Under pressure, re-tests, Zenos, Ineos Quartermaster, petty gripes

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We all have bad days, and sometimes bad weeks, and maybe even bad years.

But the good news is we don't have to figure out life all alone.

I'm comedian Chris Duffy, host of Ted's How to Be a Better Human podcast.

And our show is about the little ways that you can improve your life,

actual practical tips that you can put into place that will make your day-to-day better.

Whether it is setting boundaries at work, or rethinking how you clean your house,

each episode has conversations with experts who share tips on how to navigate life's ups and downs.

Find how to be a better human wherever you're listening to this.

Hello, welcome to the AutoCard podcast.

My Week in Cars with Priya.

Stephen Cropley over there, hello mate.

Hello mate, how are you?

Very well mate, very well.

Because do you know, Steve, that this podcast is brought to the listener in association with our sponsor Anderson EV.

God, knock me down.

I know, who'd have thought?

Anderson EV is an all British company that makes and sells top quality home chargers for electric cars.

And I think you and I both agree, Steve,

apart from the car itself, what the happy EV owner needs most is a top quality home charger.

I do, I do.

And I can vouch for that.

I have one right out this window.

We're sitting in my excuse for an office.

What would you call this mate?

Was this once your dining room before?

It used to be a dining room, but unfortunately, because of all the crap everywhere, it's turned into my office.

It's a motoring book.

Is that a printer over there?

It is a printer.

It's a printer.

It's a laptop.

It's a motorcycle.

It does feel like a proper office in the old school variety.

Actually, I always admired, I used to go and see Alex Moulton,

remember him that designed the mini rubber suspension?

He was a mate of his egonist and they worked on the mini together.

And he lived in a, you know, you had a bigish dining room like this one.

And he, he just colonized the dining room table with piles of books and plans and gone as well.

It was a dam site more well organized than this one, but I liked the notion of it.

So, so I do, I'm quite proud of having stuff piled everywhere.

No, quite right too.

I think so too.

There's the odd bottle of oil over there and there's a mega model of SE5 and there's an upside down BYD.

See it?

Oh yeah, I see, I see.

Actually, I saw the other day a social Instagram post from a mate of mine who said he'd been into town somewhere,

had been visiting some shops, came home with a sock with camel prop.

Oh my word.

What a thing to come home with.

You must have a very understanding other half, I think.

Yeah, I think so.

And a place to put it, which is helpful.

Yeah.

Yeah, so anyway, sorry, there's an Anderson EV charger outside your...

Yeah, I was going to say.

Just out there.

Yeah.

So it's on an old building, but they're so cunning with their design that you can have something that has the textures and colours at suit a modern building.

Your EV charger or Anderson EV charger talks to your Wi-Fi.

It also can be switched on and off remotely by your telephone.

It'll tell you how much juice you've used if you want to put it on your expenses.

And it's got this very cunning roll-up cable, or at least mine has, which has got a kind of brush on it so that when you unhitch it, it's been brushed.

It's clean.

It's quite a good thing.

It is quite a good thing.

But you can get one without a cable if you insist.

But for the life of me, think why you would want one without a cable.

No, but you can.

Anyway, you can see all of the available designs at Anderson-ev.com.

What I forgot to say is they're doing a deal between now and the end of the year.

Oh, yes.

If you buy an Anderson charger and do a deal at the same time with Octopus Energy, you will not only get very cheap power, but you'll also get 5,000 miles of charge chucked in.

Excellent.

Which is not a bad deal, is it?

That is not a bad deal at all.

And they are rated excellent on Trust Pilot.

Oh, they are.

Lots to like about this.

Well, we've been to the factory headquarters where they make and design and everything.

Yeah, nice people.

Very nice people, too.

Steve, talking of nice people, we've got a letter from Simon Oldfield who says following on from the letter in this week's podcast about assessing drivers after they've been driving them on.

DirectLine released yesterday results of some research they've done asking customers to answer 10 random questions from the current driving test theory test.

It showed 95% of drivers would fail the test.

Moving on to how to check drivers' competence in a simple and low effort way,

current driving licenses, despite being valid until your 70th year, need to be renewed every 10 years.

It could be that drivers have to complete an online test as part of the application process each 10 years, just a thought.

Simon Oldfield.

I think that is a very wise idea.

I think that would be the thing to do.

It wouldn't necessarily be a pass-fail, would it?

But it would just be a little reminder just going, here's an online quiz.

Yeah, and do this.

They could at least make you go through it.

And maybe you will fail, but at least you'll see your results.

Perhaps you'll be presented with the answers that you got wrong,

and you'll know a little bit more by the time you pay the money.

Funny enough, we've talked about the theory test the other day, didn't we?

And I was reading a column by Matt Rudd in The Times,

because he thought he would reset his theory test and see how he got on.

And then they did a load of sample questions at the end.

Most of them are entirely bleeding obvious.

But there was one of them, and it's multiple choice,

and they said, you're driving on a quiet motorway,

which would the most useful piece of technology be?

And one of them was, I can't remember, two of them were nonsense.

One of them was like, I don't know, tire pressure monitoring or something.

And the other one was, I don't know what.

But the other two options in it.

One was speed limit warning or something,

and the fourth one would be lane-keep assist.

Now, I mean, that's so slightly arbitrary,

because on a quiet motorway, which of those two is more useful?

Well, I don't like either of them.

I know lane-keep assist is really irritating most of the time,

so I wouldn't pick that.

I would sort of have gone speed limit assist,

but I thought, in the spirit of the quiz,

maybe they actually mean lane-keep assist and you just set cruise control.

Anyway, so I said lane-keep assist and I got it right.

But I wouldn't have liked to have been marked as wrong in that question

for picking the other one.

My problem with that question is that the implication is that both of them are useful,

and I find both of them useful.

Neither of them are useful for me, thanks very much.

I'm quite capable of staying in lane and knowing how fast I'm going.

So I was, yeah.

Especially on a motorway, I don't think there's any times on a motorway

when I've found myself doing a lot more speed than I have.

No, I'd be pretty...

If I'd failed a driving theory test on that question,

I'd be pretty furious.

Yeah, well, it wouldn't be right.

Well, it wouldn't be right.

No.

And we're going to talk about being furious later in the podcast.

Over the next, I don't know, 30, 45, 50 minutes an hour,

Steve and I are going to talk our respective auto-car columns

and much more besides.

Where shall we start, Steve?

Shall we start at the...

Well, let's have a rattle about the car that you've just brought here.

Shall I?

Yeah, because I found it really interesting.

The blacks working on our roof found the exhaust so interesting

that they couldn't communicate,

because one was shouting from the ground to the roof,

and this car was relatively noisy, he found.

Yeah, well, that's the thing.

Actually, I couldn't hear him when I arrived.

I could see him and I could see him talking to you,

but I couldn't hear what he was saying.

And actually, it does occur to me, actually,

the exhaust is a similar size to the flu

that they're trying to put down your chimney, as we speak.

But yeah, I went to Abingdon this morning,

because we're doing a photo shoot and video shoot tomorrow,

to pick up a front-line MGB GT Rest No Mod, I suppose.

So it's got a Mazda engine with about 280 horsepower,

a six-speed manual gearbox, and they go to town on it.

They restore it.

They sometimes buy a heritage shell,

sometimes they restore the bodies that the car comes with.

And the work they do to improve the soundproofing,

it's stiff on the chassis,

and the interior is beautifully finished,

really beautifully finished, and it drives really nicely.

But the interior is still an MGB interior, isn't it?

So it's just a lovely MGB interior.

Yeah, architecturally, it's still an MGB interior,

but they will put switches and stuff where you want it, effectively.

But it's soundproofed, retrimmed, it's got their own seats.

I'd look around the whole place this morning,

they've got a proper trim workshop with one of these huge flat tables

with nice low-reflective lighting

that they can lay out the trim when it arrives

and to look for imperfections and then cut around the right thing.

It's perfectly done.

It's really, really wonderful job.

Do they do a lot? Do you get the feeling they do them in sort of dozens?

Yeah, I think about a dozen a year, something like that, 10 to 15 a year.

And I think they've done about 150 in total.

Oh, wow.

And just recently introduced an MGA as well.

But there's no heritage shells available for an MGA.

And actually, we have this when I drove that Theon,

a Porsche 911 the other day, the 964.

So you're getting to an age where some of those body shells

can be a bit rotten in places,

but it's not economically worth restoring one to standard

because the car's never going to be worth the amount that you pay to restore it.

But if you restore it as a restome mod,

you add so much more value to it that it suddenly becomes worth doing.

And then the cars that are done well like this

hold their value sufficiently well that it's worth it.

I guess lots of life in that car.

Yeah, I think so, yeah.

Why wouldn't it last another 20 or something?

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

And I'd probably be more than it would have done the first time around

because they coat it properly for corrosion resistance and so on and so forth.

So, but it's just, I think it's the first MGB I've driven ever, I think.

And I've always thought they sort of make sense.

They're compact to the right size, but they're quite roomy inside.

Front engine, rear wheel drive, straightforward.

My sort of car, totally my sort of car that would actually be a really practical,

daily classic, good looking, fun to drive.

Oh, I agree with you. I completely agree with you.

It's just totally on board with it.

The MGB's problem, as we were agreeing, is that there are so many of them

and they've lasted so well that people sort of look past them.

They see an MGB and think Alpha Spider, as I say.

But if you talk to Al Clements, the editor-in-chief of classical sports car,

all his boys, they will tell you, or indeed girls,

they mustn't leave out Lizzie Pope.

They really rate the MGB and C, but particularly the MGB.

So interesting.

And I mean, you said, you arrived saying that it's a car that will suit you.

Oh, totally. Because I came, actually, roads I haven't driven on before,

coming across from Abingdon rather than from mine, some really good B roads

and then a bit of dual carriageway up the A419, is it, the one that comes up from Sweden?

But just on that dual carriageway, it sits so straight and true and relaxing

and you could just turn around and aim for the docks

and when you got there, hopped on a boat and all across the other side,

hop onto a motorway and really just, you could have a proper long cruising holiday

in a car like that really happily.

And I really rate that because there's, as you say, there might be sports cars

which appear more glamorous or whatever, but it's just so practical.

Mind you, that one is lovely, isn't it?

Oh, it's beautifully done.

The colour and the beautiful Dunlop disc wheels.

I love those wheels.

I adore those wheels.

They're a joy.

I mean, they remind me of what you get on a D-type.

Yeah, they're very similar in look, aren't they?

You know, that's got to be a pretty good credential, doesn't it?

It has.

What should we talk next, mate?

On the classic front, should we talk good wood revival?

Yeah, why not?

Did we talk briefly at last?

I think we said it was on the horizon.

Because weirdly, we recorded late last week, didn't we?

Just before the pod came out.

So what about, what did you go down there in?

Well, I was invited by the Duke of Richmond,

an absolute expert at getting sponsors on board.

One of his sponsors this year was INEOS,

the makers of the Graniteer 4x4 car you like.

And their representatives rang me up and said,

look, your yard is always full of Ford Rangers and Jeep Wranglers.

Why the hell don't you drive one of ours?

Have you tried one before?

Well, briefly.

In fact, at Goodwood, they have a little 4x4 track there.

But not to go somewhere and not with the steering committee on board,

which is the test for me,

because as we've agreed a few times before,

if the misses isn't on board with some car

that you're going to use for fairly long distances,

you're in serious trouble.

Anyway, so INE came this Graniteer,

except it turned out to be a quartermaster,

which is the pickup.

Quite similar in proportions to the Ford Ranger.

But, you know, with the usual credentials,

nice BMW 3.0L 6, 8-speed ZF box.

Very nicely made, I think.

Surprisingly rigid and all that.

The only complaint I've got is with the steering

and you get used to that anyway.

But anyway, they invited me to Goodwood and I went in their car.

In their car.

And I thought about you on the way,

because you've said before that one of those

might fit into your life or not.

Well, yeah, I did.

Yes, because I ran the Graniteer for a few months.

Yeah, you had a state job.

Yeah, a station wagon petrol.

But I did think and I did say,

I think in the long term, goodbye, I said,

actually, there aren't many cars that you'd think,

maybe I'd put an offering on this

and I can't afford to.

But if I could, I had thought about, yeah, that would be...

Steering is odd, I know.

But you get used to it.

You do get used to it really easily.

I think I found I got used to it very easily.

I drove one to the factory and back.

Oh, of course you did.

And it was a breeze, I think.

And yeah, I really, really like them.

I really like them.

And it does the thing you were just talking about with the MGV.

It does track like an arrow down the road.

And you just got to remember to...

that it's not going to self-centre very well

and you've got to take the lock off as well as put it on.

So the course tomato is longer in the wheelbase

as well as the bed, isn't it?

I think.

A bit, yeah.

What's the turning circle like?

Terrible.

Really bad.

Yeah.

But, you know, once you know, you know.

It's not that bad.

You do get caught in, you know,

if you're doing a bit of manoeuvring in the suburbs

or something, people get a bit cheesed off with you

because it takes you so long to do a yew.

That's still.

But these are small things.

Yeah.

And the other thing I get is I think you would own one

because you need it.

Yeah.

You know what I mean?

And I think people look at it and they think,

well, you've got one of those because you need a car like that.

Whereas I think there are other cars of a similar price

which have some off-road ability,

but you could look at somebody in one and think,

I don't think you have bought that because of its capabilities.

And I don't think you're ever going to use them.

No, this is your raptor owner, I'm afraid.

Do you think?

Well, I have, in fact, done a bit of off-road inquiry

because I'm near the, there's a point where the Fosway

turns into a byway and you can,

I used to drive on a lot with the kids in Land Rover days.

So I go up and down there a little bit,

but it's mainly a road vehicle and it, you know,

it's well over the top really for that.

But I don't care.

No, quite right.

But like, yeah, but it's somehow inside.

I feel a bit less conspicuous, is that a word?

In something like a Grand Deer because I think,

well, people at least assume I've got this because I need it.

Well, it is a, it does feel very durable indeed.

And I like the switchgear too.

I got lost in the switchgear because the first time I drove it,

I had to get in the car and it complete an utter dark.

And I simply presumed that this thing was going to have keyless,

you know, and there was going to be a starter button somewhere.

And so I hunted around digit, you know,

spent five minutes looking for a big round button,

torch and all the rest of it looking for a,

and then it suddenly dawned on me that what it's got is a keyhole.

Yeah.

And you twist the key and it goes.

And it goes.

Amazing.

Yeah.

Somewhere to put it.

Somewhere to keep it when it's running.

You can hear Jim Ratley of having the discussion here.

Let's just give it a bleeding key.

You can.

You totally can.

One is not going to replace the Raptor in your life.

No, no, no, no.

The Raptors, the Raptor is, we find it useful.

Surprisingly good long distance car.

Very comfortable.

See everything.

People see you coming.

Even if it wasn't orange.

Yeah.

So now it's, it's, it's good.

I mean, I don't know.

Sometimes I think, you know, pretty stupid and not very easy on the environment,

but there it is.

There it is.

Useful car.

I do a fair bit of electric motor.

You do.

And you can only drive one car at a time.

How do you?

People say that about having lots of cars.

Why would you need that many cars?

Well, actually, if you, you can only drive one at a time.

So there isn't really, apart from a couple of oil changes, there's a bit of paperwork.

There's nothing strictly worse for the environment about having two cars.

And there is only one.

No, we're conserving them, aren't we?

Conserving.

Well, that's the other thing is they are living, breathing, motoring museums.

Yep.

And it's good work.

It's public work.

Public work.

I think it should be applauded.

If you own a classic and you've run it regularly, it is for the benefit of everyone.

Yep.

So I think that's fine.

Damn good.

I think that's fine.

It is that time of year, Steve, when the temperature drops a little.

How do you know autumn has arrived?

Shake rock.

Well, it was a crazy business.

I was driving around in the Renault 5 and it suddenly decided that the, the, a warning

would come up on the dashboard to say that the tire pressures were all wrong, needed

adjustment.

So I adjusted them.

And then the next day I went for, you know, it's just some, I can't remember why, but

some errand in the duster and it did the same thing.

So within 12 hours, two of my cars, I try and keep my tire pressures pretty much on the

button, gave me a warning about incorrect pressures.

And I presume that's because it, we've had all these days around the 20s and 18s and

25s and so on.

And, and now released around here, we're down around the 10s, 12s.

That's interesting.

And that, that is, is enough to reduce the tire pressures, I think.

Enough to, and enough to set off the, the pressure monitoring system.

Because they weren't far away.

They were just, they were just a little bit out of the, out of the zone.

Do you have a pump here or do you take them somewhere?

No, I've got a, actually a mutual mate, Mr. D. Redfern, Derek, my name.

One, for my birthday one time, he gave me this thing that shaped like a large pistol,

which you can, which is actually a compressor and you can set the, set the pressure on the

back of it and then squeeze a trigger and off she goes.

Super accurately.

And it's, it's been good.

It's lasted quite a, you know, you expect these things to last, you know, six months

and die, but this one's been going for a few years now.

Is it battery powered or something?

Well, it can be either powered off your cigarette lighter, there's a long lead, or else you

can, you can, you can plug in a battery.

The battery, no, it's gone.

I was going to point out the battery that was sitting on the, on the window sill, except

I believe it's been moved.

It's been tidied away.

They are, it's quite handy, isn't it?

Yeah, really good.

So I had a compressor because I'm, I don't need a compressor very often, but now and

again.

So I bought to, I bought one when I spray painted my beetle and I bought a Stanley one

and it's very good and everything else, but it's so loud.

It's so unbelievably loud that it would frighten the chickens.

Wow.

Yeah, you know, they, they hear it start up.

Make, they give me a start, it would start up.

I had to wear headphones when I was, you know, when I was doing it because it would start

up anyway.

And I thought, I don't know.

I mean, what kind of an idiot owns two compressors?

But I thought, I'll just go online and I'll see how much quiet ones are.

And I, and I, it says he and I on it, but I bought it and paid for it myself, I have

to say.

It said it was a super silent oil-free compressor.

It's unbelievable.

It is whisper quiet.

It is beautiful.

It's just starts up and just you could still have a little, a little sort of box like gadget

that sits on the ground.

Yes.

But it's, it's probably the size of a, probably the size of a sort of one of the little gas

cylinders that you take on in a caravan.

You know, it's that sort of size.

It's a, it's a couple of feet.

It's probably a foot and a bit long and 20 centimetres in diameter and it's on wheels and you can

wheel it around.

The thing they have though, right, they never have a handle that's long enough.

The handle is really close to the ground.

So you have to sort of scratch down and wheel them around while you, while you do it.

It could, it would be really helpful if I had a longer handle and you could walk it normally

because then if you're walking it from the garage out to the car or with a shed out to

the, over to the, I know you're probably not supposed to use them on bicycles, but yeah,

whatever.

Yeah.

It's that anyway, it's.

Do you know what?

Love, Jen.

You have just helped me with a problem.

You know how people, at least people like us get into a panic because Christmas is coming

and you always wonder what the hell to give the, you know, sons in their forties.

Yeah.

Neither of them to my knowledge has got a compressor like that.

Oh, really?

So I think it may well be that a trip to B and Q or somewhere.

Well, you don't want to be aware of it.

Are they, are they not listeners?

Are they Steve?

I wouldn't want to give it away.

No, no, no, they, they've got better things to do.

Better things to do.

Well, I can, I can recommend the quietness of the Hyundai one.

It's really.

Did you buy it online or?

I think so.

Yeah.

I think I bought it from, I don't know where from, but yes, I just chose it online and

it arrived in a box.

And there's a tank with it.

Yeah.

It's got a tank.

It's got a tank, which is, and then it actually is quite good that the, it's got it.

It's got a tank which pressurizes and it's got a valve which show you what it's pressurized

to, but then there's an additional valve on the side, whereas the old one I had, the tank

pressurizes and whenever you squeeze the gun, that's the pressure you get.

That's it.

So, but this one's got a separate valve.

So if you don't want the pressure at the nozzle to be as high as in the tank, you can wind

it back a bit so you can just have a lower pressure out of the gun.

So it's really clever stuff.

Very good.

It's really, yeah.

Well, anyway, as long as they're not listening, that's what's happening.

That's what's happening.

I feel like a proper grown-up using it.

I've got to say.

I feel like a, you know, I feel like a proper, proper man when I use that.

It's a good thing.

I know you've got, you know, you've got a shed with tools hanging up on the wall and

all kinds of things.

I am slightly over obsessed with tools, mate.

That is the problem.

Well, ever since I sort of thought, okay, if I'm going to do a job on a mechanical piece

of equipment, if I don't have the tool, I'm either going to buy the tool or get somebody

else to do the job because I'm sick and tired of trying to do a job with the wrong tool

and botching it.

And then being one of those people who complains about the tools that they have.

Do you know what I mean?

And it's so frustrating.

And if you haven't got the right kit, you can't do some stuff.

That's no two ways about it.

If you try, it comes to like, I don't have those things that can remove plastic trimming

cars.

But if you try to remove plastic trim with the wrong kit, you can break stuff really,

really easily and not everything can be fixed with zip ties, much as I hope it can be.

And so I thought, right, well, I'm either going to buy the stuff and if I can't afford

to buy the stuff, I'm going to get somebody else to do the job or I'm not going to do

the job at all.

And it is usually cheaper to buy a secondhand tool than it is to send a car or bike somewhere

else to do, get stuff done.

There are some things I won't do again.

I've had enough of fitting motorcycle tires.

Well, yeah, actually, funnily enough, when you fitted your last motorcycle tires, talked

about the fact that it was possible.

I told one of my sons about who's got a Yamaha SM-50 and he wanted to fit some tires.

I said, yep, prior can do it.

You can do it.

If prior can do it, anyone can do it.

Well, no, not that, but you had achieved it.

And he had this absolutely terrible tire.

And actually, he did succeed.

And at this very moment, as we speak, he's somewhere on some wilderness track in the

Alps on his motorbike.

Oh, super.

Yes, he likes solitary trips.

It's the most dangerous thing you can do, but he camping gear for one half a second

after he goes.

He had this 1,000-kilometer route sorted, so maybe he's still alive.

I don't know.

So he did it, but he didn't enjoy the process.

No, no.

I think it ruined his hands for a while.

Yeah, he just needs such a long bar to get the leverage on it.

There's a guy I followed on Instagram who fits motocross tires all the time.

He's like a motocross mechanic, so he's got this little rig that he made himself.

And he just does it.

And he's got his tire spoons and his little clip, and he just dongs it.

And he will change a motocross bike tire in, take one off, fit a new one under a minute

properly.

Unbelievable.

He's got it, and it's all the right tire pressure and everything.

And you think, well, that looks so easy.

And then four hours later, when I've got a scaffolding pole on the end of my tire lever

trying to get it on, and you think, in any minute now, something's going to break.

There's going to be a horrible...

Yeah, there's going to be a massive...

And something's going to go flying across the garage, and I will be lucky not to break

a bone.

Yeah, invent silver in your head, isn't it?

Yeah, and then the tire pops on, and that's that.

But it's horrible.

I didn't enjoy that at all.

Yeah.

So somebody else can do that.

No, well, I sold him a part, but he did manage it as well.

Oh, yeah.

I mean, there's a sense of well-being after having done it.

There's a lot of...

There's an extension of the vocabulary, I believe.

We should take a short break before we return with part two of My Week in Cars.

I need to tell you that this podcast is brought to you in association with Anderson EV, makes

of top quality EV home chargers, every one of which, Steve, do you know they carry a

seven-year warranty?

Yeah.

And the reason I know that is because mine has been hanging on the wall for two years,

and I've still got five years of protection left.

That's good.

Have you been in the archive recently?

I have not.

Not even a bit.

I have to read.

Did we discuss this last week?

The Morgan Plus 4.

Did we discuss this last week?

Well, I think we sort of started to.

Keep going, mate.

This is good.

On the 29th of September, 1950, AutoCart broke the story that the Morgan Plus 4, I think

I did tell you this, was arriving, had a two-liter engine.

There's a cutaway drawing of it.

Full technical description.

That was it, the cutaway we discussed.

Yeah, 75 years ago this week.

So on Wednesday next week, the day this podcast is out to 24th, in fact, I will be going to

do Morgan to drive a new Plus 4, to chat to John Wells, the designer of Morgan's at the

moment, and actually they're going to have a quick look over the Super 3 as well because

it's due its little check-up, and they will be an original or close to original Plus 4

at the same time.

The Plus 4 is 75 years old.

There will be a story online on the 29th of September.

Will you get a go?

Do you think they'll let you go around the block in the original?

I think it depends who it belongs to.

I think they've got a...

I remember this, very fond of them because of the flat radiator.

You know they've got this kind of waterfall shape.

We came along pretty soon in the car's life, but the flat rad ones were smaller and even

neater.

I shared a flat once with a bloke who was taking one of them to pieces in his bedroom.

He'd import another large lump of stuff and spend a few weeks taking it to pieces, and

then the large lump of stuff would go out, and the next lump of stuff would sort of

rear axle or something, like a gearbox.

It's like our friend Colin Goodwin who made his plane in his garden shed.

Fantastic.

It's great, isn't it?

It is great.

I do admire that, I've got to say, because if I don't have the perfect workshop, I'm

just like, oh, this is really annoying.

I can't do this.

I can't do this, possibly.

The great thing was that he sold this initially to his Mrs by saying that there would be a

garden shed.

I think he put up the garden shed.

Wouldn't it be nice if we had a garden shed?

Yes.

And she foolishly said yes.

I think that would be a nice thing.

We have another letter.

Welcome to part two of my week in cars after that commercial break.

The magazine shop.com for all of your archive needs, and we recommend it to you.

Highly.

It falls off the tongue really well these days, isn't it?

All that blurb.

You're really good at it.

Well, I'm available for voiceovers and advertisements and new improved recipes of washing powder,

whatever.

I'm available.

Good luck.

James Brown writes from Sweden, not that one, who says, this week you touch on a subject

close to my heart, the car trailer, because we talked about that a couple of weeks ago.

I think that there's no longer a trailer test in the UK.

That's it.

It's been rescinded or something.

Yes.

I think so.

One of the best gifts my wife has ever bought me, well, for us both technically, but I'm

the one who uses it, is a 2.65-meter aluminium trailer built by the Estonian manufacturer,

Tiki, says, James, what a good gift that is.

Oh, yes.

Gosh, that's imaginative.

That is good, isn't it?

I mean, it's better than a tie, or a pianist.

It has rigid sides with strong tie-down points, and front and back gates completely removed

to carry boards and timber, as long as 4.8 metres provided the rear overhang is properly

flagged.

Here in Sweden, trailers must be registered, taxed and inspected like cars.

This means that unlike the UK, they have their own registration plates, enabling the brilliantly

obvious service of free trailer rentals for 24 hours from most large retailers, including

IKEA, Bauhaus, etc.

Petrol stations also offer self-service box and open trailer rentals.

Why the UK doesn't follow this European standard of unique registrations for trailers is a

mystery.

PS, I love to drive a trailer, but also to reverse one.

I can't say I'll get it right first time, but backing up a trailer is surely one of

the hallmarks of a good driver.

Thank you, James.

Interesting that on taxing, registering, inspecting.

Inspecting would make total sense, because I wonder how many trailers get used very rarely,

and then somebody goes, right, I'm off to buy some firewood.

Yeah, and then...

Hook up the trailer for the first time in 18 months.

And the brakes are binding or something, yeah.

Yeah, yeah.

So it would be interesting, wouldn't it?

And I get the higher business, that really is good.

Having hired a few trailers in my life, having to organise yourself a special plate that

corresponds to the tow car plate, it's just a pain in the bum, isn't it?

Yeah, because you're supposed to have the V5 for that, although there are retailers

who online will make and sell number plates without a V5 to the annoyance of one proper

retailers and two, the DVLA, I think, because you're not supposed to be able to just make

up a number plate.

No.

For very obvious reasons, the cloning, et cetera, but they do exist.

But that does sound good.

Knees right.

Yeah, it does sound good.

That business of reversing is, I mean, it's good fun, isn't it?

I love reversing a trailer.

I had to reverse it.

Do you have that story we did on the big Australian caravan thing?

Oh, yeah.

Yeah, the stealth caravan.

I had to park that up and reverse it in when I got back to Bentley HQ between a bunch

of a couple of Bentley's and a couple of camper vans and a couple of other bits and

bobs parked around.

Were there kind of 30 people watching at the time?

There are a couple of people watching, but when I got it right, oh, God, it's the most

satisfying drive I've had all year long, a 0.3 of a mile an hour with it going backwards.

Zenos is back.

Really?

Yeah.

Did not.

So do you remember the Zenos?

I do.

Yeah, I remember going to the factory and I can remember they were bought.

The company was bought by somebody like, would it be the guys that run AC?

It would be the guys who run AC.

Very good.

Well, remember, Stephen, Alan Lubinsky.

Yeah.

So the company was founded by Mark Edwards, Ansar Ali and some others, formerly of Caterham

and Lotus.

And it was just down the road from Lotus, indeed, wasn't it?

Yeah, I think it was.

Yeah.

And the idea was it had a two-seat roadster with an aluminium backbone, I suppose, through

the middle.

And then the rest of the tub was recycled carbon fibre and plastic and it was quite a rigid

tub.

And then it had a 40-car boost engine at the back and it was built very much down to a

price, wasn't it?

It was 25 grand or 30 grand with a bit more power.

Yeah.

I think they sold a few, like over 100, but they ran out of money because it wasn't expensive.

Yeah, there's a club.

I believe there is a club.

Oh, really?

Yeah.

I can remember hearing from the club members.

I liked them.

I thought they were good.

Yeah, I thought they were good.

They went into administration in 2017, AC cars picked up the stuff that was left.

So there were a few cars unmade, plus all the rest of the plans and the tooling and everything

else.

And they didn't do loads with it until about a year ago.

And they've just, I drove on Wednesday, their first prototype.

Oh, wow.

How brilliant.

Yeah.

There's going to be a story.

It's in the mag today as comes out the same day as this podcast and online and on video

all at the same time.

I must open the rag.

I haven't done it yet.

Oh, well, it's, yeah.

Well, that's, it's on the, if you go to the in our Slack channel, if you do use, no, you

don't use the Slack thing.

Yeah.

I'll send you a brief of it.

Don't really know what I'm doing.

Anyway, it comes out on the same day, this podcast, basically, still a prototype, but

they, because you can't get the 40-car boost engine anymore because they don't make them,

they did what Caterham did and went to horse and said, what have you got?

And horse being a Renault GLE joint venture looked at the entire back catalog of the entire

catalog of all the engines they've got.

So, well, we've got all of these.

They've bought a Volvo two-litre turbo, turned it up to 380 horsepower.

Gosh.

So the car weighs 800-ish kilos.

So it's quick.

Yes, really quick.

Six-speed manual.

Nice.

Really good.

They haven't done anything yet to the suspension since last time.

They're going to fit carbon fiber body panels because they've bought this carbon fiber factory

down on the South Coast, which is making carbon fiber bodies for their new Cobra-looking

new car.

So they're going to be carbon fiber panels to that, which they think will get it under

800 kilos.

Boy.

Two-litre, mid-engined, two seats, just, just cool.

But so it's still a very rough working prototype.

The one they've got at the moment is very much a prototype, but it feels good.

I mean, as you remember, you liked the car last time around.

I did.

It drives very much like that.

I think it looked special.

It looked different.

You know, I really liked it.

Any indication of how many they reckon they'll make?

No, they're going to be IVA-ed, which means you can make up to 300 a year.

I don't suppose they'll get near that.

But also, production cars, they think will be Q2 next year.

They were too cheap last time.

I haven't told you this yet.

So I'm going to read your face when I tell you they think they might cost 140,000 pounds

this time.

It's a lot, isn't it?

It's a...

But then you can...

When you've been selling something for, you know, a sixth of that order, it is.

Yeah.

But you can spend 100 on an atom, aerial atom, can't you?

DeLarra Stradale is a lot.

Yeah.

The BAC Mono is, what, 200 or something like that?

I suppose the fact is we are being educated about the cost of hand manufacture, aren't

we?

Yeah.

I mean, if that's how much it costs to put together, that's how much it costs to put

together.

Yeah.

I guess the main hope would be that at that money, they can find some people, but it wouldn't

be me.

No.

That's the...

That's my worry.

That is my slight worry.

I mean, it hinges on how well it's finished, I think, and actually the AC cars that they

are putting together, they are beautifully finished.

So if the production version arrives and you go, that looks a million dollars, then maybe

it's...

Also, AC do a mix in a sort of society where people have got a lot of money and maybe there's

the...

And I'll have one of those as well, sort of way of looking at it.

My problem is I think of a really, really expensive car as being about 50.

Yeah.

That is my problem.

And I know that isn't the case anymore, that's the difficulty, isn't it?

But I haven't yet made that mental leap to going, oh, yeah, sure.

Yeah, of course.

Well, they haven't...

Of course, it's 100.

They haven't fattened up your paywall check, either.

Well, maybe there's that way.

That's probably...

My...

Actually, we did get a letter from a very kind listener the other day who said, we should...

We're pretty...

I think we are compared to some places, we're pretty good at keeping our privilege in check.

Is that how we...

Yeah, that's right.

This was a guy that we...

Yeah, but he was just saying, have a care.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Don't do any boasting.

No, which I think is fair.

It's fair, of course it is.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I'd have to watch that a bit.

But I think perhaps restate the awareness that we're pretty lucky people.

We are, yeah.

We are very...

We are incredibly fortunate.

And yet, I am not the only person whose daily driver of their own is an Audi A2 worth less

than £1,000.

And I know a man who owned two McLaren F1s, whose daily driver is an Audi A2 worth less

than £1,000.

Oh, we'll be damned, really.

Yeah.

That is a story.

Because you can take it anywhere, you can leave it anywhere, you can park it anywhere,

they're easy, they don't rot, they're a doddle to live with.

Yeah.

Why wouldn't you?

No, why?

Do you know what I mean?

I mean, my version of that is, I've just been away, I arrived back five minutes before

you arrived here in the office stroke dining room.

And I did it in the Duster because I just thought, ah, it's easy, simple controls.

But I mean, the Duster is still probably worth £8,000 or £10,000, so it's a shockingly

expensive car in your terms.

Well, there is something about, and I've written this in my column this week, mate, there is

something about just being able to jump in a car and drive it and not have to worry about

anything.

So my column this week is about a recurring column in the Guardian called Petty Gripes.

Petty Gripes?

Petty Gripes.

And it's people complaining, somebody's complaining, ah, you know what annoys me is when bands

name themselves after other bands in a punished type way.

And somebody's going, you know what my Petty Gripe is, I hate coffee snobs.

And somebody else's Petty Gripe, I read recently, he said, I got in my car and my phone had

automatically updated itself overnight and the Maps app would no longer talk to my car.

I don't think that's a Petty Gripe.

No.

That makes me want to get out poor petrol or diesel all over it and set fire to it.

That is not a Petty Gripe, that infuriates me as much as basically anything because it's

the bane of my life is just how complicated and needlessly irritating some software stuff

can be.

And I know I use it, I know I depend on it, I know I rely on it, I know I like having

it and we all want software to a certain extent.

Some people want all of the latest software, some people want none of the latest software.

But unlike some things, you don't necessarily get a choice about how much software you are

exposed to.

I have to be exposed to a certain amount of it and I don't get a choice about it.

And when it goes wrong, not just with automatic updates, but when it just goes wrong or it

glitches or it crashes.

No, the thing that I find myself thinking is why didn't they get it right in the first

place?

Yeah.

Yeah, yeah.

We've updated your software, really?

You had years to design it in the first instance, what was wrong with it then?

And just, I don't know, I think maybe it partly comes back also to if you own something,

then that's yours, you've paid for it, you've bought it, you own it and you can...

I have a Bosch, I have Qualcast lawn mower which I bought because I think it has a Bosch

motor in it and I think that's a mark of quality and it's a pretty basic lawn mower.

It's not an expensive lawn mower, but I will look after it and I will keep it forever and

if it goes wrong, I will have a go at fixing it and that's fine.

If it decided it was going to download new, I don't know, grass height software every

five minutes, that would bug me because I would think, but this is why are you still

involved in this process?

Why are you still getting involved in...

I've paid the money.

Yeah.

I've paid...

I made it a hundred bucks.

Yeah, I bought this lawn mower, I brought it home, it's mine and that's it.

Why are you still involving yourself in it?

Just put it out here.

Yeah, just leave me alone and that's, I don't know, I think there's something about jumping

in an A2 or the Morgan Super 3 or your Duster and just...

Because you don't, that's it now, that is the product and if something goes wrong with

it, mechanically, you can see what it is, you can know what it is and you can fix it,

but if something goes wrong with software, I can literally do nothing but turn it off

and on and hope for the best.

And part of the joy of the A2 particularly is that history has shown that it was a staggeringly

good attempt in the first place and it's so good that it still works.

Yeah.

So in my column, I sort of signed it off by going, when something like that happens, there's

nothing I'd want to do more than get out and douse it in diesel, flick a match on it and

just watch it burn.

That would give me such immense pleasure.

But also, the subs have sort of changed that to petrol.

Well, petrol goes up with more of a woof, doesn't it?

But I know from experience that actually something doused in diesel has a longer, sort of more

thorough, somehow more satisfying, but actually if you did douse it in petrol, walk away and

flick a match like they do in the movies, actually the diesel might not go up.

So that would be frustrating.

You'd get the whoop.

Whereas you'd at least get the satisfying whoop if it was petrol.

So I'm kind of into minds about maybe you need to do both, maybe a can of each.

Maybe there'll be an opportunity for some experimentation in your backyard.

Maybe the next time some automatic update doesn't work, I'll find out.

Will it burn?

What next on the running order?

I think that may be it for the running order actually, Steve.

That brings us pretty much.

Oh, I tell you what, could you just this week, could we just a quick talk about Ian Cameron?

Do you remember the design of the Rolls-Royce Phantom?

The car that came out in 2003 and sort of refounded Rolls-Royce all of them.

He led that whole program very cleverly

and ridiculously, or tragically, in I think 2017 or something,

he was killed on his own doorstep by some idiot madman and people who really liked the guy

and respected what he did have been working a way to think of a way of remembering him.

And the Arts Center, the design college in California, Pasadena, I think it is,

have come up with a scholarship which has been backed by a million-dollar fund from a benefactor.

And it might even get bigger than that.

So Ian Cameron's work and life and reputation is being preserved by good people in California.

Oh, good.

That is good.

I think you'd doubtless be deserving design students who might not have been able to finance

their own careers otherwise.

But anyway, he's a lovely guy.

I remember him very well and as do many in our racket.

And nice to see him on it.

And that was a fine-looking car.

Yeah.

A really good designer as well.

Isn't it interesting how it's come to occupy the territory too?

You see one of those and you sort of think, ah, yes, that's the pinnacle.

Yeah.

You don't see many still do you?

But they do have a mark.

What I like about it is it sort of reinvented the brand, if you like,

but without alienating previous customers, owners, enthusiasts of the brand,

that felt like they were sort of invited along for the ride.

This is the new Rolls-Royce, but it's very much still in the spirit of the existing Rolls-Royce.

Yes.

And I think to some extent the design did that,

but also the character of the people involved.

Ian Cameron was a very sort of nice, inclusive bloke he could talk to.

And the other fellow that was very heavily involved was Carl Heinz Carlfeld,

who, you know, the late, who also tragically died in a motorcycle accident.

But he was another lovely bloke, you know, who talked to you about,

but back in the day, I was smuggled into the BMW Design Studio to see that car

a year before ever made production.

And it was such a secret thing that Carl Heinz,

who was driving the car that got us through the gates at midnight to see this thing,

had to leave the PR man out because they were scared that the guy on the gate

would recognise a press relations person and deduce that the other fat idiot

in the passing seat was a journalist.

Good grief.

But I got taken in by Carl Heinz and I met Ian in there

and I got to sit in the car a year before it came out.

Good grief.

Do you know what the bloke on the gate thought you were, who he thought you were?

Well, I think Carl Heinz was a genuine BMW bigwig.

Right.

He did that kind of, I'm coming through to think and I think it was all right for me

not to be recognisable, but if there'd been a press relations bloke there.

Yeah, it might have been obvious.

It might have been, it was a super secret place, still is.

What a cool thing.

Amazing.

What have we still got to tell you?

I've got to tell you about Anderson EV for one, because they are our kind sponsor.

You can find out all you need to know about setting up your own charging point

at Anderson-EV.com.

Where are you over the next few days, mate?

You have a busy time?

Tomorrow.

Tomorrow I'm packing up my racing pyjamas and my racing Renault 5

and going to the Watergate Bay.

We're shutting a little piece of Cornish Public Road to run a helpline for a couple of days.

I can't wait to hear about that more next week.

Yes.

I mean, the EV class I think consists of five people, three Tesla performances

with sort of 600 horsepower, one Nissan Leaf, one something else.

I've forgotten what the other thing is and me, 150 horsepower.

You'll give it a good run, mate.

Well, I will.

I'm hoping that it might even be a bit damp.

Yeah, that'll be a leveler.

It will.

That'll be cool.

But the thing is, the car looks a beautiful little black and yellow car.

I think it'll look nice and they do get off the mark well.

Yeah.

You know, 0-50 pretty quick.

And they look good wherever I see them.

I think that looks good.

I saw one at the Goodwood members meeting.

I think parked up on the banking next to the circuit where all the GRRC cars go

or whatever.

There's quite a lot of old classics and stuff like that.

There was a five-part there.

I thought, that looks good there.

That looks like it fits.

Saw a load in rural France the other day.

I thought, they look good there.

It's just, I think it's such a lovely thing.

They really struck it all well, didn't they?

Yeah.

Oh, thanks to Tom Callaud for saying, yes, the Munich Motor Show

and the Paris Motor Show will rotate year on year.

Ah, good.

And also a reader who writes in to advise me to buy a small Bluetooth thing

that you plug into this 12-volt socket.

And then that broadcasts a FM frequency that can be picked up by your cast area

as the solution for the A2's audio 15-quid fix.

Absolutely.

Which will give me audio in the A2, which is great.

Which is superb.

My only problem, so I think the A2 has got four antenna built into

some of the back windows.

And my reception is appalling, which makes me wonder if some connections

have been broken at some point along the way.

So the FM reception is really bad.

But I'm going to try it, because if that works.

There's a couple of lots of aluminium in it in A2.

I forgot.

Yeah, the structure itself is aluminium, and that's, I want to say,

it's 70 kHz or something like that.

Oh, is that a problem with the reception?

One of the reasons the Alpine A110 has got terrible radio reception

is also because there's lots of aluminium in it.

Oh, I didn't know that.

So I'm thinking there'll be some expert out there who next week will explain this to us.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Thank God.

But the thing I understand is that if you've got a car with an expansive steel,

that makes a much better aerial than cars with aluminium structures.

So I think you might just have that problem.

Maybe that's just that.

Yeah.

But if this thing's broadcasting, I think it broadcasts very locally on an FM frequency,

and then your car's supposed to pick that up.

Oh, I'm sure this will still work.

So if that does the job, and they sent me a link, and I think they're 12 quid on Amazon,

and it's just like, if that sorts it, and I don't have to take any stereo out of the car

and install anything else, that would be the, that is my kind of fix.

You'll spend even more time in that car.

I'll spend even more time in that car, and I'll be able to actually listen to all the podcasts

I've fallen behind on such as, well, such as Proofing These when they arrive.

Yeah.

And also, Smith and Sniff particularly, hello, fellas.

See you next week, Steve.

Yes, mate, I'll be around.

Yeah, me too.

Thanks, listener.

See you next time.

Cheers.

Hi, this is Joe from Vanta.

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Under pressure, re-tests, Zenos, Ineos Quartermaster, petty gripes

Dodge Charger

MG MGA

Porsche 911

MG MGB

Alfa Romeo Spider

Jaguar Dtype

Jeep Wrangler

Ford Rangers

F-150 Raptor

Renault 5

Dacia Duster

Morgan Plus

Audi A2

Mclaren F1S

Rolls-Royce Phantom

Nissan Leaf

Alpine A110

About this episode

Original notes