Latest / BREAK/FIX the Motorsports & Vehicle Enthusiast Variety Show / 1100HP Lucid: Isle of Man TT and Our Man's Hospital Story

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1100HP Lucid: Isle of Man TT and Our Man's Hospital Story · BREAK/FIX the Motorsports & Vehicle Enthusiast Variety Show

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John Summers is the motoring historian.
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He was a company car thrashing, technology sales rep that turned into
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a fairly inept sports bike rider.
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Hailing from California, he collects cars and bikes built with plenty of
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cheap and fast, and not much reliable.
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On his show, he gets together with various co hosts to talk about new
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and old cars, driving, motorbikes, motor racing, and motoring travel.
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Good morning.
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Good day.
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Good afternoon, whatever it may be for you.
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Welcome to the motoring historian podcast.
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My name is John Summers.
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And today I'm going to be talking about cars with my old
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friend from school, Mark Gany.
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I guess with this episode, um, what was front and top of mind for me, what even
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prompted me to want to do these podcasts in the first place was I had that day.
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With the Western automotive journalists, hashtag WADGE media days.
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Um, yeah, I had that day with them down at a hotel in half moon bay where
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they contacted manufacturers and laid on a bunch of cars to drive and you
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go down there and, and drive them.
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And it's a pretty good test route.
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And, uh.
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Yeah.
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I just thought that was something worth talking about and sharing.
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Yeah.
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So which stuff did you drive?
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Well, you know, I sent you that list before.
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But you know, before we talked here about and that wasn't
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everything I drove, I drove this Jeep compass or something as well.
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But that is didn't stick in my mind.
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So I didn't want to talk about that, particularly because
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there's nothing to say about it.
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But I sent you that list before of that list.
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What are you most interested in?
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Um,
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well, I mean, in terms of the store stuff, I might well, let's read the list out.
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So we've got the lucid the tundra The i50, the BMW i50, the BMW M4,
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the Mercedes GT 53, and the Maverick.
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Um, so, I mean, bluntly, I probably wouldn't buy any of
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them, but I would be most likely, of any of those, to buy the M4.
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Yeah.
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The one I had was green.
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Well, that's a bottle green.
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Um, it was, uh, it was like, it shimmering, really bright.
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Green and and it was the one with the full on buck tooth grill and and and And
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a convertible and I guess they're badging it as competition now So it's like it was
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an m4 competition, um That is different to an standard m4 though, isn't it?
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Because they did the for what for the m2 There's the m4 the m2 the m2
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competition And then M2CS as well.
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Ah, well, you're, you're better informed than me then.
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Because this, this was, this was Badger's competition.
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And, I, I suppose, when I first got in here It had already been set in sports
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mode and the journalist who was getting out of it showed me how I could like
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toggle the, um, different, you know, the steering setting and the throttle
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setting independently, which was this really nice sort of slidey touch screen.
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And, you know, you, you would, you would hope that.
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It felt like a racing car in sport plus and it really did.
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Um, and it revs just in such a, you know, the shifts are like a Lamar car, you know,
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that kind of really sharp, um, cutoff and, uh, all around, you know, it was okay.
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So the buck teeth, they are polarizing, aren't they?
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Um, You know, and I said, I don't mind them, to be honest, but as you
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said to me years ago, sort of Mercedes and BMW tend to do something and
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you go, I'm not happy about that.
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And then about 18 months later, you like it.
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Yeah.
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I mean, I guess a couple of things on, on the Mercedes kidneys.
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I mean, my understanding is it's done for the Chinese market.
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My wife's comment on it was the, it probably didn't look too bad on an SUV.
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Especially an SUV in a dark color.
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And if you think about what actually sells nowadays, the SUV in the dark color,
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that's actually a lot of what they sell.
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So in other words, there's not too many.
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Four series that are being disfigured by that, you know, by that big grill.
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There's an awful lot of X5s and X3s and all of that kind of thing that
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are, you know, flying off the shelves presumably as, as a result of it.
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Um, I don't know, um, you know, the, the BMW rep, I had dinner with the BMW rep
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the night, you know, before the driving.
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And, uh, I put to him what my wife had said to me, and, and he said that the,
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um, really the, the kidneys weren't big and, and really this was not a new thing.
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This was in fact, an old thing, because if you go look at a picture and you, I mean,
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Bowman's doing now of, of like a 1938 328.
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They have that very big kidney.
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The kidneys years ago were that big.
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So his comment was, was that, you know, it wasn't a new thing.
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It was, uh, it was an old thing, but, uh, you know, I, the fact is,
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I mean, but this green one, um, it actually wore them pretty well.
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And if you're driving a convertible BMW.
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In that lurid green, you are not, you know, you are a retiring wallflower.
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You are not.
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So you, you know what I mean?
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To me, it seemed, um, yeah, I'm not bothered by them.
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And overall, I like the car, although You know, I drove it on the Pacific Coast
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Highway on a really sunny day, and I drove it on a piece of the Pacific Coast
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Highway that I know extremely well from riding motorcycles on, so an environment
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where you'd be surprised how much you can actually, you can't test a car like the M4
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on a piece of road like that, but you can get a great deal closer to it than, you
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know, a drive around Low, your local roads might, might anticipate that the test.
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So, so the test route, this is worth saying, actually, the test route was down
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PCH and then you turned off PCH and it was like a little winding road in land.
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And then, which, which you might approximate to an English B road, and
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then it put you on to a road that you might approximate to be more like,
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you know, a B stroke C road in that it was crowned and it had a couple
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of hairpin bends and it had gravel.
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And then it just a little bit on the edge of the road.
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Um, and then it dunks you back out on PCH and PCH is this, you know,
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uh, a section of road where you can, you know, I, I, you know, I, I didn't
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necessarily do this, but other journalists may have achieved Autobahn speeds.
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On pieces of road.
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I definitely have never done anything like that on a motorcycle and certainly
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didn't do anything like that in any one of the cars that I drove today.
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I'm telling you, you would have liked this M4.
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This, this would have been, uh, I take it.
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It was paddles.
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It was, but you know what?
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I just don't, I don't around with them.
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I just don't touch paddles.
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I don't even use the switchable automatic in my wife's.
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Like E46 3 Series or in my AMG Mercedes, I don't, I don't even, I just, I, I don't
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mind, I, you know, I don't mind stomping the gas and waiting a minute and, and
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with this BMW, you would just have it in, you know, I just had it in the sport
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mode all the time and it was great.
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Although I did find myself thinking, would it be that enjoyable around town?
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And I'm not sure that it would.
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I mean, I'm going to test drive, well I've got, I haven't spoken to
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the dealer, but the one in Farnham's got four, so I'm going to go down
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and test them two tomorrow morning.
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Um, but um, I can't bring myself to get paddle shifts.
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Um.
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I mean, I want it because I'm going down to the Pyrenees this summer, um, to spank
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whatever I've got around, and obviously I've done that in the Megane RS a lot,
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well, not the Pyrenees, but the Alps and, you know, Spa and stuff like that,
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so I want something a bit different, and I was looking at the M3, and like,
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the M3's great, but, you know, most of them are paddle shifts, and it's, uh, I
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quite like the size of the M2, it's a bit smaller and a bit more, um, you know, less
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horsepower, I grant you, but, um, we'll see, the, the, the, the, uh, The fluff
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on them is that they're a bit jiggly, um, in the ride, but you can get a Litchfield
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pack for about 1800, um, quid that, uh, will alter the suspension, and if you so
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desire, they'll do a bigger intercooler and a chip as well to get you up to about
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M2 competition spec on horsepower as well, so I'll be interested to see what it's,
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what that's like, but, um, I mean, I, I like, I like all the b BMW stuff, but,
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um, I, I mean, I wouldn't do a, a rag top.
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I did actually consider that the same dealership that's got the M twos
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has got, um, an XKR, uh, 10-year-old XKR, um, obviously soft top.
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Um, and I did it contemplate having that for the lulls, uh, driving
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around in the Pyrenees and I thought, thought it'd be pretty good.
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Uh, but then I consider that with petrol at two quid a litre, I
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might not be able to get rid of it.
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Yeah, I, I, I think the petrol's the least of your worries with JLR product.
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But they are, the reliability is just not there.
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It was one owner from you.
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10 years old full dealer history.
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So, I mean, I hear what you say, but for three months it might last.
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Yeah, it would, it would for three months.
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And, and, uh, you know, I'd, I'd be tempted.
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What year is the M3 that you're looking at?
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Um, 2017, something like that.
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M2, M2.
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M2.
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Huh.
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So I also drove on this PCH test day, an electric.
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And three basically, which they watched a, which they badged.
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I can't remember exactly how they badged it, but it's the, I, I, I, on the list
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I sent you, I called it the I 50, but it's, it's not, it's like the I 50 M
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plus or, um, the M 40, I, I, either way.
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Right.
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It's basically.
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a three like a three series size sedan that's differentiated by the
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fact that the door handles are flat.
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And if you look closely at it, all the styling of the front clip
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is totally different because the M the M four and this electric
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guy will park next to each other.
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And the rep kept saying to me, I'm really interested in what you think
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driving the two of them back to back.
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And I'm telling you, Danny, the electric one drove like a BMW.
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It didn't drive like a Tesla.
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It didn't drive like a Leaf.
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It drove like a BMW.
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And by that I mean that my wife's car, you don't need to put it in
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sport mode for it to hold the gears.
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So if you're like climbing a hill on the freeway, and it's like drop the gear to
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climb the hill, if you come out of the gas for a moment, It won't gain a gear.
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It'll just hold that lower gear because it knows as a BMW driver you're likely to
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want to come back in the throttle again.
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It's one of those little things where I just think it's a
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well designed transmission.
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Other transmissions don't do that, although it's old and clunky now.
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This BMW, this electric guy, he held the brakes in the same way.
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Is it the i4 M50 or whatever?
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Yeah, the i4 m50.
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That's right.
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That's right.
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Yeah.
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Sorry.
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I'm not.
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I mean, it's a total bloody alphabet soup, isn't it?
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The point is it felt it Did not feel that different from the m4.
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It didn't have the soundtrack I didn't feel that the question
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that everyone always asked at this point is what's the range on it?
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Well, maybe not everyone because range anxiety is still the big
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issue with them electric gubbins.
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Yeah, um I mean, I can't remember because I don't worry about that kind of stuff.
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We will.
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That's something for us to put in the footer, isn't it?
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To be to work out or for you to, for you to Google up now.
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But I mean, it was governed, it was governed to 135 miles an hour, allegedly.
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Um, and, uh, I was told it got there with more alacrity than the M4.
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So I've just looked it up.
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So allegedly 318 miles.
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Allegedly, yeah.
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Allegedly according to the WLTP, who I'm sure is a stand
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up organisation, a test cycle.
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And there's no history of German cars ever fiddling with tests.
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With those, yeah.
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But look, even if you only get 300 out of it, that's still enough
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to alleviate most range anxiety.
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But you know, here's an interesting thing with this electric stuff, right?
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I think one of the best reasons to buy a Tesla is, at the moment, is
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that you get to use the superchargers.
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I don't think there's, you know, I don't really like Tesla's so, you know, but
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I think imagine buying your Taycan and then arriving and having to wait in line
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behind all the other people who've got plug in Nissans and so on and Priuses.
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You're in like, whereas if, when you arrive in the Tesla,
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you're in your own private line.
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It makes a difference that that makes it except on the occasion when
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there's already somebody on the Tesla supercharger, and then it's like, you
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know, you have to like what it's then.
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Then it's like, you know, waiting outside the ladies loop.
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The line moves way slower.
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Yeah, I mean, range anxiety is one of those things.
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I mean, it's for general usage.
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It makes no difference whatsoever.
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It doesn't matter because most people can go to and from wherever
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they're going on a daily basis and just plug or charge up at home.
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Um, but it's, I mean, I read an article recently about, um, some guy tried
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to drive, he tried to drive round Wales, or did he just try and drive
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from London to sort of like Angle, to Anglesey and back, something like that.
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Um, and really struggled, um, and, you know, he was happy to sort of stop and
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spend an hour here and there charging up.
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But it was little things like, you know, if it rains and you put the windscreen
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wipers on, or if you put the air con on, you know, the, the, uh, the range
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dives and all that sort of stuff.
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So, and of course, availability of charging spots.
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But.
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I mean, look, for me, they don't make any sense because of the holidays I do.
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And I can't be asked to spend that much time sitting around on the side of the
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road somewhere in the middle of nowhere.
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But, um, for most people, that shit doesn't matter.
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Yeah, I mean, the whole notion of the 300 mile range, it's, you know, most
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people's commute is a fraction of that.
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If you really sit and look at what a practical electric car would look like,
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it would probably look like a golf cart.
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The the had like a windshield and doors because because really you don't need
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to if you live around town you don't need to go more than like 30 or 35 miles
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an hour and and if you live I guess if you're suburban I mean it might be a bit
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more than you you might need to go but my point is right even in a suburban run
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the the 50 000 mile seven year old leaf that maybe only has a 50 by a range now.
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That's fine.
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Cause most people's commute is like 10 miles there and 10 miles back.
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And the key is the key thing.
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You need a second car and most people have that, right?
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So if you have a second gas powered car or the flip side, and it's like that, did
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you read that thing I wrote about that weird three wheeled electromechanica dude?
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The electromechanica solo.
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Did you read that thing?
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No, I didn't.
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Well, I was confused.
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Dude, it's like, it's a one person car.
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It's like a trike.
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So it has like, and it's about the size of a smart car.
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About the length and size of a smart car.
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Electric.
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To drive, it's just like a car.
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But there's like a door on both sides of you.
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It's kind of weird.
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Kind of weird.
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Certainly took a little bit surreal.
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Um, yeah.
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Anyway, BMW in comparison to the Lucid was kind of forgettable.
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The Lucid has 1100 horsepower.
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Yeah, I read about that.
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There's an article in Evo this month about it.
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Um, so go on then, what was your take on that?
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Well, it's more exciting on a Gixxer, I'm telling you.
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When you come in the gas, it's more exciting on a Gixxer.
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Yeah, well, I think motorbikes are more exciting, but yeah.
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But it's pretty fucking exciting for a car.
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I will say that.
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Um, I guess, you know, one thing that was really special about the experience
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was the, um, the evening before or the event was spread over two days and
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there was a sort of evening meal and the evening meal was at this weird kind
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of, of, uh, Like Western ranch set up.
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It was like, it is, it is, it's less like a Western ranch and more.
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It feels like you've stumbled onto a film set, but of a Western, but so probably
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a Disney Western, you know, if you did, that's the, the, um, Western automotive
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journalists do a number of events there.
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I wish I could remember the name of the venue, but it's not important.
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Well, anyway, I got talking to the lucid design team without realizing
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it was the lucid design team.
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And I talked first to Uh, uh, middle aged woman who I, you know, I, I
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don't remember, I don't actually remember her name, but, uh, she was
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obviously involved in the design.
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She introduced me to two younger people who were also involved in the design.
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Um, and then subsequently it turned out when she was presenting,
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she was the chief designer.
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Well, what I thought was fascinating about it, about, and about her.
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was the, the, the, the, she was, she, she positioned herself as, and it was a
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design term I wasn't familiar with, um, CME or CMA, it was like colors, materials,
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and, you know, aesthetics or something like that, it was, either way, the point
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is that the car was designed from the inside out, not the outside in, and it was
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designed With a thinking about, well, it was, it was born with what she described
19:39
as California luxury, which is, you know, so, so it's got this giant moon roof.
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So the material that the, the, you know, the, the glove box is made
19:54
from recycled plastic bottles.
19:58
Right.
19:59
Yeah.
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The whole thing.
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Um, you know, that furniture store that they have in California that, that
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my wife buys stuff from restoration hardware, when you sit in it, it
20:09
feels like restoration hardware.
20:12
Um, it is every bit as spacious as an S class inside and it has that.
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I mean, I sat in that, um, you know, I, I, I sat, I sat totally.
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Separate story.
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I sat at the back of the my back recently and and it fell every bit
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as as spacious and as airy and as comfortable as that either in the
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either in the front or the back.
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Um, so yeah, so the other people that she introduced me to was the guy that
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did the interior design and then the girl that did the exterior design.
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The girl that did the exterior design was was these are people in their like
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mid twenties and what the chief designer.
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woman was saying to me was that you rarely get the chance to
21:03
create a brand language, right?
21:06
We were just talking about the BMW kidneys, weren't we?
21:09
And we wouldn't say so.
21:10
So when BMW designed that.
21:13
I for M 50 or whatever it's called.
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Um, I was just saying, you know, it's great.
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Cause it drives the same way as my wife's old BMW.
21:20
There were these not only visual design cues that BMW designs have to stick to,
21:26
but there's whole ways that the vehicle has to be engineered to feel, to fit,
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you know, BMW design ethos with lucid.
21:36
There was none of that, none of that.
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So I said to them, why didn't you do an SUV?
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And they were like, yeah.
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If you want to establish credibility, you need to do a luxury car and they're
21:50
very Establish credibility with who?
21:53
The buying public.
21:55
In other words, if you want to do a Lexus, if you want to do a Genesis with, you
22:01
know, Hyundai's Genesis sub brand, if you want people to take you seriously,
22:07
you have to begin with a luxury car.
22:10
In other words, you have to take on the Mercedes S Class.
22:13
And, and that's, they're reluctant to do that comparison, but that's where
22:19
you need to think about this car.
22:21
Um, which then brings you back to the fact that that's the ambience,
22:27
the giddy up from, you know, Autobahn speeds to, you know, or from, from,
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you know, you know, from American freeway speeds to far beyond that.
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Is astonishing.
22:44
The other, the other dude I met was the chief engineer guy who used to
22:48
write for one of the car magazines.
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So I kind of knew the name from, from that.
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It was a surreal experience because I, I, when he introduced himself, I thought
22:57
I vaguely knew him, but anyway, um, He, uh, he said that we, we don't publish
23:03
the like 70 to 120 mile an hour time, you know, we don't like market it, but
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if we were to market it, that would be more impressive than the zero to 60.
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Um, yeah.
23:18
So, um, the future is now.
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That was, was how I, I felt about it.
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I, I was.
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Um, firstly, how cool to be in the same room as the three designers and
23:33
to be chatting with them and for them to be talking about this concept of
23:37
California luxury and creating a whole fresh design language and, you know,
23:43
all of that and, and then, you know, the following day to be able to get out
23:47
on the highway and, and, uh, actually experience it, uh, a little bit.
23:53
Um, I don't think you'd have wanted it.
23:59
I read the article in the Evo magazine and I can't pretend
24:02
it particularly excited me.
24:03
Uh, there were some nice things about it.
24:04
I like the sort of story about how they based it on an early M5 and
24:08
they wanted it to be that sort of like, you know, usable performance
24:11
and um, sort of clean power ishness.
24:16
Yeah, the CEO, the designer told me the CEO had one and they would go out and
24:22
drive the roads that we were going to drive in this E39 M5 every time they
24:28
were trying to make a decision about how to engineer, how the Lucid should
24:32
feel, they'd be like, let's, let's just take that E39 up in the hills.
24:38
Yeah, and there's nothing wrong with that.
24:39
I mean, yeah, it's, um, it's a lot of money though.
24:47
For something that I, I mean, I don't want to like shit on the design, but
24:51
I don't find it particularly exciting.
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Um, and I'm sure it's not trying to be particularly exciting.
24:57
It's more, it's more exciting close up because your first thought is fresh design
25:05
and all they did was that jelly mold.
25:08
But you, it's, it's, that's why this inside out ethos is important and
25:14
that's why this California luxury thing is important because it's, it's
25:18
this idea that you don't, this is, this is luxury, but not expressed in
25:27
the way that Rolls Royce do it with, you know, lots of opulence and, you
25:32
know, wood and leather and all of that.
25:35
No, no, that was the last century.
25:40
California luxury is understated.
25:43
Yeah, I hear it.
25:44
I mean, where are you using this performance, though?
25:47
You're not taking it on a track, are you?
25:48
So unless you live in Germany, you can't really use it.
25:52
No, no.
25:53
And that's why they don't really lead on the performance.
25:57
The
26:00
vast majority of Lucid Soul won't be 1, 100 horsepower.
26:06
They'll be 800 horsepower or 400 horsepower.
26:12
This, this 1100 horsepower one, it's almost a bait and switch.
26:16
It's like they've come to market with the GT3, but you're only going to be
26:21
able to buy an S or a Carrera or the, you know, or the Basie and literally like.
26:30
Yeah, I mean, Porsche always deliver the Turbo S first or something.
26:34
Don't they first?
26:35
I mean, I, I, I'm sorry.
26:37
So why you spend the expensive one with lucid is the way that Porsche do it where,
26:42
you know, the motor sits on the rear axle.
26:45
And then if, if you want the faster one, there's a motor on the front axle.
26:48
As, as well, which is different from the way the, I remember, I don't know what
26:55
Ford do, but Nissan, the motors on the front axle, which is a bit like man.
27:01
And then, you know, you can make it all wheel drive and they put
27:03
the motor on the rear as well.
27:06
You know, I know I'd rather have it rear wheel drive and, and, you know,
27:10
that, that BMW, um, The, I, I, the, the other I 50 affair, I, I kid you
27:19
not, it pins you in the seat, a launch at sport plus, or if you stomp the gas
27:25
at like 20 or 30 miles an hour, it, it pins you in the seat and I didn't mess
27:30
around with the settings on the lucid.
27:32
I'm sure you could have done that as well.
27:33
I mean, it was, it was literally, it, it, it was, it was, yeah, You
27:38
know, it's pinned you in the seat.
27:39
As I say, if, if your only experience was other cars, it would have been life
27:43
changing, but because my experience is sports bikes, it's, you know, the, the,
27:49
the visceral reaction is, is there, but, but sort of, uh, but sort of less so.
27:55
I preferred the Lucid to the BMW.
27:57
I didn't say that to the BMW rep.
27:59
Um, and with Hind.
28:02
You know, looking back, I, uh, the M4 is the car that I, I
28:05
remember the most and enjoyed.
28:08
You know what else I enjoyed, right?
28:10
And we've not talked about this yet.
28:11
Um, the Toyota Tundra Capstone.
28:16
Google this guy up, right?
28:18
Because when you first look at him, you're just like, Oh, he's a Toyota truck with
28:22
a big grill, but I was walking around the car park the night before, and when,
28:27
and I, I snapped a photo of the interior because the interior looked like it was
28:32
a Lexus, not a Toyota, and of course that's where American trucks are going,
28:36
that they're, they're luxury cars, my.
28:39
God Ganny.
28:41
This thing was spectacular inside.
28:44
So the following morning, um, I I, it was the first vehicle I drove and,
28:50
and the rep said to me, make sure you floor it away from the traffic lights.
28:55
I kid you not make sure you floor it away from the traffic lights.
29:00
Well, well dude, it's a hybrid and a turbo.
29:04
And when it launches, it's like a cross between a Toyota Le Mans
29:08
car and a Dodge Ram muscle and like a Dodge Charger muscle car.
29:13
It has that kind of, of, and it pulls like that.
29:18
Really like, uh, to far beyond anything that you might be
29:25
able to safely use on the road.
29:27
Um, it also has this cool little graphic like turbo boost graphic
29:32
that shows so you can see how it's using the hybrid and the turbo to
29:37
make this super compelling launch.
29:40
I don't know what the gas mileage is.
29:42
I mean, I didn't sort of worry about that too much, but I, uh.
29:47
And, and it's just, and, and, you know, to all intents purposes, it is a luxury car,
29:54
but then when you want to tow something.
29:57
You can do it easily.
29:58
When you want to move motorcycles, you can do it easily.
30:02
Um, when you want to, you know, there's, you know, it's, it's like,
30:07
all right, it's not a three row SUV.
30:10
You know, if, if, you know, my in laws come and visit all of us and
30:15
our luggage can fit in it easily.
30:18
Um, yeah, I loved it.
30:20
I absolutely loved it.
30:21
Um, I loved it more.
30:23
I loved it so much so that it almost distracted me from wanting a dually
30:29
ram, which I still kind of want.
30:31
But, uh, but yeah, it was not good.
30:34
I mean, I mean, it looks, it looks nice.
30:38
I mean, I mean, I live in the UK, so like American trucks, I mean, I like them, but
30:43
yeah, I mean, yeah, it's, it's like most people over here who buy, I don't know,
30:47
um, sort of soft road a bike, you know, they want it for the look, they don't
30:54
take it off road, you know, they might do a fire road or something like that
30:57
once, you know, blue moon and convince themselves they're bloody doing the Dakar.
31:01
But like, I mean, I'm not saying I do either.
31:03
But like, that's not why they buy them, they buy them for the style.
31:06
I mean, do most Americans actually use their trucks for towing?
31:09
Or is it about the image?
31:10
Because if so, what's I think I think there's, there's a minute, right?
31:13
The, you know, Americans love Boats and jet skis and that kind of stuff.
31:19
And they love camping and, you know, so this camping school camping trip
31:24
that we did recently, that was like driver, it's like drive up camping.
31:28
You know, we, we were the only, you know, most people have trucks and tow a camper,
31:34
you know, that's, that's just the way a lot of Americans like to, to vacation.
31:38
So, you know.
31:42
So the maverick, have you read about that?
31:45
I know that is again, not a relevant for, so this is, is in, uh, in some
31:50
ways, right, I think this is as cunning a product as the Ford model
31:54
T and it's, it's like in a, that this electric Mustang, the Bronco.
32:00
And now the Maverick, these are three vehicles that have really, you know,
32:05
the, the, your, your, your weight, the waiting list for them is months and
32:09
months now, because they're so popular and Ford have just really captured what
32:14
American consumers want at the moment.
32:17
So the Mavericks normal size pickup, like it's, it's, it's, so it's
32:21
what used to be the Ford Ranger.
32:23
But when ranges, the range is still around and is, is just a small ish, you know,
32:29
pickup, the Maverick is aimed at somebody who would otherwise maybe be buying,
32:37
um, you know, they start at 20 grand.
32:39
It's a two liter hybrid.
32:42
That's about 200 horse.
32:43
Um, and it's, you know, it's peppy enough.
32:47
I mean, obviously in comparison to the other stuff I drove, it didn't feel
32:49
that peppy and the base model, the.
32:54
The, some of the fittings are just, just so cheap.
32:59
You're just like, guys, the door handle looked like it was the
33:04
interior hand rest for, you know, my parents, 1977 Mark one Ford Fiesta.
33:13
That was literally what I thought of when I put my hand on the handle and the
33:18
test car that I drove at the weekend.
33:21
had was it was color coded.
33:23
It was a higher trim one.
33:24
So there's two, there's one with like 200 horse, I think that's a hybrid.
33:28
And then there's another one that's gas only that's a bigger
33:31
turbo and 300 horse or something.
33:34
But, um, you know, I just thought as an alternative to a Corolla.
33:39
Or a civic as, you know, um, I, I just, I just, uh, I just get it as a great
33:47
piece of, of, uh, of product design.
33:52
Yeah, so it's just quite an interesting thing.
33:56
Ah, yeah, I mean, but I mean, I'm looking at pictures of it.
34:00
Yeah, if Douglas Bardo is your kid and you want him to sit in
34:02
the back all the time, no problem.
34:04
But like, you know, there's not a lot of room in the back, is there?
34:07
Oh, no, no, that's like your extra cab rather than your, yeah, yeah.
34:13
This is, this is not a family car.
34:16
This is, uh, uh, you know, room for people in the backseat in a push
34:21
or room for, room for little kids.
34:23
Yeah, I mean, that's what they do, sort of, they do their They
34:28
do the full crew cab, don't they?
34:30
Which is like a proper back seat.
34:32
And then they do extended cabs, where there's like a little fold down seat.
34:37
So do you remember Mark's Tundra?
34:39
Remember when we picked you up in Vegas that time?
34:41
Mark's Tundra, it had a sort of little extra door that opened up.
34:45
That's the size of cabin that Maverick is, uh, is going for.
34:52
The day that we picked you up, he picked me and, me and Alf up, um.
34:58
And, uh, Al was a bit surprised that he was standing on his guns in the footwell.
35:02
Yeah.
35:03
Yeah.
35:04
Shotguns in the footwell.
35:05
Yeah.
35:06
Yeah.
35:07
Yeah.
35:08
Yeah.
35:09
Well, that is, uh, that is the man in question.
35:12
So, um, I see now CNET.
35:16
I've skim read a CNET road test of the new Nissan Z.
35:22
Um, and I chat, I'm chatting with, uh, with, um, Michael Shanks, that
35:26
guy I work with, uh, uh, at Stanford.
35:29
He, um, is still doing some work for, for Nissan.
35:32
He, I, I did that project with him a couple of years ago now, and, but
35:35
he's still doing work, work for them.
35:38
Um, you know, you're a long time, two time Z owner, long time, 350 Z owner.
35:46
What, what do you make of this new one?
35:51
Um, uh, I think from a lot of angles, it looks a bit blobby.
36:01
I don't think it's for sale over here.
36:03
Um, why not?
36:08
To be honest, probably not.
36:10
Um, I don't like it enough.
36:12
Um, it just, if it sort of feels like they're trying to do, I don't know,
36:18
quite a lot with the design sort of homage to all sorts of different things.
36:22
Um, it doesn't quite work for me.
36:26
I just think 350 is a better looking car.
36:28
I just need to get that one fixed, to be honest.
36:29
Um.
36:33
I mean, uh, yeah, because I had the three, I've got the three 50 and kept
36:36
all always at the three 50 and the three 70 and then wrote that off, but,
36:39
um, but I don't know, yeah, I think Nissan have lost their way a lot lately.
36:49
Well, the R35 is, I mean, I watched a commercial and, and the R35
36:54
is still there as the halo car.
36:56
And, and you're like, wow, imagine if BMW.
36:59
We're still using the E60 M6 as their halo car.
37:04
Yeah.
37:05
Like, that's how much times have, have changed, but I mean, I've, I've the book
37:12
about Carlos Goan, you know, the chairman of Nissan who like escaped Japan in a.
37:17
In a bloody box, like pretending to be some, some amplifier speakers.
37:22
The, i, the, the, the book, I not read it, of course.
37:26
Um, but yeah.
37:27
Um, about the whole like detailing the whole like escape plot.
37:33
Um, but back to the car, um, I feel like it's, um, you know, it,
37:40
it's, I wanted original ideas.
37:43
That car's the halo car.
37:44
I wanted original ideas and you were like, it feels like it's elements of other cars.
37:48
I feel like they're like trying to be, you know, the three 70 was too
37:53
much of an evolution of the three 50.
37:55
They should have been more radical, but it was a facelift.
37:58
It was a.
37:59
You know, it's a mass market, Japanese product.
38:03
They were always going to do that, do what it took to, to sell, you know,
38:07
and, and, you know, we know how the two 40 was diluted through two 60
38:11
and two 80 and, and, and through then the 300, but, you know, the final.
38:17
Z31, 300 ZXs, they were really something different, you know, they really, the
38:22
old platform had life breathed into it.
38:25
I feel like, you know, I wish they'd done something a bit more
38:27
radical is, is, is my thought.
38:29
Um, you know, have you compared it to the, um, the offerings from the competition?
38:34
I mean, the, uh, the Toyota is a dramatic design.
38:40
Um, you'd have a super before this.
38:44
No, probably not.
38:46
Um, but I, well, I wouldn't have either, to be honest.
38:48
Um, I quite like the Supra, but it doesn't, I mean, I haven't driven one.
38:52
I'd be interested to try it.
38:53
What's the alternative?
38:54
The alternative is like a, uh, a secondhand Boxster, isn't it?
38:59
Like a nearly new Boxster or What else is there?
39:03
Here, they're always pitched against, you know, in the States, they're always
39:06
pitched against Camaros and Mustangs.
39:09
And there is no way I would ever have a Nissan Z car over a Mustang V8 or a Camaro
39:16
SS, if that's what I could buy instead.
39:21
Yeah, I mean, I've driven a lot of Mustang V8s, and I like them, but they're not
39:28
sports cars properly in my mind, in the sense that they're not sharp enough.
39:33
Um, the handling's too baggy, even when you have it in sports mode.
39:37
Um, I mean, I'm talking about the standard five liter V8.
39:40
I'm not talking about like anything with the, you know, one of the special
39:42
editions, um, and they always feel a bit, they just sort of feel a bit wobbly.
39:49
Um, there are plenty of punch, plenty of straight line go.
39:52
Um, Yours have been rental cars though, haven't they?
39:56
Rather than if you were stuck in it yourself, you could do a track, you
39:59
could order a track pack for them.
40:02
And, and, you know, I, I don't know though, see those track pack things.
40:06
I I'm, you know, I always feel, and this test day confirmed it.
40:11
I'm not a sport plus guy.
40:12
I like.
40:13
sport.
40:13
I like it to feel, I like the throttle response to be sport plus, but
40:18
everything else, I, you know, the handling, I don't need to be sport plus.
40:22
I don't need to feel like the wheel's going to fall off
40:25
every, you know, every pothole.
40:27
Oh, agreed.
40:28
I think for American driving, it doesn't make sense.
40:30
And it doesn't make sense to have like a manual over there either.
40:33
I, I, there's too many cars trying to take things away from you and interact
40:36
in terms of interactions with the car and the enjoyment of driving.
40:39
And, uh, you know, you have to struggle to find ones Let you do that these days.
40:43
Um, so, um, hence to the fooling around in m2s and not wanting the paddle
40:49
shift versions, um and stuff, but Yeah.
40:52
I mean, it's in, in America, I would definitely have an auto and, you know,
40:55
having a GT three Mustang or something like that, or whatever the version of it
40:58
has to come over the GT three 50 rather, or something like that would be great.
41:02
Yeah.
41:03
It's the 500.
41:04
Now the three 50 was always more of a track car.
41:07
The 500 is the drag car, but so that the one they've done at the most.
41:11
So the three, the three 50 that they were doing was a stick
41:15
and it had that flat plane.
41:17
Um, voodoo.
41:19
V8 that rev to like nine grand.
41:21
Yeah, that's the one.
41:23
Um, yeah, that's the one that you, the one they do at the moment has more horsepower.
41:27
It sounds like 800 horsepower, but they do the Mac one as well
41:31
that they do the Mac one, which is, or even if you just got a GT.
41:35
With the track pack on it, or even if you didn't get the track pack,
41:38
you could just did aftermarket stuff.
41:39
You could get it to a stage where it was, you know, how you wanted it to be.
41:43
I guess that's, yeah, I mean, I'm sure there's, there's an aftermarket
41:46
for Nissan's as well, isn't there?
41:47
I'm just, I don't know, in America, I, I love Mustangs and Camaras.
41:52
Yeah.
41:55
Car, those rear lights.
41:56
No, don't, I mean, I know where they're coming from with
41:58
it, but it just doesn't work.
42:01
So you're looking at this M two, are you now off Hyundai ends?
42:06
Um, I mean, look, it, it depends how much I wanna spend, doesn't it really?
42:09
Uh, if I trade the, the RS McGann in, um, then it's, yeah.
42:14
It's just a case of how much do you want the personal loan to be, to cover the gap.
42:17
Um, and you can make a huge argument why I don't need anything more than the i30N.
42:24
Matt loves his.
42:25
Um, you can drive it harder more of the time because you're not
42:29
in danger of losing your license every time you put your foot down.
42:32
Um, I'd like to get back.
42:35
I mean, the Zed is, is a work in progress sitting in the 170 clicks
42:40
and it's got a reasonable amount of stuff I need to do with it.
42:42
I bought the, um, bought the trolley jack and the axle stands and all the
42:45
bits and bobs that I need to start getting that stuff going again.
42:48
Um, but, uh.
42:51
I would like a rear wheel drive car, and if I'm going to go out and blast
42:53
around the Pyrenees, which I am, that's all booked now, then, um, you know, I'm
42:58
driving it there, I'm driving it back, uh, I want a relatively small car, um,
43:03
most of the time it's just me and Angie in the car, I don't need much from the
43:06
rear seats, and I can fit like the nephews and nieces in the rear seats if I want
43:09
to, um, 360 or 370 brake or whatever it is seems, seems perfectly adequate,
43:15
um, so, And it's new enough that it's still got some warranty left on it.
43:19
I'm looking at one with about 20 K on it.
43:21
So it's been fun to get one owner, one pretty well running, you know?
43:26
So, uh, yeah, it's difficult to find anything else in that sort of
43:29
bracket that offers you 300 plus with a stick and a rear wheel drive.
43:33
Um, Outside of BMW really because yes, you can look at something from Porsche.
43:40
It's more expensive.
43:41
It's older and it's slower Um, and yes, it's probably slightly better built and
43:45
maybe a little bit dynamically sharper at the edges But how often am I at the edges?
43:49
So not that often so it's um And look, I mean it's I did two track days at
43:54
Spa and Brands and a bunch of other places with the Renault I've done.
43:57
I've really enjoyed that car.
44:00
Um, but uh, it's Yeah, it's long in the tooth now.
44:03
Really.
44:04
I just don't like the idea of it as a long term ownership proposition
44:06
in terms of, you know, feeling that the things will go wrong and it
44:09
just has a little feel about that.
44:11
Um, so yeah, I think the BMW is probably a decent bet.
44:15
Yeah, for me, um, you know, because, um, there's that great.
44:22
Independent BMW specialist in San Francisco, Phaedrus, and because we've
44:26
worked with him for ages, you know, at that point, I'm more comfortable
44:32
thinking about, you know, a 2013 M5 than I am thinking about, uh,
44:40
you know, a Panamera Turbo or E63.
44:47
Um, you know, I have that independent Mercedes guy, but
44:51
he's like one standalone guy.
44:53
Whereas Phaedrus is, is, uh, is an infrastructure there.
44:57
And I feel like if you're going to do, um, you know, for me, that's a reason
45:02
to stick with, with BMW and, and, and, uh, yeah, I, and you know, the, the,
45:09
your, your, to your point of, you know, BMW offer to me, they, they offer, um.
45:18
You need to spend a lot more money to get more performance in a Porsche.
45:21
Um, yeah, for any, for a given bang for the buck, the BMW is gonna be
45:26
nearly as good as you say, nearly as good to drive as the Porsche, um, and
45:29
offer you a good deal, more power and for me, ease of maintenance as well.
45:33
Of course, there are independent Porsche specialists.
45:35
I've just not tried them, and that will be a whole new adventure
45:39
to try and get the right.
45:40
mechanic.
45:41
And of course, you know, the argument might be, well, why
45:43
don't you just buy a newer car?
45:44
But you know, I, you know, I'm like, I always try and use as much of my budget
45:48
as I can to buy old horsepower rather than buy new, um, new reliability.
45:55
Well, I mean, we're, you know, we're, we're driving to Avignon,
45:57
staying there for a couple of days.
45:58
And then.
45:59
pouring across the bottom of France into the Pyrenees and
46:02
then back up the left hand side.
46:03
Um, and you know, even though the place we're staying in Avenue, I was
46:06
like, Oh, be careful at narrow streets, be careful of having a big car.
46:09
So the M2 kind of fits the bill in a lot of ways.
46:13
Um, that said I was feeling a little bit more comfortable speeding
46:16
in France and the French car.
46:18
So, you know, I am losing.
46:21
Yeah.
46:21
No, I always feel that that's, uh, when I was just to be categorical, but, you
46:26
know, in theory, yeah, if, if, if one's going to be pulled over, always better
46:31
to be pulled over in domestic product.
46:33
I agree.
46:34
Yeah.
46:34
Yeah.
46:35
Yeah.
46:36
I mean, so on the subject of things, BMW, I'm sitting here
46:40
looking at, um, John Garcia's.
46:43
BMW 1150 R.
46:46
Oh yeah.
46:47
Which is final evolution, if you know that classic BMW motorcycle design
46:52
where the motor is like horizontal.
46:54
So this is like the final iteration of it in the sporty mode.
46:59
So it's like naked, but it's, you know, and the R is sporty
47:04
and it's like a 16 valve.
47:06
It's a four valve head rather than a two valve airhead.
47:10
So, uh, yeah, he was very enthusiastic for me to try it.
47:14
I don't like it.
47:18
Um, what's the, why don't you like it?
47:20
I'm sorry.
47:20
Why don't you like it?
47:25
Well, Ollie keeps repeating this and now I've, I've soiled the whole bike with it,
47:30
but the exhaust note is like a wet fart and I just can't get that out of my mind.
47:36
It's not endearing, no.
47:38
It's, and, and, you know, because I, I just recently had that Ducati off, John.
47:44
And, um, I, all I've done, I've not been out on the freeway.
47:49
I don't think I've been out and out of third gear in it, but I've just been out
47:52
and ridden it around the neighborhood and it is just such a lovely bike to ride.
47:58
I totally get the V twin thing.
48:00
Now the, the.
48:02
Um, it affects me the way Ferraris, vintage sports racing Ferraris and
48:08
Maseratis at Pebble Beach, it affects me in that way because it's got the
48:12
welded tube frame and it's got the same Velia instruments and it smells
48:18
the same when it warms up and there's just something about the power delivery
48:23
that's just, absolutely spectacular.
48:26
So I was waxing lyrical about how much I love the Ducati and then it must have
48:32
hurt me because it started leaking gas.
48:34
So, um, obviously Dana's over the moon about the fact that the house stinks of
48:39
gas and the air purifier is like going crazy and saying the air is like terrible
48:45
quality, like worse air quality than it was worse air quality than Beijing.
48:50
Thanks to, you know, this one motorcycle.
48:53
Um, Leaking gas.
48:55
Well, so John hypothesized that it was a bit of dirt because he
49:01
cleaned the carburettors, but he hadn't cleaned the fuel lines.
49:04
So he thinks a little bit of dirt got off the fuel lines and then got stuck
49:08
in the carburettor and was just holding.
49:11
One of the needles open because it has two carbs and the upper one was leaking.
49:15
It was very easy to tell where the leak was, was coming from.
49:18
And it didn't do it at first.
49:19
It sat for like 24 hours before it started to leak.
49:22
But then when it was leaking, it was, you know, there was a definite pitfall
49:25
and the stink was, was complete.
49:28
You know, it was like giving everyone, giving us all a headache because
49:31
the garage is downstairs and all the water, all the, you know, the
49:34
fumes were penetrating upstairs.
49:36
So he was like, Oh, I'll just take it out for an Italian tuna.
49:40
You know, which, you know, I get why that works, right?
49:44
Cause you're just going to blow all the dirt through to the carburetor.
49:46
The next time I saw him, he'd done bloody 200 miles on the bike.
49:50
I was like, geez, dude, scrubbed my tires in for me.
49:54
But yeah, so, uh, So he left the BMW and that's why I had
49:59
the, that's why I had the BMW.
50:00
So I took it out and I rode across the bridge in the sun the other morning.
50:04
And as I say, the, uh, it's very comfy and it starts nicely.
50:08
And of course it's super, super smooth, but dude, that's not why.
50:13
I, I ride motorcycles.
50:15
It's, it's, uh, yeah, no, and I can understand.
50:20
Yeah, it's got a nine grand rev line, which on that BMW M four
50:23
seemed like a lot, but when you're used to like 14 , you know Yeah.
50:30
On a jigsaw, you, you're just, uh, you're just spoiled.
50:34
Yeah.
50:34
Yeah.
50:34
My CBR goes to 13 or something, so Yeah, no, I can see, see
50:38
why it would feel low revving.
50:39
So on the subject of things sports bike, did you watch the T two?
50:43
I did, yeah.
50:44
I watched, I watched some of that.
50:45
I watched a bit of the Northwest 200, um, and of course the ones I
50:49
guess you don't get up over there, the Cookstown and, um, stuff.
50:52
But, um, yeah.
50:54
Um, I mean, it is difficult to watch, I think.
50:58
I mean, I really, I enjoyed it, but I'm not, and the coverage was good value.
51:03
You know, the sticking point for me this year was obviously we sponsored Boothy and
51:08
the poor guys in fucking hospital again.
51:10
Um, but the, the one that got me particularly was I thought
51:14
idly on the second to last day.
51:16
Um, I didn't watch the sidecars and I saw that there was, I thought it
51:19
was a brother pair, but it wasn't.
51:21
It was father and son.
51:22
I thought, I hope they're all right.
51:23
And then the next day they're both dead.
51:27
Um, which is a bit, I mean, I know I'm getting old now and giving a
51:31
shit about people, but, uh, still it's, it's, um, it's difficult.
51:35
Um, no, no, I, I did my, you know, I have the little, you know, it's not cars and
51:40
coffee cause we drink beer and it's in the evening, but we do as sort of like
51:44
people on the block, cause there's that guy across the street with that Cuda
51:48
and the Mustang and the bloke down the street with a couple of Ferrari 308s.
51:52
He had just done a thousand mile tour.
51:56
With a bunch of, with like some San Francisco car club, not, not Ferraris,
52:00
but he'd taken his, that black really early three Oh eight that he has.
52:05
And he was like, I'm going to be like hanging outside, you know,
52:09
eating chips and drinking a beer.
52:12
Come along and join me.
52:13
So Ollie and I strolled down the street and we, we looked at the, uh,
52:16
we looked at the Ferrari there and, and the, the guy that does, he's really
52:20
into motorcycles, engineer, loves racing, really into electric stuff now.
52:25
So he has like an FCR 600 that he put an electric motor in years and years ago.
52:30
Not my bag, but you know, his bag, he drives a Chevy Volt.
52:34
You know, to engineer, it's an engineering passion, plus, you know,
52:39
a background of, of, of motorcycles.
52:41
And he was like, you know, I'm all about the freedom of riding.
52:44
I'm all about being in, you know, you being in control of your own destiny.
52:48
But that is a blood sport and it needs to stop.
52:54
I wouldn't go that far.
52:55
But no one's making him do it but it is it does make it
52:59
increasingly difficult to watch.
53:00
Um, But dude gas monkey garage, you know sponsor hickey and hickey wins Spoiler
53:09
for people who haven't watched yet.
53:11
Bloody five of the sixth event.
53:14
Four.
53:14
Four.
53:14
He didn't, he didn't match Huie, but he did, um, match, um, um, one of the other
53:18
gentleman who'd done it before and Phil.
53:21
Phil Macall.
53:21
Yeah, that's right.
53:22
Yeah.
53:22
Macal.
53:24
Yeah.
53:24
Ago, like before, before we were watching basically.
53:27
Yeah.
53:28
No, um, yeah, I, I, um, anyway, he looked, he looked the absolute class,
53:33
although obviously Michael Dunlop won the one on the six hundreds.
53:35
But still, I mean, you know, the, um.
53:39
The, uh, the, was, was it one of the races on the, uh, the, not the senior
53:43
tt, um, but one of the race, the previous one or the one the um, the super tour?
53:47
Was it the Super Bike?
53:48
Right.
53:48
I can't remember.
53:49
One of the earlier races was a really, really good race.
53:52
'cause there was what, a couple of seconds between them the whole way
53:54
round, which is absolutely ridiculous.
53:56
Um, but, uh, and it's amazing and epic in every way.
54:01
Um, and it couldn't, it couldn't, and it'll survive, but it
54:05
couldn't survive anywhere else.
54:07
Could it?
54:07
Yeah.
54:10
No, he couldn't.
54:11
In any other environment there would be the pressure to stop it.
54:14
It's because it's put on by the government that it can survive.
54:17
It's like the Mille Miglia in the pre war period.
54:21
There were a lot of accidents that just never got reported,
54:23
that never made the newspapers.
54:25
I'm, I'm, I'm sure there were many more deaths than were
54:31
ever recorded in that period.
54:33
But because, um, the fascist government in Italy was so into motor sport
54:39
at that time, they just, you know, they just turned a blind eye to it.
54:42
Oh yeah, yeah, I can believe that.
54:44
You may not know this, but the Mille Miglia was actually stopped in 1938.
54:47
It didn't stop with the war.
54:49
There was no Mille Miglia in 1939.
54:52
Then there was that one in 1940, but that was on closed public roads.
54:56
That was the one that took place actually after the war had officially started.
55:00
Um, but it was closed.
55:01
It was a much smaller route.
55:02
It wasn't, it wasn't the fact that the full, the full thousand miles,
55:06
but there was an accident in 1938 that meant that the event was, was stopped
55:11
where, uh, where it was like a level crossing and a car bounced into a
55:15
crowd at the, at the level crossing.
55:17
But no, you're, you're right that because the Isle of Man government's
55:20
like allied with it, it, it will survive.
55:23
It's just because the guys actually doing the racing, um, think they understand
55:27
the risks, but really they don't.
55:30
And the guys building the bikes and, you know, John McGuinness and
55:33
Michael Rutter, us, the old blokes, we really understand the risk.
55:37
The young guys, they, they don't.
55:39
And you don't need to think about how you and I drove in our twenties.
55:43
To get to see that.
55:49
Yeah.
55:50
Yeah.
55:51
So there's something there's, there's something, there is something not quite
55:56
ethical about guys in their 40s and 50s.
56:02
You know, building motorcycles and organizing a race for guys in their 20s
56:08
to race and die in, there is something, um, you know, because, because even
56:14
if the riders themselves might say, I understand the risk, the loved ones who
56:19
were left behind, you know, and that's, that's the part of the story that you,
56:24
you, you have to, that I think you're more likely to take into account, you
56:28
know, now you're the wrong side of, of, of 40 is, is the, you know, the, uh, yeah.
56:34
The WAGs, to use a, uh, you know, to use a, uh, the term of the time, the
56:41
WAGs are the ones that really suffer.
56:44
And, uh, I guess as I'm on this mental tangent, Farina, the first Formula
56:49
One world champion, when, uh, oh, Gregor Fiskin, who was editor of Road
56:53
Track, or Gregor Grant, the dude that was editor of Road Track in the 60s.
56:59
Said to him, why's there never been a proper biography?
57:04
Why did you never try and write an autobiography?
57:07
Farina's comment was, ask the women, ask my wife.
57:10
They're the ones that really understand it.
57:13
In other words, this isn't a story of heroism on the track.
57:16
This is a story of injury and slow, painful recovery.
57:22
Yeah, yeah, I mean, and I, and it's, it, it's As I get to being more of
57:28
an old fart myself, um, I find myself looking at Conor Cummings, two cute
57:33
little girls coming up and hugging him and he's there in the TT and thinking,
57:38
I just hope that doesn't end in tragedy and they have their dad, you know?
57:41
I mean, it's, it's so Yeah.
57:43
Yeah.
57:43
Yeah, yeah, and, and, you know, I, uh You know, I, John McGuinness,
57:48
every time you see him interviewed, he will always, always end by saying,
57:53
I hope everybody gets back safe.
57:54
Yeah.
57:55
I won't try and do an impersonation of his, of his accent, but
57:58
it's on his mind all the time.
58:00
And I was thinking about that before we came on the call here.
58:02
Oh, Michael Rutter going off first and being passed by all those young lions.
58:07
How much discipline did it take not to chase them?
58:10
He knew his pace.
58:11
He stuck to it.
58:14
He's 50.
58:15
Yeah.
58:16
And then we're getting some.
58:17
Faster than you or I'll ever be.
58:19
I'll ever be.
58:21
So, you know, at that age, so it becomes, uh, yeah, the sport becomes more about
58:26
staying alive than about winning.
58:28
Staying alive is the win.
58:30
Yeah.
58:31
Yeah.
58:31
It really is.
58:32
Um.
58:34
But, uh, no, it's, it's, yeah, I mean, they're heroes.
58:37
It's just, um, yeah, I, I don't know.
58:41
I, I, you, you implied a feeling of slight guilt cause we'd sponsored
58:45
Mike booth and he's lying in that hospital in, in Liverpool anyway.
58:48
He would have gone anyway.
58:51
And I'm happy to sponsor him.
58:54
I like the guy he's cool.
58:55
I like 44 teeth.
58:56
I like the stuff that they do and you know, Hey, no, one's making him do it.
58:59
And I saw an interview with him a few years ago, um, talking about how.
59:03
Um, or maybe it was last year.
59:05
I can't remember, but it doesn't matter how, you know, his dad
59:07
had said to him when he first thought about going years ago.
59:10
No, if you go, I'm not coming with you.
59:13
Um, and it was his dad's way of saying you aren't ready.
59:17
Um, and he said that he thought on reflection, his dad was absolutely
59:21
bang on the money and that he wasn't ready and he wouldn't have learned it
59:23
properly and he wouldn't have taken it seriously as he should have done.
59:26
Um.
59:27
But this is the lottery of the event.
59:29
You know, you can do all that, um, and be, you know, again, a rider way out of my
59:36
echelons in, you know, or whatever be, um, and, um, still have a bit of misfortune
59:41
or one little mistake and, you know, multiple operations on your legs later
59:45
and, you know, misses in bits, I'm sure.
59:48
But, um, I mean, I hope he's all right.
59:50
But, I mean, it's It's difficult not to support people to,
59:54
to, to go for their dreams.
59:55
I mean, I just don't know where I stand on it now.
59:58
Do you remember when we were at the Nürburgring and we'd done a couple
1:00:01
of laps and you'd moved out of that phase where you were like, right, I,
1:00:06
you know, the sighting laps were done.
1:00:08
And you are now thinking, right, I can get down to business, get down
1:00:13
to trying to find the places where I might, where I might be faster.
1:00:18
And at that point, where you're out of that, I'm just sighting, I'm just getting
1:00:23
a feel, I'm just learning the lines.
1:00:26
If you're out of that mode, and you're in a, I'm trimming the lines, I'm trying
1:00:30
to hold the throttle flat for a little bit longer, I'm trying to brake a little
1:00:34
later, at that point, you are putting your, well, it's, it's like, um, I don't
1:00:39
know who said this about motor racing, but it's, it's a true story, it's like
1:00:43
leaning out of a, seeing who can lean farthest out of a high window, you
1:00:49
know, it's, it's gonna end with somebody falling, probably you, potentially you.
1:00:54
Yeah, yeah, um, and I won't profess to have tried, if you
1:00:59
like, uh, any sort of percentage, really, at the Nürburgring at all.
1:01:04
Um, just because the place terrifies me.
1:01:07
I like the idea of it, and I enjoy driving around, it's great fun.
1:01:10
Yeah, there's, especially with the Nürburgring, which other track days
1:01:13
don't really have, is that, you know, you've got a sort of touring carousel
1:01:18
of random accidents driving around with you, if you know what I mean.
1:01:21
There's all sorts of people who are more than happy to sort of have an accident
1:01:24
with you where you don't, you didn't do anything, you just came upon someone
1:01:27
at the wrong point or someone made a mistake or someone was inexperienced and
1:01:31
trying to drive, you know, to their car.
1:01:33
Well, I mean, you know, when we went for my stag dude, you know, we, that
1:01:35
guy, Porsche, came off on the truck.
1:01:38
And chatting to his mate, who was, um, standing at the side of the road, said
1:01:41
that, you know, they'd been followed, he, he'd, uh, his explanation had been
1:01:44
some guy had come past him in a, um, in a, in a 911 S, or, and he'd had a
1:01:51
GT3, and he'd said, well, I've got a faster car, and followed the guy, and
1:01:55
obviously, you know, he didn't know the track as well, and wasn't perhaps as good
1:01:58
a driver, and then his car's the one on the truck, um, with the front left door
1:02:02
smashed in, um, so, you know, even with the best of intentions, but, so, I, That
1:02:07
said, I did try a bit at Spa, um, and uh, but again, everyone's going one way.
1:02:12
It's a more select group, I guess, less people on the track.
1:02:15
There's less sort of tourist farting kind of folks who've just turned up in a
1:02:20
You know, whatever, they happen to have driven home from work, so, you know,
1:02:24
it's Yeah, Volkswagen Campervan, yeah.
1:02:27
You were classed at Spa.
1:02:29
I made a conscious decision to not try and stay with you.
1:02:32
Because I had that same feeling, like, you know, I rented a McGann RS.
1:02:36
Um, so I had that same feeling that I'm in the same car, so I
1:02:39
should be able to keep up with you.
1:02:41
With hindsight, I hadn't worked out where, wasn't there some power mode
1:02:45
where you could make it make more power?
1:02:46
There's a button on the bottom right, yeah, so you can press.
1:02:49
Yeah, I didn't know, I didn't know, I didn't know about that.
1:02:51
So I was, so my excuse for why I fell off the back of you was, uh, was, was
1:02:57
that I wasn't, um, I want that, uh, it was that I, uh, I didn't find the power
1:03:02
switch, but, but My favourite bit of that was when we, we let everyone out of the
1:03:06
pits, and I, for a joke, started weaving from side to side behind the pit car to,
1:03:13
to, in very quotes, warm up the tyres.
1:03:16
And, uh, you were, I could see you laughing in the rear view mirror.
1:03:19
And then all the Ferraris and Lamborghinis and stuff behind
1:03:22
were all doing it as well.
1:03:25
Yeah, that was a bit of a tactical error though in our slow cars
1:03:28
being right out at the front.
1:03:30
It meant that you, you, you spent the whole time.
1:03:32
I spent the whole, I spent the first three laps of the session.
1:03:35
just watching in the rearview trying to let people get by before
1:03:39
I wanted to concentrate on the lap.
1:03:41
But you know what?
1:03:42
I still, I was talking with, um, some of my students about this
1:03:46
was, was that, um, the, the run.
1:03:51
Um, you know, Blanchimont that, um, you know, that, that blind left hander that
1:03:58
you can just, you know, you're approaching it, uh, more than a hundred miles an
1:04:02
hour and you can just turn in and go straight through it with just a lift.
1:04:06
That one is without question the most terrifying experience
1:04:11
I've ever had on a track.
1:04:12
More so one before Blanchimont.
1:04:15
Is Blanchimont the one right before the grandstand?
1:04:19
Yeah, Blanchimont's the fast left, where in F1 they take it flat,
1:04:22
and I'm sure in loads of other disciplines they take it flat as well.
1:04:25
I never took it flat.
1:04:26
Um, but that's the one, then you come down from there, put, put
1:04:29
to the chicane onto the stuff.
1:04:31
Yeah, yeah, Blanchimont.
1:04:32
The one before Blanchimont is a sort of, doesn't, I don't think it even gets named.
1:04:36
But that one you can go through flat.
1:04:38
And as you say, I'm a, I was approaching on him.
1:04:40
Well, I'll stop at about a hundred or 110 miles, 110, 115 miles an hour.
1:04:44
So, I mean, I'm not sitting anywhere in the world of light
1:04:46
on it, but it is still shit scary turning in at that sort of speed.
1:04:50
Because you just don't do it.
1:04:52
I mean, when do you do it?
1:04:52
I mean, I'm, well, that's what they were saying in the practice for the TT is that
1:04:57
they were just getting used to the fact that on short circuits, you might exceed
1:05:02
150 miles an hour numerous times on the track, but you're not there all the time.
1:05:07
And you're not trying to steer the bike through curves at North
1:05:12
of 170 or 180 miles an hour.
1:05:15
So the whole business of there's a whole like maneuvering thing.
1:05:19
That has to, you know, there's a whole like adjustment that they have
1:05:23
to go through to get used to that.
1:05:25
And that's basically what practice is.
1:05:28
Yeah.
1:05:28
Yeah.
1:05:28
I mean, and it's, um, leaning, leaning the bike at that sort of speed.
1:05:34
I mean, I, I've never done it at those sort of speeds.
1:05:36
Um, I mean, I've done.
1:05:38
Did the Ron Haslam track day at Donington a few years ago, a lot of years ago now.
1:05:42
That, I mean, that was great fun.
1:05:43
But even there, you know, it's um, scratching the surface.
1:05:49
I mean, I was fat and slow and remained fat and slow.
1:05:53
And uh, it would take an awful lot of effort to be anything
1:05:55
other than fat and slow.
1:05:57
But uh, I still enjoy it.
1:05:58
But even then, you're leaning over at sort of 70, 80 miles an hour through a corner.
1:06:03
I mean, god damn, it focuses the mind.
1:06:05
Yeah.
1:06:06
Yeah.
1:06:08
Well, I'm just noticing that we've talked for more than the hour that I thought I'd
1:06:13
allocate to this, to this first thing.
1:06:15
And there's even a topic left over for next week.
1:06:18
So, uh, so let's save that.
1:06:21
And, uh, and I appreciate your time speaking with me
1:06:24
today, Mark and, uh, pleasure.
1:06:29
Well, I'll see you next week for the Festival of Speed.
1:06:31
Absolutely, yeah.
1:06:32
Absolutely.
1:06:33
Looking forward to the Festival of Speed.
1:06:34
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