They’re basically saying that car racing and car writing aren’t just about machines—they’re about the people behind them. The choices people make, and the stories they live, are what shape the cars and the racing.
Motorsport is car racing—like competitions where drivers and teams push cars to the limit. This episode is saying the real heart of it is the people: the drivers and the designers who make the cars work.
The Geo Prism is a small, everyday car made to be practical and affordable. It’s not known for high performance; it’s more about getting you from place to place. If it’s mentioned in a podcast, it may be in a general or illustrative way rather than for racing or tuning.
Sports car racing is different from Formula 1. In many sports car events, drivers share the car and have to keep it running well for a long time, so being considerate and consistent matters.
In endurance racing, more than one driver drives the same car. That means the car has to feel good for different people, not just one driver’s preferences.
“24 hours” is endurance racing where the car has to last for a whole day. Because drivers swap and the car has to keep working, teams focus on reliability and a setup that multiple people can drive well.
“Set the car up” means tuning the race car so it handles the way the team wants. For long races, it also has to work for different drivers and not beat the tires or brakes up too quickly.
Historic racing is motorsport competition using older cars from past eras, often with rules meant to preserve authenticity. It’s a common way for enthusiasts and former drivers to stay connected to racing culture and share stories across generations.
A “works” driver is basically a factory-backed driver. It means the car maker is directly supporting them and they’re racing as part of that manufacturer’s effort.
Sports car racing is racing with cars built for endurance events, not just short sprints. A big part of it is that cars are often shared by multiple drivers, so teamwork is essential to win.
Le Mans is one of the biggest long-distance races in the world. When people talk about “Le Mans week,” they mean the intense time leading up to the race, where drivers have a lot going on and must stay sharp.
James Hunt was a top Formula 1 driver, and 1976 is the year he won the World Championship. The speaker is using that year to highlight how significant the racing connection was.
Drive to Survive is a reality/behind-the-scenes style F1 series that helped bring new audiences to the sport. The transcript references how certain drivers became breakout stars early on, showing how media exposure can change a driver’s public profile.
The Japanese Grand Prix is one of Formula 1’s big races. Here, they’re talking about something that happened at a press event before that race—how a driver wouldn’t talk to certain journalists. It’s more about the media moment than the car itself.
“PR trained” means someone has been coached on how to talk to the press. In racing, teams often want drivers to be careful with what they say. The idea here is that the driver may have been taught that journalists are always trying to find a headline.
“Max versus Lewis” refers to the well-known rivalry between Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton in Formula 1. The segment uses it as context for why a driver might be wary of certain journalists—suggesting that media narratives around the rivalry can influence relationships. It’s a motorsport context marker rather than a technical car topic.
A press conference in Formula 1 is a scheduled media session where drivers and team representatives answer questions. The segment highlights how media access can be controlled—here, a driver refused to talk until a specific journalist was removed. That’s a useful context point for understanding how PR and media relations work in motorsport.
“P8 or P9” means finishing 8th or 9th in the race. The point they’re making is that the problem isn’t just the ranking—it’s whether the cars feel fun to drive.
Concept
power that they have
They’re talking about how very successful drivers sometimes act more forcefully because they know they’re capable of winning. That can make their behavior look bigger or more intimidating than it should.
This phrase means acting like you have more authority than others. In racing, it can describe drivers who seem to push people around because they’re famous and powerful.
Topic
Max as a driver
They’re talking about Max and how he comes across in interviews. The point is that being “guarded” in press settings doesn’t always show what someone is like in real life.
The transcript suggests Max has been trained over many years to handle questions carefully in public. In motorsport, media training is common because drivers are expected to avoid controversy, protect sponsors, and stay consistent under pressure.
Topic
episode in Japan
The hosts reference a specific incident “in Japan” that they feel was handled poorly and then reignited by later commotion. This is a narrative topic rather than a technical automotive subject, but it helps explain why the discussion keeps returning to the same controversy.
A tire test at a track like Silverstone is where teams evaluate tire performance under controlled conditions—often comparing compounds, constructions, and pressures. Results depend heavily on track layout, temperature, and how the car is driven, so tire testing is as much about consistency and data collection as it is about raw grip.
Rally cars are built for rough, changing roads instead of a smooth track. Because grip changes a lot, they’re set up differently—especially the suspension and how power is sent to the wheels.
Concept
roundtable interview
A roundtable interview in a motorsport context often happens during test weekends, where drivers and engineers discuss performance, setup, and feedback. While not a technical term by itself, it’s a structural cue that the conversation is about extracting actionable driving and vehicle information.
Concept
source of the replay
They’re talking about where the video came from and rewatching it. It’s about reviewing footage, not a car feature.
Concept
warm handshakes
It’s just a way of saying they were being friendly and welcoming. It doesn’t mean anything mechanical about the car—it’s about the vibe.
Topic
Sterling Moss vs Mike Hawthorne (1950/1958 championship context)
They’re talking about how championships aren’t only about who wins races. Sometimes penalties and rule decisions change who ends up champion.
Sometimes a race result gets thrown out if officials find a rules problem. If the team appeals and officials agree, the driver can get reinstated and the points can change.
“World champion” refers to winning the season-long championship based on points across races, not just single-event results. This is why a disqualification (and later reinstatement) can swing the championship even if a driver wins more races.
This is when a driver squeezes into tiny spaces between cars to get ahead. It can work if everyone cooperates, but it’s stressful and risky because it depends on other people reacting fast.
Nio is an electric-car company. In this story, they’re mentioned because the event had connections to a motorcycle business too.
Brand
Arch
Arch is referenced as the name of a motorcycle company associated with the person at the event. The hosts imply a tie-in between that motorcycle brand and Michelin, which is why the group was present and “wheeled him out.”
The segment describes a typical tire brand launch format: journalists drive the same tire-equipped cars in an instructor-led session, usually over multiple laps. This helps demonstrate grip and confidence-building progression in a repeatable way.
It’s a practice driving setup: one car goes first and sets the pace, and other cars follow. Everyone tries to go quicker over several laps, but only as long as it feels controlled and the drivers are confident.
The BMW M Coupe (E36) is a sporty two-door car made by BMW’s performance team. It’s designed to be fun to drive, with a focus on handling rather than comfort. People mention it when they’re talking about how certain performance BMWs are driven or taught.
BMW has a performance line called “M.” Here, they’re talking about a driving event where an instructor drives a BMW M car first, and journalists follow in similar cars to learn the tires’ limits.
The McLaren F1 is a very famous, extremely rare supercar made by McLaren. People love it because it was built to be special and it’s become a collector icon over the years.
Monza is a famous race track in Italy. It’s the kind of place where big racing events happen, so it’s a notable setting for a car-related meeting.
Concept
sponsorship logistics (not bringing a trailer)
Racing sponsors sometimes bring their own gear and setups to events. This part sounds like BAT trying to simplify or change how they show up—specifically by not bringing a trailer.
A single-seater is a race car made for just one driver. It’s usually very specialized and can be hard to insure or drive unless you’re qualified and the car is set up for it.
Insurance is what decides whether someone is allowed to drive a car legally and safely from a risk standpoint. With race cars, the insurance company may say no unless the driver meets certain requirements.
Changing gear means selecting a different gear ratio so the engine can pull harder or spin at the right speed. In race cars, it’s usually done quickly and correctly to keep performance up.
Race cars have extra buttons for different functions. The exact one isn’t specified here, but it’s the kind of control a driver might need to know before using the car.
Sometimes actors can’t safely do the driving shots, so a professional driver steps in. That person can handle the car smoothly and safely while filming the action.
Balaclavas are used to cover the head and neck, often for comfort and to help manage wind, debris, and visibility in high-speed scenes. In film racing contexts, they also help keep the driver’s identity hidden while maintaining a consistent racing look.
"Racing old cars" refers to motorsport events or track activity using vintage or classic vehicles, which often have different handling, braking, and reliability characteristics than modern cars. It’s also a community where reputations and relationships carry over from one era of racing to another.
Brand
Chris Hoy
Chris Hoy is mentioned as a person the host met who’s obsessed with cars. The transcript doesn’t tie him to a specific make/model, but it’s a notable name in motorsport culture, and the episode frames him as knowledgeable and enthusiastic.
The Festival of Speed is a big car event where automakers show off new cars. It’s also a place where racing people and teams come to talk and display what’s new.
F1 teams are the groups that race in Formula 1. They’re the people who build the race cars, so their presence at a car show usually means there’s a lot of serious performance tech and new-car hype.
Formula One is the highest level of open-wheel racing. It’s the kind of motorsport where the cars are very technical, and broadcasters often draw on their own racing experience to explain what’s happening.
Bentley is a British luxury car brand. They’ve also been involved in racing, so when someone says “Bentley’s” in a driver context, it usually means the team or racing effort tied to the brand.
They’re discussing UK race tracks and how they’ve been improved. When the right people invest in a track, it can become safer and more modern for racing events.
The Jaguar XKR is a performance-focused Jaguar coupe/convertible from the XKR line, typically powered by a supercharged V8. Here it’s mentioned as the basis of a “GT program,” implying it was being developed or campaigned for grand touring-style racing.
A 24-hour race is like a marathon for cars—drivers rotate and the team keeps the car running for a full day. Silverstone is one of the most famous race tracks in the UK.
Endurance racing is about lasting a long time without breaking. It’s not only about being quick—it’s also about strategy and keeping the car healthy for hours.
The RX-8 is a Mazda sports car that uses a rotary engine instead of a normal piston engine. That rotary design changes how the car makes power, which is why it shows up in racing stories.
LIVE
Welcome back to the intercooler podcast, everybody, episode 309 of the intercooler podcast.
That's the car podcast powered by car finance specialist JBR Capital, Dan Proser and Andrew
Frankel with you here.
Andrew, this one's all about people.
And you know, we love celebrating the cars on this podcast.
Do you think actually it's the people who leave the biggest impression?
This is quite a self-indulgent podcast.
Yeah.
But that's okay.
We're allowed to sometimes.
It's not as self-indulgent as one we're going to be doing in a few weeks' time.
No, that's all about us.
That's going to be all about us.
This isn't about us.
This is about the famous people that we know.
Which is kind of a bit about us.
For me, it's the famous people that we've met.
Yeah.
Okay.
Met.
I know you know some of these people.
Okay.
Yeah.
No, I just met is a much better way of describing it, particularly for some of my list.
To me, everything that we do is about the people.
I go and drive a car and the car is great, but it didn't just happen that way.
People made it that way.
And if I think about when I was growing up, what made me love cars?
I mean, the cars were lovely, but particularly racing drivers.
I mean, if I looked at, I don't know, I'm old enough when I was a very young kid, Jackie
Stewart was still out there doing his thing.
And you see the skill and the heroism and everything else, and that to me is what it
was all about.
Ultimately, everything that we write about, everything that we talk about on this podcast,
everything that we present on our videos are ultimately human stories.
Yeah.
And we're celebrating motorsport, it's the drivers that we're getting excited about.
But also, if we're talking about a dominant car, we very, very quickly start talking about
the people who designed the car, don't we?
So it is, this is a human industry, very, very much so.
And that's what we're going to acknowledge in this episode, I think.
So we've both got lists of people that we've spent time with.
And I don't think in every case we've been left with a favorable impression of these people.
Yeah.
And I think we need to mention a few, because otherwise we're just going to come across a
sort of star-struck teenagers, aren't we?
Which we're absolutely not.
But I think it is generally fair to say that most of the people that you come across
in this business, now of course, most of the people that you come across in this
business know that you're a journalist, know that they're talking to a journalist
and therefore tend not to be horrible.
And there are certainly cases of people who present to us one way.
I can think of one particular industry executive in particular, who was roundly loathed by almost
everybody who worked with him.
It was great fun to be with.
Oh.
I'm not going to say who.
Well, because he may need to be friends again.
Okay.
If you thought about it, you'd know what I'm talking about.
But so, I mean, I guess you have to put a lot of it through, look at it through that prism
a little bit.
But at the same time, there are certainly in my life lots of people who I have met
not really through motoring journalism, but maybe through racing old cars or whatever
or I've just come across or I've been lucky enough to meet outside of work.
And most of them are lovely too.
Have you got some proper copper bottom celebrities on your list who are not necessarily car folk
but Hollywood people or film stars or?
Well, yeah, one or two.
Okay.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I've got a couple.
Go on then.
Get us underway.
What do you want first?
What sort of person do you want first?
Let's go racing driver.
Okay.
Racing driver.
I think that the nicest bunch of people, now I don't live in the rally world in a way that
you do.
So you may have a completely different perspective of me, but the nicest bunch of people that
I have ever come across in the racing world are people who race sports cars.
You can't be a completely selfish arse if you have to hand your car over to somebody
else if you have to make a car last for 24 hours.
If you have to set the car up in a way that everyone who's going to drive it will want
it to be set up.
So you have to be a fundamentally considerate person just in order to be able to earn a living.
And funnily off, the top two people, and I literally just sat here and wrote this
list in completely random order, but the top two people on it and that doesn't
mean they're my favourite people in the world, they're just the first two names that came
out of my head.
Are both, sadly one no longer with us, the other very much with us, are both unbelievably
successful.
Well, they both did Formula One, one actually won a Grand Prix, but I think primarily known
as sports car drivers.
So I give you Derek Bell and Jochann Mass.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I've never actually met Derek Bell, but he's often a good word and so you see
him milling around.
What's he like?
Derek is, well, they're sort of two Derek's, and I don't mean that he's two faced, but
he's a very accomplished media performer.
Yeah, of course.
You don't spend that long in the sort of Porsche world, you know, in front of, you
know, the media scrutiny without being able to know how to talk to a journalist.
Well, you know, I spent huge amounts of time with Derek, not being a journalist
at all.
I spent three years, I didn't write about Bentley's in a journalistic capacity
at the time because I spent three years working for Bentley because I was writing
a book about them returning to motor racing.
And I spent time with Derek, although he wasn't driving the cars, he was sort
of a consultant to the team.
I spent a lot of time with Derek then.
And through historic racing, we just become friends over the years.
You know, I spent a lot of time, you know, alone in cars or in restaurants.
And that's sort of the way he's, you know, the fact that you're a journalist
is completely irrelevant.
And he's just, he's two things.
He's very interesting.
He is a fount of, I mean, I could have got him into so much trouble over
the years if I'd repeated half the stories he told me.
So, he's a fount of just brilliant motor racing stories.
But he's also a really nice guy.
There's also a slightly sort of, I wouldn't necessarily say insecure.
I don't think, the astonishing thing about Derek is for all that he's
achieved, you know, double world sports car champion, five times
LaMau Willough, works Ferrari Formula One racing driver.
I think there's still a little bit of him which thinks that he could
have done more or that he wasn't quite as good as he'd hoped he would be.
You know, if Derek ever listened to this, you may just say, well,
absolute cobblers.
But there's a kind of like a sort of, a very sort of pleasing, rather
wonderful, slightly self-effacing introspection about Derek, particularly
if you talk to him because, I mean, I guess he might say, well, yes,
I did do Formula One and I was a works for a racing driver, but I
never really rose to the top of that sport and it was only in sports
cars that I really found my Metier and, you know, no one ever won a
sports car race by themselves.
And, you know, I guess I can kind of see where it came from.
But to me, because I've said this on the podcast many times.
To me, how a racing driver conducts him or herself out of the car is
to me just as important as the way they behave in the car.
And I've just always really liked and admired Derek because of it.
He's just a really good bloke.
I've spent some time with Le Mans drivers during Le Mans week.
And actually what you notice is that they're under a lot of pressure.
There are huge demands on their time and they're trying to stay focused.
And so they're not always the most affable.
You know, they don't often give you much time, which is totally fair enough.
But I guess when you remove them from that environment, that context,
they the sort of true character is revealed, isn't it?
Absolutely. Absolutely.
And particularly if they're doing something like, I don't know, like racing
in a good wood, you know, which to me is if I get to do that,
that's a pretty big deal to them.
It's just a fun weekend.
Yeah. And it's all just, you know, if you could be in the
changing rooms, as I have been very many times with these guys,
all of whom, you know, and one of the lovely things about doing
that is you will see racing drivers who are unbelievably famous and one
will walk into the changing room and the other will be in there.
And you'll, and they also look at each other and you'll realize
they probably haven't seen each other for 20 years.
And then it's all just sort of, they're all together and hanging out
and having a great time.
And you feel slightly embarrassed, even to be sort of standing there.
But they're all off duty.
Yeah. They're all just doing it for a laugh.
Yeah. You know, I might be thinking of, oh, God, I hope I don't crash this car.
Oh, God, I hope I'm not slow.
Oh, God, what about the story I've got to tell after this?
And they're just having a great time.
So they're very relaxed and informal.
And that's when you kind of see the real them.
Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely true.
Yeah. So I mentioned Jock and Mass.
I just want, I did want to mention him because
he was possibly the most, certainly one of the most intelligent,
possibly the most well-informed racing driver.
I ever came across, talked to you about anything.
Oh, beyond racing?
Oh, completely beyond racing.
Yeah. About wine or sailing.
Such an incredibly erudite, but also funny guy.
Jock and very, very funny guy, kind person.
Also, every time, you know, he would see me.
He always used to come up and say, well, to this day,
I still get this with all sorts of drivers.
You know, this is the bloke with James Hunt's teammate at McLaren
and in James's championship year in 1976.
And he comes, you know, Jock can come in stride across the room
with his handouts outstretched and, you know,
with some sort of joke about your appearance.
And you just say, you can't believe this.
You, Jock and Mass doing that to you.
Um, I can remember he drove me up the hill once.
I think it was at a press day for the festival of speed.
And I think someone behind us must have crashed or something happened
because there was a big hole at the top of the hill.
So we just sat in, what were we hearing?
We are someone old racing 9-11, the cars are irrelevant.
And he just sort of talked to me about his life.
And it was just so interesting.
He didn't talk about cars at all.
Hmm.
Just a really, really interesting guy.
So there you go.
That was Jock and well, he does sound fascinating.
All right.
Let me talk about a couple of racing drivers
and then maybe we'll move on.
Oh, I've got dozens.
No, I know you have, but we'll come back to them later.
Daniel Ricciardo and Max Verstappen.
Oh, OK, not met either.
I know I've spoken about them a little bit before, a long time ago.
So this was when they were teammates at Red Bull.
So we're talking, I think it was 2018, a while ago,
before Ricciardo went to Renault.
So, you know, it's getting on for a decade ago.
And I mean, Max is 28 now, I think.
So he must have been maybe still a teenager then
or very early 20s.
And so really still just a kid.
And it was the contrast between the two of them.
Yeah.
You know, Daniel Ricciardo was just so affable and chatty
and laid back and authentic and happy to talk and not in a rush to.
So this was we met them in a sort of roundtable interview
setting at Red Bull Racing week before the British Grand Prix.
Me and a few other journalists, mostly car journalists.
So, you know, we weren't the sort of traveling F1 press corps.
Yeah, we were car magazine guys, really.
And, yeah, Daniel was just everything you hoped he would be fun, chatty, affable.
And actually, you understand why.
Do you remember in the very early days of Drive to Survive,
Ferrari and Mercedes were not part of it?
I think they came in perhaps for the second season.
And it was Daniel Ricciardo, who was the big star of those early episodes.
Because he was so telegenic.
Yeah. Yeah.
And he actually, he carried that show for a while.
Yeah.
And without him, I don't think it would have been the success that it was.
And in turn, that show made him a much bigger star.
And you understand why he has that.
Star quality, I suppose.
And then Max.
And I want to be really careful here, because I do not want to come across as
though I dislike the guy or I'm having a pop or.
He was also 18 at the time.
It was also, yeah, young, maybe 20.
But what you noticed immediately was that he had this.
He was wary of journalists.
That's the impression that you got straight away.
And I mention it now, because we probably all know what happened
at the Japanese Grand Prix.
Oh, yeah.
He refused to talk until someone he didn't like was removed from the room.
A journalist. Yeah.
And it just sort of cemented in my mind, this idea that he is.
He probably just doesn't like journalists very much.
And I understand why, you know, he's probably grown up in an environment
where he was very heavily PR trained and basically told that these people
are looking for a story all the time.
And actually in the motorsport world, maybe they are.
Maybe that is what they're trying to do.
Do you think it's that he may be particularly wary about British journalists?
Yeah, possibly because of the big, you know, the obvious sort of Max versus Lewis.
Well, that's more recent, but yeah, could be.
But it's just to sort of fill in the blanks for people who don't know.
So there was a press conference before the Japanese Grand Prix
and Max refused to begin the conference until
the Guardian journalist, British guy, left the room
because of a question that he asked Max back at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix
a few months ago about his collision with George Russell earlier in the season
that actually cost him several points and perhaps the championship.
And I think the point that Max was making was that
he thinks the journalists was laughing
while he asked that question.
The journalist actually later on wrote a piece
explaining that he didn't mean to.
And if he had a nervous smile on his face,
that that was because he was nervous asking the question.
And I actually I believe the journalist is being sincere there.
So it's a misunderstanding.
It's a misunderstanding.
But there is this side to Max that I struggle with.
I just don't think it's OK for anyone to tell a respected professional to get out.
I don't think it's OK to talk to someone like that.
I agree. I absolutely agree.
But to me, it's I've not met Max
and I know because there are a couple of people in my list
who behave in front of journalists in a completely different way
to the way behave the moment.
They're not in front of journalists.
Two really significant names on my list.
So I will never condemn one driver.
I will never condemn the character of one driver for the way
they behave in a completely artificial environment.
But also from what I've seen about Max,
I just like the way he he thinks about things.
I like the fact that he's clearly not obsessed with staying in Formula One.
I love the fact that he loves cars and he loves driving
and a single biggest problem with Formula One at the moment
is not that he's coming P8 or P9.
It's that the cars aren't only fun to drive anymore.
I love that about him because he's, you know, he that to me.
It's what it's what Sterling would say.
Sterling would hate and did hate
when he was in a car which was just not behaving or no fun to drive.
That would trouble him much more because as long as he was somewhere,
he could have a race with someone and that's all he wanted to do.
He wanted to race and Max, to me, is a true racer.
But I do agree that that particular episode is unbecoming of him.
And I think that all the greater almost all the very greatest of drivers
and particularly, you know, Senna and Schumacher
have all had moments when they have let themselves down
and their ego has been able to, you know, manifest itself more than it should have done.
And they have appeared to be throwing their weight around
because they know the power that they have.
And when you have got a journalist there
who is kind of dependent on his living for you answering his questions is it's unedifying.
It is. And I agree with you, by the way, I so admire Max as a driver absolutely.
And I agree that it's a very artificial environment,
this kind of round table interview press conference thing.
That's not a reflection of a person, not really.
They and he's been trained or conditioned over many years
to be guarded in that environment. I totally understand all that.
I just think that that episode in Japan was unbecoming and unnecessary.
And actually, because when the garden journalist asked that question back in,
I think it's in December, Max gave a pretty good answer.
And so by causing this commotion, he actually dredges that whole topic up again.
If he had just risen above and carried on with his day,
nobody starts talking about that stuff.
But I bet he regrets it.
I hope he does.
And actually, one of the frustrations for me is that particularly in these
more recent years, he's emerged as just an unbelievably talented and fast driver.
But also you see this more relaxed,
more jovial side to his character from time to time.
There is a absolutely there's a human in there.
Definitely, but there is this component to him that I
I think I'll always find a little bit tricky.
So the two I thought about going big on these two,
but I won't because I've actually spent quite a lot of time
on this podcast talking about them.
And I think I'd like to take this opportunity
to talk about some of the people that I haven't spoken about at any great length.
Two people are speaking of who are one way in front of the cameras
and another way in private were Sebastian Loeb and Nathan Senna.
So I think everybody knows the story of the day I spent with Senna
and how which is a tire test at Silverstone and how.
Yeah, you spoke about a few episodes ago.
Yeah, exactly.
And how sort of buttoned up and borderline hostile he was,
you know, coming out the motorhome, all the cameras clicking
and scowling at everybody and then getting into this car with me
and literally turning into a person I didn't recognize.
This very friendly, jokey, farm,
recognizing that I was there to do a job and I needed the story.
So thinking about things he could talk to me about,
which would help me in that regard, really consider it.
Obviously drove like the wind as you'd expect.
And it was just like a fantastic eye open to me.
And I had exactly the same experience with Loeb.
I went down to drive one of his rally cars, a C4, I think.
Yeah, it was in the South of France, some test track
they got in the South of France and there was a usual roundtable interview.
And I can remember thinking, oh, God, because I mean, the answers
were just monosyllabic, don't want to be here, couldn't care less.
Move on. Next question.
I've had the same with Loeb.
And then I got in the car with him.
And I'd already driven the car.
And then he got in and started taking me around.
And we still had microphones on and helmets and they were recording it.
And the really interesting, if you look at the source of the replay of it,
as we go further and further through this stage, you can just see
his the smile is getting broader and broader because all he can hear is me laughing.
And I'm just giggling away because I cannot understand what's going on.
And by the end of it, he's finding this as funny as I'm finding it.
And after that, it was just fantastic.
And we just sat at the car and chatted and, you know, it was all warm handshakes
and didn't recognize the bloke.
Yeah, I think actually, Loeb.
It comes, it absolutely comes across as arrogance or some even disdain
until he relaxes.
And then you realize, actually, I think he's just a bit shy.
Yeah, yeah, I think he is a bit shy.
He must feel a bit different to everybody else with that kind of talent.
And he must feel not understood.
Yeah, yeah, possibly.
OK, that's cool. That's very cool. Go on then.
Spoken another like I'm not going to speak about much
because I have done many times.
But my, you know, the only absolute true hero
I've ever had in my life, certainly who I knew.
I guess I can't say I knew Senna.
I spent a day with him.
But I knew Sterling Moss very well indeed and I did for years.
And the reason I admire him so much
and always will was exactly what I was talking about, because I think he was.
He was to me, everything that a racing driver should be blindingly fast
in his era, Fangiu alone would have had a claim to be faster.
But find anyone who will ever say that Sterling drove
in anything other than a completely correct manner.
You never will.
There were plenty of dirty drivers out there, even then.
And then he'd rather not win
than win the wrong way.
Yeah.
And famously he lost the championship in 1950.
In 1958, Mike Hawthorne won one race and was world champion.
Sterling Moss won four and wasn't.
And the reason was Hawthorne got disqualified from the Portuguese Grand Prix.
It went to appeal.
Sterling spoke in his defense, got Hawthorne reinstated.
That was the difference.
And that to me is one of the greatest
manifestations of everything I want a racing driver to be and to behave.
And then this bloke became my friend.
I mean, we met because another friend of mine, an author called Robert Edwards,
used to have a column in Orient Express magazine with Sterling.
Yeah.
And it was basically a ghosted column about driving a car.
And Robert couldn't do it and asked me if I wanted to.
And I'd met Sterling on the millimilia retrospective a couple of times,
but we weren't friends.
But for, I don't know, I can't remember how long it was.
But for a few years I used to go round to his house with a car.
We'd go out in the car, go and drive it somewhere almost
inevitably to Brent Cross Ikea because Sterling would want a new set
of shells for one of his properties in London.
You've told me this story.
Forgive me if it isn't to be repeated, but he had properties.
He had tenants living in them.
Yeah, yeah.
And if someone had an issue with the property.
Yeah, Sterling would turn up with his bag of spanners.
Yeah, absolutely.
Do you think the tenants knew?
In some cases they must have done.
But imagine that.
Your boiler's on the blink and Sterling Moss turns up.
Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
It's just amazing.
But that is literally true.
And the way he used to go shopping in Ikea with it,
he'd always park in the collecting area.
If there was ever a queue, he'd just walk to the front of it.
And nobody knew who he was.
I don't think he was back there.
I don't think he was that recognizable if you're sort of an Ikea staff member.
I don't think you're naturally going to know who Sterling Moss is.
But he had so much front.
His driving was utterly terrifying.
He didn't drive massively fast on the road.
But it was just progress.
If there's a gap, I'm just going to put this car in that gap
and I will just trust everybody else to make way for me.
And every drive was punctuated by horns and shaken fists.
And Sterling was completely oblivious to all of that.
He just wanted to get to where he was going as fast as he possibly could.
And we just had such amazing chats.
He also, when I was editing Motorsport Magazine,
he was incredibly kind because this was back in the day
before digital photo archives.
And we just dig some old black-and-white picture out of it.
And it would be some bunch of racing drivers, none of whom we recognized from the 1950s.
So I just sent it to Sterling and go,
who are these people?
And he'd go, well, that's Fred and that's George and that's Ginger.
And he would always just be there for us as a kind of like a reference point.
And he was never wrong.
I was desperately fond of his late wife Susie as well.
And the two of them were just the best team in motor racing.
And yeah, I got to race against him a couple of times.
Notably, I actually had a proper ding-dong with a good move once.
And I still can't believe I got to do that.
And afterwards he came over and we sat on tires and chatted about
what we'd done and how much fun we'd had.
And I'm just sitting there just thinking,
I can't believe I'm having this conversation with Sterling Moss.
Anyway, I went banging on about him.
But yeah, he was everything I would want a driver or a human being to be.
The second-ever episode of this podcast six years ago
was all about your friendship with Sterling Moss.
That was a few days or a couple of weeks maybe after he died.
And so if anyone wants to hear more,
spoil all the way back to episode two and it's all in there.
So I've got a couple of non-racing drivers that I want to talk about briefly.
Before I do that, I'm going to remind you all
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So a couple of...
I would say Hollywood A-listers to mention briefly.
Matt LeBlanc.
Oh, of course.
When he was presenting Top Gear a few years ago.
So I'd never been to a Top Gear.
I still never have.
Yeah, maybe never will.
Sure, I won't.
And so Chris Harris had invited me along.
It was fascinating to go and watch this whole thing happen.
And partway through the day, Chris was good enough to...
Chris and Rory had this horrible, moldy,
tumbled down sort of prefab building as their space
for the day during the record.
And they would leave their stuff in there
and it had a scruffy sofa for them to go and sit on and whatever.
And LeBlanc had this huge, beautiful big RV
that was just here.
It was clearly part of his contract.
Quite rightly, I suppose.
And he would hang out in there, maybe with a couple of his people.
And Chris was good enough to knock on the door halfway through the day
and say, Matt, can I introduce you to a friend of mine?
And so in I went.
And LeBlanc is sat there at the table eating a sandwich,
which I appreciated.
And the thing that I remember is that within seconds,
we were talking Mercedes W numbers.
I don't really know...
Proper car person.
...quite where that came from.
Very good with my W numbers.
But it was just very telling that within moments,
we were talking nerdy stuff about cars.
And it just proved a point that actually, he is one of us.
Absolutely, despite being world famous.
Yeah, Harris always says that.
Proper car bloke.
And another one, Keanu Reeves.
Oh, blimey.
I think you've AListed me.
Wow, I'm so proud.
Definitely.
I'm going to try to respond in a minute.
This was a brilliant name dropping.
Yeah, I know.
Clang.
This was a Michelin tire launch.
The thermal race club in Palm Springs in California.
And Keanu Reeves was there.
Nio was there because he's got a motorcycle company.
I think it's called Arch.
And I guess they had a tie-in with Michelin.
And so they wheeled him out.
He was there.
And part of the, one of the activities for this launch event
of the new tire was to do what we call ducks and drakes
in some BMW M cars where there would be an instructor
leading, fairly standard, fair for a car launch
or entire launch instructor leads.
And then three or four journalists follow
in similar cars.
And we do several laps.
And the idea is you sort of get faster and faster
as long as all the following ducks are happy
and confident going quicker.
And it just so happened, you know,
there's a good number of journalists there.
And it just so happened that out of pure luck,
Reeves was in my little group.
I think there were, it was just me, one other journalist
and Keanu Reeves in the car at the back.
As you do.
As you do.
And bless him.
I mean, we were this, this ducks and drakes session
was getting faster and faster.
And I was working pretty hard behind the lead car,
the instructor to keep up.
But, you know, maintaining that gap.
And I could see in the mirror that Keanu Reeves
in the, in the car at the back was just falling
further and further behind.
Oh dear.
So basically what you're saying is you're better
than Keanu Reeves.
Yes.
Yeah, fair enough.
Better than Neo.
Which whatever, you know, I should be.
It's what I do for a living.
It's not what he does for a living.
But the thing that was really striking was that
when we, the session ended,
we pulled in back into the paddock and we got out.
He came wandering over and he just said,
I won't do an accent.
But he just said, oh man, I'm so sorry.
I held you guys up.
And he shook our hands and, you know.
He's famously modest, isn't he?
Yeah, he is.
He does a very humble life a thing.
And he just seemed like a stand up guy.
You know, and I've respected everything.
Well, he did that amazing brawn documentary, didn't he?
Yeah, he did.
Yeah.
So I just, it was a huge privilege to get to
share a track with him and just to meet him
briefly and see that he's really humble
and kind.
It was lovely.
Right.
This is my pathetic attempt to respond.
Very good.
I do know Rowan Atkinson.
Yes, okay.
That's good.
Who is a very thoughtful guy.
Yeah.
I've known him through, not through journalism
at all, but through racing old cars.
Although when he sold his McLaren F1,
we did spend a day together in it
because they wanted some
column inches about the car to obviously just,
you know, make the fact that it was
being made available for sale more publicly widely known.
And we had lunch together at a garden centre
in his local garden centre.
What, did you take the F1?
No, I think we might have walked.
I can't remember how we got there.
We took his outland.
He had an outlander plug-in at the time.
Okay.
And I just thought, well, he's not going to be able to.
Actually, he's just left completely alone.
They knew him quite well in there.
And he is massively knowledgeable about cars.
Oh, massively.
I mean, you could talk to him about anything.
Very thoughtful.
And, yeah, just a really, really likable, interesting guy.
I mean, absolutely not a laugh a minute.
Yeah.
Cracking jokes.
Absolutely not.
Yeah.
Just a really...
He's clearly hugely intelligent.
Massively interesting guy.
Nick Mason, drummer Pink Floyd.
Lots of people know about his connections with cars.
They weren't going about him.
But I mean, I first met him when I was,
I think I was 16 and I had a holiday job sweeping the floor.
He had an Aston Martin garage in North London in Kentish town.
And he was away...
I'll be able to work out how I was actually,
because he was away touring, he was on the wall tour,
which I think was 1980.
So I might have been 15.
But he came back from that and I kind of met him.
And he was very nice then.
And I met him on a large number of occasions.
I interviewed him, sat down with him.
He's another...
He just loves cars and he's very modest about his cars
and he's quite funny and self-deprecating.
James Garner.
Yeah.
Jim Rockford.
Yeah.
Met him at Monza with Jack Villeneuve.
There was some mad thing that BAT tried to do to try to,
as in BAT as in not bringing a trailer
but British American tobacco,
tried to do to sort of recreate some of the scenes
from the John Frankenheimer Grand Prix movie
and they got Garner over and Villeneuve.
And what was most striking about that particular experience
was how available and engaging and interesting
and kind and considerate and fun James Garner was
and just how aloof, offish, uninterested
and rude Jack Villeneuve was.
Really?
Yeah.
And the contrast was absolutely remarkable
because if either one of them had an excuse to behave that way,
it was definitely not Jack Villeneuve.
And I saw Garner again.
He'd obviously come over for a bit
because there were some...
I might have been the Autosport Awards or something.
It was the first ceremony in London
that I turned up to a few days later
and he was standing there in the foyer
of I guess it would have been the Gravener.
Just looking a bit lost and he saw me
and I'd spent that afternoon at Monza
standing on the pit wall with him
watching all these cars go past.
Also, the other thing which had just endeared me to him
massively was they had some of these old single-seaters
that had been in the original movie
and his insurance absolutely would not let him drive one
and he was desperate to drive one.
But they wanted pictures of him as one
and his knees were in a terrible state at the time
and his arteries weren't much better.
But they wanted a picture of him in one
with the helmets on and wearing the sort of 1960s
alike racing overalls.
So they sat him in one
and he was sort of just talking to one of the mechanics
about, oh, tell me about this car.
What did you do to us?
How do you change gear and what does this button do?
Just talking to one of them said,
oh, if you press up the car stars.
And the next thing you knew was gone.
He just went and did it.
That's great.
And he clearly just thought, well, sod it.
Bugger the insurers.
I'm just going to go and do it.
It was just fantastic.
And of course, I think lots of people know that
in the movie Grand Prix,
he not only did all his own driving
but was so highly regarded
by the professional Formula One drivers
who are hired for that film,
he doubled for a lot of the other actors as well.
Oh, wow.
So he was actually hired as a racing driver as well.
And there are lots of scenes where drivers
wearing sort of balaclavas and you can't see where it is.
And it's actually James Garner being them.
He was that good.
Anyway, so he's a bit of a hero.
Chris Rear.
Oh, yeah.
Oh my God, what a lovely man.
Yeah.
And just, I think he's probably the only one.
I mean, all these people I met were terribly nice.
But Chris Rear was a bit of a fan.
Oh.
Again, I knew him through racing old cars.
And I'd sort of see him in a panic
and he'd come over and I won't do the exit.
But he'd go, hi, Andrew,
I read this thing you wrote last week
and it was absolutely brilliant.
And it was just like,
and he was just such a gentle, lovely bloke,
another absolute obsessed with cars.
Just terrific guy.
Chris Hoy.
Yeah.
Another.
Hello, Chris.
I think he does listen to this.
Yeah.
I mean,
just adores cars.
And so knowledgeable and fun.
And I sat down and saw him,
this is actually before his diagnosis.
I sat down with him for probably a couple of hours
and just talked cars and racing at Le Mans.
You know, he's done some very impressive things in cars.
And just the most sort of natural real,
but I mean, some people,
James May is like this.
I think lots of people know,
he's an old friend of mine.
We've been friends since long before he was famous.
If you watch James on telly,
not Top Gear,
but almost anything else he does,
that's James.
Yeah.
You know, you see that person,
you think you know, you absolutely do.
That's just him.
And Hoy's exactly the same.
Yeah.
See him on a telly program being interviewed
and he's just Chris Hoy.
You sit in the room and it's just the two of you
and it's the same bloke.
And I love that about him.
Yeah.
Duke of Richmond.
I thought I mentioned him.
Go on.
I've known him for 30 something years.
Yeah.
I mean, unbelievably impressive man.
If you think of what he's achieved
and how he has preserved the legacy of that estate
and how he has elevated the Festival of Speed
into being one of the, frankly,
one of the premier motor shows in the world,
possibly the premier motor show in the world.
Can't think of anywhere else where you get,
you know, 90% of the world's F1 teams to turn up
and get that many new car debuts.
And he's always, I mean, yeah, he has this reputation
which is entirely deserved of being a very hard-nosed businessman.
Yeah.
Who knows absolutely the value of his brand
and fair play to him
because that's how he's done what he's done.
But every time I've met him,
and I'm very aware that, you know,
being nice to journalists is absolutely part of his brief.
But he's always gone over and above
and been very decent to me.
And I've sat down with him, had lots of good chats with him.
He can be very approachable, always interesting.
And frankly, I just admire him to his boots
for everything that he's done there.
Yeah.
Yeah, so that's probably enough of those.
Well, I can do more.
I once had dinner with Anna Freel.
You've got to come across these.
So howdy in particular have the ambassadors.
Yeah, they do.
Who were wheeled out for these events.
And so at that particular dinner,
I was actually sat directly opposite Anna Freel.
So I really did have dinner with her.
And sitting on one side of him, of her,
sorry, this is appalling
because my children couldn't believe this.
This bloke introduced to me and said, oh, hi, I'm Sam.
Oh, hi, Simon.
I'm Andrew.
It was one of those sort of Julia Roberts knotting hill moments
because I said, oh, what do you do?
And he said, well, I'm an actor.
I said, what have you been?
And he said a few things I hadn't heard of anyway.
It was a bloke called Sam Claffin or Claffin.
Well, I don't know.
Oh, do you not?
No.
I mentioned this to my children and they were just like,
oh my God, what have you done?
He's like the most famous person in the world ever.
I just haven't heard of the bloke.
But he couldn't have been nicer about it.
So I recognize him.
Yeah, OK.
Whereas there was another bloke there.
Do you know who Dominic Cooper is?
Yeah.
Yeah, OK.
He wasn't so nice.
Really?
He couldn't have been less interested.
But Anna Freel was, well, lunatic, but great fun.
Yeah, so talking of Audi, I was at an Audi UK launch event
in the Cotswolds somewhere a few years ago.
And Tom Hardy turns up.
That's quite big.
That's pretty famous.
Yeah.
And he seems to be on best behavior because he must have,
he must just hate doing that sort of stuff.
You can see it in interviews at Press Junkits.
He just has so little regard for people like us, it seems.
But I didn't meet him, but I observed him for a moment.
And he seems to be trying quite hard to be friendly and chatty.
Yeah.
At least he tried.
Yeah, OK.
This is my last celeb spot because I think we're all both in danger
of disappearing up our own fundaments with the self-indulgence
of it all.
Yeah.
Professor Green.
Oh, yeah.
Hmm.
Yeah?
You know what I'm talking about.
I did.
Again, I didn't have a clue he was.
Oh.
Oh, his actual real name just came back to me there
for a moment.
Stephen, not Stephen Mangan, Stephen, something or other.
Yeah.
Hmm.
Yeah.
But according to my children, again, one of the most famous
people who's ever lived.
And I met him on a trip to the Belgian Grand Prix.
We were all in Mercedes.
And we were sort of on the channel tunnel.
And we had a chat.
And we got on really well.
And yeah, by the evening, I'd obviously found out who he was
and how famous he was.
And I found myself sat at a bar in a hotel in Luxembourg
because we were staying in Luxembourg, although the race
was obviously in Belgium, with Professor Green,
where he introduced me to the old-fashioned,
the whiskey cocktail.
Oh, yeah.
Did he?
Yeah.
He was very partial to an old-fashioned.
Yeah, lovely.
Yeah.
And I have P. Green entirely to thank for it.
Well, thank you.
Yeah.
Thank you, Mr. Green.
Any more on your list?
Well, I'm glad you mentioned James May
because that was a big deal for me,
meeting James and having him on this podcast.
Yeah, yeah.
For episode 200.
I was nervous about that, excited, nervous.
But, I mean, what you said earlier about him
just being the same guy that you see
on his other TV shows.
Yeah.
I felt like I'd known him for years.
Yeah, well, you kind of have.
Yeah.
He doesn't change.
That's absolutely the impression you get
when you meet him.
He doesn't change.
Yeah.
And he's actually the only one of the old
top-gear guys who I have met.
And do you know what?
That show was a huge part of my childhood,
massively influential and important to me.
And so to have met at least one of them
was very special.
The only one, other one I know is Clarkson.
Yeah.
Who I've known not well, but for, you know,
decades.
Again, a man,
the best motoring journalist of,
certainly of this generation, of his generation.
And I know this because,
and I don't just mean he's the best writer,
although I think you could argue the case.
And certainly it has achieved more on television
than any other motoring journalist in the world ever.
Yeah.
But when I was working at The Sunday Times,
you know, I have some insight into his working practices.
I mean, the most professional person
you could ever come across.
I can remember there was once,
I think he was going off doing
one of these big top-gear adventure things.
And he was going to be,
I don't know, the Irrawaddy Delta
or somewhere for like weeks and time.
You know, he's going to be away
for weeks and weeks and weeks.
And he sent 17 columns
the day before he, and they just to, and what?
And no one at The Sunday Times
ever doubted that this would happen.
Okay, maybe 17 is a bit of an exaggeration.
But I mean, and on fees,
basically every commitment he had, he cleared.
I've heard about his work ethic, actually.
And I think when they were doing these big specials,
he would be up late into the night
on his laptop, rewriting scripts,
really, really working hard to make it
as good as it could be.
I had caused a text to him very recently
about something and we hadn't been,
in fact, I texted him because
I wanted him to come on this podcast.
And he got back to me immediately
and said that he'd like to.
But that if he came on our podcast,
he'd have to go on everybody else's podcast.
He has since been on the auto car podcast.
We need to point that out to him.
We need to point that out.
So Jeremy, if you do hear this,
we would love you on the podcast.
But anyway, but yeah, just a total professional.
And whether you like his point of view
about this, that, the other is one thing.
But because I don't know him,
I mean, I've had the oatmeal with him
and met up with him on various working trips.
But we've never been to each other's houses
or anything like that.
So I don't know him at that level.
But just as someone to admire
for their just total dedication to their craft
and their sheer professionalism,
I just think he's outstanding.
Yeah, that's really interesting.
Yeah, I agree.
Well, we're running out of time.
Do you want to rattle through a couple more?
Okay, I'm going to rattle big time here.
Probably my favorite sort of quite famous person
is Richard Atwood,
who I know I've spoken to a lot about a lot.
But I've shared racing cars with him.
I've had lots of meals with him.
He is one of the funniest people you could ever meet.
I literally, the last time I saw him,
I had to terminate an interview
because he said something so utterly,
hilariously outrageous in the middle of it.
I literally, I couldn't continue the interview.
I was laughing so much.
And yeah, and he's just,
and he's so modest and so understated
and he's completely brilliant.
So who else?
Other British drivers.
I just feel blessed to know guys like Martin Brundle.
Yeah, he's on my list actually.
What a brain.
What an incredible brain.
What an incredibly incisive man mind.
And his contribution to broadcast media,
as much as his contribution to Formula One
is, I think, very difficult to overestimate.
I don't know Mark Blundle well,
but we met up, we met a few times,
particularly when he was racing for Bentley's.
We are quite excited because he's going to be
a podcast guest of ours quite shortly,
which we're really, really looking forward to.
Jonathan Palmer.
Wow, what an overachiever.
Another total car guy.
Every time I see Jonathan, he says,
oh, I saw you driven such and such.
What do you really think?
He just reads everything.
He's just totally up with it.
And another guy like,
I guess the Duke of Richmond, who has just done so much.
You think about what all those British circuits
would be like, what states they might be in
had Motorsport Vision not come and bought them
and just turn them into the proper up to date
nice places to be that they are.
Gosh, Jackie Stewart.
I have slightly mixed feelings about Jackie
because he once tried to sue me or threatened to sue me.
Was that in a professional capacity?
Yeah.
This was back in my Motorsport days.
We stuck his face on the cover of a magazine
without realizing that he trademarked it.
Oh.
And yeah, it was,
but actually that was all settled and it was fine.
And I've met him a few times.
I've been in a car with him being driven around
Silverstone very fast and a noble.
It wasn't actually Paul, the famous son.
It was Mark, his other son.
Jackie drove me around Silverstone in this noble.
The car had never sat in before and instantly,
and he was probably 70 then.
And he instantly drove it around Silverstone faster
than I could ever imagine driving it.
Wow.
And I got out at the end of this
and it was one of the least scary experiences
because you can imagine how precise he was.
And I got out and I sort of went up to Mark
and he went, how was it?
And I was like, pfft.
The thing with Dad is, no one's told him it's difficult.
Mmm.
It's like he just didn't, you know,
and that I thought was such an,
this was probably what, 15 years ago,
but I've just remembered it
because it was such an insightful statement I thought.
So yeah, very glad to have met him.
Scott Dixon spent a little bit of time with him
on a 4GT launch a few years ago.
Just completely down to earth.
Kiwi.
Lovely bloke, one of the nicest.
We spent some time with Dario recently.
Dario Frankiti.
Cool guy.
Cut from exactly the same cloth.
Cool guy, car guy.
And his brother, Marino.
Exactly the same.
Great guys.
Yeah, really.
Andy Wallace.
Oh, I've had some wonderful evenings with Andy Wallace.
And he just regales you with the most amazing stories.
How lucky are we to know all these guys?
I know, it's such a privilege.
Yeah, I mean, the list goes on.
You know, less famous names.
David Leslie.
Very sadly died in that plane crash with Richard Lloyd.
Richard Lloyd.
You know, I did a 24 hour race in a GT3 Jaguar
because of him.
Because I'd met him in a bar.
I used to, I used to borrow tuned Golf GTIs
from Richard Lloyd.
So Mark II Golf GTIs in the late 80s
from GTI Engineering, which he ran.
And we got to know each other a bit.
And we sort of kept up some kind of dialogue.
And then I hadn't spoken to him for like,
I don't know, 10, 15 years.
We met in the bar of the Tour Britannia.
It's about 2007, 2008, I guess.
And we're talking.
And he said he had this GT program
with the Jaguar XKR.
And I said how I was going.
And he said it was all a bit shit.
But they were going to do this 24 hour race
at Silverstone at the weekend.
And why didn't I come over and have a look?
And I went, oh, well, yeah, that's fine.
I'll come over and have a look.
And he said, well, you know,
we need you to report on Thursday for signing on.
I said, well, hang on.
You sound like you watched the one to drive the car.
And he said, well, don't you want to?
So that's how I found myself doing a 24 hour race
for Richard Lloyd.
Mike Wilds, another ex-former,
the one driver who I'm in regular touch with these days.
Great guy.
Just so affable and friendly and just nice.
David Leslie, who I shared with Mike, actually,
RX-8s and another 24 hour race at Silverstone,
died in the same accident that killed Richard Lloyd.
Terrible, terrible loss.
There are just so many, aren't there?
There are so many.
We've been so lucky.
Yeah.
So, yeah, I mean, I think we could probably bang on.
That is what stands out when I look back
over the 20-odd years I've been doing this,
is the people that I've been fortunate to spend time with.
Hence this podcast.
Yeah.
Tony Brooks.
He was a good friend of mine.
Flying dentist.
Probably the most underrated driver,
certainly of his era.
Quickest person.
After Fanger retired, the second quickest
racer in Formula One after Sterling Moss.
Yeah.
Wow.
Yeah.
Lovely bloke.
Anyway, we could go on relentlessly, I'm sure.
It's been fun, isn't it?
Yeah.
Well, I've enjoyed it.
I hope people are listening to it.
I haven't just said it.
I'm going to say, just stop dropping names.
Yeah.
But hopefully we have been able to provide a few insights
into a few of the people that we have been
unbelievably lucky and blessed to have crossed paths with.
That's what we were trying to do.
It's not trying to show off or whatever.
Hopefully that came across.
Well, listen, thank you, everyone, for listening,
for watching, if that's what you're doing on YouTube.
Just subscribe to our YouTube channel.
We are now posting these podcasts
as videos on Spotify and Apple podcasts as well.
Yeah.
So if you want to watch, you can do that
through the main podcast apps.
If that's what you're doing, watching or listening on there,
please just make sure you follow the show.
It really helps us.
And in return, we'll be back again next week.
See you then.
About this episode
A wide-ranging, story-heavy chat about the people behind motorsport and car culture—less about machines and more about character. Dan Proser and Andrew Frankel trade “best and worst impressions” from their careers, praising considerate sports-car drivers like Derek Bell and Jochen Mass, and contrasting public personas with private warmth (notably Sebastian Loeb and Ayrton Senna). They also debate Max Verstappen’s guarded media style after a Japan press incident, then broaden out to celebs and legends: Keanu Reeves, Matt LeBlanc, Rowan Atkinson, Nick Mason, James Garner, Chris Hoy, and even Jeremy Clarkson’s work ethic.
Who are the most interesting people Dan and Andrew have met in the worlds of motor racing, journalism or the world of cars at large? Bet you never knew this about Stirling Moss...
Use coupon code pod20 at checkout to get 20% off an annual subscription to The Intercooler's online car magazine for the first year! Listen to this podcast ad-free, and enjoy a subscriber-only midweek podcast too. With a 30-day free trial, you can try it risk-free – https://www.the-intercooler.com/subscribe/
