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Car
Lamborghini Urus
The Urus is a very fast, very expensive SUV made by the Italian supercar company Lamborghini. It looks aggressive, has a loud V8 engine, and is designed for people who want the speed of a supercar but need the space of a family SUV.
Car
Citroën Xsara Picasso
This is a quirky, bubble-shaped family hatchback from the early 2000s made by the French company Citroën. It is famous in the UK for being the car driven in a funny viral video where an angry man repeatedly yells his own name, 'Ronnie Pickering', at a moped rider.
Car
Autobianchi A112 Abarth
This is a tiny, lightweight Italian hatchback from the 1970s and 80s that was modified by Abarth (a famous tuning company) to be incredibly fast and fun to drive. It is highly prized by collectors for its sporty character and retro styling.
Car
Renault 5
The Renault 5 is a small, popular French hatchback first made in the 1970s as an affordable and practical city car. Renault recently brought the name back as a modern, all-electric car that looks very similar to the classic original.
Part
quarter lights
These are the small, triangular windows found on the front doors of older cars that you can hinge open. They were used to let a nice breeze into the car before modern air conditioning became standard.
Place
Millbrook Proving Ground
This is a huge, secret testing facility in England with various tracks, including a giant circular banked track where cars can drive at high speeds without turning the steering wheel. It is where car companies test secret new models and where movies like James Bond film car stunts.
Car
Mclaren F1
The McLaren F1 is one of the most famous and valuable supercars ever built. It has three seats, with the driver sitting right in the middle of the car, and it was the fastest car in the world during the 1990s.
Car
Volkswagen Phaeton
The Phaeton was an incredibly luxury sedan built by Volkswagen to prove they could make a car as good as a Bentley or Mercedes. It was packed with high-tech features but looked like a giant Passat, meaning very few people bought one.
Car
Jaguar XJ220
This is a sleek, ultra-rare supercar from the early 1990s made by Jaguar. It was incredibly fast and wide, but many buyers were upset because Jaguar promised a V12 engine and delivered a twin-turbo V6 instead.
Car
Renault Sport
The Renault Sport Spider is a rare, lightweight two-seat sports car made by the French company Renault in the late 1990s. It was built purely for fast, fun driving and did not have a roof, side windows, or even a front windshield on early models.
Car
BMW Series Bmw
Car
Dodge Avenger
The Dodge Avenger is a mid-sized car made by the American brand Dodge, sold as a sporty two-door car in the 1990s and later as a four-door sedan in the 2000s and 2010s. It was designed to look like a smaller version of Dodge's larger muscle cars.
Car
Chevrolet Impala
The Chevrolet Impala is a large, classic American car made by Chevrolet that was very popular starting in the late 1950s. It is known for its long body, stylish design, and comfortable ride. People often collect and restore older models today because of their vintage look.
Car
Rover SD1
The SD1 was a cool, wedge-shaped British luxury hatchback from the late 70s and 80s. It was fast and sounded great thanks to its V8 engine, making it a favorite for police chases, but it was notorious for rusting and breaking down.
Person
Michèle Mouton
Michèle Mouton is one of the greatest rally drivers of all time. In the 1980s, she drove the famous Audi Quattro and won several world championship races, proving she could beat the best male drivers in the world.
Car
Audi Quattro
The Audi Quattro is a famous German sports car from the 1980s that was the first to successfully use a four-wheel-drive system for high-speed racing. It became legendary by winning numerous off-road rally races and proved that four-wheel drive was useful for everyday road cars.
LIVE
I'm Jonny Smith. I'm its reporter.
And this is Smith & Sniff, a podcast in which two friends talk about cars and many other things.
Urinal and anus.
My brother said to me the other day these words, and he said,
Why did Lamborghini combine those two words to make the euro?
And it's been staring at us in the face, but yet neither of us have clocked the fact that the euro is urinal and anus together.
And he's right, isn't he? He's bloody right.
Yes, he is right. This is the greatest deconstruction of a portmanteau since Fry and Laurie did dancer size.
It combines the word dance with the word circumcise.
But Eurus, yes, of course.
Why isn't your brother just doing this podcast?
I don't know.
I wish he would do stand up. I think if he ever got into a mindset where he could do it, I think he would conquer all.
He really would be brilliant.
In a way, it would be like introducing human silica gel into the room because he is one of the driest human beings ever to live, surely.
He is one of the driest people.
To the point where my son, Wesson, if we're having a family get together, we have one last weekend because my daughter finished her GCSEs and my niece finished her A-levels.
And Wesson was like, OK, but he always wants to know the facts, Wesson, like what we're eating and who's really coming.
And he said, OK, but is Uncle Greg coming? And I went, yeah.
And he went, good.
And I went, why did you say that? He goes, because he's the funniest man in the world.
And I went, yeah, he is actually.
But I said, but you must not always quote what he says because he's very offensive.
And, you know, to that end, we went to a small music festival, like type of thing in a local village.
Oh, right. As in the festival was quite small, not that the music was small, like people played on child's pianos and stuff.
No, it was, yeah, it was just a small festival, like a local art centre type rotary club thing.
And our own daughters asked us, me and my brother, to come with them and their friends.
And I have to say, I know it was great. I got really drunk, pleasantly drunk.
And Greg was just the social commentary coming out of Greg's mouth was just unrivaled to the point where, you know,
there's always one person dancing first. Yes. Right next to a live band. Yes.
Like almost point blank range dancing. Yes. And this guy, it was quite an old guy blessing wearing a captain's hat.
And I pointed at him and I said, I bet he, because there was a river nearby, I said, I bet he's got a narrow boat on the river.
So he's going to be at this festival having a whale of a time and then he's going to jump on his narrow boat.
And Greg said, yeah. But why is there is it? Why did he make his trousers out of a butcher's apron?
And it's true he had these trousers on, which looked like they made of those exactly like that apron material that butchers have.
And white stripes. Yes. But but looked industrially thick like almost sail canvas.
So they could be butcher trousers then maybe. I guess they could be actual butchery trousers.
I don't I've never looked at what official butchery trousers are like.
Maybe some butchers listening to this. I don't know. But the butchery trousers have like a sort of like a, you know, like a Kevlar front panel or something.
So that if the knife slips, you don't stab yourself through the thigh.
Well, yeah. Well, it certainly used to have very thick aprons for that, didn't they? For that reason.
Yeah, sometimes a chainmail glove on your non-dominant hand, non-dominant.
Yes. Yeah, because you're holding the like a joint of beef, whatever, and the knife would be in your dominant hand.
Yeah. So it reminds me that we were talking last week about words your parents would say in lieu of swear words.
Yeah. And particularly my mum always said sugar instead of shit.
It's still tickling me.
Someone messaged in, a couple of people he messaged in and pointed out there's an echo in the buddy man's song called Lips Like Sugar, which of course...
But it reminds me that when my brother was at primary school, his teacher was cutting some, actually it's sugar paper.
Again, let's not do this to converse on that one, but sugar paper.
But you remember primary school, there's always that very thick paper that you'd use for arts and crafts and whatever.
I love sugar paper. Sugar paper's good, isn't it?
Does it not exist outside of primary schools? Like nobody refers to sugar paper at any other point in life?
No. Do they? No, no, it's true. I wouldn't even know where to get it from because I assume you can only buy it if you're a legally registered primary school.
But yeah, my brother's teacher was cutting some sugar paper with a Stanley knife, which I'm not sure you'd be allowed to have in the classroom anymore.
But anyway, it was the 80s. And yeah, he was cutting the sugar paper with a Stanley knife, it slipped and he just stabbed the knife straight into his thigh.
And apparently he just went, oh, and then left the room.
And I just thought, the restraint not to go, fucking hell!
That's been incredible because it was a full trip to hospital job.
Yeah, yeah.
He could have cut an artery. It's quite serious.
Yeah.
Is it? Can I just ask though, did your respective daughters want you and your brother to be effectively their dates for the small music festival?
Because you would be able to buy them things.
There was definitely a financial incentive for them.
And I asked them after a while, I asked Ella, my niece, I said, why did you want us to come?
And she went, because you're funny.
And I went, oh, I said, but I'm also embarrassing, aren't I?
She went, yeah, but it's also funny, so it's fine.
And what was excellent is my brother agreed to go because he just wanted to hang out with...
You know, you get to a point where you know that your kids are imminently adults
and you just want to bond with them as much as possible.
What was great was my brother didn't look at the billing, had no idea who the bands were,
what sort of music was going to be played.
And the headline act was a madness tribute act and my brother absolutely hates madness.
He was sitting there with the company decider on the grass.
And when I told him this, he started laughing and they went, no, but seriously.
And I went, no, it's madness.
Did you not know?
I thought you knew.
And he went, what?
And he was smoldering for the next hour waiting for them to come on set.
But actually, I ended up having a really good time.
Although the front man of the faux madness, two things.
First thing was, I actually thought it was our friend Dave Vitti from the Adrian Flux
Fueling Around podcast and formerly Radio DJ.
He looked just like Dave Vitti.
I mean, just like him.
What's the point where you were going to go out to him and go, Dave?
Dave?
What's going on here?
I didn't know you did this.
It's like you've been the lead singer in a madness tribute.
Yeah.
Let me ask you this.
How jerky was he?
He was incredibly jerky.
Like he'd been licking no-volt batteries.
He was really...
I mean, because...
Or he had fire ads.
Watch a madness tribute band where the faux sucks wasn't jerky, would just not work.
No, no.
It wouldn't...
Like he was dancing like Brian Ferry, he'd be thrown out.
We're absolutely sure it wasn't Dave Vitti because...
I'm not sure.
It could be.
Yeah.
He could have a second life as a sucks impersonator.
Yeah.
Let's try and catch him out next time we see Dave.
Yeah.
Just get him to do something.
And if he does it in a really jerky way, then we'll know.
He is, in fact, has this secret covers band.
I was going to say, though, you know the...
You said about the first person up to dance.
Yes.
Things like that.
My daughter's school has a little summer kind of fair thing on a Friday night.
And they have the kids do little performances and stuff like that.
Then they have...
There's one of the dads who's a really good singer.
And so he comes on and sings some popular hits, but also gets mobbed by children while
he's doing it because he's not on a stage.
He's just sort of standing on a bit of playground.
Oh, great.
And there's a little kind of open-sided gazebo behind him with the audio equipment in it.
And he sings crowd-pleasing hits, but the kids come up and sometimes he encourages the
kids to come up and sort of do lines from songs.
But then sometimes they just come up anyway and just basically mob him.
It's a delight to watch, but I'm glad I'm not him because it looks quite stressful at the same time.
He's an excellent singer, though.
But then after that, there's a DJ on and they serve booze at this event because it's a fundraiser
for the school, so they go down to Costco or whatever and get a shed load of boozes in
and then they can make a bit of money for the school on it.
Yeah.
So by the time the DJ comes on, everybody might be a little bit drinky and always there
is somebody who goes up first to start the dancing when the DJ comes on.
I admire those people.
But what I think is always interesting about that, well, I do as well because I just couldn't do it.
No, I couldn't do it.
I mean, there's no amount of being boozed up that would get me up there.
I just somehow can't do it.
So I do admire them.
But at the same time, I always think if you go a bit too early and then nobody else joins in,
watching those people trying to work out if they can back out of the situation and therefore
leave the dance floor empty again, or they do that sort of like trying to catch people's
eye and they come on, come and join in.
And you just go, there's a moment where they just realize they are a lonely island of dancing
and it's like, I would love to come and help you.
But I'm not second on the dance floor either.
I'm very much sort of like into the high teens onto the dance floor really.
I am teens.
But what was great was we spent this early part of the festival discussing Ronnie Pickering
because we had to go into the Overspill car park because we turned up a bit late.
And there was only one car in the Overspill car park and it was a Citroen Picasso.
And it was the same color as the infamous Ronnie Pickering car,
the guy that went viral on the internet for being threatening.
And my kids really love the Ronnie Pickering sketch.
They think it's great.
It's not a sketch, it's real life, but you know what I mean.
And so when we saw the car, I pointed and went, oh, look, Ronnie Pickering's here.
And then Kitty May spent the next couple of hours pointing at various people at this festival going,
do you reckon that's, they're in the Ronnie Pickering car?
I don't know.
I'm not going to ask them.
So we still don't know who owns the Pickering Picasso.
Did it cross your mind very briefly that what if just before the madness tribute acts,
they just bring on Ronnie Pickering and he just does a bit of crowd work.
He encourages the crowd to shout, who?
And he has to go, Ronnie Pickering, over and over again.
That's his act.
I would love that.
I would absolutely love that.
Would it be fair to say that Ronnie Pickering's Citroen was sort of the same color as Ronnie Pickering's nose?
Definitely.
Do you remember he ebade his Citroen for charity?
Yes.
I think it was.
And I really wish I'd bought it looking ahead, looking into the future at you and I needing a tour vehicle.
Because don't get me wrong, I love the Eagle Quest, but I would absolutely love the Ronnie Pickering Picasso.
The Pickering Citroen, the Pickering Picasso.
Just thinking of it would be amazing.
I'd love it with a Ronnie Pickering racing stripe on it.
Look, I've got the internet here.
Let's have a look.
I've done a really in-depth search here.
I've typed in Ronnie Pickering Picasso.
Where is it?
It's in the hands of a private collector, apparently.
Yeah.
Well, can they connect?
Pickering auction to SignCar and eBay to raise money for the Love Life Foundation, a motor neurone disease charity.
And...
Can this private collector get in touch with us, please?
Wait a second.
Now, there's a Reddit post and this is from four years ago that says,
Unfortunately, it appears it's the end of Ronnie Pickering Citroen.
It's showing up as having no tax and the MOT expired.
But I suppose it could be tucked away.
It's just in storage, surely?
They've got the reg up here.
They've got the reg.
Can you say it?
Say the reg so that we can hunt it down.
I suppose, yeah.
What's up here?
Public domain, isn't it?
SB05 SKN.
Do you want me to do that like a police person?
I was about to say, can you do it like a police person?
Sierra Bravo, 05, Sierra Kilo, November.
I'm quite pleased I remembered all of this because quite often,
you know, when you're on the phone to like an insurance company,
they go, what's your reg and you have to go,
Spoon, ball bag,
Nights,
like as in...
What, guide a night?
Yes, like in a dark place.
Cynophone,
psoriasis.
Yes.
Hamster.
I totally forgot P once and just said penis.
And I got a laugh on the other end of the line,
but I felt a bit foolish because I was the one that volunteered
the police chat.
I got it wrong straight away.
I felt a bit partridge, actually.
I sometimes think that people don't want or need
the NATO alphabet, isn't it?
And when you do it, you feel like they think you're a knob,
but I always think it avoids doubt.
But I do it with my postcode all the time.
I do it with my postcode every time.
I've got it off pat with my postcode,
but it's like then people are a bit like,
alright, you're not a bloody pilot, calm down.
No, but you're not trying to be.
No, I'm just trying to avoid you accidentally sending stuff to the wrong place.
SB05 of SKN,
vehicle details could not be found on the DVLA.
That's not good, is it?
Because usually they linger.
A few listeners have never seen this clip.
I think it's over 10 years old now.
The Ronnie Pickering clip where he has a road rage situation
with a Ghana moped or a scooter.
And the scooter rider has a head cam,
which is where the footage comes from.
It is, I think it's hilarious.
It's also embarrassing, but yeah.
Well, it's a little snapshot of British life, isn't it?
Yeah, it is a little snapshot of British life.
Aggie middle-aged man in a practical citron.
Who thought he was some sort of fight boxing hero.
Yeah, yeah.
That's it.
They sort of call it main character syndrome these days, don't they?
But you might just call it self-centeredness or egotism.
The belief that you are, in fact, well-known locally.
Important.
Just the mere mention of your name should immediately ring a bell
with a stranger, but actually, no.
And then the indignant nature of his wife,
but he doesn't know who he is.
No, if I keep saying my name, you'll suddenly remember.
Oh, of course that Ronnie Pickering.
I do apologize.
It's coming up with no vehicle details on the MOT checker as well.
Oh, dear. Well...
Well, let's cast the net out to our audience
and see if someone can snuffle it out.
OK, well, once again, Sierra Bravo 05, Sierra Kilo November.
Maybe our friends at Car in Classic could help us,
because that brings me on to the chat about
what car I'm going to fictitiously buy you this week.
Oh, yes.
Of course, our friends at Car in Classic,
they proudly sponsored this podcast.
Thank you, guys. They've got auctions, hashtag auctions,
which you can look at this dozens that go live a day.
At any given time, there's something ridiculous
like 70,000 vehicles for sale
between the classifiers and the auctions,
which is fun to peruse,
especially when I'm fictitiously buying a car for you.
And I found a car for you this week, Richard.
I decided to go for something like,
imagine you are on holiday years ago,
probably on a Greek island or an Italian resort.
You want something that's nippy, characterful,
and fundamentally, here in the UK, we never got it.
So it feels a bit more exotic.
And I also know as a Metro helmsman
and someone that likes minis, it might chime with you.
I've just sent it to you. Have a effing look at this.
Oh, yes, it's an Auto Bianchi A112.
Yes.
I love these.
I do as well.
Look at that.
Yeah.
Aww.
Yeah.
But also, it's got a black bonnet and alloys
in the accepted sporty Italian car style.
And that's because it's an our bath version.
It's an our bath.
Oh, sir.
From 1985.
Is it nice?
It's so thoughtful, isn't it?
It's 12,990 euros.
And it's based in Moulin in France.
So yeah, it'd be nice to just go and fetch it
and drive it back whilst buying interesting wines.
So yeah, it's got 70 horsepower.
Yeah.
Which is a lot, I think.
In a car that won't weigh very much.
It will not weigh much at all.
This is delightful, but the white with a black bonnet
is absolutely classic.
It's also only got 48,000 kilometres on the clock.
So it's a pretty well-preserved example of the mark.
It is.
In fact, one might say an exquisite example of the mark.
But I genuinely love these.
I've never driven one.
I have never driven one either.
I've seen one being raced and it was actually last October
when I went to Malta, to the Malta Classic event.
And there was a guy who had a hill climb prepped one.
And it was so high-revving and really raspy and eager.
And this man was quite a large man.
He almost was half the size of the car.
It felt like he was putting the car on.
But he said it's so much fun to drive.
I've had it years.
And we were always championing on the hill climbs
that we went to.
We were like, come on, auto, Bianchi, come on.
And yeah, I think it looks ace.
Because from the back, you go, oh, hang on.
Is that a car I'm familiar with?
And then you work around it and go, no, I don't know what that is.
And we definitely can't get those in Britain.
So I think it's great.
It's got a very, because it's a sort of slightly later version
with the updated rear lights, which for some reason to me,
they just look very, very sort of fiat-y of the time.
They're a bit like the layout of where the indication
of the reversing lamp and stuff are.
Very much like the facelifted Strada of the 80s.
Very Strada.
It's got that kind of fiat look.
Very Strada.
Yeah, that's sweet, aren't they?
Have you seen the steering wheel?
Yes, it's good.
The steering wheel is good because it's simple two-spoker,
but metal spokes.
Yeah.
And then a nice sort of fat rim.
So yeah, I think it's one of those cars where I look at it
and go, I know how that sounds.
Yeah.
And raspy would be the word, wouldn't it?
Just that lovely little.
Yes.
It almost sounds too stroky at the high end of the rev range.
Yeah.
So these, this would be a fiat underneath
because it's bigger than the A, the little mini-based
or to be auntie's.
Yeah.
This would be a 127.
I want to say it's a fit 127.
Yes, I think so.
And they buy repute, you know,
lovely zesty car to drive.
So this will be fun.
Yeah.
And five-speed.
So back then, not a lot of those cars of that size
and that price point were five-speed.
This is five-speed.
We've never talked about Italian gearbox generosity, have we?
But I feel like throughout the ages,
the Italians have always been quick to offer more gears than anyone else.
Yes.
They were really quick on the uptake with the five-speed box
into the fairly ordinary cars.
And then of course in the 90s, everyone else was sort of just,
just kind of getting on board with five-speed.
But in basic cars, quite often still a four-speed in the entry level.
Yeah.
And Fiat rocked up with that Punto with the six-speed in it.
And just went, what?
That's a bit saucy, isn't it?
But yeah, so Italian gearbox generosity is a historical phenomenon.
I guess this ought to be actually kind of part of it.
Of course it's going to have a five-speed gearbox.
It's so true, isn't it?
I haven't thought of that.
This is an 85 cast.
This car is a year younger than my Metro Turbo.
And my Metro Turbo still has a four-speed box in it because
they couldn't get a five-speeder in those old Metro.
So yeah, this is fab.
Tell me, do you think the Italian gearbox generosity is linked
to the Italian restaurant generosity of you've eaten,
eaten well, you've paid the bill, and it's all really nice.
Then they bring out free shots of lemon chiller or something.
Yes, yes.
And they don't need to do that.
You've already eaten and pretty much paid.
You're happy, but they just want to make you even happier to go,
oh, before you go, have a tray of fruity shots.
How about that?
And that's always great.
I love that.
I personally love that.
Does anybody else love that?
I'm completely down with that.
I think I've also, I've been in an Italian restaurant where
they bring out the lemon chiller and you go,
oh, and if, because the manager or owner or whatever has seen
the delight with which it's been received,
that he's come back and given you a little top-up as well.
This really is beyond the pale now, but in a brilliant way.
I don't know.
We do have Italian listeners.
We've had messages from Italian listeners a few times.
So I'm curious if you are Italian.
Would you say that Italy is a very generous country?
We've just sort of not really acknowledged this.
Gearboxes, fruit-based after-dinner drinks.
I think they are.
I think they are.
And I would also, I would add to this,
not necessarily Italian, but any restaurant,
that when they bring the bill out,
you get some half-decent quality dark chocolate.
Ah.
Yes.
I'm down with that.
Minty, fine, plain old dark, nice little slab.
Oh, yes, please.
Thank you very much.
So when are we going to go to Moulin
to pick up your 1985 Auto Bianchi A112?
Well, what a lovely, lovely road trip that would be.
Perhaps you don't know where Moulin is,
but it's in France somewhere, so...
It's off of France.
I hope it's sort of down in the middle,
because, you know, it doesn't feel like
it's enough of a road trip if it's up the top.
No.
It's got a great bonnet scoop.
I've only just noticed that.
Oh, great news.
It is in the middle.
Yeah, I thought Moulin was in the middle, yeah.
It's what's it near other places, is where it's near.
Well, you're so good with your French geography, Rich.
Yes.
It's just in the middle.
I mean, the more you zoom out,
I was going to say it's near Dijon,
but it's not at all near Dijon.
It's just that's the nearest place that pops up.
Let's go.
Let's go.
I'll buy something.
You buy something.
Done.
It is.
300 kilometers from Paris.
Oh, that's nothing.
Almost directly south.
That's nothing, is it?
180 miles.
Yeah, that's...
Especially if you do it over a few nights
and enjoy some food with limoncello
and dark chocolate.
And passing Saint-Sère on the way.
Brilliant.
To stay there and have some crisp wine.
So crisp.
That's good.
I would do that.
Naturally, everybody.
You don't have to go on car and classic
just to buy auto obiances.
You can buy other cars and motorbikes as well.
So head to carandclassic.com.
Have a look at the auctions.
Have a look at the classifiers.
It is utter, utter car catnip.
Now, let me ask you something.
Yeah.
It's been extremely hot here in the UK.
Yes, sir.
Yes, sir.
Record breaking temperatures and all of that.
In fact, it's still quite warm here in my shed today.
And so I am wearing shorts.
And I don't think wearing shorts on camera
is a good look for a chap.
So I've put a plant in front of my legs
to hopefully on the video version of this podcast.
People can't see.
Just in case anyone's wondering.
Oh, I've got shorts on today.
Sorry, I'm wearing another pair.
I've just unwrapped them, actually.
Another stashed free pair of hotel slippers.
I've got one final pair left in the cellophane.
So I reckon that will do me until autumn.
They'll have to go on the blag again.
Anyway, my question is,
given the scorching temperatures this country has been experiencing.
Have you been using the air conditioning in your car?
Have I, hell?
What?
I...
No.
No, can't.
No, windows.
I drove the Renault 5 the other day.
All the windows down.
It was great.
I got a little bit of wind up the armpit.
You know, when you put your arm on the door, it was great.
Tesla windows.
I don't even know if the aircon works in the Tesla.
I genuinely don't know.
I've had it.
I've done about 25,000 miles.
I've got no clue whether it works.
I don't know.
Just genuinely don't care.
I know the heated seats work.
That's all that matters.
And then what else?
Oh, I've been in the Beetle quite a lot.
Yeah.
Which is a city on the drive right now, actually.
And the Beetle obviously doesn't have air conditioning.
But it has quarter lights, Richard.
Quarter lights, I know.
You see, in the absence of the air conditioning,
which of course was not mainstream for many, many years,
we relied on things like the peelback roof,
the vinyl roof, the Webasto, as some would call it,
and also the quarter windows or quarter lights.
I do love them.
They're especially useful when one fancies a cigar,
for example, or a cigarette.
And one doesn't want to fill the cabin with a ghastly smoke.
So we just simply crack open the quarter light
and it creates this gorgeous little venturi
and whisks the bad air away.
I do love it.
I used to use the quarter light for smoking
when I used to carry my friends' babies around.
And my grandmother, who had emphysema.
But I do love summer driving, Richard.
I really do.
I tend to drive a little slower.
As much as possible, the roof is back.
I have a friend with a gorgeous little roadster.
Gorgeous little roadster.
And drive past all the oil seed rate fields
and just immerse myself in all the smells of nature.
Yes.
Once I was...
I was actually driving and I forgot I was driving.
I went into a dream, a shamanic type state
and I closed my eyes on a particularly technical piece of road.
And the next I knew, I was in the fields
on which I was admiring the smell of
and the car was upside down.
And I think I was covered in paraffin.
A farmer came over and he said,
do you know, are you OK?
And I said, I think so.
And he offered me a cigarette,
which I politely accepted.
And then, unfortunately, I was badly burned.
But it's OK.
I rubbed a dock leaf on myself
and I was back at work on Tuesday.
Yes, different times, Richard.
Different times.
I've completely lost my train of thought now, I don't know.
I don't know what I was going to say.
Except that, yes, I think we have possibly touched on
before the fact that leather is actually
a slightly idiotic thing to upholster car seats with.
Oh, awful.
And in the hot weather, I've been particularly reminded of this
because I got into our Tesla the other day
and the seats, I know they're not real leather,
it's pleather, isn't it?
Pleather.
They were too hot to sit on.
It's just, it was ridiculous.
Yeah.
I had to sort of perch on the very leading edge of the seat
for the first few miles until,
and I was using the air conditioning,
until the aircon had taken a bit of the edge off the heat.
It's just, it's absurd.
I know one of the things you can do, obviously,
with a lot of EVs is tell the air conditioning
to start running before you get to the carpet.
Oh, yeah.
Thought of that.
And so, yeah, the seats were too hot to sit on.
I always forget about the app.
Yeah, in the winter, I'm all over the app
because you can defrost the car from the comfort of your kitchen.
But in the summer, it always slips my mind to sort of,
because also you can do that thing where you can just vent it.
It'll just drop all the windows, a tiny crack,
just to try and let some of the hot air out.
Yeah, that's a good thing.
I don't know if that works.
I like that.
But I sort of assume that the hot of the country
that a car is from,
the better they are at sorting out this stuff.
So, obviously, bits of America get very hot,
so you'd hope they'd be on top of that.
South of France gets hot, Spain.
We just need car canopies.
Yeah, that's true.
I don't know why more, in Britain,
we don't embrace the car port enough,
and that's really useful in winter to avoid frost,
but also when it's raining
and you just want to shield the car when you're getting in and out.
But also, in this kind of weather,
you have solar canopies in places like the Mediterranean,
which you can put solar panels on.
And I know it's very practical,
but it just makes sense.
You can keep the car out of direct light,
you could crack a window
so there's a bit of wind that blows underneath it.
Who needs car?
Brilliant.
And I'm a massive fan of that.
Oh, hey.
I know what I was going to talk about today.
I've just checked my notes that I quickly wrote down.
There's a couple of interesting anniversaries
over the last couple of days
since we've been recording this.
The Fast and Furious is 25th anniversary.
Oh, I saw this.
That was on the 22nd, wasn't it?
It was the anniversary of the release.
The release of the first film, is that right?
Yeah, that's right.
Yeah, that's right.
So that is 25 now.
And of course, we now know the massive influence of that film
and it opened up the world of cars
to a totally different generation
and the rise and rise of import culture, as Americans call it,
the sort of Japanese JDM type stuff and drifting
and just lots of chaotic stickers on cars
and chinspoilers that come off.
So, you know, that's been really good.
But not that car-based film was Jaws.
That was released 51 years ago.
So around about the same time, but 51.
Jaws released.
1976 was that then?
1975, wasn't it?
Sorry, you said 51, yeah.
Well, according to this, now this is because you forget
that this used to happen, that films were released
quite a bit later sometimes in the UK.
Apparently, Jaws was released in the UK
on Boxing Day, 1975.
Was it?
Yes, but in the US, it was released on June 20th.
So last week.
So it's the middle of summer.
Wow.
I was going to say, I mean, that sort of, you know,
it takes place in the summer in that beach town.
So that feels good.
Right, everyone had enough turkey.
Brilliant, let's go and see a shark attack film.
Boxing days are very...
Maybe that's because they knew that going into January,
which is typically gloomy,
people wanted a bit of excitement
and they'd all rush to the cinema in the cold,
terrible weather.
I suppose, yeah.
I just, I don't, I never quite understood
why there was sometimes such a lag,
because you ever have, when you're at school,
you ever like a mate who went to America on holiday
and they'd come back and they'd be very smug
because they'd seen the new Police Academy movie.
Oh, completely.
It wasn't going to be out for another month in the UK.
Yeah.
Da, da, da.
What a theme tune.
Talking of Police Academy, I think lots of, you know,
there was lots of people wearing shorts in Police Academy.
That's one of the things I remember as a kid.
I don't know why there's lots of shorts wearing,
which is quite apt because, you know,
it's a very hot week for us here in the UK.
And last week, I was at Milbrook Proving Ground,
which is called something else now.
I think it's called UTAC now, but it's...
What?
Yeah, it's called something different.
I'm just looking up.
I'm pretty sure it's called UTAC.
U, T, A, C.
Like BlueTac, but without the BL.
UTAC.
Yeah, here we go.
It's called UTAC.
I still call it Milbrook Proving Ground.
Yeah.
But anyway, it's where we obviously used to film
tons of fifth gear and we used to do magazine shoots there.
It's where Tiff Nadel, our Capaccio Jacketed friend,
set the fastest average speed in a road car
of 195 miles an hour in the McLaren F1.
Yes.
And it's where, in Casino Royale, the Bond film,
there was that huge barrel roll that became a world record
with the DBS.
Yes.
That stuntiness was performed at this place.
So, yeah, it's steeped in history with General Motors,
which is who built it.
Yeah.
In the 60s.
In the 60s.
60s.
So that Vauxhall had so many test cars.
Quite a lot of...
There's quite a spendy thing to do.
Really spendy thing to do.
But I suppose at that point, Vauxhall had a great deal
of independence from every other bit of the GM Empire,
didn't I suppose?
They were just sort of getting on with their own stuff
and they had their own R&D place and their own
styling studio in Luton.
And they just went, yeah, we'd like a test track, please.
With an enormous high-speed bowl and GM went,
sure, here, have some money.
And then, you know, by the 70s,
they were sort of merging more and more
of Vauxhall and Opel's R&D operations
and eventually it all sort of went to Germany.
So, yeah, Milbrook was still used quite a lot.
But, you know, it didn't...
It had a weird history because then GM bought Lotus
and sort of, I think, officially transferred
Milbrook onto Lotus for a bit.
Really?
That's a lot of testing tracks for a small car.
I mean, it's a 700-acre site,
which I'd forgotten how enormous it was.
I think it's probably some weird accountancy thing
rather than...
Because I'm pretty sure the number of...
I haven't been to Milbrook as many times as you,
but the times that I have been there,
you always just used to see, you know,
like a Vectra just plodding around the high-speed bowl.
It was probably doing some, you know,
like ECU calibration testing or something
really sort of, you know, that needs to be done,
but it's not the sexy end of car testing.
It's not like on-limit handling calibration.
It's just... could you keep to a steady 56?
The kerb strike was always my favourite thing to watch.
It was a very bored-looking guy or lady
on full-lock driving a car.
It's often a car that wasn't even for the UK market.
It was for Europe or China or America.
And they were going up and down a European driveway
and then an American driveway
and had different types of kerbs.
And the American driveway...
They're amazing, aren't they?
What's it about?
I still don't understand the aggression of them.
Unnecessary aggression.
Is it because they're worried that if there's a flood,
as happened here the other day when there was a storm,
it was a really intense summer storm
and local roads flooded and shops flooded and all sorts.
It was quite mad.
But I guess is there a worry that in some parts of the US
that flash flood may occur
and you want your house, the houses are built slightly above the street.
I don't know, but it costs you more in damaged bumpers
and suspension over the course of the life of the house.
Particularly if you drive some kind of Euro car
and they haven't paid a visit to Milbrook
where they have the reconstructed simulations of an American driveway
that you can drive up to see how much your chin spoiler grates horribly again.
I just feel so sorry for all the cars that have to put up with it.
Do they have Belgian pave at Milbrook?
I don't think I've ever seen it.
They've definitely got it at Myra and a couple of the other places.
They do a lot of military testing,
what they did do at Myra,
so they've got bomb holes and they've got tank trap type things
and their off road section is really comprehensive.
I actually did some off roading in a Defender when I was there.
I realised, you're a Defender pilot, this is not news to you,
but the one I was in, the handbrake is underneath your left leg
and it comes out at an angle like a dick out of sports shorts.
Painting pictures with words, I mean, yes.
That's true though.
Why does it come out at such a strange angle?
It looks so...
I think it is a strange angle.
Well, this one did, unless someone had bent it.
I think it might have been broken.
It's there, I think, because it works on the prop shaft.
So it sort of sits effectively on a sort of half bulkhead.
The box that the driver's seat is on, it's bolted to that.
But yeah, I don't know, it's never occurred to me that it's weird.
It's just sort of where it is in that car.
I love the off road track.
It's so brutal in places.
Anyway, so you were at Millbrook last week?
I was there last week.
Did you get to drive around it?
I didn't do the...
I was hosting an event there, an insurance event,
so I was like the anchor.
I didn't get a chance to go out on the bowl.
I did regale the story about Jason Plato
with cruise control on in the Faton
and climbing out of the driving seat
and sitting in the back at 150.
That wasn't funny.
I remember how unfunny that was at the time.
Now we can laugh about it.
I don't think I'm dobbling anyone in it
because they've told this story,
at least one of them has told this story publicly,
that the former auto car journalists
Steve Sutcliffe and Colin Goodwin did the same.
For people who don't know, there's a zero steer speed,
isn't there, on those high speed bowls,
as if there is a precise speed
at which you can take your hands off the wheel
and though the car is sort of technically
going around a constant radius corner,
you can in fact just take your hands off the wheel
and it just tracks perfectly within its lane.
It really does, but a crosswind could happen.
But Goodwin and Sutcliffe put this cruise control on
in, I think, a Bentley of some sort,
and then both got in the back.
And then, for whatever reason,
the cruise control disengaged itself
and apparently you've never seen two grown men
so desperately trying to get back into the front seat of a car.
Because of course, as soon as the speed starts dropping,
the car is no longer tracking straight and true.
It is in fact heading...
Inwards.
It would head down, wouldn't it?
It would head down the bowl
and it would be sort of heading to the infield,
which would be quite bad.
Yeah.
Yeah.
When I was once doing...
I was a guest...
This is a weird job, Boz.
I was a guest pundit on this...
I can't remember if it was a Channel 4 or a Channel 5 show.
It feels like a Channel 5 kind of thing.
Called, I think, Pub Ammo.
It was quite a neat idea for a show.
This was in the 2000s when such things were still sort of like,
you know, it felt like it fitted into the whole
kind of world of nuts magazine and things
that basically they just sort of...
It's quite blokey.
And the presenters would kind of go,
hey, here's one for you.
What do you think is, I don't know,
the strongest animal?
Is it a badger or a monkey?
And then...
I mean, they didn't actually do this
where they'd fight animals.
But one of them was,
which is the fastest white van?
Oh, okay.
So...
They assembled a load of vans at Milbrook
and then they got a driver,
a pro driver to lap them as fast as he could
to see which one was the fastest.
And I was the professional pundit
standing with...
I can't remember the name,
there's a woman who presented some of their VTs
and I stood with her watching this and going,
well, that's a good showing for the transit there,
as you'd expect for what they do with vans.
It was all wonderful bollocks.
But when you're filming at Milbrook, as you know,
you're supposed to have like a minder with you, aren't you?
So you don't accidentally film a secret car on test.
That's right.
Or a home of his best.
This was...
Yes.
I think this was the first time I'd ever been to Milbrook.
So we had to go to the briefing
where you went,
you do not take pictures of any other cars,
you do not film other cars,
you know, they give you the real kind of like,
put the frighteners up you.
Oh, they do.
Yeah, they're serious, these guys.
Yeah.
Well, it's their livelihood, isn't it?
Yeah.
You know, you are.
Because that's the thing,
at that point Milbrook had become
an independent test facility,
so they would rent it out to whoever needed it.
And if you are, whoever it is,
whether it be, you know,
because I think a lot of manufacturers from overseas
do still use it,
because there aren't that many high-speed bowls around.
Yeah, while we were there,
there was an Aston,
one of those really intense Aston's,
was it the Valerie or something?
That was howling around when we were there.
Yeah.
With some camo on.
Or maybe it was just a mule,
a test mule car.
But yeah, there's always stuff.
You have everything at Milbrook,
from military, like mad military vehicles,
full of dummies to weighted dummies.
We used to see armored personnel carriers
doing all kinds of weird stuff,
bus, hydrogen buses,
stuff that hadn't come out yet,
and lots of rabbits.
You'd see a lot of rabbits.
On tests?
Well, no, they weren't testing.
They were updating the rabbits.
No, but see, that was the thing that
entered my mind when Plato got out
of the fate on cruise control.
I trusted the car,
and I knew that the steering wouldn't change.
However, if a rabbit ran out in front of us,
which is likely,
there would just be a tiny bit of deflection
that would cause...
A tiny bit of deflection,
or even autonomous emergency braking,
which I think the fate on might have had
at that era as a second generation of fate on.
I can't remember.
Anyway, I was just really worried.
Because I remember the story.
You know, Martin Brundle
lapped the XJ220
at Nardo in the south of Italy
to try and get it beyond its claim
220 mile an hour top speed, I think.
There was a story about it in Car Magazine.
There's two things I remember about that story.
One, that at very high speeds for sustained periods,
the bonnet was actually pushed
back and up on its latch and its hinges,
because there's a sustained amount of air pressure on it,
which is, you know, a design factor
they hadn't considered when they'd been developing.
But, yeah, there's so much pressure on it.
It was gradually pushed,
so it became proud at its rear edge,
where the hinges were distorting.
But the other thing I remember,
which I thought was just terrifying and fascinating,
is that Nardo is obviously a lot bigger than Milbrook,
so it's a longer time to go round.
But on one lap round at high speed,
a snake was slithering across the track
and the car went over it.
No harm done except to the snake.
What, yes.
But then the concern was,
on your next lap around,
birds will be trying to feed off the bits of snake.
Oh, the carrion.
Yeah, the carrion,
and you could clobber a massive crow
or some other, you know, sort of large carrion favourite.
Yeah, and that you do not want to smack a crow
at 220 miles an hour.
And so it was a real concern
that the snake, no problem,
but the aftermath of the snake
was what would cause an issue.
And I was just like,
that would never have occurred to me,
but Jesus, what a thing to happen.
I was going to say,
when they put the frighteners up at Milbrook and went,
do not look at anything else, basically.
We then went out with our designated minder
and we were standing above the bowl,
waiting for the first fan to come around.
And there was a Renault Sport McGann going round,
which was at that point not announced.
You know, the big bum McGann.
My favourite.
Kind of interesting to me
that one of those was testing in the UK.
I wonder if, you know,
one of the UK-based engineering companies like Ricardo
or someone was doing some consultancy on that car.
But anyway, this McGann was going round.
It was very loud,
and it was, you know, in the top lane,
really whipping it around there.
And as it went past us,
you know, you sort of get a blast of air as it went by,
even from way back behind the Armco.
Our security minder went, bloody hell, look at that!
And I was a bit like,
aren't you supposed to be discouraging us
from looking at other things?
He was not brilliant at his job.
But it was quite interesting.
I also saw that day,
they were testing the V8-powered MGZ-T there as well.
Oh, that? OK, that's...
The big wide-arch body kit on it,
and that was quite cool to see.
That is cool. But I didn't look at it.
No, you didn't look at it. Definitely didn't look at it.
And lots of people say to me,
oh, would you ever emigrate?
And most of the time, the answer is no.
I've enjoyed travelling,
and I do enjoy going to other countries
and experiencing other cultures,
but I don't think I would ever leave.
And it'd be primarily, if I was going to emigrate,
do you know what would be at the top of my list of things
to check first, apart from
can I afford it and will they let me in?
Do you know what the genre would be?
I wouldn't dare guess. Go on.
Average wind speed.
Right. OK.
Because I hate the wind, it's shit.
Yeah, the winds are dick.
I think we agree with that.
So, right.
But you imagine moving to a place
which you assume is going to be perfect.
You've done so much homework,
and you realise the one thing
that just constantly
jabs you and denies you
is the fact that it's just a little bit too windy
or unpredictably windy.
You'd move back.
Therefore saying Chicago is off your list
of places to emigrate to
because of its nickname.
I don't think, I could be getting this wrong,
but I don't think that that nickname
comes from actual wind.
I think it's something to do with, like,
you know, being a windbag.
I'm sure there's something with, like,
some politician who is a bit of a blowhard.
Oh, really?
American listeners, if you're in Chicago,
correct me on this, but I don't think
that the windy city is so-called
because it is notably more windy
than other major US cities.
I could be wrong there, but please,
write in and correct us.
So, yeah, that's, so there's that?
I suppose, yeah, some places are naturally
windier, like the coast.
Yeah.
But wind is also, you know,
there are some cities that feel very windy
because it's just like the way that the buildings
have been arranged sort of seems to create wind tunnels.
That's right.
New York can be very windy.
Manhattan, especially, because obviously
it's a peninsula, isn't it,
with skyscrapers.
So, yeah, you do get that.
I'm trying to think of the windiest place I've ever been.
And I can't...
Norfolk's quite windy.
Yeah, this country can be very windy.
I know what you mean.
Sometimes the wind is just an absolute asshole.
Have you ever found yourself just shouting
fuck off at the wind?
Oh, I do it regularly when we're filming
like break show stuff.
Honestly, I worry that it's getting worse with age.
That I will shake my fist at the sky
and go, can you just piss off wind?
Yeah.
Yeah, I hate the wind.
I mean, I've told Rain
to piss off as well.
It's such a sort of ineffectual thing because
it makes no difference whatsoever.
No, the wind doesn't care about me.
But the other thing was
is while I was doing this insurance event
it occurred to me
because, you know, of course, insurance is based
upon statistics
and likelihoods,
probability. That is what it is.
And it's one of those things where you think it's quite
a dry subject on the surface.
But actually, I'm quite interested
in how they
actually devise insurance policies
and risk and
what they take on and what they won't take on
and all that stuff. I won't go into it
because I'm not intelligent enough.
But one thing that I wanted to put to them
and I thought I'd save it for this here
podcast, like I'll put it to you now,
is
could we have
cheaper car insurance
if the car is
colourful?
And the reason for this
Oh. Yeah.
Could we prove scientifically
that having a brighter car
means it's
therefore more visible and that means it's less
likely to be hit by
other people because it's very clearly visible.
Are we
certain that insurance companies aren't already
factoring this in because they should
know the colour of your car from the reg?
Yeah, they should.
I wonder if it does make a difference, like
Is that part of their Alangarithm these days?
Well, so if I painted
my Tesla yellow tomorrow
would it save me
30 quid a year or?
Well, you'd have to declare it to the DVLA, wouldn't you?
Yeah. It's a colour change. Yeah.
And then it would go on to the database that would allow
the insurance people to see that it's yellow and yeah, if they went
Oh.
Interesting. You could, I wonder if you could do this by running
two quotes. Yeah.
I'd love to do this.
For identical cars, but one is
bright coloured and one is black or grey or
see if anything different came up with every
other detail was exactly the same.
I mean, if anyone is in the insurance industry and can reveal
if this is okay. I don't know that it is. I'm just
wondering if they have that sort of power at their hands
and obviously you're right. Of course they have the power.
The insurance is based on risk factors, isn't it?
So they would want to see all of the available risk factors.
But then from a marketing perspective
said insurers
could turn this around and say
if you buy more colourful cars
they will be
safer and cheaper to ensure
and thus we break
the cycle of people buying such
boring coloured cars at the moment
and try and turn this ship around
so instead of ordering your
I don't know absolutely hideous looking
two series BMW or X4
in black or grey
you could actually buy that car in electric
blue or
burnt orange or
but funnily enough, I do see quite a lot of those
horrid two series saloons
in a sort of kingfishery blue
Yeah, you do actually
That doesn't know what it does seem to get.
They are not. I don't think
compared to a standard
A3 hatchback
often tends to be
quite a sort of
from a monochrome
palette. What I'm thinking is
we inadvertently
penalise the Soviet
palette colour palette
Soviets. Well that's what I'm calling it
because it's just
really annoying, especially in Britain
where we don't have
enough bright weather. It's just lovely
to see cars out and about
that are of
untrusting shoes
and I think we should do more of it
so imagine if we could
if insurers got behind this to be golden
marketing gold for
these guys. Would it not?
And actually gold, there you go, gold
My Avenger is yellow
gold and it looks spectacular
and my Chevrolet Impala is champagne
gold with a white roof and it looks
spectacular, I think
The probability
of incident kind of
way the insurance worked
My brother had real experience
of this because he bought, many years ago
he bought a
Golf TDI
130
and
when he got his insurance documents
through it said on it
TDI 150, do you remember
that more powerful one came out? I do
and he was a bit like, oh well now
hang on a sec, they think
I've got the more powerful Golf, I'm going to tell them
my insurance
surely will go down a bit, I'm paying too much
because I think I've got the more powerful
therefore more risky car
so he contacted them, they went oh yes 130
yes sorry, there's a mistake at R&D
yes okay, so you owe us
more money
because the 150
was quite a rare model, so statistically
it was involved in a lot fewer accidents
than the fairly ubiquitous 130
so if he kept his trap shut
I suppose that would have been
insurance fraud but he didn't
it was an honest mistake and their mistake
but yeah, the more powerful car
was actually
cheaper to ensure just because
probability of it being in a crash was I suppose
lower by dint of just numbers
well and this is why doing your
homework before you buy the car can sometimes
pay dividends because he could have bought
a TDI 150 if he could have afforded it
if it was
well yeah, that's the thing, you sort of assume more power equals more insurance cost
but not necessarily
on that strangely sensible note we should
bring this into land
before we do
as usual, I have three things I'd like to share with you
the first is of course that Johnny has a solo YouTube channel
called The Late Break Show
do you remember what's on it?
well there's two videos
out this week
one of them which has already come out
will be the second part
of my Carl Cox chat
where we actually sit down and do an idle chat
and I think you will particularly
enjoy this one because he talks about MG
Maestros and Rover Estee Ones
and what else
what other cars that you would dig
oh and a Jag, he remembers buying a Jag XJR
the supercharged straight 6 one
he was waxing lyrical about that
I'd love
to first
when you were chatting with his actual cars
or some of his actual cars
I mean
you'd said to me oh he's a real car nerd
but he just
does that sort of effortlessly
just work again
within the first five minutes of that vid he said transverse engine
I was just a bit like
just never imagined that
the godfather of
modern DJing
would just so effortlessly say
transverse engine in a way
that's just part of his normal everyday language
it's delightful so yes
it's hard recommend for the
Carl Cox vid on the late break show
oh thank you
second thing I could say is
I have various books out one of them is called Petrolhead
it's a compilation of some of my Evo columns
from the past 20 odd years
get it on Amazon as an e-book
or the paperback is available
from the Smith & Sniff merch
shopsmithsniff.com
where you can also buy
t-shirts and stickers
and mugs and there's a live shows page
we can see details of where we're going to be
Festival of the Unexceptional is the next one
oh yeah
in August
we're going to confirm more details on this soon
but in August we are going to be in the United States of the Americas
doing something
with our friends at the smoking tire
oh my gosh big reveal Richard
big reveal
well because Matt mentioned it on their podcast
the other week like last week I think
and I didn't know he's going to do that
but it is all happening
I think we are going to be there special guests at a live show
in California in August
and then in September we're going to be in Stanford in Lincolnshire
some sort of homecoming show for you
so yeah
but the tickets aren't on sale for either of those yet
they will be very very soon
and the third thing
is something I saw on social media last week
which I thought was brilliant
and this was confirmed as a fact
by Tim Burgess himself
the charlatans
were given £20,000
by their record company to make a video
for their song North Country Boy
rather than
plan something really complicated
elaborate and expensive they just used the 20 grand
to all go to New York
they filmed themselves walking around the streets
of New York at night a little bit
and they just had a really nice weekend away
and that's the video for North Country Boy
cheap
but a lovely holiday behind it
and the fourth thing is
that I wanted to say
last week was
Michelle Mouton's 75th
birthday
World Rally
I think is she still
the only lady
to have
conquered World Rally
and that was 1982
that she won
yeah I think probably
still the most successful
yeah
I don't know
in terms of getting a driver at a works team
and then being
consistent
but yeah she still
definitely has a significant
place in history
to me the coolest woman in motorsport
yeah yeah
the latest happy birthday to Michelle Mouton
yeah and if Michelle's listening
I'd love to interview you one day
because just you and the Quattro
in the early 80s
awesome combination
cool alright well there we go Michelle
if you're listening get in touch hello at smithasniff.com
she's totally listening
she might be we had an email from
Gerard Lopez the other day
after mentioning him so
people who should have better things to do
do you listen to this podcast
did we really get an email from Gerard Lopez
well yeah I think it's
really him it sort of checks out
anyway we'll come back to that
for now thank you ever so much for listening
we're back on Friday with a Q&A show
and then a normal show the following Monday again
until then goodbye
cheers mate thanks mate bye then
you
I can't subscribe
I can't subscribe
bye
you do not want to smack a crow
at 220 miles an hour
and so it is a real concern
that the snake no problem but the aftermath
of the snake was what would cause an issue
and I was just like
that would never have occurred to me but Jesus what a
what a thing to happen that's
About this episode
Jonny Smith and Richard Porter dive into the hilarious linguistic origins of the Lamborghini Urus before recounting a chaotic local music festival experience. From dodging a Madness tribute band to analyzing the bravery of early dancefloor adopters, the hosts find humor in the mundane. The highlight of the day, however, is spotting a Citroën Picasso identical to the one driven by viral sensation Ronnie Pickering, sparking a quest to track down the legendary vehicle's current whereabouts.
Original notes
Jonny and Richard fear for the survival of a car icon. Also in this episode, the origin of the name Urus, strange trousers at a music festival, car problems in hot weather, Fast & Furious at 25, memories of Millbrook proving ground, choosing where to live based on wind, car colour and insurance costs, and another cracking car plucked from Car & Classic.
For early, ad-free episodes and extra content go to patreon.com/smithandsniff
To buy merch and tickets to live shows go to smithandsniff.com
This episode is sponsored by Car & Classic https://candc.li/uc1yqz
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Smith and Sniff
Jonny Smith and Richard Porter
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62:33