The Ford Capri is a classic car that looks sporty and was made from the late 1960s to the early 1980s. It's popular because it was stylish and fun to drive, which is why people still talk about it today.
The Mazda MX-5 is a small sports car that is very fun to drive. It's known for being light and having a convertible top, making it great for enjoying the outdoors while driving.
A retractable fastback is a roof design on some cars that can fold down, making the car feel like a convertible. It looks sporty and lets you enjoy the fresh air when you want.
A differential helps your car's wheels turn at different speeds, which is important when you're going around corners. It makes driving smoother and safer.
The Porsche 911 GT3 is a special version of the Porsche 911 sports car that is built for high performance, especially on racetracks. It was first released in 1999 and is known for being very fast and fun to drive.
Naturally aspirated means the engine gets air from the atmosphere without any extra help from turbochargers or superchargers. This can make the engine feel smooth and powerful as it revs up.
Bhp means brake horsepower, which is a way to show how powerful an engine is before taking into account things like heat and friction that can reduce that power.
A turbo engine is a type of engine that has a special part called a turbocharger. This part helps the engine get more air, which makes it more powerful and faster.
A homologation car is a special version of a car made by manufacturers so that it can be used in racing. They have to make a certain number of these cars to follow the rules of the racing series.
GT3 racing is a type of car racing that uses specially modified versions of regular sports cars. These cars follow certain rules to make the races fair and exciting.
Weight transfer is when a car's weight moves around while you're driving, especially when turning or stopping. This can change how the car feels and how well it grips the road.
Catalytic converters help clean the exhaust gases from a car's engine before they are released into the air. They make the car more environmentally friendly by reducing pollution.
The Nürburgring 24 Hours is a famous car race that lasts for 24 hours. It's held at a challenging track in Germany and includes many different types of cars and drivers.
The clutch pedal is what you press to change gears in a car with a manual transmission. If it's heavy, it can be harder to push down, making driving more tiring.
A manual gearbox is a type of car transmission where you have to change gears yourself using a stick and a pedal. Many people like it because it gives them more control over how the car drives.
The Volkswagen Rabbit is a small car that's easy to drive and great for everyday use. It's popular because it's practical and fun, which is why people often mention it.
The Porsche Carrera RS is a special, fast version of the Porsche 911 sports car. It's famous for being lightweight and great for racing, which is why car fans love to talk about it.
The BMW M5 is a fast and fancy version of a regular BMW sedan. It's designed to be really powerful and fun to drive, which is why people often talk about it when discussing cool cars.
The BMW M3 is a sporty version of the BMW 3 Series car. It's known for being really fun to drive and has a lot of power, which is why car fans often mention it.
The Jaguar E-Type is a classic sports car from the 1960s that many people think is really beautiful. It's known for being fast and stylish, which is why it's often talked about by car enthusiasts.
The McLaren F1 is a super-fast sports car from the 1990s that many people consider one of the best ever made. It's famous for being really quick and having some cool features, which is why car lovers talk about it.
The Jaguar D-Type is a famous race car from the 1950s that won a lot of races, including the Le Mans. It's known for its cool design and speed, which is why it's a popular topic among car fans.
A restomod is when someone takes an old car, fixes it up, and adds modern parts to make it better. It's like giving a classic car a new life with updated technology and performance.
LIVE
Yeah, scrimmers.
Yeah, exactly.
Yeah, you know, it's scrimmers.
Tip runs on the GT3 Tour, yeah.
Hello and welcome to episode 30 of the Evo podcast.
I'm here with James Taylor, John Barker.
How are we doing guys?
Very well. Thank you.
To begin, how's the Capri, John?
The burning question on everyone's.
I did think I got away with it.
Because I did promise that it was going to be at the Goodwood track day.
Yes, which just happened actually this week.
Yeah.
Well, I only have the one picture of it, which is as it was back in May.
Unfortunately, the people who are painting it,
they've lost a significant member of staff.
So they're a bit short staff.
So not much has happened to it.
On the upside, I've only had one invoice on the downside.
I spent the money on an e-bike.
So exactly an economical way to go through the summer.
But I'm sure when they get around to it, it will be fantastic.
I feel like I'm being trolled by MST,
who sent me the kit for the power steering,
which I fitted earlier in the year,
because they keep sending me lovely shots of their new escort.
Oh man.
And I think my car should be finished by then,
just to brand it around it.
What's actually left?
So we've got body work.
Well, there is the paint.
So it's bare metal repaint.
So it looks silver at the moment, which is not bad.
But it's going to be black again.
And then just things to tidy it up.
It always had a bit of a frown,
because the front wings were slightly,
it's like soft-shouldered.
They weren't put on quite right.
So that's going to be fixed.
So it'll give it much meaner look at the front.
And then just little bits,
like you can put LEDs behind the instrument,
so they actually light up at night.
So you can actually see the handy.
Yeah.
So it's little refinements like that,
heated front screen you can get.
So yeah, I'm looking forward to it,
but I've been looking forward to it for quite a long time.
For two decades.
So yeah, but it's in progress, but not very quickly.
Okay.
And James, what have you been up to?
I've been putting a few more miles on our MX-5 long-term.
So we've mentioned it briefly on the podcast before,
but we've got an MX-5 RF, two-litre.
Now in print, there's always a bit of turbo lag
when we get the cars,
and then when they appear with being a monthly mag.
But it's the same spec as the car that did so well
at E-Coty a couple of years ago.
So it's the retractable fastback body,
so the motorized kind of coupe roof,
as opposed to the soft top.
And it's all the little changes
that I've added up to a kind of greater whole.
Like it's got the new diff.
It's got the slightly recalibrated power steering.
It's just such a nice thing.
I really, really love it every time I get into it.
And did make it to an Evo track day.
I did the brand's hatch one.
So just did a few laps of the Indie circuit,
and he had a car felt great.
That's a perfect circuit for that, isn't it?
Yeah, yeah.
And it's one of those cars where at low speeds,
at high speeds, in the dry, in the wet,
it always feels the same.
It's totally consistent.
And I can't believe how much kit they fit into it.
It's got, you know...
It's ridiculous, isn't it?
Yeah.
It's a complete car.
Yeah.
All the stuff which a few years ago,
I remember writing about as kit on really high end,
luxury cars that you know, adaptive high beam,
and you know, all the cruise control stuff.
Link, keep assist.
Yeah.
I mean, which you can turn it off,
but you have to go into the menus and the top screen.
Yeah.
It's got now, but it's got air conditioning.
Yeah.
Heaters seats.
Electric windows, heaters seats.
Reversing camera.
And the head rest as well.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
They're really good.
It doesn't want for anything,
and it's still under 1100 kilos.
And it's kind of a magic trick, really.
It is.
It's a fabulous bear kit.
You've just got out of a Boxster.
Yes.
Well, do you feel like you'd need to spend the extra money
on a Boxster to get a rewarding drop top?
Yeah, it's really bad because I wish I could say,
no, an MX-5 is all you need.
And I know there's that cliche,
whatever the question, an MX-5 is the answer.
And I think there's a lot of truth in that.
But that Boxster was particularly good.
Yeah, it was.
It was the four-litre GTS.
Oh, yeah.
Which is about as good as it gets.
Unfair comparison.
With the manual gearbox.
Yeah.
I mean, it's...
Double the price, isn't it, with an MX-5 as well?
I mean, I remember driving that one
on an Evo track day at Goodwoods.
And I can't remember what speed got up to on the back straight,
but it was like supercar pace.
It's such a fast car.
And yeah, so I suppose you're not quite comparing like we're like.
But I think, yeah, as a sports car experience
that you can drive every day,
I've been having to use the passenger seat
as an extra bit of boot space,
because the boot is quite small.
So when I've been taking stuff to the tip
and things like that.
Yeah, I've been kind of...
Cleaning out the horses and things.
I did have a streamer, actually,
on the passenger...
I put a load of cardboard on top.
Yeah, they had a few sort of boxes
and just about managed to close the boot lids.
It's still such a small car, isn't it?
It's similar in size to the original.
It's actually shorter than the original,
I think, by female, possibly.
It's a lot wider.
Yeah.
It's quite a wide car by, you know, 90 standards.
But yeah, it's great.
And it's kind of inspiring, really,
that I'm still able to do it.
A nice rounded driver's car.
Not particularly quick.
In the context of one market,
but still does everything you need it to do.
Yeah, really, really does.
Rewarding.
Yeah.
Would you have an RF or the soft top?
I think I would have the soft top, I think,
because the roof's magic isn't it?
It's like click, click, two kind of releases
and then the wind takes it back, doesn't it?
You don't even need to...
It depends how quick you're going.
And obviously, it's lighter.
And actually, there's a bit more road noise
in the RF as well.
From some angles, it looks great.
It looks like a sort of miniature to 2,000 GT.
And then from other angles, it looks really awkward.
It's got an angle, a sensitive car.
But yeah, there's a lot to like.
Yeah.
You've also been driving a couple of Porsches.
Yeah.
Keeping with the theme of driving older stuff.
We're just kicking off.
It's sort of a new series in Evo.
We're doing a kind of first and latest series,
a bit like the icon stories we've done for so long.
And to kick off the series,
we've driven the original 911 GT3.
We thought the GT3 would be a good place to start.
It's famously done quite well in group tests over the years.
And it's now 26 years, because it came out in 1999.
So a year older than me.
Yeah, you don't have to depress it every time.
So I want to say a big thank you to RPM Specialist Cars of Yorkshire,
who very kindly lent us a car, which is currently on sale.
It's a beautiful Arctic Silver 996.1.
It was the Gen 1 car.
We tested it up on the North York Moors with a brand new 992,
Gen 2, the latest GT3.
So with a winged body, because it's changed so much now,
you can have it with touring, with no wing,
you can have it with back seats, you can have it with a manual gearbox,
or PDK.
So this was a winged car with PDK,
and the Visak pack with all the carbon roll cage and so on.
But it was, it's an interesting one,
because in some ways it's changed out of all recognition.
You know, the new car is so much more able, so much grippier,
so much faster and so much bigger,
that the wheels kind of dwarf the originals.
But in other ways, it's really held on to so much of the DNA is still in it.
You know, still naturally aspirated, still revs high.
It's still as light as they can make it.
There's only 100 kilos between the two cars,
which is remarkable given, you know.
And how much has the horse power gone up in those 26 years?
I think 355 bhp, if I remember rightly.
Which was a good output back then.
I don't remember feeling breathless.
Yeah, it's pretty hearty.
And then the new one is over 500, I think 515 off the top of my head.
But the nice thing is, and it's too related to this on the previous podcast,
they've kept the power figure pretty much the same,
and they're not chasing more power.
Yeah.
As part of the story, I interviewed Andreas Proininger,
who's the head of GT cars at Porsche.
And he said, yeah, we believe that's the sweet spot,
sort of roughly 1500 kilos with driver and with fluids,
and roughly 500 horsepower,
because more than that, you need bigger brakes,
you need bigger fatter tyres,
you need to beef up the chassis,
and it's a lot of dimension returns,
and whatever the opposite of a virtuous,
and you need to by charging and all the rest of it.
And yeah, it's amazing that we managed to hang on to these kind of tenets of it.
But the old car...
I was going to say, because the power has come through
slight increase in capacity, but more revs.
Yeah.
But what does the original rev to?
The original rev to, I think it was just under eight,
off the top of my head.
It was the 911 turbo engine.
The Metska.
So it was the Metska engine, yeah.
And such a charismatic engine.
I can see why they've developed that reputation.
It kind of sounds a bit rattly in the title,
and then as the revs kind of pick up,
it takes on this beautiful, kind of serrated tone.
So, yeah, interviewing Andreas was really interesting,
because he said when the car appeared,
it was a project of Roland Kusmal,
who was the head of Motorsport and Special Projects.
They just needed this homologation car,
partly for the one make series, partly for GT3 racing,
which is how it got its name.
And they didn't make a big song and dance about it.
It only cost a bit more than a normal Carrera.
And it was kind of a part spin special,
was how he described it.
The wheels were the optional split rim ones off the Carrera.
The Aero pack was just the Aero kit option.
And then for the engine,
I mean, Hans Metska retired in the early 90s,
so other people did the work to convert it
from the Nano 6 Turbo engine,
and I think different head and obviously revved higher.
I think the titanium Conrods, I think.
I think so, yeah.
But yeah, it created this bit, sir,
and there was kind of more than the sum of its parts,
because it was this really magical driving experience.
And today it still feels amazing to drive.
Yeah, it was.
I hadn't remembered where I drove it,
but yeah, going to chase the Eclipse.
Any fond memories of that?
Yeah, I've reread that story
while I was researching the article.
But Dickey drove one to Sicily as well, didn't he?
Yeah, he traced the Targa Florian route.
Yeah, that was really cool.
Yeah, we made excuses to go and drive it.
Big excuses.
That kind of car.
It was that kind of car.
How does it feel in context of the latest one?
Because I've driven the new one.
And I find it's a really polished car,
and it's really exciting when you're absolutely on it.
But you need to be going quite quick to work at it
and feel it moving and coming alive underneath you.
I think it's a difficult car to criticize the new one,
because it does so much so well,
and it feels wrong to criticize it for being too good.
Too good, yeah.
But yeah, Anthony Ingram,
contributing writer to Evo, was also on the test.
He said that was the main thing he found,
not frustrating about the new car,
but you do have to be going really quite quick
for it to really feel like you're working the car
to its potential, because its limits are so high.
Whereas with the older car,
there's more weight transfer,
there's more going on,
and even just driving at regular road speeds,
you're working a bit harder.
And you get in the new car,
the steering is much, much lighter,
the brakes are much sharper,
and at first you feel a bit kind of discombobulated by it,
but then it does the GT3 thing,
and it's still such a precise car.
You still feel where every corner of it is,
and then after a few miles,
you're so impressed by what it can do,
and it doesn't have the Metzger engine anymore,
that went a long time ago because of emissions,
but now it revs to nine,
and the engine is just as magical.
It still sounds amazing, doesn't it?
I don't know how they do it.
It's got four catalytic converters now
to meet all the emissions rakes,
and it still sounds incredible.
It really shrieks at the top end.
And Anthony drove off, actually.
I was just turning around in the other car,
and I had the windows down,
and I heard him in the distance,
you know, the breeze is kind of blowing that.
It sounds like you're at the Nürburgring 24 hours,
or something like that.
The odd thing about that GT3
was that it was an extrapolation
of the standard car.
With the manual gearbox,
we had a Porsche loaned as a
bulk standard vanilla white 911,
996, and we had it,
I think they forgot about it,
and we had it for a few months,
but it was manual,
and it was vocal,
and it was engaging.
Everything that the GT3 is,
but just in slightly smaller portions.
I think that's what you miss with,
I think the manual is particularly what you miss
with modern DSG cars,
and that gives you that connection
with the car at low speeds as well.
So I think they miss a trick there,
but you can get the new one.
You can, yeah, because it's a car where...
Have we driven it?
I've driven the manual as well.
Good manual.
It's a really nice manual.
I think I'd prefer it to the ST,
because that had the really lightweight clutch,
which is amazing when you're on it,
and when you get it right,
but then otherwise you just feel like a learner driver,
because you can't road-match.
It's absolutely not the sort of thing
just to mooch around in,
because it's so hard work to...
It's got a narrow window, I think.
How would you expect yours then,
having driven the bug?
I think it would depend on what I wanted to do with it.
I think if it was a road car,
I'd want to have the touring body,
I think maybe even have the rear seat option,
just as useful as chucking extra bits of luggage in and stuff.
Yeah, scrimmers.
Yeah, exactly.
Yeah, it's scrimmers.
Tip runs on a GT3 tool.
Not the cage then.
Clunky to get the scrimmer in.
Exactly, yeah, you don't want the cage.
So I think for road,
it'd be really nice to have a subtle one,
probably with the manual gearbox
for that extra engagement.
If I wanted to do track stuff,
then do track days.
It'd be nice to have...
I mean, you know,
you have to be going pretty quick
for the wing to make a difference,
but I think...
And also the PDK,
it's still got involvement,
and it is still so responsive.
And when I was lucky to do that,
Nurburgring training earlier in the year,
that was in a PDK GT3,
and being able to keep both hands on the wheel
while you're learning a challenging track.
Yeah, there are situations.
If you do the Nurburgring 24 hours,
I wouldn't do it on a manual.
Yeah, so I'm actually missing a gear or something.
Yeah, because then your shoulder would be massive at the end.
Yeah, and your left leg as well.
Yeah, it's one thing.
In the old car,
I found myself setting the seat a bit closer
just because the clutch pedal was pretty heavy.
You did a bit more bend in my left leg just to...
But I think it's nice that
Porsche offers so much choice with it now.
It's definitely been a car that's been shaped
by customer feedback,
because they so easily could have
lost their way with it and built a car
they think people want,
but people want a manual gearbox,
they want the option of different shells,
and they develop those folding bucket seats,
they can put a rear seat option in,
and they price it the same,
so it's the same price,
whether you go for the wing or not the wing,
or whether you go for PDK or the manual.
So yeah, really interesting.
So you can personalise them now,
but the original ones,
they were only about four colours, weren't they?
Yeah, and it was...
Did you look through all the ads after you'd driven it?
I've been down a complete rabbit hole,
so I'm desperately trying to find the money
to see if I can stretch to a 996.
How much do they now, about 60 grandage?
So this car that's RPM specialist cars,
Coney Lownders, it's for sale with them,
unless it's been sold between recording this podcast
and it's going out, it's up to £67,000.
And then I've seen others,
that was sort of north of 85,
but the going rate seems to be 65 to 85, depending on...
That seems like a bargain for what you're getting.
There's like a 997 Gen 2 GT3,
which is often talked about as the Halo best one,
last analogue one.
They're about 110, I've been starting.
Yeah, I do wonder if they'll go up in the future.
Yeah, they're only about 90, I think, last time I looked.
Oh really, yeah, we've all been looking, haven't we?
Yeah.
So yeah, and silver's the colour as well.
Yeah, it looks great.
Yeah, Arctic Silver, the colour this car was in.
But it's turned into such a phenomenon since
and nobody at Porsche knew it was going to turn into this
incredible depreciation proof collectors item.
Speaking to Andreas Proninger,
he said this whole division has grown around the car since,
but at the time people within Porsche were actually quite surprised.
There was enough demand to make a second batch of them.
And with the RS models,
which have gone on to become cult cars in their own rights,
they weren't actually going to do an RS special.
They needed to homologate, I think, another 200 cars
with a different front-up right,
because they found in racing it was wearing out its front tyres,
I think.
So to drive longer stints,
they wanted to homologate a different front-up right for it
to change the camber, I guess.
It's nice to hear it's been driven by...
Yeah, yeah.
Motor sport demands.
Yeah, yeah.
It's definitely...
It's all authentic motorsport stuff,
which is the really nice thing.
And they were just going to stick these up-rights on 200 cars
and not tell anyone.
And he said, well, no, hang on,
let's do something special with this.
So they had, presumably,
they did the first 100KL off,
because the RS always was 100KL lighter, wasn't it?
Right, yes.
And I think the GT3 was only, like, something like 50.
Yeah, because the first one was not really any lighter
than a normal known RS Carrera,
because they used a stiffer shell from the Carrera 4,
and it still had electric windows and all that stuff.
And then if you optioned it with the roll cage and stuff,
it could even be a bit heavier than a normal one.
Wow, yeah.
And in fact, today, which shows how hard the engineers
have worked to keep the weight down,
I think there's only about 100KL
between a brand-new GT3 and the original from 1999.
And that, over that period,
I think the second gen, 1906, was about 380 horsepower.
So it's only gained another 120 horsepower.
Look at all the other stuff, like...
And M5 has gone three times as powerful as well.
Yeah, and M3, M4 has gone the same way.
Weight has ballooned as well.
You know, if they kept chasing the power,
it would have turned into a very different car.
But they had the option there, didn't they?
Because they've got a turbo.
And they've got a GT2.
So you've got other outlets for those desires
and your customers want in other ways.
We recently just finished our Eras series,
where we've been through all the decades of performance cars
since the 80s.
Yeah.
But this is a chance to directly compare, isn't it?
Original and new.
Yeah, it was almost like skipping from that first test.
Yeah, exactly.
Yeah, doing them at the same time.
Was there anything you missed from the earlier car
and did it make you wish that we'd gone back in some way
and made the car smaller and lighter today?
Yeah, I think size is the obvious one.
I mean, I would say the new car doesn't feel too big for the road,
the way some cars do.
You're getting some modern performance cars who think,
God, I'm taking up the entire space between both white lines here.
And it doesn't feel like that.
You still have space to work with.
But the original, you can reach out with your right-hand drive car,
reach out with your left hand and touch the passenger door quite easily.
And if you have a passenger, it's pretty cosy.
And then in the new car, if you're in it with a passenger,
it feels like they're sat quite a long way from you.
And definitely miss the size and also the vision,
you know, the all-round vision with the slimmer pillars and so on.
Yeah.
But then you can go back another generation with the 3.2 that we drove.
Yes.
That was really sweet, wasn't it?
Yeah.
But that was so tiny.
That was tiny.
Yeah, yeah.
It really was a small car.
The interesting thing about driving this 996,
it felt as close to that car you've just mentioned
as it does to the new one.
And I suppose time-wise it is closer to that.
Just visually, it doesn't look like it's anything like the original, does it?
Yeah.
It's transformed.
Yeah, completely.
The new car has got these complex surfaces and enormous wheels.
The brakes at the time were beefy on the original
and they looked like sort of milk-bottle tops.
The new one looks like the spin lids.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
But both were kind of magically in their own way.
Yeah.
And I can't, it's a cop-out, but I can do anything.
I win.
I mean, the new car is better, of course, but better.
Yeah.
I know you're a sucker for the 997, John.
Yeah, yeah.
That's your holy grail.
I would still go there.
Yeah, if I think Privo's going to be turned into anything modern,
then it would be more modern.
Yeah, yeah.
It would probably be that car.
Yeah.
Yeah, GT3.
So I think that was the sweet spot for me.
The Gen 1 or Gen 2?
Gen 1's good enough.
Yeah.
You're not fussy.
Not going to get greedy.
Yeah.
I've been driving something from...
Yeah, you've been driving something even older,
but also brand new.
I would say from John's era, but I think John came in a bit later.
Well, you could have done that.
You could have done a comparison.
You could have done the original and this car that you drove, couldn't you?
Yes.
Yeah, yeah.
It's like a modern take on it, isn't it?
So it's the official name.
It's the Eagle Lightweight E-Type GTR.
OK.
GTR's a bit of an odd choice because it's like the most un-GTR car imaginable.
It makes me think of either a McLaren F1 or a Nissan.
Yeah, exactly, yeah.
Yeah, but it's their new Lightweight kind of coupe race car inspired road car.
So it costs over a million pounds.
Yeah, it's fully rebuilt.
The weird thing is I'm not even surprised.
Yeah, yeah, I know.
That's the way it works.
It's to be seven figures rather than six.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Is there anything of the original car in it?
Do you know what?
This is what surprised me because I think a lot of restaurant mods,
they go the whole hog and throw everything out apart from the chassis plate
and just do something completely new.
But this was designed to feel like an E-Type still.
So it's still got the 4.7-litre straight six.
The chassis is strengthened.
4.2.
It would have been back in the day.
Right, yeah, yeah.
That's my knowledge.
Or a 3.8.
But it's essentially that 4.2 but bored out to 4.7.
That makes sense.
And it's got the same fundamental structure just stiffened up in various places.
Still got torsion bar at the front suspension.
So it's not been fully modernized.
But the key areas they've looked at are the chassis, the engine.
It's got its own gearbox as well just to make it more usable,
but still feeling like an E-Type.
And I haven't driven a normal E-Type,
but I doubt they feel as precise and approachable and as fun as this one.
It's a really sweet thing.
They don't slow down brilliantly, do they?
No, they were on pretty narrow tyres.
Yeah, and the other thing they've tried to do is,
they were saying that the original E-Type was made for cross-ply tyres,
all the geometry and everything.
And it was never adapted for radials.
So they've changed the geometry on this while keeping fundamentally the same kind of suspension system
to work with more modern tyres.
But it was an absolute riot.
I mean, it's always intimidating looking at a car that costs seven figures
and has been pristinely restored,
and the guy hadn't even driven it, who'd bought it.
It was like an initiation for the car.
Was it raining?
It was raining.
Yes, it was.
In North Wales.
North Wales, yeah.
Custinioke kind of area.
They're not based there, are they?
They're not, no.
I think they're Sussex.
Susway.
Yeah.
But I think it's a testament to the car that you can just jump in it and drive it like an MX-5,
almost like it's very approachable, very friendly, very tractable.
How much does it weigh?
It weighs under a tonne, actually, which is pretty amazing, isn't it?
Not much more than an Elise.
But again, it's like, it didn't drive like a 60s, 70s car in many ways,
but it still had that raw feedback that you want from an older car.
So still on carburetors, so a bit fluffy in the mid-range,
and it sounds amazing as you rev it out, smoothens out and everything.
It's a dream, like lightweight E-Type is one of my dream cars, not only the way it looks,
but when you watch them at Goodwood, they look so beautifully balanced.
I was quite surprised, actually, because this was on modern tyres,
and I think they're wider at the front and the back as well, wider tracks.
And the wheels, they're like disc wheels, like sort of Dunlop.
They're magnesium.
They're not on wire wheels, I'm assuming.
Yeah, they're on magnesium wheels that are wider than the standard ones on wider tracks as well.
And I was kind of expecting, like you were saying, like the E-Type you see at Goodwood,
just sliding the whole time and being on tiptoes.
But it wasn't really like that, even in the wet.
It was quite secure and short-footed, and when it did move,
it was kind of like a modern car in a way that would kind of let go quite quickly.
You've got to be quick with your hands.
Parts of the GT-R kind of spec, though it's kind of wider wheels and that kind of tune.
I think fundamentally it's very similar to what they've made before with the lightweight GT,
but the owner wanted to go a bit more extreme with this one
and make it kind of a race car for the road.
And they were warning me before I drove it.
They're like, it's quite extreme and it's more extreme than what we've done before.
But I drove it and I was like, this is quite liveable and quite supple.
It's on Olin's dampers, loads of torque from the engine, so it's a really nice thing.
Did it remind you of anything in particular?
Because you haven't driven the E-Type, so...
No, do you know what? This sounds a bit crude, but it reminded me of a big catering in a way.
Just like sitting on the back axle, driving it on the throttle, quite raw experience,
quite physical, all the controls are quite heavy.
But again, really well resolved, like all the slack of a 60s car taken out
and all the good bits left, so it did feel old, but it still let you drive it like a modern car.
There's something very classy about a straight 6.
Yes.
It's a very English engine.
Yeah.
And then Jaguar used it.
And I love carbs, because it's just like different layers through the whole rev range.
At low revs, it's chuntering and it wants to cut out, but then as soon as you give it some revs,
it wants the changes.
Yeah, and it smoothens out quite nicely.
So I guess you haven't been to the small ads then to see if there's...
Do you know what, one car came up online recently.
I have been looking at it each time since then.
But yeah, I don't know.
I think just the effort and the money it would take to replicate that.
I mean, they'd be doing it for a very long time.
Yeah.
And there is a reason they cost a million pounds to make them feel in that way that they do.
Is each one kind of custom built to its customer?
Does each person choose a different kind of customer?
Yeah, I think it's quite hard to nail down a model range almost,
because there's like three or four base cars that you can pick from,
and then the customer can spec them how they want.
So this customer started with the lightweight GT and wanted it even lighter, even more extreme.
They wanted the 4.7-litre engine.
I think there's a wide-angle head as well that he's chosen to make it rev a bit higher.
Still only five and a half thousand, which doesn't seem very high to me,
but more than the original.
GT3.
Yeah, exactly.
And it's a really, really sweet thing.
I think it's always weird.
You don't really know how to judge cars like that because they're so far out of reach,
but it's kind of an expression of what is possible at that level with that much attention to detail.
It's a really, really special thing.
I think it's quite interesting what people say in the market at the moment for classic cars.
The E-Type's just sort of fading now.
It's had its moment in the spotlight.
They've seen six figures, weren't they?
Oh, yeah, yeah.
So, yeah, you might be able to get an original.
Yeah, potentially.
I mean, I did ask about maybe putting their suspension on like an E-Type that I bought myself,
and they were like, we probably couldn't do that.
And I was like, fair enough.
Bit out of my price range.
Just the brakes would be nice.
Yeah, yeah, yes.
And a classic Type with bottom-breaking brakes.
Well, I think they were the first cars with disc brakes, weren't they?
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Was it famously the press car had a Le Mans engine or something?
It was the first 150-mile-an-hour car.
That was the headlight.
This seems a bit strong.
Yeah, I'm sure.
I'm probably, this is libelous, but I'm pretty sure they stuck a D-Type engine from a Le Mans car or something.
And that's what they gave the journalists to do.
Yeah, well, they did a good bit of a boost.
Yeah.
Have you guys driven any Resto mods in the last few years?
I've driven one Eagle.
Sadly, I've never driven an original E-Type.
I would love to.
I had a brief passenger ride in our Series 2 once.
I was so impressed with how smooth it was.
Yes, B bumps and stuff.
It felt really quite, the ride felt very modern.
I've driven a couple.
And they are, well, the way you describe the one that you drove, the Eagle, it's not that different.
They are a bit more slidey.
Tiptoes.
We were in the south of France.
We went to do the launch of an XJS.
Okay.
Facelift XJS.
And there was a guy who we knew down there.
He had two.
He had a coupe and a convertible.
Got to raz around in both of them.
And it was really good.
You can see why it was such a great car at the time because it's still a great car now.
Yeah.
I love that scene in the Italian job.
It ends badly when they bump into them after you.
There's a few seconds where they think they have a coupe and a roadster E-Type and the DB4 Aston
and they're charging up the hands.
The guards.
Yeah.
Very cool.
So in conclusion, we need to all chip in and get a long termer.
Yeah.
Any type of project car.
I think so.
Actually, you probably don't want another project car.
Do you?
No.
You want one to finish?
Not yet.
Cool.
Well, should we wrap it there?
Yeah.
Sounds good.
We'll go and check the classifieds.
But yeah, I think we're all off to...
Carware.
We'll have a look on Carware.
Any time.
We'll look and get a finance deal.
Got myself out of that one.
Well, thank you very much, guys.
And remember, like, subscribe, comment, and yes, see you on the next one.
See you.
Cheers.
About this episode
A lively discussion unfolds as the hosts compare the original Porsche 911 GT3 with the latest model, exploring the evolution of this iconic sports car over 26 years. They share personal experiences driving both generations, highlighting the differences in performance, technology, and driving feel. The conversation also touches on the MX-5 RF and the Eagle Lightweight E-Type GTR, showcasing a range of automotive passion from classic to modern. Notable insights from Porsche's head of GT cars add depth to the GT3 narrative, making this episode a rich blend of nostalgia and contemporary automotive excellence.
In this week's episode, we discuss Porsche 911 GT3s and James Taylor's experience behind the wheel of the very first, and latest. Yousuf Ashraf speaks about his time in the latest Eagle E-type, and we catch up with all of the latest on the evo Fast Fleet, including John Barker's Capri...
