that price.
I can't match that price because we can't build on that cheaply.
If a Chinese branded car is built here, does that mean it doesn't have
the price advantage baked in or not?
It's an interesting question, isn't it?
The thing that the Europeans are in the process of doing is agreeing
minimum prices at them, I mean, instead of tariffs.
Right.
So the prices of cars sold in prices of Chinese cars
sold in Europe will go up anyway.
Right.
So I suppose from the Chinese point of view,
the thing that is great is that you are at least in control of the of events.
You know, you're not waiting for somebody to say, you know,
those 15 percent tariffs we told you about 30 percent from Tuesday.
Not not so good.
No.
Interesting times.
Oh, mate.
Unless there is their room, is their capacity ending British factories?
I believe so. Yeah. Yeah.
That's that was Robert's point that there are.
There are good factories that could could do this.
And, you know, the other thing that British industry is good at,
British retail industry is distribution and and, you know, dealer support
and all that sort of stuff. So.
Yeah. Everybody tells you that everybody that doesn't doesn't live here.
It tells you that the the British structure car
just retailing structure is is very good, sophisticated, advanced.
Really? Also good, you know, good at getting rid of swappers.
You know, somebody brings in a car and it disappears into the system pretty well.
So.
So.
Sounds it sounds plausible to me.
So it really sounds really plausible.
And I think Robert felt the same to judge by story.
Shall we take a short commercial break,
which is basically me, listener, telling you about Anderson E.V.
Our sponsors sponsor, fine sponsors of this podcast.
The British designed, made, distributed.
They have an excellent concierge service, seven year warranty,
and they have a designer upgrade event at the moment, offering up to 100 pounds
off of all premium design options, colors and faces.
This is a post Christmas do, isn't it?
Because they had a deal before Christmas, didn't they?
They had the running up to the end of January,
they had their 100 pound
five thousand three miles with intelligent octopus go tariff.
And this is now, yeah, this is now the latest time limited
time limited offer, which is up to 100 pounds off premium design options
for the Anderson courts and their special edition, wooden and carbon facias.
Yes, choose a charger that works for you with a limited time offer.
So basically, if you if you choose a an
an extra on your charger, extra color, extra finish,
then you can save 100 pounds off of that.
You know, the I was saying that I've failed to ring them up and get
sensible concierge advice about my own electric arrangements.
Oh, I think I'm chucking away money.
Well, the steering committee is now on it.
Oh, really?
She has it has come to her attention that we are jointly chucking away money
on the charge of cars.
So I think something will happen rather soon as she discovered
that by listening to this podcast or just in general conversation.
I think I think in general conversation.
But I think somebody who listens to the podcast has spoken to her about.
I see. I see. I see.
She works with some people who believe it or not listen to us.
Well, who knew? Who knew?
Hello to them.
Also, hello to AutoCart at Haymarket dot com.
Our correspondents, Steve Singleton writes.
Why are we allowing and why do we need any cars with a thousand horsepower
on public roads, let alone jaguars with circa double the power to weight ratio
of an original E type in a blockier package, let alone companies that have
received significant taxpayer support in various forms?
Is it it is not just top speeds and tarmac challenging talk?
It is otherworldly acceleration, the compressed timescales of which are still
subjected to unchanged human reaction times.
If you suddenly come off the accelerator and who has not seen an EV being
show boated off traffic lights in the grownup world, who needs any car
with more than 250 horsepower?
Speaking of somebody who's driven to from Southampton to Venice in a BMW 320
D across the Alps and in winter, answers, please, says Steve.
Well, it's a fair question.
It is a fair question, but also who's to say that?
Who's to say where the limit is and who's to say which cars are allowed at
which cars aren't? Yeah.
Because. Do we complain about a thousand horsepower Ferrari or Lamborghini or Lotus?
No, and it is it's a really funny thing about really powerful cars, even if you
don't nobody they don't have to be driven at the limit to be appreciated.
I feel I mean, you know this better than me because, you know, think of the cars
you've been in lately, I mean, the Jag and the Ferrari for a start.
So I. I mean, you're right, Steve, it's that is a ruling a line.
I don't really approve of that, you see, and they must think that they can
sell the cars better by having high outputs and that's life.
Yeah, I mean, there are there are markets and there are circumstances.
If you go on to a racetrack and some people do go to track days in cars and
some people go to the auto barn where you can do high speeds and that's OK.
And that gives you really worthwhile, you know, lots of power, gives you big
acceleration above normal motorway speeds.
That's the thing.
Then but but I mean, who who is there to decide what you could what you could
have for what is that what is sociable and what's not anti-social.
And. Yeah, I don't want anybody.
I just I don't know.
Yeah, I don't know.
Also, you know, I'm sure it's even happened to me.
And I remember the first time I ever drove goes back in ancient history,
four hundred and fifty five horsepower Lamborghini to Countach laps around
Castle, Coon and the car was so good and I was feeling good that day.
And I remember thinking if only it had a little bit more poke and that was
fairly like car in modern terms.
So, you know, that would probably equate to a seven or eight hundred
horsepower EV by now with less grip, mind you.
So. Yeah, and and less.
Less, well, most of them are less secure handling than a car by any stretch.
Yeah, no electronics to protect you and no power steering and all the stuff.
So. I think I think we need to drive.
Well, I can't remember a car lately that I felt was, you know,
ridiculously overpowered.
I just I just like them when they go a bit.
And that's the other question.
Are there actually any more accidents with cars becoming more powerful?
I don't think I don't think there are.
No, the statistics would suggest not really.
No. But it'd be interesting to know if there are more traffic like exiting round
about exiting problems with thousand horsepower cars than they were with five
hundred or three hundred.
Well, I think we've had the equivalent of these things in motorcycles for a long
time, haven't we?
You remember the the the superbike for 20 years,
it they the magazines gave up measuring
naught to 60 times because it was always two point something for all of them.
Yeah. And it was just a matter of whether you could hang on.
And you and I both had some experience of those bikes.
And the thing is, the event is over.
It you can't you can't use the poke for very long.
It's just an experience.
So but I think your central point is the is the best.
I don't want somebody sitting in in a high seat somewhere saying,
you know, you can have eight hundred and twenty five, but you can't have eight
hundred and fifty.
I just don't want it.
No, I'm not sure I want that.
And because I don't know.
I just don't like the idea of well, I don't like being told what to do.
But you know, I mean, but I but I but who would who makes that rule?
Who decides it's right?
Who decides what's acceptable and what's not?
Because we've all got on a sliding scale of what we think is OK.
And that's with anything with what time we think it's OK to make noise in town.
You know, what what how many dog walkers we think should use a path?
How many, you know, what access your party is on Saturday night?
We've all got a sliding scale of where we think things are OK and things are not OK.
And most of us are probably in some bell curve in the middle.
But actually, you might get somebody going.
No, I don't I don't think you should do that.
And they their their point on the scale might be a long way off of other people.
So I think, I don't know. I just.
Yeah, there is the short of it, Steve, is that I think probably Steve Singleton
who needs any more car of more than 250 horsepower?
Nobody needs it, but that's OK.
Who needs a house with more bedrooms than there are people?
But yeah, they do.
And who needs a better car than a Hyundai i10 as we well.
Well, I'm glad you said that, Steve.
Actually, that's my that's my column in this week's Mac, actually.
I got a letter. I got a letter.
I got a text from a friend of mine the other day.
Hello, Barry, saying,
boy, you've driven some nice cars recently.
I've just got in a Hyundai i10 courtesy car.
Yeah, and he was envious of what I've been driving.
So I've been driving that Jaguar Type Zero Zero plus the Ferrari 849
Testerosa videos and reviews on the auto car listener.
If you head over there.
Part two has started, by the way, Steve.
Good. The and I thought,
well, I'm quite envious of you, actually, Barry, because an i10 is amazing.
It was based under a ton, 3.6 meters long, under 1.8 meters wide.
And I'll bet that's a hoot.
Can't carry forward else.
Can't carry forward.
That's a fantastic gear shift, isn't it?
And a little willing engine, revvy engine.
Hurl it around the nearest roundabout.
That would be terrific.
I was quite envious of him because there is no.
I've yet to find the more and more I thought about it.
I've yet to find.
A car that I wouldn't prefer if it was lighter.
And I still don't.
There's no lower limit.
I was trying to think, what is the optimum likeness of car?
And I'm not sure I've got there yet.
Well, in your column, you've talked about the the the.
The single seater, the monoposto car, the light car company rocket.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, which is three eighty five, three eighty five.
Yeah, yeah. Love it.
Yeah. And actually, I mean, that probably I didn't I didn't drive it
thinking, oh, it needs to be lighter.
But I think if somebody said, oh, we've taken 20 kilos out of it, I'd go, oh, great.
Yeah. Actually, it doesn't.
We've put a slightly torqueier, lower revving.
Engine in it and that's so five, ten kilos.
I go, yeah, terrific.
That'd be that sounds great.
But that I really enjoyed that lack of inertia about that whole car.
And I just, yeah, I like that in most things.
I think that just that easy to propel feeling that you that you get
between naught and 20 miles an hour.
It's a really lovely feeling.
And it's just just feels like ease.
It feels efficient, too, doesn't it? Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Three years ago, I did that road trip to Ireland
and drove up the Wild Atlantic Way in a Kierpacanto.
And I was wondering, actually, would I if somebody offered me the keys
right now to the to the I-10, the Jaguar or the 849
for some of those stretches of road and go, well, it's,
you know, that stretch of road, it's quite bumpy.
It's quite twisty. Yeah. It's it's quite narrow.
Which of these cars are you going to take down it?
I mean, it probably is the Ferrari.
But but it's not it's not a ludicrous idea to think actually
a small lightweight hatchback would be more fun than a.
Yeah. And then you pull into some market town
and there's a there's a little parking space
and you just leave the car with impunity.
Yeah. I think that stuff is undervalued.
It's not. Well, put it this way,
the Ferrari isn't a isn't a sort of 20 times better choice.
No, exactly. Yeah. According to the money.
Yeah, you would not be having 20 times more fun.
And in fact, there may be occasions when you're having
or maybe not in a maybe not in a basic city car.
But if you just had a good handling, a hot hatchback.
There are roads, I think, on when it would be better than a lot of supercars.
It's helpful, isn't it, to have to have this experience of cars like this,
because you can you can say this stuff.
You know, you somebody who only knows an I-10
presumes that they're not they're not having an optimal experience,
but they actually are in many ways.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, having a really good time of it.
Yeah. Yeah.
We talked a bit of a sort of fantasy
five car dream garage or whatever.
Yeah, I don't know whether I don't know how many
top level supercars I'd have in mind. No, really.
No, I think it would be one for me and it would be.
I think it would be a car that I was that I felt a really close association with.
And that would be either Ferrari BB or a Lamborghini Countach.
That's my that's my era when I.
Neither of them are very good,
but, you know, in modern terms, but they sound lovely and they still go a bit.
But, you know, not I'd be I'd be driving around in little cars.
So the 512 or Countach, what's it going to be?
I think it would be I think it would be the original Lamborghini Countach,
as long as it had been
titivated by somebody who really knew what they were doing,
because those cars were not in some ways they weren't finished.
They were they were hand built, you know, and.
You know, they did their best at the time.
But I think if it had been to a person who knew the foibles and had ironed them out,
I think an LP 400 from about 1973 or somewhere.
Yeah. That would do me fine. What about you?
I I don't know.
I think I might I've not driven.
I've not driven either a BB or a Countach, and I would love to.
But I did drive a mirror and I just couldn't get comfortable.
Oh, no, it's it's a bit of a better than that.
A lot. Oh, OK, OK.
I think a mirror is is a curiosity.
It's a is a museum piece that isn't made to go in it.
Well, somebody will fight me on this.
But honestly, it isn't made to go anywhere.
Whereas I think as long as you're prepared to put your.
Smalls in the footwell of the of the of the car,
you would be able to take your your fit Countach around a place.
Oh, OK. Oh, that may. Yeah, that makes a difference.
But even that's a problem because of reasons we've discussed before.
You can't reverse without sitting on the stills and looking and
and you certainly can't you can't see out of it either.
And it's pretty wide and yeah.
So it'd be a curiosity for me.
They're such a shape, aren't they, Countach?
I think so.
And they were they were the poster for me.
They were my poster car growing up.
So I think I've got a big soft spot for it.
I still look at that the shape of that rear wheel arch.
I remember discussing I went to see Gandini himself
when he was an old bloke in his house in Italy.
And I tried to discuss why it was such a exotic shape.
And he didn't really have a reason.
It just came out like that.
He said, did he have a well designed house?
Yes. Oh, come on. Yeah.
It was a God, I've forgotten where it was now.
But it was it was, yeah, real one of those places with
lots of sort of outdoor sitting areas with lots of vines
that you could sit under and with a glass of plonk, discussing cars and so on.
And he now he seemed a contented bloke to me.
Yeah, I'd be intrigued to see more designers' houses, I think.
Yeah, I'd be. Yeah, what?
What, you know, Lawrence van den Acker, what sort of house does he live in?
I'd love to know that.
Because there must.
When that's your when that is your stock,
you must think to yourself, well, I am people like people I know.
Will judge me a bit over where I live.
Yeah, if you're a designer.
Oh, it's a statement for sure. Yeah.
No, I agree. I think it I think you very much is.
Yeah.
Puts a bit of load on you, doesn't it?
And probably requires you to spend a bit more.
That's the thing.
Yeah, if you have to spend more than you otherwise might want to on, you know,
if I don't know, you know, you can't buy.
You presumably can't buy any old toaster.
You know, you can't have any naff old kettle
because somebody will come in and go, did you know the chief designer or so?
And so he's got the same kettle as me and it's just this rubbish one
I bought off of the Internet, you know.
And you've got to stick to the black t-shirts, too, can't you?
Because you can't be can't be found wearing Marks and Spartans.
I did sit next to a designer at dinner the other day
and he was wearing a black roll neck underneath underneath his suit.
Excellent.
And can't remember because we were sitting down.
I can't remember what footwear he was wearing,
whether he was a trainers or shoes kind of guy.
I think he was a shoes kind of guy.
But designer of the exterior of the Ferrari eight four nine.
Do you like that car?
I do. Yeah, I do.
Yeah, I do. I'm not sure everybody does, but I sort of quite do.
It's it's it's a bit it's a bit chunky, isn't it better?
But I'm always amazed that they can give these cars
continue to give these cars different characters
because because you are talking about.
Very similar windscreen rake, very similar,
you know, greenhouse dimensions,
same height off the road for the bonnet and all that.
You know, it's.
Same difficulties with sorting out the headlights.
Yeah, yeah, I don't think it's straight.
I don't think it's a totally straightforward thing to do.
Engine's in the middle. You've got two seats.
There's only so many.
There's only so many shapes in the world.
Yeah, so I think don't try and add six inches to it, you know,
because some engineer will tell you it's not possible.
Yeah, so I think, yeah, and that, you know,
when they're sitting down with their
dynamicists as well, and they're saying it's not going to work
if you want 400 kilos of downforce at 150 miles an hour,
that shape won't work. That shape will work to then design a car
that looks good and looks unlike others.
I'm not sure that's the easiest job in the world.
No, no, no, especially and nowadays,
which is all the ingress, egress and, you know, pedestrian protection.
Yeah, pedestrian impact protection.
When you want a low, when you want a low wedgie nose and somebody goes,
yeah, that's fine. But if you run into somebody's ankles,
you've got to not break them. Yeah.
Every time I see it online somewhere,
some car that has rear-ended another car and some people in the comments
will be going, oh, my goodness, look how look how well the rear end of that.
Fiat Cincacento has stood up against the latest Mercedes E-Class.
And you think, yeah, that's not that's not that's nothing to do
with the relative strength of those cars.
That's the fact that the front of that car has to disintegrate into a million
tiny pieces. Yeah. And if it doesn't, it's illegal.
Yeah, exactly. Yeah.
Somebody drove into the back of a long time ago,
back of my father-in-law's car.
He had a Mercedes A-Class.
I can't remember what the car that ran at the back of it was,
but it did very little damage to the back of his A-Class
and completely muller to the front of the car in front of him
because they're just made to fall apart.
And yeah, having to make a supercar low, wedgy,
angry looking and then also deform.
Can't put headlights lower than a certain bit.
You know, you've got to buy it.
It's hard. Yes.
And I, yeah, I like elements of that car very much.
And there's also these, you know, things like if you make it too
wheel arches too low, somebody starts shouting about not having enough
wheel travel, not being able to fit big enough wheels and tires.
And it's hard. It's really hard.
Yeah. The Coontash.
I had a book when I was growing up that I read a lot by Peter
drawn about the Coontash.
If somebody wanted to write a motoring book today, Steve,
what should they do?
Well, I think they could do a hell of a lot worse than contact.
Well, go along to a
a an organization called the Michael Sedgwick Trust,
the Michael Sedgwick Heritage Trust.
I've gotten the Michael Sedgwick Memorial Memorial Trust.
Michael Sedgwick was a most accomplished writer of both magazine
and book copy, much missed, died a while ago.
And he this trust that it was set up in his name
helps new authors write motoring books.
And they are they happen to be having an event soon.
Which is going to be held in the Haggerty
Clubhouse at Bista Heritage.
I've forgotten the date, but you'll have it.
Saturday, March the 21st.
And the Ray Hutton, who's a former editor of Auto Car,
is now the chairman of this organization.
Good. He is.
So he's assembled a load of.
Successful authors already.
And this this event is called Meet Our Authors.
So you can go along if you just got an idea, you can go along
and participate in the discussion or just listen.
I think that as well as giving wise advice,
if they like your idea enough, the the trust may even
give you some sort of help to get it published.
Oh, interesting.
And one of the at this meeting, I believe there are going to be
publishers there because, you know, there are, as we know,
specialist motoring publishers.
And these people are always looking for ideas.
So it's a real hotbed of of endeavor.
I I've never had much of an ambition to write a book,
but I I did go to one of their events and I really enjoyed it.
And it's very interesting to hear a publisher of motoring books
talk about what their issues are, you know, size, cost, volume,
cover design, all sorts of things.
So, you know, making predictions about what might.
What might sell and what might not is it's sort of life and death
to them and they have to be right.
Yeah, I'll be really intrigued to know.
Yeah, that's some of that stuff.
Yeah, yes, three to six p.m.
on Saturday, the 21st of March at the Haggerty Clubhouse at Bistam Motion.
Well-known authors like Giles Chapman, David Knowles, Michael Edwards,
Ian Magstaff and Paul Skilleter are already confirmed.
It's 12 pounds.
If you go to michaelsejwicktrust.co.uk, that will have.
And Ray himself, Ray Hutton himself is is passionate about this.
He's he's also an author.
He has published, you know, various books himself.
And it's just it can be very helpful to talk to these people.
Giles Chapman, who we know well, worked here for a good long time.
He he's very helpful bloke.
So yeah, well worth a visit.
Might even go myself if I have the time.
But not to get ideas for a book.
No, I think well, we're busy, aren't we?
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, we've got enough writing to do.
Yes, let's.
Well, who has narrated an audio version of a book?
I was just idly looking at my computer
and in a pops this picture of Vicki Butler Henderson,
the well known, you know, car hack.
Yeah, not quite sure who she's connected with, but she's had
you've got various television connections and rights in the press and so on.
She has produced a version of the.
Road, the Highway Code
and and recorded it as a as a bedtime story.
And the picture is of her lying in bed,
wearing this God awful pair of pajamas that look like
look like her dad's pajamas, stripy red pajamas.
Anyway, the thing is you can find this thing on online, you know.
And it's for free and and you can just listen to it.
And the story goes that if if you play it,
even while you're asleep, the information is supposed to somehow
find its way into your bonds. Oh, really?
I don't know. I've heard this before, that that you can learn things without.
Without being awake at the time.
But anyway, VBH has done this and I haven't heard it, but I intend to.
And I would love to know if anybody looks it up
and finds it interesting or effective, I'd love to hear from from from a reader.
Yeah, I mean, it's presumably not just.
Rule two point three point one.
No, I presume not. I think it must be conversational.
Yeah. You know, you'll be interested in this bit here, you know, blah, blah, blah.
But but I mean, she's got the right voice for it, I think.
And yeah, and, you know, she's also got the right sense of humour for it.
Oh, yeah, she's great fun. Yeah, she's she's terrific.
Well, that I might listen to that, mate,
because it's been a long time since I've read the Highway Code.
Yeah, I'll admit. And I'm sure there are changes since last time.
I try and keep abreast of it.
But, you know, but there may have been changes since last time I updated myself.
It will be, right?
She says that.
Um, that there's changes all the time.
But she also says the justification for doing this is that the Highway Code
is sleep inducing.
So the thinking is that if you if you sort of commenced to play it
and then flake out, it'll it'll find its way into your head anyway.
Yeah. And by the next morning, your commute will be that much more
with much better self-control and leg discipline and everything else.
And you'll get away to pedestrians at T-junctions and everything.
How long does it take to stop from 60 miles an hour?
And you'll be able to say, yeah, 242 feet.
Yeah, I did. Do you know your I don't know my stopping distances?
I will admit.
I have a I have a closer idea because I was talking to Keith Jones the other day.
Hello, Keith, about some of the data that he's putting together.
Oh, yes.
And we were talking stopping distances from 30 miles an hour.
And I have a feeling some cars stop in like eight meters or something like that,
which is pretty brisk, isn't it?
Yeah, pretty good. Yeah.
Yeah, anyway, I digress.
That brings us just about to the end of this week's podcast,
unless we have any other business, as they say, in important meetings
of the like that we don't go to.
No, Swerveham, Swerveham.
Yeah, no, I think we probably done.
I think so. I think so.
Yeah, it's just it falls on me to remind you, listener, about the
designer upgrade event that Anderson is offering at the moment.
If you can hear some shenanigans in the background,
I think somebody's moving some cars around in the car park outside.
We are in the automotive storeroom again.
We're back in our favorite place.
The designer upgrade event from Anderson offers up to 100 pounds off
of all premium design options, colors and facials.
They're making it easier for their customers to choose a charger that works
for them with a limited time offer that makes the premium colors for the Anderson
courts and the special edition wooden and carbon facials even more accessible.
The discount is up to 100 pounds.
Visit Anderson dash E V dot com for more details.
Visit the AutoCar archive for loads of top stories on that.
Do you want to say anything about how we are going to have a bit of a series of?
Oh, yeah. Why don't I? Yeah, why don't I?
So the bonus podcast, AutoCar Meets, there is one that has just gone.
It's up now, which is James Atwood talking to a Nissan chief designer.
But on the days, the weekends that we don't have the bonus
AutoCar Meets podcasts, Steve and or I are going to be talking to somebody
from the AutoCar team about some story that they have recently written
and or some of your correspondent, some more of your correspondence,
too, because a lot more letters reach the magazine than we have the time
to read out on this podcast.
So those bonus episodes will be not just industry people, but AutoCar people too.
Yeah, be good, I think.
Because we, you know, our our powers will get a chance to say what their jobs
like, too, weren't they? You know, I think it'll be very interesting.
We've got some some great people, haven't we?
Yeah, yeah. So this weekend coming in three days time, Will Rimmel,
our news editor, has been in America seeing the interior of the new electric Ferrari.
And he has spoken to Johnny Ive, who is the former Apple designer
who has designed the inside and outside, I think, of that car.
So we'll be talking to him.
Actually, we're going to talk to him in about half an hour, aren't we,
Steve and I, and that will be on this pod.
I think there'll be half hour episodes, no more than that, and they will run.
Ideally, every Saturday, unless we run out of puff and run out of time.
But that will be the plan is that every Saturday there will be a bonus episode.
And if it's not an interview with industry exec, it will be us chatting
to somebody from here about something interesting.
All right. Meantime, thanks for joining us.
See you next week.
Cheers, mate.
ACAS powers the world's best podcast.
Here's the show that we recommend.
La Brega is back.
This season, we're spending time with the people and symbols that represent Puerto Rico.
We're proud bodiquas and what does that mean?
And we are still in a fight.
We're telling stories about champions from a place worth fighting for,
stories that will inspire you no matter where you're from.
This is La Brega Campeones.
Listen early and add free with Fupuro Plus.
ACAS helps creators launch, grow and monetize their podcasts everywhere.
acas.com
About this episode
Discussion revolves around the future of Alpine sports cars, particularly the upcoming electric A110. The hosts dive into the challenges and ambitions of Alpine's leadership, including plans for seven new models in seven years. They also explore the complexities of car manufacturers rebadging vehicles and the implications for brand identity and engineering. The conversation touches on the balance between innovation and reliability, especially in the context of Jaguar Land Rover's ambitious projects and how they manage engineering risks.
Original notes
In the latest episode of the Autocar podcast, My Week In Cars, Steve Cropley and Matt Prior talk Alpine's future sports car, motoring books, going to sleep with the Highway Code, lightweight cars, JLR' reliability, and much more including your correspondence.
Make sure you don't miss an Autocar podcast by subscribing wherever you get your podcasts, and if you'd be willing to rate and review and share this pod, we'd appreciate it more than you know. too.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
0:00
52:31