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A master murderer.

Israel Keys lives between two worlds.

There's the person that everybody knows and loves, and then there's the guy who spends

every waking hour planning on how he's going to kill someone.

On mind of a monster, the cross-country killer, we find out how this deadly predator

went unnoticed for so long.

I've had some confessions in my history, but nothing to that detail.

I'll give it blow by blow if you want.

Listen to Mind of a Monster, the cross-country killer, wherever you get your podcasts.

Hello, and welcome to the AutoCard podcast.

My Week in Cars with Pry here.

Steve Cropby over there.

Hello, Steven.

How are you going, mate?

Very well.

Thank you, mate, because I need to tell the listener about the fact that we've teamed

up with a sponsor called Anderson EV.

Do you know that, Steve?

Yeah, I reckon it's just about sort of got through the bonds by now.

Yeah.

Well, they're an all-British company that makes and sells top-quality

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Steve, we've had a letter, so we've had a few letters.

Thank you, listener, various listeners.

John Stubberfield says, I've been listening to your pod and I think it more

important than weird number plates is the current trend for running cars on the

road without wings or mudguards, mostly pre-war cars, but some recent specials.

I'm sure this is illegal and dangerous.

Some people worry about racing numbers left on cars being driven on the public

highway, so sort of vintage racing cars and things like that.

Yeah, you're supposed to put it.

But turn a blind eye to this problem, nothing to do with some of the high

ranking members of various clubs doing this, I'm sure.

It would do immense harm to the vintage scene if there would be a serious

injury to an innocent person that could be blamed on open wheels.

They got that off my chest, says John Stubberfield.

Yeah, I think his concern is pedestrians, hitting pedestrians.

I think he's got two problems.

One is hitting pedestrians, which you could easily do.

And I think a nice cycle guard does tend to fend them off of it.

But also what these unfettered guards tend to do is launch a lot of junk

into the atmosphere, particularly on muddy roads or and so on.

I must say, do you remember there was a there was a make of TVR varied

towards the end of TVR's rain and it had holes in the mudguards.

And when you went, if it rained, all this tremendous amount of crap used

to come up through the through the bodywork and lob on the windscreen.

It was amazing. I did not know that.

So it turns out hold in there to reduce high pressure in the.

Yeah, as some cars do, they have a little some some vents to reduce

it was the pressure in the wheel in the wheel arch area.

Yeah. But it just let stuff out.

Yeah. And when that John's letter arrived, I must say, I I thought of that

immediately because it is if you have an experience that you kind of

don't realize how much rubbish is chucked into the atmosphere, both on

your car and other people's by cars without guards.

But I think his problem is also, you know, people being hit by,

you know, and perhaps not, you know, mudguard would fend

the actual wheel damage off.

Yeah, you could get tangled in an unguarded wheel in a way you wouldn't

with one with a gun.

Presumably, if it was legal at the time, it still is now.

But the argument, yeah, I believe so.

But but a lot of people take license.

So I think it's only the cars around about World War One.

Right. That were legitimately allowed to do it.

And I think mudguards came along pretty quickly.

Remember, I had a Model T speedster and that

even that couch, I think was nineteen seventeen or something.

That was was required by law to have mudguards.

In fact, there were I think there were three things.

A horn could be a sort of mechanical type of a single rear vision mirror

and mudguards really with the three specifications.

That was the kind of design rules of the time of the time.

Didn't need to have a speedometer at the time.

No.

That's very cool. Take a year.

Do you miss the Model T?

I do. It's I sort of do.

Although I didn't use it as much as I should have done.

It's just like, you know, what it's like owning cars in our job.

You you you know, there's always something you should be driving

for the purposes of a story.

But it was I had some high times in it.

And it was a really surprisingly good car.

And I learned to love the Model T.

I bought it because Goodwin and I once drove from the centre of London,

auto cars officers in nineteen thirteen

to the Geneva show.

So we drove across Europe in a 1913 brass radiator Model T.

And I was so impressed by the car

and its capability for the time that had to have one.

And it was good. It was good.

Yeah.

Brilliant.

You have also never owned an Aston Martin.

No. Is that all right?

Or tell me how you feel about them at the moment.

Well, I I suppose because I came up through

the era when Aston Martins were pretty poor.

You know, quite crummy

running gear and not very well developed.

I didn't have the usual worship for them that some people did.

Only really after the DB nine did they.

Well, DB seven to some extent.

But the DB nine did they become pretty good.

And so I've my my respect for them is I'm a late developer.

But I went to this event, Gaiden, on the weekend,

which was the AMOC Aston Martin, known as clubs,

90 year birthday, I think.

And there were just some really nice cars for sale.

They're the ones that I liked with the van.

Inevitably the cheap ones.

But the I think one of the best looking

Aston's ever is a V8 Vantage, a little car.

This sort of 2005.

Yeah, four points, really to V8 so related to the Jag V8.

They every, you know, how people always claim

that they're different when they're quite similar.

But anyway, do you know how similar they are?

No, but I think I presume there's

I mean, all the block stuff, bore centres and so on will be the same.

And I think the four point the thing they call the four point three.

Which was the original Vantage V8 engine, I think,

was what Jaguar called a four point two.

I see. So block wise they would be.

Yeah, pretty similar.

I think there were, you know, there were some valve gear changes.

And I bet you the electronics were configured differently.

That's always the the fig leaf these days, isn't it?

Because you can make an engine feel fairly different.

Just changing the electronics.

But I think they're, you know, good engines, no doubt.

I had one. I had a long term or a four point three.

And I foolishly took it back to work service.

Do you remember, they were in Newport Pagano to get just because it needed a service.

And some customer was wandering around there, saw my car

and went to the sales guys and said, I want a car like that.

I want a car like that.

I want that car.

And they said, oh, OK, we can find you one.

And he said, no, I want that car.

So I got the car back from service and in came the phone

called two or three days later saying, we need your car back now, mate.

Very sorry. We need it back as soon as we as soon as is possible.

Yeah. Yeah.

But and the other car I like is is the

repeat the four door, which is an extended DB nine.

I've got some sentimental attachment to it

because I went on an engineering proving trip to Dubai one time.

And they were they were developing the air con.

And we were desperate to to go out for up in on a day when it was 50 degrees outside.

We finally managed to attain 50 degrees outside air temperature.

That would have this is always engineers cheering in the car because it's so hot.

It was perfectly all right.

Yeah. A bit tight in there.

But I managed to get in the back.

Yeah. So there were four seats, weren't they?

They were because the transmission

run tunnel ran through the middle in quite a big fashion.

As they got a transaxle. Yeah, yeah.

Books at the back or not.

I can't remember.

But it was it was well separated left and right sides of the of the cabin.

Yeah. Very big divider down the middle.

Yeah. With a bit with a sort of individual seats for passengers, weren't they?

But but comfortable, not not over, you know, tight.

But but all right, yeah.

Another. Is the phrase good value?

The phrase I'm thinking cheap. Yeah.

Oh, they cheap enough.

Are they quite cheap? They are.

Well, I think so.

I mean, I was talking to some bloke who said you can get a fit car for

upwards of 30, but I think reality is probably closer to 40.

But for all that car, V 12,

the one that I saw for 40 ish was quite a low milo, you know,

35 miles to 35,000.

I should think it'd be a good thing.

There'd be some adventures, wouldn't there?

You know, the servicing and probably I don't know how the insurance would go.

But interesting.

Yeah, yeah, it would be an interesting hard one.

I did know a photographer who had one for a while.

I think really enjoyed it.

But then had it for a couple of years and went, OK, I've enjoyed it.

I've had it. It's done some good road trips.

I'm happy to move it on.

Yeah, now. But yeah, I could I had a real soft spot for them,

because I just thought they drove incredibly nicely

because the wheelbase was so long and so natural

handling balance to the car anyway, isn't it?

But when you extend the wheelbase even longer,

when they sort of start to move around a bit,

we did a video down at Chobham Test Track and we used to use that.

The snake. Oh, the snake, yes.

That runs through the middle of the sort of series of corners

you could go sideways through.

And it was just so benign because it was so long.

You sort of not the sort of driving you were doing the real world.

But in terms of, you know, having fun with its handling balance,

it was such a sweetly well sorted car.

And you just had all day to you'd sort of sense

that the the rear would start moving around.

You think, well, I don't have to.

OK, I suppose I'll put some lock on.

But, you know, I've got a lot longer than usual to worry about this

because the car's so long and lazy and what a great handling.

Car, because it still had the mechanical stuff of the DB9, didn't it?

So limited slip differential and a great big.

Do you remember Maric Reichman, the Aston Martin chief designer,

telling us that that was his that was his job application?

You know, he went to. Oh, really?

He, Ulrich Betz took over at the as the boss.

And he decided that Reichman was a leading contender.

I think there were, you know, three or four people that he liked.

But so he rings up Reichman and says, design me a four door DB9.

So Reichman, you know, stays up all.

I think there was some story about Maric said,

I could get you something in a couple of weeks.

And he said, no, tomorrow.

Oh, yes, I do remember this.

I don't remember who's talking about this.

So Maric sits up all night to design a four door DB9

and the car that came out is substantially the car that he drew overnight.

Oh, interesting.

So I like that story, too.

Yeah, me, too. Yeah.

Would you have one over it?

Would you have a repeat over a DB9 or a vantage?

I don't know. I think I probably, of all more,

I'd probably go for a for a really nice V8 vantage

because I just think the size is so nice.

And also that car, you know, I've got this BMW on it about people, not modern cars.

The designers know how to place people in cars so they look good from outside.

And I think the V8 vantage, in particular,

when viewed in profile with the driver in it, looks fabulous.

Oh, really?

Whereas if you get an older car like an E-Type,

which is everybody's dream in a way,

but you look at one going down the road,

especially with a big-ish person in it,

they look, I hesitate to say car,

I hesitate to say comical,

but they look ill at ease, shall we say?

Because it's too cramped.

Well, they just don't fit the side window somehow.

It is cramped and the doors are funny-shaped and all that.

But this V8 vantage is the soul of relaxation.

You can just see this person sitting in a nice seat,

bum on the floor, just happy.

That's my pet theory.

What do you think of E-Types visually?

It depends how you feel, doesn't it?

And it depends on the version.

The early ones with the pure two-doors, I think, are terrific.

I'm much more interested in the coupe than the convertible, which...

I just think the side glass and the roof and all that,

they just give the car its character.

And the beautiful rear door, too, that opens sideways.

So I much prefer the coupes. I much prefer the two doors.

I like them before they grew too much chrome

and their headlights went wrong and so on.

So I suppose the thing is everybody goes for the series one and a half,

which is nearly an early one, but with more footroom.

That's probably it, I think. What about you?

I like them, but I don't quite think...

When people say they're the best-looking car in the world, I don't quite...

I don't get that, but I like them.

I like the racing versions of the lightweight versions and things like that.

I could get quite excited about those, but I don't get terribly excited about the others.

I don't know if that's blasphemous to say it in a car podcast,

but they don't quite enthuse me as much as a lot of other cars from that era, and I don't know...

But I think that's legit. You can see the compromises.

You know how people are always saying that the E-types track, rear track, front track,

is actually less than a Morris Minor or the same as a Morris Minor.

Oh, really?

And when you look at the car from behind, you can see that it's got a funny, narrow track.

And later, in cars made afterwards, when components apply, got easier and so on,

it was just easier to correct things like that, so there are some funny bits.

And then they built the E-type 2 Plus 2 and changed the windscreen rake

and lifted the roofline and messed around with it.

That wasn't too good, and then the V12 wasn't too good either.

So it got bastardised.

And I suppose at the time, if you'd never seen anything like that before,

and then all of a sudden that appears, that is not something that I have experienced.

So I've only ever seen it as an old car.

That to me is a crucial point.

If you park that beside a standard 10 or a Rover 14 or some, just kind of different.

Yeah.

Is this of an era which you would find in your latest book that you are reading?

Yeah.

I was on about Peter Grimsdale's book called Super Veloce,

which is all about the rise of the Italian industry.

It's a bit like the first motoring book that he wrote, which was called High Performance,

which was all about the British rise of the British industry,

except it goes a bit further back than that.

It goes back into the beginnings of Fiat and so on.

But Grimsdale's most fantastic researcher and writer,

because he seems to be able to put complex things together in a tale

that just reads like a lovely narrative.

And you suddenly understand where Giovanni and Yelly and Pininfarina got together

and why and how it happened and who they were beforehand and why they were wealthy.

It's just how Italian politics wove its way through all this stuff.

It's a miracle, the book.

He did it with the British one and he's done it again with this.

In between is a book about racing Bentley's.

So the road of Bentley boys.

But this isn't his main racket.

He makes TV documentaries.

He's got some spare time.

He writes the odd thriller.

Oh, does he? Yeah.

Oh, interesting.

Really good.

And so this is just something he took up.

I think the first one he did just before or through lockdown.

And he just discovered he liked them.

And of course the reception, particularly for high performance,

the British one has been very, very good.

And I contend that if you read the first and third,

you will know more about the European motor industry than most people ever do.

That's really interesting.

And you'll enjoy it at the same time because he spins it very good.

Yeah, you keep turning the page like PG, well, not like PG Woodhouse,

but the thing is you just turn the page.

It's a very easy read through.

So I remember Peter being the man from Channel 4 when I worked for the Channel 4 website.

Oh, you know him. Of course you work with him.

He was the bloke who championed driven and deals on wheels

and Channel 4's motoring coverage at the time, I think.

And I worked for 4car, which was the website derivative.

One of those early website magazines that seems to be doing, you know,

it seems to be the thing these days.

Yeah, amazing.

It was good.

It was great.

Richard Bremner was the editor and it ran for a while.

Channel 4 turned it off in the end when they stopped doing TV stuff.

But it was sort of five years of my career from 2005 that I remember incredibly fondly.

Was Peter the producer or something?

I think he was, I don't exactly know what his job title was,

but he was the bloke at Channel 4 who championed motoring programs

and also what we did online, which started out as sort of program support.

You know, some TV shows will go to the website and will tell you stuff about the program.

But 4car was much more than that.

It was a proper motoring magazine online with road tests of everything

and features and column items.

As you would find in any online motoring mag these days,

it was doing that 25...

Well, I started 25 years ago and it was a year or two old at that point.

Wow.

It was a good thing.

As usual, he was there at the beginning.

He's keen to come on the pod and talk about his books.

Yeah, we must.

Well, you can have it right, Lavine, can't you?

Yeah, we'd like that very much.

What was the... that we never went to see but were meant to?

There was an online or virtual or real museum type thing that Peter was in front of.

Oh, that was... I think it still exists.

Yes, a digital portrayal of Jaguar history.

You did it through the computer but you walked into various rooms

and you could go through it as quickly or as slowly as you wanted

and it was absolutely chock full of minutiae

but if you wanted to, you could go through it at your own level, whatever it was.

I believe it's still going and it was pretty successful.

I'm not sure if it was entirely understood by the backers

but certainly had lots of potential.

We could ask him.

Peter will be in touch.

Come and say hello.

We'll come to wherever you are as we...

Well, he's...

That tends to be the way that we work with guests, don't we?

We just go to... we make life easy.

Yeah.

Go to wherever they may be.

He is going to have a launch for Super Volace.

Oh, okay.

Next month, I think.

I know this because I think I'm supposed to sit down

and ask him a few questions.

Oh, there you go.

Oh, well, maybe we'll try and make that work.

That would be a very good idea.

Front cover artwork again by Tim Laselle, I see.

Very good, yeah.

My brother bought me a Tim Laselle print

for my 50th birthday.

I'm still...

I don't quite know where to put it because it's big

and I could put it in my workshoppy clean room area

but seems a shame because I'm just not there

often enough to...

I'll only see it once a week.

Yeah.

So it's got to go in the house

but I don't quite know where to...

I've tried a couple of places and it's like,

oh, it's too big for that.

It doesn't quite work with that over there.

There's not a lot of spaces in my outfit.

Well, space gets hard, doesn't it?

That's really difficult.

Yeah.

Oh, well, I was shooting...

It's amazing.

It's a terrific thing.

Lovely, yeah.

All I ever did for my brother was

be a pain in the backside, younger brother,

and crash his mini and, you know,

what was he giving me?

He's given me a Tim Laselle print.

I mean, unbelievable.

Lovely.

We're going to come back in a moment

with talk of MGCs and steam fares

and more of your correspondence

but in the meantime,

let me tell you about the fact

that this podcast is brought to you in association

with Anderson EV,

makers of top quality EV home chargers,

every one of which carries a seven-year warranty.

What else should we tell people,

the listener in the commercial break?

Have you been in the archive this week, Steve?

Not at all.

I am...

Mudge, it's quite early in the week.

Yeah, that's the trouble.

Listener, I'll let you into a small secret.

We usually record this podcast

at the very end of the week

once we've both written our columns

but because of various holiday-related shenanigans,

we're recording this quite...

You've actually written your column, which is amazing,

which is brilliant,

but we're recording this quite early in the week.

So we haven't yet...

Yeah, it remains to be seen...

...the research stories.

Yeah, what will we need to look in the archive for?

Yeah.

Well, I haven't sort of run out of facts.

The thing is I happened to do

a couple of things over the weekend

that fell into a column

but normally we have to have things occur to us

during the week, don't we?

Yeah, I was looking in last week...

We talked about it last week, though.

The last time I went into the archive

was to look up Audi 100 pictures.

Oh, indeed.

Which we talked about last week.

So I was in the early 80s.

But still, it's just...

You can find...

You will find it.

If you just...

It's themagazinechop.com.com

Just go to the AutoCar website

or search the AutoCar archive.

You will find it.

130 years worth of history.

And if you want to know about a car,

if you've just bought an old car

and you think,

what am I knowing a bit about that?

You will find it.

Yeah.

You will find every...

I had a quick look last week

also at the dashboard of the Audi A2

to see whether

what level of climate control

mine has or not.

Because the air doesn't blow very cold.

And I haven't been underneath it

to see if it's got a air conditioning compressor

or anything yet.

So I just thought,

I'll just have a look at the dash

and see if it's...

If this is full climate control

or air-con or whatever level it is

on mine.

So I think mine has got climate control

but it is...

I just need recharge.

I think it probably needs a recharge.

Yeah.

Because it's done it a few miles, hasn't it?

153,000, I think.

You may find that you just need a dose of gas.

Yeah, a bit of dose of gas

and that'll be all right.

But it still needs its tracking done.

Wouldn't hurt if it had an updated radio.

The radio reception is very bad.

And the CD player,

which it has.

You got any CDs?

Well, no, not really.

Well, there's a few kicking around.

But it's one of these...

I wonder how many people have got rid of their CDs

and are now thinking,

I wish I still had those.

I just...

I don't know.

I wonder if people will

slightly regret getting rid of the physical media.

The Mrs. was just saying the other day

that she's a great one

for clocking trends in the newspapers

and she says that

there's a move among

the younger generation than me anyway

than possibly even the new

who want to own things.

Downloads are all very well but

they like the idea of holding something in their hand.

The CD player is not quite dead.

No.

There is something

about listening to a CD,

an album in the form that the artist

intended in the first place.

Listening to these songs in that order.

I agree.

Which is what we used to do a lot before streaming.

Yeah.

This goes to the same...

You know when we talk about

people are forever asking

whether or not the magazine's done for.

And the thing I always say is

the great thing about the magazine is

that it's got this hierarchy of stories

both in size and position.

And that tells you

what's really important.

You know the thing we put on the cover

is the important story that

the stuff that we write about in the lead

is the important issue.

And the way things are arrayed through the magazine

is something you can't get on a website.

All you get is a succession of web pages.

You don't get the hierarchy

that a magazine can deliver.

And that is the same for

music albums, I think.

Yeah, that is interesting, isn't it?

Yeah, I think it's

one reason why

high-value magazines

in particular will

prevail. Mind you, lots of people would say

AutoCow's high-value these days.

Well, yeah, but

you know what, so is a cup of coffee.

Yeah.

Do you know what I mean?

It's not unheard of to pay

the same amount for a magazine

as you may do, you know,

for a cup of coffee. Yeah, that's very true.

These days I didn't

try to think where I last paid

over, I think I paid like

£4.50 for a coffee recently, I can't remember where,

but I remember thinking

that's quite a lot for

the standard of delivery

that came in.

We're in part two already, I haven't actually

I haven't really mentioned that. Welcome back to

my weekly cast.

Shall we do another letter? It's quite a long one.

Go on.

Paul Andrews writes, hello Paul,

to say,

as a motorist who has always enjoyed

swift, measured and safe driving,

a combination of factors is dictating

that I find my motoring pleasure

today in a different way, average speed cameras

and a newly reduced speed limit

on my local flowing rural A-road

plus the knock-on effect of a few drivers

who go considerably slower than that

just in case.

That, I could talk about this later

because that seems to happen a lot.

It does. A lot more than it used to

but people just driving

incredibly slowly on fast roads.

Because they're scared.

But like 35

in a national speed limit

and it's happened to me

I don't know, every day it seems

I'll come across somebody doing that

and I can't.

Anyway, sorry Paul, I've

your point.

Average speed cameras and a new

then there's the increased traffic

building sites and their random traffic

lights, potholes and a myriad of factors.

Blimey, do you live near me, Paul?

Myriad of factors that have combined to

engender efficiency as my new driving

entertainment. To qualify this

I'm not talking about hypermiling,

just keeping up with traffic, not hindering

anybody else's progress while reaching

my destination as quickly as possible

without spoiling my average MPG

which includes a business Mazda 6

Skyactive Sport 2.0L petrol

estate and a very hard used first

generation Honda Insight 1.0L

hybrid with CVT that I've owned for

17 years. Wow.

The Mazdaers are remarkable for a large family

estate, regularly averaging

45 miles to the gallon

in local and longer

distance mix driving and has seen a best

of over 50 miles to the gallon

on a trip to northern Scotland.

Has strong low end torque enabling short

and good coasting ability considering its

19 inch wide profile wheels. The

Insight has legendary

efficiency and the technique for best

MPG is to keep it when possible in lean

combustion mode on the instantaneous

MPG readout and

manage the assist and regen

so that it uses electric power assist

on inclines.

Whilst hypermiling the Insight

can deliver towards 100 miles to the

gallon but my knocking about

consumption is about 70

with good average journey times.

So to achieve these there are easy techniques

that improve driving smoothness and awareness.

These include keeping momentum

where possible with widen and out cornering

a kin to the racing line

but with smoother efficiency. A benefit

is found from keeping sufficient distance from the vehicle

in front, reading the road

head and watching behind helps anticipation

and keeps concentration as would

be the case if speed was your focus.

This technique allows the gentist throttle

applications and minimal braking. In the

car I coast in neutral or on long

shallow downhill stretches if I

can do so at the pace of surrounding traffic.

Call me sad but I get a perverse

buzz from seeing the average MPV go up

another decimal place or two.

Very occasionally my better half request that I get to

move on rather than the regular slow

down over the old days.

To qualify this she is a self-aspirated

and talented driver but is prone

to losing a few MPG

when she uses the car as she has too

many other important priorities.

Thank you Paul for your note.

Paul is a bit of a clever engineer

isn't he? We know him,

I am sure

he has been involved in

combustion research and all kinds of stuff

so I think

his interpretation of the old

suck squeeze bang blow is better

than most of us.

That is very interesting.

I think that is an interesting challenge.

I find myself doing it

not perhaps to the level

he is talking about but in the electric car

I just try and

I try and use coasting

I try and have the thing

regenerating as often as possible

and it is an interesting

challenge as long as you don't

drive yourself crackers

by going too slowly.

On the way over here I have come over

from sort of near Bista

to sort of near CyroCesta

and the satnav took me

a sort of backish route rather than going

through Oxford and back out into Oxford and back out again

which is it decided was awful

but there was a Suzuki splash

through the first three or four villages

going incredibly

slowly outside the villages

and then for the past for the last sort of

bit in between Berford and here there was

a Nissan cash guy going also

incredibly slowly in

25 in a 20

but then

30 in a 30

but then 35 on a 50 or

60 and it's just

drives you nuts and I just think actually had I

reset

two things I could have done

one of which I should have done

ride my motorbike and I could have

overtaken much more easily

second thing

reset the trip computer and see what I

could do because otherwise it's just

I just find it

just get a move on

I just

there's no

probably fail a driving test if you drive

as slowly as a lot of people drive

on

and I know it's a limit not a target

50 or 60 mile an hour

limits but to drive so much

below them is

well to cause crowding and

massive cues behind and it's just

like it's just not on

does my nut

I think

remember when I was trying to teach a hooligan to drive

that the

speed control was

was I used to bang on

about it because you know

you just need to know how fast you are

going and are allowed to go and

it's got actually if you learn to fly

one of the things that

you become aware of is

speed control because if you come over

the hedge at the wrong speed it won't land

which is

can be a bit of

a problem you know if you bung it through

the hedge at the other end of the runway

so I think being

being aware of what

you're allowed to do and just

being at the right speed

at the right time is a big deal

people just

aren't prepared to read the signs they just take

the do what they think

is the safest or the least

risky thing and it's a pain in the back

so yeah

yeah it

yes it annoys me on the

hypermiling front

I

haven't I still haven't

reset the trip computer on my audio too

and seen what it'll do

but I do I don't think I've ever

mentioned this mate though there was I did

like the Renault Clio 2 launch

diesel

first Clio with a diesel maybe

at a 1.5

1.5 turbo diesel

when Renault launched it they said

yeah Renault UK they said right we'll do

we'll do a drive

from London to

Paris what we'll do is we'll

reset the trip computers in Calais

drive to Paris and we'll have a

competition between all the journalists and see

who can get the highest MPG

on the way into

Paris from Calais

and it's mostly auto route all the way so

I remembered my

aerodynamics

lectures that said actually probably like

30% of all of the

friction acting on a car can be

aerodynamic drag I thought I'll just sit behind

a truck like

unfashionably close

in a way that you couldn't this was

25 years ago probably in a way

you can't these days because most trucks have rear

facing cameras don't they and they get really

if you do slipstream a truck or

a coach they tend to get quite cross about it

but back in the day

it was it was not so bad because

they couldn't they couldn't see you most of

the time I think I got

83 to the gallon out of it or something

ridiculous do you win a prize one by

one by miles

there were two

actually used to work for a auto car

Stuart Bladen who used to knock about with

another bloke

whose name I can't remember

but they used to take that sort of thing

very seriously yeah

they swapped drivers without

stopping

so they put the seat right back

the other one slid into the back seat

the other one slid across so they didn't have to

they did this on the move on the auto

they didn't have to stop the car

people were saying to me God how did you do that Brian

were you coasting were you switching the engine off

just get rid of so much drag

as you possibly can by

slipstreaming another vehicle

a large vehicle

but it is antisocial

I think but you know

rare occasion rare exception when there's

Robbo and I once

on one of that

we did three trips non-stop

across Australia

as fast as we

two of them as fast as we could go

one in a Ford Falcon GT

so quite a fast car

one in a sort of race-repair

Alfa Romeo and Al Feta believe it or not

and

we swapped drivers

while going along

because we discovered that

I mean we were trying to cruise it

it doesn't sound

sort of madly

responsible anymore

but we were trying to cruise it

something over 100 miles an hour at a time

and

was that

legal at the site

sort of yeah I think there were

it was

there were places where it wasn't

it must be said

and there but you know the big problem was

wild animals

you know we

there are camels and things out in the middle

of the Nulliball plane and you don't really

want to hit a camel for

preference anyway we changed

I think we swapped over it

we calculated that you lost a huge amount

of time by just

stopping from 120 to nothing

swapping the drivers and getting

Oh yeah for your average speed

the stops are the

70 which is what we did

Oh well that's alright

because

it was a bit mad

still

I can confess that given that it's 40 years ago

yeah you're probably okay mate

you're probably beyond the

long arm of the

of the what states would you go

through all of them

New South Wales South Australia

Western Australia yeah

there was the we talked about this

a year or two ago the Australian

probably

was he from Victoria

where they have the summer nats

the sort of hot rod

and

summer festival

summer hot fast car festival

there was an Australian

policeman and it still does the rounds

actually talking about more on tourism

and he was incredibly animated about it

and he's like these guys

I swear the evolution

stopped some time ago and this is where

these fellas are and it was just

he was he was

he was superb somebody sent me a link

to it the other day just more on tourism

and he was furious but it was great

we don't in a way that people don't talk

about yeah

the story from there that I love

the most is I hope

I'm told this one before but it was

there was an event where

you know

roadside caravan or whatever it was

clocking people

on a radar and

and some locals

sneaked up to the

to the

this caravan

removed the plates from it

screwed them onto a car

and proceeded to do 100 miles an hour

repeatedly to the radar

so that

these guys booked themselves

that's fantastic that is very good

that's very good

you can tell me about the local

steam fair you went to

oh that's great

one of the joys

of living being brought up

in another country is that you see

the joys of the place that you come

to and one of the things I've always

enjoyed in the UK is

steam fairs they're all over the place

aren't they they're either

dedicated steam fairs or there's a

steam aspect to the local

event

but anyway there's one near here

in a place called Fairford

and the other night

they had a thing that they call

steam in the square which is the

precursor to a

two-day event of the weekend it was on a Friday night

and you go over there

and the town square is

absolutely stuffed with these

you know 30-ton engines

you know probably 40 of them

plus every classic car

that will fit plus you know

blokes in World War II jeeps

motorcycles and you know

there's a steam organ in the middle

of the town square

playing all these tunes

loudly and so on

but the thing that I was taken with

was just the input

of the kids, the kids loved it

and

I just don't believe

that this thing can ever

fade away

because the children

love it so much and they grow up

loving it and they'll be the new

organisers of it and you know

I choose to think that in 100 years

I'll still be doing it because of these

you know the generations of kids

that have enjoyed it

and it made me think about

getting

you know if we have hobbies

old car hobbies

any car hobbies

the key to it is to get

the younger generation involved in it

find a way to make them like it

encourage them to like it and not make it

they are honestly

they hope for the future, all these happy kids

I couldn't get over it

that's really cool, anytime you go to a car show

I know

because motoring does occasionally have

a reputation for being

crusty old blokes

but if you go to a car show

or you go to as we did last week

for a story, we went to drop tin at Caffeine

a machine and spent the day there

there are a lot of young people

and are into cars, I'm really encouraged by that

actually

when people talk about

the fact that

soon enough

whether it comes to pass

or not

that cars will be

near enough autonomous and you won't have to drive

I don't know how realistic that is

but you go to some parts of the world

you can take a driverless taxi if you want to

what would be the

why would people drive if you can

take a driverless taxi and blah blah blah

one, it may not be any cheaper because

the hardware in these machines is quite expensive

so

it may not be any cheaper than running or anything

but if you look at

the arrivals at

sometimes people will put up videos

we videoed the arrivals at the

training ground of

certain sports people

we went to this football club

and videoed the players coming in and out

very very few of them

will arrive in the back of a V-class

Mercedes van

most of them drive themselves

none of them have to

in fact it would be better for them physically if they didn't

but they like to

people like driving

that's the truth of it

and I'm quite encouraged by that

well you can have a V-class outside your door

and it will just take you to training

and you don't need to

all you have to do is leave the house

get in the back, fall asleep

they

vast majority of them drive themselves

and that's because

despite everything

it's quite good, it's quite good fun

and cars are cool

I was at dinner the other night there was an 11 year old girl

very

you know just really sort of

one of these rather clever

intense little kids and she was

having cottoned on to the fact that I was

supposed to know something about cars

she was getting me to explain

that it would be alright for her to learn

to drive a car with a manual gearbox

because you know lots of people said

that she was going to be

required or forced or something

to have an automatic

so we discussed which cars were still manual

and what was good about it

and she was kind of

desperate to fill in the years

between 11 and 17 in order to

get herself into a car

so it's good

what is going to happen

if nobody's making small cars with manual gearboxes

two driving tests

do we get to a point where

the

the default is an automatic

and you just have one license

and they assume that if you want to drive a manual

you'll be good enough to drive a manual

then you'll do the effort

maybe you'll have to

get some sort of a rating like you do

to tow these days

they've been to that often

now as well

the trailer towing thing

it's been canned

I didn't know that

it's not very widely reported I don't think

because my lad was

talking about it and he was like

I don't know if I need a thing to

tow a small trailer

up to 450

kilos and you didn't need a different license

and it all got quite confusing

and because they were so behind with tests

and everything from the pandemic

at some point just went

forget it

if you want to tow

we'll assume that you know

what you're doing

I'm pretty sure that's right

well also

the towed vehicles

and the towing vehicles

are much better than they used to be

there's a lot more science applied

to that stuff

most of the time you stick

some trailer behind your

large bullied and it goes fine

you hardly know it's there

I do own a trailer

I'd quite

like to own a car trailer

I know that's silly because I need one once every

two years

it's much better that I just go and rent one for a weekend

but I would have some kind of weird

satisfaction about the fact that I have one

and I

rented one to

bring the A2 home

it was MOT-less at the time

and I really enjoyed towing stuff

I really enjoy driving around with a trailer on the back

I don't know why

but there's a certain

I don't know in the way that kids grew up wanting to be steam engine drivers

I suppose

there's a purpose to it

which I really like

I've got a bike trailer

and the danger with that is that it's so light

that

you can forget it's there

you need

a bike on there so you see it in a rear vision mirror

all the time

but

I get what you mean

that business of

backing up to it

and finishing up with a tow ball

one inch from the socket

it's just satisfying

did we talk about

the Bruder X

caravan

that I did a feature on a few months

that was

that was something

I think the story is now on the website

so if you go and I towed it around with a Bentley Bentayga

that was some really good pics on them

yeah really lovely pics

quarter of a million quid trailer

a caravan

what do they call it an adventure trailer

or something explorer trailer

I forget what they call it

but it's an off-road caravan

but it's large

and painted in that kind of

matte black

that non-slip

it's like it's wrapped

in a skateboard deck

tape or something

and it's just every time you look

every time you sort of look in the mirror

it absorbs light

this kind of thing

so every time you catch sight of it in the mirror

which is often because it's big

it's like you're being chased down

by the apocalypse

but it's a very luxurious inside

and really cool

just I don't know

I think because you can't be any more than

five and a half miles or something

from a road in the UK

anywhere it's a bit

over spect for over here

but if you lived somewhere else

I could totally see the appeal

yeah I think if you were wandering around

another wall plane probably would be pretty good

yeah it would be pretty good

add solar panels on the roof and quite a big battery

to run its stuff

so aircon

roof

which was a kind of pop up

tenty type roof which got a bit colder or hotter

depending on where you are

or you could have like a solid

roof extension but then

you'd have to watch out for

for height restrictions

pretty heavy

yeah I think so

you certainly noticed it was there

it's always given a

it's sort of even in the Bentayga

which is a pretty good tow car

as you go over undulating

roads you can feel

the caravan giving the

tow bar a bit of a handshake

but really

we towed it around some fields and stuff like that

it was cool

and it's sort of self-leveling air suspension

there's a lot of money but I think if you

it was Bentayga Dosh wasn't it

it was something pretty much yeah

I think it's about the same

I want to say they start at about

£85,000

they're made in Australia

and I think

they go up from there this was a big one

so two axles

six metres long something like that

I think I spotted it

goodwood shortly before you did your stuff

yeah you would have done

it was an amazing sight I mean

imposing it's like a town on wheels

yeah yeah yeah

but good fun I enjoyed writing the feature

and I think it's

it is online I've seen it since

yeah

what shall we talk we've done letters

there's another

there's another thing which I want to keep until next week's

podcast which is the

third year anniversary of this pod

oh yeah so we could start

bringing this

as Richard Porter would say

on his podcast we could

start bringing this into land also thanks

to Johnny and Richard

for

so in their podcast mate

Johnny you're not a massive podcast

motoring podcast listener

of things

they don't always talk about cars

they'll talk about Julio Iglesias

and other things but last week

as the one I listened to on the way over

Johnny had a copy of AutoCart

and was thumbing through it and mentioned it liberally

and you're very kind fellas thanks very much

yeah well that great pair of blokes aren't they

but don't talk about cars in your podcast

please that's because

we'll do the cars

you do the bands

I must say they're

what's great about them is that they just seem to

spark off one another so

I like them both

yes same

what do I have to talk about

I have to talk about

Anderson oh no let's talk about drivers of change

if you search

drivers of change on the AutoCart website

that is a

there's going to be an event in November

what do we call that

what do we call it's a

it's not a program it's a

scheme a scheme a scheme

what do we call it it's a it's a thing

anyway it is to help support young

people in the industry

in the motor industry any area of it

if you are in your first two years

in the business and you think you are making

a difference or if you work with somebody

who is doing that

because we do have some industry listeners

if you know somebody who is like that

go to Drivers of Change

nominate them and there is

an award and an event

in November and there is also

a prize for the company that is doing

most to support young people

in the business

the idea I guess the idea is just to

try and make this point that

that of all industries

this one needs talent it needs young talent

I mean just like

our own media racket

needs young talent we just know it does

don't we

we are pretty good at that

HMS Auto Car is quite good at promoting young talent

I think is that fair

is that fair to say

I do I do too

it sort of preserves

the odd old fart as well

but

you know keeps me out of bed

but

I think we've got a great team

best team I've ever worked with

I think there are

at least half a dozen really talented

young blokes around people

yeah

not leaving out Soph and Sarah

there are

more staff writers

I think on our magazine I remember there ever being

which is

I think it's a lovely job title staff writer

me too I had that for a very

short time once but I really rate it

as a job title I think it's a really

cool what do you do

staff writer on a magazine which means you can write about anything you like

whatever you whatever they want you to

write about you'll get right about it

I rate that very highly

and then it gets to a point where they call you editor

of something

and you just keep editor in your job title then for another

forever whatever it is

35 years whatever beyond that

and is

I don't know how many editors we've got on the mag

it's got to be a few

probably seven or eight

a letter from the editors

Steve that about wraps it up for

this week

next week is our third

anniversary of this podcast

amazing this ten

episode podcast series

will reach episode 156

yeah next week

well I'll tell you something mate

I've enjoyed every single one of them

yeah me too yeah me too one of the

nicest most fun things I've done in my

career so far I've got to say is

yak into you every week

especially so great well we can talk about this next

year next week but

unexpected yeah

did not expect to be sitting here

three years later did you no no absolutely

not no because we have

done we did do some pods previously

didn't we I'd done a I'd done a couple

I think you did not me yeah well

but where you may have done

back in like 2010 2011

because auto

I'm getting listener I'm getting a face going

I don't think so but auto car

used to have

and I probably don't find it if you search

auto car podcast these days but if you

searched auto car podcast four years ago

you would have found I think

it was just basically audio files of

some of the videos that we did were

released as podcasts

back when nobody was listening to podcasts

oh interesting and that is one of the

I see it's a sometimes does

happen at auto car as we are very very

early into something and it

and nobody else is doing it and

there's no you know so it sort of

fades away a bit and then we come

back a bit later bobs up yeah

as I'm very pleased that it has now

let's

finally thank our

sponsor Anderson EV

you can discover all you need to know about

setting up your own home charging point

at Anderson dash EV

.com premium charges

seven year warranties British made

and designed nice

people doing it nice people doing it yeah

cheers mate see you next week

you

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you

Owning an Aston, the steam fair, Superveloce, mudguards

Ford Model T

Aston Martin V8 Vantage

Aston Martin DB9

Jaguar Etype

Minor Morris Minor

Audi 100

Audi A2

Mazda 6

Renault Clio

Ford Falcon

Mercedes-Benz Vclass

Bentley Bentayga

Ford Explorer

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