Unstoppable drum machine
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Concept
weight loss plateau
A weight loss plateau is when the scale stops going down even though you’re still trying. It usually means your body has adapted and you may need a new plan.
Company
Noom
Noom is a company that offers weight-loss and health programs. Here, they’re promoting a medication-plus-coaching plan.
Term
clutch
The clutch is what you use to smoothly connect the engine to the gearbox. If you release it too fast or in a jerky way, the car can lurch and make loud noises.
Term
BMX
BMX is a kind of bike made for doing tricks. Here, they’re talking about people doing dance-like moves while riding BMX bikes.
Brand
Scorpions
The Scorpions are a famous rock band. The hosts are saying their device got the artist wrong, which can happen when apps misread song information.
Car
Opel Astra
The Opel Astra is a compact car model line. The podcast specifically mentions an Astra Cabriolet, which is a version with a convertible top. It’s being referenced as an older model people don’t see as much anymore.
Term
wind down windows
Wind-down windows are the kind you move by hand with a crank. It usually means the car is a simpler, lower-spec version.
Company
Car and Classic
Car and Classic is a UK online marketplace and auction platform focused on classic and enthusiast cars. The hosts use it as a source for “pretend present” games based on what’s been auctioned recently.
Car
Vauxhall Astra Gte
The Vauxhall Astra is a compact car, and the podcast mentions a convertible version called the Astra GTE Cabrios. “GTE” generally means a more performance-focused model, and “Cabrio” means it has a convertible roof. The episode is referencing that specific kind of Astra.
Concept
auction
An auction is where people bid on a car, and whoever bids the most usually buys it. The important part here is that the bidding hasn’t started yet.
Company
Mickey Thompson
Mickey Thompson is a brand that makes performance tires used a lot in racing. Their drag-radial tires are built to help cars hook up when accelerating hard.
Concept
sleeper
A “sleeper” is a car that looks normal on the outside. But it’s been set up to be really fast when you drive it.
Term
leatherette
Leatherette is fake leather upholstery. It’s meant to look like leather, but it’s usually less expensive and can wear differently over time.
Term
pillar-mounted gauges
Pillar-mounted gauges are instruments installed on the A-pillar or dashboard pillar area instead of in the factory cluster. Enthusiasts like them because they’re easy to read at a glance and can be part of a performance-oriented interior setup.
Concept
barn find
A “barn find” is a car someone finds that’s been sitting around for a long time. It can be cool because it might be original, but it usually needs work before it’s road-ready.
Term
metal flake
Metal flake is glitter-like material mixed into paint. It makes the finish sparkle and look flashy, like you’d see on custom cars and boats.
Term
idle
Idle means the motor is on but not revving hard, so the vehicle barely moves. They’re saying even at that low-power setting, it might still be too fast.
Term
DRL
DRL means daytime running lights. They’re the lights that are meant to be on during the day so the truck is easier to see.
Term
registration number plate
That’s the license plate on a car. People sometimes use the plate as a clue or joke about the car or the person driving it.
Term
car radio
A car radio is the sound system in your dashboard. You can usually pick stations or saved presets, like FM, and switch between different audio sources.
Term
FM
FM is one of the ways radio stations broadcast. Your car can tune to FM to listen to music or shows.
Brand
Lamborghini
Lamborghini is a famous Italian car brand. The speaker is saying the brand’s styling often uses sharp, geometric shapes—here, specifically hexagons.
Brand
Simmons
Simmons made a very recognizable kind of electronic drum kit. The speaker is saying those drums (and the sound module behind them) were used in a lot of famous music and TV-era production.
Concept
haunches
Haunches are the bulging, shaped parts of a car’s body around the wheel area. They help make the car look wider and more muscular.
Brand
Renault
Renault is a car brand from France. The speaker is saying Renault has been making some cars that look good and feel nice inside, and people are starting to notice.
Term
Sat nav
Sat nav is the GPS navigation system in your car. It tells you where to go, but the point here is that if it stops working, you have to rely on your own sense of direction.
Concept
ring road
A ring road is a big loop road around a city. Instead of going through the middle, it helps you get to the right highway or exit.
Brand
Michelin
Michelin is a well-known tire company. They also made lots of roadside signs and promotions, and old ones can become collectible.
Concept
embargo
An embargo is a rule that says you can’t post or publish something until a set time. Car reviewers often use it so everyone releases their videos at once.
Car
Sienna
The Toyota Sienna is a minivan. In this ad, they’re pointing out that it can come with screens/entertainment for people sitting in the back.
Term
rear seat entertainment system
A rear seat entertainment system is stuff like screens or media for passengers sitting in the back. It helps keep kids (or anyone) entertained during longer drives.
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I'm Jonny Smith.
I'm Richard Porter.
And this is Smith & Sniff, a podcast in which two friends talk about cars and many other things.
I'm going to have to plug in an apology at this moment.
An official apology specifically aimed at German band the Scorpions, I think as well, for sure.
For me, this is a personal mistake.
Remember last podcast, I talked about this song that my Alexa just kept serving up to me.
I hope she didn't hear that I mentioned her name, although she doesn't give a shit about me normally.
So send me an angel, right? I described it, said it was a scorpion song.
I lied. Well, I half lied.
There was a confusion. You didn't willfully mislead people, but go on, will you explain what happened?
Well, it turns out, and once I said it on the podcast and sent you the link to listen to it and all that kind of thing,
I realised that this wasn't the song that I'd heard and it wasn't the one I was describing.
So consequently, we've had quite a few letters from you, the listeners, saying,
hang on a minute, are you sure you don't mean send me an angel by the Australian band called Real Life?
And that is the song that I was referring to, not the Scorpions, no.
So for me, this was a mistake, and for me, this is a personal journey, and I must say...
We've all learnt from this.
We've learnt there are two songs called Send Me an Angel.
It was confusing for me because I put on the scorpion send me an angel after we recorded the last podcast.
And you were like, where's the drum machine?
You were saying it had really, really 80s drums, and I was like, it kind of does.
I think it's got that big sort of gated reverb drum style that was popular for a while,
but it sounds like real drums processed rather than a drum machine.
So I was a bit confused that I was listening to the wrong version, but I didn't think it was like the wrong band.
I just thought there may be a remix because it was that sort of era when you'd put some other drum machine stuff on something.
But also, because you're a bit of a synth warrior, I said to you, you'd like this because there's copious synth in it.
And there wasn't.
Also, then I was fascinated to look up the video for the scorpion send me an angel,
and particularly mesmerized by the incredibly slow dissolves between one shot and the next.
If it was done in the sort of old-fashioned console with all those levers,
you'd be measuring the movement in microns.
Every shot just so slowly dissolves like a Baraka tablet in water into the next one.
It's incredible.
It's a bit like that video of that lady who was on Britain's Worst Driver,
reversing off her drive in the larder, you know, where it was sitting at 4,500 rpm,
and she was lifting the clutch up, like you say, one mil every 10 seconds.
Oh my God.
And the car was just steaming.
One of those things that I will seek out a clip and watch it again when I need cheering up
is that moment from that show when she maneuvers badly into a parking space,
and then her husband gets out of the passenger seat to check that she's in,
and as he gets out, she lets her foot sharply on the clutch.
The open door of the larder smacks him on the knee, and he makes the most incredible noise.
It's amazing.
And then she goes, the car jerked.
It's like, yeah, the car jerked, Maury, because you let your foot off the clutch.
So back to Send Me an Angel.
Oh, sorry, yes.
I just want to say sorry to everyone for leading you down a more Germanic, scorpion rock,
soft rock path, and actually, you were supposed to have gone down an Australian synth,
and we've had a few emails from people, especially in Australia.
Yeah.
And someone pointing out that, hang on a minute, that song was like a seminal moment
in the potentially forgotten mid-80s film called Rad, all about BMX riders.
What?
And there was a, I don't know, like a teen prom school dance scene where these two,
this couple, were doing a dance together on BMX's.
I watched it last night.
It's so odd, but they did a dance together, like Flatland BMX.
They orchestrated this sort of poetic BMX dance, but it's two.
There's loads of slow-mo's in it with starburst spotlights going across the lens.
It's really good.
So this Australian song, it's really 80s.
Really?
In the video, you need to watch the video just for the hair,
but the drummers play a traditional drum kit in the video, and I'm not convinced, Rich,
because I think they should be hexagonal electric drums.
You know the ones from the 80s.
Yes, exactly.
They absolutely should be.
But I think there was a lot of that around, wasn't it, where they didn't want to scare people off?
Because sometimes they do that as well.
There was somebody prancing about with a guitar, and you'd go,
not really hearing a guitar on BMX here.
Not a guitar.
I think they're just pretending.
So they go, no, look, we're a band.
At a time when it's also like, oh, the electronic music is not credible somehow.
You have to be a proper musician.
It's true, isn't it?
So they would fake it in videos, and then performances on TV shows sometimes,
where they just mime along with all the wrong instruments.
It's so true.
I'm not surprised.
But it is, when I say that track is really 80s, I don't mean that as a criticism.
It's a really, it's like a perfect example of a sort of very particular point in time
and music production techniques of that era.
I thought it was great.
I don't know why I've never heard it before.
Maybe because I'm not Australian.
It seems to be like in Australia that was a massive thing.
It's a thing.
And it's one of those songs where at first I was a little bit disgusted by it,
but I've heard it about 12 times now.
And I think it's real me in.
It's real me in now.
There's a lady singing in it halfway through in the chorus, I think.
And that's obviously meant to emulate an angel calling the band, us, the listeners, I don't know.
But I just want to say, by the way, that as a podcast, this music video doesn't have any cars in it at all.
Oh.
So there.
Anyway, look, there was a confusion, but it wasn't really your fault because your home device lied to you
and said that that song was by the Scorpions when it wasn't.
Yeah, I know.
Because it's got confused with the titles being the same.
It did.
So all I'd say is homework this week, if you can listen to the proper version
and imagine what car are you driving?
What countries region are you in?
And what's the saga?
Is it days at night?
Is there a breakup?
Is there a, I don't know, are you a detective and you're trying to work through a case?
I don't know.
Name it.
Whatever you might be.
You might be a professional bassoon player and you've just accidentally, the boots flowed out,
but you bassoon fell out of the boot while you were on the motorway.
I don't know.
Tell me.
So that's that.
Good.
Sun's out here and I've seen twice this morning, twice.
A ruddy-faced, wiry, grey-haired couple in a extremely boring, but rare, but nobody cares
because you don't see them anymore.
I think it's a Mark III Astra Cabriolet.
Oh.
The one with the sort of V on the front grille, you know, the chrome V.
Yeah.
And it's British racing green or green wine bottle green, judging by their faces.
And he's in the passenger seat, she's in the driver's seat, she looks like Rutland's answer
to Julie Cooper and he looks, and he's got the best armish beard, a huge silver beard,
but nothing on the mustache line.
Nothing.
What?
Which always sends the proportions of your face completely out to me.
Oh.
It just doesn't quite work for me.
The beard and the structure and shape of a beard is a fragile thing.
If you remove one element, you're playing with fire.
It's like the guy from Biker Grove, Jeff, who had the...
Lamb chop sideburns.
Yeah, but he also had a...
He sort of had a goatee, but he'd removed the chin sections.
So it made it a very, very droopy mustache, I think.
He did.
But it was always...
It was confusing.
It was just...
There's some choices for no reward.
There's some bathroom mirror choices there.
So I saw this couple and they looked like they were having a whale of a time.
And it reminded me of like...
There doesn't seem to be many kind of quite dull, dowdy cabriolets about
that ultimately do bring you joy and fun, right?
Because you're dropping the top on a nice day and you're just escaping.
You get that lovely open-air feeling.
You can smell the flowers and enjoy nature.
And it's not a fast car, so you just bit more pedestrian and chilled out.
Well...
Exactly.
It made me think.
It's a bit like I was out in my boat yesterday, Rich.
Don't know if I've told you.
I've got a boat.
Oh, lala.
Yeah, exactly.
And it was my brother's birthday yesterday, so we had a sort of afternoon on the water
and then followed by a lovely restaurant dinner.
And...
And do you know what?
I don't know why I'm laughing at that.
It's not funny.
It's something funny.
Lovely restaurant dinner as opposed to, I don't know, pet shop dinner.
And I...
As we were on the river enjoying my £275 on eBay boat.
And we managed to fit six...
Was it six or seven people in it?
One, two, three...
Six people.
Is it meant for six people?
No.
Or is that...?
It's not, but it wasn't too low in the water and there was no currents.
It was very low, the river, so it felt safe.
And the electric outboard just coped, so it's fine.
And it made me feel a bit...
Do you know what it made me feel?
It made me feel a bit old money.
Because the boat looks shit and it was very cheap.
But it's dependable.
And I was wearing a fairly new diver's watch.
So on the one hand I'm dry...
You know, I've got a boat.
But it's an old, tatty, horrible looking boat.
But I've got, you know, quite a nice timepiece on my wrist.
And in the same way that I feel like this couple I've seen twice this morning in their Astra,
I think they're old money because the Astra was very muddy
and they were quite ruddy.
But they looked like they probably lived in a ten bedroom manor house down the road.
When they've had the Astra forever and it's not top of the range.
It's probably still got wind down windows.
But it's fine.
Yeah, I kind of liked it.
If you're sort of so demented and posh that you're beyond snobbery,
so you would just buy a Vauxhall because I saw this car in the garage down in the village
and it looked perfectly decent.
So we bought it and that was it.
Yeah, I like the colour.
You live in a world above any sort of brand snobbery or anything like that.
You just buy things because you like them.
I love that about it.
And I'm still troubled by this man's beard.
The mental image of it is so strange.
Unfortunately, there was a whiff of leprechaun.
Right.
Okay.
Which troubles me.
Did we talk about this that I read somewhere recently
about someone's mum or grandmother or something
used to pronounce Vauxhall as a Vauxhall?
No way.
Are you joking?
I just thought that's more sort of a high and synth bouquet type of thing
rather than because you're incredibly posh.
Vauxhall.
Should we go out in the Vauxhall?
Oh gosh, I've never heard that.
Wow.
Well, no, because it's not this.
It sounds mad, but I quite like it all the same.
Say now, I'm trying to find that I think that Astra they were driving
is exceptionally rare.
Oh God, I bet so, yes.
I've just hopped onto my gateway drug, Car and Classic,
to see if I can find one.
And there isn't one of that era.
There's all the other eras, but not that particular one.
Damn.
Although now I'm looking well.
Astra GTE Cabrios, damn it.
It's apposite that you mentioned Car and Classic
because it's time once again for us to play our little game
where one of us picks the other one,
a pretend present of a car from the Car and Classic auctions.
Oh, the auctions.
The auctions.
For the past couple of weeks, we've done this in the theme
such as it is, has been,
I can't remember what the theme was.
What was the theme?
80s.
80s.
80s, that's it.
I just remember two feats.
It was two feats.
That's all I could say.
I was like, the theme wasn't feats, was it?
That was just going to dental.
I got you a feat panda, very late 80s feat panda van,
like an assistance van that was minty as can be.
Yeah, it was, I was delightful.
Well, anyway, so I forgot to say this early,
but I thought that the theme for the next couple of weeks
should be American cars.
Oh, thanks for that.
I appreciate the memo.
But that's okay.
You've got a week to think about this,
because this week I have brought to you
a theoretical present of an American car for sale
in the UK, our Car and Classic, through their auctions.
Nice.
This auction hasn't actually started yet.
It starts, if you listen to this on Monday,
tomorrow, Tuesday the 14th.
So hang on, I'm just going to show it to you.
Oh, are you?
And await your reaction.
Oh, yes.
So the last of the full size.
It is a 1997 Chevrolet Impala SS.
Yes.
The big boy.
Yeah.
Body on frame.
Body on frame.
Yeah, full size.
Chevy saloon.
But then notice, if you will, Mr. Smith,
that this one is no ordinary SS,
because it has a Golan 6.3-litre LT1 stroker engine.
Oh, it's a stroker.
With Howardine Supercharger and Zex Nitrous System.
Oh, Sugar Plum Fairy.
This thing's quick.
It has additional wheels.
Shod, it says.
Shod.
Yeah.
With Mickey Thompson Street ET Drag Radials.
Yeah, those are great tyres.
They are really good.
This is some of your street, this whole thing.
They're very, very good drag car tyres.
So this is a sleeper, really, because I mean.
It really is.
It's got the thing.
Because it just sits nicely.
No, it doesn't.
It just looks like a big barge.
You know, it's an X.
You could believe that's an X cop car or a former taxi or something,
but very much not.
Yeah.
Is that in the UK?
Then the wheels give it away.
Yes, it is in the UK.
It has been in the UK since 1997.
Has it really?
Yeah, and it's been owned by the current keeper since 2003.
So, you know, this is not.
This was personally imported when it was new.
Yeah.
Wow.
That's so cool.
But it's been, as they say in the advert, comprehensively developed.
So, yeah, as it's hard, it has this Golan 6.3-litre LT1 stroker motor.
Forged internals.
With an Eagle 4340 crank, SRP forged pistons.
There's a power-dine supercharger, two-stage nitrous.
This drivetrain has been strengthened to match with a roadmaster Dr. Evil 4L60E transmission,
BNM torque converter, aluminum driveshaft and launch control.
The suspension's been reworked with Hotchkiss trailing arms, heavy-duty sway bars,
energy suspension bushings, summit call springs, while SLP shorty headers
and a ball of stainless cat-back exhaust handle the soundtrack.
This is great.
Goodness.
It's quite a thing, isn't it?
Yeah.
But really, up your particular strip.
Yeah, I actually have driven one of these.
I did a BBC America show years ago and we had one as a sort of car
that we were featuring on the show and dicking around with.
And it was a fairly tired example of this mark.
And I've kept the badge on the depil.
I've still got it in my cabinet at work.
They weren't very valuable at all back then.
And I think time has been kind to them because they were the last of a certain era.
There's a fondness to them.
They're also bloody robust.
And that LT1 engine is a great, great engine.
This is so good.
I wish it hadn't shown it to me now because now I'm going to be following it on.
I don't mind you that under the rules of this game,
I don't actually buy you this car.
I just pretend as I would if I was choosing your present this week.
So yeah, it's quite a thing, isn't it?
What I love about it is it's sea green, which is a great colour.
But it's also reminding me, as I've scrolled through all the comprehensive photos and stuff,
is how unbelievably plain the interior is.
It's like a packet of cheap salt and vinegar crisps.
You just open it and go, is that it?
That is it.
And yeah, it's a bloody fast guy.
Look at the steering wheel.
It looks like someone's wash bag that's been sent a text on the steering wheel.
It is.
It's an 80s wash bag.
A grey leatherette wash bag that you can steer with.
Do you think this is one of those American cars
where the electric seats move at a comically fast pace?
Have you ever seen some American cars where you just hit the recline button
and you go, like, really, too quickly almost.
So it's hard to adjust very finely.
But it's almost like it's just done for, yeah, come on.
I've got stuff to do here.
I haven't got time to adjust my seat.
I really like this.
I really like this.
It's a thing of wonder.
And it's got, you were expressing admiration the other week for pillar-mounted gauges.
It's got pillar-mounted gauges.
Yes.
I have to say it's probably an absolute bargain compared to a Buick Grand National.
Similar era.
Yeah.
That's not a similar era.
This is later.
But kind of similar body on chassis.
No weight removed, just added performance.
I did a barn find, which was actually in a back garden last summer, I think it was,
of lots of police cars and one of the police, one of the cop,
most of them were Crown Vix as you probably remember,
but one of them, only one, was one of these.
And apparently that was the owner's favourite.
The chap who has all those cars is almost constantly trying to get us to buy one, isn't he?
Which I feel like it's a war of attrition that he will probably win in the end.
One day we'll have, I mean, we talked Mercury and Marauders the other week and yeah.
Well, before we leave, carinclassic.com forward slash auctions,
not spelt like that, spelt in the traditional way,
it's not relevant entirely to us.
Apart from the fact I mentioned I was, I tell you I was in my boat yesterday.
You did.
It actually, it will be ended by the time the listeners hear this.
There is a 1979 Eliminated Jet Super Speed Drag Boat for sale in Poland
that's currently at four and a half thousand euros
and the fact that I was born in 79 and I don't know if I've told you,
but I've got a boat and I've got access to a river.
This is a 7.4 litre Big Block Chevrolet 454 Jet Drive boat
and it's got the nicest metal flake and airbrushings on it.
Holy heck.
Have a look at the engine.
Oh, man.
Oh, wow.
It's splendid.
Not the kind of thing I'd expect to buy from Poland, but hey.
I noticed someone's written,
get in, sit down, shut up and hang on on the dashboard.
Well, I think this would be nothing short of terrifying,
but also have you seen the trailer?
The trailer is as cool as the boat.
The trailer, yeah, I see.
Dedicated trailer and it really is.
It's been liveried up to match.
It's got airbrushed and metal flake trailer with Wolfray slot mags and...
Yes.
I feel like...
I think if Smith and Sniff ever needed a water vessel, I think...
Oh, yeah.
Do you know what, bollocks, I'm going to actually bid on this.
Oh, my God.
Yeah, I'm going to bid on this.
Although, I think the river outside my house is an eight knot speed limit,
which I think this won't even do on idle.
I think you would exceed it.
You have to have permanent anchor dragging behind it to keep it legal.
I just, I mean...
It's called the Eliminator.
I know.
I feel it's only going to end with one thing and it's your untimely demise.
It's...
The GLP-1 microdose program starts at $99 and is delivered to your door in seven days.
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Micro changes.
Big results.
Noom GLP-1-R-X program involves healthy diet, exercise and support.
Individual results may vary.
Meds and personalization based on clinical need.
Not reviewed by FDA for safety, efficacy or quality.
No affiliation with Novo Nordisk Inc.
The only US source of FDA approved semi-glutide.
Not available in all 50 US states.
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Well, anyway, there we go.
If you're interested, the Chevrolet, like I said, the auction starts tomorrow.
I started to feel that Johnny may in fact be bidding on that.
Dammit.
Hey, moving on.
I just wanted to say hello to a listener and a patron called Tony.
Tony came to our live show at Beaulieu a couple of weeks ago.
And in the interval, he came over to have a chat to say that he's British,
but he lives in San Francisco and has done for many years.
He'd flown to the UK not to see us, but because he had a ticket
for the following Monday's Pet Shop Boys show at the Electric Forum in Camden.
Because this week just gone, Pet Shop Boys have been doing five consecutive nights
under the title Obscure.
And they're not playing any hits.
Deliberately so.
This is like B-sides and album tracks was the whole point of it.
So they'd currently been doing it for a few years now.
This was kind of greatest hits tour where they just play all the bangers that everybody knows.
This was the reaction to that.
Five nights in quite a small venue in Camden Town just doing fan-based stuff.
So Tony had got a ticket for the Monday night.
I had a ticket for the Wednesday.
We had a good chat at Beaulieu about it.
And I said, I was just saying, I won't see you then.
He went, well, I'm actually, I'm thinking I've got a ticket for Monday.
I might try and get a ticket for another night as well.
So you never know, I might see you there again.
So cut to Wednesday night.
I go to the Electric Ballroom.
I'm going there with our friend, Jason Barlow, the car journalist.
Also another massive Pet Shop Boys fan.
Sweet, sweet guy.
And a sweet, sweet guy.
Jason got there a bit before me.
So he went in.
He was queuing up to buy a t-shirt.
And the person behind him went, oh, are you Jason Barlow?
And Jason said, yeah, they started chatting.
And I think they were just talking about, you know, people coming from far away
because these gigs, you know, a bit of a rarity and they were sold out really quickly.
And so, you know, it's sort of drawn people in if you're a real fan.
And Jason said, oh, yeah, my friend Richard Porter, who's coming to this gig with me.
He was doing one of his podcast live shows last week.
And he had a guy in the audience who'd flown in from San Francisco.
At which point the person in front of Jason and the queue turned around and went, hi, that's me.
No way.
And it was Tony.
That's brilliant.
So I just want to say hi, Tony.
And thanks for coming to our live show.
I know it's not the reason that you're in the UK.
Yeah.
I hope it was not too disappointing next to two nights.
In fact, no, he went on the Tuesday as well.
It was that good.
He did three straight nights at these obscure gigs.
And I was like, are you going to go for a fourth?
He's like, no, I can't.
Can't do that.
That's brilliant.
And he's a patron.
So he's earned a hello, a shout out.
I wanted to talk about the fact that have you seen the new, they've probably been out
now a year, Mercedes Actros trucks.
Yes.
Mercedes have brought a new truck out and it's got a quite a distinctive face.
Yes.
And it's a sad face, Rich.
I feel sad for it because I'm sure it's a great truck, but it looks a little bit sad.
Like it's, you know, in sloths, they've got those eyes which slope down a bit and that
even when they're smiling, you're not totally convinced.
Are you sure you're happy?
Are you saying that you think sloths are putting on a brave face and they really should just
talk to somebody about what's on their mind?
Yeah.
Do you know that beautiful scene from Love Actually, when is it Emma, what's the actress's
name?
She's great.
Emma Thompson.
Emma Thompson as Alan Rickman's wife.
When he finds out that Alan's bought that necklace for not her.
Yes.
And you know, she sits on the bed and has just like a small tear moment and then immediately
clicks back into mum mode.
It's a very, it's a very poignant part of that film.
I feel like that's what sloths do.
Right.
And I feel like this is what, maybe that's what, that's what this, if a mechanical thing
can do that, that's what the new Actros truck is doing because it's going, I am so sad,
but I've got to gather my thoughts because there's haulage to be done, wipe those tears
away, take another bite of the pasty and let's do this.
It's quite a funny face.
I think, is this not the electric one that has the sad sloth face?
Well, I thought it was, but I've seen too many of them in the UK recently and I might
be wrong, but I think they can't have been adopted that quickly, the electric truck.
So I think they're mostly diesel.
Because I've definitely, when I've seen one up close, I think it said E-Actros.
E-Actros.
E-Actros.
E-Actros.
E-Actros, you bastard.
Because I thought, it reminded me a bit of, do you remember the BBC adaptation of Hitch
Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy from the 80s?
Yes.
Marvin, the paranoid android in that, a sad-faced robot.
Yes.
I thought that truck looked a bit like a sad-faced robot.
No, I've just looked it up and I think it is just the 2025 Mercedes Actros because I've
only seen them since Christmas.
And so what it has is, you know, it's quite popular now to have a surround daylight running
light, DRL, that's frames the grille or frames the headlight bar.
It's kind of got that.
So it's running lights, look like quite sad, slothy eyes and the rest of the grille area.
They don't really have grills, modern trucks, but you know what I mean.
Because it's black and sloths have quite a black face mask going on.
It does look quite sad, even though it's a good-looking truck, I know it doesn't sound
right, but it has very cool Mercedes badge and stuff and I want to have, basically, I'd
like to have a closer look, but it is just an Actros, but a sad, slothy Actros.
Yeah, but for a memory as well, there's a lot of blank panel at the top, isn't there?
There's just a big Merck badge and then it's almost like all of its features have slid down
to the bottom.
It's quite forehead-y in a way.
It's like those are Vecchio fans that are very sort of forehead-y, that have got a rugby
player forehead.
Is it like that creature from the Dandere comics from the 50s?
Was it called not Ming the Merciless, was it called the thing on the alien that flew around
on the disc?
Oh yes.
What was it called?
It had a huge forehead, absolutely massive.
The Dandere enemy.
What was it called?
The Mekon.
The Mekon, it's basically like, it's sad because the Mekon looked angry, the Actros
doesn't look angry, it just looks slightly sad, but it's just getting on with it.
So it's trustworthy, it's dependable, but just a little sad.
I don't know if this was still the case when you were at school, but certainly when I was
at school and the Eagle was, I think they relaunched the Eagle in the early 80s, didn't
they?
It was definitely, anybody in your school who had a slightly large forehead was just called
Mekon.
Or T-Fal Man, which I think was an 80s TV advert, was it something like that?
Yes, you're probably right, I think you're right, T-Fal usurped Mekon quite quickly.
Yeah, I mean, younger listeners will have no idea of either of those references.
No.
But actually, did you ever have that, growing up, that your dad, my dad would do this thing
where he would, something would be said and he would sort of go, bingity bong baaan.
You'd be like, what?
He'd go, from the Goon show, and you'd be like, Dad, I don't know what you're talking
about.
Sorry, Dad, you're just being old.
Sorry.
It's going to make some hot chocolate, Dad, and he'd go strontium, and he'd be like,
what are you talking about?
You know Harry Seacham.
No, I don't, Dad.
This is inexplicable, this reference.
If we're still on the, in fact, this is completely relevant to the forehead and slightly car
chat.
We had a note from a longtime listener and patron, a chap called Andy Philby.
And he's put, hi gents, I thought I'd share this photo of renowned jazz man, Miles Davis,
who I can only assume had a prelude before training up to the Testerosa, judging by his
registration number plate, which is, the number plate is Miles 22.2, or Miles 22, but he's
put a screw in between it.
Yeah, it's great.
Seriously, his number plate is Miles 2.2.
Well, it's either Miles 22, but the twos are spaced quite far apart.
So it looks like Miles 2.2.
Imagine if Miles Davis was a prelude warrior.
And this photo, which we'll put on Patreon, and we'll also, I think I'll have to put this
one on it, on our Instagram, Miles Davis is sitting on the back deck of his Testerosa.
I knew he had a Testerosa, but I've not seen him with it.
He has.
OK, where do we start?
He's got a very slack vest underneath a leather jacket.
The vest is slack enough to see.
I mean, it's borderline deep V.
I don't really know where we're going with this, but he has got a really high forehead,
has Miles.
Yeah, the hair.
He's the jazz meek on.
He's almost got the hair is like a humpback bridge over the top with a very large forehead
exposed and an amazing amount of sort of surplus material on the trouser.
He could be sort of NBA suit award suit ceremony levels of tailoring going on here.
He looks I mean, he's cool because my Davis was so talented, but I believe he was quite
difficult man, but then a lot of borderline geniuses were.
Um, but Andy's put in this also saw in the Easter weekend TV guide, a BBC feature on
Elaine Page, which reminded me I once saw her on the motorway in a silica convertible.
If you remember the late 80s model to which my dad's first reaction was how bad the roof
looked, which this changed completely when he saw the glamorous Elaine Page behind the
wheel.
That was one of those ones that was brought into the UK, but I think only in small quantities.
Am I right?
Yeah, they were really expensive, perhaps deliberately so, because they were never going to bring
many in or maybe they never brought a million because it was really expensive.
I'm not sure.
But it was.
Yeah, they were they were pricey and a bit obscure.
Wow.
So Elaine Page, Elaine Page, I don't know if listeners outside the UK will know Elaine
Page, but she was very famous for in the musicals world.
Was she an actress and singer or I'm guessing?
Yeah, I think she's a stage, stage, stage darling, stage darling, latterly known for having
a show on radio to where she sort of plays songs from the shows, songs from the musicals
is if I ever hear that because it's usually on a Sunday, I think if I ever hear that radio
show, I have to instantly switch over before any music comes on.
I'm quite happy to hear Elaine's voice, but she'll she'll be all bubbly and extremely
enthusiastic about what she does, which is fine.
But I know she'll be just she'll be dialing in mixing in an appalling song where I don't
know that singing really jovially about the fact that they've been starving for weeks
or something.
I'm just not interested.
I'm just not I'm just not interested or some I don't know someone came to the farm and
shot all my horses and I'm just like, no, I don't want to hear this song.
I don't want to hear a musical song.
I mean, I agree.
I would instantly even if the only other preset on the car radio was industrial drilling
FM, all industrial drilling all the time, I would switch onto that in preference to
listening to Elaine Page's show tunes program.
But that's just me.
Although one day I feel like you and I could write a musical and it would have to be called
on that side of things.
And we'll just have to make up a load of toss to backing music, which you're quite good
at because when you're on a tight deadline or you're quite stressed, you tend to go straight
into your garage band.
No, I'm logic prone.
I'm all grown up.
Oh, hell.
Well, maybe we've got a musical in us, Rich, maybe maybe we've got a musical there's there's
one to put on the on the to do list.
I think what we'll do is we'll get other we'll get other podcasters in this in the car
sphere to to do some of the guest singing.
Well, I can imagine Chris Harrison, friends could do an amazing barbershop quartet type
thing.
Yes, anyway, I mean, I've already done that track with or not with, I kind of did it without
their permission and then sent it to them and thankfully they liked it.
But the the tractors at night thing that I did with the guys from the cream podcast.
I did do that other thing that I sent you that we haven't shared publicly because I'm
not sure.
I'm not sure that people involved would approve, but I don't know you ever asked them anyway.
We'll come back to that.
But yes, theoretically, on our shelf, there are already two tracks involving the voices
of people from other car podcasts.
So I think this could expand.
I think it's good.
This is this is the musical.
This is it.
Or is it Salika Lady, the musical starring a page and others.
But now that you've said this, it makes total sense.
Elaine Page is a Salika Lady.
She's a she's a someone of a certain age, but she's very well turned out and has a certain
sort of elegance and sophistication to her.
Do you imagine that, you know, if she was your mate's mum, she might be slightly flirty
with you defaults to a smile and absolutely wreaks of some kind of perfume, high energy
perfume, which one three.
Yeah, which is lovely.
But it's just it's a bit overpowering.
You have to sort of cut cubes out of the air with a cricket stub.
But you know, that's that's her thing.
That's part of her.
Totally her shtick.
I love it.
I think that's that's great.
Do you know, I keep thinking about Semi an Angel, that song again.
I'm sorry.
And listener Luke Ormsby has written to me saying I was a bit offended that Johnny was
so displeased with the song Semi an Angel.
But fortunately, the Semi an Angel Johnny was thinking of was not the one I was.
The absolute eighties classic I was thinking of was by real life.
And he was the one that said about the classic eighties film Rad on the BMX
bike scene. But you know, those hexagonal electronic drums that we were just talking
about, you know, Lamborghini's design language is obsessed with hexagon.
Yes.
Do you think that someone in the Lamborghini studio has a massive thing
for eighties drum kits and just try to incorporate all of the design language
of those strange looking drum kits?
Because they never quite looked right to me
on top of the pops and all that kind of stuff.
Because you sort of look like you were just it looked like you were just hitting
some of those those those hopscotch pads that you throw down in a soft play area
with numbers on. Yes, I don't know.
I always associate them with I at the time thinking they looked really cool
on top of the pops. It's the the music nerds.
They're the Simmons drums and the sound associated with the, you know,
the actual module that they attached to is or was the one they used
the start of EastEnders originally.
I think they've changed it now.
Oh, of course, EastEnders.
That's a Simmons drum.
They would have been done on probably done on those hexagonal pads.
Imagine, Bonnie Tyler, I need a hero.
I always when I hear the high energy drumming in that,
I always think how many electric drums are there?
I think there's a line of about 28.
I think that's a drum machine because towards the end of that song,
or certainly some versions of that song, the drum machine just keeps going.
Yes.
A woman going,
but it's as if they can't get the drum sheet to stop in the control room
in a mad panic, go pull the plug out.
I don't know where it is, but they fold the plug out.
There's still residual energy.
It's still going.
There's a big machine that's achieved sentience and will not stop doing
that 140 beat per minute rhythm.
Since we seem to be talking about music,
I've written on my list of things to talk about something that you mentioned to me
after we'd recorded the last show, which it was your Enya calendar.
Oh, yeah, I've got an Enya calendar.
And this for just to make it authentic.
It's actually next to me.
It lives under my podcast desk and it's in a big manila envelope.
And what's a bit odd about this is it's been sent to us.
Seemingly anonymously.
And it got sent at great expense by somebody.
It got sent by great expense from from somebody in Kildare, Ireland.
But I don't think they've they've not.
They've just wrote for the attention of Johnny, Enya in brackets.
Actual Enya sponsors a racing team, CMTMB.
And that's it. Cheers, mate. Thanks, mate.
Bye. But nobody's actually admitted to who said this.
And I have in my hand, yeah, Enya sponsors.
A race, a single seat of racing team.
I don't know why.
But I've got it. I've got it right here.
It's mint and it's pictures of.
Yeah, there's pictures of this.
This blue, a single seat.
I'm trying to work out what what division it's in.
Oh, is it FIA World Cup, FR?
I don't even know what that is, but they look like F1 cars, but they're not.
Is this calendar of the racing cars, then?
It's of the racing cars, but everyone get this.
In the cars are blue, kind of a light blue, a tasteful blue,
like a Caribbean blue, one might say.
And on the on the body of the single seat, there's a couple of there's
a race number and a couple of series sponsors.
And then there's Enya's signature.
In a bit quite prominent.
So Enya's really right.
Enya's into this. She's not she's not pissing around.
Enya's doing this.
I would never accuse any of pissing around.
It's just I mean, I'm just slapping my way through this calendar as I talk to you.
And it's just pictures of it.
Yeah, it's it's doing.
That's it on the Macau Grand Prix.
Yeah. Is it all I don't understand.
I've never heard of it and why is Enya involved?
It's great, but it's confusing.
Also, who sent it to me?
Somebody sent it to the late Break Show offices and it's lovely that they've
done it because it's cost them money.
Was it Enya?
There's someone in Ireland.
Maybe is it Enya?
Has Enya sent this to me?
I can only imagine.
I'm still confused by all of this, though.
Yeah, me too.
But I'm keeping it.
I've checked the bottom of the envelope because you know,
sometimes you accidentally throw away like a business card or a little slip.
And I've checked the bottom of the envelope and there isn't anything in there.
So I don't know who can.
Can you email me the Enya calendar sender?
Because I'd like to just say thanks.
I'm going to put this up above my head.
So every time we podcast this year, I can just eye up
a another photograph of a single seater with Enya's signature on the front.
But there's no Enya in this thing.
There's only cars with her name written on it.
Yeah, there's no pictures of Enya because Enya doesn't really leave the the castle.
As I think we know true.
I'd love to I'd love to interview Enya, but I don't know in what capacity
because she might not be interested in cars.
So it would have to be for it would have to be for this podcast,
which, as you know, isn't really about cars.
So yeah, that might work.
We could just talk about cats and maybe that car, which she did have,
is it in my back? People think she's got a my back.
I think she's got a my back.
Yes, we had some solid Intel.
You that Enya? Yeah.
Enya's got a she likes a big saloon.
So talking of cars, actually,
not Enya's calendar, which doesn't feature any one of those quite current.
I think they are Sangyong Rex tons.
I don't know if you've seen them.
They kind of look if you if you squint,
they look like one of those Toyota Land Cruisers from the UAE,
the ones that we don't get over here.
And yes, it's got some
it's not it's not rubbish looking or anything like that,
but it's got some really interesting
haunches, which are they bow out at the top and then they're concaved on the side
like someone's glance them in a car park.
Actually, before you go any further, of course,
they're not called Sangyong anymore, they're called like KPMG or something.
Oh, yeah, I always get they sounded like a K-pop band.
They are called KGM.
KGM, that's it.
Let me write that down.
I'm just going to write that down.
I'm going to write that down.
KGM, another one from them soon.
But yeah, so yeah, I'd like if you get a chance to see one,
it's got these really odd bowed out and also concave front and rear haunchy
arches, which look like if you were to just take the arches off,
they look like they could have been on a really decent muscle car
from from off of America in the sixties.
And
I wonder who designed it because the rest of the car is
it does look like a knock off Land Cruiser.
But those arches are something else.
I really like the shapes of them, have to say.
Sort of dramatic, can't they?
But there's I don't know if I like them.
This is like you say, it's a sort of mad mix of concave and then
projecting, it's interesting.
I'd like them on a sort of I'd like them on an Audi A8.
A8, A8, not an R8.
No, not an R8.
No, that's already got stuff going on.
It'd be an A8, please.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Or possibly an A5 when an A5 just meant that it was two door,
but it doesn't mean that anymore, does it?
No, it's confusing.
So I'm out at that point with just the confusing names.
And Audi have been pretty good at confusing names.
Oh, cars and coughing.
You know, we talked about it a while.
Coughing, yes, not coffins, not not not boxes for dead people, cars and coughing.
We talked about it a while back, didn't we?
I'm not saying it was a bad idea because I think it was a good idea and it might
still be a thing, but it made me think about another one.
Go on.
OK, so lots of people bring dogs to car shows now and car get together,
which I don't I don't always think works.
But so I'm going to counter it with cars and catnip.
The idea being that cats don't really like travelling, do they?
They're not they're not me.
My cat chunders when it travels.
And I wouldn't really take my cat to a car show.
But what about if I laced the whole cabin with catnip?
And I did it.
I really marinated it in there for 24 hours.
I threw some catnip on the on the floor mats and all sorts.
I'd coax the cat in early doors on a Sunday morning
with the key already in the ignition, it's ready to go.
And as soon as the cat steps into the car, bang, door shut, ignition done,
we're leaving, the cat will be so drunk and high on the catnip.
It will be chewing the carpets and just like rolling around trying to get its
neck and face all over it.
Then I arrive at my local cars and coffee
with several dozen other people who have done the same thing.
They've pretty much drug their cat and taken it to a car event.
And what you do is then use your party car in a line,
crack the window about an inch so a cat can't get out or another cat can't get in.
And you all just look at one another's cars and also admire one another's
cats that have been slightly kidnapped and taken to a car event.
We reckon. Yes.
I mean, if a cat gets free, cats are quite hard to round up.
Oh, it's famously the herding cats expression.
Oh, you wouldn't.
Yeah, you'd have to get out of the car.
I'd throw a bit more catnip down just as you exit the car to get coffee.
Right. Yes.
Your coffee could also be laced with some catnip so that if you
get back in the car with coffee, the cats all over that as well.
Do you essentially what you're doing is you keep in the cat calm
because because a zany zany cat at a car event would be
so a bit dangerous, I feel.
Yeah. And there's you can't bring, you know, like dangerous dogs.
You can't really bring dangerous dogs.
It's not fair.
So I think there's certain breeds of cats which are just batshit crazy, aren't they?
Yes, Bengal.
Yeah, I was going to say they're famously quite the crackers.
Yeah, they're crackers.
So I wouldn't suggest we could say cars and catnip in brackets.
No, Bengals, please.
Because they're two crackers.
They're just two crackers, I'm afraid.
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Well, I'm going to leave this one to you to organize if you want.
Right.
You did tell me last week that you use your cat as a feather duster.
Yeah.
Which I found haunting in a strange source of way.
Really?
It's lovely.
But if I'm correct, you told me that sometimes if there's a cowboy in the corner
of your sitting room, you just get the cat, lift her up and use her long fur to remove
that's exactly what I do.
I hold it aloft, you know, like that scene from The Lion King.
I think it is whether the newborn is being celebrated.
I kind of do that.
But I also have a song that I sing.
I sing a completely made up song to the cat.
Funny enough, just as I mentioned, the cat is just trotted in.
But I sing a song to the cat, which I think has a calming effect.
So she doesn't realize that she's being used as a ceiling mop.
And then I don't know why I'm sharing this information.
I'm so sorry.
And I think it's humane.
I don't have many cobwebs, but if there's just one, I'll just I'll just go for it.
I just go for it.
Wipe her across the ceiling, really, and hi, Lola.
She's staring at me like she knows I'm talking about her.
Well, maybe so.
Good. Well, I'm glad we've we've just I mean, I was going to say clear that up.
I'm not sure that would be exactly what's happening here.
But but it's good that something or other has definitely happened.
And that's that's great.
We should start moving towards the exits.
But before we go, I was going to be very the quest is on
for what I get as our next family car.
Oh, because we have a Tesla Model Y at the moment, as I've mentioned.
Yeah.
But it's on a lease and it goes back.
I mean, not till December.
But it's for some reason it's kind of been
conversation over Easter weekend when we were away.
My wife says something about I think she just went when's that car going back?
I can't remember. And I thought it's December and she went, OK,
have you started and as she started to cross the question,
I could tell she'd already knew the answer.
She went, have you started thinking about what to replace it with?
And you said, no, tell me what I have.
Close, I have. Yes.
Well, she probably has some thoughts.
But I, you know, I this is I can't help.
What are you thinking, Rich?
What are you thinking around?
Well, this is the thing I don't know.
But I so I borrowed a Renault Scenic last week because
I see them around.
I know that car has been on sale in its current EV form for what, two years?
Yeah, at least.
But I I feel like in the last
not even a year, certainly around here, it's suddenly caught on.
I see them all the time.
And every time I see them, I go, that is a nice looking car.
It is. It's a handsome bit of design.
And I know that Renault is getting a lot of plaudits for the five and the four and
the new Twingo.
Yeah, I think the Scenic is really good as well and doesn't try and look like an
older car, isn't inspired by it.
It is just sort of its own thing.
It's not even trying to look like an older Scenic or McGan Scenic or what have you.
It's just a nice looking car, sort of really modern and interesting.
So I borrowed one of those because I thought that, you know, that might be a candidate.
It was sort of OK.
Have you driven one?
I drove on when they first came out, but I I didn't have it for a week.
I ended up because they launched it very close to the McGan and I spent more time
in the McGan and I like the McGan a lot.
Again, I think it's really classy and I think I at the time I said it feels
more expensive and more special than the Mark 8 Golf.
And I agree with myself still.
So so if I could just interrupt myself there here here, well said, Johnny.
Well, I think what I what I was meaning to say is I think VW
were were were below par at that moment and Renault had just started to come on
song with this confident design and also a feeling of real plushness
inside. And I feel like not enough people went to or would go to a Renault dealer
who are staunch Volkswagen Audi people.
It's like, no, you might want to try this because, like, you know, VW aren't doing
brilliant stuff at the moment, so why don't why not shop around?
No, well, I borrowed that McGan.
I thought it was a very nice car to drive, actually, sort of.
It felt quite Renault-y in the good way, sort of nice and you could drive it
enthusiastically and it appeared to be enjoying it.
Yeah, the scenic hasn't quite got that.
It's all right.
I don't know, maybe I was expecting too much because I really, really like the way
it looks as family cars go.
So it was nothing particularly wrong with it, except that the
carplay connection shattered itself in some inexplicable way while I was trying
to find my way to our beauty live show.
Oh, no, the only and I was using Google Maps through carplay.
The only way that I could get it to behave itself was to pull over and turn the car
off and back on again.
I don't know what went wrong there, but it's things like that.
We just go, well, you know, a bit of bad luck.
But I was I was going through a town at the time and I suddenly went, oh,
the maps all jammed and then gone black.
I honestly don't know where I am, which is a fail.
Like, I didn't know the name of the town.
I'm recognizably in a town, but I couldn't tell you what this town is called.
And I feel like that's, you know, maybe a house.
Sat nav and it's funny.
You should say that makes you lazy.
You don't pay attention as much anymore.
It does.
My brother was driving back from Austria the other week and his phone.
The whatever it is, the international bolt on tariff thing that he has
froze and refused to let him use a phone.
So he said he drove back from Austria with common sense
and just memory. Oh.
And he said, I only got lost once on the outskirts of Belgium,
but not the outskirts of Belgium, the outskirts of Brussels.
And he said, I pulled into a fuel station because I saw a couple of taxis,
asked a taxi driver whether they spoke English or German.
And they did and they pointed him back to the right ring road bit.
And he said it was actually he said at first it was terrifying.
And then and then it became quite liberating because he was like,
I still can navigate my way around.
But he said he's going to buy a ring bound map because he's got rid of them all.
And I said, I've still got a couple of ring bound maps and he's going to go
old school and keep a map in the car again in case because he says, well,
you know, if the world kind of implodes with technology, then at least you'll
have an actual European Atlas.
So he's going to go, he's going old school.
It's funny you should say that because yeah, he experienced that as well.
I did, I'm sure it's happened to a few other people, but I have a huge map of
the year, call me Alan Parches, but I have a huge map of the UK in the Lake
Brake Show office, which is not actually an old tin Michelin sign.
You know, one of the ones that was at a fuel station for tire pressures and stuff.
Yeah.
And I bought it from an auto jumble years ago.
I've screwed it to the wall so that when we're planning shoots and things with
the other guys, I can say, well, of course, Cumbria is nowhere near Sussex.
And I can just simply point at the map.
So everyone's got a very visual, I don't have a stick, but I wish I did.
So at least when we're looking at stuff, we're going, well,
that's not really near there or that's pushing it a bit.
Yeah, you just can.
I don't know whether that's me.
Am I a bit of a dad for doing that?
You can't beat looking at a map on a wall.
It's just a satisfying thing to do, isn't it?
Anyway, I absolutely love it.
We should wrap this up, but just a sort of due warning to you and the listeners
that I will be probably mithering about my next family car over the coming weeks
and months, if you've got a suggestion, why not write in?
Hello, askmithasniff.com for that or anything else you'd like to tell us about.
Um, if you were looking for a place in your spring,
I could have offered you more suggestions, I think.
No, I'm happy with my spring.
Yeah, OK, I'm sticking with that.
Oh, I've had a lovely day out, Jim.
We're going to stick with the spring.
Thanks very much.
Spring. Don't want to speedboat.
Before we go, I've got three things I wanted to share with you.
The first is that Johnny's engaged in an interesting new project where he forces
the former lead singer of Merilion to supply lubricants for vehicles and machinery,
even though he doesn't know anything about them, under the working title Fish Oil.
If that's not to your taste, then there is, of course, the late break show.
Videos on there of various kinds.
What's fresh and new this week?
Two new videos, if you're listening to this, one came out on Friday because of
an embargo and it's potentially a replacement for your
dacia spring and it's the new Honda Electric Small K-Car that's coming to the UK.
Yes, I was going to say, I'm not interested.
I've got a spring, but I am interested in that Honda.
I think it looks cool.
The Honda Super N, which is visually inspired by the City Turbo 2,
little hot hatch from off of the early 80s, which had the Moto Compo in the back.
And I did a walk around in a studio of it and I think it's great.
And I think also that it's been priced in a way where they just want to sell some.
So that's good.
And then the video that's just gone out on Sunday is a bit of a bit of a rounder,
a 2026 roundup of my own car, my own project cars, what's in my garage and what
I'm going to do with certain cars and what is going to not stay with me.
What is going to go? OK, so that's I've been told I should do these several
times a year and I tend to do them every two years.
So I'm trying to be a bit more on it.
Also, I wanted to also do a Meridian joke back to you.
I've suddenly thought of one the other day, can I do one?
Yeah, I'll do it really quickly.
What do you call the lead singer of Meridian with no eyes?
Is this is this the old fish gag?
FSH, or as we call it in the trade, full service history or fish service history?
Fish, full up, fish service history.
Well, you've forced the four
lead singer of Meridian to chase the oil and keep the brakes healthy on your car,
even though he doesn't want to.
OK, or it becomes or it becomes a it becomes a buzzword when you're asking,
has it got Meridian and they go, what has it got Meridian?
In other words, has he got full service history?
Well, we could try to get that out there.
Second thing I want to say is that we are doing a live show in Belfast on the 15th
of May at the Mac in town and tickets.
There are some tickets left.
I'm not sure how many because they're being sold by the venue and they sent
a an update which led me to believe and I hope this is not true,
that several dozen people have clearly asked for a refund because the number
of seats sold seems to have gone dramatically down.
I'm hoping that's an error.
Really?
Yeah, I'm going to get to the bottom of this because it's weird,
but I don't think that's the case, but I believe there are still tickets available.
So if you fancy coming to see us in Belfast on May the 15th,
go to the Mac website or go to smithandsniff.com and follow the link to live shows.
And the third thing I was going to tell you is that peanuts aren't nuts.
Are they legumes?
That is right, they are.
Yeah, supposedly a nut is a hard shelled seed with a separate rind or shell.
a Renault legume.
Peanuts are Renault legumas.
Yeah, so who knew?
Well, you did.
So there we go.
Probably everyone else as well.
But that's a shit fact and I shouldn't have shared it because it's too late now.
It's OK, I backed you up with another fish rubbish thing.
There you go.
It's fine.
Probably everyone switched off by now.
But if you haven't, thank you ever so much for listening.
We'll do this all again on next Monday.
Dance for your questions as usual on Friday.
But for now, goodbye.
Cheers, mate. Thanks, mate.
And bye, isn't it?
Do you know what I mean?
Hey, I must try to think to me.
So you've enjoyed this podcast, but you've had a thought.
Is there a way here today that you could show support?
Well, you could join our Patreon, one wonders that it brings.
Early shows and extra notes on that side of things.
You could buy our merchandise with mugs and hats, but still no ties.
One day we will make those pies, but in the meantime, guys, hey, guys.
Like and subscribe, and maybe leave a nice review.
Like and subscribe, we know you know just what to do.
Like and subscribe, we know what to take the piss.
Like and subscribe, but we were told to ask for this.
Like and subscribe, like and subscribe, like and subscribe.
Like and subscribe.
Like and subscribe.
To be fair, to be fair.
Oh, yeah, to be fair, to be fair.
Yeah, to be fair.
Yeah, I think anyone not holding a door open for somebody should be shot with machine guns, to be fair.
It's not really that fair though, is it?
No, I'd say extreme, extremes the word here.
Yeah, to be unfair.
The waiter didn't quite hear my order for a coffee, so I hit him with a hammer.
To be unfair.
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About this episode
Smith & Sniff bounces from music trivia to car talk, starting with an apology over a “Send Me an Angel” mix-up—turns out the duo meant the Australian Real Life track, not the Scorpions. They geek out on 80s production quirks (including gated/hex-style drum sounds) and even connect it to BMX movie Rad. Car segments include a “pretend auction” pick: a UK-owned 1997 Chevrolet Impala SS with a stroker LT1, supercharger, and nitrous. Later, they discuss the new Mercedes Actros “sad sloth” face, listener hellos, and a family-car search (Renault Scenic vs Megane).
Original notes
Jonny and Richard identify a problem during a Bonnie Tyler recording session. Also in this episode, confusion over the song Send Me An Angel, a strange beard in a rare Astra, getting tempted by an impractical jet boat, a sad-faced lorry, using Mekon and Tefal as insults, Miles Davis as Prelude man, Elaine Paige as Celica lady, a confusing Enya calendar, the wings of the KGM Rexton, cats at car shows, using a cat as a feather duster, the Renault Scenic, and another dip into the Car & Classic auctions.
For early, ad-free episodes and extra content go to patreon.com/smithandsniff
To buy merch and tickets to live shows go to smithandsniff.com
This episode is sponsored by Car & Classic https://candc.li/uc1yqz
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Smith and Sniff
Jonny Smith and Richard Porter
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