What was the best ever year for cars? | The Car Podcast #74

Hello and welcome to episode 74 of the card podcast of Chris Harris and his little friends.

For the last few weeks, I've allowed myself to deteriorate into smutty intros based around

the proximity of the number to the naughtiest number that might happen to have a six in front

of it.

And to break out of this slovenly activity, it's been lazy.

I've decided to introduce a new aspect to the podcast drumroll please.

I will now begin every single podcast with an interesting car factoid.

It has to be brief, but it has to be something that makes you go,

I never knew that or I suspected I knew that, but it's been confirmed.

So we can't have you leave these on the comments.

You must send them as direct messages to the individuals that are on the podcast,

which is a bit freaky, I know, but we can't have them out there in the ether because they won't

be surprises.

And I've got one for this week.

So we begin this podcast by telling you this.

If you type the car name, Lancia Delta integrally, the integrally should always have a small

I, never a capital I, because it was always intended to have a small I.

I was reminded this by someone called Steve, who's been very helpful, who corrected me in

a message I sent him saying, do you know the integrally should always be small I.

There you go.

That's this week's factoid.

Integrally, it's always small I.

That's good.

I didn't know that.

Is that that?

There you go.

I thought you had forgotten it.

Now I can't ever unsee it in anything anyone writes anywhere ever.

Now I'm doing this from my telephone this week, so I can't look at my agenda.

So I'm going to have some help from my learning friends here.

What is the first point on the agenda?

Is it more is more?

It is more is more, obviously.

Okay.

So last week, to prove that we are contrarians, we talked about less being less.

This week, more is indeed more.

Managers drinking more wine, he can go first.

I thought about two things with this.

Normally, I think I would be a less as more person.

I think I talked about it in terms of formula one last week and simplicity, but there are

two places where I think more is definitely more.

In road cars, I would say late 80s, BMW 840, 850 dashboard, more is more.

They look like 747 cop.

I mean, look at that.

How many more buttons can you get into a dashboard?

Look at the beauty of that.

You know, I remember my stepmother's E28.

It even had that sort of trip computery thing on the roof.

Yes.

I don't know what it did.

You just asked about the nine lights table.

But it was brilliant.

More was so much more.

And the other thing, do you remember also, they were very complicated electric seats.

You know, rather than having the Mercedes kind of, you know, silhouettes, you go,

you did this and this went forward.

The BMW, you just had numbers.

You had to remember that two was this and one was this.

But sometimes you press five and you do that.

So more can be more, definitely with BMWs.

There was one other place where I felt more was more.

And again, this was an F1.

When, like this year, the ground effect rules were changed.

Cars changed very radically in 1983.

And a lot of people thought they became prettier with the Dart being the one.

But Formula One engineers being Formula One engineers,

they are never going to let something go.

So all the downforce that came from under the car,

they got it all back by the beginning of the 1984 season by building rear wings.

The size of 747 wings were ducked on the side and front wings,

you couldn't believe, and the Ferrari from that era, I think, epitomizes it.

I mean, look at that rear wing.

That is.

It's a third as long as the car.

I mean, that looks like it's been...

Has that been AI?

Is that real?

I promise you that's not been AI.

That's Michele Alberto in 1984.

I mean, look at that rear wing.

It's unbelievable, doesn't it?

Somebody's got two wheel barrows,

constructed the amount of carbon and fibre and bolted it to the back of that Ferrari

and got, there you go.

There's all the downforce you'll ever need, Michele.

So I have to say, more is more.

And when you're a 17-year-old and you see that, more is definitely more.

So those are the two.

Two little departments where more is more for me.

Oh, what a fantastic start to the podcast.

I completely agree with this, Manish.

Neil Clifford.

Well, cars are like, I don't know, male handbags or male jewellery, aren't we?

We want the best one, don't we, if we can?

When we walk into that showroom or we're on the configurator and we're dreaming away,

you're never going to play around with the middle 911 or the Roma.

I mean, who's going to fucking speck a Roma?

Do you know what I mean?

You're only doing a Roma because you want the good one later and you're having a chat with Matthew.

Do you know what I mean?

So I think we always want the top, don't we?

We always want the big spoiler.

We want the biggest engine.

We want the one with the longest badges.

We want all of the carbon.

It's just a sort of, it's a male demand thing, isn't it?

I'm sure there are lots of females that also want more is more as well.

But I think you don't want the middle thing.

If you're going to work hard and you're going to borrow money or put yourself in a financial

stress because you want this amazing car, then you sort of want the best one.

Who goes on to the Range Rover configurator and buys the 3.6 diesel?

I mean, you want to mess around with that?

Yes, Mr Cooper?

I did.

Of course, in real life, you do.

And sometimes you often, you know, life is about minimising compromises, but sort of...

You're right.

I knew I was doing the wrong thing.

This is about dreaming.

I'm not talking about reality here, but if you're going to go and dream about cars, you don't,

you know, often, genuinely, last night, I couldn't sleep.

I was jet lagged.

I sit in my bed dreaming about cars.

I genuinely do.

Look, it's a real thing.

I don't count sheep.

I don't...

Whatever.

You count sheep?

It's counted sheep, isn't it?

I don't.

I sit there and go, okay, 100 grand.

What three cars are you going to buy?

And see whether I can get to sleep.

And you don't sit there and get the middle one, do you?

So I think it's...

I think that keeps you awake, Neil, doing that rather than...

But then you get quite excited doing that rather than coming down.

I just takes my mind off the...

Well, the anxiety and worries of all the real shit in my life.

You know, I'm lucky, obviously, person in every respect.

But, you know, work and, you know, kids and, you know, everyone's...

Worry doesn't equal just have worries, don't you?

It's a human thing.

But to take my mind off it, I think about cars.

And you...

Agree more.

We are exactly the same.

Yeah, you dream about the more is more ones.

Yeah.

Although my problem is I'm not so good at the dreaming bit.

I immediately go to car classic and I'm...

You do too.

My search duration on that fecking website now is off the scale.

I can't get enough of it and it's getting better and better

because there's more and more weird and wacky stuff on there.

Because they've got, you know, they've bought the French classified.

So where is it used to be a bit light on French town?

Have you typed in CX Citroen now?

I mean, he's just had a rabbit hole of wonderfulness.

You know, I was looking at Citroen GS's.

Why do I need a GS?

I don't, but bloody hell it's got them all.

CX 16 valve GTI in white with white wheels.

Go on to car classic and you will find one.

Chris Cooper.

Chris Cooper, more is more.

Well, I thought we'd solved this last week.

I mean, I knew we hadn't.

But I did.

There's a bit of me that still does believe in the less is more because it

it concentrates.

It concentrates the essence of what it is we love about cars and driving.

And I think Neil and I both talked about the RPA 110, which is the basic one.

I mind was it is a night is a seven years old this year.

Got it in April 19 new.

And I knew I wanted the pure version, which was the lightest of the lightweight version.

None of the Fripper is and all the lightweight options on it.

There's not very many of those, but you kind of tick those.

And you kind of have a two-ing and throwing with the dealer about if I got is nothing

else I've missed of the lightweight bolts that are like 30 grams lighter,

because that would make a difference.

What about if I put helium in the tires?

Would that make it lighter or not?

Whatever it is.

And I still think that the pure a 110 is the right one.

And then two things happened this weekend.

It made me realize sometimes more is more.

The first one was when the latest version of Eva magazine came through the subscription

envelope with that on the cover.

Yeah, so which is the Alpine.

Is it Ravage Ravage?

Yeah.

However, do you have to pronounce it Ravage?

Do you mean Ravage?

It's French.

Is it Le Ravage?

Le Ravage Ravage.

And it's got it's the antithesis of less is more because it's got these beautiful.

If you you'll see it on the magazine racks, it's the UK version.

But I don't know what the other international version for the same thing on the cover.

It's got those beautiful 1980s style light pods where the mounting for the light is

this is probably not pop riveted.

There's probably some beautiful lightweight titanium fastener, which is fastening the sort

of the composite mount on which the little spotlight thing goes.

It just looks fantastically excessive.

And there's some body work on the back, which just looks.

I mean, you're going by Eva, I won't show you.

You go by Eva magazine.

If you listen to the Eva podcast this week,

Meadon, good old Dickie Meadon talks brilliantly about how that car is made,

how they make it.

He turned up a scramble in it.

It's a very good.

We should promote our other friends podcast.

And this is a very good story about the whole car.

So I read his article in here and he's he writes very passionate about it.

So that made me think of, you know, that the gold standard of less is more.

Still true, but more is more can be more as well.

And the other thing that happened was I went, in fact, Neil was there yesterday,

very kindly invited by Matthew and the very nice people that Dick love it to their sort of

January or first for two years, Piston Club, where they get all of the.

What's it called?

Cylinder Club.

And they get all of the lovely Ferraris in down in their show and people and Porsche

and the Aston Martin as well.

And everything there was more is more, really.

With one exception I may talk about later, but there was one car in there that made me think

actually more is more.

And it really is.

And it was the.

Well, it was the SPC prototype prototype.

Yeah.

The Enzo looking thing.

The LaFerrari looking thing.

Yeah.

Oh, I do apologize.

Yeah, that one.

Yeah, yeah.

And that and it was it's so cool.

That thing it's got bits stuck to it.

It's all beautifully done.

It's a prototype.

It's got when you look inside it, it's got engineering stuff like big red buttons.

You have to smash if something goes wrong or it can bust because it's fire coming out and rockets are launching and

I thought nowhere is that that car had more to start with.

That LaFerrari and they went to the cupboard marked even more.

And put even more is better than more is more.

And I thought, do you know what?

There is a place for it and it's fantastic.

Yeah.

Chris, I think it is the Ravage actually.

Is it?

Thank you.

Yeah, Ravage.

It means ferocious, fierce, angry.

I've been in contact with the guys that make it.

So we're going to go and have a chat with them soon.

So I think I agree with all of you.

We do too much of that.

We should disagree more often, but I think Neil Clifford's closest to where I'm at with this.

I don't, it's not that I want, I want ultimates.

So what I don't like, you either go more is more extreme or you go less is less extreme.

I don't like stuff that sits in the middle really.

And it's not about price because middle is half baked.

Middle is every day.

Middle is normal.

I would liken it to alcohol for me.

So, so basically I totally agree with Liam Gallagher.

I have no interest in going for a pint.

If I'm going out, I get absolutely bollocksed.

I like getting smashed up.

It's great.

So when I go drinking, I go drinking, but if I'm not going to drink,

I'd rather have a peach cordial or a cup of tea.

Thanks.

Six million dollars a gram.

If you're going to do it, go out or go home.

I've discreet brilliantly, my friend Eugenio Amos who said it's win or workshop.

And I think, I think cars are the same.

If I'm, I don't want a few buttons.

I want that 840 dashboard.

I don't want, I don't want a bit of lightweight.

I want a catering.

So I suppose the cars that don't appeal to me are the ones that take a philosophy

and compromise it quite obviously.

So they're a bit lightweight or they're a bit fast or they're a bit complicated.

So I think it's the stuff that I really admire people that just go for it.

You know, if you're going to make, if you're going to make a two door coupe that weighs

2.7 tons, make a Bentley Continental T, you know, it's not, it's just, it's absurd.

But if you're going to be lightweight, then yeah, tell, you know, give it to called Murray

and make a CD changer that's four grams lighter than the normal one and tell us all about it.

But it's when it's, I suppose it's the middle ground that doesn't really appeal to me.

Can I test that via the prism of the Volkswagen Golf?

1.4 TSI, Golf R or GTI?

I don't think the GTI is in the middle.

Bending my rules now.

I don't, I think the GTI is the ultimate Golf and a Golf R is always, I've always

viewed it as being a totally different animal. It's almost, it's almost not, that's interesting.

Is the Golf R a Golf?

We'll come back and discuss that when we come back now, isn't it?

Right there, it's going to get my pizza.

When we come back to more hatchbacks, we're going to discuss that.

Hot hatchbacks, we'll discuss that.

We do a t-shirt that says something like, I don't drink sherry.

And it just has Chris on it. Absolutely mullered.

Why just don't we enter now? Here we go, lads. I've lucked in here.

I've got some hot sauce. I'm going to say a hotel near a racing circuit in Europe.

Where do you reckon I am?

Paul Ricard?

Ricard, yes.

Oh, yes.

Do you know Ben still owns that?

I don't know.

Do you know that?

Love Ricard. I think Ricard might be one of my favourites.

I just, it's got such a great atmosphere here.

Are you in the one that you and I went to or the silly expensive one?

No, the one that we went to is great.

That's good. They do a good treat there.

You have a quick look at the downlight as you might see.

It may not be the expensive one.

So, what's the next subject, lads?

The next one is, what was the best year for cars?

I'm going to win this.

I've nailed it.

Okay, I'm going with Neil Clifford first.

Because Neil Clifford always dresses his nailed it.

And then what happens when you guys are going, oh, shit, he's chosen our year?

Okay.

What are you?

I think for anyone that knows anything about anything to do with cars,

they would say that the best year for cars is undoubtedly 2010.

No!

Oh, crap! No!

So, 2010, can I just explain why 2010?

Please.

The Ferrari F12, the last pretty V12 Ferrari.

No, it wasn't 2010.

Yeah, it was.

2012, I think.

2012.

599 GTO was 2010.

The Ferrari F12.

2012.

Can you watch a film in place for me enough?

You keep going to 2010, Neil.

Don't let us disturb you.

No, no, F12.

F12, 2012.

Porsche 991, which you could cast, because I've googled this as November 2011.

But the first UK cars were delivered in January 2012.

Like it?

One could really easily argue that that's the last true 911,

before they made it into a 928 with a rear engine.

So I would go, and then you could also argue, as the third car in my quickly changed year of 2012,

is the McLaren MP, fucking whatever it was called, Ron 12C.

That was 2011.

It came out, it was delivered 2012.

So I think F12, 991, and the birth of McLaren cars has got to be

the era between 2011 and 2012.

That 12-month period from June 2011 to July 2012.

That 12-month period.

About 18 months then.

He's gone all Elon Musk, haven't he?

I would hate, I would hate to have to argue a point with you in a Coralor, Neil Gifford.

Because you are one slippery customer.

I think for once, I may be as even slightly rival you, Mr Harris.

You're a slippery, you're a slippery fucker.

So your answer was, it's gone from 2010 to mid 2011 to some time.

The computer with my notes on me has died in front of me.

So I had to try and remember it, and I've got it all.

Now you sound like Keir Starmer.

Right.

Okay.

F12.

Now, based on what I was seeing from Mr Cooper, I'm going next.

So the answer is 2010, I think, because in that, I think-

I knew why I'm gone for that.

I've gone for it, but he knows why.

Because Porsche, which is the greatest car company,

only ever releases one special car a year.

But the only year it's really launched two very special cars for 2010.

I remember it as a journalist.

997 GT3 RS and 997 GT2 RS were launched in the same year.

Which was phenomenal.

And at the same time, Ferrari gave us the 509 GTO in the same year.

And as a journalist, he was still selling written stories for pictures and stuff.

It was just mannered from heaven, because you could syndicate it around the world.

And I, you know, it as much as you could, I had it away.

It was just wonderful.

I used to go out with my friend, Jamie Lipman, who is-

I know we use this phrase too often.

He is the greatest photographer for me.

And he- and we go out and film this stuff in the Nurburgring and around Germany and Italy.

It was just real adventures.

And I think to have a GT2 RS and GT3 RS and a GTO Ferrari launched in the same year,

spectacular.

They were the house in days.

It was other stuff.

There was a Bugatti Veyron Super Sports that year, Audi R8 V10 that year.

I remember Evo's car of the year 2010 was an embarrassment of riches.

It really was.

Absolutely amazing year.

Yeah.

We could argue that this era from 2010 to 2012, we're moving to eras, not years.

I think you're nearly there.

You're both nearly right.

Go on.

Where you going?

Say 2011 or you'll be bad.

No.

It's 2007.

It's because-

I know, I know.

Actually 2010, you should have-

I know what you meant.

You meant the Gen 2 GT3 RS 997.

That was 2010.

2007, the Evo car of the year top 10.

Mini Cooper S works.

That's a great hot hashback.

Yep.

I think.

Letters 211.

Amazing bit of kid.

Bit tricky.

Nissan 350Z, which is a great rear-wheel drive.

That's a great thing to drive, really nice to drive.

Lamborghini Gallardo Superleggera.

How cool was that?

Yeah.

Positific Type R, always a winner.

Hot hatch.

E92 BMW M3.

Mr. Harris had one of those.

We did skids around it in 2007 at Milbrook,

and I won the Waffle of Wining never bought me.

Merck CLK63 AMG Black.

That's a cool bit of kid.

Then the original RDR8, Ferrari F430 Skud.

Then the winner was the green car with the wing,

the Gen 1 997 GT3 RS.

I give you 2007, Melud.

I rest my case.

That's a good year.

Very, very strong.

Very strong from you, and also nice for you

to have a command of the calendar and stick to a year.

Or I've managed.

No, you don't.

Managed.

You guessed the year.

Flipping him out, right?

After 33 Stradale, Maserati Ghibli, Detomaso Mangusta,

and the delivery of the first Lamborghini Mora in the UK.

Oh, yeah.

69.

68.

Cooper.

66.

67.

A year of my birth, and that is the best year.

Sorry, even that Evo 10.

Let me just say it again.

Stradale, Ghibli, Mangusta, and Mora.

I win.

It's the best year to be born in.

I agree with that.

As well, exactly.

I like Manage's romanticism towards that period,

but really, we'll offer him any one of those cars to drive

on a wet night anywhere in the UK.

He'd probably shake like a pooing whip it.

So I think, actually, I'm going to go for...

You can't come up with some theoretical reason why.

If I can't manage one of these with no headlights

on a really wet day in Scotland,

but get in the middle of the night,

I think he'd poo himself like a shaking whip it.

I need to rule to the game.

I think visually, if you're talking about visual,

the best-looking cars.

Yeah.

Yeah, which I suppose is what you're doing, really.

It's what I do.

We can, we can.

So Nils goes, Nils happened to buy everything

between, sort of, OA and 2020.

It's his year.

I was going to go 18.

I was going to go 18, actually.

I think 18 was the bad year.

Yeah.

It was all the good cars before they ruined them,

and then they're wondering why car sales are down.

Yeah.

Idiots.

Right.

I should be eating, but I've got to eat.

I'm starving.

I've got to do something after this.

So what's next on the agenda, girls?

Can a British car be exotic?

Oh, my God.

Obviously.

Manage and go first.

Well, I looked at this from two points of view.

Exotic.

Just give us one.

A little definition.

It says originating from, what did you say?

Just give us one.

We're supposed to have one point of view each.

No, no, no.

I mean, just the word exotic.

Okay.

Don't explain yourself.

Just tell them to f off.

Rare high performance or luxury.

Okay.

These are things.

So the point is, can a British car be exotic?

It depends on whether you're in Britain or not,

is the point I was going to donate.

If you're in Britain, it's very hard for a British car

to be exotic.

I mean, very hard.

But if you're in Dubai, for example,

I think if you saw Rolls Royce Silver Eighth in Dubai,

I think you'd probably say that's a pretty exotic British car.

Or if you were in Miami and you saw a beautiful Bentley Continental GT,

you would probably say that was pretty exotic.

Having said that, I think if there's a little bit of exotic design injection

into a British car, I think it can make a British car exotic.

And I have just two examples of that.

The Lotus Esprit S1, the Giugiaro car that could have been a Lamborghini,

could have been a Maserati, or it could have been a Ferrari.

It just happened to be a Lotus.

But it was designed by Giugiaro and it looked absolutely stunning.

It looked exotic.

And the other one for me that really sticks, that's the DB4 GT Zagato.

The kind of DB4 on steroids.

That looks so exotic.

It's British, but it's not British.

So there's my answer.

Does it have a bit of injection of exotic?

Or are you in a foreign country looking at a British car?

Okay.

Do you think

I follow the logic.

It meandered around.

I'm sorry.

Normally Manish is much more sort of, I follow his line of thought.

This one was a bit more round the corners.

But I get what he's saying.

Disagree on a key point, which I'll come back to.

Cooper wants to go next.

He's drinking his beer at quite a pace.

And we know that means things can get quite messy quite quickly.

So let's get his answers out quickly before it goes wrong.

Do you think Manish that there is something about how the British see themselves,

which affects your answer?

I see myself as British,

but I see myself as exotic.

I know what you mean.

No, I didn't mean that at all.

But tell me more about yourself Manish.

What I meant was...

Aren't we going to rename this pod soon?

Well, what I meant was, do you think there is something...

Of course, yes.

Yes.

Self deprecating and, you know, lacking in confidence.

That could affect this question.

For you?

For me.

Well, it could be for me.

It could easily be for me.

I mean, and I come to this question from the point of view of...

Because I think I'm slightly older than all of you.

No, you're not.

You keep saying that.

Well, maybe by year.

How old are you?

I'm sort of 60-ish.

How are you?

You are older.

Yeah, I am older.

So I think, and I come to this from the point of view...

I'm old enough to remember going out...

Just about going...

Remember going out with my parents in the mid-late 70s.

Probably late 70s.

Actually going out for a meal.

And that was really unusual.

And going out for a meal when orange juice was a starter.

Because orange juice was regarded as exotic.

Freshly squeezed orange juice, not orange squash.

I used to lick the road clean before I went to bed and eat a handful of crap.

There's another version of this podcast, which is a play on that.

We'll do that mid-week or after dark.

And Scampi in a Basket.

Scampi in a Basket was exotic.

But other things were exotic, like Black Forest Gatta.

We kind of worked out that Black Forest wasn't in Dorset.

It might be somewhere else.

And Chicken Kiev.

Even I could remember thinking that's not in Cambridgeshire.

Kiev is probably somewhere else.

So I think there's a natural tendency to be sort of downplaying.

Part of it may be the British Leyland.

It's the sort of the, you know, all of those cars in 70s.

But on Sunday, I saw a car that is British and is 100% exotic.

It's the Aston Martin Valhalla.

What a thing.

What an exotic, wonderful, extraordinary.

May not work all the time.

This is part of that.

But the idea of it, the ambition of it, the look of it, the materials.

If that ain't exotic.

Aston Martin should lend us one just to prove its exoticness.

I did say to the very nice man from Aston Martin Bristol,

Mr. Kennedy, who was there, who may listen to this.

He did say, could he help us do anything?

And I said, on the assessing our calibration of our new exotic ometer,

we need a limiting case to test the upper end of that new instrument.

And maybe a short-term loan of the Valhalla would do it.

Yes, is the answer.

British cars can be exotic.

Even to us, even here, I give you the Valhalla and loads of other things.

And the ones that you mentioned as well, Manish.

Right, we'll throw it.

Neil Clifford.

So in the dictionary, it says, and this isn't Manish,

unusual and exciting book of coming from a long way away,

especially a tropical country.

That actually is what's in the dictionary.

Or strange in an attractive way.

So I think Manish is dead right that the only,

and I've got one maybe different, I've got one outside of this.

If you saw any type Jaguar.

Yes, I was going up Rodeo Drive.

Or you see a Rolls Royce Camargue driving South Beach, Miami, super exotic.

It's a little different, not less cool to be honest,

but you see a Camargue in Mayfair.

And maybe the Camargue is the exception, because maybe British cars that have been designed by

people from outside of the country, a Pinaforena with the Camargue.

I think there's an element, there's that very rare Jaguar,

which I can't really remember what it is, but there's an E type

that wasn't a standard Jaguar, but it had a Pinaforena or a Bertoni body.

I can't remember what it's called.

It's always a bloody Hampton Court.

There's only one of them.

Which one?

X-ray 13.

No, no, not that one.

There's just an E type with a funny body.

Frankly, it's not as good as an E type, but it's rare and one of one

and it's worth a billion pounds or whatever.

But I think if it's had a touch of the foreigner designing it to be sort of blunt,

I think probably that helps.

But really it's about taking a British car to a foreign land and it makes it exotic.

Here it may be not so.

No, maybe that's the same.

Maybe Italians would say a Ferrari driving through Milan isn't exotic,

but they would see any type Jaguar as exotic.

Maybe it is that sort of from a long way away thing.

You're a man in the industry of fashion.

Can't you tell?

Well, I mean pink is, I think we should celebrate the pinkness of your headgear.

We're mainly doing pink t-shirts.

I think we should.

Yeah.

In fashion, does the industry regard, because you're basically characterising British cars,

if I understood you correctly, as somehow less exotic and less an Italian designer

had applied some magic dust to it.

But in fashion, I don't think, in my limited experience,

that that constraint or limitation would apply.

I think it probably would.

I think it's not about British, really.

I think you could use the same reference for a German car in Germany,

a Italian car, a French car in Paris.

But if you said is, I don't know, what's a good example, is a Paul Smith suit exotic?

Maybe not be it that it's gorgeous, but would a Gucci or a Saint Laurent or Dior suit in the UK?

There is an element that gives it that maybe that exoticness.

I haven't thought about this example at all, but maybe I don't think it's a car thing.

No, that's what I'm asking.

It could be reference to, no, we're just obsessed with cars.

If this was a watch podcast, which maybe we should start one.

God help us.

Chris always is telling us we should talk about watches much more.

Is he loves his watch collection?

Yeah, I think that there would be the same reference.

Why did you stop when I put a mouth full of Petri?

Because I'm very comic.

Yeah.

Disoptic.

Can Petri be exotic in France?

Yeah, so as ever, all of you, if I just pick and pluck bits from each of your many points,

I think I can make some sense out of it and I agree with some of it.

So for me, a lot of it comes down to your own interpretation or understanding of these particular

keywords. Exotic is a fantastic word.

It's one of the great words because it looks fantastic written down because it's got great

shapes in the letters and it sounds great as well.

It just trips off the tongue.

And I think for me, exotic is all about notions of foreignness.

Something has to be unusual.

It has to be outside of my normal life to be exotic.

So it probably has to be expensive and rare and what have you, but it has to be something I never

see. So if I took the most exotic car in the world, but I happen to live in a flat next to the

dealership that sold these things and I saw one every day, it would cease to be exotic for me

because I'm seeing it every single day from my personal perspective.

Yeah.

All right, so exotic is complicated.

When you add in geography, I totally get the point that a British car out of context,

you know, the description of a Camargo on Radio Drive or someone on Beverly Hills,

it still wouldn't look exotic to me because it's a familiar thing.

I get the Camargo is familiar.

And I think when you sort of wrap that up in the fact that most British cars aren't exotic,

we don't really do exotic.

We do bludgeoning performance.

We do lightweight.

We do surprising victories at Le Mans.

We do all sorts of things, but we've never really done exotic.

That's not really what the Brits have done.

So, but I did see an exotic British car recently.

I saw a picture of one and it stopped me in my tracks.

I didn't know it existed and I think it's a genuinely exotic car.

And I think it fits with something you've all touched on, which is this is a British car that's

had some design influence from outside of the UK.

I think this really helps create exotic.

And it was the Fassell Bentley.

Have you seen that thing?

It's a Bentley that was the Fassell Vega lot designed.

And I'll put a picture of it now.

I can't show you it.

Google it on your phones now.

And it was one of the best of the best finalists at the dinner at RetroMobile.

And when I saw this thing, a picture of it, I fell in love.

It is absolutely flipping stunning.

Fassell Bentley.

It's got like a grab a front end, hasn't it?

Oh, my God, it looks absolutely fantastic.

But I suppose that's that it's had the touch of the foreigner.

Can't think of a better word.

It's been internationalized.

What do you think it's got?

It's we don't make, but I think you can't avoid the fact that the Brits have never really,

we've never made exotic.

I mean, exotica was a general a general term used in car magazines in the 80s, wasn't it?

It would be you'd refer to as a exotica.

But exotica almost exclusively meant Italian super cars.

It never meant an Aston Martin, did it?

I remember writing an article might have been one of the primary school about

we had to choose a subject to write about.

And I remember writing the word exotic car, exotic car with an R on the end.

Really?

That's good.

Because I've read it in car magazine, in probably car magazine or car magazines,

and trying to describe what it was and finding it really exciting,

but actually quite hard to describe,

probably because my English wasn't regular as a primary school.

No, things have changed.

So you think it's an inherently British characteristic?

I think I think if you ask the question,

if the question had been who makes the least exotic cars of the rich European nations,

I would have said the UK.

But I didn't know that.

That's in Germany.

Germany.

Yeah, I just don't find our cars exotic.

I love them, but I don't find them exotic.

What would you say is equal in, I probably know the answer to this,

equal in German terms to the level of exoticness that an E-type, Jaguar,

19, an early E-type, what would be the German equivalent?

300 S.

So really a question, but I find a Gullwing more so.

Weirdly, I find a 6.94, 50 more exotic because it's so foreign to me.

I've never seen one.

I remember the first time I saw the badge,

I saw 6.9 on the back of a bootleg of an S-class.

I nearly had a senior moment.

Yeah, yeah, I agree with that.

I really thought it was Cooper.

I agree with that.

Although, I give you the Gordon Keeble.

Yeah, see, that's exotic.

Getting close.

Yeah, getting close.

Yeah, I think the Manusche S1 is free.

When we went to the cinema and we weren't allowed in to watch The Spire Love Me,

which is the first film I think I ever saw in the cinema,

and Roger Moore was at the height of Roger Mourness, and Barbara Bach was there,

and skiing and the parachute thing, and off the edge of the cliff,

and then Desmond Llewellyn turns up in Sardinia, wherever it is,

with that beautiful, was it Woolfrey's?

They're Woolfrey's alloys, weren't they?

Yeah.

On the S1 Esprit.

Yes, it was Gigiara, wasn't it?

Yeah, yeah.

It was still British.

It was a British car, conceived, approved, invested in, manufactured, marketed,

in one of the most quintessentially English characters ever to run a car company, Colin Chapman.

And so I do think there's...

I was designed by a man of international stature.

Yeah, that's true.

I think Gigiara, I think I can name quite a few cars that...

I mean, the XJ12C, okay, would really like Steed's one, with the white one, which is...

Actually, I know a man that knows a man that owns that.

Very...

I know his boss.

Yes, we need to try and get that somewhere at some point, that car.

The European touring car with a horrible Leyland sponsorship on the side,

broad speed, Andy Rouse drove one, didn't have dry sump, so quick and quality,

lunged itself on lap six, what it was.

With those big arches, the two-door...

That was...

I mean, that made everything in the European touring car championship,

in the...

What it was, late 70s, 79, 80, whenever that car was going, 78?

Somebody was...

I'm just not sure.

I do think that as a nation, we're very poorly placed to judge what's exotic,

because in 1989, you were in a pub, and you may order a Malibu and Coke, it was like...

So, maybe we're just...

We're not very good at that.

So, okay, moving on, moving on.

What's the next point on the agenda, please?

Par news update.

Hmm.

Oh, well, there we go.

I've got very little news to share, so I'm going to pass this over to Chris Cooper.

Well, we nearly had an emergency podcast about one topic.

We did.

It was the news at the end of last week, the Stellantis.

I was ready to get in my car to go to the Stellantis Luton plant,

which has recently closed, where they were making vans.

And they closed it ostensibly because of the shift to electric vans,

which is part of the news story, which was announced last week,

which is,

Stellantis has taken a 22 billion euro right off to change its product plans and strategy

to reflect a slower than hoped for and predicted take-up of electric vehicles.

And the statement which accompanied that was,

our strategy is now going to reflect demand, not command.

Yeah, that was brilliant by Felisa.

Or something like that.

Felosa.

And that sort of felt like a very, very...

I mean, it's like, I can remember what he said,

and I read it in fleeting on Thursday night,

we're talking about doing it wherever the weekend.

And they're not alone in doing that.

Ford has done similarly in the US, scrapping some of their EV trucks.

Chrysler, which is a Stellantis brand,

apparently is going to reintroduce the Hemi.

Do you remember those adverts in the early 2000s, mid-late 2000s?

Is that thing got a Hemi?

IE, a VIA engine was a hemispherical combustion chamber at the top of the engine.

Is that thing got a Hemi?

They're going to bring that back.

So the news is, and we've said this before, we've talked about this a lot,

it's hard to think of another example in modern world,

where such a concerted effort by governments, regulators, manufacturers,

pressure groups, international bodies has, in a concerted way,

tried but failed to alter consumer behavior.

And we've always said this, we've been very consistent on this over the last year

and two years or whatever it is.

At some point, something's got to give.

And now, manufacturers anticipating even further changes to the 2030-2035

schedules for reducing the number of ICE vehicles have essentially broken ranks

from that debate and have said, we have to change.

Nina and I were at this very lovely event in Swindon yesterday,

and we talked to some very lovely people from the Porsche world who are at the front line

of the retail efforts in the UK to sell an increasingly EV-orientated product range.

And it was interesting to hear from them, without giving too much away,

the differing perspective and pressure they're getting from Porsche GB and from Germany

as to what we expect you to sell.

And it feels like something is giving now in terms of,

actually, we've bet the farm and more on this shift.

And actually, despite everybody's pressure, the consumer hasn't quite got there yet.

So I think that was the Stellantis quote, demand, not command.

Yeah, I thought that was very clever.

Yeah, anything any further to say on that subject, either of you?

Well, I think it really is the only just to be a little bit controversial.

Do they make any good cars?

Stellantis.

Yeah.

The quadrophonia, Julia.

I'll give you that.

The problem is not the strategy, Neil.

The problem is all their cars are rubbish.

They're going to make a bad electric car when they make it, if they make it, whatever it is.

That's the problem.

I think it is a bit of a challenge that because clearly,

none of us would want to be running an automotive business because it's really difficult,

very, very, very difficult.

But when you're sat there saying, I'm going to go and buy myself a new car,

oh my God, what the hell am I going to buy?

You're not saying, oh, I really love a look of that

Vauxhall or whatever.

I don't know what else they've got.

They're not at the top of the list, are they?

You've got to admire BMW.

I don't know what the sales numbers are like at BMW, but

they've done a really good job in the last five or 10 years, I think,

because there's a lot of cars.

You've got the BMW website.

You could buy a lot of good cars.

You could take their bets on.

Just to clarify Manish's point there about the product range,

to make sure that we add some fairness here.

Who is the chairman of Stellantis?

It's Filosa, isn't it?

You mean the head guy?

No.

Who's the actual chairman?

I don't know.

John L. Cannes.

Oh, there we go.

There we go.

It's very late Manish.

There we go.

He's always got in a musk.

I was quite, well, he wanted the job, but not Italian.

Right figure.

I think it's really, really, really difficult, but even

there's not many cars you'd want to buy there, is there?

That's the only slight challenge I think they've got.

I don't know if they're having common with Ferrari.

You know, I think...

Shall we talk about the new Ferrari electric car?

Yes, let's do that.

Let's do that.

Let's talk about that.

Which has been announced today on AutoCar.

And it's called the Luki.

Is it?

Is it called?

Luce.

Is it named after Luce de Monticello?

I really don't know how he did that.

This is getting worse.

For some of our viewers, me included, you don't know what the Luce...

What does it mean?

Light.

Okay.

Yeah.

Light.

To be honest, when I watched the video, I thought, actually, I quite like that.

A lot of the stuff they've done with the buttons.

I love the plain steering wheel.

I love a lot of it.

You know, Johnny Ive is big time involved.

We all love Johnny Ive.

Very clever, very successful British designer.

Brilliant.

When you look at all the individual bits on the film, I thought, oh, it looks really good.

But then when you auto car have probably taken the worst angle of the worst of the press release photographs,

99 of them are great and one photo shit and they've used that one.

So it looks like a Fiat 500 from 2013 or something.

You know, I'm sure.

And then they put a pure Sangway.

I don't think it's going to look anything like a pure Sangway.

Yeah, it looks a bit like it, doesn't it?

It does.

But I think that is a pure Sangway.

Or is that supposed to be some weird CGI mock-up of what it could be like?

Yeah.

I'm trying to look at it at the moment, but I can't.

Can you take a look at the top?

It's on the A2Car website.

The film is very good.

And I know, you know, you're going to get bought into it because, you know, Johnny Ive is cool, right?

But the overall photo of the dash, I'm like, oh,

I don't like this.

It's got individual dials.

And I think that's good.

I think, you know, they've improved.

They've obviously improved that sort of interface.

I mean, it starts in a pretty low bar from Ferrari.

The buttons look very nice.

Yeah, I agree with that.

And what is that Ise doing, Will?

I think it's just too late.

I think there's nothing you can do to an inside that makes it look a bit

appalach from the last two decades to make it work.

And if you look at the main panel, where the dials are, it looks like an iPhone on the side

with a chrome rim.

No matter what they do, and they will say, as I said in the chat, that the steering wheel is

hewn from a single piece of aluminium or something, but it looks quite plastic.

I think the design is actually very flimsy.

And having that last panel on the right, it's just a little Tesla.

I don't think but look at the look at that BMW 850 cockpit that I showed you.

Look at the way the dash sweeps.

It's a single piece of design.

And then they've made their decision to go for the buttons.

I think this is the most disintegrated thing I've seen.

It looks like a blob of this, a blob of that, and then there's a steering wheel.

And then it has, it has those paddles.

It has those paddles.

But don't worry, we know they don't actually have gears.

So what they do is they give you, I don't know what is it?

Do they give you an extra 50?

Regen, different amount of engine.

Yeah, it gives you a different amount.

So it makes you feel like you're changing gear.

And there's three tonne Ferrari's that comes around the corner.

I don't think so.

I mean, I think, my take on it is, you know, when I was looking at a Pura Sangue yesterday,

if I was going to have a big, ugly 4x4, I'd have a Pura Sangue.

No one uses the word big and ugly to describe a Ferrari, Neil, surely?

No, but it's the best of the bunch, I think.

It looks like a 322 Range Rover.

It's a beautiful car.

No, but only if you, as long as you don't want to get there.

Okay, fair enough.

If you want to get there on the back of an RAC truck, get an L322.

Do you know what I mean?

I think a Pura Sangue, I mean, you pay 400 grand.

I think if I was, if I was Ferrari, I have some sympathy for them.

I don't think anyone at Ferrari wants to be launching an electric car right now.

I think, you know, no car company wants to be thinking we've bet several billion dollars on this.

Are they passionate about it?

I doubt it, but, you know, it's in the business plan.

They have to deliver it.

They have a job to do, and I feel sorry for them for having to do that.

I also, I admire their adherence to the Italian language because they must know that in many

parts of the world where they sell this car, light means something else.

And the fact that they'd be selling something that's 2.3 tons, called the light, is slightly ironic.

But they thought there was, he's stuck to their guns with luce, which I think probably sounds

a bit more like lecky.

Put the lecky on, isn't it?

Luce is a bit more lecky.

And look, but the fact is, it's probably not a car for us.

And if you look at the numbers they want to sell, they've got every dealer will probably get three

and every dealer will sell all three.

And they'll make a load of money on it.

And actually, I think they'll be all right.

But I don't think, I don't think you ought to be selling that right now, do you?

It's just difficult, difficult time to be vlogging that car.

If you've got to buy an electric car and you've got a never-ending supply and money,

which a lot of people in the world have, maybe you're going to get this one, aren't you?

Can I give you a straw poll?

Hands up, anybody who would buy an electric Ferrari?

If, no, if, well, it's a different question.

My question was, if you were to buy an electric car and you can choose any car in the world,

but you have to buy an electric car, sounds like a hypothetical question that is just never,

can anyone...

That's what we're doing, hypothetical questions, aren't we now?

We don't do it real well.

You know, if I was, I was living in LA, I needed a runabout.

I had £50 billion in the bank.

I'd just sold my AI company to someone.

I've got all the gear underneath in my basement, almost posh cars.

I want to scoot around and look cool and not be looked at badly.

Because I've got to be an electric car.

I'd get a posy blue one of these, probably.

Neil, should I tell you, a really good friend of mine said,

and I couldn't believe what he said, and then I thought about it,

a couple of weeks ago at dinner, he said, if he could create an electric car,

so if he had the money to rest in a motor car,

he said he would love to have a black Citroën DS

and put a beautiful electric drivetrain in that car.

He said, wafting through London in an electric DS at night in the day,

it would just be the coolest...

That's what I would do if I had all the money in the world

and had to have an electric car.

I'd rest him on something beautiful to use in town.

Yeah, it's a different thing, though, that, isn't it?

I mean, I get sympathy with it, but you're not going to have a warranty.

If it breaks down, who are you going to ring?

I'm rich.

It's a company that's done it.

They've gone bust because they only made one.

That was to you for 700 grand.

So you're not going to fix it.

It's going to be a shit show, isn't it?

But you've got 50 billion in the bank.

Who cares?

I'm glad we've got our target audience in mind.

I'm getting the Lukey.

Okay.

There's only one electric car I consistently want to own whenever I see one.

It's an ID buzz.

Keith on the farm has got an ID buzz.

He's got the commercial and he absolutely loves it.

Absolutely loves it.

And I've driven it a couple of times.

I don't know what.

I still...

When I see a Taycan, I think it's quite a pretty car, that.

Yes, good car.

I had one.

I know everyone laughed at me on our very first ever podcast.

We talked about electric vehicles.

And I was thinking, hey, these are my new friends.

They're going to be supportive.

We talked about electric vehicles.

They're going to be on my side and expanding the argument.

And you all suddenly laughed at me.

And I said, I quite like my Taycan.

That's because I'm already at one, it's gone there.

I3, I3.

I3's a good car.

I3's good.

Yeah.

Right.

What's the next thing on the agenda?

We're running out of time.

F1.

Okay, go on.

Manish, go on.

F1 correspondent.

Cadillac livery looks really good.

Saw it in the Super Bowl section yesterday.

It's a great livery.

Have you seen it?

It looks like...

Almost looks like the original Mercedes.

Fantastic looking thing.

Silver and black.

Oh, yeah.

Can I ask you a question, Manish?

Yes.

Do you think Cadillac will beat anyone this year in F1?

No.

Just no.

I don't think so.

It's hard.

I don't think it's happening.

But that's, I don't think that's a point of this year.

The point of this year is no shame.

You know, some decent performances.

And it looks like because of the amount of sim running,

you know, these cars will be reliable if nothing else.

There may be a huge variation in performance.

And the other thing I was going to say is that this new engine

regulation is producing a little bit of heat

because it seems that Mercedes have been very clever.

We've talked about it before that the compression ratio

was meant to be 16 to 1 rather than 18 to 1.

But it seems that that's measured in a garage at a cold temperature.

And it looks like Mercedes can get a higher compression ratio

during an actual race or a fast lap.

Do you know how they've done that?

Yes, it gets very hot,

which means all the chambers become smaller,

which means therefore the pressure goes up.

But wouldn't all engines do that?

No, I think those does it a little bit more stickily,

a bit more wobblyly than the other ones.

They've been very clever.

Is that an engineering term?

I think so. I think so.

I think they've been very clever with how they've done it.

I'm sure I've read something.

I'm not making this up.

I'm sure I've read something.

One of our viewers listens will direct me to the right source.

Word flobble is an engineering term.

And it means?

I love that.

I've no idea what...

I think it's on a matter of pick.

It sort of means what it sounds like.

Well, so the only reason I bring that up is

because apparently Red Bull had discovered

something clever as well,

but they looked to be changing side

and joining the other teams.

And people are speculating,

this is classic F1.

Yes, Red Bull have managed to get there.

Compression ratio up a bit,

but not as much as the Mercedes.

Is that because there's...

This is that classic F1 switch.

Okay, I'm joining the other side.

Let's all go back down to 16.

Is that because there's isn't flobbling enough?

Exactly. There's doesn't flobble enough.

And a lot of people don't think

they should flobble at all.

Is there anything special about...

Have we seen the Aston Martin?

And does it look different?

Do we think Adrian's done something clever or not?

He has.

Yes, possibly.

I don't know.

The front wing is different.

The front nose is different.

The side pod is different.

The rear wing is different.

The packaging...

I mean, the thing just looks amazing,

but Adrian knew he's gone out and said

the car's four months late for various reasons.

And the car that races in Adelaide will look...

Melbourne will, my God, my age.

Melbourne will look nothing like the car that's racing now.

And by the end of the year,

it will look nothing like the car that starts in Melbourne.

Remember, my only prediction this year

is that the Aston Martin, I think,

will be the most improved car of the year.

Because I think Honda will learn vertically.

Is that you're saying

because it's going to be shit in the beginning?

Adrian's sort of hinting

that there may be some performance issues early on.

Is that like a participation prize?

Perhaps, perhaps.

So do you think Honda are going to poo-poo the fobble?

I think they're going to have a go.

And I think Red Bull are going to try to join them

in poo-pooing the fobble.

The problem is you need to have...

I think it's six parties.

That means that four engine suppliers can join in,

but you need FIA and you need probably FOM as well.

Quite a lot of poo-pooing, isn't it?

Exactly. It's a lot of fobbling required.

Might as well just say

that the biggest F1 news of this week

is Kim Kardashian and Lewis Hamilton.

Which is why you're a CEO.

That's going to be big news in the paddock.

Think so?

Yeah.

You can't be that big.

You talked about it last week.

Yeah. Well, I'm just reiterating how important it is.

Yeah. I'm trying to get excited by it,

but I know you're right.

I know you're right.

No. In the fashion world, it's quite a big deal.

And actually, they're two monstrously impressive,

brilliant fashion characters.

So I think, you know...

I think a lot of people...

Which really bloody annoys me.

It's fucking backward.

I also don't like Lewis because he wears funny clothes.

I mean, he's cool. He's into fashion.

So what's he going to do?

Wear red trousers and go fucking shooting?

Do you know what I mean?

Give him a rest. He's cool.

Yeah. I mean, if we just judge people by the clothes they wear...

Ever. Ever. Formula One driver.

Really?

Didn't crash and die. He's magic.

Yeah. He is. He is.

The two things I saw in my Formula One feed were,

first of all, I like this.

I'm fascinated by the stories that go on beneath the stories.

So Jensen, I'll always say Jensen is...

Jensen made a point of what's saying,

don't think I'm your friend with a big grin on his face.

And I said, don't worry, I don't.

But Jensen has joined Aston Martin as an ambassador.

Saw that.

But I thought Jensen was in love with William as an ambassador.

But it's amazing how quickly these allegiances can shift.

I'm sure they can be shifting with some pennies as well.

So Jensen, a lovely friendship of holding his clash on it.

And he's now part of that team and that family.

But it's amazing how you see these allegiances shift.

And as all these teams are realigning their ambassadors,

their spokespeople, the people they're connected to,

they're a bloody juggernaut, aren't they, these teams?

Amazing.

Yeah, brilliant.

Do you think that means we might see Jensen

in a new set of adverts on social media,

where he's rubbing the trousers of a new manufacturer of trousers

that are...

All could be.

Comfortable.

Internationally...

Good work if you can get it.

I'll take the coin. Fair play, Jensen.

Final play.

Jensen intercepts as bloody exotic.

Well, that is why he's conscious.

We saved you some trouble there.

And the other piece of F1 news that was big for me was this, right?

So I saw a picture of Lando Norris goes back to his...

Someone's got feedback.

Yes, me, sorry.

Right. Lando Norris goes back to his primary school

and has some pictures taken.

Now, I knew that Lando was bought up near where I lived.

It said Lando Norris at his primary school in Chustoke.

Well, that's the village where I grew up.

So Lando went to primary school right next to the Ford River,

where, if you read my book, the 928 sank.

So, yeah, I didn't know Lando was quite so close by.

So there you go.

I had no idea.

Other than that, you know what?

I've enjoyed all of the subterfuge

and what's going to happen, all the guesswork.

I want to see some lap times now.

I'm a bit dumb with all of it.

I want to see some lap times.

This week, isn't it?

This week.

There we go.

All right, from tomorrow.

Here we go.

So they published it.

Do they want...

I want a race, no, not the race.

No, it's the official test email.

And do they publish the speeds?

Yes.

Oh, good.

Right, are we off for a two-car garage now?

Shall I...

Manage, why don't you read it out?

Because it was your suggestion.

I need to find out.

It is.

Well, as you know, Nigel Mansel is...

He is selling a lot of his paraphernalia,

including a Senna poster, apparently.

Don't know why he has that.

But here it is.

Is it a real...

Is it the poster to your show?

To your film?

It is.

It's the Senna poster.

It's between 100 and 400 quid for it.

They would...

8 quid or something when they came out.

Should have got that instead of Bitcoin.

Reassigned the poster from your film.

It's on your website.

It's between...

It's 100 and 400 pounds.

If anyone listens to this podcast

can get Alan Prost to sign a Senna poster

for a load of money, do it now.

And we'll get you a lot of money for charity, all right?

There's a court.

Anyone that knows the Prost family,

get a Senna poster and we'll pay for it.

Off you go.

In ink, rather than anything.

Okay.

You are a mustachioed special constable

living on an island in the Irish Sea, etc.

We live your life on or just beyond the limit.

You need two cars, one just within the limit

and one just beyond the limit for your public.

You are fabulously wealthy

and will be more so after auctioning the paraphernalia

of 31 wins and 31 crashes.

No budget.

Right.

Chris Cooper could go first.

So I think the car...

So I've done this properly as ever.

So I've gone to the auction selections on car and classic.

And I think the car...

We've actually already talked about it.

But I just think in his magisterialness

and he was actually a magistrate,

was he a magistrate or was he a special constable?

Special constable.

I think he should have been all of those things.

I think he should have been head of everything.

He should have been world king, in my view.

Nigel can do no wrong in my eyes.

So I think the one just under the limit

and it's on car and classic, on the auction site.

It was previously owned by the president of Kuwait.

He bastard.

And it is the Rolls-Royce Command.

I think that would be the lord mantle

on his personal fiefdom of the Isle of Man,

even though he lives in Florida now.

But he will always be a man of man.

And I think the other car would be.

And I think there's more and more really, really cool

Porsches on.

And I think if you're going to be a dialer man,

you've got to have something which is just mad.

And you can drive it outside of those built up areas.

Where you can drive just short of what's called furious driving.

So you'd have, in that launch colour, the 991 GT3 RS,

Mark I.

What's that, ultraviolet?

That's the, what's it called, ultraviolet?

That launch colour.

It's a great colour, that.

Yeah.

So they're both on auction coming up towards the end of this week.

Actually, in the Porsche, it ends 13th February,

so end of this week.

So when it comes out, get yourself in there.

That's what I'd do if I was Norwich.

Okay, no clip.

Rolls Royce Camargue.

The same car as Cooper.

I think it is.

I think it's just gorgeous, exotic.

The only sad thing when I read this, because I thought,

oh, owned by Nassar Muhammad,

Al-Hamad Al-Sabah, former president of QA.

I'm like, yes, that is just brilliant.

It was originally white.

I just wish they'd have kept it white,

because that 1986, 1987, last of the Camargs, really,

they did a special edition that was mainly white with red leather.

I don't know whether this probably hasn't got the original leather too,

but the Camargue is such a car.

Don't you think it looks better now than ever?

Yes.

Have you had one, Neil?

Have you had one?

Literally broke down three times.

7,000 miles from new.

It just wouldn't go.

And I'm desperately sad, because that leather is gorgeous.

It was gold.

I mean, it was full-on ridiculous.

But I think they, for me, in my little world of top Trumps,

under the bed, trying to get to sleep, age 10, it was peak car, really.

So exotic for a little boy in Portsmouth with eczema.

And then, look, there's only one road car without a budget for Nigel Mansel.

And we all know what it is.

F40.

It's an F40.

You're going to give Nigel an F40.

There's four or five of them, for sale, not on the auctions,

but I'm sure you can have a little auction with the seller

and ring him up and do your own little one-to-one auction.

Good idea.

I've chosen the one at Decay Engineering,

even though it's the cheaper non-cat, non-lift version.

You really want the ones with the cat and the lift much more valuable and rare.

And this one is at Decay Engineering, of course, because they are the kings of Africa.

Don't let them get away with this, any of you, by the way.

I mean, carry on.

Oh, look at that.

He has one.

It's only four or five million pounds, bloody fantastic.

Go and buy it in America, be even more twice the money.

Look at that.

That's what Nigel would have.

He had one.

He had one and he sold it.

Of course, that's why I'm stuck, that's why I'm saying that.

But he sold it.

He sold it.

Of course, because he made loads of money.

Actually, when we go and see Matthew at Dick Loving,

good old Matthew, he has a 12,000-mile blue 328 with blue a tan, not not,

and supplied originally with still-the-number plate Nigel Mansel cars.

Oh, I'm going to say, who remembers where that dealership was?

It's in Dorset somewhere.

Yeah, in Dorset.

Landford Forum in Dorset.

Yeah, very close.

Yeah, yeah, right.

Manish Yogo.

Okay, this is in the classifieds.

Nigel Mansel's first year in Formula One was 1980.

He did rather brilliantly that year.

He was in three races and I remember watching the first one.

It was Austria and he stopped quite early.

And there was some kind of fuel leak and he burnt his bum.

He literally burnt his bottom.

And he was just so brilliant.

Nigel Mansel was spotted by none other than Colin Chapman.

That year, that car, the S6 livery Lotus Esprit Turbo came out.

It's on car and classics in the classified.

It's £125,000 and it is the year that Nigel started Formula One.

And I think he could drive...

It's how much?

That's quite a lot.

How many of those should get for that?

You get one.

And it's worth it.

I think there are 12 of them.

It's a good colour.

That blue one.

It's a beautiful car.

It's just like, you know the guy who owned a S6 petrol?

His name was David Teem.

David Teem, yeah.

He wore a fedora.

He was a graphic designer who suddenly became an oil trader.

He lived in the Hotel de Paris in Monaco.

And apparently one year, this is in the 80s,

made £70 million in profit.

I mean, that's just wild money, £45.

You don't believe that.

He went to prison, he did get arrested.

He did get arrested a few years later, Neil.

Exactly.

Anyway, his second car, Nigel Mansel's first engine,

was a Ford DFV.

And I found this.

And I think this, I'd never heard of them.

Ended up going down a bit of a wormhole studying this.

This is called a Ford Capri Piranha.

Yes, Piranha.

Mark won a Capri with a 5-litre engine.

I had no idea.

I read about something called Basel Green Motors today,

in South Africa.

Took Mark won Cortina's Escorts Capris,

whacked these engines in.

But the reason why Nigel's going to buy this car,

apart from the fact it's a 5-litre Capri,

that will be over the limit,

it's available in Birmingham.

That's where it's at.

Oh, yes.

It's upset anyone with that accent impersonation managed.

Just keep going.

No, no one at all.

I will get that accent one year.

That's very cool, I think.

It's amazing, isn't it, how we all come back

to the same things with Nigel.

And I've got one on the list that you'll be aware of.

So Nigel's taking two cars.

He's back on the island, by the way.

He's back living on the island.

And I'm giving him these two cars.

Because he is, I think he is my ultimate hero,

F1 driver.

I just, he is my era.

And I've got to work a few times with him.

And he was just fabulous.

It wasn't difficult.

He was just Nigel.

It was Nigel's way, or it was the highway.

I love that.

And he had the right to be,

because he was Nigel fecking Mansell.

So he should have had his way.

So first of all, I'm giving him a Lamborghini Mercia Lago.

And I'm giving him that because I just want to hear him say,

Mercia Lago.

I just, I can't think of a better word for Nigel to say.

And I'd have it.

I'd record it.

And that would be my ringtone on my phone,

would be Nigel saying Mercia Lago.

And the second car I'm giving him is,

is, it has to be an MG Metro.

Because of that advert he did with Murray.

You think what we get now is adverts.

He used to get Murray Walker and Nigel Mansell flogging metros.

Just fricking brilliant.

And I found, I found, it will come up on the screen now,

a 29,000 mile MG Metro 1987.

It's black.

And it's number plate.

And Nigel has told me he wants,

he wants to have this car.

The number plate is E88CJH, my initials.

And he's gone a lot of debt, Tris, a lot of debt.

I think actually he's just, he's the boss.

Honestly, he's the boss.

When he, when he, rather than describe

having the bollocks to do something here,

he refers to it as having the berries.

And I don't have the right to ask.

Get out of the berry.

It's just like he's fabulous.

Absolutely fabulous.

Absolute national pressure for me.

And if I had a bit more money than that,

I'd buy all of the stuff in his auction.

I love it.

I went to, I was at Donnington in 1993,

the Toca Shootout, when he was in that Mondeo car.

I saw that recently on YouTube.

Yeah.

West sorry racing run.

Tiff had it off.

And Tiff had him off at the old hairpin.

And I was at the old hairpin,

just on the exit of the old hairpin.

And it was a really, I mean, crikey,

God bless him.

That could have been the year.

And it was a really, really nasty shunt.

But when he watched the,

probably it was a Barry Hingecliffe film

of the highlights of that,

when the car was struggling.

And it, it was a fuel pump issue.

And he just turned some stuff on and off.

And there's a great bit in the commentary where

he actually just sound like

Chris, you've just described him in his accent.

Because he wasn't in front of the cameras.

He was a racer.

He'd fixed it.

He'd sought his problem.

He was eating red meat.

He was after everybody.

He was fighting through the field.

And that beautiful, authentic Birmingham burr.

This was 93 when he'd been living in Miami.

He was reigning F1 champion.

He won the champ car championship.

I think it was champ car in those days, rather.

It was Indy Car Cup.

Whether they still, it was probably always split up.

He was, he was it.

He was the God.

And he was my hero and our God.

And he came to Donington.

The only downside of that day, Donington was,

amazingly, he was due to drive in the TVR Tuscan,

one mate race later that day.

And he couldn't because he was sat in

Derby Hospital being put back together.

He's my hero and it was Orby.

We need to get him on here.

Nigel, if you're listening,

it's free.

You can come on as a guest.

Unbelievable.

Right, okay, a bit of music now before we head off.

Good God, this has gone on about this one, hasn't it?

Right, so music choice, Neil Clifford.

You know, I've been listening to the style council

and I've decided after 40 years,

I'm going to forgive Paul Weller

because he broke my heart in 83.

I was there at the last concert in Brighton.

I couldn't believe it that he'd done those,

his two teammates over.

But actually, when that first album come out,

whatever it's called, Cafe Blow,

you put it on, you put the record on

and the first jazz song came on,

you know, what is this shit?

Well, actually, I was so wrong

because it was so cool, the style council.

We judged the change of moment so well

from the angry late 70s of, you know,

hating Thatcher into the yuppie time

of the 80s and late 80s.

He judged it brilliantly,

even though he was, you know, quite a left-wing chap.

The music he created was for the wine bar.

He went straight from the pub to the wine bar.

So I forgive you, Paul.

And I would choose, I don't know,

what I'd choose, Long Hot Summer.

I mean, they're all quite good now when you listen to it.

It's a great song, then.

Can you remember the first wine bar in Portsmouth, Neil?

Yeah, I can.

Down just along from the fair,

I can't remember what it was, Bloody Corp.

There was always punch-ups going on outside.

Yeah, I lived in all of them.

And you suddenly went from, you know,

snakebite and black, didn't you?

In 83, 84, 85 when you left school

and suddenly you were drinking wine spritzers

and wearing chippy jean jackets.

Yeah, I remember 86 in Portsmouth.

Amazing.

Down near Winston Churchill Avenue somewhere.

Yeah, it was just such a...

It just changed, 85.

It's changed.

Yeah, exactly.

Okay, Manish.

So it's an Ibiza chill piece of music.

The band's called Sub Sub,

and the piece of music is past.

And when you hear it,

you'll realise you know it.

You just didn't know its name.

Okay, we like ones like that.

Chris Cooper.

Over the weekend,

somehow I found myself by accident

watching the film,

the Richard Curtis film, About Time,

which is sort of partly set down in Cornwall,

which kind of always going to get my attention.

And like all Richard Curtis films,

it's a bit like eating Christmas cake in February.

It's just quite...

It's just slightly too rich,

but you love it.

You still love it.

And the wedding scene,

where Dominal Gleason's character gets married.

There's a song played, Il Mondo,

by...

I forgot the name of the person, it's by...

It was arranged by Ennio Morricone.

It's a beautiful,

uplifting, accelerating,

building crescendo of loveliness.

And the whole film is very melancholic.

It's about a father handing onto his son

lots of memories and responsibilities.

And in a car, it's fantastic.

So, Il Mondo from

the About Time film, this week.

ZZ Top just got back from babies.

Put that on in a car.

The intro is absolutely

in magnificence.

It's good. Get onto that.

That was written in 1970.

Good God, how long was that?

Right, thank you so much for joining us on this podcast.

Send us your factoids,

little nuggets of information that we didn't know.

They can't be very long things.

They've got to be able to be delivered

in that lovely, compact format

at the beginning of this podcast.

So, on that note, thank you to my co-host,

Chris Cooper, Neil Clifford, Manish Pandey.

He'll be here for us next week.

Bye-bye.

What was the best ever year for cars? | The Car Podcast #74

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