Reload EP141 - U.G.L.Y.

Hi folks, welcome back to another episode of Reload Podcast.

My name is Connor McAnon, joining me as always are, Lee Maxwell and Nigel Lamont.

So we're back, episode 141, because that's how numbers work.

Oh Lee, you missed that.

You didn't say the episode before?

Ah, people know, that's how the numbers work.

Fair enough.

So yeah, we're going to sit down, have a little catch up, I actually have a topic this week

for us as well, which has been sponsored kindly with time, yeah with a lot to catch

up on.

This is one of those ones where I sat down to make my notes and I was like, I didn't

really do anything this week.

And then when I started writing, I was like, you realize you have the notes and a lot of

stuff this week.

Yeah.

So we'll just get straight into it then, folks, as always.

So what's new with you guys?

Well, I guess one of the things that you were probably going to talk about is the

same as me, which is that on Saturday we got a special invitation to a special event.

We did.

Potato bread engineering, pizza and pals event at Oxford Island.

It was quite good.

Sorry guys.

It was great.

It was really, really good.

People might remember us talking about it last year.

So it actually ended up back at our house last year because it was at Oxford Island

originally and then it rained heavily.

So we retreated back here and this year it did not rain heavily.

It was the opposite picture.

Somebody had like a cap or a cloth over their head.

Yeah.

He was just sitting the whole day.

Callum.

Callum is the green mark.

Yeah.

He just had like a damp towel over his head.

And to be fair, like he was being a little bitch because he wasn't cooking the pizza.

Per Simon had to stand in the sun cooking pizza for about four hours.

Two hours.

At one point, Lee gave him my big straw hat.

It was like, go put that.

You got me to get it.

You're going to go put that on him.

So yeah, man can cook pizza.

Oh, so good.

So it's one of those only like gas-powered pizza ovens and he does all the dough

himself.

And what was the toppings were like pepperoni, some sort of cubed sausage and hot honey

on it.

Oh, so nice.

Big fan of hot honey, pepperoni pizzas these days.

Oh, so good.

And then there was a garlic bread one with like congee sea salt.

And like rosemary and stuff on it.

It was so good.

Man knows what he's at.

He's boozy underneath that big tough exterior.

Have you ever heard of a place called Bambino in Dublin?

I've heard of it, but I haven't been to.

Me and Rachel went there last Tuesday.

We were down in Dublin.

I've seen you in Dublin, actually.

That's right.

Yeah.

They do a pepperoni.

You have to wait.

They do big slices.

You have to wait in the queue because it's internet famous and there's only two places

in Dublin.

But you're 25 minutes waiting in the queue and pepperoni with hot honey.

Oh, so good.

And see that crunch off the base of it.

It's just fantastic.

Definitely recommend.

I like a real crispy, crunchy base I got as well.

Yeah.

It was a good turnout for cars as well.

There's three minutes on the book.

We're talking about food.

Excellent.

That's a record.

I took the TT down.

Paddy took the Jazz Blue Mark III on hydraulics down.

John Moog had a Mark II, VR6 down.

Borley was in the Mark VII.

Borley at the Mark VII.

Richard in the S14.

S14.

It was two Minis.

Yeah.

Dale had the Turbo Mini, classic Mini.

And then you got Kain had the Green Mini van.

Very good.

Derek Cheshire took the 20 valve Mark II down.

Conor Old was there and his dad's beamer that he is now commandeered.

Yeah.

He was at my cars and coffee for that.

That's right.

And then Clifford was down.

And his Volvo as well.

So it was a good turnout now, I have to say.

And then, oh, that's right.

The hills were down in Jack's S6 and then John, or John Jesus.

Simon had the van down for the pizza wagon.

So it was a good turnout.

So were there like half three till, I think there were kicking us out at nine.

We locked the gates at nine o'clock.

So it was good.

Now it was very, very good.

That cake that you had was sponsored by that event.

All right.

I left over and told to take it all with you.

Excellent cake.

So now it was.

Shout out to Eva as well for bringing Cupcakes 15s and delicious brownies.

Let's just all met herself.

Direct life.

Lovely.

So it was good.

It was good.

You talk about like doing things with your friends and cars and stuff.

It was literally an excuse to get together and talk a shout with people.

You only ever see it shows mainly, you know, sometimes you're rushing about.

Yeah.

And so it was the same thing.

So it was nice to just chill and chat and properly talk to people, sort of switch your

brain off.

I mean, there were some nice cars there and I didn't really look at them except when

I went to the toilet because we were just sitting talking.

We were about to leave and I was like, fuck, just take a few photos here and show

what we were doing.

And then I was like, oh, a lot of whole lot of the nice cars are actually at this point.

But the boys had got we stickers and stuff made up on a scene in that club.

It's in Paul's event.

So it was great.

More importantly, Connor, did you meet your friend again, Dr.

Dylond?

I did not.

And that's definitely wasn't brought up numerous times when we were down there.

So yeah.

What else have been up to?

Oh, I was a mechanic in slash body working Richie's mom drives a Ford

B-Max, which have you ever seen a B-Max?

Yes, unfortunately.

Yes, to be honest, until Richie said that his mom had one, I didn't know there

was such a thing as a B-Max.

I knew there was a C-Max.

Yes.

And a D-Max is a different thing.

That's it.

So a B-Max is a big fiesta.

Yeah.

And it has two normal doors at the front and it has two sliding doors

of the rear.

And basically what happened was his mom had a good side

swiped, somebody come out wide on a junction and clipped the side of the car.

Richie and Stefan drove to England to get two doors for it.

Right.

Yeah. Oh, yeah.

That's a whole story on its own.

At least they didn't fly to America to get parts in.

Well, true.

And I came back and Richie said to me, can he text me during the week?

I got me.

He got me lovely.

Are you busy tonight?

I was like, no, I'm not doing anything.

And he went, oh, good.

Can you come up and help me fit these doors?

And I was like, oh, I'd rather die.

So Richie would always help you out.

So I was like, right, fuck it, I'll take her run up.

So we're not by any way.

And we start to fit these doors.

And I was like, where do you start?

Do you start with the front door or do you start with the sliding back door?

And even at that, we're not four people.

So you don't do folks.

Yeah, folks like me kind of go, it'll be like this or this or that.

Fuck me.

So we got to hung those.

There's also no B pillar.

So when you open the two doors, it's just totally open.

But to put all that strength back in, they've just went, put it on the doors.

Very good.

Each door is a ton weight.

And there was only the two of us and it was warm and humid.

And I was trying to hold the door while he's trying to get the wee

roller guides in on the doors, like slipping through my hands slowly,

like just hedging its way down.

And I'm like, Richie, I can't hold this.

And he's like, oh, nearly there.

And I'm like, how nearly there are you?

Because I need to let go of this fucking door.

So we're there with a good few hours on it.

And then trying to like adjust it and bet some pieces.

So I think we got it like 90 percent of the way.

And then he brought me back down the road and we got sorted sort of thing.

So that was an interesting.

I learned something from that.

And what I learned was I don't want to own a Ford.

That was why.

Do it do genuinely what it is.

I don't know them.

Yeah.

You don't like change.

100 percent.

Don't like change.

You're a grumpy old man.

I am a grumpy old man and fuckfords.

Just you're not familiar with it.

So you're not comfortable with it.

If it was somebody like I was going to say your brother,

but he doesn't really own modern forge, you know,

somebody with modern forge probably would know roughly where you were going

or what you're doing with, but it was a fucking disaster.

So got that done.

I lost severe man points as well.

I carved oil in the TT.

Oh, dear. I was.

I mean, so I went to my mum and dad's from my dad's birthday.

Went to see him.

Oh, it was good.

Dad did his usual thing, received the presents and went,

this is delightful.

I love seeing my family.

I'm away in the bike.

I was like, oh, good to see you.

So, yeah.

So I hung out there for a while, caught up with everybody

and I says, I'll go and my sister hadn't seen the TT.

And she says, I want to have a look at it.

Not in the cars really at all.

Come out and went, that is absolutely class.

Let's jump in.

That's sad.

And it's like, I love one of these.

Everybody loves the fucking TT.

It's mad.

I've built cars for years.

I've bought James's and everybody thinks it's the best thing

I've ever owned.

Thanks, James.

And he says, would you run me around to get coffee?

And it's a Starbucks drive-thru.

And it's like, yeah, no problem.

So it's a tight drive-thru that I would never be in.

And I always maintain I get drive-thru,

that drive-thru at 30 mile an hour.

But if you're queuing through it,

you kind of lose position of where you are.

And the TT up turret box position.

You're sitting down in it.

It's quite hard to get reference points.

It is.

We're sitting anywhere.

We're just turning the corner.

And I know it's a noise and a feeling

that you can feel in your teeth when you do it.

And it's like, just that.

I was like, oh, fuck.

And it's just irritation.

She says to me, she was like, what was that?

And I was like, I just carved away.

I was like, is that bad?

I was like, oh, you've no idea.

I was like, we're going to get home.

Have you gone?

I was like, we're going to get home.

But I'm fucking furious.

And she's like, what do you mean?

And I was explaining what had happened.

And I was like, it's like, oh, it'll be fine.

She'll be fine.

She got out, walked right in the side.

And she just looked at it and looked at me and went,

I see what you mean.

Yep.

And she was like, I'm going to go into the house.

I was like, that would be good.

And she was like, do you want to scream in the car?

I was like, yes, I do.

So you bought the steering wheel.

So I was like, yes.

No, I touched it that gently.

I didn't even mark the wheel.

It just took the powder coat off.

It wasn't as bad.

But I was like, oh, fuck.

So that was fun.

I remember when I first got the superb.

And it is a big car.

And especially coming from the Sorocco,

which was not a big car.

And the first time I really drove it properly,

I was going down to Cork for work

and I drove down.

It was a Sunday night.

And on the way to my hotel,

I was starving after the whole drive.

And I says, right, I'll go to KFC.

Went into the drive-through.

And it was like this entrance to the drive-through

was basically a 180-degree switchback.

And I was like, oh no.

Some of them are ridiculously.

So and I got round it.

And I was like, so proud of myself.

I was like, oh, this big car.

And I'm some pilot, blah, blah, blah.

I could drive an oil tanker.

I can do anything.

So that was grand.

Got to the hotel, went to bed, blah, blah, blah.

I got up the next day.

Went to the car park space in the hotel.

Forgot that I wasn't driving the Sorocco.

Turned the wheel to come out of the space.

Too early.

Carved the back wheel.

Second day of ownership.

You always feel good with that one, don't you?

Yeah.

Total bit narrow spaces.

The worst car park in Belfast is the lagging side bus stop.

Or the old one?

The old one.

It's still there, isn't it, lagging side?

It should be, yeah.

The multi-story in there.

Ridiculous.

It is ridiculously tight.

The problem is stuff like that was designed.

One cars were three quarters the size

they are now kind of thing.

It's like our own drive.

We're at the house here.

It's a fucking bastard to get up.

But there's modern multi-stories going up

and they're so tight.

And you're just going, you know another bad one?

Is the waterfront multi-story.

Oh, it's horrendous.

Yeah.

Aye.

I've been in there in a van before it was fine.

I went in there in the Q5 and just went, this is mental.

Yeah.

You're immediately doing a high alert.

You just think to yourself, how many wheels were curved?

Palms were scrapped here.

It's when you're driving up the ramps

and you see all the marks and all the rubber marks

on the carbs and all the scuffs on the walls.

You just go, yeah, this is carnage.

Yeah.

I noticed these walls have seen a few things.

Body shop guys are just rubbing their hands together.

Just having a card pinned on the wall.

Call me.

And then the last thing I put up to was,

I'm now a journalist, a full-time journalist.

Oh, yes, that's right.

I wrote an article for PVW.

That's right, if you don't like that.

Go on, Connor.

I ended up getting to write the article for EVF and Helen,

which we attended, obviously.

So I'm looking forward to got that submitted and looking forward.

Couple of months out.

The next issue, I think.

Very good.

I remember it used to be, if you got your car featured,

it'd be six months before it was on.

No, that's what I know.

Car features is always a big backlog.

To be honest with you, it's quite good.

Not good for the guy who wants his car feature,

but it's good for the magazine

that there's continual business.

Yeah, just pat on the tank.

Yeah, that's me as much as I've been up to.

Busy few weeks.

What about you guys?

Well, I've been busy and not busy

because my wife and son were in Brazil in the mission thing,

so that has sort of restrict me a bit as usual

and with work, et cetera.

So Mark 7R that I bought my daily,

I got it back from Paint,

was I talking about that last time?

I think you did, yeah.

Yeah, because we saw it at your house

after it had just been done.

Yeah, got it back from Paint, happy enough.

And it had horrible yellow calibers all around,

which somebody thought was great.

So I got a foil tack, brick calibre kit,

and repainted it blue.

Nice.

Bit of a fiddly job because you have to do it in coats

and you can't drive on for,

you have to whip between coats

and then you can't drive on for 24 hours.

It's one of those ones that's like to do it right

as a bollocks.

If you want to make it nice of it,

you can do it quick, quickly.

Yeah, and that paint doesn't come off your hands too quickly.

That's a good idea.

Yeah, so it doesn't.

They give you these gloves,

but of course I lost them and never put them on

or never put a set of gloves I had in the garage on

just because, you know, I'm Nigel.

Because man things?

Yeah.

Well, he bought my dad for his birthday.

Boxed like the mechanical gloves

and then a big thing of Swarfiga.

And I was like, well, there you go.

I says, these will keep your hands clean.

And if you forget to keep your hands clean,

this will clean your hands.

One way or the other.

You'll clean hands.

I like those textured gloves.

They are good.

Yeah.

Yeah, color was still not fitted,

hopefully in the next week or so.

We'll get them fitted, but no promises.

Apart from that, they'll not be much more done to it.

Famous last words.

I was going to say, note the time and date.

Yeah, but just off sort of topic,

I had to go take the minibus down to Dublin Airport

for an airport run to pick up the team

that had come back from Brazil.

So I was off that day.

My daughter was off and just thought,

there are flight isn't in that night.

So went down the minibus and parked up

just outside Dublin, a place called Donabeta,

a train station.

And could also do the,

I'm sure people from down south will give off at me,

could also do the public transport system down south.

Fantastic.

Aye, it's a lot better than up north,

I'll tell you that.

Like trains every 20 minutes, half an hour from outside.

You going to the dart?

Dart, and then the Lewis in round, just fantastic.

And you're even, you're walking around Dublin,

we're in Dublin all day like,

and there's just buses everywhere.

Aye, it's easy.

It's, do you know what it is?

It's a big European city.

It's like when we went to Brussels that time.

It's an infrastructure.

Yeah, where it's something we severely lack here.

Like you can shout all you want as a politician,

get out of your car and tax people out of the car,

but if you don't have an infrastructure in place.

That's the problem.

Shout at the moon, cause people aren't gonna do it.

People are not gonna,

it's not that they're not going to, they can't.

Like a prime example there, the weekend,

closed down through your bridge.

Accident in the M2,

and there was a festival march or something,

there was some sort of march in the middle of Belfast.

Belfast took an hour and a half to get into.

Yeah.

An hour and a half?

Yeah.

No, thanks.

You know, get out of your car and walk,

cause you're not getting in the other way.

Aye, oh well, it's very high.

Maybe quicker to walk in the other town.

Legalized e-scooters,

that's the only way you're getting in the other town.

You're gonna say ease?

No, no, no.

To face that traffic, you maybe need to take some.

That's it.

Why drive and you can fly?

Yeah.

In all news, I fixed the Q5,

put a start stop battery on it,

and got Andy to recode it,

so all is good in the world of Q5 after it completely died.

I said to Andy, have you heard of,

you know, the start stop battery just completely going blank?

Like there was nothing?

He says, no, I can't say I have.

So, it's not unusual, but here, new battery on it,

and you have to recode them,

otherwise it'll.

Boil itself?

Yeah.

That's good.

I mean, the last week we were talking to you,

that could have been anything.

I totally forgot about that.

Yeah.

The thing is that either the stop-stop battery,

or the alternator,

or some electrical wiring,

or some sort of thing,

the way it just completely died,

had me a bit concerned,

but.

But all good.

Touch wood, all driving well.

Also, my son's, we mark six golf,

I don't know if you've noticed this,

the wings, front wings are terribly rusty.

I hadn't, but again,

mark six not surprised.

He's gonna try and sell it here shortly.

So, to try and sell it,

we thought right,

we better put wings on this here,

be a hard sell.

And after seeing Ritchie's Mark Five wings,

he bought from Lothian Car Parts,

ordered a set of them,

they arrived Friday,

at the say,

solid nine out of 10.

Color match.

And that's a heart,

like that's like a silvery gray color, isn't it?

What's it called?

United Gray.

It's the same as my Mark Five.

Oh, United?

Oh yeah.

Same as my Mark Five Edition 30.

They have arrived,

so hopefully trying to fit them in the morning.

So I think it's the front bumper has to come off

a wee bit, the grill,

and then take the inner lanes out.

I fitted them in the Mark Five,

so it shouldn't be that much different like that.

That's good.

So, should be a good job.

At least he's got the weather for it,

at any other moment,

it's dry.

Well, I'm off tomorrow again, though, usually.

So tomorrow morning,

I would be lying under Mark's golf,

shouting at it,

swearing.

Shouting at Jack?

Yeah, that's if he's down to bed.

That's good.

He's gonna take it out of your bed

and help me.

Yeah.

And to say,

if you want to just find out about the news,

I'm gonna go to the gravity show on Sunday for a day trip.

Oh, very good.

So me and Colin are heading over just to the crack.

Oh, nice.

Flying.

I think it's a 930.

930, flight in, then the 6 o'clock home.

Is that in the NEC?

Yeah.

So you just fly direct in?

I remember doing that,

I'm gonna age myself here,

2006 for Max Power Live.

We flew in,

and it was the first time I'd really did anything.

We got, you know, away from home on my own.

Yeah.

And then we were flying over.

So convenient, NEC.

You have to leave.

No.

You get the train from the airport to the NEC

and you step off in the NEC.

And that's it.

As much as the government do a lot of wrong things.

They did it right there.

The NEC is just a fantastic conference center

to travel into.

And it's ancient.

It's not like it's a new thing, yeah.

It's just a big modular system connected to the airport.

I remember saying when we were at Max Power Live,

the size of that center wasn't seen.

I've been to the classic NEC a few times.

We've been to auto sport twice.

And you just fly in.

I think, is there a shuttle or a, no, it's just a walk.

I think there's a wee shuttle from Birmingham across.

I just wanna say, yeah,

I remember getting like a wee shuttle across.

Yeah.

But it's basically 50 minutes and you're in the NEC.

So look forward to that.

That'll be good.

Like gravity's been growing now for a good few years.

Last year's been gonna be good.

So hopefully it should be good.

What was I gonna ask you about that

before I took an absolute mind blank?

I don't know.

Oh yeah, just sort of like first flight out,

last flight back kind of thing.

It's a 930 Sunday morning flight.

And then I think it's a half, six Sunday night.

Unreal.

That's it.

You'll probably not get around to all the show,

but you'll get seeing a massive amount of it.

Yeah.

That'll be good fun.

Yeah.

Lee, what do we do?

I don't mind.

Oh, the potato bread engineer, an invitational.

Yes.

Nothing else?

No, you haven't been out.

No, darling.

No, but I'm wet and shit.

So it's my life at the moment.

It's not even my wedding.

That's the worst of it.

It's just fucking, your life is consumed by it.

See before we move on, maybe a few dates.

Yes, go for it, because there is shows coming up.

Yeah.

So I don't have them in front of me.

The 29th, Friday the 29th is the Blackwater barbecue.

It's on the calendar.

That's what it is.

So it's Friday the 29th, Blackwater Graphics,

fantastic barbecue they have every year,

and well over 100 cars turn up for it.

It's definitely worth a drop down to you.

I think it starts about five and goes on to the wee hours.

I think it's two years, might have been added now,

because I think the last time it coincided

with Roots Classic, so we missed it.

Yes, you're in America.

Yeah.

I think he had it mid-September last year.

Absolutely, it's been in, yeah.

So this year, I'm looking forward to it.

Yeah.

There is a good bit of money for charity,

and there's plenty of entertainment,

and he does great work.

So you can get yourself some stuff as well.

Yeah.

And it's just, like we said earlier

about last weekend that we were doing,

it's an excuse to go meet your friends.

And I mean, it's the end of the summer,

it's coming around very quickly.

You need to get out to this shit.

One thing I have noticed, and people have said to me,

see when, like an angle back a year ago,

it used to be a show on every weekend,

see from you're driving, it's been veggie.

Yeah, you get the odd one here and there,

but like not, as you said,

it used to be almost like too many shows every week.

Yeah.

There's a gap.

There's half of your gap.

So many organized show.

Go on, guys, let's go.

It's kind of good though,

because the ones that are still going

are like the quality ones, which is good.

Yeah, there is that, yeah.

The cream has risen, Lee.

That's it.

One might say.

They're very good.

Okay, so news then,

you always jump in.

I can kick us off if you want.

So UK driving test is set to change.

And as we know, I do not like change,

although this is pretty good to be fair.

So for anyone outside of the UK,

I assume they do this in the South as well,

where you have the theory part,

where you sit down and you answer questions

on a computer.

You answer the questions and you do the hazard perception,

which is a series of videos.

And you click when you see hazards

and you're scored by how quickly you click

and when you click and that kind of thing.

So now what they're adding to the theory test

is questions on CPR and how to use a defibrillator.

Okay.

Because they reckon that motorists

are usually the first ones on the scene of an accident.

Are they the first responders?

Yeah, so if they can help people.

So I don't really see any issue with that.

It's pretty good.

It's like first aid would do no harm.

It's actually something I'm a big fan of.

Like I'm a first-aid on work

and I always say to people,

I think it's mad to turn that opportunity down

because people have families and you know,

I know personally for me and it gets a bit morbid,

but like if something happened to family member

and I was in the house and I was thinking to myself,

they're laying the floor and I don't know what to do,

but work will offer me the chance to know what to do.

You may as well take it when it's there.

So it is a good thing.

Also there's changes to the practical side of it as well.

Down the south this is?

This is in the north or the UK, sorry, all over.

Oddly enough, although again, moving with the times,

it's, they're focusing on taking direction from the sat-nav.

But because I suppose it's one of those things

everybody's doing now, so you're not distracted.

I imagine if you, if the sat-nav speaks to you

and you look at the sat-nav

and you're veering all over the road,

it's probably not a great move.

How does that tie in with somebody who's Google Maps

and their phone has it sitting on the screen in front of them?

It's probably the same thing.

That's illegal.

They use your phone while driving.

It's illegal to operate the phone.

It's not illegal to have it.

Working?

Working, yeah.

So if you were watching it going down the road

or touching it.

So then you could put a film on?

Well, yeah, that would be distracting.

Would it?

Yeah, you're not allowed to watch the film.

You could have to watch the screen for directions?

Yeah, because that's speak to you as well.

Right.

Because I remember doing my test again 20 years ago

and the guy beside you would have been like,

especially in Craig Alvin, where I'm from,

lots of roundabouts and it would have been like,

take the third exit heading for Monbrief Road, you know,

and you were like, you had to look at the sign and stuff.

So it probably replaces him saying that

with the sat-nav saying it.

Remember the days of Garmin and Tom Tom?

I sold and I worked in offers.

I sold so many garments.

I hated Tom Tom.

So many people lost.

Give it, give it, give it, give it, give it, give it, Garmin.

Oh God, that's fucking Christmas Adverts.

They would haunt me.

They were a solid...

See, if you had somebody that was in your family,

it was Christmas and they're in the cart,

buy them at Garmin.

Yeah, it's a standard premium present.

I remember doing road trips like Edition 38 in England

and borrowing my dad's one.

Cause like this is back before I had a smartphone even,

never mind fucking anything else.

And then if you updated them

and somebody built a new road, it just went,

no, drive straight through the field.

Why are you driving through the field?

I just, it's like redirect, redirect.

I noticed that now with the sat-nav and the superb,

obviously, cause that's a 2017 car

and the sat-nav's never been updated on it.

So now sometimes when there's new roads, it doesn't know.

Well, they wouldn't affect you up north

cause they don't build a new road.

Ah, you're all right.

Maybe in the south.

South or built-in road just for fun.

That's me with that one.

Well, I have something quite similar

about driving legalities.

So drivers over 70 could be banned

if they fail a compulsory eye test.

I seen that there last week.

Moves partially in response to a coroner's inquest

into four road deaths caused by feeling eyesight,

where they called the UK's licensing system,

the laxist in Europe.

Not too sure that laxist is the word.

I would have said most lax, but okay.

But he's used it anyway.

Currently, the UK only requires self-reporting

of visual conditions affecting your ability to drive.

These changes are expected to be included

in a new road safety strategy

to be published by the government in the autumn.

Also expected to include potential medical tests

for conditions like dementia

and stricter drink drive limits for England and Wales

to match Scotland's already lower limit.

All seems pretty sensible to be fair.

Yeah.

So I think the thinking is with the over 70s,

when you're renewing your license,

over 70s have to renew every three years.

Oh, is that a thing?

That's already a thing.

That you must show proof of an eye test

in the past 12 months.

All for that.

Yeah, makes sense to me.

At the end of the day,

they're entitled to their freedom and they're ready to drive.

As long as it's there for them to do so.

That's it.

And I'll call a reference to two days ago

as I was walking up Railway Street in Cumber

and there's an old fella coming towards me

and I was in the same side of the road.

I mounted the curb and nearly hit me

as I was walking the dog.

I and you're on a footpath, like, yeah.

I remember my grandfather driving

and he had several strokes

and like you were taking your life in your hands,

being in the car with him.

My grandfather was the same.

He got in the car with him and just went,

I haven't got my test, but I'll drive for you.

Yeah.

Because I'm scared.

Yeah, you're 15 and you're driving for him.

And that's the thing.

It's kind of one of those like back then,

you probably got away with it.

There's a lot less people on the road.

We're now like most cars,

most houses then had one car per family.

Now you'll be lucky.

Like you guys, like every one of your houses

is going to have a car.

Yeah.

It's one.

Yeah.

That's you.

Yes, that's that one.

One I had, but then I realized it was no story.

I think it was, I don't know if it was no story

or not, I deleted it anyway.

Go for it.

But I think we talked about it before.

The Taycans get their headlights ripped out for drug farms.

Yes.

I saw a picture of one the other day.

Has that been read?

I don't know if it was in another one.

It was in Halden in January,

but I think it started to happen in London.

I was going to say, I don't think it's going to,

I think originally it was the GT3 cars.

We're getting the headlights,

like we basically just cut around the headlights

and lift it out.

And now obviously the Taycans are getting hit too.

I think it was your man TGE on YouTube.

He shared it.

I think it was in London.

What do you think of the cost of those to buy?

They're three and a half thousand pounds each.

Yeah.

But they're buying them

because they're low energy and they're high output

and they don't give off heat sense

or heat emissions.

So the drug farms are perfect for them basically.

Oh, hang on.

Sorry, I totally missed this.

The drug farms are stealing the headlights to grow weed?

Yes.

Ah, I didn't realize that.

A lot of...

I thought this was like backyard body shops

were stealing them.

If you're growing the stuff in the air loft,

it'll give off heat emissions.

Or so you hear.

So here.

Yeah.

And so sometimes those pesky police

will go up in a helicopter to do thermals

and detect it.

And this is...

Or if it's been snowing

and your house is in your house in the street

and there's no snow in the roof.

Yeah, that's another one too.

No, I just did an incident with the officer.

That's nuts.

Like when you consider that you can buy LED lights,

like high output LEDs and stuff,

that's an odd one now, but...

This picture I saw, like the car was wrecked.

It looks like someone got a turn opener to it.

Yeah, but it was like...

No, this was a black one.

Right.

But it was like all paled back, like in bits.

You know, like not even in one place.

They just got a metal walkie.

Just like paled, paled, paled.

Like a saws all.

It looks to me, when I see it any time,

it's like, you know, in a horror movie

when someone gets their eyes gouged out.

That's when you're like, you feel sorry for the car?

You're like, oh, fuck me.

I think they had to revise the headlights

in one of their courses.

They did.

Because you just needed two prongs to push in

to pop the headlights.

Straight out, yeah.

You could cut like a hole straight onto it and pop.

I think I revised them,

but now they just go gush and pop them out.

It's the same thing.

You see, guys, I'm in a few tool groups on Facebook

and guys will put anti-theft plates

on the doors of the vans.

So what would have been happening was

what the door latch was on the side door of the van.

They just cut around it.

So they'd like bond these big steel plates around it

and they just cut right around the plate.

Now, another very common one is

they just cut the roof out of it.

So they get onto the roof with a battery grinder,

open it like a fucking sardine,

jump in, fuck all the tools out,

and away they go.

Just gone.

And that's the thing.

It's the age old thing of like,

if they want it, they'll get it.

You know, that's the worst.

The most infuriating thing is you go to

some of the car boot sales in England.

Ace of sale.

You see all the best of tools for sale.

Oh, yeah.

So another one I have is,

do you remember it was the last year

BMW were trying to do a subscription service

for heated seats?

Yeah.

And it was a huge backlash against it.

Well, you would imagine Volkswagen

would have looked at that and thought themselves,

will not do that.

After the haptic scandal.

What did Volkswagen do?

Put it in.

See what we'll do, lads.

But it wasn't for the heated seats.

It's the ID 3 and the ID,

sorry, the ID 3 Pro and the ID 3 Pro S.

That sounds like an iPhone.

Doesn't it?

I was just thinking that.

I thought you were going to say Pro Max there for a moment.

They have a maximum output of like,

they're on their figure sheet is 228 horsepower.

But in the fine print,

it's a subscription service to get that amount.

What do you get is 201 horsepower

and the fine print rates that owners can activate

the optional power upgrade for a fee.

So you can do a one month free subscription.

Basically get your hook done on it, that extra,

what is it?

Basically it's supposed to be like a remap.

To get that extra 27 horsepower.

And then after that, it's 1650 per month.

165 pounds per year

or 650 pounds outright payment.

I'd be asked both swag and how does that

affect the life of my battery?

That's actually probably a decent question.

You know.

So like, but here's the thing, right?

Would I give 650 quid?

No.

Although oddly, I would give it for a remap for a TT.

Well, there's the thing.

Right, electric cars aren't there yet,

but then you're saying they will be.

Yes.

Okay.

So the boy that's mapping us go far now,

it's going to map his electric car then.

But all the stuff's already in there to do this.

So they're just basically.

The Amarack, they have three engine options.

Sorry, three power output, same engine.

Same engine.

What's the different software?

That's like, so basically what this is,

why would you not just give it the full power

and roll that 600 quid into the 50 grand the car costs?

Because they're never going to see that.

It's a very small amount

compared to the overall cost of the car.

We need to go and take the option sheet.

It's kind of like that.

It has it all, but you have to pay

whether you want it or whatever.

Sure, I was in, fell I work with Hussin A3,

a new A3 and it has cruise control,

but not adaptive cruise control,

but you can pay to.

Turn it on.

To turn it on.

So it has all the hardware for it.

It has it there, but you can't access it

unless you've paid for it.

The other thing I was reading

is that you're running the issues as well

that end user agreements.

So if I pay for that for a lifetime subscription

and sell the car,

that end user agreement is with me and Volkswagen,

not the next owner.

So they can charge them again if they want it.

So you do suppose you get that extra hit now and again.

But it just seems like the whole world

is going like this where it's like,

and this is very old man church at the sky,

but they're trying to get every fucking penny squeeze out of you.

And now it's come into cars

and you're like, this is absolutely nuts.

Like I just fuck you, you're just not doing it.

However, it will be a very long time

before that affects me.

I will say that.

It'll be a cold day in hell.

Yeah.

Anything else?

My next one is Ford have honored

late great Sabine Schmitz

by setting a Nurburgring record

in the 2000 horsepower Supervan 4.2.

I've seen that at Goodwood.

That thing shifts.

Yes.

Is that the electric one?

Yeah.

It's insane.

It just went, no.

It went past like...

Yeah.

That was the noise it made.

Oh, it's something out of the Jetsons.

So it was in the cable gloves of Roman Dumas.

Yep.

Managed a time of six minutes, 48.393 seconds.

That's insane.

Fastest time ever set by a, in quotes, van.

But also the ninth fastest car,

you know, car type vehicle ever.

So for anybody that, if you're listening to this,

obviously you know the story of Sabine Schmitz

and how this all came about

when she was on the Top Gear episode

where Clarkson went to the ring

and she scoffed at the times he was sitting in a Jaguar

and said, I could do that in a van.

And so a legend was born.

Ford's program manager, Michael Norton,

did concede that it is slightly pushing

the definition of a van

being a quad motor electric race vehicle on select tires.

But he did also say, we will never rest.

There's more to come,

not least with the F-150 Lightning Super Truck

that was also at the ring on the same day.

But for now, we will celebrate this achievement

and also remember Sabine and her part

in this amazing story.

That's cool.

Stalantis and particularly Citroen

are in a bit of hot water.

So that's last why there's been a bit of talk

over airbag recalls,

Ticada bags going off in,

a lot of their cars right back to 2009.

So it's like historic recalls to get them changed out

because apparently when they go off they're killing people

which kind of defeats the purpose of the airbag.

Yeah.

They reckon there's over 66,000 vehicles

need a replacement airbag at this point

which will probably hammer Citroen heavily.

But the big scandal is

some people are waiting up to two months

and they've been told to take the car in

and you can't drive up.

So they're taking the car,

it sets for two months

so they can get the demand for the airbag

or supply for it.

And you're being compensated 22 pounds per day.

For the loss of your car?

Yep.

So if you need to get a higher car,

22 pounds per day is what you're getting.

Which wouldn't look at it.

So that may.

You'd be lucky if it's what fucking 80,

80 quid a day.

Depends what you're hiring.

It used to be back in the day, it was 20 quid a day, but no.

Oh, God, no way, no, yeah.

So yeah, there's a lot of that.

I think there was a big recall on airbags

a couple of years ago.

Something tells me it was like Renault Nessan.

Yeah, and it was Takata again.

Takata's having a lot of problems with that stuff.

French cars and electric issues, who would've thought?

Shocked.

Who would've thunk it?

And then the last one is

literally just a very quick mention of

the another bit of a scandal is

the UK EV scheme has been extended.

I've seen that.

And so there's certain criteria you can meet,

including the cost of the car

and certain ways the car is manufactured

to get the maximum discount,

which is touted to be like three and a half grand off.

And there's currently not a car for sale in the UK

that meets the criteria to get the three and a half

grand off despite them offering that.

Nice.

Very good.

So the most you can get off currently

with the reins that is offered is 1500 pounds.

Which is nothing in terms of buying a new car.

Exactly, yeah.

Well, speaking of electric cars,

have you seen the new ID3 GTX Fire and Dice edition?

I haven't seen it.

I have, unfortunately.

So it was a concept of it released last year,

but it is now officially going into production,

limited run of 1,990 because 1990.

Yeah.

And they'll not sell them all.

Retailing at 48,360 pounds.

For Golf R or electric wash machine.

But it's also based on a Mark II Golf model

that nobody cared about.

A Fire and Dice was not something

people were fond of nobody.

Now when you see one like Ron and Heckey built that one,

and it's cool to see it because you never see them,

but like people were tripping over themselves

back in 1990 to buy one.

So the 48 grand is two grand more than a normal ID3 GTX.

Comes with the purple paint, as you would expect.

20 inch weight is red roof strips,

Fire and Dice logo graphics, sports seats,

hot and cold theme on the seats.

It's just like a little bit on the bolster.

It's not like the whole seats,

the way the old ones were.

Like cause they were like a checker pattern

of the purple and blue.

Fire and Dice logo is on the steering wheel,

instrument panel, door trims, and floor mats.

But also it's an electric car

and who really cares.

This infuriates me that Ronald can go around

and do the round five, remake, and you go,

you squint all the way back and go,

that looks like a round five.

And you make the connection.

Yep.

Bulls back.

I'll just stick a few stickers on

from a model in 1990.

Ronald have done what many did with the Beetle,

or sorry, the Beetle Jesus.

The Mini done, or BMW did with the Mini 25 years ago.

I've seen the AI renders that people have done

of a Mark II electric car.

Yeah.

You know, obviously it doesn't look like a Mark II,

but it has key points of it.

That's all you need.

And you're just sitting there going,

Bulls back and fucking do that.

You idiots.

This kind of ties into what my topic's gonna be,

but like design language doesn't have to be identical.

It can be key features. Features.

Things like the shape of the back window,

the tie-in, a round headlight,

the wee suede sign on the C pillar.

You know, things that got is what triggers.

And that's the only thing,

most people don't even realize they're seeing that,

but the something in their brain goes,

that looks like a Mark II.

That reminds me of, yeah.

Also in electric car news, again,

I literally have one sentence about this

because fuck electric cars.

That a Polestar III set a new record

for 581.3 miles on a single charge.

It's pretty good, I guess.

If you're into that kind of thing.

It's actually, to be fair,

that's a good sign of things to come for electric

because that's a massive hindrance with them.

IQ five can go 600 miles on a single charge of diesel.

Yeah, same.

I've never owned a vehicle,

look up more than like 300 miles.

Golf R says 310 when you fell it.

That's because you refuse by diesel,

so you can fuck off.

That's the thing.

People talk to me, oh, you've been to an EV

and I was like, I haven't met it in the diesels yet.

Speaking of proper cars, here we go.

So we're big fans of an Octavia

here on Reload Podcast, I think it's fair to say.

Especially the VRSs.

Obviously, I drive a superb.

Well, there's a new Octavia on the block,

but this one is definitely not a medium-sized scooter.

It's a Resto-modded 1971 Aston DBS

unveiled at the Monterey Car Week

by Wisconsin-based Ring Brothers.

It has a Ford performance supercharged

5.0-litre V8 producing 805 horsepower.

The wheelbase has been lengthened by three inches

and widened the track by eight inches

in the front and 10 in the rear.

The name Octavia comes

from the James Bond film Octopussy,

one of several nods to the franchise throughout the car,

including a dipstick handle,

which is shaped like a martini glass,

complete with olive.

Of course.

Quote, we asked ourselves,

what would an MI6 agent drive on holiday?

I said co-owner Jim Ring, and this was the result.

I must say, look up the photos

because it does look evil as fuck.

DBS, a beautiful car, anyway.

It's a bit like that supercat that I keep going on about.

It's like that, except an Aston.

That's the V12 that was a good one.

Yeah, you think you've seen a RON, didn't you?

It was also at Roll Hard,

which is I'm slightly raging that we missed it

because I would have liked to have seen that.

My last piece of news is the Fast and Furious arcade game.

We've all played, I think.

Well, I think I've played that, yeah.

Pretty good, pretty big fans of it.

It's come into consoles for the first time.

So it will save you from sticky arcade seats,

screaming children, and possibly stale popcorn.

It's also probably not quite as much fun.

No, definitely not.

A lot, probably a lot cheaper, though.

Well.

OK, so we're done with news.

Anybody have any YouTube's?

Before we move on, I just want to make a quick mention

about the passing of a local motor enthusiast.

Too right.

Lennie Hutchison.

I've known Lennie probably close to 20 years.

If you've been to car shows in the last 15 years,

Lennie was key figure at all the shows in the Blue Beetle.

It was a Teen T, Chin to the Moon.

Just a white body kit.

It's just a devastating loss to the whole community.

I can't wait to see that.

Lennie was a gentleman, and he passed away two weeks ago.

Very sad and thoughts and prayers with the family at the moment.

Yeah, absolutely.

YouTube, then?

Have you guys got any?

Nope.

Yep.

Thought that he was going to surprise us, sorry.

OK.

My first one is Joss Gresswell of famous Taylor Hetherington.

Drama.

He done a very good video there that I quite enjoyed.

He bought a Lupo 16 valve that was abandoned.

Do you remember it was just before COVID or after COVID?

The boys got their cars all impounded

in the way they were to see the state.

Part of that trip, Joss was in it.

I didn't realize that.

And his mate was driving a black Lupo.

OK.

Sort of show car in the air, and fancy wheels and all the rest of it.

So Joss bought it back.

And he done this pretty good video of,

I'm going to make a journey to the sort of the way

where they see the done.

Yes.

The excess car notes.

So they went back to it.

Yeah.

He done that.

So it's quite a long video.

It's about 50 months.

So he basically went over the car, fixed everything,

cleaned it.

It was absolutely boggling.

All set of wheels refurbed them.

Just really interesting to see the story of them rebuilding it.

And then the actual story of traveling across.

Didn't work with a few hicks or without a few hitches.

He broke down a couple of times, had different issues.

But he got there in the end.

And that's the sort of thing you want to do

and make memories in your life.

And have a bit of fun.

Yeah.

So it definitely worth watching.

Just a squeaky bum time, though,

crossing back across Germany, knowing what had happened to you

a few years ago.

Yeah.

So then he FaceTimed the fellow's old car.

Where's he?

He works to McLaren, I think it is now.

OK.

He FaceTimed him.

And so I went, oh, how's it going?

Because he never told him.

What he was doing?

What he was doing.

I FaceTimed.

He says, oh, how's it going?

Are you all right?

Can you talk?

He says, yeah, I'm just having lunch here.

And he had the McLaren t-shirt and all the rest of it.

And he says, look where we are.

And he just turned the camera around.

And there was the sit and mint, just in front of the mountains

where they broke down.

And he just thought it was brilliant.

I must check that out, because I quite like a lot of his stuff.

Yeah, he's a very good welder.

And yeah, he's good to follow.

He does a good video, like, absolutely.

First one I have is actually sent in by Josh from Vaggie.

Gears and gasoline.

I've got that one guys.

Have you watched that?

The road trip.

Yeah.

So they've come to the UK.

See most of their stuff, or most of their stuff.

A lot of stuff would be track stuff.

And it's all right.

See the road trips.

They do the road trips.

They're really good.

Brilliant.

So they've gone to the UK, they're both by a car,

sight unseen.

So they're coming over from America.

I didn't realize this.

So one of them bought an FN2 type R.

I didn't realize that the Americans didn't get them.

Because he was walking around it.

And I was like, he's talking like he's never seen one of these before.

And then I was like.

Then he drops the fact that they never got them.

Yeah.

And then, because they obviously got the EP3s.

And then the other one, he bought Evo9 Estate.

It was right up your street.

But it was not automatic.

It was not automatic.

And he bought it out of Scotland.

So I wouldn't buy an Evo out of the Sahara Desert

because it'll probably be rotten somehow.

And this man bought this out of Scotland.

Aberdeen on the coast.

Aberdeen, yes.

An oil rig worker had it, obviously.

And you can see the point where he opens the bonnet.

And there's like rustle on the front slam panel.

I'm like.

You were getting Mark III throwbacks.

I was like, oh, yep.

I was twitching.

But it was really good.

So they're sort of going around the first episode.

They go down to Silverstone.

F1's on.

They're invited down by.

Sponsored by Vavalene.

So Vavalene of the tie-in with Aston Martin.

Aston Martin, yes.

That's right.

And they go to the factory and they see all around.

It's very, very good.

The bump into this guy, they're

trying to find dinner at like 8 o'clock at night.

Yes.

And the bump, they're like walking down the street.

And I thought it was set up when I first watched it.

And then I watched it back and I went, nah, it wasn't.

He just appeared out of nowhere.

It just reminded me initially.

Here's a decade trying to get in front of the camera.

Yeah.

And he was, but.

But he was also a bar owner who was steaming.

And he was like.

Properly steaming.

Like, Wankert.

And he was like, what are you doing?

And he was like, I'm trying to find food.

And he was like, well, I'm where he's from.

What's happening?

And then he says, where do you try?

And this is how we tried that bar there.

But it's closed.

And he was like.

I can get you food.

And he's like, how he goes, I'll fucking open the kitchen.

But you can see at this point when you realize

big rosy red cheeks.

This has been drinking wine all day.

You're like.

He's just swaying every so often.

And he's wearing a guy's or connecting properly.

Looks like it's sort of like a beigey white suit.

But like a.

He had a.

You know what he had on him?

Did you see the thing dangling off a jacket?

What's that?

That's the horse enclosure access.

Was it?

I think so.

Yeah.

See in this jacket, there's a sag.

It's other.

It's either it's been the horse races

or he's been the Silverstone.

And that's where he's at then.

He's been steaming going back.

Got VIP somewhere.

But it's quite funny when the interaction

and they said that they're like,

even though this man was clearly hammered,

he was very friendly.

But it's actually it's a really, really good video that.

Going to Scotland in the next one.

Yes, that'll be good up around the NC 500.

They're spending 14 days or so spending.

Yep.

But the way they met, like he got his car in Manchester.

He got it in Aberdeen.

And then they met in Newcastle and then it drove south.

But then Americans don't care about the ground

they're covering.

We're a small country compared to them.

Like that's them driving within a state.

You know, like a four hour drive to them is nothing

except in our roads are shite.

Although in England, they're a lot better than ours are.

It's funny watching them do roundabouts.

Oh, very funny.

There was one point he said he stopped his mate's dad

and was like, did I cut that guy off?

I'm not actually sure what I'm doing there.

And he was like, no, no, you're good.

The other one then was sent in.

And actually Robin sent me this.

Robin from Studio 10.

It was ammo NYC.

Laurie.

Have you watched it?

Not yet.

So he messes me and he was like,

do I know this guy, Corey Sterling, who's in this video.

And I was like, yes, you do.

That's Corey.

Obviously he was over for dub shed

and runs flag fair over in the States.

Really, really good.

So the Laurie, big, big vote so I can go from years ago.

Gets himself a Montana green big bumper GTI mark two.

And it is a dog.

It is.

And it goes from this needs detailed to a full restoration.

And I mean, it is a full turd on.

It's a very, but not a long video.

I've never watched any Laurie's videos.

I know of them, but I've been in detail

and usually don't mix.

And to be honest with you, I have very good videos

and he's not in your face.

He's not like what I'm doing.

And he's very factual about like, we did this

and he shows you the tricks and the tips.

And you could actually pick up a lot,

I reckon from the videos, which is very good.

Yeah, he's good.

That's a lot of them.

So many times he says the word urine because it is lots.

You can make a drinking game out of it.

Don't eat your dinner, you're not because learn that.

Yeah.

It's the top gear forensic episode.

Yeah, it's a bit like that.

Yeah.

Nice.

Hot tip, drinking game.

Yeah.

Try it out.

You'll be hammered.

What else you got, Nigel?

My final one is just BKR.

He done a BMW, a £400 BMW series

and he done on a second channel, his girlfriend's mini.

So they're both shitboxes.

He bought a, I guess 2011 diesel,

the white diesel BMW3 series, it's dead.

And something wrong with the gearbox,

few issues and all the rest of it.

I really enjoyed it because

knowing that there's a problem with something,

you try to figure it out.

Yeah.

And they do it on the cheap,

not on the cheap, but as in badly.

They just don't replace the gearbox.

Yeah.

They find the problem, they sort it.

It was just a real satisfying series,

but the one I enjoyed more was the girlfriend's car.

So I guess one out of this girl year two now

and she drives a mini.

She has owned it from you.

Or is it new or nearly new?

And never serviced it.

And there's 140,000 miles on it.

Oh.

The thing looks like it needs scraps,

which is emotional tie to it and all the rest.

And he says, ah, I think he just went,

this'll be a fun video.

Thing got detailed very quickly.

He just had the bike brakes.

He had to do this.

Every bolt he went to, everything he went to

was just a shit show.

I'd like to take the rocker cover off that.

He did.

How was that?

What do you expect?

No as fast as you thought.

Oh, I was expecting to be black guns in there.

It was using a lot of oil because

the rocker cover gasket was just brittle.

So it was pretty much getting fresh oil all the time.

He reckons that's what kept it alive.

You're currently putting fresh oil to it.

That's servicing it itself.

There's no bits in the oil filter.

That's seriously impressive.

And yeah, I think it's a two or three part series.

I think the third one's gonna be them detailing it.

But I just found it really, really fun video.

And him and Andy, they're a good crack

to listen to in the do video as well.

I like that, yeah.

Because that's like something,

how often do you see a car that is 140,000 miles on it?

That's never been serviced.

But as the funny bit was the way

they were sort of going, why are we doing this?

Why are we doing this?

And your boy, Andy, was going, right.

Wendell was saying, enough, enough.

And Josh was going, well, you know,

it's emotional, tired turn or isn't it?

He says, well, how much is enough enough for you?

That's kind of like that.

I'm a NYC video with the Mark II.

You're like, at what point does this become a detail?

At what point has he gone?

I've lost the plot here.

I think he said when he was in

and had tore it down at that point,

you will have to finish it.

So yeah, BQR always puts out decent videos.

Excellent.

Is that you?

Yeah.

Okay, well, we move on to the topic then.

So this topic is something I just have been reading

and sort of scanning through stuff and work on my breaks.

And I quite like car design

and I kind of get onto the topic in my own head

of ugly cars.

And I kind of challenge myself.

This is, I'm gonna find five incredibly ugly cars

to talk about and some we know, some we don't.

And car design is very subjective.

You know, what looks good to some people

doesn't look good to others is the thing.

And sometimes in cars you're designed to look bad,

but they age well.

Yes, there's also a science to it.

And if it's done wrong,

there'll be a design that will never look good.

Doesn't matter how many years pass

or whose eyes fall on it.

A lot of times it's to do with like

how the lines flow in the car

and like I said earlier,

we don't even realize that you're seeing those things

just that, you know, in your head that it works.

A lot of distinctive design like BMW,

the kidney grills is their big thing,

but there's also stuff that's kind of controversial

of late as well, the kidney grills, the size of them.

But there's other things as well

that you don't even realize you're seeing.

And one of these things I seen

was called the Hofmeister Kink.

Okay, sounds sexual.

Yes, it sounds like Mr. Hofmeister

was tied to bed and getting beat.

But he wasn't, and he wasn't in defeat either,

or at least not that I'm aware of.

But what he did do was pen two opposing angles on a BMW

and see when I read this,

if you pull up, each of you's pull up a picture

of side profile of a random BMW,

like say a three series of any shape,

what you'll notice is the C pillar

runs down at an angle and the window follows it.

And at the bottom of the glass,

it cuts back to the other way.

Yes.

And BMW have used that on almost every BMW car

from 1960 onwards.

As a partner design.

Yep, as we think to get you probably

don't even realize that you're seeing

which is quite cool.

So.

Sorry, I just seen a picture of 2002 TA there

and got wicked in these.

They're unbelievable, I love them.

So the first one, if you just want to look up,

is a Tatra 603.

So if you're listening, built,

it's a Czechoslovakian car, built 1956 to 1975.

Four door body style, sleek lines,

kind of looks at that like 50s, 60s era Americana.

Everything kind of flows.

There's an air-cooled V8 in the back.

It all sounds very good.

Yes, side profile, beautiful looking car.

That could be a set run of that era.

Until you look at the front of it

and it has three headlights.

It looks like Admiral Ackbar.

It does.

It's a trap.

By an Ackbar, it is a trap.

So.

When you call your man off SpongeBob enemy,

well in the plankton.

Yes, plankton.

Except plankton.

It reminded me of the hooker

from Total Recall with the three tits.

You nailed it there.

Yep.

Why anyone decided

in fucking 1950s communist Czechoslovakia,

we needed three headlights.

Surely we'd be reducing the numbers.

Why they thought this was a good move, I don't know.

But I still maintain it is such an ugly car.

If that had two normal headlights,

I think that would be quite a good looking car.

No, you see, I'm seeing pictures of like two sets of two

and it still doesn't look good.

All right, theirs is aeronautical.

Yeah.

Yep.

It looks like a weird like a fish mouth

as well at the front.

Admiral Akbar, that's where I got that from.

It's very strange.

Yeah, if the headlights were shorter up

and more to the side, it would look far better.

Honestly, it would look more like a Citroen, I think.

Yeah, why are the lights so close to the middle?

Yeah, they're in the middle and the three.

I also will preface as well that I have not,

I've purposely put a cutoff point of 2010 on this.

So everything is pre 2010

because in my opinion modern cars

are incredibly ugly to attack

or incredibly easy to attack for looks.

Yeah.

Like the Cybertruck modern BMWs.

Yeah.

So we'll just leave it at that.

Another one I had on the list then

was the good old 2004, 2013 Sanyan Rodius.

Yeah, they're a weird looking thing.

They are.

So they borrowed heavily mechanically from Mercedes

but unfortunately not in the style department.

If you look at it,

it's also a vehicle that looks like it was built

from spur parts.

Which it probably was.

None of the lines flow,

the headlights don't flow with the body,

the tail lights don't flow with the body

and from the side profile, it looks like a fastback.

That's the one, Nigel.

It looks like a fastback.

You look at that sea pillar.

It looks like a fastback.

They put a cabin top on it or something.

Yeah, and suddenly went, no, no, we don't want that.

We want it to be extended.

Yeah.

And they've just went, okay.

And just drew a line on it.

There's something quite Chrysler-ish about them,

I think.

It's a grille.

They're absolutely horrible.

They're a car that I think like the Americans talk about the,

is it the Pontiac Aztec is the ugliest car?

Yeah.

Picture a boy wearing a paper bag of words.

Yep.

When they were released,

those from the press releases,

they were described as everything from hideous

to interesting.

And neither of those words

are what I want my car described as.

Cause I feel like both are hideous.

One's just made slightly more polite than the other.

Yep.

Moving on.

I must at least dismay.

We're jumping into 2000 to 2010.

No.

For the Chrysler.

I won't hear it.

PT Cruiser.

No, they're a great car.

On that point, they are actually quite a good car.

Yes, I know.

Cause they're Mercedes.

Are they?

Or am I thinking of something else?

The PT Cruiser.

I think they're a Merc.

I'm not sure what they're underneath.

But I was reading on them

and apparently it's an actual vehicle.

They're fantastic.

They have lots of boot space.

The seats fold down.

They look so cool.

You can turn them into a van.

Oddly, they were classified in America

on emissions wise as a truck

because it brought their trucks emissions fleet down.

Right.

But it's just a car.

Such an odd design.

Yeah, they were supposed to mimic

the 1930s cars of America.

That's what I'm saying.

That's what they look like.

I love them.

And the idea was that many...

Like picture a Citroen traction event.

It looks like it's humped up on a PT Cruiser.

That's what they are.

The problem is the original design is fantastic.

It's when it gets its way through a committee to be built.

And you have to have all the safety standards

and the rounded edges and the blah, blah, blah.

But I still like them.

Tell you what.

That's what it should look like.

Yes.

Nice black one.

It dropped on a big set of slot marks or something.

Do you know why black looks good?

Because you can't see the lines.

Like drop.

Jumping back in time then, 1986 to 1990

was the Aston Martin Lagonda.

Oh, I remember that.

So the series one is a beautiful car.

Like a properly beautiful car.

The series three and four, however, is not.

If you know what a Azuzu Piazza Turbo looks like,

it looks like an upmarket version of one of those.

The front looked like the classic wedge shape.

Then it gets to the back and they remember,

there's it indeed Nigel,

gets to the back and it remembers it needs to have four doors.

So the design totally changes.

Oh my.

And oddly enough,

count the number of headlights in the front.

It's not two, not four, six headlights on the front.

Because more is better.

More is better.

When you're rich.

That's it.

Such a weird looking car.

And I'm aware that a lot of people will be driving

when they're listening to this,

but it's definitely worth a Google when they stop.

Aston Martin Lagonda, 1990 because.

The, it's the proportions.

Yeah.

The front's too long or yeah.

It's absolutely horrendous.

Like it's such a weird car.

And then lastly on my list,

and will be no surprise to any European listeners.

I know what it is.

Call it out.

Fate multiple.

The fate multiple.

Yeah.

The car.

It was the first thing came to my mind

when you started talking about this.

Yep.

The car that you literally makes you go, why?

The proportions of it are so weird.

So you have two tiny headlights in the front

and then you have another two tiny headlights

under the windscreen.

And the pillars for no reason.

And for some reason,

the whole car looks like two cars

that have been cut in half.

And slotted on top of each other.

Yeah.

It reminds me,

do you ever see someone who has a giant forehead?

Like it's bulbous.

It looks like a light bulb.

Yeah.

That thing has been stung by wasps.

It is so, so strange.

I just can't get my head around

why fate looks at that and went,

this is the move for us.

Oddly enough though,

there's supposed to be an absolutely fantastic car.

They do the whole family thing really, really well.

Here's the thing that I think of

and I think of the Multipla.

Which game first?

The Multipla or the Round Alventine?

Oh, I don't know.

Because I think, look at that.

The Alventine looks newer,

but what does it say?

What year the Alventine is?

The Alventine looks newer to me,

but then it was very stylish.

They sort of went, oh, we can make that.

We're Italian.

2002, was the Round Alventine.

Oh, no, it was, oh, it was the release

of the Multipla.

So it was actually quite well before it.

When Puppetty Bobby Boo will just copy that

and do her own retouch.

It's, I don't know.

The Multipla was out before that.

Hi, the Multipla was out in 98.

Oh, you said you guys knew it.

Sorry, I said it was there.

Oh, right, okay, sorry.

Oh, it's, that would make sense, yeah.

Apologies, Fiat.

I do apologize.

The Alventine, I think is one of those ones that,

that you said were they were ugly when they came out,

but actually if you see one now, you kind of go.

They're curly.

That's kind of cool.

And then the one real hard, slammed.

Yeah.

Wouldn't.

Whereas the Multipla,

I don't think you're ever going to say that.

I've seen Modify, Multiplas and Bag stuff

and it still doesn't look right.

It just looks weird.

Coming off the back of this, I thought as well,

I would sort of look at something,

things slightly different and think to myself,

cars that should be ugly, but aren't to me.

So first of all is the Plymouth Prowler, 97-03.

The Prowler.

At first glance, you kind of look at and you go,

oh, that's their take on an actual proper hot rod

and stuff like tacky and stuff like that.

And when you actually look at it and go, no, that's cool.

The biggest problem they have is

they had to put like the kind of forward bumpers on it.

And the concept probably looks amazing for them.

Yep.

And I've seen them with them removed

and it just looks like a proper custom hot rod.

It was actually designed by Chip Fuss

in his really early days as well.

And that's kind of what put him

solidly on the map with a lot of the OEM manufacturers.

Another one I had then was the Nissan S-Cargo,

aka the S-Cargo, aka the Snail,

because it actually looks like a snail on the side.

Do you know what I'm talking about with these?

What's that, what is it called?

The S-Cargo, like the little S-Nin-Cargo,

it's a Nissan.

They're actually more cute than they are ugly.

I quite like them.

And I also like that it has a plan as name.

Yep.

Those things are like right back to like 89,

I think they were made.

And then the last one...

Is there not a round sort of similar to that?

There is, yeah.

I'm trying to think of the name,

but now you've put it in my head.

Oh God.

There's a couple of those sit down the road

from us as well, which is weird.

Yeah.

And then lastly for ugly that aren't,

in my opinion, is the Nissan Cube.

Oh yeah, I thought they were actually all right.

So, but it should be ugly.

Like it's an asymmetrical vehicle.

When do you ever see asymmetrical designs in cars?

Yeah.

Cause it doesn't work, but for some reason,

these giant micros really work for me

in this weird kind of way.

And then it started to think as well

as I kind of break my own rules and go after 2010.

Cause I want to say something very controversial

that you may or may not agree with me.

Joe, I think is incredibly ugly car

and people love them.

Alpine A110.

Now not the original one, cause it is.

And they're cool.

The newer ones.

Every time I look at those cars,

the proportions don't work for me.

The body lines are weird.

I've never seen an angle that I've looked at that car

and went that is spot on.

And it's like too narrow at the front.

Yeah.

And the back tapers off and stay as narrow

and I don't know what it is.

Initially I look at them and go,

those are really nice.

And then when I get in on them.

I remember they came out and people are going,

oh, there's the best driving car ever.

And then it's just sort of a.

They're probably a fantastic driving car.

The original Alpine is class.

It is gorgeous.

Yeah.

I think they've done it dirty with that one.

They're like a Porsche with the wrong proportions.

Yeah.

It looks like a Chinese knock off.

Sorry Alpine.

I think the front round headlights do nothing for it.

Yes.

It looks like, you know,

when you get that kind of goop in the corner of your eye,

it looks kind of like a foul.

It does actually.

Yes.

So yeah, that's just a little fun little topic.

I wonder chat about what we're there.

There's all sorts of stuff, isn't it?

Like I'm not a designer.

I have artistic skills of a boiled potato,

as many of you will know.

But there's lots of stuff about golden ratios

and the rule of thirds

and people who are into photography and stuff

will tell you all about these type of things.

And I don't understand any of it,

but obviously some of those designers

didn't understand it either.

That's to say there is a science to a lot of it as well.

That you don't even realize you're saying,

but it just works and nature has a whole lot of that as well.

Yeah.

So it's cool.

But thank you for letting me round this one.

That was fun.

Thank you.

Shall we move on to questions?

Why not?

Here we go.

First one, then we have, oh god,

less car talk again in the show.

Is it food?

Close.

Jake Loog.

Oh, it's Jake.

Of course, Jake.

Biggest fight known to man.

Check it out on YouTube.

What's the best supermarket?

Best supermarket?

Depends what best, what is best?

As in like, what do you classify as the best?

Like what's your criteria?

Market.

For taste and yeah.

Trader Joe's.

Fresh fruit in America, yeah.

Although Walmart's, yeah.

It's Trader Joe's or Alder and the Scale, Aldi.

Harbor frit.

For me, back home, I literally shop in Tesco

for convenience, but like they're meat shit.

The fruit is terrible.

Just, and then they put these new fridges in

and you have, you used to be able to glance down

the fridge aisle and see what you needed.

No, you can't.

Now you have to walk to every door to see into it.

To be honest, I actually shopped a little

quite a bit as well, yeah.

Little and Aldi, hard to walk.

And their fruit and veg and meat and stuff

is actually very good.

I do a lot of my shopping on Sainsbury's.

Cause right beside the airport.

And their fresh fruit and veg is very good.

That's good.

There was a Sainsbury's local in the Closet for us.

I find like, if you buy bananas out of Tesco,

they have no taste.

They're just texture and no taste.

Their apples are the same.

They spray them with D flavoring and spray or something.

These people do deserve a flavor.

Underscore Vic, underscore Alan, underscore says,

there's already Otis and Hugo,

what's Connor gonna crisp in the TT?

Probably nothing.

I thought you named them.

No, I didn't give the Bora a name

and I haven't had anything come to me yet for the TT.

And to be honest with you, I think they're too modern.

I think that's my thing.

Right.

Well, you've named a lawnmower that's three months old.

Ah, but he's Elmo. He's cool.

He's out there.

Elmo.

The work that man does.

He's on real.

He's a-

Hardest worker in the house.

He deserves, he is.

The robots all rise Sunday.

Connor will regret it.

And look, I've looked after him.

He'll remember that.

And look, it chopped up on the lawn.

I have nicknamed the R32

because I haven't got a name for the R32 yet.

But at the minute it's called Cap and Jack.

Oh, yes.

Because when you're driving down the road

with the windows down

and the headliners flapping like a seal.

Yeah, that's like the black pearl.

That's pretty true.

Someday you're gonna fix that head cloth

and gain about five inches headroom.

Yeah.

Mark underscore Mark one says,

what's the big good?

What's the most dodgy moment you've had in a car?

Near miss, almost getting caught, crashes, et cetera.

One of my closest ones was actually with Stefan one day

or one night.

We're coming back from Fermana,

having bought a set of

oh, Corvette's Opelhead wheels

and his red TDI Mark three.

This has gone way back.

And we're coming along the main road

past where trainers is.

So you have big stretch of main road,

hard shoulder either side.

And here the every mod done.

And back then that TDI felt like

the quickest thing in the world.

And we were hammering four wheels behind us.

I can actually remember what we were listening to was

ah, God, big pun.

And fuck, what is a big pun?

And it's twins is the name of the song.

And next thing he would come up with,

we probably were doing highly illegal speeds,

come up a car on a car in front of us

and he went to like whip out round it and overtake

and didn't realize until last second

that there was a car coming head on

with very dim headlights.

And I just remember going, oh fuck.

And he said the same.

And it happened that quick.

He couldn't even get onto the brakes.

He just kept crossing

and buried her onto the hard shoulder on the brakes.

And it was one of those ones

we both sort of sat in silence

and just looked at each other and were like,

you all right?

And I was like, yep.

And we just kind of sat there and laughed for a bit

and was like, we nearly fucking died.

Yeah, lovely.

Like it was split second,

pulled out and went, oh, there's a car.

And he just had to keep going across the road

and onto the other hard shoulder.

Is there anything in the hard shoulder

that would have fucked?

Or if there hadn't been a hard shoulder?

Yes, correct.

Aye, that one was always stuck with me.

That was, I think it stuck with me more

because I was the passenger

and couldn't do anything about it.

Yeah.

I think that hit me harder.

The one that immediately springs to mind for me

is I borrowed my dad's course of B

and I was going to work one day

and it was icy.

And I knew it was icy,

but you know when you're like tired in the morning

and you just don't really fit?

Because I knew,

because I defrosted the car.

So I knew it was cold

and it was going along,

doing my normal speeds,

not thinking about ice

and coming around this big sweeping corner

and touched the brakes

and she just spun around,

basically not quite 360,

but near enough 360 in the road.

And I just sort of turned her a little bit

and kept on going the way I was going

and was like, oh, that was a close one.

And that didn't happen.

Yeah.

That's not a quite fast stretch road, that, isn't it?

Yeah.

Curtis, Sharon Hegel?

Maybe not.

Been on a few free crashes.

Fortunately, I wasn't driving.

Near misses, probably,

I used to have a Polo Cup A.S.

and me and my friend were driving

from Monterrey to Cumber.

Nice.

What do you call that?

A road or B road?

I don't know.

It was a B road.

A B road.

B road.

And we were trampling on rightly,

thinking we're called McCry,

and came around this sweeping corner

at probably 40 to 50% more than it should have been.

And the back end just went on me.

Oh, no.

And I remember going one way, then the other,

and then I realized, me, it was in front of me.

And, no, sorry, he was behind me.

He was behind me, that's right,

because that's why I was going something.

He's just pushing me.

He's an SRI Nova, for goodness' sake.

Oh, yeah, he's pushing up the road.

So I went one way, then the other,

and then I realized there was a car

coming towards me the other way.

By this stage, I just went right,

I'm heading flat head.

So I can't even remember doing it mentally.

I flicked the handbrake,

de-corrected, spun round,

and I ended up on the other side of the road

with the car coming towards me.

It had stopped, because I'd seen it happen.

Oh, God.

And the meet was behind me.

There was just a big cloud of tar smoke,

and he was just looking at me like this here, going,

What just happened?

And there was a wee slight mark on my wheel

from it, in the curb.

And that was it?

That was it.

On rail.

That was pretty high speeds.

That was a real getaway, get out of the jeel car, David.

Aye, you could have had a bad accident.

Yeah, and I just sort of turned the car quickly

and put the window down.

I says, I'm really, really sorry.

I'm really, really sorry, really, you know.

So what, that's the best thing to do.

And that's its reason too,

just like hold your hands up and apologize,

because at the very least,

you'll see that young fellow shipping himself.

He learned a lesson there, you know, that kind of thing.

That was, I was, put your pants down there, like,

the street of Browntown.

Yeah, I've been in with people and they've crashed,

and I was younger, and it did put me off

as being a passenger in a car.

Like, we used to play football on a Tuesday night

and carried off a leg center,

and there's a wee chicane at the end of the driveway

on the car, and this fellow was driving,

and he thought he was, what?

I remember you telling this in the podcast

years ago, actually, yeah, keep going.

He ended up upside down,

it was the slowest dangerous crash ever.

Yeah, on a tiny roundabout.

Just flipped over, or all rift,

and it was in the front seat,

he basically got his forehead ground away.

Yeah, I remember you telling us that,

and you were like, it happened that slowly,

you had no idea how it actually happened.

We're getting out there, just going.

And then when you're upside down,

the panic sort of hits you as if,

could you've watched all these movies?

Yep, oh, it's going to go on fire, yeah.

It's like The Simpsons, the Ring Rolls Over,

and goes on fire.

Well, apart from that, yeah.

Another one then, we have from,

I'm going to butcher this name,

Michael Kenfic, K-E-N-E-F-I-E-C-K.

He says, hi guys, absolutely.

I'm loving the podcast.

I've done a Ben's lesson at working nearly caught up.

Good morning.

For a year of sanity.

My question is, I'm going to Wolfsburg this Wednesday.

Very good.

Jealous.

On the car I'm most looking forward to seeing

is the Golf A59, big Mark III fanboy,

which is the rally car that didn't make it.

If you went or are going to go,

what would the car you'd like to see?

Thanks for looking forward to the next episode.

Thank you very much for listening.

Cool question.

There's a lot.

I think I would actually want to see

more of the development stuff.

Skullwork stuff.

Yeah, especially engines.

The weird, like the TDI VR sexes,

the two-liter...

Yeah, the funky stuff.

Yeah, the two-liter counterflow VR sexes

and weird shit like that.

I'd really like to see the Corrado Magnums,

but I think they're in a private collection now.

Do you know about those?

Yeah, they're like a shooting break.

Yeah.

I'm not sure if they're at Wolfsburg now.

I would like to see one of those in real life.

And to be honest, the A59 might be my pick.

I think I'd like to.

I would like to see one of those.

The A59, when you look at it beside an R32,

if you look at the cutouts and the bumpers and stuff,

they're much smaller, but they mimic the same...

You see the cues?

...shapes to the R32.

And the same with the back bumper,

the way the exhaust and stuff are.

You can see the styling cues where they carried it through.

I think I'd like to see the W12 again, the Golf.

Oh, yes.

I've never actually seen that before.

I've seen that in the flash driving

at GT International many, many years ago.

We went to Worthlessy the one year we went

and they unveiled the convertible Mark VI.

I was like, great.

Where's the W12?

Or the W12, yeah.

So, look that up.

There was so much speculation that,

oh, they're actually going to make this.

It's a concept and all the rest of it.

It just never happened.

And it would have been so cool.

Because, like, and you say, oh, why would they do that?

Clarkson did that, didn't he?

He did, yeah.

And it was just all over the place.

But you can say, like, what?

Well, then it was a development car.

It never works.

But you say, like, oh, they would never

want to build it.

But sure, Reynolds built the fucking V6 Clio

with the engine and the engine.

You know, why wouldn't that?

That was a death trap.

Oh, it was.

But they're so cool.

Yeah.

I love one of those too.

They're really cool.

Do you know what I'd like to see again,

actually, the rest of our?

Yes, the Dakar.

Oh, cool.

But the one, like, the concept one that?

The chopped roof.

That there were, it was going to be a road car

because it was that where they see that year.

That's right, actually.

The white one.

It was floating out on the lake.

Yeah.

But obviously they never made it.

Boo.

Because they're so cool.

Next one then we have is Chris Maron.

He says, have new cars lost it?

Yes.

Possibly.

Depends on the manufacturer, but a lot of them have.

Everything from everything looking the same.

Performance stuff restricted by filters and nanny aids.

High interest rates.

Who the fuck buys new cars anymore?

Well, I'm not Narn.

DLA.

DLA, yeah.

Yeah.

Was it 42 or 44% of the new cars or all DLA?

Oh, really?

Yep.

Oh, that doesn't shock me.

Sure.

I know.

McDonald's, I can almost speak.

Steve Knowland on a programme one morning.

Oh, DLA?

About?

I don't listen to no one because I get angry.

It can only be, like, the percentage of private buyers

has got to be really small.

Because it'll either be fleet vehicles, company cars.

Yeah.

And DLA, like.

I would say, yeah, well, 42% of new cars are DLA.

Large portion, that'll be fleet and

yeah, imagine the other 42% is probably that

and then whatever, left private.

He also says also carplay retrofits

are the biggest game changer for older cars,

in my opinion, up the hoods.

Absolutely.

Yeah.

I quite like carplay and I'm not a modern car guy,

but when I get into modern cars with carplay,

I'm like, this is just easy.

It just works.

My carplay has stopped working in the superb.

And like, talk about first world problems,

but I'm so cross about it.

Really, it's how great it is and what's going on.

It's not, I don't believe it's a problem with the superb.

I think it's an Apple problem.

They're not supporting older stuff anymore.

All right, they've done an update or something.

Yeah.

Because since the 16.1 whatever update,

it just stopped working overnight.

It's tray, tray anyway.

New cars have lost it.

Simple as that, yeah.

Especially if you want to say in our realm Volkswagen.

Yeah.

Which is so, it started years ago with the

motorsport division being shut down.

Yeah.

And you just went, this can't be good.

And it wasn't.

No, it's just continued.

He says, follow up question.

What do you think is the best mod for an older car?

I can think straight away.

Be it performance or usability.

Don't get me started on DTC retrofit for older SMGM cars

to dump the shit gearbox.

We could be a game changer.

Suspension every time.

I was going to say suspensions might go too.

Breaks.

Breaks are pretty good too.

Depending on the car, but old breaks, not so good.

Suspension now on modern cars is actually really good.

You know, there's a lot more in it.

And I think that's the thing, modern cars now.

Suspension is good.

The audio is good.

Yeah.

Everything's usually good in them.

It's hard upgrade that sort of stuff.

You might want a bit lower or a lot lower in our case.

But they don't handle bad.

We're like getting into some of the older stuff

and you're like, what the fuck is going on with this?

I discovered a subwoofer in the boot of my Q5 that didn't know I was there.

What was you in that car?

Three years.

There you go.

It's in the space saver.

I always wondered what it was.

I thought it was like a, there was a pump in or something.

I've never been in the boot really of that car.

And it's a sub in it?

I thought it was one of the air compressor pumps or whatever.

And then I says, no, that's your air compressor.

We're there in the side pocket.

That's your subwoofer.

That's a good one.

So it fits into this bear wheel.

I think you've commented before on how good the sound system is.

Yeah.

Oh, there you go.

That'd be why.

Other good things.

As he was saying about gearbox and stuff,

I mean, the gearbox upgrade and the shifter and linkage and all that

and my Jetta made a modern car out of it.

Like it's so good.

Aye, well you jumped 25 years ahead with that technology.

Yeah.

You know, you put mark four, mark five.

You're a parts in the mark one.

Yeah.

And it changed it.

Yeah.

And instead of, you know, going to hydraulic and stuff, it's like way better.

And I'm a big fan of that on older cars,

as those we read like,

Resto mod type things that make them easier to drive.

It's just makes life that bit better.

Another thing you've done on quite a few of our cars now

is to put a like a 12 volt charger in where they didn't have them before.

Actually, yeah.

I had them under the dash.

It's a great job.

Actually, I'm supposed to be that format.

Actually, the 9-11, I don't think about it.

Jay Rice, 283, he says, oh God, I know where this is going.

He says, did you know that a heat gun can take faded plastics back to black?

I mean the black bin for fuck's sake.

So as R32, he says, I'll take the heat gun and do the bumper grills

and take it off to black and he must have won.

Oh, jeez.

He messes me there a couple of weeks ago.

The bumper grill.

Yep.

Holy smokes.

So we had to get another one for it.

That'll certainly freshen it up and you?

Ed, well, that's what it looks so fresh.

Commiserations.

mcr.cinematics.

Andrew says, what did Nigel think of gravity?

Have to ask him in the next episode.

I seen this come through and I was like,

I didn't realize gravity was on,

but that's obviously why they're arguing over.

Um, jazz underscore monkey says,

quattro four motion x drive,

which is the best of any or are they all the same?

That's a hard comment and something like that.

I don't know.

Quattro.

Well, I know in the older stuff like mark four stuff,

quattro wasn't quattro.

It was four motion.

Ah, it's Haldex, isn't it?

Yeah.

And then you get into the,

I think you get into like the fours and s sixes.

It was actually quattro.

Quattro, yeah.

Yeah.

Um, I've never driven it.

An x drive.

Is it electronic?

And yeah, it'll be the BMW is equivalent of it.

Is it as electronic?

We'll join those DSG.

Yes.

The x drive, I think for BM is four wheel drive though.

I've never driven on an x drive.

I know.

To be honest with you,

and it kind of goes back to this.

I don't think any of those are going to be bad anymore.

You know, they've,

yeah, they're nailing stuff to God.

Um, I can't fault four motion.

Like it just,

although then in the snow,

we can catch it when you're not used to it.

I was going to say it is twitchy, twitchy in snow.

But see for like dry weather out of junctions,

you know, full-scale launches,

like it just does job very, very well.

It's just very happy.

Is there any problem?

I think that more for our 30, I had,

I don't know how sketchy I can be in the snow.

Yeah.

And for me, that just is a red flag to people that aren't used to that.

Well, I drove the Bora for seven years.

And I knew it inside out.

And in the snow, I could have like,

I could have drifted.

If that thing was four meters long,

I could have put it sideways through something that was 4.1 meters.

Like I was very, very good at it.

But even at that, there was still time.

It just goes on and just goes.

Yeah.

It just wants to change direction.

You're like, what the fuck was that?

The best thing you can do,

there was knock traction control off right away.

And that makes them a lot more controllable.

Sorry, can I answer that one?

Unfortunately, Michael.

Jack Logan again says, the question,

God, the question is, what is the question hyphen scooter?

So are we supposed to guess what the question is in the answer scooter,

or is this a quote from scooter?

It's the scooter.

So.

Oh, okay.

There we go.

No.

Thank you, Jack.

And inside into your wonderful mind.

He's the horseman.

Well, I'll leave that up to you.

Respect to the man in the ice cream though.

Robert underscore mark five says,

dream build on your favorite car owned past or present?

Dream built.

What do you mean?

As in like, if you could do anything to a car that you currently own or dead own,

like, you know, your dream building up.

Going to edition one, probably be a dream build.

Just having it on the road.

Fantastic.

RS five or RS three in the middle.

Oh, yeah.

Yeah.

RS dreams and that's a few week.

We're talking there a bit like modern drivability things and what 16 or 17 in

some of us is probably 16 to be drivable.

Yeah.

Wide 16 wide ish.

No, flush sort of OEM plus kind of thing.

Yeah.

All right.

That'd be nice.

For me is probably my mark three and something I want to push on with over the next

year. So now would be get it back on the road.

But like it's full underbody restoration.

The bed on still can't settle on an engine.

Like I have a 24 valve ready to go into it.

I do love a 12 valve, but then I'm like to put a 3.6 in it.

And those are hard to get.

I don't want a turbo.

I know that I would like to supercharge it.

But then with what I'm doing in the engine bay,

I don't like the way the chargers all set to one side.

And it's kind of disjointed.

Yeah.

For what I for how clean I want the bed.

It's not really going to work.

I drove a couple of supercharged 12 valves.

And there's just fantastic smooths.

You've always raved about them.

Yeah.

I assume if I could grab the red one,

should I just stop a charger on it?

Oh really?

Yeah.

What would you like?

Couple of bits I want to do to the current cars.

Obviously get the jet off finished.

So that would be nice.

I'm toying with ideas for the R32.

And then I'm going,

but I have three other cars setting up the R that need built.

Charger.

Chargers on the list.

To be honest with you, I thought I would.

Chargers would be delicious in that.

Wheels are on the list.

Suspension of some description is on the list.

Audio build is on the list.

I like that.

I like that part.

That's big Leslie.

Do you know what I'm looking at at the minute?

I really, I'm fancying lobster claws.

My ideal mark for wheel is lobster claws.

Yeah.

I think it just suits them so well.

Oh, you meant it's not a few weeks ago.

It's not too flashy.

So we thought of the head, the Porsche.

Well, because I have the Porsche wheels on the jet as well.

And I was like, that'd be a nice little tie-in.

That could be my thing.

Also borrow, you'll tow the jet as a chosen.

Also means you need Porsche practice up in behind them too.

Correct.

You never know.

That's it.

This list is getting bigger with the build.

And then what I know I definitely do want to do

with some of the cars sitting up the yard, the Carrado.

I kind of had plans for it.

And do you know what?

What I actually think I'd like to do with the Carrado

is just tidy it up, get on the road,

drive it, put the KWs on it and drive it.

I just like a pretty much standard.

Keep it.

So that's the Carrado.

The Nova I would like to do just like a resto,

like a full restoration standard.

I'll put the Y wheels on it.

But not much mods wise on it.

Just like a clean, tidy, classic kind of example.

And the Vento is full early 2000s show build.

That's the end game.

Addison 30 at show cars back.

Proper, proper.

Because most of my cars are like show-ish, but not show cars.

They're like things that I do because I want to have fun

driving them or make them look a bit nice.

They're not like proper, proper show cars.

But that's always been the end game for the Vento

is to be a proper out and out show car.

That's what the Mark 3 will be for me.

I'll still drive it, but it's going to be stupid.

Robert also says thoughts on the old timer

Traffin show in England.

Do you see any photos from us?

I didn't.

It looks really good.

Whereabouts in England was it?

Oh, down towards where Addison used to be,

like Northampton direction, I want to say.

Like I feel full of Mark 1's 2's B2 Passats.

What was the show called?

Old timer Traffin.

Not Euro Traffin.

Honestly, it looked really, really good.

And I kind of, it was touted this last six or eight months

and I was like, it never ran before.

And I was going, there's a lot of hype about this show

for something that hasn't run.

It'd be very interesting to see.

And when I seen it, it was like all the old heads

come out with Mark 1's 2's and proper,

like old school looking builds, which was pretty cool.

It definitely, if you see photos and stuff,

like it's worth hunting through.

Ryan Codlop says, how many bottles of lube does Connor

now have in his detailing bag?

Hashtag TT life.

Oh no.

Yeah, butt plug.

It's just the tar sauce.

That's all you need.

That's it.

It's slippy enough.

Shorty 1919 says, carbon body kit or fiberglass?

If you're going to expose the carbon or some of the carbon,

I would go carbon.

Depends on the application, I suppose.

That used to be a big thing.

People used to fully carbon their show builds.

That's right.

Yeah.

It needs done right.

I remember talking to Robin when he was on from Alpine.

And cause obviously he does a lot with a carbon fiber.

He was saying like it kills him when he sees cars

that like the weave doesn't run perfectly

from the bumper up into the wing,

but also that's incredibly difficult

because you're doing it from two different molds

and it's the layup and it has to be right.

But then that's the level he's working on.

It's perfection.

That's what you're expecting.

David underscore Jack underscore Hill says,

great fun at pizza and pals, RIP potty's chair.

Did he kill one?

Oh, he did.

Oh dear.

Too much pizza.

A big old head took it down.

Oh really?

Okay.

It's a, I don't even know what happened.

He was just kind of sitting on this fold out

capture and it just hit the deck.

So that was the end of that.

That hasn't happened to anyone else recently.

No.

Did anybody comment as soon as you hit the ground?

I shouted you fat bastard, I think.

You bit Reggie to it.

Oh yeah.

Yep.

Reggie must have been disappointed

after his American experience.

I was going to say, he did bring that up as well

after me destroying that fucking port swing.

Ryan Dot Billman says,

which one of you three will die first?

Me, obviously.

I think so.

I was going to say me.

No.

I was going to say probably medium fucking something stupid.

Every day I go to the bed and go, oh, I'm still here.

It's a blast.

Monster didn't kill me.

Jetta underscore coupe says, Will Rafe ever beat me in a race?

He beat Rafe years ago.

He has a.

It's a sore spot.

It is.

He's a 20 valve.

I think it's jazz blue.

Big bumper mark to Jetta coupe.

Gorgeous car.

Really nice build.

And he annihilated Rafe's 20 valve cabriolet.

And he hasn't heard the end of it.

It was a sore spot.

I see that the salmon Jetta from ABF's up for sale.

Oh, is it?

I think it's it.

Oh, I must.

Oh, well, it couldn't imagine there's too many

that looked like that.

Was there money?

What money was on it?

I don't remember.

But I just couldn't see that.

I think I've seen it in the stories.

Just basically.

Hi.

That's a really cool car of that.

I think it is.

The other half of people's car podcasting,

MAV90G60.

Danny says, with Roots coming up,

should we invest in a port swing for the rental

asking for a friend?

Oh, excellent work, Danny.

Excellent work.

Everyone's a comedian, aren't they?

Yeah, you guys get the port swing and I'll break it.

Everybody's funny until you're lying on the floor

or a bench around you.

Dear.

Fuck's sake.

Pat himself.

Fulton says,

Porsche wheels cool or nah asking for a friend?

Absolutely.

I mean, given the conversation we just had,

obviously I think they're cool.

Honestly, I think that's one thing in the Volkswagen scene

that'll never get old.

It's just timeless.

What?

Do you remember 10, 15 years ago?

You couldn't.

Where did they all go?

The D90's just disappeared.

Yep.

But I've said this about like all those wheels.

Remember the Kershaw Camones and all that stuff

you could buy off.

They all got burned.

Yeah, all the way in.

They got passed on.

The other thing is they got passed on.

The person after person got curbed.

They just got in such a state.

The person who got them in the end

didn't know what they're worth

and just threw them out.

S14 OCP is going to start a row here.

He says,

do you clean up after yourself

every time you're in the shed?

I want to, but I'm a messy bitch.

He's a messy bench like you.

That's it.

I want to as well.

I don't clean up at the end of the day.

I'm more likely to clean up

at the end of the job.

It depends what you're at.

Yeah.

The problem is our job's gone for years.

Yeah.

You don't clean up?

No.

At the time you pack everything away

and take the same time to put it out again,

you go, what will you do that for?

Exactly.

I try to tidy up.

I don't always, I will admit,

but I do try and I work like,

I have my little silicone trays

and I put my stuff in them

and I'm taking things apart.

I put it in polythene bags

and label it all up

because I know how lot,

especially with me being away a lot

and I'm like,

I might not be coming back to this

for six months.

I must have need to do it methodically

and know what I've done.

And I try and put everything away

because then I'm away for a week

and then I'm coming back to it next week.

But by the time I come back in a week's time,

Congress come and borrowed a load of my turtles

and everything's everywhere.

Just saying.

That's right.

I won't deny it.

What else do we have then?

Lastly, we have Michael Skull and Underscore says,

will there ever be a reload community group?

There would be if I wasn't a technology deck head.

That's a WhatsApp thing, isn't it?

I think it's actually a Facebook group they have.

It's a community group that you can post on.

No, this community gets on WhatsApp.

Is there?

Because there's one for Ashman.

Well, I get added into the,

there one for the LSD podcast

on a Facebook group

and I was like,

I don't even know what this was.

So yeah, if someone could show us how to do that,

they'll probably boogie crack.

Congratulations.

I think they've raised 17,000 for the whole haul.

Yeah, maybe 17 something.

And then with the gift aid on top,

it broke 20 grand.

Brilliant.

That's awesome.

With a little fair play though.

So yeah, just off the back of that,

he actually sent me a voice note here as well

about that

and he has some questions as well.

So we'll finish up on those.

Hi, Connor.

I suppose I thought it'd be hard to send these across

in the terms of voice notes.

But first of all, I just want to say

thank you very, very much for reload support.

Going across the entire time of us planning

and setting up for the run.

You guys were, you spoke about it in your own podcast.

We're very complimentary.

He's donated it.

We made sure to get you on the banner as well

because we should all be working together

and all that.

And it's great to see local podcasts

coming out and supporting each other.

And just what I want to say is

if you ever do decide to do anything,

ourselves at the LSD podcast,

we'll absolutely 100% have you back.

So, yeah, no, it's great to hear from them

like what they did that silent run down

is absolutely insane.

And it was fun watching them on their social media

like every town they were going to

and going through care to do that like that.

And Michael was an old tracker.

Like that's the thing.

What was it?

A 11090?

Was it a fate?

No, some sort of fate.

Yeah.

But that's what I remember thinking.

I was like, that's it's not a modern comfortable

brand new track.

He's not got an air seat like the modern stuff.

He does, I don't know.

I wouldn't like to be doing it.

Then the other thing we have from here, we go.

Which leads me on to my first question.

If you guys ever did decide to do something stupid

for the name of charity,

I'm assuming be car based.

What would you do on what cars would you use?

I was thinking that I don't really know.

I don't know the driven run.

Obviously the driven run and our own cars as well.

Something as extreme as that is hard to tell.

Do you know what I genuinely love to do?

I don't know how you would tie it in for charity.

But some sort of like demolition derby.

Like top gear.

Which would be great fun.

Because I know Richie's been involved

in a lot of that over the years as well.

And I think that would get right.

Problem is getting a cheap car to do it in.

That's the word we live in then.

Because it would be cool.

We've always talked about doing one of those

top gear style challenges of like buy a car

and drive to wherever.

Yeah, we've talked about that as a friend group

for the last 10 years.

But the problem is, as you say, cars aren't cheap anymore.

You can still get something.

But when you look at those top gear challenges,

they were in cheap cars.

But they were also in mildly interesting cars as well.

You got some weird thing that wasn't absolutely bargain

because it was a ship box.

But here we're going kind of thing where

if you turn up in a 800 pound Volkswagen Fox.

So yeah, it's like men's like yeah.

Yeah.

One thing and probably again,

not a charity thing,

but I've had this idea in my head of there's loads of places

around Ireland and the UK that are called

like Maxwell Street or Connor Road.

Or, you know, like Lamont Drive and stuff.

And I'd love to do like a group trip

where you go each person's name

and like take a photo with the street sign.

And besides Santa Pod,

there's a famous photo of us every year.

You should take a street called Beliand.

Beliand.

There was still a group photo out at Beliand.

Yep, I remember doing that.

That's a long time ago.

It was 2016.

We used to do the charity track days,

but that's just not feasible anymore.

That's pretty, yeah.

That's long before my time with you guys.

I think the best way,

the best way to raise money now

and the easiest way is to do cars and coffee.

Yeah, that's what you do with the church.

It's not massive work,

but the community gets behind you.

And you can have a bit of crack and it's a little risk as well.

Then lastly from Michael.

My second question, because that's how order of things work

is, Ed posted about this previously,

you'll have seen in our community group.

And you'll see, I've also asked you a question

about the community group and just your personal questions.

But the reason this came to mind is,

so for podcasts,

I think with the automotive and agricultural scene

in this country, there is a massive following

and it is something there's a lot of different,

you know, you've got a lot of different YouTubers

and a lot of different podcasts,

you know, talking about different things,

but they all kind of,

if you were to put up this massive Venn diagram,

they would also at the same time kind of

look into each other.

And I was just like, obviously, well,

if you look at a lot of our big famous podcasts

and stuff in this country,

they either have comedy or music as a background.

And obviously for us, I mean,

the number one thing to do would be,

oh, just set up a drift track

or something like that or a car show or something.

But like, that's quite difficult.

And you spend more time organizing that

than you would actually your own audio and stuff like that.

So this is where I'd asked this before very briefly,

but I actually think there is mileage in this.

If there was some sort of panel show where you had

sort of Irish and, well, Northern Irish

and the Panama way you view it,

let's not get political here, nobody cares.

But different YouTubers, different podcasters,

stuff like that.

And you did actually do maybe a panel show kind of thing

on the Irish Northern Irish car scene,

agriculture scene, lorry scene,

and you brought all that together.

And you did that as kind of a live show

or like a live tour.

I know it sounds like I'm getting very, very ahead of myself,

but I just think it'd be a great way of introducing

all of our podcasts and stuff to new audiences.

Like you can edit this one as you see fit

and you can take bits out or whatever,

if you think, Michael, shut up,

you're getting too ahead of yourself.

It's just something I thought about.

He's right though.

It's actually a pretty good idea to cross over

with different things.

It's kind of ties in with what's usually really

for our Christmas episodes with the quizzes and stuff,

but also the car quiz that we used to go to

up and on from there for a while.

Did it stop, does it?

I haven't seen any more about it.

It seems to have just disappeared.

Good crack.

And there was an obvious audience for it as well.

It was good.

So yeah, there's deaf e-miles in it.

I'll let him organize it, sure that'll do.

That's why he's started.

Volunteer?

Yeah.

I know when they turn up.

Listen, I'll not step in Michael's toes.

I don't want to.

But yes, folks, that's a set of questions.

Thank you so much for everybody always who sends them in.

It's great.

We'll just call it there because we're quite deep into this.

Well, a quick note to say, for some reason,

the Instagram page has been throttled for views again.

Yeah.

So hence why Connor had put out for questions

on his own personal page and got far more questions on it

than on the podcast page.

So I don't know what's happened.

If you haven't seen the Instagram page in a while,

go and have a look at it.

I don't know if getting traffic onto it will help

or I've no idea.

But just to say, if you haven't seen us,

we haven't gone away, you know, but that's possibly why.

Yeah.

In 24 hours, 66 people seen that story for questions

on the Reload page and on mine in under an hour,

I had 15 questions.

So there's a big difference.

Well, Reload Clothing Brand, that's what happened.

The same thing.

Pay up or we'll hide you.

Yeah.

That was basically what happened then.

I might have to keep doing that for a while.

But yeah, folks, thank you very much as always

for making the effort.

I absolutely love the questions.

They're good crack.

Keeps us going.

As I say, if you want to catch us on social media,

say you're our first time listener,

which would be weird at this point.

But here we go.

We are at Reload Podcast on Facebook and Instagram.

I am at Connor McCann.

I'm at Maxwell House 46.

I am at VDubboy.

And we're out of here.

Bye.

Cheers, folks.

Bye.

Reload EP141 - U.G.L.Y.

Audi S6

Ford Cmax

BMW M2

Porsche Taycan

Volkswagen Did Volkswagen

Cupra Born

Ford F-150 Lightning

Volkswagen Id3

Skoda Octavia

Aston Martin DBS

Tesla Cybertruck

Aztek Pontiac Aztec

Chrysler PT Cruiser

Aston Martin Lagonda

Fiat Multipla

Plymouth Prowler

Alpine A110

Volkswagen Bora

Nissan R32

Chevrolet Nova

Renault V6 Clio

Volkswagen Jetta

Dodge Charger

Porsche 911

Audi Quattro

Volkswagen Passat

About this episode

Original notes