Size Isn't Everything
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Term
12 horsepower
Horsepower is how much power the engine can make. “12 horsepower” means the Isetta’s engine is extremely low-powered, so it won’t accelerate or go fast like a normal car. It’s basically built for slow, local driving.
Term
windscreen
The windscreen is the front glass. In this car, it can fold down, which helps make the vehicle more compact and more open to the air.
Term
three metres long
They’re giving the car’s length in meters. A car’s length affects whether it fits in your garage and how easy it is to park.
Car
Mini Cooper
The Mini Cooper is a classic small car from Mini (originally British Leyland-era). In enthusiast circles, it’s known for go-kart-like handling and fun driving dynamics, especially in earlier models.
Term
right bullet mirrors
“Bullet mirrors” are a specific classic mirror style used on some Minis. Saying it has the “right” ones implies correct period appearance, which can matter a lot for authenticity and collector value.
Car
1961 Messerschmitt KR200
This is a tiny “bubble car” from 1961 made by Meshesmith. It’s basically a very small vehicle with a quirky, airplane-inspired look, and it’s designed to be easy to drive in tight spaces.
Concept
three wheels
This car uses three wheels instead of four. That can make it lighter and simpler, but it also means it drives and feels different than a normal car.
Concept
three-wheeled car
This is a car with only three wheels instead of four. Because it has fewer wheels touching the road, potholes can affect it more, and it can be easier for the car to get stuck or feel unstable.
Term
pothole
A pothole is a hole or broken spot in the road. When a wheel hits it, the car can suddenly lose grip and sometimes the wheel can get stuck in the damage.
Term
storage is expensive
This is a cost-of-ownership concept: if you have a collectible or seasonal vehicle, you may need paid storage (garage space, secure units, etc.). The speaker argues that storage costs should be included when comparing the total expense of keeping unusual cars.
Concept
rent-a-garage
A rent-a-garage is basically renting a place to park your car when you don’t have driveway space. The point here is that those options have become harder to get in the UK.
Part
spanners
Spanners are hand tools for turning bolts and nuts. They’re a basic part of doing real work on cars.
Part
kneeling pad
A kneeling pad is just a cushion you put on the ground so you can work on the car without hurting your knees. It’s a simple comfort/safety item for DIY repairs.
Concept
barn find
A “barn find” is a car that’s been sitting unused for a long time and then gets found again. They can be cool, but they often need a lot of work because sitting can cause problems.
Concept
guided for 8,000 to 12,000
The auction guide price is the expected price range for the car. It’s just an estimate, and the real sale price can end up being different.
Car
1961 Morris Minor Million
This is a special Morris Minor made in 1961. It was built to celebrate a big production milestone, so it’s a collectible piece of British car history.
Term
nought to 60 time
“0 to 60 time” is how fast a car gets from standing still to 60 mph. In this case, the numbers on the car aren’t about acceleration—they’re tied to the special edition’s milestone story.
Concept
guided for 30 to 40,000
At auctions, they often give a “price guide” before bidding starts. It’s basically an estimate of what the car should sell for. Then they compare that estimate to what it actually ended up costing.
Term
guided at 35 to 40,000
That phrase means the auction house expected the car to sell somewhere around that price range. It’s not the final price—just a prediction to guide buyers.
Concept
went for 42,000
That’s the final price it sold for at auction. If it’s higher than the estimate, it usually means more people wanted it.
Term
filler
Filler is a putty used to cover dents or uneven spots before painting. If there’s a lot of it, it can mean the car had damage that was covered up.
Concept
project car
A “project car” is a vehicle that needs significant work—often cosmetic restoration, mechanical repairs, or both—before it can be enjoyed or driven reliably. In this segment, the speaker frames the car as a major restoration candidate due to its severe condition.
Concept
guided for 12,000 to 15,000 pounds
An auction “guide” range is an estimate of what the seller expects the car to fetch. It’s not a guarantee, but it helps buyers gauge whether a lot is likely to sell at a premium or bargain relative to expectations.
Car
Ferrari 308 GT4
The Ferrari 308 GT4 is a classic Ferrari sports car with a V8 engine. It’s known for its cool design and for being a bit more usable than some other Ferraris.
Concept
rally plate
A “rally plate” here is a special plate you buy so you can take part in the event. It’s part of how the organizers track participation and raise money.
Concept
drive-it day
“Drive-it day” sounds like a charity event where people drive their cars to help raise money. You get involved by buying a special plate and joining the scheduled meet-ups.
Car
Austin A35
The Austin A35 is a small British car from Austin, best known as a post-war-era compact that became popular with enthusiasts. It’s often discussed today as a “guilty pleasure” because it’s charming and characterful, even if it’s not what most people would consider a performance or luxury choice.
Concept
rust along the sills
Sills are the lower metal sections along the sides of the car. If they rust badly, the car can get weak and unsafe, not just ugly.
Car
Austin 3L
The Austin 3L is an older Austin car that some people love as a “guilty pleasure.” The point here is that it can be comfortable and roomy, even if it wasn’t a huge hit when it was new.
Car
Renault Fuego
The Renault Fuego is a Renault coupe that was designed to look sporty and stylish. People sometimes love it more for the character and design than for being a fast car.
Concept
rusted and fell apart
The speaker is saying the car’s metal likely corroded over time and the car deteriorated. That kind of rust can make an old car much harder (and more expensive) to keep on the road.
LIVE
Right, here we go.
What's the best diminu...
No, what's the best diminu...
Got to spit it out.
No, I'm just going to change it.
The Tire Kickers classic car chat with Max and Matt.
Hello there, it's episode 52 of The Tire Kickers and this time we're talking tiny.
We're thinking small, we're discussing classic car shrink flation.
Better known as small cars.
What's the best little classic to drive if you've got limited space?
The Tire Kickers.
Also, like a divorced couple, we were both at the practical
classics resto show at the NEC recently, but on different days.
Birmingham ain't big enough for the two of us.
We'll also talk about the best cars for sale down under.
Loads of you listen in Australia, but what do you drive and what do you buy?
And after we fessed up about ours, you confess your classic car guilty pleasures.
It's all in this latest episode of The Tire Kickers, the podcast
where we trade dirty oily secrets.
Driving and arguing since 2024.
This is The Tire Kickers.
Right, I have had to move both of my cars out of storage, Matthew.
Why? Because for some reason, war in the Middle East has made a double garage in
Sarancester a lot more expensive.
Now, this may seem a lot, but for a double garage on an industrial estate,
to store my Mercedes SL and a 991.2 Porsche Carrera T,
I used to pay 420 quid a month, including VAT.
Yeah, I mean, that is a lot.
I mean, storage is expensive and it's got more expensive.
Around here, it's gone from about 200 quid a month for decent storage to near a 300.
I don't think that's profiteering, though, on their part.
I think it's just the usual reasons that we all know by now, you know,
energy cost, staff cost, taxes, yadda yadda yadda.
Yeah, but 420 quid was the old price.
Apparently, due to what's happening abroad,
my rent had to go up to over 600 quid a month for a double garage, which is crazy.
I mean, it's secure, there's a cafe on site, there's a loo, there's some Wi-Fi.
I think that's crazy, though.
So, what I've done is I've moved both my cars to a nearby classic car storage company,
which is less than 400 quid a month.
Have you come on just to rant and moan about the price of a lock up?
I mean...
Yeah, you've heard this podcast before of you.
Ranting and moaning is what we do.
That's that's a little subtitle.
What's next, price of petrol?
Wow, I saw your photograph.
Do not get me started on that.
That was cheap.
I'm here to provide a solution.
Instead of full-size cars, I could just clear out my garage,
get rid of the lawn mowers, the bikes, the old winter wheels and firewood,
and instead buy a tiny classic, a really small car.
But which one?
For example, my mate has one of these.
It's a BMW Isetta 300.
Now, have a look at this on your screen now.
You can't really get much smaller than these kind of microcars.
This is the really successful BMW microcar,
which had the front door hinge out and the steering wheel hinged as well.
And then two people sit inside.
They're not very...
Well, they're not very fast.
They've got a 300-seat single cylinder producing a massive 12 horsepower.
But I reckon I could fit that in the garage.
What do you think of those?
I think Isetta's a cute, but I've never been in my mate Ian's.
So I will rectify that and I'll take the recorder along to see what it's like.
So to paint a picture, it looks like a little Tykes kids car with the big...
It's the one with the big door at the front that you open the door and get inside.
It's the two wheels at the front, one wheel at the back.
Imagine a camper van, a VW type 2 camper van,
shrunken down and then you saw the back off and you just put one wheel on it.
That's pretty much what this looks like.
Okay, it's small.
You're going to get it in your tiny garage, but you're not going to drive that max.
Yeah, I think they're quite good fun.
I think they'd be really good fun to drive.
I mean, you can't go very far in them.
I don't think they go much more than 50 miles an hour.
You can go to A&E.
These are the crucial figures.
It's 2.3 meters by 1.4 meters.
It could fit in your pocket.
It's 350 kilograms.
It's really, really small.
I think it's not just small to put in your garage.
It also does 60 to 70 miles to the gallon.
So with the current petrol prices, that is both an economical classic
and a tiny classic as well.
As you say, 300 cc.
I thought you were getting the lawn mowers out of the garage, not putting them in there.
I mean, to be honest, if you chuck some blades on the back,
it would probably do your lawn as well.
I mean, it's tiny.
It's just a little sewing machine, isn't it?
You know, what are you going to do with it?
Well, just cruise around.
It's quite cute, isn't it?
Do you not like that?
I think that's quite cute if you saw it coming.
You'd probably bully it.
You could bully it into submission on the road.
But I think that's a really cute fun car.
On the way to the pub, for example, you'd have a riot.
Well, you're on your own because you know, can you get two up in it?
You can get two very well.
If you know each other quite well, you could get in there.
Two little things, I think.
One is the price of this one, 16 grand.
It's kind of expensive.
And that's just an auction guide.
And also, I think if you come anywhere near a juggernaut
or a Kia Sportage, you're going to be flattened.
Yeah, it would be quite frightening.
So that's one option for your tiny garage.
What else have you got?
Well, I'm thinking, I mean, this is, I think, quite a sensible option.
If you go to, and you know how much I love Landrovers,
if you look at a 1950 Series 1 Landrover,
which is on your screen now, this is for sale for 1950,
which is quite reasonable for a Series 1, to be honest.
It's not our headlights behind the grille,
but it is kind of like a 1950 one.
These are quite small because if you look at the pictures,
you can take the tops off the doors,
you can fold the windscreen down,
and you can take the canvas tilt off,
which means that the dimensions of it are quite neat.
It's two metres long, 1.5 metres wide,
and the height with the screen flat and the roof down is 1.2 metres.
So that's actually a really tiny car, the Series 1.
When you look at the pictures, you can see it's virtually nothing,
but you still get that kind of full-size Landrover feel to it.
And actually, for 1950, this one's absolutely mint.
That's not bad money.
It's quite cute.
I'd be struggling to see how you would get that in your garage.
I think you'd probably just about get it in there,
and then you wouldn't be able to open the door.
Well, you wouldn't have just climbed out the top, wouldn't you?
You could take the doors off, to be honest, can you?
You could probably fall off, to be fair.
And then, where are you going in that?
The pub very slowly.
It's just going to the pub again, isn't it?
But it does mean I think that could fit in my garage,
and also I could put the lawnmower and the bikes in the back.
When I don't need it.
So, it's doubling as storage.
It's double value.
Actually, that's true, actually.
Yeah, and it'll be nice and cheap.
Oh, no, it's not. It's 20 grand for that.
That's not bad for a Series 1.
Well, it's a series of panels, isn't it?
It's essentially very badly fitting panels.
If you take the doors off, the panel fit gets a lot better,
because you don't see the caps.
If you take everything off, it looks much better.
I think that's cute.
I'm feeling that a bit more than the bubble car beforehand.
But I still think space is the problem.
This is the point we're saying here.
And I think looking at your garage, it is very small.
I think we need to maybe go smaller
and go for the probably the obvious choice.
What, the Mini Cooper?
Yeah.
They're actually quite big, though, Minis.
This is three metres long, the Mini Cooper.
So, this is a 1968 one on your screen now.
It's white with a black roof and the slightly wider wheels.
Nice looking car, but three metres long,
1.4 metres wide, 1.3 metres high.
I mean, the wheelbase is the same as that Series 1 landing,
interestingly, but three metres long,
that's almost a bit too big.
I'm not sure I could squeeze that in the garage,
along with all the other rubbish,
but it would be the best driving car there.
I mean, I love a Mini Cooper,
and that would drive really nicely,
and you just have a lot of fun with that.
One of the things I thought, if you go smaller in cars,
the price would go down,
but the price seems to be just going up.
I mean, this one's up for 29,000, this 1968 one.
I think original Coopers, they're still quite sought after.
This has only got 50,000 miles on it,
and they've done a bit of work to it.
They've done brake servos, new looms.
They've put Yokohama tyres on it,
which means it'll grip really nicely.
Um, yeah, it is nice.
I mean, they're valuable,
because they didn't make a huge amount,
and this one's got the right bullet mirrors.
It's got the wider wheels.
It's that perfect kind of...
It's like old English white that they used to do in the 60s.
So, nice, but expensive,
and I think it's too big to be honest.
I still think that is too big.
OK, so what's your last effort on this, then?
Is it going to be something that I'm going to like?
No, of course it will.
You don't like anything I like.
Oh, my God, I've just seen it.
I have just put it on.
There's a story behind this.
Hold on a minute.
That looks like it's just crawled out the sea.
What the hell is that?
Well, do you remember meshesmiths?
They used to be quite good at making aeroplanes,
but they were on the losing side of the war.
So after the war, they were banned from making planes.
So instead, they made cars,
but basically they made their cars look like planes
just without the wings.
And on your screen now is a 1961 Meshesmith KR200
microcar stroke bubble car.
Now, the thing I love about this,
it's virtually a plane with three wheels.
It's like a light aircraft.
It's got a kind of a yoke steering wheel thing.
It's got a bubble canopy that just hinges off either side.
It's almost like you could mount a machine
going to shoot out the back.
And then it's just got these weird froggy looks
with wide arches over the front wheels
and two little frog-like headlights.
So it's a really interesting car, to be honest.
I'd love to go on one of those.
I mean, again, you might be a bit hot
because it's like a greenhouse on the top,
but what an interesting car to drive that would be.
It's very kooky to describe it.
It's in like a baby blue kind of color.
My first thought when I first saw it is,
you know, when they do the documentaries on the ocean
and they go right to the depths
and they show you the fish that live on the bottom
and they're sort of too ugly to live on the top.
It looks like one of those,
but just somebody's resprayed it in kind of carnival blue.
I mean, it's really, I've got...
Max says it's got kind of froggy eyes
and then two wing mirrors on top, which is going to make it...
Look, it's got sort of bulbous fish mouth kind of face.
And then this odd clear perspex kind of glass arrangement on the top.
You're sitting it on your own.
There's no room for your mates.
It's the car for the local village weirdo.
Oh, hello.
Put this one down, Max.
Perfect for you.
Where can I buy?
Where can I sign?
If somebody in your village in the posh worlds,
you know, if somebody came down the road in that...
It's called the Potswolds now because the roads are so bad.
Fun as everywhere.
You've got special ones of you.
Yeah, they're just a little bit smarter than everybody else's.
This is a problem with this as well.
It's only got three wheels.
So one of those wheels goes on the pot hole.
You're a goner, aren't you?
The whole car would just go down the pot hole,
wouldn't it?
The whole thing, not just the wheel.
It's stuck.
The wheel is just lodging.
If that back single wheel went in a pot hole,
we'd just get stuck there.
And the front wheels would be up in the air.
So you'd be pointing right in the air, wouldn't you?
So if it came trundling down the street though,
you wouldn't think, oh, wow, that's cool.
You'd just think, oh, there's that weird bloke
again in that weird kind of fish car.
Yeah, but they think that.
And it's just a Mercedes SL, isn't it?
I'll give you the figures about this one.
I'll give you the figures because this is the important bit.
2.8 meters long, 1.2 meters wide.
It's tiny.
1.2 meters high.
200 cc cylinder two-stroke.
So it'd be lovely and quiet in that bubble canopy, wouldn't it?
A massive 10 horsepower.
It's chain driven, so it's going to be so noisy in there.
And 55 to 60 miles an hour if you are brave enough.
The best thing I think I like about this though
is that if you used to read all those kind of like comics,
those Second World War comics, and you saw those Messerschmitt,
I think with a BF109s, basically you cut the front of that off
and you cut the rear fuselage off.
You've got this Messerschmitt bubble car
because it's got the bubble canopy.
It's got the funny looks.
It is basically a kind of an aircraft fighter
in car three-wheel car form, tandem seating,
and that little yoke.
It would feel like you're flying a kind of Second World War plane.
I'm not sure I've learned much from this sequence,
apart from there's some weird cars out there.
What are your takeaways from this?
Well, when was the last time you came away from this podcast,
learning anything?
Well, it's a good point, well made.
Here's my sum up of this because looking at these,
they're not cheap, these cars.
We started this by saying that storage is expensive.
Well, why don't you just factor that into the cost
and rather spend 24,000 pounds,
which is what this Messerschmitt is up for.
Why don't you just factor in four grand of that
for your storage for the next couple of years?
I don't bring logic and sense to this argument.
Otherwise, we'd just finish, wouldn't we?
All go around driving modern electric cars
and Renault Fives that drove themselves.
The problem we do have in the UK is we just don't know
where to put our cars, have we?
And it's got worse, actually.
I think I was thinking about this actually
while you were talking that you used to be
at a rent-a-garage cheap, didn't you?
And that's really difficult now, isn't it?
You try in your local town, go to the council
and ask them if you rent a garage.
I did it a couple of years ago,
and they just shrugged at me
because I think they've either sort of filled them up,
flogged them off or whatever,
but you used to better rent those for like 10 or a week
or something, didn't you, those?
Yeah, those were the good old days,
and you could ram any old kind of rubbish in there.
I kind of think maybe these aren't a great idea,
apart from maybe, I suppose the Series 1 Land Rover.
You get the most fun out of that
because you could put people in the back,
but you couldn't put people in the back of the Messerschmitt
because they'd have to be the rear gummer.
Okay, so it's episode 52 of the Tyke.
It's good to have you along.
Now, Max and I were both at the NEC Classic Resto show.
Did you go?
Well, we went, but we went on different days.
You went on Thursday to do the Iconics auction preview video.
Max didn't you, and that's on YouTube,
if you want to watch that.
And I was there on Sunday,
so we were sort of safely apart by three days
and a couple of hundred miles.
Those are the exact terms of the court order
that you wanted, though.
Yeah, that's true.
Yeah, cease and desist.
I don't know how much you had a chance to look around,
but I felt it was a bit of a quieter show this year,
and I'm talking to some of the people in the stands,
the club stands, and that sort of stuff.
And they said, well, it was a little bit quiet.
There were not many people as they thought there would be.
I mean, because the November show is rammed, wasn't it?
I think they're quite different shows, though, aren't they?
Because the November show is about looking at shiny metal.
And the show that we went to, the Practical Classic show,
is a little bit more about welders and spanners and stuff.
So I think there's just a narrow market of people
who go to it, to be honest.
And it wasn't as big as the kind of November show.
And I did notice there didn't seem to be as many storeholders.
But if you need that kind of bit or grommet or welder and stuff,
that is a really good show to go to,
because you can virtually get anything.
Yeah, that's a good point, actually.
I wonder if the November show appeals to people
who want a classic car, as well as people who own classic cars.
And this one is appeals to people more who just have a classic car.
Because I went and I had a shopping list of things
I wanted to get in terms of parts.
I did.
Did you get anything?
I got most random stuff.
So I went looking for a mirror from a stag,
a rear view mirror, a relay and a couple of other like bits.
I came away with two flat caps and some hose accessories
for the garden hose.
A kneeling pad.
I thought you said hosary then.
It's for hosary.
A kneeling pad and a couple of books.
So it was a little bit random.
You've got a kneeling pad.
You've got a kneeling pad.
You used to take the mick out of me with my kneeler
that I used in the garden.
You know you've got a kneeling pad.
No, it's because I was on my knees with the car.
I'd like to point out.
I was on my knees with the car a couple of days earlier
and I thought, God, this hurts.
So I was sort of hunkered down trying to look at this indicator
relay thing that I've broken.
And I just thought I've come to that point
where I do need a kneeling pad.
So I bought one of those.
The tyre kickers.
Yeah, so you got a chance to have a look at the cars
before anybody else.
So what did you pick?
I did.
Well, here's a few picks.
I mean, first of all, here is a Renault 5 GT Turbo Radar,
which was the Renault 5 turbos.
This was guided at 8,000 to 12,000.
Now it's a barn find.
And you know how people fall for barn finds.
I mean, this was a 50,000 mile car.
It had been pushed into storage in 2010.
The owner had very sadly died.
So the family's pulled it out of storage
and put it up for auction.
Now it's complete.
It did run when it was put into storage.
It's looking a bit tired.
It's got some barn find genuine dust on it.
But it's nice and it's super rare.
Now that was guided for 8,000 to 12,000.
And that sold for 25,875 pounds.
Yeah, that's a lot of money.
Obviously, people wanted it.
I like as well that you're selfless.
What did you say?
Similar to the word I wanted to say.
Now, you're selfless.
You're all about the audience.
And even a car that you're not really that excited about,
you're prepared to pick as one of your favourites.
1961 Morris Minor Million.
I never thought I'd see you next to a Morris Minor going.
That looks interesting.
Well, you know, I'm not really the greatest Morris Minor fan.
I think they're a bit slow and wheezy.
However, this is quite an interesting one.
And I didn't even know that these existed.
This is a 1961 Morris Minor Million.
So this was made to celebrate,
guess what, the millionth Morris Minor made.
I think they made 1.6 million of them in total.
So this was actually quite an interesting car.
It's lilac, better known as pink.
And it's got white leather interior.
This is out of the factory.
This is how it came.
And what's really interesting about this car
is it's got Morris Minor Million badges on it.
So if you look closely at picture three,
you can see the number one and six zeros on the back
and on the side.
So it's got a really interesting kind of production history story to it.
This, I think the first one of these was given to the designer.
And then they made 300 of them.
So there's not that many around.
But actually just an interesting kind of 1960s British automotive piece of history.
Oh, the thing on the back, the one in the six noughts,
I thought that was it's nought to 60 time.
It's still going, yeah.
Now, I think these are cool.
If you're going to own a Morris Minor, I like Morris Minor.
As we've talked about them in previous shows,
I'm a fan of Morris Miners.
I think they're really cute.
I think if you're going to own a cute Morris Minor,
this is a really good one to get
because it's got that extra bit of cachet of being the millionth,
part of the millionth sort of run out of these.
It's a unique color.
This one's a good condition.
How did it do on the day?
It did all right, actually.
I mean, it was guided for 15 to 18, but actually made 12,600,
which is quite strong money for a two door 948 cc 1961 Morris Minor.
But it's special.
The only thing is you could just be seen
as you're driving around in a pink Morris Minor.
But I think it's got a really interesting story behind it.
You know, it's important that we sent you on your own to do this
because you actually do the facts and figures.
And you also do the cars that have a sort of a bit of story to it.
I would have walked past this one, to be honest.
2001 BMW M5 E39 shrug, so what?
Yeah, E39 BMW M5.
This is going to be one of the big collectors cars of the future,
trust me, because they didn't make that many.
Lots of them have been written off because they go really quickly
and go sideways.
People have shoved them into bushes and into roundabouts.
And actually, this car was a really nice one.
It was a BMW Park Lane car,
still with a Park Lane sticker on the back, which is nice.
It was in black.
Some of the interiors on these E39 M5s are a bit gaudy.
They're a bit kind of duo tone and odd colors in them.
This is a black on black with a lovely sterling silver wheels.
I think it was 89,000 miles and stuff.
Absolute beauty this one.
It was guided for...
I'm just going to click back on what the screen says.
Guided for...
Just checking his notes here.
20 to 25,000 and sold for or 23,000.
So right in the middle.
But, you know, BMW M5s, the E39s, they drive amazingly.
I would say they're the best saloon sports car ever.
Last episode, we talked about pop-up headlight heroes,
and this next car was one that was featured on that.
Lotus Desprey S3, Series 3 Turbo.
This was 1985, 39,000 miles,
knocking on the door of 40,000 miles.
In blue, you rated this one.
Why and what did it go for?
Series 3 Turbos because they're quick
and they've still got that kind of a spree look.
I don't know if you managed to stand next to this car,
but it barely comes up to your kind of like stomach.
I mean, it's such a low car.
And it's quite an exciting car when you get to look at it
because it just kind of screams speed.
And this was a nice color.
Had a blue with a kind of cream interior.
So it's a really nice car.
The Series 3 Espreys are quite quick.
Now, this was guided for 30 to 40,000
and it got 27,500, 63,000.
So actually quite cheap for a Series 3 Esprey.
And this was a one-on-one.
There's no other car in this color scheme
with those 15-inch BBS alloys.
You mentioned about crawling into it.
I've got a series one and I got into that.
And it reminded me the comfort level
was about the same as when I had an MRI scan.
So you sort of crawl in these things,
then lie backwards while it makes a lot of noise, doesn't it?
But I think that makes the sensation of speed a lot better
because you're kind of virtually lying flat
like you're on a bed.
And actually the Series 3 Turbo, they're quite quick cars.
Yeah, they're 0-60.
Oh, bang, what's that?
Oh, it goes to the garage.
But yeah, it's a beautiful looking car.
And for a lot of people, this is a pin-up car.
It's the four-uris-only car, obviously, is the later one.
But it is that wedgy thing that Max likes.
It's got the pop-up headlights.
It's got the... It is a cool-looking car.
You've got to take a deep breath for the Lotus.
But that's good money for a Lotus.
They were going for a lot more, weren't they?
Yeah, absolutely.
Now, the next one, this really did do very good money.
It's a 1948 Land Rover Series 180-inch.
Now, it's an early 80-inch, so it was one of the kind of like...
Not the pre-production ones, but not the kind of main production ones.
They made 1500, which was slightly different.
And this was really nice.
It was a UK car chassis number 338, I think.
It was a very, very early one, 1948.
And this 388, sorry, not 338.
And this one was guided at 35 to 40,000.
And this went for 42,000.
So for a Series 1, that's quite a lot of money,
but it was a really interesting early one.
Had a great history and just looked absolutely mint.
It was perfect.
Yeah, it's got Willys written on the side of it.
So 80-inch Willys, what caught your eye there?
I don't know what that is, actually.
And lots of people used to paint their business name
on the side of Series 1s, but it's a really lovely one.
Crawled all over this car, and it's beautiful.
Lights behind the grille.
I just had all those early touches.
You can actually tell the early Series 1 Land Rovers,
the 1500 after the pre-production ones,
by the size of the riveting on the seat box.
Oh, God, we have to go there.
Willys' Jeeps were the ones, the American Jeeps in the war,
weren't they, the American?
Yeah, that's right.
So I think that was spelt slightly differently, wasn't it?
So this is just Willys' car.
Yeah, oh, I see what you mean.
Right, it's got Postrophe S. Yeah, there we go.
Lotus Carlton was one of your next picks.
Why did you pick this?
You remember these back in the day,
when the Daily Mail tried to ban them because they were so fast.
And so I remember some robbers.
There's a great story.
It was in classic and sports car a few years ago.
There's some robbers who necked a Lotus Carlton
with a registration number 40RA,
and they drove all around the West Midlands doing crimes,
and the police couldn't catch up with them
because it was the fastest car around,
and the police had nothing that quick.
So these Lotus Carltons were really quite rare cars,
but this one had been bought by the Sultan of Brunei.
It had been taken over by him to his house.
It had been sprayed silver.
They were all meant to be imperial green,
and as you can see from the pictures,
it got very, very tatty.
It had been left outside.
All the silver paint flaked.
It all came off.
You can see there's lots of filler on it.
I mean, it was covered in filler.
So it's a project, basically,
and it was a very big project.
But I think these Vauxhall Lotus Carltons,
they're really interesting cars.
They deserve to be saved.
It actually looks like somebody's twapped this car,
taken it and then burned it out.
This is essentially what it looks like.
So presumably looking like that, I mean, it does.
I mean, obviously, it's a real project, this thing.
I mean, it is a Lotus Carlton,
which you remember from back in the days.
It was a Carlton with a body kit
and the spoiler on the back and the double exhaust.
But this thing looks like it at the front
that somebody set fire to it,
but it's just all the paint peeled off.
So presumably in that condition,
even though it's a Lotus Carlton,
it probably didn't get very much, did it?
No, it did.
I mean, Lotus Carlton's, they're rare.
People love them.
It's got a story behind it.
It was guided.
Let's have a quick look at 50 to 60,000
and got 42,750 quid.
Well, that is a complete restoration project.
So you're paying a lot of money,
but it's a genuine Lotus Carlton
had the right kind of like chassis numbers on it
and it had most of the bits.
I think that's a great project.
Finally, we're back to the 70s with the Fiat.
Great car, this.
I think for me, this was the steal of the show
because it's a Fiat 124 Sport.
So you know, there's lots of Fiat 124 Spiders,
left-hand drive.
This was a Fiat 124 Sport,
right-hand drive, original right-hand drive.
It was in that lovely kind of silver,
had a blue velour interior.
Lots of restoration work done on this.
I mean, if you look at the pictures now,
it's like a mini kind of Fiat Dino.
It's a beautiful looking car.
Got that amazing twin cam engine
that won lots of rallies for Fiat Lance here.
Does that make it desirable if it's rare
and it's right-hand drive?
Well, yes, it course it does,
but there's not many of these.
Is there much demand for this?
What was I wonder what it sold for?
Well, I think that was a really good,
it's a really, really good buy.
It was guided for 12,000 to 15,000 pounds
and somebody was very lucky to snap that up for 10,688.
I mean, for 10 grand, a car that rare in that good condition,
that is a great, great buy.
That is cool.
I think that's probably the pick for me
of the stuff you did.
There is one very lucky owner out there
because for 10 grand, a car that rare is a great buy.
Episode 52, 5 and 2 is the tire kickers.
And Max, what have you been up to?
Well, on Sunday, it was a gorgeous day,
so I went to the classic Motorhub first
coffeeing classics of the year in library.
Now, I did notice, I've put a few pictures on Instagram,
there's lots of yellow cars around us
who are a yellow frog-eye sprite, yellow Corvette,
yellow Ferrari 308 GT4 and a yellow Dino.
I mean, I haven't seen many yellow cars,
but actually I think they look pretty good.
I think it was the sunshine.
Sunshine brings out the best in yellow.
What have you been up to?
I bought my drive-it date rally plate last night,
you know, that's coming up on the 26th of April,
drive-it day, it's a fundraiser thing,
it's a sort of kick-off to the start of the season really.
You buy a rally plate and there's events on,
there's one at Brooklyn, certainly in the south,
they'll be all over the country and have a look
at classic car weekly on the run-up to it,
normally says where all the meats are.
But it's £12.50, it's worth doing drive-itday.co.uk,
proceeds go to Childline.
Are you going to buy a rally plate and stick it on?
You've done it in the past, I've got three stacked up
in my garage on the wall, I'm going to go for a fourth.
Yes, I will do, you'd reminded me I'd forgotten,
but I will do it, yeah.
Well, I gave the stagger wash,
I've got a comment that I've not done it right,
but I gave it a clean and took it out for a run
and I saw a few out, one didn't wave at you,
MGB owner, so you've got two fingers in the rear view.
You wave back with two fingers.
Yeah, two fingers, happy Christmas.
The car's looking really good, Max,
I'm really pleased with it, it's driving really, really well,
it's got a little drippy bit of oil,
but we'll gloss over that.
Don't worry about that, as long as it's not much,
is it how much do you put in every time you drive it?
Is it a dipstick load or not?
Only about five litres, no, it's fine.
It's not too bad.
Now, when we're not sitting here yapping on about classic cars,
you'll find us posting stuff about classic cars,
both on Instagram and Facebook profiles,
we've got profiles on both of those,
so sign up to those if you're not already.
Lots of comments about the last show too,
we talked about classic car guilty pleasures last time
and asked, what is the car you like,
but you'd be too ashamed to own?
Yeah, Mark LaBelle on Instagram jumped in on this,
he said an Austin A35, preferably one in a teapot colour.
I couldn't imagine what these like,
so I looked it up, I'll throw it up on your screen now.
This was a bit sort of dumpy 50s car,
it was nicknamed the steel teddy bear,
this is one from 58, 803cc,
it could go with you once from earlier,
not to 16, about three days I think.
But that is a guilty pleasure,
I suppose it's a nostalgic guilty pleasure,
that one, isn't it?
Yeah, the really nice A35s,
they used to rust along the sills terribly,
so I think they used to collapse in the middle,
but there's not that many A35s around,
but they were the car of everybody,
they were the every man and every woman car of the 1950s.
Now Christopher Stevens 892 says,
his guilty pleasure would be a 1968 Austin 3L,
now he reckons they're very underrated,
reliable, comfortable, roomy, self-leveling suspension,
which is normally the reason not to buy them,
because it was so rubbish,
and a big boot,
let's have a quick look at one here,
Austin 3L, I mean they weren't that successful in period,
they were quite big cars, I do like them,
but they're not the prettiest.
I was going to ask you about this,
because to me,
it looked either like a Landcrab or a stretched Maxi limo.
It's the big Landcrab basically,
it's the 3L version of it,
I think they used the Landcrab doors,
which is why it looks a bit odd,
because it's not quite the right proportions,
but it was early kind of like part sharing,
but 3L, you have quite a nice engine,
and the right colours in that dark blue of that picture,
it's quite good,
there seems to be a sailor standing next to it,
but knowing those cars,
those Austin's of the 60s and 70s,
if that's near the sea,
that will be rusting even as we speak.
Yeah, that's not going to,
it's literally disintegrating as you're looking.
He's watching it and rusting away.
There seems to be a theme with sort of bland cars
on these guilty pleasures,
because over on Instagram,
BigBikeMike77 says,
his guilty pleasure is an MG 1300,
and when I first saw that,
I thought, oh, an MGB,
but no, it's not, is it?
He said that they didn't sell these saloon cars
where he lived,
but he once won for some reason,
these are the sort of dumpy,
frumpy saloons, aren't they?
Yeah, this is the one that John Cleese
beat up with a branch,
do you remember that?
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah.
That was a fish called Wanda, was it?
Yeah, I think it was.
Yeah, we will know to see.
Those are faulty towers, I can't remember.
It looks like,
is it the pimped-up version of the Austin 1100?
Yeah, it is, yeah,
but you remember I had the Vanden Plan,
then they had the MG version,
with just a bigger grill on it,
because that was the sporting one.
I think it was virtually the same car,
but it was meant to be sporting.
Bringing it more up to date,
Lee Hussain said,
he's always held the Renault Fuego
as a guilty pleasure.
He says he always wanted one back in the day.
So did I, actually.
They were sort of quite futuristic sporty,
looking back in the day.
They were, they were quite cool.
It was like the Porsche 944,
but just a bit more Gallic and charming.
But it wasn't very fast,
was it?
I think we only had two-litre engines though,
it's Fuego's.
No, they had the big wraparound screen.
We've got this one on the screen here,
we're looking at,
it's in a sort of metallic light blue
with a sheep in the background.
I'm not sure what that's got to do with it.
But it had the very kind of,
yeah, it was very Gallic,
and very 80s,
and very sort of sharp lines and stuff.
But it was quite cool,
because it had the looks of a sporty coupe.
You know, it didn't really go very fast.
But up the front,
it just looked like a sort of boring Renault,
you know, the headlights were boring Renault saloon.
But there was something about it.
It was quite,
it was quite cool at the time.
I think they rusted and fell apart,
actually, didn't they, most of the time?
Well, they fell apart anyway,
because it was French in the 1980s,
Renaults.
But actually, have a look at that picture three.
You know your rear lights.
I think, I recognise those rear lights,
but I don't know where they come from.
Do you know where those rear lights come from?
Is this a test?
No, no, no, because I don't know.
Oh, okay.
I've got no idea.
But they look familiar.
They'll be off a back of a Renault 14, won't they?
They'll just be out of the parts bin, won't they?
They don't look like they were made for that car,
because they look rectangular and blocked.
They're too big, aren't they?
Renault 25 or something.
That'll be off, I reckon.
I think by the end of the show,
we should do a little bit of research
and find out what they're from.
We'll be the first.
Couple of other bits.
We've had some nice DMs from a few,
including David Smith.
Now, he messaged Max to say,
he enjoyed our feature on pop-up headlights.
Oh, great.
Glad somebody did.
He did.
And he said we were right as well.
He said they're a practical disaster.
He also picked up on episode 50's big debate,
the best classic car ever.
He says that I'm wrong to write off the 90's,
as there were some very good cars about,
and more to the point that he says
they can be driven further and often faster
than what came before.
Yeah, but they all looked ugly.
That was the point.
Dave Rees also got in touch to say
he's working his way back through our past episodes.
He wanted to know about the hidden Bluetooth stereo
I had in the Alpine,
which I mentioned back on episode 7.
See, somebody's listening.
Wow.
Sorry, Dave.
But he's a big Land Rover fan, Max.
Have a look at his list of what he's got.
Oh, right.
Two Range Rover classics.
Nice.
One P38.
Yeah, P38 Range Rover.
I mean, well done.
That's the one that looked like the London Metro cab,
but they are quite good value.
Two L322 Range Rovers.
The 3.6 TD V8.
Fantastic.
Those are going up in value.
I think since we did that program,
saying how good they were,
all bought cheap for projects, he says.
You need to see somebody about that addiction.
You need to see somebody with a very good supply of parts.
I'm guessing.
I think from that list, he's got one decent one,
and they're all donor cars, the rest of them.
I mean, did I ask for a sticker?
Do you remember we used to,
we were offering out stickers about three years ago?
Have you got any left?
I don't know where they're from.
Well, yeah, because I haven't sent them out.
Oh, OK, yeah.
So you've got left and...
Well, also, I promised him one
that I'd send him one out about three weeks ago,
and I haven't.
I'm really sorry, Dave.
I will do it this week.
And if anybody else listening wants a sticker,
shoot us a DM with your address.
Just put your address, say sticker,
and we'll send you one of those.
There's a car stick.
You can stick it up and take a picture,
stick it on our profile and all that sort of stuff.
We've also had a new review.
There are people still rating us on Apple Podcasts.
Can you believe it?
Even though we just twaddle every couple of weeks.
Mark NJF.
Thank you, Mark.
He says, any drive over 30 minutes,
and I search out the latest Thai kicker's podcast,
Matt and Max have entertained me on many trips.
Well, mine says.
Well, I was going to use the same math.
He says, it's the precisely the right blend
of knowledge and banter.
Now, I know which one I'm doing.
And you're doing the end.
You're doing the knowledge and banter.
Yeah.
It's basically, we're going to rename the show.
It's not going to be Max and Matt.
It's going to be knowledge and banter.
Knowledge and banter.
That's the largest thing we've been called for a while.
Thank you.
Yeah.
We're always grateful reviews.
So thank you for doing that, Mark.
If you can do one for us, we actually, like Mark did,
we'd be really, really pleased because what it does
is it helps confuse the Gen Zs over at Apple
into thinking this is like some sort of massively
popular podcast.
And also, you know who our nemesis is
at the top of the podcast car charts.
Scratch and sniff.
Scratch and sniff.
Yeah.
We want to knock them down a bit.
So if you can leave us a review, here's how you do it.
If you've enjoyed this episode,
please leave us a nice review on Apple podcasts.
Okay.
It's the Thai kicker's.
Thank you if you've made it so far.
We're nearly done.
Max has told me his dinner's ready shortly,
so we've got to speak through the next thing.
Can you hear my stomach rumbling?
There's still one thing to talk about.
We trailed it at the top of the show,
and it is Australian cars because we talked last time
about where you listen to this stream of consciousness.
And it turns out, doesn't it, Max,
that surprisingly there's a wide global audience
who haven't gotten any better to do.
And nobody is surprised more than us.
We are listened to in 105 countries and 2,419 cities.
Most of you are in the UK,
but our second biggest listening country is Australia,
with 7% of our audience listening to see
if we will ever mention the England ashes defeat,
which, of course, we never will.
So instead of talking about our classifieds,
let's talk about Australia's.
Now, one of our listeners, 350 Mun Rowe,
put something on our Instagram account this week,
showing an advert for an Austin Land Crab for 18,000 Aussie dollars.
Now, that's about 9,500 UK pounds.
He also put a 1997 Land Rover Disco.
It was up for 8,500 Aussie dollars.
That's about 4,500 UK pounds.
So quite expensive.
Yeah, very expensive, actually.
I think that might be the theme of what we're looking at,
because today's exchange rate is 1.91 Australian dollars
to 1 UK pound.
But we'll read the prices out in UK pounds
that makes it easy for us to work out.
Now, car and classic has 127 cars on sale in Australia today
when I looked.
So here are a few of them that stood out.
First of all, this is a 1957 Mercedes 220 Ponton Saloon.
Now, I like these.
The good thing about Australia is they didn't seem to put up
with any of your left-hand drive nonsense.
I think most of the cars I've found are right-hand drive,
even when they came from some came from the States
and they were converted.
And this is a right-hand drive Mercedes Pontona.
I love these murks because they're kind of old-fashioned
and stayed and they're a bit cold war.
And I think they look nice.
But the downside of this is it's a Mercedes Ponton,
which is pretty normal, standard, fair, the 220S, 20 grand.
Yeah, it's a lot of Dutch.
I mean, I don't want to be rude about this car
because it is a classy old murk,
but it's the car that you'd walk past at the auction in the UK,
wouldn't you?
Just go, oh, I don't really want one of those.
And you'd walk past this and go and look at a 70s one,
wouldn't you, or a 60s one.
It's a bit of sort of a duckling.
It's a bit of sort of the dumpy one of the range, isn't it?
Yeah, the word dumpy.
I mean, they've got a kind of charm.
It's a bit of a guilty pleasure, really, isn't it?
I really do like the look of them.
Again, they're kind of ugly.
And also in condition as well.
I mean, look at the condition of it.
You know, got a picture four, and it's not great.
You're going to have to retrim that interior, aren't you?
It's sort of falling to bits.
So that's quite a lot of dosh, isn't it?
For a dumpy murk that nobody really wants over here in the UK
with a retrim on the cars.
Well, it is a lot.
And I think this is strange, isn't it?
Because on your screen now is a 1956 MGA.
Now, MGA is in this country a tenor penny.
You can kind of get them for rough ones for 15,
nice ones for 20, really nice ones for 25.
Now, this is a fairly standard 1956.
Okay, it's a matching numbers MGA.
And obviously it's been in Australia, so it's been in the heat.
But this one is a massive 27,950 pounds.
It's not perfect.
It's just a Boggo MGA.
It looks quite original, but it's a lot of money again.
Yeah, it is.
And it is quite Boggo as well.
I mean, it's got an aftermarket stereo in it.
It sort of gives you the indication.
It's not some sort of showroom queen, this car.
It's just a usable everyday sort of MGA.
But as you said, that's again a lot of dosh.
But yeah, these are a long way from home, these cars,
aren't they, I suppose?
So, you know, everything does go up in value.
What else have you found?
I mean, is it across the board more expensive?
It does seem to be, to be honest.
I've been quite surprised.
I think you've got quite a hard time in Australia,
because these classic cars in the UK are relatively cheap,
are quite expensive.
The flip side of this is though, obviously Australia,
you don't have the kind of rust that we do.
So possibly your cars are in a much better condition.
Now, here's a nice one.
This is a Bristol 400.
We do like our Bristol's on this podcast,
because they've got a kind of great shape to them.
They've got a good look to them.
You know, they're very stylish cars, Bristol's.
And this is a lovely one of it.
This is a Bristol 400, 1949.
But again, the downside is that when you look at the price,
it's £40,000.
Yeah, it's a lot of money.
A lot of cars got renamed, didn't they?
And slightly did sort of slightly different versions.
This next one, a Ford Falcon.
It's a Cortina, isn't it?
But it looks American Cortina.
Yeah, the Ford Falcon was the kind of Australian answer
to the Ford muscle cars.
I think it was the first kind of Australian muscle car.
I'd say that looks a bit like a Ford Zodiac from the late 60s, early 70s.
This is a 69 Ford Falcon GT.
Now, the Falcons were quite popular cars in Australia,
because they were the big kind of like muscle cars.
And they were quite popular as racing cars as well.
Up to 300 brake horsepower, 0-60, about six seconds.
This one is, I don't really know much about my Falcons,
but this is the GT.
But it's a kind of Ford saloon in brown,
and it's $130,000.
$130,000 Australian dollars.
That seems a lot for a Ford saloon.
It does.
I mean, talking about muscle cars,
what about if we wanted to go for something a bit more like American,
move away from sort of British stuff?
What about like a Ford Mustang or something?
What do we need?
How much money do I need to get into that?
Well, a lot.
Here is a Ford Mustang from 65.
This is a Shelby GT350 tribute,
so it's not a genuine Shelby GT350.
Is that a kit, mate?
Is that a kit, mate?
But it is a kind of fairly good copy,
but it's right-hand drive.
So actually, if you do want a right-hand drive Mustang,
Australia is the place to come looking for,
because again, you know,
they didn't put up with some of the left-hand drive nonsense.
So they came up with conversions for right-hand drive,
period conversions to turn them into right-hand drive cars.
And actually, I think that's quite good.
If you're looking for an American car
and you want it right-hand drive,
Australia is the place to look.
Apart from, you know what I'm going to say here, the price.
This is 125,000 Australian dollars.
So if you're going to halve it, that's, you know, 70 grand.
Okay, it's right-hand drive,
but it's not a real GT350.
And you can probably get a GT350 for around the same price,
a bit more probably, and an original one.
But, you know, it's a lot of money again, isn't it?
I'm feeling quite sorry for people in Australia,
because I know, you know,
maybe your wages are a bit better than the UK,
but you do have to spend a lot of them
if you want a classic car.
I've said this before, you know,
we do forget here in the UK,
we absolutely spoil for classic cars.
You know, you could go pretty much in the summer,
you can go pretty much anywhere up and down the UK
and find a classic car meet full of a variety of cars, can't you?
You know, it's not...
It's a real mixed hodgepodge of cars.
You can go any...
Probably you could just put a pin in the map
and just turn up somewhere and on a Sunday they'd be in me.
Whereas you go to somewhere like Australia
or you go to different parts of Europe,
Portugal, France, whatever,
the cars are rarer and more spread out, aren't they?
And especially in the case of Australia,
it's such a massive country that, you know,
you could probably go online and find, you know,
oh my God, that's the car I'd like,
you know, it's a Triumph Stagon, it's in Perth.
Well, the problem is you live in Adelaide,
you know, and that's a long way.
And I'm not driving a Triumph Stagon
across Australia.
And we know what happens to Triumph Stags in the heat, don't we?
Got it, we'd like go up like a volcano, wouldn't it?
No, so I suppose you've got to wind your neck in mate
and go in for something a little bit cheaper.
So if you dial the money down, what are you going to get?
I mean, if I've got like, I don't know, 20,000 Aussie dollars,
what am I getting?
Not a lot, to be honest.
Here's something on your screen.
This is a 1971 Holden.
This is the first kind of like Holden we featured.
And it's a Holden Kingswood,
which is kind of basically a slightly big engine.
It looks a bit like a Vauxhall Viva.
And this one has got some kind of damage on the paintwork.
It's a bit battered.
I think these are the kind of taxes of the period.
I mean, Australian cars are designed
to go long distances and in comfort.
And this would have done that in period.
But kind of now it's slightly sad.
And actually this is kind of what you can afford
if you're looking down the cheap end of Australia.
A Holden Kingswood.
Now, Australian listeners can get in touch
and educate us about these.
I don't know much about them, but it looks a bit sad.
Sad is a bit of an understatement.
I mean, it looks like a stock car is what it looks like.
It's just done a demolition derby around the thing.
My God, it's a 20 grand.
So to like roughly 10,000 UK pounds buys you.
I mean, honestly, this is to describe it.
It looks like a wreck.
It looks like it should be about...
It looks like a giant crane with a magnet
should be coming to lift this up and squash it, basically.
Because it looks like it's tied an end of life.
It's rusty on every panel.
It's got a thump on every panel.
It does look like it's been driven
in a demolition derby at a stock car place.
And that's pretty much what it looks for.
But then that's 10 grand.
That's a lot of Dosh, isn't it?
For a car that looks pretty knackered.
Big money.
Not a particularly interesting car I'm feeling.
What were Holden?
I think I should know.
Are they the Vauxhall or were they the Ford?
I think they were the Vauxhall.
No, the Ford was Ford.
Ford Australian and Holden was...
I'm guessing it was the General Motors, isn't it?
I think that's a Vauxhall Viva.
Oh, it's a Vauxhall Viva.
Okay.
No, I think that's the equivalent.
It's not...
It was a kind of Australian name.
And car.
But I think that would be around the Vauxhall Viva kind of idea.
It's pretty manky on the inside as well, isn't it?
I mean, I suppose if that's what you've got,
and that's the market,
and that's what you've got to get into something,
you could have a bit of fun with it.
But honestly, it does look like somebody would be
trying to bump you off the road in it.
It looks like it's already happened, to be honest.
I think the Mad Max Ford Falcon would probably go for that.
I think Australia, it's good because you don't get the rust,
but it's bad because everything that survives
seems to be very expensive.
Hold on a minute.
Have you got a picture?
Whatever is it?
Picture four or whatever.
Under the windscreen, you don't get the rust.
It's rusting everywhere this car.
The front wing is rusting.
Under the windscreen is rusting.
I think I don't know where this car's been,
but it's certainly not in the hot bit of Australia.
You know why?
Because the sun has perished that windscreen seal,
which has let the water in, so that's why it's rusting.
Perfect.
Is this up north?
I wonder if this is up in...
Where is it?
Oh, it's in South Australia.
It looks like it probably was up in North Queensland somewhere.
It's tropical.
It's just rusted.
I mean, it's a sad-looking car, that.
Again, it just comes back to, you know,
we are so lucky in the UK in terms of the availability
of what we get.
You can, you know, if you live in the UK,
if you just suddenly luck out and you've got 10 grand spare,
you can just literally sit there on car and classic
or another kind of website or just go up in the country
and just pick pretty much what you want, can't you?
Whereas here, you would potentially be struggling
with high prices, limited supply.
So yeah, I mean, Aussie,
tell us about the Aussie scene.
I mean, we've not featured here
sort of your every man cars or great cars,
like Triumph Stags.
We've not mentioned.
Tell us about the sort of, you know,
like things we talk about.
MGBs, how much is an MGB?
Talk, you know, comment on this.
We'll put a post up on one of our socials.
You know, how much is a Triumph Stag?
Are they easy to get?
You know, can you get yourself an Austin Healey or something?
Or are you limited?
You know, it'd be really interesting to hear
from our Australian listeners.
And we are, we've got quite a few.
I think it's Australia number three on...
Yeah, I think...
Number two behind the UK.
I was there.
Okay.
So we're popular in the UK, Australia Island,
and then I think it's USA,
and then it's kind of all this loads
and loads of different countries after that.
So yeah, do let us know,
because it's always fascinating to us
to kind of look at cars that we've never...
So one, we don't see generally,
but also like our eyes are out and stalks at prices.
That's it for this episode.
Next time, it's all the switch gear and no idea.
In other words,
what classic car have the best stalks and switches?
Last week, I saw three yellow classics on show.
A Corvette, a frog-eyed sprite,
and a Ferrari Dino.
That sounds like the start of a joke, doesn't it?
They walked into the bar together.
Anyway, that got me thinking.
What is the best colour on a classic car?
Hmm, good question.
Well, get in touch with us
if you have an opinion on anything we've said this time around,
or you can argue with us about anything
we've said this time around,
or what we're going to say next time.
We'll see you in the next episode.
Bye.
Don't forget, you can find us
at the TireKickers UK on Instagram
and the TireKickers on Facebook.
It was a good show.
I felt a bit sort of sad that it wasn't...
Oh, hello. What's going on there?
You just started out in Mesha Smith.
Local neighbour with his big, big engine motorbike.
We've got a homegrown one.
What did they use to make?
Bristol's Ford...
Oh, I'm sorry.
I tried to skip ahead and be clever there,
so I'd ignore that.
Hold on.
Don't try and be clever.
It just doesn't suit.
About this episode
Garage space and classic-car costs take center stage as Max and Matt debate “tiny” classics, from the BMW Isetta microcar to a 1950s Series 1 Land Rover and even the kooky Messerschmitt KR200. They also compare how small cars fit real life—storage prices, speed limits, and safety around modern traffic. The show then pivots to NEC Classic Resto auction highlights, including a rare Morris Minor Million and bargain finds. Later, they tackle Australian classic pricing and wrap with listener guilty pleasures and reviews.
Original notes
Would getting a smaller classic save you money - or would you end up looking like the local village weirdo? Why do we go to classic car shows for parts and then buy random stuff? And what's the correct response to a fellow classic car driver who doesn't wave back? All that plus the pick of the auctions in the UK and a snoop through the classifieds in Australia. And we hear from you - as you confess your classic car guilty pleasures. It's all in the latest 40 minutes of classic car chat, opinions and disagreements. Hit play and come along for the ride.
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The Tyre Kickers - Classic Cars
Max & Matt
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