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Testarossa Flop, Fake Engine Noise & Knight Rider Fail – Car Guy Therapy in Session! w/ Darren & Sy
Testarossa Flop, Fake Engine Noise & Knight Rider Fail – Car Guy Therapy in Session! w/ Darren & Sy
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About this episode
Darren and Si engage in a lively discussion about classic cars, electric conversions, and the future of automotive design. They share insights on upcoming events like the Bloomsbury Classic Car Show, debate the merits of electric classic cars versus traditional combustion engines, and express their opinions on the controversial new Ferrari Testarossa. The episode also touches on the nostalgia of pop-up headlights, the challenges of modern car legislation, and the cultural significance of classic models. With a mix of humor and expertise, the hosts provide a comprehensive look at the evolving automotive landscape.
Topics:
classic car shows
electric conversions
Ferrari Testarossa
pop-up headlights
modern car legislation
nostalgia in cars
project cars
driving experiences
automotive design
Cars:
Aston Martin DB9
Audi S3
BMW 3 Series
BMW M1 (E26)
Chevrolet Corvette
Datsun Sunny
Dodge Challenger
Dodge Charger
Ferrari 250 GTO
Ferrari Daytona SP3
Fiat 124 GT Abarth
Fiat 124 Spider
Ford Capri
Ford Mustang
Honda Civic
Honda Civic CRX
Honda Prelude
Honda S2000
Lamborghini Countach
Lotus Esprit
McLaren F1
Nissan GT-R
Peugeot 205 CTI
Peugeot 205 GTI
Porsche 356
Porsche 928
Porsche Boxster
Porsche Cayman
Renault 5 E-Tech Electric
Toyota Corolla
Toyota Supra
Volkswagen Golf
Welcome to another BrownCarGuy Therapy Session - the unfiltered, unscripted podcast where car guys let it all out!
In this episode, I’m joined by Sy of Drivers Union and Darren Sullivan Vince - founder of Waterloo Classics Car Club and Bloomsbury Classic Car Show - for a lively, passionate, and often hilarious discussion on the state of car culture today.
We ask the big questions:
🎯 Is the new Ferrari 849 Testarossa a styling flop or misunderstood genius?
🎯 Have fake engine noises in EVs gone too far?
🎯 Will the Knight Rider reboot crash harder than KITT ever could?
🎯 Is the golden era of the car really ending?
From skyrocketing cost of hosting car events, to driving wars in London, to whether it’s right to be converting classics to electric - we dive into it all.
We touch on:
- 50 years of the Lotus Esprit
- Goodbye to the Nissan GT-R, Boxster/Cayman & Civic Type R
- Why a new Audi C concept might actually be hopeful
- Whether classic car culture can survive in the age of digital content
And why the real value in cars today might just be found in nostalgia, passion, and good company.
🗣️ Join the conversation! What’s your take – are we witnessing the burnout of car culture, or is this just the beginning of a new era?
👉 Don’t forget to like, subscribe, share and comment – this is your garage too.
🎧 Also available as audio podcast on all major platforms.
📌 Watch the previous Therapy Session here: https://youtu.be/xl7QpvxrwyE
📌 Check out the Bloomsbury Classic Car Show here: https://bloomsburyclassiccarshow.co.uk
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Brown Car Guy
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Technical
Too Afraid to Ask
Car
Volkswagen Golf Gti
"Manufacturers do that. So for example, with the Golf GTI, they had the sound resonated,"
Car
Lamborghini Countach
"... I want my Ford Focus to sound like a Lamborghini Countach from the Cannonball Run. Yeah, that's a bit sad, ..."
Car
Dodge Challenger
".... What do you guys make of the new electric Dodge Challenger being in the Middle East and having owned the cla..."
Car
Ford Mustang
"...rd Mach-E, which I find offensive. They call it a Mustang. It's like teeth, damn badge off that car."
Car
Dodge Charger
"...nes, early 2000 ones. I've just Googled the Dodge Charger Daytona SRT. It looks really good."
Car
Toyota Supra
"...nd a little bit quick, a little bit hot in my old Supra round there. But now it's all changed."
Car
BMW E30
"... the sticker and it used to be on the back of the E30, but I've never actually come down to it."
Car
5 Renault 5
"...loving the show, what do you guys make of the new Renault 5? I would say if I do move to London"
Car
Lotus Esprit
"...said you were sending me some car pictures of the Esprit in concourse. What you sent me was porn."
Car
Peugeot 205
"because I know this friend of mine, he bought a Peugeot 205 GTI which actually I reviewed it on the channel"
Car
Peugeot 205 GTI
"...e I know this friend of mine, he bought a Peugeot 205 GTI which actually I reviewed it on the channel"
Car
Nissan Gtr
"...probably others as well but we lost cars like the Nissan GTR we've lost cars like"
Car
Fiat 124
"...ing them organize it I was supposed to get like a Fiat 124 Spider one of the modern ones"
Car
Fiat 124 Spider
"...hem organize it I was supposed to get like a Fiat 124 Spider one of the modern ones"
Car
Honda Prelude
"...nd he says what do you guys make of the new Honda Prelude feel like getting the new Shell"
Car
Toyota Corolla
"...ything into coupes you had a cord coupes, you had Corolla coupes everything was being turned into coupes"
Car
Sunny Nissan Sunny
"everything was being turned into coupes Nissan Sunny coupes, everything so do you think we're going to..."
Car
Honda Civic CRX
"...ually the only car I ever bought knew was a Honda Civic CRX which is a cute little thing"
Car
Porsche 356
"I mean I've always you know the Porsche 356 but I don't want to spend silly money on a car li..."
Car
Chevrolet Corvette
"... sort of pop up like that but I think even in the Corvette is it the C4 or the C5"
Select text to request an explanation
So welcome everybody, and today we have two guests,
and I'll give you like 30 seconds each
to introduce yourselves, so Darren, start with you.
I am Darren Sullivan, I run Waterloo Classics,
I am a, I live in London,
and I organize things for cars,
like the Bloomsbury Classic Car Show coming up
and the Bettina Classic Car Show.
And that's not a Cockney accent, I doubt it here,
that you're talking about in golf,
that's not Cockney, is it?
What accent, where's you from then?
You're a foreigner, aren't you?
I am from California originally.
I've lived in the Netherlands for 13 years,
did a year in South America, living here for 13 years,
so I think I've been told,
well, I've been told I've got a mid-Atlantic accent now.
Yeah, yeah, you know what?
I've been told various things as well,
because, you know, because I grew up,
obviously I was born here, I grew up here,
but I spent so much time in the Middle East,
and I spent my formative years there as well.
And when I, the first time I lived there
in Saudi Arabia in the 80s, I came back,
I had a very American accent,
and everybody was like, you lived in America,
so I haven't even been there at that point.
So I had to, in Dubai, it got mashed up again,
but I've had to work a bit hard
to sort of not be so American,
but I do have a sort of international accent, I think.
I've been told the same, don't be so American.
Don't be so American.
So just not, it doesn't look good on you.
And everybody knows who Si is,
but just remind everybody.
Well, I don't know what accent to use,
because I can speak in a very poor accent
if I want to, because I went to private school.
Go on then, let's hear that, let's hear that, let's hear that.
Well, that's it, that was it, that was it.
Oh, that was it?
That was okay, yeah.
But actually, of course.
Of course.
Well, I used to have my telephone sometimes,
but I was actually born in Bow Bells,
so technically I'm also a cockney,
so when I lived in my old East London mates,
I'm like, in it mate, come on.
In it mate, yeah.
You know, apples and pears,
all that kind of stuff.
My name's Si, I run the drivers' union.
It was, it used to be a super car club,
it's a super car and a classic car club.
I organise loads of events,
I've done it for 20 years now,
next month it's 20 years of organising events.
Photographer, filmmaker,
a publisher as well, about to do the magazine,
they're basically jack-of-all-trades
and absolutely not a master of anything.
Aren't we all?
Aren't we all?
I'm actually going to be on my gravestone.
Yeah, aren't we all?
The very tall gravestone.
Yeah.
Brown God Guy.
So, lots been going on, lots been going on.
First, I'll tell you what, first of all,
let's give Darren a chance, you know,
because Darren being the token white guy on the show today.
We can't say that, we can't say that.
Oh, we can't, can't we say that?
We can't say that.
Well, you were both born in a country
and the foreigner, so I'm the token foreigner.
I call you the token foreigner.
The token, token, token foreigner.
Very good.
I'm okay with that.
So, hang on, so you know,
I've known you for quite a few years,
you know, you do a lot of stuff,
you do waterloo classics, you do the roof.
I've driven your cars, the cars that you build,
but also the cars you sell, which are electric helis,
which we'll talk about in a minute.
But first of all, just tell everybody,
because I'll be coming to this as well,
you're doing an event next weekend,
just tell everybody what that is
and where it is and how they can find out about it.
Next weekend, I'm doing the first
of the Bloomsbury Classic Car Show.
It's in Bedford Square.
It's Sunday the 21st of September
and it's just gonna be a garden
part of the Classic Cars.
There's live music, there's food, there's a full bar.
It's gonna be fun.
It's kind of, we based it
on the Bill Gravey Classic Car Show,
which- Is that still a thing?
It is not a thing anymore.
It won't be a thing.
They're not allowing cars into the garden anymore.
All right.
And so I decided, well,
if we're not able to resurrect it there,
we'll do it someplace else.
And the Bedford Estate,
who are amazing,
are working with us on this one
to bring it to make it happen.
It's a great location.
What's the Classic Car?
How do you define it?
Is there a cat's off the edge?
That depends on your age
and just your view of life, I guess.
But younger people think cars
from the 2000s are Classic Cars.
So it's, what is it, 20?
We're trying to say 30-year cutoff point,
but we're letting some cars in
that are under 30.
There's going to be a beautiful
Aston Martin's project car
that's going to be there,
that's new on display.
And so that's new,
but it does have a lot of old influences in it.
So it's quite special.
And there's going to be other things as well.
There's going to be some
electric Classic Converted Project.
Electric.
Don't get me started on electric Classic Cars.
Well, I tell you what,
I tell you what,
because we can talk about,
this is a safe space,
we can talk about everything.
We'll talk about London as well,
because I know Si wanted to talk
a little bit about London.
But anyway, before we do that,
I was very lucky when you were very kind enough
to invite me to drive these incredible helis
that you're converting to electric.
Which, to be honest,
I'm neither here nor there with it.
I'm okay with cars being converted to electric
as long as they make sense.
And I think that with the heli,
I think it did make sense to me.
Because when somebody converts
like a Ferrari to electric,
I have a little problem with that.
I have a big problem.
Because I feel that that's the heart of the car.
But with a heli and stuff like that,
I think in many ways,
I remember you and I,
we had quite a laugh driving it around London at the time.
And it was a good laugh.
It was good fun.
Yeah, so the, I mean,
the helis kind of makes sense
because the engine inside the heli
is just an old lorry engine.
There's nothing special about that engine whatsoever.
It was originally a four liter engine,
which was great.
That was a great engine,
I mean, not the four cylinder engine.
And that one had really good weight distribution.
But when they brought it up to a six cylinder engine,
it just kind of,
I mean, it made it faster or smoother or whatever.
But the engine is not the soul of the car whatsoever.
When people say you take the soul out of a car,
when you convert it,
it's like, are you serious?
Are you saying you're disrespecting the designer
for starters?
Because the design is what classic cars are about.
And they can make many different sounds,
but it's how they look
and how they feel on the road.
And to me, the way a car looks,
the way it meets your eyes,
that's the most important thing.
And then driving it,
we have to admit that driving a classic car
is a bit shit sometimes,
but we love it.
We love not knowing 100% if we're gonna get there.
I mean, what that sound might be,
or what that smell could be,
or what that new rattle is, you know?
The classic car experience is a lifestyle
and not a comfort thing.
I mean, there's Bentley's and Rolls-Royce's
from the 80s and 90s
that are super comfortable and stuff like that,
but you're still not entirely sure it's gonna get there.
But we love our classic cars
and we love driving them
and we love tinkering on them.
And so if you convert one to an electric,
well, you know the motor's gonna work.
I'm gonna let Si come back on that.
Before Si comes back on that,
I just wanna shout out to,
I think it's Tim who's just joined us,
because the insurance guru for all advice and information
is, he's been on my channel before.
He's an absolute legend.
He knows inside out workings of everything insurance.
So welcome to him.
He's just watching and putting it right now.
Yeah, Si, over to you.
Darren, do you actually,
I mean, is that your business
converting cars to electric, taking engine?
It's not my own business.
It's called Revival Autos
and we just work on Austin Healey's
because there's a whole bunch of Austin Healey's
that are states that are just sitting there
waiting for someone to rescue them
that are not being restored.
To be fair, they've gone far and wide
because you've got one or two of these in Dubai now, haven't you?
Yeah, we do, yes.
And some in Florida, some around.
Yeah, they're around.
Well, you're gonna have to let me drive one at some point
so I can actually, then I'll team up.
You can, that's right, absolutely.
But I have to disagree with you about the engine.
For me, the engine is the heart.
You can drive around.
I want to hear that sound.
I don't want to hear a recorded sound.
I want to, I like to smell a petrol in the morning, you know?
I love, I love, I just love it.
I think you're culling for that.
Yeah, I get culling for that.
You're culling for that.
Are you still using old spice?
That's how old you are.
You can add some petrol and oil to it
if you like its color.
Yeah, for me, you know, the look is really,
it's, you know, most, I don't mind about other cars,
but when someone takes a Ferrari
and takes the engine out,
I just have this urge to get, you know, canisters of petrol,
pour it over the car and set it on fire.
But Ferrari's doing that.
Sorry?
Ferrari themselves are doing that.
Well, that's why I'm not going to buy one of their Ferraris.
You know what, this is a nice segue
because I did want to ask you guys what you thought,
and I have my own views about it,
but what you thought of the comeback
of this alleged Tester Rossa?
Deep in take a breath there.
Found you of the Supercar Club there.
Can I just give a four, four answer,
four word answer to that?
Got it.
My honest opinion.
Looks a bit shit.
If I was to be honest, you know,
Ferrari's supposed to be beautiful.
It works a lot, you know.
My newsletter that I sent out the other day,
you know, I had some information that's,
it looks good from the top.
I have to say, it does look from the top, you know.
From behind.
Yeah.
But, you know, if I was a bird, I'd love it,
but I'd been out and upshitting on it.
Then the nose doesn't work for me.
The nose is too.
The nose, it's like a showbook.
The whole thing, it's like,
why even call it a Tester Rossa?
What are they running out of names?
There's no Italian names.
They run a dictionary.
You know, you know,
this is the third incarnation of the Tester Rossa.
The first one was beautiful.
The second one is iconic.
I don't see Don Johnson wanting to drive this one.
Yeah.
It looks angular.
What's happened to Ferrari?
Ferrari, please get back.
You know, I could say, you know,
you know, go back to Pininfarina,
but apparently most of the Pininfarina guys
are now working at Ferrari anyway.
Yeah, yeah.
I don't know if they're designing fossils.
I think their cars are going to wave their clothes.
They look absolutely shite.
Sorry, Ferrari.
Are you saying that you don't want
Ferrari clothing in H&M anymore?
I...
Oh, Primark?
Primark.
Lamborghini have a cool list of Ferrari clothes.
They have a cool list of clothing
because they look really cool, you know.
McLaren's not bad either,
apart from it's a bit bright orange,
but Lamborghini has the coolest.
The Ferrari, if you ever look at the Ferrari website,
when we make fun of the Ferrari clothing
all the time and I want their Ferrari, what's that for?
And this is one of these.
I don't mean to...
That's my opinion on the Ferrari.
I want to just interrupt you on that one
because Petina has got better clothing than Ferrari.
There you go, there you go.
Show me the areas down in the model.
There in the model.
The classic car show.
How much is that?
Go on, you can plug it.
Go on.
Why only?
You're going to be selling for just 20 pounds.
I'm just ordering from Google now.
He's doing it right now.
Okay.
We're inexpensive.
All right, before you get it,
sorry, can you send to yourself
in the screen please?
And Desi...
It's so exciting.
...somebody is watching.
There you go, just hold it there.
Desi says, he's asked two questions.
First question he's asking is,
what would you say is the ultimate classic car
which had the most amazing sound?
And then the second question is,
what you guys make about electric cars
that have synthesized sounds?
So let's talk about the first one.
What is the best classic car sound?
I would say any Ferrari Lamborghini,
particularly Countash,
come back in the day.
What did you say?
Heely Sprite?
Heely Sprite.
But you've just been,
you've just been championing the cause
of ripping the engine out
of the damn thing.
Oh, the Sprite.
Oh, the Sprite.
Oh, okay.
So what did that have in it?
I went to Sprite
and I absolutely love the sound of it.
It's a cute little tiny exhaust
when you go through a French village
with the houses on both sides
and it just echoes back and forth.
It's that cute tinny sound.
It's just so cool.
Especially if it's tuned well,
it's got the little gurgle at the end.
I love that.
It's not too much.
It's just cute.
It's adorable.
So that'll be my iconic one.
I'd have to agree with you.
I'd have to say the old Ferraris.
I mean, that's what I tend to hear.
I find they sound great, fantastic.
Old Lamborghinis, the old supercars, really.
I want to say,
and I hope that nobody's going to comment
and say that I'm completely wrong about this,
but I do hope,
because I say that one of the all-time best
opening sequences of any movie ever.
There's two, actually.
There's one as the Italian job.
I would actually put that second, this controversial.
Some people would say that's the best one.
But I put the best one as the cannonball run.
The original cannonball run.
And that starts with that sound
of that Lamborghini V12.
And I hope it is.
Nobody's going to say, actually, that wasn't real.
But I hope that is the actual sound.
I've heard the V12,
and I think that is the actual sound.
And to me, that is just ingrained into my,
it's just embedded into my soul.
Yeah.
But I love the sound of an A-Series engine.
And I love the sound of a B-Series engine.
I just love that.
It's this nice little engine
that just makes a lot of noise.
The noise is much bigger than the engine.
And I love that.
It's the iconic little British car sounds.
I love it.
I'm going to stick with you, Darren,
for the next part of his question,
because when we drove your car, the Healy,
you did actually have synthesized
or artificial sound in it.
So he's asking, what do you guys make
about cars with synthesized sound?
Should this be illegal?
Well, actually, let me start with that.
It's a legal requirement.
Yeah, that's what I was going to say.
It is actually a legal requirement.
So in all electric cars now,
you do actually have to have some sort of sound in there,
especially at lower speeds so that people can hear them.
Think about, you have it in your car
and then I'll aside what he thinks about artificial sound.
Darren?
I personally think it's rather silly
to have these big engine sounds on it
when you've got just an electric motor
or something else.
One thing I enjoy is being on the motorway
and not having a sound coming from the car.
So I can listen to music.
I can talk to my passenger or things like that.
There's so many classic cars
where you cannot talk to your passenger
and it's just like when you're going fast,
it's like, oh, it's so irritating.
When you get out of it, your ears are just ringing.
It's like, I love the sounds of the cars,
but, oh, God, I wish I could turn the sound off sometimes.
And that's what you can with these converted cars.
You can just turn the damn sound off.
So I would argue that surely,
even in cars with actual sound,
we do kind of synthesize it a little bit.
Manufacturers do that.
So for example, with the Golf GTI,
they had the sound resonated,
which is piping artificial sound into the cabin.
I know that Kia did that as well.
I know a number of manufacturers do that.
But also you modify your exhaust.
So you're kind of artificially changing the sound of the car.
Yeah, but the foundation is actually a real sound.
It's an organic sound.
My 360 is stupid loud.
I agree.
I love you.
I have a little switch,
which I can just press it and the valves close.
Oh, really? See, you can have that switch as well.
Yeah, it's great.
And, you know, I'm a bit nervous
about driving into Central London sometimes.
I do love it. I love the sound.
Artificial sound.
Why don't you just play diastrates or Genesis or something
while you're driving along in the loud music?
I just think it's stupid.
I agree with Darren.
So you can program it.
Oh, I want my Ford Focus to sound like
a Lamborghini Countach from the Cannonball Run.
Yeah, that's a bit sad, isn't it?
Really?
I quite like that.
If you have a petrol car and you want it to sound different,
change the exhaust.
Don't just add a little sound filter to it.
Yeah, that's true.
I'm just going to just one more question.
He's got another follow-up question, the same guy.
And I think this one is actually more for me.
So I think I have to take this.
By the way, he said great response guys.
So well done, you guys. There you go.
Just another one.
What do you guys make of the new electric Dodge Challenger
being in the Middle East and having owned the classic V8 Hemi?
I don't know if I would be a customer.
Well, to be honest, Dodge isn't finding many customers for that, sadly.
I would like to give it a go.
I'm just out of curiosity.
I would be quite interested in that.
What's the frat-zonic chamber sound that they've got and everything?
But I'm with you.
I'm a huge fan of the Hemi V8s.
I love those.
I've driven them at every opportunity I could get in the Middle East.
And I'm not 100% sure that the Dodge Challenger Electric
was the right thing to do.
And Dodge now knows that and they're back pedaling.
So I think that's what's happening with that.
I mean, do you guys have any feelings on that?
Maybe, Darren?
I have really no opinion on the Challenger, really.
So it's there. It's a new car.
It's a new electric car.
It's a bit like the Ford Mach-E, which I find offensive.
They call it a Mustang.
It's like teeth, damn badge off that car.
It's not a Mustang. It is just an SUV.
There was never an SUV Mustang.
I have a 66 Ford Mustang.
You do? Yeah, it's beautiful.
Oh, 64 Mustang. You're not going to put an electric motor in it, are you?
No, no, no. It's original.
We've had that car in the family for 45 years.
And it's original.
It doesn't even have idle-brock components in the engine.
So it's not loud.
It's just the original purring.
It's down that the car is a V8 purr, which is, I love that V8 purr.
I did have a 67 Mustang that had idle-brock everything in the engine.
And it was loud as hell.
And it sounded like you're supposed to feed people to the engine to fuel it.
And the prices of Mustangs are going silly now.
I think they're actually leveling off now.
They're actually leveling off now.
Yeah, because I think what's happening now is that there's a new generation
looking at the, I did recently cover the classic car market.
And what we're seeing is modern classics are on the rise right now.
And the older classics from the 50s and 60s are sort of settling into sort of a norm.
Because everything went crazy after COVID.
The prices just went ballistic on everything.
That's now kind of normalizing.
So those values are sort of coming back to where they should be.
And what's happening now is that we're seeing an increase in 80s and 90s classics.
And even some 2000 ones, early 2000 ones.
I've just Googled the Dodge Charger Daytona SRT.
It looks really good.
Yeah.
I would want to drive it if it had a petrol engine.
Yeah.
You know, but as it's electric, it's just, you know,
it's put you on.
Yeah, I can't.
No, you've got to be.
But the thing is, this is what they've done.
They've put an artificial V8 noise into it.
That's what they've done.
I'm going to close the page next.
It's offending you.
It's gone.
You were going to mention London and you were going to talk.
You said you don't take the Ferrari in because obviously in London now,
they actually have sound cameras for one to better way of describing them.
Yeah, Darren, a lot of people actually are getting caught with that.
Scooters, especially.
I don't have the scooters with that.
Some of the motorbikes, I think, are.
Scooters with the holes on them that make the loudest noises.
You just want to strangle them.
And those are electric ones.
Yeah.
Yeah, well, non-originators just to irritate people.
I mean, London's being landed today.
I was like, I was watching the news today.
It's slightly off-tangent from cars.
Yeah.
Have we gone back to the 1970s?
Yeah.
All right.
What's happened?
In the 1970s, there was no speed limits like they are now.
So no.
Yeah, straight.
No, it was, wasn't it?
I'm not that old.
There were speed limits, but there were less cameras.
Put it that way.
No, I just figured all these people demonstrated it far enough.
Yeah, I know.
I've had notices circulating on my WhatsApp and on other platforms
saying, do not go into London today.
I wouldn't go.
No.
It's terrible.
Today, yeah, because there's two big marches going on in London.
Really?
Where are you based, Darren?
I'm Elephant and Castle.
OK, but you're not central, central.
Well, Elephant and Castle is pretty damn central.
Yeah, I saw it.
It is central.
Yeah, you look at the map.
It's really damn central.
Well, actually, it's south of the river.
Is it really London?
South of the river, mate.
Don't go south of the river.
South of the river.
Why don't you bring yourself on there?
Well, Kensington is a new Kensington, obviously.
Elephant and Castle.
It's like many Manhattan here with all these new buildings on the part.
Oh, wow.
Like that.
It's changed so much.
Do you still have the Elephant?
The original Elephant is still here.
It's down in Elephant Square.
Do you have the big silver thing?
What's it called, a big silver monument?
Yeah, the transformer or something.
Right in the middle.
When I was young, I used to think there was a real elephant inside that castle.
Yes.
There is?
Still?
Yeah, that's where the elephant sculptures.
Believe.
I thought it was a real elephant.
Believe, believe.
I was about 22 at the time.
I thought you said, I thought, I was going to say it regressed to 12 years old, but 22.
Okay.
Well, in reality, Rodenware's elephant inside that box.
And you know what?
The road structure, they've changed it now.
It's really confusing.
I just, I get lost in Elephant culture just going round and round.
He's just done what's going on.
What have they done?
It just, it actually works.
I have to admit it actually works.
I hated it when they did it.
It was awful, but now it's like, oh, well, actually, yeah, I can get to there pretty quick now.
We haven't been there in years, but I can relate to the fact that I used to live near Old Street.
And that whole Old Street roundabout shortage area has been completely changed.
Completely changed.
I remember the days of drifting into the shortage area late at night while I was,
not intentionally, I nearly got caught one night.
I used to take, I used to work at a newspaper and we were in West London and the printers were in East London.
So I used to do the sort of two or three AM run across to the other side of London.
And particularly did that area.
I'd end up coming around a little bit quick, a little bit hot in my old Supra round there.
But now it's all changed.
I mean, I can barely understand which way around you're supposed to go, et cetera.
That's London in general now.
Yeah.
It's not very car friendly whatsoever.
If you live here, like I do, then you know where you can drive and when you can drive.
So it's actually, you can still be fun and you can have fun between the cameras.
Not that I said that out loud, sorry.
Yeah.
But it's, you can still have fun in the city.
You just have to know when and where and how.
So you're having this event in pretty much Central London.
Yeah, it is.
The Bloomberg show.
It's just, just off, just the Tottenham Court.
I think Tottenham Court Road is the nearest tube station.
Tottenham Court Road and the British Museum.
That's it.
And so these guys are going to bring guys and gals.
They're going to bring their classics into London.
Are they all happy about that?
Because honestly, like nowadays it's quite nerve wracking just even driving in London.
I don't think people really care that much.
I mean, it's Sunday morning when they arrive.
So they're not going to be any traffic when they arrive.
Because, you know, cars need to be there by nine o'clock.
And some will get there by eight or before seven.
So there's not going to be any traffic for them whatsoever.
When they go home, they just drive casually.
Is it open to the public?
Anybody can walk in and have a look around?
Yeah, it costs 10 pounds for the general public to come in.
Because we do need to try to make the show break even at least.
Because it's the first year, so things like that are not the easiest things to do on the first year.
So it's 10 pounds for the general public to get in.
And we'll have live music, a full bar, food, lots of cars.
So there's going to be around 30 cars inside the garden with all the food and all the attractions.
And then on the outside, because it's...
Bedford Square's got a massive gravel area surrounding it.
So we're fitting around 100 plus cars on that.
Wow, that's a lot of cars.
Easily, yeah.
Do the drivers pay you a lot to attend?
It's 20 pounds for a driver, but then that includes two tickets to get inside.
So it's basically 10 pounds a person.
Do you get some drivers complaining and saying,
oh, why do we have to pay the part of this place?
Really rude email yesterday from somebody that says,
why do we have to pay to go into your show that you're charging
general public for and you're getting sponsors for and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
And he just went on.
He was really rude about it.
And it says, not so naive, explain.
And I was like, well, most shows charge more.
And so it's actually not that much.
And we're not doing this for free.
I mean, we don't want to pay out of our own pocket for you to have a show.
We want it to break even.
That's the goal.
I think, as Sai discussed in the last show, actually,
I think we were talking about the rising cost of actually putting on the shows.
Exactly.
And how expensive it is.
Insurance, marshalling.
Yeah, exactly.
It's okay.
And I get people saying to me, all the time I've seen a post,
why are we at this event, you know, Conquers of Elegance?
Why are we at Southern Preva?
Why are we part of the show?
Yeah, but you know what?
It's expensive.
It's expensive.
They cost money, you know, and they've got to make a profit.
No one does anything for it for free.
And if you want to go, if you want to partly, you know, at your event,
you know, you're not going to have a chance to do it another time.
Well, you can.
But as an event, no, you know, if you want to do, you know,
if you want to do, if you want it free, you know,
do an event at the same space car park.
I mean, my Waterloo Classics event is free.
I don't charge for admission to my club.
I don't because I just don't want to do, I don't want people have to pay.
So the Waterloo Classics, that's once a month, isn't it?
Yes, once a month.
And it's just, and it's, what's, where do you turn up?
It's basically all this turn up on this road, right?
Lower Marsh, just below Waterloo Station.
What day?
The third Saturday of every month, even in the wintertime.
I've been meaning to come to that for a long time,
but in the Saturday, I'm usually having a nap in the afternoon.
It's from 11 till around 8.30.
I'm going to, I will, I'm going to attempt to come down there.
I have to come down, I've been meaning for a long time
because I've heard a lot of great things about it.
I've heard a lot of great things about it.
So I'm just catching up on some of the chairs that we have.
I'm going to come down.
Actually, you know what, you mean you can go down together
because I've been promising Darren for like,
what, five years now that I'm going to come to that event?
I even had the sticker, you even gave me the sticker
and it used to be on the back of the E30,
but I've never actually come down to it.
I keep telling myself, come to my house,
pick up the Aston or the Ferrari, one of the other,
and we'll take both cars down and he's like,
I'm going to drive to Waterloo in a loud Ferrari.
You can immediately swing by your house
and pick up the Aston.
Sorry, what you're saying?
You know what, I'd actually, I'd prefer to pick,
I'd prefer to pick up one of your electric Heelys
and drive that into London
because that would actually make more sense.
So we're getting some feedback.
We've got the Poison Dwarf says,
does the E stand for excrement?
I'm assuming he means E as in electric.
We've got Hooke saying, hello gents
and public liabilities of things, sadly.
So yeah, I think he's referring to events
because that's also a cost that has to be considered.
And Desit, the guy who was asking us the questions,
previously guy, girl, I'm not sure.
He's saying, loving the show,
what do you guys make of the new Renault 5?
I would say if I do move to London
and need to buy something electric, I would consider it.
So personally, I'll just give my thoughts first.
I have reviewed it.
There's a review live on it
and I thought it was absolutely brilliant.
If you don't have a family
because there's no space in the rear seats,
but other than that, I thought it was fantastic.
The electric, no, the yellow version of it,
the sports version, it's pretty darn cool.
I think it's a good-looking car.
I don't know what it sounds like.
No, actually I do.
I saw that Goodwood Festival of Speed.
It was making a sound.
I can't really place one.
Yeah, they make the whirring sounds.
I think the best sound is from the BMWs
because it was done by Hans Zimmer.
The sounds from the BMWs,
they commissioned Hans Zimmer,
the guy that does soundtracks for movies.
They commissioned him to do it.
And that's why I really like the i4.
I think the sound is fantastic.
You only get it in the sports version.
To be honest, I've been secretly looking for the sounds.
I had to get the sounds from the Jetsons
onto the Healy's.
That would be fun.
Oh, the night rider sound.
Talking of night rider,
what do you feel about this news
that they're talking about bringing back night rider?
Because I recently did a video
where I examined all the things that made night rider great
and I concluded that it was impossible to bring it back.
Any reboot would always fail.
And now we're trying.
We're doing it just despite you.
Yes.
That's what it is, yeah.
What was that sound?
I was going to say, why?
Why don't you think there's going to be a good reboot?
Because you know, I think the elements,
there were several elements to that show.
You know what?
I'll give you a quick example.
I was watching, like, Good Morning Breakfast TV show
and one of the celebs on there,
a younger celeb was on there.
And they were discussing this in the news.
And the celeb himself, I can't remember who it was.
I don't know the names of these people.
And he said something that really struck me.
He said, first of all, he's like, what's night rider?
He said, what's night rider?
And I was like, bloody hell.
He doesn't know what night rider.
And he said, I've read about it.
It just sounds like a Tesla.
And I'm like, wow.
So this is the thing.
When night rider happened in 1982,
the idea of a talking car that drove itself
that had all this tech on it, mind-blowing, mind-blowing,
captured your imagination straight away.
Today, we kind of have those, you know,
with AI and with the self-drive.
We kind of have those.
So where do you go from there?
So that's one thing.
Siri Rider.
Sorry?
Siri Rider.
And secondly, I think, you know,
as much as people, and I agree,
David Hasselhoff made that show.
No question about it.
But equally, and perhaps even more,
and in many ways like the Enterprise makes Star Trek,
the 1982 Pontiac Fibre Trans-Am was the star of that show.
There's no question.
There's no question that as kids,
that was the model that we all wanted.
That was the car that we all wanted till this day.
You know, I've driven those.
They're not great, but I still love one
because just because of the iconic status of that car.
So I think for these two reasons,
I don't think Knight Rider can come back unless you somehow
at least bring the Pontiac back.
But they are bringing it back
because some kid finds it in a garage or...
Yeah, you've seen my content, haven't you?
Yeah.
That was my idea.
Oh, that was your idea.
That was my idea.
Yeah, that was my idea.
I was looking for a trailer for it,
and I couldn't find it.
No.
See, my idea that I proposed was to...
You remember the recent Ghostbusters movie?
And they actually did that in the Ghostbusters movie
where the younger generation,
they find the original Ecto-1,
you know, he pulls the covers off it,
and he finds it.
And I think that's how it's got to be.
You've got to rediscover the original kit.
Yeah, but that Ghostbusters film was rubbish.
So was the female version.
You know, the original, they were the best.
And sometimes some things should not be touched,
I think, you know.
I watched Night Rider the other day,
and I just watched it.
I used to watch it.
When I was younger, I used to watch all of them.
I really loved it.
Now as I'm older, I look at it,
and I think,
Oh, oh, really?
It's like $6 million, man.
Again, I used to love it.
Watch it now, and I think,
Oh, really?
Star Trek, I watch it.
Yeah, I still watch it, because it's great.
I love it.
Star Trek was always about the stories.
The sets and the effects are all shit.
I mean, I'm a huge Trekkie,
but I have to say they're all shit.
But it was because of the stories and the philosophies
and what they were talking about.
Exactly.
And to be honest, I've not read it,
come on, would I watch it?
No, I'm not really interested.
My Revice, if it came back.
Yeah, again, stories.
But it has come back.
My Revice has come back in many different parts.
Wasn't that great?
Wasn't that great?
I saw a couple of episodes.
I didn't think it was that great.
No, it was great.
And just like the new Magnum.
I think they did a Magnum,
the new Magnum, didn't they?
That was just like,
Why didn't, why?
Why?
Magnums and Magnum in a relationship.
Oh, my God.
No, no, no, no.
I really don't think a talking car
can be interesting these days.
Because the problem in AI and stuff like that,
I mean, it's all just going to do is tell you,
keep your hands on the wheel.
Exactly, exactly.
And pull you off every now and then.
It's like, shut up.
And that's the thing.
Unless they grow back.
And this is why I think that if they,
if they go big on the nostalgia,
you know, then, you know, like,
nostalgia is big.
So the people are making this reboot.
There's some hope there because it's the same people
that made Cobra Kai,
which was a reboot of Karate Kid.
And then, and I watched Cobra Kai.
I thought it was absolutely brilliant.
I really enjoyed it.
But it really was,
went big and heavy on the nostalgia.
It really did that.
We're all the old characters back and bought the music back.
So, and I think that's one of the reasons that it worked.
And I think that if they did Knight Rider
and they were able to bring the car back
and bring the voice back
and maybe they would artificially generate it or whatever,
maybe it could work.
But I think, you know, we've had,
we've had the Knight Rider version
where they had the Mustang.
That just didn't work.
And then there's been other versions.
It just, it just doesn't work.
You know, even David Hasselhoff,
they brought them, they brought him back in Knight Rider 2000
with a red Pontiac,
was it a Pontiac or no, it was a Dodge concept car.
And it just didn't work.
It just didn't work.
It was like, no, it has to be the 1982 Trans Am.
Hope you enjoyed this video.
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Thanks so much for watching.
We've got, I've just had an invitation from Kuwait, by the way.
So the guy, the guy who's desert,
who's been commenting and asking the questions,
you've obviously really impressed him.
So thank you very much guys.
He's a petrolhead guy here.
Brown car guy, you should come and visit us in Kuwait.
We have a huge classic car scene.
Happy to facilitate, et cetera, et cetera.
By the way, I have been to Kuwait.
I've been to Kuwait twice.
I've been for the Kuwaiti Concourse.
And yes, you guys in Kuwait, you are car mad.
Absolutely bonkers.
They are proper, proper fishinados.
They love their American muscle.
They love their classics.
The Kuwait, the people in Kuwait, the car community,
love you guys.
You guys are amazing.
We have to say that because they just invited you over there.
No, no, genuinely, genuinely.
Us over, not him, us.
Yeah, we didn't get, yeah, we got no invites.
I mean, good to say back in Kuwait until again.
We'll wait to see if we hear back from him.
But I had a talking, was it Poison Dwarf's?
I've had a talking car for the last 39 years
when I got married.
Okay.
Right, no comment.
We just worked for that voice to turn the piece up.
I know how to drive.
So we were at the concourse and you sent me some really nice pictures
that you took of.
You said you were sending me some car pictures of the Esprit in concourse.
What you sent me was porn.
Paraporn.
I took a photograph nude and it was reflections on there.
I wouldn't call it strictly porn.
It's been a photo editing, but it's okay.
So anyway, Esprit celebrating his 50th.
Great car, amazing.
I think war history.
And I've done a couple of videos on car companies
that might be going bust.
And I did a separate video on Lotus.
But, you know, honestly, I think Lotus are in trouble.
And I think that they really should be looking back to their heritage.
And I think that, you know, on the 50th year of the Esprit,
wouldn't it be great to hear an announcement
that the Esprit is coming back?
It's not going to happen.
I mean, you were there.
You didn't see the cars parked up because you arrived late
because you overslept apparently.
But when I took those photographs, we'll be in the book.
I'm having to put a Congress of Elephants book.
And also I'll upload it so people can download it.
But looking at about 12, 11, 12 Esprit.
All different versions.
S4, S2, S1, S3.
You've got the 350 was there as well.
And we had an Essex version.
And it was just, you know, for me, the Lotus Esprit.
And I'm in the front room upstairs, my little room.
And down the road, and it must have been in the late 70s,
one of the neighbours used to have a white S1 or S2.
I can't remember.
It was the early one.
And I used to go out on my little bicycle.
We just, that's, you know, leaning against,
hopefully not leaning, but scratching it,
but leaning against it and looking inside.
And for me, it was so futuristic.
And that stayed with me.
And, you know, it's like, I want one.
I want one so badly when I want an S3.
That's what I want.
I want an S3 and I want it in copper
so that I can put a ski rack on top.
Or a white one.
There's going to be a white one at the Bloomsbury show.
Oh, I'm there. I'm there.
There's going to be a white one.
Is it Peter? Is it Peter?
Maybe.
I love Peter. He's wonderful.
There's an S3 coming tomorrow to the 96 Club event.
He's got the S3 turbo.
And apparently, he still has the original tyres.
Yeah, that's Peter's car.
That's Peter's car.
Yeah, and I've had the original, like, cigarettes in it
or something from Gamer or something.
And he's got this, like, in the back,
he has a display of drinks and stuff.
And he always sticks the fish on the side.
By the way, you guys have got your invite to Kuwait
because he's come back and he said
you are all welcome anytime.
Thank you very much.
Isn't that cool, dude?
I know, I know. You're committed, mate.
The binding contract. I'm an ex-lawyer.
I was just in Malaysia last week
and while I was there, I tried to visit
a couple of classic car restoration companies.
Oh, Darren, you should have told me.
I have a really good friend in Malaysia
who actually has quite a collection of cars there.
So next time you're heading over,
then I'll put you in touch with him.
But yeah, he's got Alfa Romeo.
He's got a police Alfa Romeo
and he's got the uniform and everything as well.
So he goes to car events.
In Malaysia, you have an Italian police Alfa Romeo
with an Italian cop there as well.
No, no, he's one of us.
Oh, okay.
He's a dissie.
Oh, that's fun.
Yeah, I really liked it over there.
I want to go back.
No, let me know when you're going then
because you should do that.
So hang on, so tell me a little bit about
the scene that you saw there because
I am fascinated because he tells me
that it's quite a vibrant scene there.
In Malaysia, I didn't see
any classic cars there.
They're all hidden away.
They're really expensive.
The tax is really high.
It's like 300% of something really silly.
Singapore, Malaysia.
I think Hong Kong, yes.
Singapore, I think.
So Malaysia, I'm not so sure
because I know this friend of mine,
he bought a Peugeot 205 GTI
which actually I reviewed it on the channel
and he shipped that over to Malaysia.
So it's with him now over there.
So he does occasionally buy cars
so I'm guessing that it's not
that prohibitive otherwise he wouldn't be doing that
too much. I didn't really see any classic
cars on my trip because I went to
Taiwan, South Korea and Malaysia
and only in Taiwan did I see a few classic cars.
One was an old Trans Am that was just
derelict on the side of the road
and a Land Rover but that was it.
I was surprised that there was just
nobody had their cars out
and nothing.
Definitely next time you go
let me know.
So we've got a few cars
that this year
we have been saying goodbye to
and I've been looking at some of those
and there's several of the
top of my head, there's probably others as well
but we lost cars like the Nissan GTR
we've lost cars like
the Boxster Cayman
and also the Civic Type R.
Do you think that we are
we're in an era where we're losing
the last of the great combustion engine
cars? Do you think that that's what's happening right now?
Why is the Boxster Cayman
going away? Because they're still making the Boxster
No, Boxster Cayman
both have been discontinued
the official reason that they're being
discontinued
and don't forget that the current gen of the Boxster Cayman
the 718 has been out for
nine years now and the official
reason that it's being discontinued is because
of the Data Protection Act
in cars and the technology
required to make sure that you commit to that
Porsche claimed that it would be too
expensive for them to retrofit that into the car
so they're like, well
we're working on a new model anyway
so we're just going to discontinue it because it's just not worth how
well
My opinion, the golden age
of motoring
is dying
we've lived for it
future is just
I don't own a modern car
so I'm still living it
Well my car is old as well
but I think everything
all these cars are going to go
they're going to die down
the GTR as you mentioned that's going to come back to the electric
who wants an electric Nissan GTR
on a side thing
because I did actually look at your article
about the Honda Civic
Type R
and there was a photo
that really
grabbed my attention
do you can see it
Norman Wisdom
Norman Wisdom
you met Norman Wisdom
I've had dinner with Norman Wisdom
that is like
I mean
forget the cars now
what is he doing there
well he lived there, he lived on the Isle of Man
and
my dad was a huge fan
we were all fans obviously but my dad was a massive fan
so at that time we didn't have iPhones and stuff
but I got somebody to take that picture for me
but Honda laid on this incredible event
where they launched that second gen
on the Isle of Man on the TT circuit
and as part of that they had two celebrities
they had the local celebrity who was Norman Wisdom
so he was there he was just hanging out with us
and he was there in the dinner as well
cracking jokes and he did that thing where he does
he does a handkerchief
he turned it into like a rat or a little animal
and he sort of runs around the table
but he was amazing he was absolutely brilliant
and we also had Dougie Lampkin
the incredible motorbike
motorcross rider
who was literally riding up a sheer cliff
like a mountain goat
he's like defying gravity completely
your brain couldn't understand
how is he doing that
but it was an epic epic event
and my abiding memory which I talk about in the video
but I'll just briefly touch on it
was that we were driving
people know the Isle of Man
there's no speed limit outside of towns
so you can actually go as quick as you like
but on this particular event
they also had the police
the police had a cord type R
at that point they said right
we're going to close off this section of the TT circuit
and it's yours
we're like wow just wait down here
we're going to close it off then it's yours
then I think there were seven or eight black
civic type Rs
so this police accord took
once they cleared the road the police accord took off
first one, second one
I think I was in the third one driving up this mountain road
and I'm giving it full power up the road
and then the journalist with me he says
you can use the whole road
I'm like oh yeah
so I cut the first corner
I was about to cut the third one
I think from memory was a right-hander uphill
blind
and a little Volkswagen Polo was coming down the other way
he missed the first two
he missed the first three
and when he got to the bottom he got arrested
he had the fright of his life
we all had the fright of our lives
but he was somewhere where he wasn't supposed to be
so he got arrested for that
but I think he was just lucky to be alive
but the greatest thing about that event was going to the next stop
where the police
this is the police
patrol cops
coming up to each one of us and saying
we hope that didn't spoil your entertainment of the car
we hope you were able to drive it as fast as you wanted
I'm like when does that ever happen
you know what a place
so there's no speed limit sir
how fast can you feasibly go
as fast as you dare
I mean you have got
small allows
because of your skill allows basically
because there are tricky roads
because if you've seen the Arlaman TT circuit
those guys on the bikes
they've either had their brain disconnected
or their fear gland disconnected
completely or they're just the bravest people on the planet
because if you've ever seen those guys
it's terrifying
because it is quite tiny
there are sheer drop offs
and when you get into the villages
because they go fast in the villages as well
it's narrow as hell and bumpy as hell
it's down to skill
but you can outside of town
there's no limit
I was on an event like that once in Italy
and it was for this best of Italy
hill climb type of thing
and they closed the whole road for it
it was like 20 kilometers of road
that they would close
and I was helping them organize it
I was supposed to get like a Fiat 124 Spider
one of the modern ones
but I ended up they ran out of them
and I got a Fiat Panda instead
but I was so surprised
at how well that car handled on those mountain roads
I called it the Panda Express
because I was shooting up and down these roads
knowing there's no one coming down
in the opposite direction you can use the whole road
and that Panda just glued to the road
I was really impressed
next Sunday
I would have come to Yoruba but I'm at Cop Hill
have you ever done, have you been at Cop Hill?
I really want to do that
so I'm doing it
they're doing a cop though right up there
giving a couple of charity rides
I've never done a hill climb
I thought I'd give it a go
I've never heard of that place
I did Shellsley Walsh
let me try and get that and I can never pronounce that correctly
Shellsley Walsh
I did that last year in the BMW E30
and it's a short run
but it's a quick run and it gets very tight
and scary towards the top
so that was pretty exciting
you should go to Yoruba because it shows you what
it's a Bradley Walsh
Bradley Walsh makes cars
you know
he makes Aston Martin copies
it takes a DB9
it changes it
the Poison Dwarf was talking about
the Maestro
if you remember the early Maestro
they had voices in them as well
and they changed it
they changed it to a male voice
and the warranty claim started to drop
what?
it was ruined
say that
Italian males wouldn't take
the female voice seriously
alright I see that's what it was
and then our Kuwaiti friend has come back again
and he says what do you guys make of the new
Honda Prelude
feel like getting the new Shell
and fitting a Mugen Spec type RV tech
into it
because the new Prelude is going to have a hybrid engine
have you guys had a chance to look at this
the Poison Dwarf
the Poison Dwarf says
the oldest UK hill climb
he's doing it on Saturday so you're going to see him there
now I would dispute that
because I was told
that Shellsley Walsh is the oldest
dedicated motorsports facility
in the world
there's a lot of caveats in that
maybe
let's see what he says now
but yeah, Honda Prelude what do you think of it
if you guys had a chance to look at it
it kind of reminds me
of a
just a modern Honda
that's damning with faint praises
I don't know
I have an S2000
an exciting looking car
S2000s are great cars
it looks like a car
it looks like a boy car
it's alright I suppose
yeah, okay
I think it's an important car
in the sense that
it could
be the
revival of coupes
because remember, coupes used to be such a big thing
in the 80s and 90s
and then we kind of lost them because everybody wants SUVs now
but if you remember
at one point the Japanese were turning
everything into coupes
you had a cord coupes, you had Corolla coupes
everything was being turned into coupes
Nissan Sunny coupes, everything
so do you think we're going to see a revival
in cars that are more interesting
such as a coupé format
hmm
sure why not
when I was, my first car
was a Honda Civic
but my first car that I bought knew was a
actually the only car I ever bought knew
was a Honda Civic CRX
which is a cute little thing
and I can still fit three people in
in only two seats
and then after that I was like
I really got tired of lifting the seat forward
to get somebody in the back so I thought
wouldn't it be great to have four doors on a car
I got a BMW
325i
sit down, four doors, I thought that was great
and now it's like
everyone, and I didn't see the point of a coupé
for a long time, it's like
well it's the same car, it's just got extra door
I mean it doesn't matter, I mean it's just easier
and
and now I
it's cleaner lines and things like that
and bigger, wider doors, so it's kind of nicer
but that CRX
those are called classics now
and they're crazy right now, I wish I had kept mine
so I had my car
when we had our first kid, Jeanette
my son
and as you know it had a bench in the back
so it didn't have a seat, it just kind of like had a bench
but I figured out a way
to fasten the baby seat
into that bench in the back
Bungie cords
Bungie cords maybe
I don't know, various straps and things
but the thing was like you said
then opening the door to get to access to the back
we would just open the tailgate
and drop them in from there
the number of looks we used to get at supermarkets
was just dropping the baby into the boot
basically
baby and boot, there should be a little bumper sticker for that
baby and boot
I like the coupes
I mean I think they're great but
my first one was a Capri
lovely beautiful coupes
I had a golf kit, I had two door
Mark II wasn't very good
but I do like it, but then
maybe a golf now, two door or a four door
I'd rather get a four door, maybe because I'm old
and practical but
I don't know, I think
they should come back
whatever they're going to come back, I don't know
but I think they should come back
Do you want to get out of the car to have to get a passenger in the back?
I don't have many friends though, I don't have that problem
Yeah
I'm going to tell you one car
I've been looking out online
I think it's on eBay or somewhere
it's for sale, it's an auto trader
and
£20,000
it's a convertible
it's a Ferrari Daytona
Southern Roadcraft replica
What's it based on?
It's a Jaguar, it's based on a Jaguar
It's a Miami Vice car
and the original
the Miami Vice car was built by
I've got his name now
McMurray or whatever
and he
built the original ones for Miami Vice
Southern Roadcraft was an English company
based on the South Coast
and they built six
and it looks like a Daytona
but it's got a Jaguar engine
and chassis
£20,000
McMurray, buy one of those
drive around
find an old smashed up Ferrari with an engine
and a gearbox, stick it in
and what have you got?
You've got an engine that won't fit because it's the wrong chassis
There's that
I don't have a problem with that honestly
because I know these guys
they turn BMW Z4s
into like Cobra replicas
or Ferrari 250 replicas
and stuff like that
and okay, from a distance
they look convincing and close up
they're still beautifully done but you can tell
but I'm like most people
99% of people won't be able to tell
and you'll be driving around in London
and something that looks like a million dollars
but doesn't cost it
that's wrong with that
I have no problem with
recreations or something like that
I mean I've always
you know the Porsche 356
but I don't want to spend silly money on a car like that
I use it for other things
so why not, I was
really tempted to buy one of the 356 recreations
that you can get out of Florida that had the aluminium body
there's only $25,000
for a long time and it's like
and it's beautiful and it drives
it's just a better car than the original
it looks just like it except the only thing that you know
it's not the original is it's too clean
and too unblemished
but there's a point
that you just made there is where the original
cars are
they're very expensive, they're very costly
they're very valuable, you have to be
you have to be very precious with them
but if you say I mean I don't know what these kits cost
maybe 20 grand
maybe 20, 25 grand built up
maybe 5 grand for a donor car
you're talking within 30 grand you could have a car
that looks like something like a classic Ferrari or Cobra
and you could just beat up on it
because it's like you know what the heck
it's just a modern BMW right
what about the Conquest of Elegance last weekend
which by the way was a fantastic show
there was that Alpha
P33
remember the red one
did I miss it, where was it
it's
oh I know what you meant it was behind the main stage
behind the main stage
yeah that was a replica wasn't it
it was a very expensive replica though
it was built, it was built from scratch
and I'm going to interview the owner
it was beautiful
650,000 pounds
to be honest
to me that doesn't actually
make sense
it's just spending that sort of money
then you won an original car
the original cars millions
yeah but still why
tell me what you guys think about this
but when I hear cars
going up to 200, 300, 400 whatever
but when the cars get into the millions
and millions and millions to me
that doesn't make sense I mean it's just
as beautiful as the Ferrari 250 GTO
as gorgeous and amazing as iconic
I think it is but when you're saying it's 60 million pounds
I'm like come on guys
that's ridiculous
the question is are people buying the car
because they've always wanted one
or are they buying it because they're thinking
do you know what it's going to go up in value
I'm not going to take it
I'm going to buy a classic car
as an investment
I always buy it you know you can store your money
in a bit never expect it to go up in value
that's just bad bad ideas
unless it's a McLaren F1
but Darren do you think a car
is justified at a price
a car let's be honest at the end of the day
a car four-wheeled engine steering wheel
a car is it justified
at 50 million pounds plus
50 million you see the point
I mean stick it in the museum
or put it in the museum where someone can drive it
I mean if somebody's got the spare cast
for that and they want to be the caretaker
of that car temporarily
then great so it's still so it stays
valid and it stays usable and stuff like
that so that's good but
I mean you have to be
a very special case to buy a car
like that
it's very rich as well
but also then where can you use it
how can you use it
amazing deli haze from
that you know art deco designs and stuff
I would love to have one of those as a daily driver
but could you use it as a daily
driver
the most valuable car in the world
what do you think it is
I thought the 250 was it
like the most which could be a more
smaller that's a very good point that's a very good
answer actually Darren yeah the most valuable car
is a car that means the most to you
yeah I was thinking more about money wise
yeah
you're a better man for me Darren
yeah I had an argument with someone online about this
and because I said it was a
BMW M1
M1
that yeah a BMW M1
the mid-engined
supercar that was painted
by Andy Warhol
that would be the most
expensive
automobile ever because
it's owned by BMW they would never sell it
you know Andy Warhol
but I think the BMW
the BMW art car series
is probably diminished by the fact
that there's now so many of them
because they've painted
they've had major artists paint
their entire range of cars over the years
yeah they have yeah the BMW art cars are fun
they're lovely
you ever see them I saw them in shooting
did you go into that
I think I saw a few of them in the UAE
so I don't know if I've seen them here and there
sort of thing
I spent a day and a half
filming them
wonderful and
these are multi-million pound cars
and what separates the public from the cars
was some yellow tape
well it's just in a museum
you go to a museum and you've got paintings on the wall
it's separating you from them a piece of cord
that's true actually
this was in a
multi-story car park that smelled of urine
oh
it was a multi-story car park
and that's a whole other level of patina we're talking about
that is
that is original patina
actually it just
smells of urine
they can afford to put in a bloody toilet
they just
rented out this massive NCP car park
you know it's short did you know it's the old street
the big car park with the American car wash
I don't know what you're talking about with this
I know I used to live there I don't remember this place
when you go from commercial road
commercial road
you go up on the left hand side is a multi-story car park
on the left
I was probably going too fast
around there to have a notice
you were too busy drifting the other way
you weren't looking up you were looking
sideways
we've had our friend from Kuwait
asking a question about
what we think about
he says folding lights I'm assuming it means pop-up lights
pop-up lights obviously
were essentially
outlawed because of pedestrian safety legislation
this is the reason why modern cars don't have them
but of course those of us that remember pop-up lights
we just love them don't we
you go first Darren
I was going to buy myself
another a new car
not a new but a new car so I gave myself
a couple rules buy myself a
it has to work has to go quick
and it can't be a project at all
so and I was going to buy it
I was looking for a 928
oh
those are great
I ended up buying a BMW
a set up that's a project
so I broke all my rules I was an idiot
but it's still going to be a great project
you know the 928 though
I love the pop-up
but Darren the 928
from what I know
mechanics fear
that car
they run the other direction when they see
that's how you know because they're beautiful
cars they're lovely they were way ahead of their time
the design lives even today
it looks modern
everything I've heard is like it's a nightmare
people run the other way from it
and the lights
but I love them but it's like
I want to deal with vacuum
vacuum light system and stuff like that
it's like where's the leak
you have to submerge the car to find the leak
and it's like
come on
submerge the car yeah like a risky business
I was in December last year
I was rocking one in Dubai
because I had the use of one of those
I was working on the Millimilia
and I had one that belonged to
I think it was the Gargash family
so you know big family they owned the Mercedes dealerships
and stuff so they had lent some of the cars
for us to use and I had the use of that car
and it was just very cool
to be in that car
and drive around
but I have to say I was driving around going
is that noise correct?
should that sound like that?
all the time I was a little bit like
because we were doing lots of distances as well
because it was the Millimilia we were going all around the UAE
but it was very cool to get in it and get out of it
but when I was in it I was kind of
half the time I was like am I going to make it
there was an amazing hot potato
you're saying
I had a free foray
that had pop-up headlights
and some of them were still working
so you were driving around with one headlight up
and one down
you know
it was something like that
or they wouldn't come up and then you'd have to get them
and it was just
I like them as an owner
apart from when they go wrong
I love them
well a mutual friend of ours
and Darren might probably remember
Kevin had the BMW 850 right?
yeah he did
I remember
a few times when I was riding with him
he was like I got to put the headlights on
so pull over and get out and then actually wind them up
I like him as an owner
but as a photographer
I don't like him because it just ruins
the look of the photograph
unless I want it in front of the camera
I like him down
but you know
when the lights are up
you capture it from a low angle
it's tremendous
yeah but you know what sometimes I get people coming towards me
and they stick their headlights
the pop-up headlights come up and I'm figuring out
I'll put them down
it doesn't look right
it doesn't look what I want it
as a photographer I don't like him
but as an owner you can't go wrong with pop-up headlights
I don't know how dangerous are they
you can definitely go wrong with pop-up headlights
because they just don't work half the time
they weren't that dangerous
but the idea of pedestrian legislation
which obstructs the movement of a pedestrian
over the car
can cause further injury
so that's why you don't get bonnet ornaments
because again they can cause an injury
or you do on the Rolls Royce
and this is why they have to collapse in
so they immediately collapse in
they immediately fold
yeah
little Ellie in the 90
has to duck into the bonnet as soon as she sees danger
coming
focus of elegance
has very 1950
must be 1950s, 1960s Ferrari
and it had these
two circular
circles
really at the front
which basically are lights that come up
they swivel out
and that I thought was quite interesting
I didn't see them come up
but they were there and a friend of mine
who knows all about cars he goes he had actually lights
but in the 1950s and 60s
they had some tremendous
I remember Darren will know
some old American cars had incredible
mechanisms for lights
like the lights behind grills and stuff like that
oh yeah
there's some really cool hidden headlights
on some of these old cars
one thing I find interesting about American cars
even though I'm not a big American car fan
is that they had a really interesting
way of doing things on their cars
they're a bit like French cars where they just did things
differently
I didn't wonder why did they do it that way
I mean shifting gears by pressing buttons
on the dashboard it's kind of cool
and having
all these different types of
inventions they came up with and threw it in the car
having lights that are behind the grill
and the grill kind of like
does something so it can see the lights better
or just the covers
there's lots of American cars
that covers over the lights and they just
slide away which is kind of
I think the first pop-up lights were on an American car
I can't remember what it was
but it was in the Fenders wasn't it
I think it would come around like that right
I can't remember
maybe somebody can comment on that
but also am I imagining it
or I think because normal pop-up lights
just sort of pop up like that
but I think even in the Corvette
is it the C4 or the C5
they kind of do a rotational thing don't they
they sort of go round the other way
and then the lights sort of come up
the Corde 810 had amazing
pop-up headlamps
just stunning
yeah I think it is the Corde
I think that's the one I'm thinking of
yeah amazing
absolutely incredible
but you're not frozen are you guys
you're going very quiet
I'm just admiring the Corde
which is the Corde
I was looking at car porn again
I was looking at car porn
car porn
Corde is a C-O-R-D Corde
Corde
yeah I don't see any pop-up lights
on the Corde 810
Corde 810
they're in the wings
they're in the fenders, I think they come around like that
oh you're right, they're in the wings
so they kind of like somehow rotate
it's actually similar to the Ferrari ones
it's the same kind of thing
like the Ferrari one that we saw last week
hidden away, done these in lights
we're interesting
so guys we've run out the clock
and I'll tell you we could probably talk
for the rest of the afternoon
but maybe there should be
we should save some of that for the next time
we do this
but thank you so much
for taking the time today
I hope everybody viewing has enjoyed this
so I hope you guys enjoyed the show
absolutely, thank you
lovely, great, it's always, thank you very much
I feel lighter
the therapy session has worked
the therapy session is working
it always works, always feel better
that's good, I'm glad to hear
we've had great show guys, really enjoyed it
thank you so much for those of you
that have stuck with us through this hour
we hope you enjoyed it, we will be back again
stay tuned, keep it locked to Brown Car Guy
and don't forget to follow these guys
Sai on the Driver's Union
it's at the Driver's Union isn't it
on all the channels
and yours is at Waterloo Classics
for Darren
and of course you can see Darren and myself
Sai you might join us as well next Sunday
no, I'm at the Park Hill
you're somewhere else, okay
we will both be in central London
if you want to come down and say hello it would be great to see you
so until next time, thank you so much guys
thanks for joining us and thanks to you guys
see you gents for joining us today
shout out time guys
thank you so much
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