The Car Podcast with Chris Harris & Friends Feb 27, 2026

What’s going to happen in F1 this year… | The Car Podcast #76

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Car

MG Midget

The MG Midget is a tiny, old-fashioned sports car from Britain. It's small and light, so people like to drive it for fun and sometimes race it in special events.

Car

Volkswagen Gti

The Volkswagen Golf is a small car that is easy to drive and good for many uses. The GTI version is a sportier model that makes driving more fun while still being practical.

Car

The Porsche 911 is a famous sports car that looks unique and is fun to drive. The first versions were simple but very special, and many people love them because they feel connected to the car when driving. It's talked about a lot because it's one of the most well-known sports cars ever made.

Term

control units

Control units are little computers inside a car that help control how different parts work, like the engine or brakes. The Ferrari 456 had a lot of these, which made it more complicated.

Part

air conditioned driver's seat

Some car seats can blow cool air to keep you comfortable when it's hot outside.

Car

Mercedes-Benz S-Class

The S-Class is a very fancy and comfortable car made by Mercedes-Benz. It's known for being smooth and packed with cool features.

Car

Volkswagen Rabbit

The Volkswagen Rabbit is a small, simple car that was sold in the U.S. It’s easy to drive and was popular because it used little gas and was reliable.

Car

Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow

The Silver Shadow is a very fancy and comfortable car made a long time ago. It was built to give a smooth and quiet ride, making it popular with people who want to travel in style.

Car

Ferrari F50

The Ferrari F50 is a very special and rare sports car made in the 1990s. It has a powerful engine and is very expensive because not many were made.

Brand

Japanese cars

Cars made by companies from Japan, like Honda and Mazda, are usually cheaper to fix and don't break down as much as some other cars.

Car

Honda Civic

The Honda Civic is a small, reliable car that many people use every day. The 2010 sport version is a bit faster and more fun to drive but still easy to own and keep running for a long time.

Term

MOT

The MOT is a yearly check in the UK to make sure your car is safe and running properly.

Car

Mazda MX-5

The Mazda MX-5 is a small, sporty car that is fun to drive because it handles well and is easy to control. People like it because it makes driving enjoyable without being too expensive.

Car

Fiat 500

The Fiat 500 is a tiny car that is easy to drive around cities. It looks a bit old-fashioned but is fun and simple to drive, especially in tight places.

Brand

Aston Martin

Aston Martin is a famous car company from Britain that makes fast and fancy sports cars that many people admire.

Car

Porsche 918 Spyder

The Porsche 918 is a very fast and special car that uses both a gas engine and electric motors to go really fast. It was made in small numbers and is very expensive.

Car

Ferrari F355

The Ferrari 355 is an older sports car that many people love because it looks great and is fun to drive. It was made in the 1990s and is now considered a classic.

Concept

restomod

A restomod is when someone takes an old car and fixes it up but also adds new parts and technology to make it work better and be more comfortable.

Term

POA

POA means the price is not listed and you have to ask the seller how much the car costs. This is often used for special or expensive cars.

Concept

recommissioning

Recommissioning means getting a car ready to drive again after it has been sitting unused for a long time. It involves fixing and checking things so the car works properly.

Concept

restoration

Restoration means fixing up a car to make it look and work like new again. Sometimes this can be a small fix or a big project.

Term

right hand drive

Right hand drive means the steering wheel is on the right side of the car instead of the left, which is usual in some countries.

Brand

BMW

BMW is a German car maker that builds cars that are fun to drive and look nice.

Term

hot hatch

A hot hatch is a small car with a rear door that opens upwards, but it's faster and sportier than normal cars.

Car

BMW 135

The BMW 135 is a small BMW car that's fun to drive but isn't really a sporty hatchback like some others.

Car

Fiat Uno

The Fiat Uno Turbo i.e. is a small car with a turbo engine that makes it faster and sportier than normal versions.

Car

Citroen Ax

The Citroen AX GT is a small and light car that is easy to drive and uses very little fuel. People like it because it’s different and fun in its own way.

Car

Audi 100

The Audi 100 is a bigger car made years ago that was known for being well-built and comfortable. It’s not a fast or sporty car but good for regular driving.

Car

Renault 5

The Renault 5 is a small car that was popular because it was easy to park and fun to drive. Some versions were made to be faster and sportier than normal cars.

Car

Audi S3

The Audi S3 is a small, fast car that's good for daily driving and fun to drive. Some people argue if it really counts as a 'hot hatch' because it has fancy features and all-wheel drive.

Car

Alpine A290

The Alpine A290 is a small, fast car made mostly for racing a long time ago. It’s different from regular small cars because it was built to be very light and quick.

Car

Mini Cooper S

The Mini Cooper S is a small, fast car made by BMW. It's fun to drive and looks cool, often called a hot hatch because it's a sporty hatchback car.

Company

McLaren

McLaren is a company that makes very fast and fancy cars, especially for racing. They use special designs to make their cars go faster and handle better.

Car

Ferrari F40

The Ferrari F40 is a very fast and special sports car made a long time ago. It was one of the last cars made by the founder of Ferrari himself and is famous for being really powerful and rare.

Car

Rolls-Royce Phantom

The Rolls-Royce Phantom is a very expensive and fancy car that is made to be super comfortable and special. The Drophead version is the one you can drive with the roof down like a convertible.

Car

Rolls Royce Phantom Drophead

The Phantom Drophead is a fancy Rolls Royce that you can drive with the roof down. It has special wood on the back and is made to be very stylish and comfortable.

Term

triple black

'Triple black' means the car is black on the outside, inside, and even the wheels or details are black, making it look very cool and serious.

Term

one owner

When a car is called 'one owner,' it means only one person has owned it since it was new. This usually means the car has been taken good care of.

Term

teak decking

Teak decking means the car has special wooden panels made from a strong and nice-looking wood called teak. This wood is often used on fancy boats and gives the car a very classy look.

Concept

full size convertible

A full size convertible is a big, fancy car that you can drive with the roof down. It's roomy and very comfortable, and not many of these cars are made anymore.

Concept

NASCAR

NASCAR is a type of car race in the U.S. where drivers race special cars around oval tracks, often bumping into each other while trying to win.

Car

Lancia Delta

The Lancia Delta is a small car from Italy that became famous because it was very good at racing on rough roads. People like it because it looks cool and has a sporty history.

Brand

Jaguar

Jaguar is a company from Britain that makes fancy and fast cars. They have been around for a long time and are famous for their cool designs.

LIVE

Hello and welcome to the Carp Podcast with Chris Harris and his friends. I join you from

Salt Lake City talking on my iPhone with the unmistakable phone roof tiles of a very budget

holiday inn behind me, living the high life. Neil's in London, manages in London, Chris

is near London. A little factoid to start the podcast for you. You'll know who sent

this in, but did you know that the BMW logo is not propellers at all? It's just the colours

of the Bavarian flag. None of us knew that. I read that and thought, I was always told

it was the propellers. We called it the propellers. It's just the colours of a flag. Again, we

made a story up because we fancied it. It was nothing like the reality. We're going to start

with a subject that we haven't covered in any detail recently. We've gone more is more.

We've gone less is less. Now we're going to decide what's better, more or less. I feel

a bit like Clive James now with the Sardonic, We're Wasting Your Time style journalism,

but we're not going to waste your time any further and Neil Clifford can start with his

summary of whether he prefers more or less. Well, I think that we have to say it's both

obviously, don't we? Because we are addicts. We like cool and uncool. We like slow, but

we like fast. We like big, but we quite like small. We like old, but we really quite like

new. I think the reality is we like anything that's got any connection to cars. And therefore,

you can have your cake and eat it when it comes to automobiles, can't you? If you've got the

addiction, if it's all you think about. So I would just say that more and less.

Believe what I love. I love it when when we give off self rules, and we just ignore them in the

first two minutes. Chris, Chris Cooper, you go or less, or you go easy on them both.

I'm torn. I'm just so torn. And I can't stop thinking about burgers since last week. And then

you think, you know, at Christmas parties, sometimes people have those little mini burgers

from Marks and Spence. You think, Oh, God, they're really nice. You know, it's less. It's definitely

it's that it's a little beautifully restored MG midget or something you'd see at a Bista scramble.

You think, Oh, I could put that in my pocket and take it home. I mean, it's just less. And then

you think, you know, is it is it Goldilocks? Is it is it? It's it's not too much. It's not too little.

It's a gold GTI. It's Goldilocks. It's just, you know, just right. And then you think,

all of a twist. No, it's got to be more. It's got to be more. So I'm kind of with Neil. And I think

we're all feel this, which is there's a place for everything. There's a place for the mini M&S burger

Goldilocks and all of a twist and all shades. And you know, the mark seven,

loads of people this week have said to me that mark seven golf mark 7.5 golf 1.4 GTI.

Honestly, if you just had to have one, can't you have that? And then you think,

but then my my sausage has been in the workshop being fixed for the last two months and it's

coming it's coming back next week with all 621 horsepower. And I just can't wait for it.

Yeah, it's all of the above. We could do more or less.

Just just for avoidance of doubt, there is no such thing as a 1.4 GTI. You're all going to

be in the comments saying he doesn't always talking about GTI. Yeah. So manage more or less.

I haven't been able to get the hamburger out of my mind either. And I don't I actually don't eat

beef. So this becomes a slightly abstract conversation. But there's a brilliant filmmaker

called Whit Stillman, who he won an Oscar for, I think for his very, very first film called

Metropolitan, which I think was a very clever take on sense and sensibility set in the Upper

Preside of New York in the 90s. And then his second film was a film called Barcelona about

these two kind of upper class Americans who find themselves in Barcelona in the early 80s,

when this sort of terrorism and all the rest of it going on. It's a very gentle comedy, by the way.

And there's a running joke through it. All the Spanish have this cliche about Americans

eating hamburgers. And how disgusting hamburgers are compared to hamburgers.

They assume Americans put horrible sloppy things on it. And the very last scene,

both these men find love in America, in Spain, and they take their brides back or their girlfriends

back to Chicago, which is where they live. And they're on the lake, they've got this beautiful

lake from home. And what they do is they make these girls, these very sophisticated Spanish girls,

a proper hamburger. And all a proper hamburger is, it is literally the bun. I don't know if they

even put butter on it. They don't put any ketchup on it or anything like that. And they just put

this perfect burger inside. And the film ends with these two Spanish girls munching into a proper

hamburger, just bun and burger. And they just smile. Because they kind of get America.

They get, you know, America can be very sophisticated, perhaps in a way that's

unsophisticated as far as Europeans go. So my answer is less. I just think, I just think less.

I don't think less always. I think you can have a car collection like Bernie, but is having 700

cars is that a collection? Or is that some kind of, I mean, do you have time to even look at a car

twice? Have you got a collection that big? You can, I saw, I just went to pick Lola, but Ken,

high performance, she's working, I'm poorer. But they actually had a, they had the 25th anniversary,

they had a 25th anniversary, couldn't touch their black one. And I looked at them, I just,

just, you know, didn't float any of my boats. The simplest cars in there, like a gorgeous old

Dino, a simple 355 with nothing much done to it. I think the original 911. So simple hamburger,

even though I don't eat beef, two bits of bread, a perfectly made burger. It can't be better than

that. Look at those beautiful Spanish girls faces. So I always try to take notes and manage his

talking because there's a lot to catch up on. First of all, I want to apologize to any listeners

for him using the phrase two girls munching, because that was misleading with where the story

was going. And second of all, I love the impassioned plea for less, as he talks about collecting his

456, which I think is one of the most complicated cars ever made. And I think, I remember once

someone telling me has more control units in it than any other road car, because it was right at

that cross section of technology where there are massive demands for electronics, but the, but the

processes, the units still quite big. So part of the problem with the 456 was trying to find

enough floor space to stash all the ECUs, wasn't it? Because wherever you lift the carpet, there's

a control unit in the 456. So I love it, Manish. I love the impassioned plea as you drive along in

what I think is ostensibly more. But I agree with you. And actually, I just want the 456,

can't stop looking at 456 again this week, bastard. So I think I like the, I like the

fence setters and the ones that, you know, the two amongst us who just go, we're all in this

together and everything else. But ultimately, I'm gonna, I'm gonna tell the truth. I want to be the

person that projects less. But the older I get, the more I enjoy more. That's it. That's it for me.

I want so I want everyone to think that I drive round in a lotus that's made from swans wings

and unicorn foreskins and it weighs like eight kilograms. And all I do is drive along talking

about steering fill with, you know, LJK set right tattooed on my forearm. But actually,

the older I get, the more I quite like having an air conditioned driver's seat.

And maybe that's part of the shame of age is that I'm, I'm of all the things I'm comfortable

with through age, gray hairs, big tummies, other things wanting more salt on my food.

What's that all about? Why do you want more salt on your food as you get older?

I, the acceptance that I have to say that I, I quite like an S class are quite like a Bentley.

I'm getting there. I love, I love the less, but all too often when I, when I'm, when I'm embracing

less, I get cold, I get wet. I get stuck in traffic with a heavy clutch. And I think

I'll sod this. I wish I had more. And I suppose I, I'm, I'm, I'm hoping there'll be some comments

after this that say, we get what you're saying. So I'll, I'll wear the t-shirt of less and secretly

I'll be running. I'll be running away to jump into more ones. The photo shoots over.

Yeah. Is that fair? Yeah.

Exactly how we are still. Okay. It's fair.

A brilliant to drive car for 3000 pounds. This has just been posed blanket. I think it's a rather

good one to think about actually. So I'm going to hand over to Chris Cooper first.

I had a lot of fun with this. So I went to car on classic. It's not quite 3000 pounds, but bloody

hell. I found that it is. It's a mini Cooper convertible. It's a 2008 59,000 miles. It's got that

beautiful caramel, Cadbury's caramel with the bunny rabbit interior and lovely sort of light

silvery gold outside the right wheels clear glass 3495 pounds on classic. How much unadulterated,

fun, brilliant to drive. Spring is in the air. It was 16 degrees in London yesterday.

I just thought crikey O'Reilly that is system. Okay. It's not quite three and three grand,

but you know, it's within spitting distance of it. I just think that would be mega. There were so

many things on car on classic that I thought crikey O'Reilly you could have lots of minis

actually lots of nice sort of unspoilt fiesters, which are pretty, but I thought that for me

that mini Cooper convertible was a winner. I think I think what's what I've realized here

when you've said that and I thought about it as I had a little troll as well is that we've worded

this poorly. Something cool to drive or great to drive, key being driving enjoyment for 3000

pounds should really be buy yourself a shit car treat instead of buying a new car. So a lot of

people, you know, are looking around and thinking can't afford a new car. Don't reckon they're worth

the money. What am I going to do? Keep what you've got and buy yourself a little shit car treat on

the side. A little bit of fun, a little bit that it's not disposable. It's still a lot of money,

but I've done it throughout my life. And actually you end up using them the whole time. So if you're

there or getting a bit of pressure from the other half, whatever it is, and they're saying,

don't buy another car, just do it, ignore them, buy another car, but make sure it's make sure it's

so cheap that when they have a go at you, you can say, come on, it's pretty cheap. Managed,

what's your shit car on the side for 3000 pounds? It's good to drive.

A car in classic 2750 black on black on black MX five manual 117,000 miles. 2001, it's got the

most beautiful interior with some little tiny bit of red piping on the car. I mean, look at this.

So the Batmobile, isn't it? Can you see that? Good that it's absolutely, I am actually weekly

seriously falling in love now with three, three cars apart from the R107 that Silver Shadow 2

starting to really, I've had a few messages about this, this MX five thing

highly under. I bet I could get an absolute stunner for, I don't know, eight grand.

Five. Yeah, yeah. Something like that. Goodness me, I want, I want like, okay, Neil.

Well, the good thing about, are we sponsored by car and classics? I'm not sure. The good

thing about car and classics is you can set your price on the app. Yeah.

What I would say, Tom, and your lots of people sitting in bedrooms, you can only set it for

two and a half thousand or five thousand. Yes. Maybe suggest that you do it in thousand pound

increments. So every week we could do a 3000, 4000, 5000. The other thing I would politely suggest

as an improvement is it brings up all the POA cars. Yes, same time. Which POA obviously should be banned

from car and classics. But somehow there needs to be a filter to take, because suddenly I'm like,

oh, I can get an F50 from DK Engineering. You saw that. It doesn't really work that, does it?

But then I thought, okay, let's be sensible. I'll do it at two and a half because, you know, that's

fine. I was going to do five, but I'm not going to negotiate a five grand car down a three. So I

went to an a half. And then what's the only thing that really you need to be scared of when you're

buying a cool shit cheap car is you don't want big bills. You don't want to be the muppet that

does three grand on a car and suddenly you've got a four grand bill to fix it. So therefore,

my brain took me to Japanese because you're just going to have less risk, aren't you?

We know you've got massive problems with Japanese cars. I do, I do, I do. But, you know,

you're going to keep this a year. You're going to have fun in it and then you're going to trade it

for something else. It's going to be one of those little, it's going to be one of those move it on

every year and have a three grand bit of fun with something else. But I would, I was really worried

about going the Merck and BMW route because you're in the 80s or the 90s. You're going to have a

couple of grand bill. I think it's less likely if you go basically Mazda or Honda. I knew Manish

would choose the MX-5. So I went, I went Honda and I went a little Civic Type S VTEC 2010.

It's only got 181,000 miles on it. And I'm sure in the ad somewhere it says that's only 18,000 miles

on an annual basis. So it's not really high mileage. It's just very, very old. And it's manual. It's

got that lovely, unbreakable little Japanese interior that switches from a 1972 Honda record.

So it's never going to go wrong. It's two and a half grand. You're going to bid him to, you're

going to meet in the middle and you've got 800 quid to, I don't know, get the MOT done or whatever

shit you need to do on an old car basically. So yeah, I think it's fabulous. Chris is dead right.

And actually I was chatting to a mate who was talking about upgrading his car and I'm like,

keep that car. Chris is dead right. Keep that car. You buy a new car. Frankly,

it's going to be more expensive. And as we know, possibly not as good, sadly, buy yourself a little

five grand weekend fun car. Do you like cars? Get yourself something you've always dreamed of.

They're not as expensive as you think. Get yourself a bloody box though because we know

that's always the answer and drive to the middle of Wales with your wife and have a Sunday lunch.

That thing you said about the website, I actually quite like that because you set

it between five grand and two and a half. Yeah. And then do you do it ascending price

or descending price? Whichever is closest to the match, right? You always do it descending price

because you look at the ones that are above your budget and you think, God, just for a little bit

more, I could get something else. It's totally fine, obviously. It's just so tempting to sort

of, because I had the same reaction and I thought, oh, actually, it's just opened the door to,

if it was 4,000, I could justify that. I could find that. I could do something. I could work an extra

day at the weekend and do something. So it's just lovely. So there's a lot of great cars on there

for a lot. I tell you what, classifieds are everything. They really are. So my solution to

this is a little bit tangential because I've been almost currently on the classifieds because I've

been on aeroplanes and sort of jet lag. Is there a better time to be on car and classic than between

the hours of 2.30 and 5 in the morning when you're stuck in a hotel or jet lag? Without it, I don't

Fassal Vega keeps coming up again. It's like a window into one's mind and madness, isn't it?

FFs. And I thought, do you know what? I'll start looking at the cheap stuff now and I've had all

sorts of tackle that I really love. But then I thought back to the sentence, brilliant to drive.

What does brilliant to drive mean? And are you really going to find that at £3,000 or less?

I'd argue that is going to be tougher because look at the cars you've chosen. That Honda Civic,

that's not going to be brilliant to drive. Chris Cooper, that Mini, by his high standards,

he'll have fun in it. But will it be brilliant to drive? Manage is probably the closest to it,

although I've got a famously difficult relationship with the MX-5. Then you define

what makes a brilliant drive. Is it the car or the place? You'll see where I'm going with this.

So maybe if you've got a bit of budget, you should go to the place and don't worry about the car.

Because if you, and I'm going to use this as my inspiration, Neil Clifford's

stories of going to Sicily, I wonder whether you could take that budget and do three trips with it

and go, and the first one should be to go to Sicily and to hire a Fiat 500. And I reckon

you'll enjoy brilliant driving. You won't matter what car you're in, because you'll be imagining

your Nino Vaccarella, you'll be imagining your whoever it is, Ralph Spomlin hammering around

there in a Porsche or whatever. And for me, that is probably the essence of brilliant driving.

At that money, that maybe you need to do it in someone else's car and go to a location that

you couldn't otherwise drive on. And all the while to make sure that this fits within the commercial

terms of our lives, just stopping down again to peruse the classifiers of car and classic to

make sure that you have kept up to date with what might have been available for £3,000 or less. How's

that? I think sometimes the brilliant to drive bit is as much about the location and the context

that is the vehicle itself. Let's talk about some car use. I haven't got much to offer here,

because I'm a bit of a zombie, I've been traveling all week. So I'm going to go first to Chris Cooper,

who's our founder of All Knowledge, and who reads them, their newspapers.

So Nina and I, I'm sure managed as well, we're as one of this, there's only one thing in news,

well there's actually two things in news, possibly three. But the most important of which is

bloody potholes. So we've been trying to do, we're going to do an emergency podcast,

now I've fed it out loud, we're going to have to do one on pothole. So on Sunday, I went out in my

that there then car to drive around taking photographs of potholes. I did feel slightly

awkward and self conscious, because you have to stand in the road to take a good photograph

of a pothole. And there are other people on the road thinking, why is that weird old bloke

standing there sort of stooped over looking at the hole in the ground? I found, look, I mean,

just, you know, who hands up, who has run over a pothole in the last, I mean, just we all have.

So there's potholes. I can't just, in the UK right now, it's as bad as it's ever been. I saw

an article yesterday in The Times Online, which said, there's going to be really bad hay fever

this summer, because of the of the recent dry spell. And all of the comments are about 3000

comments, all said the same thing. What in dry spell? It's been raining since November. Have

you seen the road? So yeah, potholes. Potholes. This news about Aston Martin is very sad.

So looking to lay people off. I mean, I know that we have a pop now and again,

but the idea that people might lose their jobs is frankly, shattering. It's horrible.

And I, I suppose the only thing I'll say is this, this, the secret supercar owner who,

who, who's I think Instagram page is, is easily the most rigorous investigation or

deconstruction of these, these sort of corporate statements and the, and the accounts that they

present to us normal people or, or investors. I can't really untangle them because I'm really

fucking stupid, but he does translate them, I think. Well, sometimes we've quite an age, I say,

he's quite partisan, but he's been most of us towards Aston Martin for a while now.

And this, this really is proving his point. I think it's very sad. And again,

the, the blame is, is always on something else. It's always the market's done this or someone's

done this to them. It's never, but they might have got things wrong themselves. I don't know

the answer to that. I just hope everyone's going to be all right there. I really do.

And I wish Aston Martin was, was doing better than it is. So that's all I'll say on the subject.

But yeah, it's in the news for all the wrong reasons. And it's a staggering amount of money

that's, that's been spent on its post IPO and none of it's come back at all. Manage.

Am I really something in the Financial Times today about profits rebounding massively for

the big three in America post Trump EPA and getting rid of the EV subsidies? And if you saw

that article this morning, Neil, but Chris, but there's a little caveat to that, which is,

okay, great. They're making ICs again. They're forecasting, you know, very expensive new car

sales. But the worry is whether that leaves a great big hole at the bottom end of the market

for less well off consumers. And it looks like Trump will come to some kind of accommodation

with China. There will be a trade deal between America and China and whether this is actually

ushering a new era of Chinese EV hegemony, because we know they can make those cars,

they can make them very, very well, they can sell them without the subsidies. And,

you know, if, if the future of mass transportation is a little bit like the future of the washing

machine with this sort of lovely pleasurable ICE or, you know, hybrid on the side, then you do

wonder whether this is some massive own goal in America. I mean, I think we all agree that the

mandated targets, those dates, I'm sure genius civil servants came up with them, you know, 2030,

2035. And it produced exactly what we said was going to happen, putting something was going to go

wrong, something was going to give. But I do wonder whether this is a bit of a chimera, this, this,

you know, this rebound for ICs in the short run, a quick jump in share price for GM share

price has gone up something like 75%. You know, it's been that much of a bounce back. Jim Farley

is very happy. I think forwards up 50. So in the short run, fantastic. In the long run, you know,

which way are cars going to go? Because, you know, the next president of the United States may switch

back. I had a very strange day yesterday because I drove from Los Angeles to Willow Springs Raceway,

which singers now part of, you know, they're doing interesting things there. And then we went to,

we drove all the way to Salt Lake City tonight. So we've done, we've come, you know, a long way

in land. And we went past easily the biggest solar farms and wind farms that I've ever seen.

I saw a wind farm community that looked almost dystopian in its density and just how many there

were. And the solar farms that they're building out here are, they're so vast that I don't think

Europeans could really understand the size of them. So the move to renewables in this country is

much, much bigger than people realize. So it's inevitable at some point that their transportation

will change from gasoline to electric, unless they really are saying, well, we're going to keep that

to one side for domestic and for industry. But it looks like they'll be producing so much more

than they need for that, that the cars will come. It's very interesting. I wonder whether Donald

is saying, maybe he has the, the strategic mind to say, well, for now, I see is the right answer.

But in 15 years time, when we've got all this stuff and running, there'll be no justification for it

at all. It does feel like it's going that way, because the amount of renewable that I saw is

ridiculous. I mean, there is a place for where you can put them on the ground, solar and wind

and California, which has always been more disposed towards it will do that. In places like the UK,

lots of solar panels appear on farms and we live on a farm. And our view is that farms are for

farming. And there's, you know, you can still find these very limited uses you can make of land that

you've put solar panels on, how long do they last, who's going to take them away? I think there is

something what Manage says, there is an F1 is a great example of this. If the current F1 regulations

have been written with the understanding we have of the world now, rather than back in 2021,

we wouldn't be talking about super clipping or lift and coast, we'd be talking about how

bloody fine. That's not for now, that's for a later segment. So we'll do that in a minute.

Neil Clifford. Two little things jumped to mind. One was, which I thought was quite good news,

because I love the new Defender. And we all want Jaguar Land Rover to bounce back from all of the

drama of the last 18 months. I know they've got their little Jaguar drama, which God knows where

that's going, but certainly Land Rover, great brand, great product. The Defender Sport is coming.

And I know there's this sort of complicated strategy of Defender being a brand and, you know,

trying to make Defender a bigger thing than just being part of a model of a Land Rover. But anyway,

I thought Defender Sport, which is going to be a sporty, maybe smaller, I don't know how they make

it smaller than the 90, but anyway, I thought the more great product that those guys can do

the better, because we want them to bounce back and be much more, you know, as profitable as

they were or even more profitable. The other thing that I did feel like, oh my God, you don't need

to do that is the Resto Mod 355. Oh God. I'm like, oh, you know, I don't want to be negative. I love

everybody. I love everything. But please don't fuck with that. You don't need to. You can buy a

great one for 125 grand. You don't need to go and make a worse one for 800 grand. I was a little bit

like, oh my God. And if you see the interior, you're like, no, you don't, you know, fair enough,

sing as one thing or that lancy of things, cool, or there's lots of, you know, the the

integrally thing was good. I don't know whether you need to go there. It's a bit sacred, the

355, even though I think the 360 is better. Yeah. But I thought, oh, please no, is that jumping the

shark? It's a burger with caviar, swans liver, and a gold leaf wrapped bun. Swans liver burger.

Just saw the pictures of it and just thought, well, can you imagine what was just why?

Just leave it alone. Leave it alone. Someone gives you, someone hands you the most beautifully

cooked ribeye steak, and they've got it all right. They've got the sear right. It's got that crust

is right. Sorry, managed to bring it back to a beef analogy. It's rather crude. And then someone

just throws fucking ketchup all over it. So I just leave it alone. I quite right.

If I'm to use a more grown up analogy, there was always, you realize that the judges on

Britain's Got Talent or the singing one were actually brilliant at what they did, because

they had a great understanding of who should actually have a go at tackling certain songs.

And also, certain songs were just off, but you left them alone, didn't you?

Someone coming in and trying to do Aretha respect, and immediately they just went,

no, don't go there. You just don't go there. That's what this is. This is the car equivalent

of someone trying to do Aretha Franklin's respect. There's no point. This is the thing.

You've not actually done a bad job. It was just impossible for you to ever do a good job. It's

my slightly CEO brain of some moments is the door is being left open by the fact there's not

enough interesting new cars. Where's the new 918 for 800 grand or a million quid or whatever?

I know we talked about Porsche last week. There's more rich people in the world than ever before.

There's tons of money available to buy amazing cars, but the industry isn't providing them,

maybe through all the things we've talked about. And therefore, the door is open for people to

make a 355 for 800 grand and sell 50 of them. And they probably will because there's so many

wealthy people in the world and so many people still love cars and want to look great and show

off and all the things we all do a little bit. So I think it's put the pressure back on the brands

that we actually love. Make some great new cars. Neil, I mean, the elephant in the room, the obvious

statement is why aren't Ferrari making the new 355? Not a Resto-modded 355, but where's the

beautiful Ferrari? I think it's really hard for a manufacturer to do Resto-mod. I don't mean the

Resto-mods, I just mean... I think Ferrari, I mean, we debate the Ferrari thing a lot, don't we?

I think Ferrari are the best at thinking forward and creating new products for people that, you know,

want to buy new cars. I think there's opportunity for other marks, I think, to fit into that space,

too. But if we come back to this, oh, my computer's just woken up. How brilliant I've waited an hour

for that. And we come back to this. This is a Resto-mod conversation, right? So I think what

is clear is that the car designers design cars. They're incredibly talented people. But the Resto-mod

thing is a very particular skill in terms of design. And, you know, I absolutely believe that Rob

Dickinson of Singer is the preeminent talent of our generation at that. You know, you just go and look

at the latest, the turbo they've done, and just look at it up close at the details, and the little

naughty plays to the little details of the original car. It's so clever. It's like a little dance.

It's a little sort of ditty around the original car. It's so delicate and respectful. And I just

look at that 355, and I just think it's just a sledgehammer compared to Rob. So, but I do think

it's incredibly difficult for these car makers. You know, they can't compete with this stuff.

They can't. They can't. Do you think one of the reasons why you make a good point there, I've

thought often thought about why the 911 seems to have lent itself to some very, very impressive

interpretations when the 355 clearly doesn't. And it's part of the reason because the 911 in its

period had so many different manifestations, racing cars, different kinds of road cars.

The racing cars looked like 911s. You know, that Jager Meister 934 is recognizably a 911,

but it looks fantastic. And I think Rob and his team have had a fantastic eye for thinking about

those cues through time and say, I'm going to take that and just see how far I can take it. Whereas

the 355 has always just been a 355. It's a very hard canvas to do anything other than the old

I think that's right. Yeah. And spoil it. The Mini, the original Mini is another example. Do you

think that appeared in Chris? You sent us that fantastic little clip this morning of an original

Mini. It's just wonderful. I actually wondered whether that was your mum, actually. No, that was

1980s. It was a well past era. But I think, yeah, it's fascinating. I'll tell you a couple of bits

of news, my news this week. A very lovely anecdote. I went to lovely Peter at GP Customs and Classics

place where he trimmed the intergrali trim the the BMW. And we met a couple of people from Alpine

Europe as in the Hi-Fi lot. And they were from Japanese HQ and they've worked in Europe for a

while. And I won't tell you what we talked about. But they looked at the installation on the

intergrali. The idea of me when I was 17 years old, having my little car looked at by the people

from Alpine, it's be like having just be like having, I don't know, DH Lawrence, mark your

homework when you're in an essay about sons and lovers, you know, it was like having that level

of sort of scrutiny. I loved it. And they looked around the car and they love what they saw.

And I thought it was brilliant. But the best bit for me was that these two Japanese people,

man and woman, were really sort of respectful of this car. And they asked me a few questions

about how it had been done. And they dawned on me about five minutes before I left that they

thought that I owned the entire garage and that was my job. They had absolutely no idea what I

did for a living whatsoever, even though they'd been told they were meeting someone from the

television, they thought that was the other person. So actually, they they thought all along

that I was the bloke that did all the installation. So I was very, I must be a good blogger. The other

thing that we had there is, I'm quite excited about this, is I won't say his name now, but an

individual that I've communicated with on on Instagram, that doesn't always go well. I don't

do much of it. When I wanted some bigger wheels for my 16 valve intergrali, said I've got I've

made them, I've designed them. And he has made and designed and delivered to me a set of 16 inch

wheels for my intergrali, which I think are going to look spectacular. So I'll keep you updated on

that. But so that isn't it funny how for us for car lovers, the big news is the is the thing that

happens to your car that week, you can have this seismic news going around you. But all you're

thinking about is I want to see my new wheels or I want to see my new leather interior or I want

to see what my car looks like after it's been serviced or but really, we should just we should

take all this. What what matters to me this week in my weird little car sphere is what matters.

Yes. Yeah. Okay. Let's let's go on to one silly sentence that makes you smile from classic car

adverts. I think we can probably move it to just car adverts can't be rather than just classic.

But but I think I think that we'll all have a few here. Neil Clifford can go first. This is his

subject. Oh, I've got probably all of got so only some slight sagging to the headliner.

Every fucking Land Rover, every Jaguar, half the 80s BMWs and Mercedes, I just it always

cracks me up that I get I give you one one more because otherwise I just take the whole thing.

Original panels and paint on a nine six four RS. Never. It just doesn't exist that. These cars

were battered around the whole of the 90s. Original panels and paint. You totally know almost

when that's written, you know, because they're over compensating for the truth.

That's Chris Cooper. Yes, they give us one. Never welded. Yes.

Ran when parked in 1987. Yeah. Yeah. My wife says it has to go. And the last one is

slight smell of petrol and regret, which I thought was brilliant.

I think one of my favourites is always. I know it's very basic, but it still makes no

sense to me is no test pilots. Well, I'm not a pilot. I don't have a pilot's license,

but I'm going to buy it. I sort of need to drive it. I'm not going to drive. I'm not going to buy

a static object. Am I? So no test pilots. What does that mean? Manage over to you.

This phrase, I find it all the time. Tidy runner first to see will buy one lady owner.

Perfect tryout. I've viewed a thousand cars before I finally settled on this particular one.

Oh, that's a brilliant one. Yeah. Yeah, discrimination. But this one, I thought this

was great. There was a guy who was a DJ. He was the king of the Corn Belt in America in the 70s.

His name was Larry Lujak, and he gave he gave people this advice. When buying a used car,

punch the buttons on the radio. If all the stations are rock and roll, there's a good chance of

transmissions fucked. I mean, you must have a couple more written down. Okay. Well, a wonderful

pattern, which obviously means it's all a bit shabby and shit. There's always, as Manage says,

almost just one family ownership, which obviously means not at all. I do likely,

which equates to only 4,000 miles a year. When you're looking at a 1971 Mercedes,

3 million miles. Yeah. How can we get around the fact that it's got 122,000 miles on the car?

So I think, I mean, you're right, Chris, really. We like magazines for all of the

lovely stories and all of that. But actually, the best bit of magazines, the best bit of online car

searching is the ads. That bloke that wrote the advert for the Escort Mark III RS Turbo that we

shared around is one of the best things I've ever read. Was he referred to bedwetters and people

that still live? If you still live with your mum and wear an RS Turbo jacket, I'm not interested.

If you want to tell me that I need my, that you know, a better bush for my front suspension,

please stay away. It's so true. But yeah, I suppose sometimes when I read an advert, and I have

to think of a good example, manage your onion, you're back again. The is that I think to myself,

oh, this is good. This is good. This is absolutely bang on. This is this is informational. It's

entertaining. And you've got it. And then and then you think, oh, no, why did you write that?

You've just bugged it all up. Yeah, you know, you get to that point, you go, oh, you had me there.

I was all along. I was almost going to give you a ring. And then you've suddenly written at the end,

POA or you've written no offers. Well, what do you mean no offers? I mean, you did the whole

point of this is it's a sale. Yeah, you have there has to be an offer. You don't, you know,

no one just offers the asking price of a house. So why should it be different for a car? I do like

recent recommissioning. Yeah, recently recommissioned. Yeah, that's right. Literally,

it's been on bricks for a decade. Yeah. And I love this one. When people when people start to

use language that they or verbs they would never use in normal life, subjects to a major restoration.

Who says subject? I love that subject to major restoration in 1998. That's 28 years ago.

Subject to reasonable indifference for most of its life.

I think restorations of 10 years or longer. That's all a bit flaky, isn't it? Also, I love it when

you go particularly with Ferrari and Porsche and BMW as well. You get this just right hand drive.

It really hammers the right hand drive bit. And then when you dig down, it says delivered new to

Johannesburg in 1988. You're like, Oh, right. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, yeah. The flaky right hand drive

delivered cars. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Love all those. Yeah. Here we go. Let's move on to

Oh, our hot hatch quiz. Yeah. Right. I'm going to show you some pictures and name the car.

Right. This doesn't help our audio listeners. What are we going to do here? Well, I'm going to show

I'm going to name the car. Okay, right. Okay. And then you're going to tell me whether it is a hot

hatch or not hot hatch. And I'm going to tell you what the real answer is. Everybody clear?

The first one is a BMW 135. Yes. Hot hatch. No, not at all. Christopher is right. It's not a hot

hatch. A BMW can't be a hot hatch. Exactly. Okay. The next one is a Fiat Uno Turbo i.e.

Absolutely as hot as hatches get. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It is a hot hatch. It is a hot hatch.

Until it isn't. Because I'm just not sure it's cool enough to be a hot hatch. Well, it's cool.

Put it this way. You've missed one point. When an auto car in 1987 or 86 did its hot hatch round

up, would that car have been in there at the top of the pack or near the top? Yes, it would. So

that's why it's in. Okay. All right. That was one of my on the border ones. This one,

Citroen AX GT. Oh. Now, I was just close to my heart. I'm going to say that is a warm hatch

because it's not quite fast enough in a straight line. I don't think that's a hot hatch.

I would have sort of said it was, but maybe hot. Maybe hot to me is Madras, but you're more

foul, Harris. Yeah. I love them. I'm not sure they're quite, I mean, they're brilliant cars,

but are they fast enough in a straight line? Well, yeah, on paper they are. They do under,

they do 60 and under nine seconds. Maybe actually, I'm telling you now, a hot hatch has got to do

60 and under eight seconds. Under nine. Under nine. You can't say eight, nine. Under nine.

Yeah. I think it's definitely a hot hatch. Okay. Because it's so much more, more than the standard

AX. The gap between them and the standard AX. And when you drove one of these, my brother had one

of these, one on one on F, black, those wheels in it that I've just shown in the picture, there is no

way you'd have driven that in the late 80s, early 90s and not thought, oh, I'd rather be in a 205

GTI or a Renault 5, I mean, I think 100% a hot hatch. An original early model, Audi S3.

Not a hot hatch. I don't think it is. Agreed. It's not a hot hatch because it's just too much.

And it's four-wheel drive. It's just not.

Mark 7.5 Golf GTI. Hot hatch. Yes, definitely. I think it is definitely a hot hatch.

Definitely never a hot hatch. The Alpine A290 or whatever it's called.

Not remotely a hot hatch. Quick. Can it be electric? I think that's...

And as our producer said, the reason why it's not a hot hatch is the car in which it's based,

that Renault 5 thing is much cooler. Therefore, it cannot be a hot hatch.

I think he's right. Got a couple more. That's how he'd be busy.

That is foul hot hatch. That is almost the definitive British hot hatch.

Is that not too long? Doesn't it fail on the too long test? Oh, my God.

It's almost too long, yes, but I think it's so cool. I so desperately wanted one of those.

Oh, sure, yeah. It's got a boot. It's got a boot.

It's a fabulous... It's not a hot hatch. It's not a hot hatch.

Because in period, we all knew there was shit. No, that's not true.

That's not true. The front wheel drive, the turbo lag,

everybody wanted to like them, but we knew... I'll say that one.

I'm going to show you. This is a good test.

The original in red Ford XR3 without the injection. I think that is a hot hatch.

Yeah, for sure. That is a hot hatch because that was Ford's very first hot hatch.

As this photograph shows for those who are watching in black and white,

it does have that fantastic wheel arch gap. Even in this 2D photograph,

which I'm holding up and waving in front of the camera, you can still see

epic levels of negative camber on the front wheel. It wasn't great to drive, but it was a hot hatch.

They were great wheels. Go on to YouTube and watch Jackie Stewart describing how great it is to drive.

There's a video of we, Jackie, driving it.

I think he might have been incentivised commercially to be saying such things.

The original BMW Mini Cooper S.

It's the most complicated one you've shown so far. I'm going to wait until the end to answer this.

Go on.

Japs.

I don't naturally think it's a hot hatch.

That can't be a hot hatch on the basis of the wheel.

I would say no.

It's less cool than its predecessor. On the basis of that rule, it's not a hot hatch.

So my thoughts on this are which bring in another criteria.

When it was new, I didn't think it was a hot hatch because it was too grown up.

It was made by BMW and it seemed to push style over sort of scratching ability over a B road.

But now I think it is a hot hatch because people are buying them and really enjoying them as

little performance cars and they're tuning them and it's got a whole community of people that

use it as a driving device and go faster than it.

So I think it wasn't a hot hatch when it's new, but I think it is now.

It's transitioned.

I'm not sure it is a hot hatch and I refer again to our esteemed producer

who said to me when I showed in his photograph, the problem with the original BMW Mini Cooper S is,

you can't tell it's a Mini Cooper S.

You can. You always could.

No, you can't because you can put that chilli pack on any of the bloody cars.

No, originally you couldn't. For the first two years, you couldn't.

It looked different.

We had one. We had one.

You could only get the centre exhaust on that car.

Well, okay, but you could put the wheels on on the white roof.

But none.

Get on the centre exhaust. Come on. No, no, no, no. You got to concede that.

And the bonnet hole.

Yeah, yeah.

But it didn't look, it looked like too much of the same car.

So for that reason, I don't think it looked or felt different enough to be the hot hatch.

Now, I think it is.

Okay, I've got two more. I've got two more.

Wow.

I've got loads more, but we'll just do two.

I'm holding up a picture of a late model VW Golf GTI Mark III.

Hot hatch or not hot hatch?

Yes, yes, yes.

Oh, for me, no. On paper, it's a hot hatch.

It's one of the worst hot hatches I've ever driven.

Absolute dog shit.

But it is, because it's a shit hot hatch.

It still means it's a hot hatch.

That's a really good answer.

I can't argue against it, but in my head, it's not.

The right answer is it's not.

Because if you'd owned one of these in period, like I did,

Yeah.

It was really, really disappointing in terms of,

is it that step up from a non-GTI Golf?

It didn't have the golf ball, golf gear lever.

It just felt too much like a middle of the ribs.

It was a lovely car, but it wasn't a hot hatch.

No, but a shit omelet. Still a fucking omelet, isn't it?

No, it's not.

Now, that is a t-shirt. That is a t-shirt.

Right, Finley, write that down.

Right, last one.

This is going to be the most contentious,

not we haven't had some contention already.

106 Rally, phase one.

I think it is.

The only classification you could say is a mini-hot hatch.

You know, it's a bit small in my head for a hot hatch.

You get a mini-hot hatch.

Yes, you can. Yes, it's a hot hatch.

I think it is.

It is. It's probably the size of your original mini.

I think this is complicated.

I'm going to answer this one.

Okay, so it is a hot hatch for the following reasons,

and it's complicated.

It shouldn't be a hot hatch because it should sit below what was the 106XSI,

which was the obvious hot hatch, because that's the homologation special.

The problem was the 106XSI actually wasn't as fast as they wanted it to be,

and that ended up being a faster car.

So actually, I'd say that was the hot hatch of the range,

and the 106XSI, which I had the misfortune to own as well,

really was a shit car, was the warm hatch.

So that was the hot hatch, and it was the warm hatch,

whereas Chris Cooper was expecting me to say it's a warm hatch

because there was a car above it in the range.

No.

But I don't think the car above it was any good.

So I think this is interesting and complicated,

because I think the 106 rally is a different genre.

It's a homologation specialty thing,

because this was built so that they could do stuff in the days

when there was Group N and Group A rallying competition.

So though it has many of the features of a hot hatch,

actually as a thing, it was built and sold for a different reason.

And therefore, technically, they're my rules.

It's not actually a hot hatch.

It's something possibly even more special,

but it's not in the XR3 genre of hot hatch.

It's obviously a terrifying future when you are in the country,

and I love the fact that you've defined it by it.

It wasn't built or sold as,

but what if it was bought as a whole hatch?

Yes, but if you have different rules,

you can have your own podcast.

Wonderful.

Yeah, next week, Chris Cooper tells,

no, we're not going to go down that route.

So let's go to a little bit of F1 testing chats.

There's plenty that's come out of the second Bahrain session.

So Manage, what do you think?

So a few quick notes.

It looks as if the pecking order is somewhere around Mercedes,

then Ferrari with their really sexy rotating rear wing,

which is very, very, very interesting.

Then after that, possibly,

the Ferrari might...

What was that?

I was cleaning the camera because it looked a bit smudgy with my moisturiser.

You look like you just punched eight people in the face.

You're definitely mainly Tira.

We've got to leave that in.

Sorry, anyone listening?

If your speaker cones have just fired out of your door pockets,

I do apologise.

That was Neil Clifford cleaning his lens.

All right, carry on.

So possibly third McLaren and possibly fourth Red Bull,

but it really is all up there.

It looks like certainly Aston Martin are in lots and lots of trouble.

So we've kind of bookended the pod a little bit with that,

in trouble on the road, in trouble with the car.

The real reason is they're saying the car's too late.

It's very radical, but there is another big problem with it.

And it was a fear of mine a little while ago,

which was the Honda engine.

And people are saying, you know,

Honda haven't left Formula One,

but I'll just remind everyone that they said

they were going to leave Formula One.

And then they have not left Formula One,

and they're saying they are behind.

I mean, the car over the two tests did 336 laps

in total with both drivers.

So not only is it not working, it's also unreliable.

And that's terrible.

And the biggest little point last night

was that the band of energy recovery,

supposed to be the threshold is meant to be 250 kilowatts,

and cars can go up to 350 kilowatts.

The Honda's struggling at the moment

to even recover 250 kilowatts.

So that means, you know, what that means is,

if you're Alonso, you're lifting and coasting much, much earlier.

You just don't, you will not have as much power.

That 50% will be, will be so much less.

And it's going to be, but it's going to be sad.

And they're saying another issue with Honda's,

they've gone for, or Aston,

they're building their first in-house gearbox

since the kind of pre-force India era.

They've been buying powertrains historically,

sort of from Mercedes, including the gearbox.

And they think this gearbox is also extremely unreliable

and they're having problems integrating it

with the standard EC, which comes from McLaren.

So I guess my summary would be,

it looks like Lewis and Schaal

are going to have a better weapon this year.

And they've come up with a wing that, it's just, it's beautiful.

So if you imagine, winglets, it's at 45 degrees.

This thing rotates 225 degrees

and goes completely horizontal.

So it's 180 plus another 45.

So this thing is, I mean,

it's going to be very difficult for people to reproduce that.

Car looks good.

People seem much happier after this test,

even though there was, you know, clipping

and lifting and coasting.

People do seem a little bit happier,

but I just think it's going to be,

certainly at the beginning of the season,

between Ferrari and Mercedes.

So it's shaken it up a little bit.

Chris Cooper.

I think Manchester has given us a very good summary.

I think the Aston Martin picture,

I think it is one of those rare moments,

or occasional moments in life,

when it is absolutely as bad and chaotic as it looks.

And I, from though, talking to those on the inside,

my sense is that there is probably a lot of frustration,

disappointment at the Silverstone base of Aston Martin with Honda.

And yeah, they've got a mountain of,

they could be behind Cadillac,

just in terms of points, if not performance.

So, and Bahrain, the other thing,

it'd be interesting to see,

because it's only just over a week away.

I'm sure it'll be fine,

and we'll enjoy the racing,

we'll be able to sort of screen out everything else.

But these cars, as Manish described,

need a circuit which allows them to regenerate energy,

because, you know, Melbourne ain't that circuit.

So, I suspect we might find lots of odd behavior,

and drivers moaning,

because actually they can't get the whole way around,

we're on full throttle,

and they're having to co-solve around.

And we'll think, I do, you know,

this formula was invented to encourage Renault to stay.

Anyone? That went well.

It was designed to encourage Honda to stay.

Don't wash out at once.

And to get Audi in.

Great to have Audi in.

So, first of all, I'd like to just think about that sort of

choreographed start line test that they did,

when Lewis just, it looks like he's got a bungee on the front of his car,

and he just fucks off towards the first corner.

Now, if you were in the other cars,

you'd be on the radio going,

lads, we've got a slight problem here,

that the dobbin from Italy is just going quite a bit faster than us.

So, Lewis must have just gone,

oh, this is good, I like a bit of this.

So, I've never seen anything like it in Formula One.

First of all, the choreographed test that we were allowed to see.

I've not seen a sort of collective start line test like that before.

I don't know whether I've missed them or not,

but I've never seen one before.

And to have one so dominant was,

I was all chasing for the others.

The other thing is, I'm anticipating something here,

because I think everyone that listens to this podcast that likes Formula One

loves the language of Formula One,

and it's fascinated by the way that the language changes with the sport.

We introduced new verbs,

some of which suddenly become part of our lexicon without us realizing.

I'm anticipating new words this year.

I think we're going to have new verbs to describe new nonsense.

There's going to be something between coasting and clipping or whatever.

It's going to be, we're going to get a new word,

and I want us to try and think in the comments,

think of what this word's going to be to describe this new behavior.

Because I think, yeah,

Strangly, I think we're going to see something this year

that we might not have seen before.

And that is, I think we're going to obviously see cars not go for overtakes,

because they fear that they'll be punished immediately afterwards.

It's happened before in Formula One many times,

but I think we're going to regularly see it as a behavior now,

as a strategic behavior.

And I think we need to name what that's called,

and you can't call it pushing out, all right?

It's got to be something more grown up than that.

Yeah, that sums up the artifice.

Yeah, yeah.

You know, there's a slight worry I've got,

which is that I understand that the deployment has to go lap by lap.

But you do wonder whether this will be a processional formula

for nine, on the basis of what you've just said, for 90% of the race.

And then there's going to be a five lap race,

you know, after the last 10, 10% of the race,

you'll be able to sort of go for everything.

Your fuel will be so positive, your battery will charge back.

I mean, who knows?

I mean, it's very...

I watched a very interesting piece of...

It was an interview with one of the F1 technical delegates

that was obviously responsible for these regulations,

and about the emission of the MG.

What's the MG that's gone?

The MGH has gone.

Into recovery.

And he was saying that the MGH was effectively abandoned,

because it was a very clever piece of technology,

but it doesn't really have any real relevance in modern road car design.

And I thought to myself, I've given two porches in the last year

that were introduced technologically to all us journalists,

based on that technology within their turbocharger.

So it was a brazen disinformation,

because it is actually something that all car makers are looking at

very closely at the moment, because it's such a clever thing.

Very strange behaviour, I thought.

Right, so let's move on to our two-car garage,

which is simply entitled, I think,

more unlimited funds.

You've got two cars, the answer is more,

and you can spend as much as you want.

Is that the case?

Yes.

More or less.

More or less, that's what I've done.

Okay, right.

Let's go to Chris Cooper first then.

So this was great fun,

because you go to the car and classic website,

and you just say, I want everything price descending.

That's fantastic.

I never use look at that end.

Well, it's brilliant.

So it's still going to be two-car garage though.

So the first thing I found, which I really loved,

was a Bentley S1 drophead coupe.

Oh, yes.

At P&A Wood.

Yeah.

I would just go there and just lick the glass.

It's a lovely place.

I've looked on Google Maps where they are.

It's actually, they've got a lovely looking site.

So I might actually go and do that.

We need to go and visit together.

Why don't we do that?

I'd love to do that.

You could show me around and tell me what I can't afford.

And then, kind of the other one,

this is where Neil's, we all privately secretly

dreamed of growing up one day and being Neil.

It's got to be the red car with a big wing on the back

that usually sits behind Neil in this podcast, an F40.

There's one at Bellsport Classic.

Not far from where I'm sitting right now,

and though I have got another bastard of a day,

I might go up and have a little chat with Tim

and work out how far from the purchase price of that car I am.

But this was brilliant.

Just go, sort everything, price descending.

And it's just wonderful.

Manish.

OK, the way I read this was you would go one more

and you would go one less.

I think that was the intention,

but I like the fact that anyone can interpret this

the way they want to and apply any price they want to

as they do every week.

This is like herding fucking cats with you lot.

Go on, Manish.

Laugh it.

Art Spring is coming.

Yesterday actually, I think it hit 17.6 degrees in central London.

So I did this yesterday and I decided two convertibles.

One more, one less.

But I wanted them both to be less in the sense

that I really wanted them to be mechanical.

I wanted them to be of a certain age.

So on Car and Classic, I found in 1967,

most important car year ever,

MGB Roadster.

And I, you know, it's a gorgeous car.

You can probably get that.

Look at that in the correct green.

It's got black interior.

It looks stunning.

I'm sure you'll be able to get that

for something like 15,000 pounds.

The great thing is 30,000 miles.

So very, very low mileage.

I thought it was rather beautiful in South Shields.

And then to go on the more side of that,

they do have a pagoda, which is going to be auctioned.

And again, look at the mileage on this,

13,930 miles for a 1969 car.

And I had a quick look.

I think you're looking at spending around 200 to 250,000 pounds.

That's my brace of convertibles for Spring.

Both very simple cars, both mechanical,

one automatic, one manual,

one 200,000 pounds, one more like 15,000 pounds,

more and less.

I'm going to go to Neil Clifford now.

Right, I've gone less and more.

Yes.

As a little contrast, a little juxtapose,

a little two car garage, we've gone...

I've really, really still got an itch for one of these.

A 1960 Losis Elite.

Oh, I love it.

Yeah, yeah.

The original.

The original, yeah.

This one, POA, it's annoying.

X Innis Island.

Oh.

Good Scottish racing driver.

He was a bit of a dude.

Beautiful dash, the dashboard on that car.

Little climax engine.

Totally going to break down the first time we tell him,

I'm going to go to Goodwood in this.

So I'm going to go down to Revival

and you're at the BP on the A3

with all the steam pissing out,

or there's going to be a drama, isn't there?

But just one of the most beautiful cars ever made, I think.

And then once you've got that,

you're going to be like, okay, where's my more?

So it's got more to me is Rolls Royce.

Rolls Royce Phantom.

Rolls Royce Phantom drop head,

just to really, you know,

triple up on the burger here with some caviar on top.

Triple black, triple black Phantom drop head.

10,000 miles from new, one owner from new.

Menacing triple black combination.

Iconic teak decking.

A super yacht for the road.

The last full size Rolls Royce convertible

with 20 inch chrome wheels.

Just take a little bit of caviar on top of that triple burger.

Look at that.

Yeah, I think that car's too big for our country.

But if you lived in Los Angeles,

where Chris has just been recently,

you're smoking around in a Phantom cab.

It all is well with the world, I reckon.

Yeah, I like those.

So my more is obviously an R-type continental

because I'm obsessed with them.

And I just think I'd just like to imagine myself being that

slightly caddish, you know, well-heeled individual.

And I'd get the ferry across to Sherbourg.

And then I'd be driving on D roads and N roads

all the way down to the south of France

to visit people I shouldn't be visiting.

And I like the idea of that.

So R-type Conti.

But for Alan Clarksbecker,

he wants all those mods of fifth gear overdrive

with the shorter axles so that you could do it.

You could maintain 119 miles an hour or whatever he'd say.

The other one is going to go for a cheap car,

but I'm afraid it's called to action.

I'm going to buy a 355 GTB

just so I can protect one more

from being assaulted by these individuals

that are repeatedly assaulting the vehicle.

So I'm going to start a protection society for 355s

so they don't end up in the wrong hands.

He says tongue in cheek.

Let's do a quick bit of music before I have to go

because it is about quarter to one here in the morning.

Here we go.

Let's go first and manage.

It was David Sylveon's 68th birthday this week, 23rd of February.

I can't believe that.

Ambient Hero is almost 70.

His first solo album came out in 1983.

It was called Brilliant Trees,

very, very beautiful album, very much more like ghosts

than it was anything else that Japan did.

And there's a song on that called The Ink in the Well

and it was written about Picasso's painting, Guernica,

which I saw for the first time in my life last week.

And it's a really, really moving song about war and nostalgia.

So that's a song.

Ink in the Well, David Sylveon.

There we go.

We feel cultured suddenly.

Neil Cleford.

One of my go-to bands driving is Oasis.

I love Oasis.

Although I don't know why I didn't go and see them,

but it doesn't matter.

I still love them.

Sunday morning called Oasis.

I just loved Liam's voice and I think they're just great.

Yep.

Chris Cooper.

We all mourned the passing last week of Robert Duval.

In that film he did with Tom Cruise, Days of Thunder,

there's a scene in there where Cole Trickle,

there's actually a NASCAR driver called Dick Trickle,

isn't there?

At least there was.

Yeah.

In that scene, Cole Trickle's out there being slammed by the guy

and he said, and Robert Duval says,

hey, you're wandering all over the track, son.

He said, he just slammed into me.

He just slammed into me and Robert Duval says,

no son, he didn't slam into you.

He didn't nudge you.

He didn't bump you.

He rubbed you and rub and son is racing.

And the song that was playing on that scene

was that wonderful thing.

Everyone should listen to this guy.

Give me some loving by Spencer Davis Group.

Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

So I was in my 1990 Lancia Delta most of last week,

doing bits and bobs.

I'm just falling in love with it.

It's just a great thing.

It's to my spec and I just think it's the right size

and the right performance on the road.

And I've got my Alpine Hi-Fi and I thought,

I'm going to put a song on that reminds me of 1990.

Because on that old, I was old enough to be going

to nightclubs in 1990.

And I put on something that had me jigging.

CNC Music Factory going to make you sweat.

Put that on in your car.

It's an absolute belter.

Yeah.

Absolute.

It's got hi-hat.

It's got bass.

You'll be giving it this one.

You'll be singing to it.

It's fabulous.

Okay.

We're going to love you and leave you.

Thank you very much for joining us.

Oh, a bit of housekeeping.

Sorry, a bit of housekeeping.

Right, here we go.

Housekeeping.

We'll put this up also in the notes to the episode.

So we've got two dates for you to save for your diary.

Okay.

The first of them is the 23rd of May.

We are going to celebrate the brilliant British brand

of Jaguar.

We talk about Jaguar a lot on this podcast.

We're going to demonstrate to you how much it matters to us

by having a special day.

The date, sorry, the date has been announced 23rd.

The location has not been announced yet.

It might be a bit scramble-like,

but, you know, you have to wait and see.

But there's going to be a location somewhere

in the centre of the country.

But come along, bring your Jaguars.

We're going to have a little celebration.

We're going to really load this thing up

with some really excellent Jaguar morsels

for you to all enjoy.

People, cars, the whole shampoo, right?

The second one is the 6th of June.

Track day and then a bit of chat in the evening

and a bit of a burger or something.

Nothing too fancy, but it's going to be great.

Anything to add?

What have I got wrong, Mr Cooper?

And the track day we're going to do, we call it the howl.

Oh, yeah.

Howl like a wolf.

It's unlimited noise.

You can literally bring anything.

If you've got a Formula One car, we're going to let you run it.

Could you bring an SR-71 Blackbird?

Or you can bring an SR-71 Blackbird.

Because at this track, there is an airfield.

You can land one of those two.

Can I bring Ann Lightning?

Yes, please.

In fact, if you don't bring Ann Lightning,

I should be very disappointed.

Right, thank you very much.

It's very late here, but it's very early there.

They got up early to allow me to do the podcast this week.

So thank you to the three of them.

Without them, there wouldn't be a podcast this week.

Beyond the fact that three of them are here.

Thank you so much.

And we'll see you next week for episode 77.

Night night.

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What’s going to happen in F1 this year… | The Car Podcast #76

About this episode

Original notes