Latest / BREAK/FIX the Motorsports & Vehicle Enthusiast Variety Show / Goodwood: An Arthurian Odyssey in a Transit Van

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Goodwood: An Arthurian Odyssey in a Transit Van · BREAK/FIX the Motorsports & Vehicle Enthusiast Variety Show

0:00
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
0:12
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.
0:32
Alright, well, good day, good afternoon, good morning.
0:37
Whatever time of day it might be for you.
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It's John Summers, the motoring historian, with Mark Gami.
0:43
Mark, go ahead and introduce yourself.
0:45
Last time I forgot to ask you to introduce yourself.
0:49
Oh, okay.
0:51
Um, yeah, I suppose I work in sales.
0:53
Um, for my sins, which must have been manifold.
0:57
No, I just meant said, I just meant say hello.
1:00
Hello.
1:02
It's funny though you say, you say you work in sales because in the little blurb
1:06
that I wrote that was actually one of the things that I mentioned that you and
1:09
I had in common, and which I feel like it defines our approach to motoring,
1:14
the abuse of company cars in our 20s.
1:18
Repping the repping.
1:19
Yeah.
1:21
So look, um, we did Goodwood, didn't we?
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We've, I've, I mean, I had a lot of things on my list here.
1:26
We, we did Goodwood, didn't we?
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That seems like a long time ago.
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It does.
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I mean, you remember at Goodwood, you remember at Goodwood, you go often.
1:36
Tell me what you remember specifically about that particular
1:39
festival of speed that we went to.
1:43
Well, I mean, I think the emotional highlight has got to be Wayne
1:45
Rainey going up the hill, hasn't it?
1:46
I mean, it's difficult to argue with that.
1:48
I took a screen cap of him on the, on the, on the following day when I was
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watching a bit of the live stream, but seeing him go up there, seeing the guys
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from, you know, um, Yamaha and so forth over there, helping him out and stuff.
2:01
That was awesome.
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What about you?
2:03
What was your highlights?
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I thought it was great that we went on the Thursday because, and we literally
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stumbled into the grandstand and sat there being like, it's nice to have a rest.
2:15
It was raining a little bit, wasn't it?
2:17
And then we went, oh, there's some motorcycle people down there.
2:19
And then you were like, oh, is that Kevin Schwantz?
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And then you were like, oh, is that, is that dude in the wheelchair rainy?
2:25
And it just sort of happened organically, didn't it?
2:28
So that was, uh, was a Uh, a really, uh, uh, special thing, of course, I, I
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guess I, you probably saw the film of it.
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How Rainey wheelied the bike other days.
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So on, on, on, on our day, he, he didn't, he didn't do that, did he?
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But, uh.
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Yeah, but, you know, a lot of the film on YouTube, it says first time
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riding in however many years it was, we actually saw it, you know, we
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actually saw him chatting with Schwantz and Roberts in the moments before.
3:04
But yeah, 50 years of MKAR, that was good.
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Um, lots of stuff there, some cracking, uh, 2002s and stuff.
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So yeah, um.
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Yeah, the, the sculpture was, was awesome.
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And, and, um, you know, I had the little die cast of the three liter
3:19
CSL and I could take a photo of it by the real three liter CSL.
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So that was, uh, that was cool.
3:26
Um.
3:27
I mean, you asked me about what I thought the highlights were.
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Um, so I enjoy most the bits where you can walk in the paddock and get really close.
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Um, I enjoy the, I enjoy doing that at the end of the day or early in the morning.
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I, when there's not a lot of people around and when maybe a
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lot of the cars aren't even there.
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So when there's that sports racing Ferrari there, you can take 10 minutes.
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Being like, God damn, the lines on this car are perfect.
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And then sit there looking at where it's red line thinking this is a sports bike,
4:04
like piece of kit in terms of how it would be to, to use, um, you know, and I just.
4:12
You know, I always think with, with them, I always find myself,
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I look for details, right?
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That a lot of those sports racing Ferraris that we used for long races
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like Le Mans and the Carrera Panamericana or even the Mille Miglia, they might
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have like 40 or 50 gallon gas tanks.
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That were out behind the rear axle.
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So imagine you start the race with a full tank of gas.
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So the car handles one way as the tank empties, the car handles a different way.
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Then you get a full tank of gas, but now the car's knackered because
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you've done like from Brescia to Rome.
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Out racing speeds.
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Now the shock absorbers are knackered.
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Maybe the wheels a bit out of alignment.
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Now you've got a whole different car, but Hey, you know, it's got
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four tires that are like sports bike tires and about 400 horsepower.
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So, you know, nothing to.
5:08
Worry about that.
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So yeah.
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And, and, you know, this is right.
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There's why I think, you know, sports racing Ferrari's deserve
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their places, the most valuable cars.
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And every time I go to event like Goodwood, I, I love looking at that.
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Um, I also love that there were Taz Suzuki's there.
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I love particularly that it was the same year of Taz Suzuki.
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2005 as I have two examples of a, um, the little vents that that year of the
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05, 06, um, GSXRs have, um, the little vents is makes them very distinctive.
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So it was cool to see, you know, my bikes kind of a contemporary bike, even
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although it's 15 years old now, 20, 17 years old, cool to see that at, uh.
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At Goodwood, a call that whilst we were standing there, like, stood 20
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feet away from us, just chatted away, looking at, you know, the modified
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Yam that old, uh, Rainey had ridden up the hill, was Steve Parish.
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And neither of us noticed, or I didn't notice at least, you know, we were
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busy enjoying the bikes as well.
6:18
So that was, uh Well, I took a photo of him actually, I noticed him later,
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he was, he was chatting to someone leaning on Guy Martin's Taiko Suzuki.
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Um, that he'd won, I can't remember, it wasn't, it wasn't, it isn't one of the
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Isle of Man, but it was, um, uh, I'm not, it might have been the Northwest
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500, but it was, it was one of those Northern Ireland road races, um, that
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he'd done on it, and, um, Yeah, just, you know, elbow patches and being an
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enthusiasts, and I think I said to you the other day, I think, I dunno whether
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it's come from the, the, you know, the Duke of Richmond or not, but I, I, when
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they interview them, you get like one or two questions on the, and that's it.
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I think the, the, the, the ethos very much seems to be, everyone hears
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an enthusiast, so let everyone be an enthusiast, don't bother anyone
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too much, even in the interviews.
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And so, you know, you get, uh, and you get everyone being car people,
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which is nice to be for a bit.
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So, um.
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Uh, what's his name?
7:08
Um, Mr.
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Lamont was taking photos of the Outer Union, wasn't he,
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when he took photos of it?
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Oh yeah, yeah, my, my moment of Instagram fame.
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Well, I won't say fame, but uh, Instagram cheap thrill when Tom Christensen likes
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my image of Tom Christensen photographing the interior of the Outer Union.
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D type hill climb special that he was driving that weekend.
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And, uh, you know, yeah, say what you like about him.
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I mean, I happen to like him.
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Um, but, uh, but you know, not by any reason, not as any reason
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why I mean, shouldn't that, you know, I, I love the guy.
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Um, but to see him having that enthusiasm was, was super cool.
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Yeah, it's, it's, it's a cracking day out and, um, uh, I would highly recommend it.
7:55
And then of course we stumbled across Nige giving his lecture.
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I, yeah, yeah, Birmingham's finest, yeah, and, and, you know.
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It's, I mean, you know, for the, just to rehash it right in my mind, the rain was
8:16
thin and I had beer in my, a beer in my hand and we were like, somehow I was on,
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it was like, you know, it was like that moment in a concentration camp movie where
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the fence was between us, you know, and you could go in, but I couldn't, there was
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that kind of moment going on, wasn't it?
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But yeah, but you've got me beer, so it was all right.
8:35
And then.
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There was Nigel Mansell, like, 50 feet away, talking, like, as if he was, he
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was doing his best David Hobbs, like, after dinner entertainer, but my word,
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was he the same old fashioned He was the same Grouchy, point score y bloke you
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would meet in a pub in Birmingham, right?
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He's like a bloke who you would meet in a pub in Birmingham.
9:02
He's like the kind of bloke who, when you were selling tech products, would
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say he was going to buy it and then would say, Oh, well this happened
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and that happened and that happened.
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And you'd be sitting there listening to him, but you're going to get
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to the punchline in a minute.
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And that was why you're not going to buy it.
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Stroke didn't win the race.
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You know, he's like that, isn't he?
9:19
It's like, you know.
9:21
Yeah, yeah, I mean, to be fair to him, I mean, you could cut him
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some slack, um, knocking PK, given some of the things PK said to him,
9:32
um, about his wife, but still.
9:36
Yeah, I mean, yeah, the, the Yeah, I mean, PK's in the news, isn't he, with
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this being banned from the pit lane for, uh, uh, this slur that he allegedly
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used or didn't use or translates in one way or in a, or in another way
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and, and, you know, but it's, it's classic PK to, to be in hot water over
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that and with PK, you've got to feel that he kind of knows what he's doing.
10:01
Um, you know, I think, um, you know, nobody raced like Nigel Mansell, right?
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Maybe guys in the fifties like Sterling Moss, you know, but nobody came through
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and like charged as Murray Walker used to say, like Nigel Mansell did.
10:19
And yeah, that's why the, the Italians called him the lion, right.
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That he did have this lion heart.
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In terms of, of racing, but I mean, you and I used to say at the time during
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his career, like often he had to do that because he'd made some mistake
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and hadn't qualified the car properly.
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And if you, you know, I always came from, uh, in with the perspective
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of a center fan and, and his up and downiness and the requirement to dig
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deep in the race, you would just like.
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Dude, like if you just like set the car up properly and qualified, well, you could
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have just driven off at the front and there wouldn't have needed to be any of
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the histrionics, but you know, yeah, yeah.
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So anyway, it was fun seeing him, seeing him.
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It was fun.
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I mean, it was fun.
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It's, uh, cause I used to support a late, I was starting to think
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why didn't I support knowledge?
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And I sort of did, but I, I was in a Lacey fan at that time.
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But that was why, that was why Mansell mania didn't grip you and me.
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I was reminded of that stood there.
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Cause he was just too, like, he was too much, you know, yeah.
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Of, of, of, uh, Britain can't do for me, you know?
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And, and, uh, you know.
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Yeah, he, yeah, it was, yeah.
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Yeah.
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You know.
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Yeah.
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It was quite something to see.
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The steering wheel got smaller, which meant that, you know, you needed
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to have some upper body strength, which I had, but PK couldn't do it.
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Rei, my teammate, Petrey my teammate, but later on he said
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Petrey, just to, to put that, yeah.
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Rei, who I always remember some journalist in a piece about him saying like, you
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know, it was always hard to reconcile.
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The hobby of having model trains with the seven minute Nürburgring time.
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And, and, you know, this is always the thing about the, the Patrese character.
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You know, the other thing is interesting about Patrese is of course that, that
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lap he does of, of Jerez, which is somewhere on, uh, somewhere knocking
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around on YouTube, where it's like the launch of a new car and he goes out
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with his wife and she's just had dinner.
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And as they leave the pit lane.
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He, she's like, you don't know this circuit, do you?
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And he goes, I know it very well.
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And that really tells you, and he's got like some 200 horsepower front
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wheel drive car that he's going to do, do the, do the lapping.
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Um, and that depicts a different kind of side.
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There's Italian machismo there, which when.
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You know, 10 years ago when I used to use it in class to provoke
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discussion, we were in a different place from where we are now.
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I think now people would say that's, um, abusive behavior.
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Um, and you know, so I, I, I don't know, but yes.
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But yeah, I'll make Patrese a nice guy.
13:15
Um, so, you know, we do have a little agenda here, don't we?
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A talking point here.
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So, so, uh, just to, to structure what we're doing.
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So if there could have been only one, what would you have taken?
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From the show.
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What, what car will I take away?
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Yeah.
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If there could have been only one, I don't know.
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You can't sell it either.
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You can't sell it, you can't be like, I take that thing and sell it.
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You can't be like that.
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What would you like?
13:42
No, no.
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In which case it is tricky, isn't it?
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Because one implies that I would want to, you know, have something I would use every
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day, in which case I really struggled to look past, like the Carrera gt.
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I, I love that.
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I wouldn't have that, um, and just drive it all the time.
13:56
Um, but.
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I mean, some of the 330 Ferraris were just, I mean, they're just
14:02
pornographically beautiful.
14:04
Um, there's all sorts of stuff there.
14:05
I mean, it's just so much, it's really tricky.
14:07
I mean, did you have a particular standout?
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Yeah, whatever those sports racing Ferraris that we were looking at,
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um, there were a couple and I would have been happy with both of them.
14:17
I think one was, uh, um, Um, there was another one like 500 TRC or something.
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I, I could look on my phone, but you know, I'm not that, I'm not that well
14:29
that brown singer of 9 11 as well that was, like, just had a stance to die for.
14:35
Yeah, aren't they?
14:36
I find, I feel singers are a little bit like, um, Harleys, you know?
14:44
When I first moved to California, it was kind of still cool to have a Harley,
14:48
but somewhere in the last 17 years, it's gone from being cool to being
14:54
kind of like, really like chest wig, really, you know, and and that's, that's
15:02
fine culture can can shift and change.
15:05
But, you know, I feel, uh, yeah, um, Yeah, yeah, I know where you're coming from.
15:13
I mean, the thing, the, the, the, but, um, that's the thing that's still cool.
15:16
Those are, are, are those Alphaholics, um, Julia thing that I showed you
15:21
a while back that I saw on, um, I think on the Evo channel, it's
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just an astonishing piece of work.
15:25
It's similar sort of repro, but it's, you know, you're paying a huge
15:28
amount of money for those things.
15:29
So they're not sort of real world for a mere mortals.
15:33
I mean, I, I don't know, I, I read a really interesting book, um, about the
15:37
history of Mulholland Drive and it's written by a bloke who, um, in order to
15:42
win races up on Mulholland, um, drove to, uh, went to Germany and basically had
15:50
Porsche build him a Targa Florio spec.
15:53
911 RSR that was wasn't like it was like Targa Florio spec, but this was the car
16:00
that was going to do the best Porsche Thor along Mulholland Drive based upon the
16:06
specifications that Ede He'd given them.
16:10
Um, and you know, I, uh, uh, so, so the concept of the 9 11 perfected, I
16:20
do understand that just as I understand the coolness of the Harley thing.
16:25
I just feel it's like a bit kind of done to death now that, um, you
16:30
know, you'd, uh, yeah, I don't know.
16:35
Is it, is it me a bit like not liking Guns N Roses because everyone else liked them?
16:39
Like is, you know?
16:41
No, they weren't heavy enough.
16:45
For us.
16:46
I know.
16:47
I mean, there's some cracking tracks, there's some cracking tracks, but I
16:49
mean, I had a, I got, I had an argument with a couple of, uh, my brother's
16:54
friends on his stag do in Amsterdam about whether or not Use Your Illusion 1, or
16:58
whatever it was, um, was the best album of all time, which I argued it wasn't.
17:03
Um, but, um, I was distinctly argued down.
17:08
See, I have time for Use Your Illusion 2.
17:11
Or was it, maybe it was the Appetite for Destruction one.
17:13
I can't remember which one it was.
17:13
Appetite for Destruction is the one that everyone says is arguably the
17:17
greatest rock and roll album ever.
17:19
Must have been that.
17:19
With like, Welcome to the Jungle and Rocket Queed and, you know,
17:25
Sweet Child of Mine and, you know.
17:28
Um, the, uh, Use Your Illusion 1 was the one that was all orange.
17:32
Use Your Illusion 2 is the blue one that has the Kenneth Oh, the
17:36
blue one was better, yeah, yeah.
17:37
Yeah, the Kenneth Williams, You Could Be My Aide.
17:40
Remember it?
17:41
Ha ha ha.
17:42
It sounded like Yeah, yeah, I quite like that.
17:44
It was old Kenneth Williams doing the soundtrack there, wasn't it?
17:47
Or at least it did to You and I for a moment there.
17:52
Yeah, it's, given the stuff Metallica were putting out at the time, there
17:56
was better stuff to be had, but it's, yeah, that is personal choice,
17:59
there's nothing wrong with the albums, nothing wrong with the albums at all.
18:03
So, we've, we've dithered around it up to now, um, I even put you off when you
18:08
were talking about it, um, after you went and picked it up, but this M2, how is it?
18:15
Yeah, it's, I mean, I haven't really, I haven't really driven it much, yeah, I
18:19
drove over to Colchester and dropped the RS Megane off, um, picked up the, um, M2.
18:24
And then drove it back.
18:25
So, a couple of hours of motorway work, largely.
18:29
So, and other than that, just sort of pottering about.
18:31
So, I've done a couple of little sort of blats on the OB roads and stuff, but the,
18:36
the two tests will be, starts Friday.
18:39
So, I'm, I'm taking, we're driving down to, uh, just north of Reims,
18:43
or Reims, if you're French.
18:44
Um, and then staying overnight there and then we're driving
18:48
down to Avignon after that.
18:49
So I've got to tour across the Côte d'Azur and then through the Pyrenees
18:53
and then back up the middle of France.
18:54
So I'll get a proper feel for it then.
18:58
So far I like it.
19:00
I think the dynamics feel good.
19:03
Um, it's turbocharged, so it's, you've got a sort of usable lump of torque to
19:08
make, you know, lazy, not really bothering to rev it, put, um, progress rapid.
19:14
Um, but, you know, and then if you spank it a bit, there's,
19:18
there's plenty up at the top end.
19:20
It doesn't get sort of full feral at the top end, but it does go.
19:22
The exhaust, the performance exhaust, which I wouldn't have ordered because it
19:26
was a ridiculously expensive option is egregiously loud, but I got the impression
19:30
from watching a few videos on YouTube.
19:33
they were allowed, the standard exhaust is pretty bloody loud as well.
19:36
So when you fire up the, if I was commuting and leaving every
19:40
day at 5 30, I wouldn't have many friends amongst the neighbors.
19:47
It's like, and then it sort of starts with the bowels open, then
19:51
closes them to say like, I'm here.
19:54
Yeah, but as you were, you know, but Yeah, no, it's it's nice.
19:58
It's got the tech side of it.
20:00
I'm getting my head around.
20:02
It's not much of it I mean BMW make a big fuss of it You've got an app and
20:05
all these other things you can do and there's some fancy bits and bobs But on
20:09
the other hand, it's a 2016 or 2017 car.
20:12
So you have to remember that because the tech's a bit old So yeah, there's
20:16
online stuff, but it's 3g not 4g.
20:18
Yeah, there's Um, map updates that I've bought for, because
20:22
the maps are from 2016.
20:24
So I've updated the maps because, you know, I'm about to drive across Europe
20:26
and I'll have the new ones, please.
20:28
And that's not a ridiculous amount of money and it updates it to the 2022 maps.
20:34
You have to use a certain file system on your, on your, uh, on your USB stick.
20:38
And the USB stick can't be bigger than a certain size and all this sort of faffing.
20:43
Um, net net I had too big a USB stick matron and had to order another one
20:48
from Amazon, um, to arrive tomorrow.
20:50
So I still haven't actually got the maps updated.
20:52
So, yeah, I mean, you know, but as, as a package, I think it looks great that
20:57
the, um, the, the, uh, respray on the wheels was a, was a win as it turns out.
21:01
And, um.
21:03
Yeah, it feels really tying together.
21:04
I mean, so it'll be interesting to probably get it up into the
21:06
Pyrenees and give it some beans.
21:11
Hmm.
21:11
The, um, the, uh, um, the wheels, the gold wheels, total winner, total winner.
21:22
Please.
21:22
You did that.
21:23
Um, well, I mean that, that also, um, I managed to scuff them like an absolute.
21:30
Barely, but nonetheless, um, not paying attention and not used to the
21:34
fact that the steering is much more tight and direct, even though it's an
21:37
electronic rack than in the, um, Megane.
21:40
Um, so like smack the curb gently, but still annoyed the hell out of me.
21:45
But it also proved to me because I spoke to a chap just to get a
21:48
quote for how much he would charge to come in and redo the wheel.
21:51
And he pointed out to me that, uh, that's not frozen gold, which is what I ordered.
21:54
And what they said to me is, and I was trying to work out why it wasn't
21:58
because frozen gold, he described to me as sort of more nine carat gold.
22:00
And if you look on the pictures of the competition and stuff,
22:02
that's what it looks like.
22:03
Um, so what they've done is they've just done a couple of coats of frozen
22:06
gold straight over the top of the flap and thought that'll be fine.
22:10
Um, so what they, so they've done a sort of quick and dirty re spray.
22:14
They've refurbed them and they haven't bothered to repaint them properly.
22:17
Um, which is why it's a much darker gold.
22:19
But, I mean, it is, I like it.
22:21
So, but it'll just be a problem to get the touch ups done.
22:25
Yeah, I mean, the, the, I'm not surprised they didn't refurb the wheels, you
22:33
know, to a kind of a high standard.
22:35
I follow this YouTube guy, Chops Garage, and I see now, Chops
22:39
Garage, he's in, Devon, isn't he?
22:42
So I should say Chop's Garage.
22:44
Um, he, I mean, he makes decisions about whether to refurb wheels
22:49
based upon how much the car's worth.
22:52
Um, and, you know, I see how much work it goes into turning an alloy wheel
22:59
into, you know, something that was as it was when it left the showroom.
23:03
Um, yeah, um, I, I, uh, you know, I, I feel this is somehow traditional, Gami,
23:12
this is almost a good sign that this has happened because didn't you destroy an
23:17
alloy wheel on your Nissan 350, indulging in some dukes of hazard foolishness?
23:24
Many moons ago.
23:27
Overestimating my talent as usual.
23:28
Yeah, yeah.
23:30
Well, you never framed it like that years ago.
23:32
But I, I, uh, I realize now, thinking about it, that that short wheelbase
23:37
makes that car quite, uh, quite tricksy on, uh, greasy, cambered British roads.
23:43
I just wasn't used to the car well enough and was just doing a sort of small power
23:48
slide round the corner, but I didn't know the car well enough and was, uh, you know.
23:52
Just rotated it too far round.
23:55
Um, so just spun it around and it sort of dinked the curb on the, on the left hand
23:58
side and, uh, damaged the rear wheel.
24:00
Not very much, um, but annoyed me.
24:04
Yeah.
24:04
Especially when I rang up in this end and said, can I buy a new alloy wheel please?
24:07
And they went, certainly, sir, that would be a thousand pounds
24:09
Yeah.
24:10
Yeah.
24:11
Yeah.
24:11
That was a long time ago now.
24:12
Like 2009 something.
24:14
Yeah.
24:14
Well, I've still got three, um, spare raise alloys in the garage because, uh, I
24:18
bought a set of four on eBay for 450 quid.
24:21
Um.
24:22
The one that's got the dink in it is on my mate's wall as a
24:25
hose holder in this carriage.
24:26
Ah, nice.
24:29
All well, so all's well that, uh, that ends well.
24:31
So which wheel was it on?
24:33
The M two, uh, front left.
24:37
It's not that too bad.
24:39
It's just slightly mildly annoying pride.
24:41
If nothing else, it's a bit like the missing chin spoiler
24:45
on your, on your McGann.
24:47
It's kind of, you know, as you said, it looks kind of rakish tend to agree.
24:52
Yeah, that one I wasn't too bad by that.
24:54
I'm not quite sure why that happened.
24:56
I think that happened in the Alps.
24:57
Um, but, um, yeah, battle scars.
25:00
That one's all right.
25:02
So, um, whilst I was in England, I, uh, I saw, um, old, uh, John Um,
25:10
he's still living up north, but is spending more time down south because
25:15
of the job that he's doing now.
25:16
He said to me as we were walking to the station, um, Any thoughts
25:21
about what I should try and drive?
25:24
So he has at the moment, for the family, like a Macan Turbo S.
25:29
Well, it's not a badged Turbo S, but apparently that's what it is.
25:34
Um, which for the family, you know, I see why you would do that car.
25:37
It's a practical decision.
25:39
I did get him to admit that he very much missed the C63.
25:45
That he had some two or three cars ago, because I was, I've not really
25:49
talked to him about cars since he got rid of that C63, because I, I just.
25:54
You know, I don't see how you could have, I mean, that's like, that's like
25:58
trading in one of your children is now I could never have parted with a C.
26:03
I've never owned a C63 AMG.
26:05
I just know if I had, I never could have, uh, uh, parted with it.
26:09
Um, yeah, but, uh, but no, so this would be a second car.
26:15
This might not be a lot of money.
26:16
This might have to street park a lot.
26:19
So isn't gonna need to be too attractive to, uh, to our light fingered friends.
26:25
Um, what would you do?
26:28
The advantage here being the budget is, is probably more than, than, you
26:35
know, I might normally spend on a beta, but probably less, you know,
26:41
probably would need to be 10, 15 ish.
26:44
What do you do for, for that?
26:46
I, I said to him, I'd get as much Jaguar.
26:50
As I could for the money and just roll the dice on reliability and he
26:55
didn't say anything which implied that that had been deeply unhelpful.
27:02
Without having heard you say that before I would have argued that that
27:04
is deeply unhelpful to be honest.
27:07
Well in England there's so many lovely Jags here they've all got
27:11
mirrored wheels and and whereas you get you get good diesel ones.
27:15
Which models are you talking about?
27:17
I, I mean, this chops garage guy, he had, um, a turbo diesel XF
27:24
that was like a 2012 or something that 450 foot pounds of torque.
27:30
I mean, I know it's a diesel, right?
27:32
But you know, that, that would have, I found myself, I, I, I can't, when
27:36
I was in England, I, I almost reached out to him and said to him, can I
27:39
like have that car off you just for a little bit and then you have it back.
27:43
But then I realized it would.
27:45
Potentially be an even more difficult conversation when I blown it up at the
27:50
side of the motorway and needed to explain to him and to my wife that I Not got a car
27:57
for the job that I, uh, I needed to do.
28:00
So I didn't take that any further and just rented.
28:03
Probably, probably savvy.
28:04
Um, I don't know.
28:06
So it needs to be what four seats, four doors.
28:10
Not necessarily.
28:12
Um, you know, the Replacing a McCann S It's not replacing, it's sitting
28:19
alongside, it's an additional car for him to use commuting to and from the North.
28:25
So, you know, if it has four seats, great, but, you know, if we could make
28:29
a strong case for something that did now have four seats, he might think about it.
28:36
Well, I mean There's, um, what was that?
28:41
I found that, um, Jag, I was pointing out to you recently, didn't I, the, um,
28:45
with the, with the, with the, that XK, uh, 500 horsepower supercharged one.
28:49
Yeah.
28:50
That was like nine and a half.
28:51
Yeah.
28:52
Um, with 70, 000 miles from you.
28:55
Don't they do that in like a five series size sedan?
28:58
That's the kind of thing you, that car would be a cheaper car to buy.
29:03
He can get the XFR.
29:04
Yeah, that would be, yeah, yeah, yeah.
29:08
They may look correct.
29:09
They've got a nice grill.
29:10
I also said to him, VXR eight or Monro, they call them either way,
29:15
the voxel version of the Pontiac, GTO, Alden, you know, coor V eight,
29:21
whatever that, that GM thing.
29:24
But the reality is they're a little bit vulgar, aren't they?
29:28
Frankly, A little bit.
29:29
I mean, I like them, don't get me wrong.
29:31
Yeah.
29:31
But I'm a chubby scumbag.
29:33
Um, they are.
29:35
They are not, you know, yeah, they're, they're unfortunately that they have
29:39
the kind of image that Capri, that Capri, Capri's had in the 80s, right?
29:45
And when you're getting rinsed for nearly two quid a litre, do you know what I mean?
29:48
It's, um, it's, uh, yeah.
29:51
You can sort of justify it in your mind if you're putting it into an
29:53
AMG or, uh, or, uh, you know, or an M car or something like that.
29:57
Cause, or a Porsche, you know, it's expensive motoring, but there'll probably
30:02
be some sort of clever tech that means you can still scrape 25 on a long run.
30:06
Uh, not, not in the, uh, not in the voxel.
30:09
This, um, tomfoolery with updating the nav.
30:13
Um, all of this is just, to me, feels like BMW and Mercedes, uh, you know,
30:19
we over email, we were talking that, that, you know, you need the forums.
30:25
Yeah, yeah, I've been on the forums.
30:26
Yeah, yeah.
30:28
But yeah, I mean, that's where I got a lot of the information.
30:30
I mean, look, I mean, I'm a tech, uh, uh, official, not official, you
30:34
know, that's over egging it, but I'm a tech file, if you like, I'm keen.
30:38
So I'm happy to sort of play around with it and read up on it and stuff.
30:41
Um, and yeah, I mean, look, it's got an internal hard drive, I still can't
30:44
find out how big that is, but I mean, it's gonna be 10 or 20 gig or something
30:47
like that, so I can chuck a bunch of tunes on there before we head off.
30:50
Um, I'll get the maps updated.
30:54
Yeah, I mean, it's, I mean, it's quite fun to be able to play around and see what the
30:58
weather is going to be like on their way.
31:00
You're going, you can do it like three times faster on your phone.
31:03
Um, but, uh, you know, uh, it's got, it's got like, I mean, random tech that
31:08
you think, well, I mean, I'm not that bothered, but it's sort of, I suppose
31:11
it's sort of nice in the same way as having breakdown recovery is there's
31:14
a button for if you have an emergency.
31:17
Like, you see a biker go down in front of you or something like that.
31:20
There's a button up by, up by where the lights would be, you know, up on
31:23
the ceiling, um, to press for like SOS and 'cause you've got GPS in the car,
31:28
you can just, they'll come over the mic to you and say, what's going on?
31:31
You can say there's a biker gone down or whatever, and
31:33
they'll send emergency services.
31:35
So that's, I mean, there's, you know, little things like
31:36
that, that's quite nice.
31:37
They do that on the mobi, on the BMW.
31:39
Um.
31:40
S1000 and stuff, don't they?
31:41
There's this little trigger thing on there, on the thing that you can
31:44
essentially call BMW emergency, um.
31:47
And if they, if you crash the bike, it's got a lean angle detector thing.
31:51
So if it detects you've gone off the road, it could, they call you.
31:54
And if you don't answer, they sell it, send the ambulance anyway.
31:57
So there's a sort of an additional wrap that you, uh, that you
32:01
don't get with some other car.
32:02
I mean, you've got Mercedes and so forth, but I've not experienced that before.
32:05
Renault had some nice tech in the, uh, RS.
32:08
But as I said to the guy at the dealership, when I was handed over,
32:11
they spent the money on the oily bits and I was very happy with that.
32:14
So, um, Yeah, it's just a different experience.
32:17
I'm sort of getting my head around it.
32:19
Yeah, I mean, my wife's car, she has a 2004 E46 325 with the Sport Pack.
32:31
The Sport Pack makes it, you know, gives it the handle and stuff,
32:34
which is, which is really nice.
32:36
But I mean, it's an old car, but it's, and we've had it for like 100, 000 miles now.
32:42
I, I'm still impressed by it whenever I drive it.
32:45
I mean, I've probably, you've heard me say that before, but yeah.
32:49
The.
32:50
The virtues of the car will come through the longer you own it.
32:54
That's the, the point.
32:55
So I, I think this drive, well, I'd like to know what you think after the drive.
32:59
We'll talk again after the drive.
33:03
Yeah, I mean, it certainly feels, you know, really tight and together.
33:07
Um, and you know, there's no, you know, the suspension is a suspension
33:11
that you can soften up a little bit when you put it into comfort,
33:14
and the comfort makes it bearable.
33:15
I mean, I've driven a lot of hard ass suspension cars that
33:17
Cooper was ridiculously hard.
33:19
And I had two of those.
33:21
So I'm not I'm not that bothered by that.
33:24
My long suffering wife is aware of that.
33:27
But, you know, the It's enough and the sport pack doesn't make
33:34
it extra egregiously loud, but it really does feel, um, urgent and
33:39
because of the way it's, I mean, it's really a straight six, but at 80.
33:43
Or 85.
33:44
It's sitting at about RPM.
33:47
So it's kind of in the bottom of the zone where the turbo is about to kick
33:52
out because it's a twin scroll single.
33:53
So it's, it's ready to pick up about there.
33:56
So you've got reasonable laggy below two and a half, but it's not slow.
34:02
Um.
34:03
But when you lean on it, even in any mode, comfort, whatever, because
34:07
it's just the same springs, it's not got clever adaptive suspension or
34:10
anything like on the three other four.
34:12
But, uh, yeah, it's, it feels really punchy, irrespective.
34:16
Um, but I was worried that a lot of the reviews said that
34:18
the low speed ride was painful.
34:22
I'm not feeling that.
34:23
Um, And this, yeah, this trip will give us a good idea.
34:26
And it's, you know, it's, yeah, there was a thing, the, I didn't realize
34:29
before I bought it, watching a few videos afterwards about the difference
34:32
between the N55 and it's not an S motor and it's sort of like, whatever.
34:37
Um, but it has got other stuff I learned, like, it's got a double sump oil thing,
34:44
so that if you're doing sustained high speed cornering, it's not gonna Run out
34:49
of oil and screw the motor and the guy I saw this video produced that I can't
34:52
remember the gentleman's name is but uh, I watched it earlier on excellent
34:55
video said that his buddy had just wrecked a 240 M sport or 235 M sport
35:02
doing the same doing the same track work, but it didn't have that modification
35:06
So I think he is a genuine M car and we'll see Yeah, so far so good Yeah.
35:14
Yeah.
35:15
Well, let's, uh, let's wait and see with that.
35:17
Um, you know, like Wednesday, I feel about it after the trip, but, you
35:21
know, I think it feels like a keeper.
35:23
Um, so I've been carting with the boy.
35:27
Oh, yeah.
35:27
Yeah.
35:28
How did I go?
35:28
Oh, dude.
35:29
The, uh, uh, well, firstly, right.
35:35
It's better to be having the conversation.
35:38
Do you remember what Stoner was like, where every race
35:41
he was like, win or crash?
35:42
And you were like, well, he's obviously fast, but Jesus wept, right?
35:47
It's great that I'm not having those conversations with Ollie.
35:51
It's great that the conversations with him are, you know, uh, this
35:57
is where you can make touch.
35:58
So we had like the track map out and to his credit, he has consistently
36:04
found time in each session, um, to the extent that he won his first race
36:11
when we went, um, earlier this week.
36:14
Um, so the lap record for the juniors is, um, 32 seconds and
36:21
he's, his fastest lap is a 36.
36:25
Which, as I say, was good enough to win one race, but, um, put him ahead on the
36:31
track, but second in the race, because the race is purely, is determined based
36:37
purely upon who does the fastest lap.
36:39
And this other lad did a 35 second lap.
36:42
Although he was hopeless in the rest of the race.
36:44
Oh, Ollie's got really good smooth lines.
36:48
Um, and, uh, has, has really begun to, to enjoy it.
36:52
He most comes alive because he wanted me.
36:54
He was very enthusiastic for me to do it.
36:57
And, uh, dude, I'm.
36:59
Such a child with it.
37:01
I mean, when I sat in the car again, I'm fully, like, absolutely fully psyched.
37:07
And after about three laps, I realized that I'm, like,
37:10
absolutely fully adrenalized.
37:12
Like, I'm taking adrenalized huge breaths, like, you know, gas.
37:17
breadth.
37:18
I've been gripping the steering wheel so tightly that my arms and
37:21
shoulders are absolutely done.
37:25
Um, yeah.
37:26
So I, I did two lap, two races the first time and, and was
37:31
faster than the other guys.
37:32
And Ollie was most excited that, uh, uh, You know, I, I, but then I, I
37:37
looked at the adult lap record and realized I was some distance off that.
37:43
So then began to really think about lines and, and, and what I
37:47
could, uh, and what I could do.
37:49
Um, so I'm, I'm now two seconds off the, uh, the adult lap time,
37:54
which puts me in the top 100 people in California or something.
38:01
Um, I mean, uh, yeah, dude, it is nice when the guys at the place who run
38:13
it are showing you a bit of respect.
38:17
So that was, was, was, uh, was good.
38:20
Um, I was also pleased that when I had to pass people who thought they
38:27
were fast, I was able to just follow them for a little bit and figure their
38:32
lines and then just drive past them.
38:35
where they were slow.
38:37
So they, it was like, I wasn't like affing to like Dale Earnhardt them.
38:42
I could just, you know, put them typical to me.
38:46
I'm again in the pits after you've dealt.
38:49
Well, these kids have no shame.
38:52
I mean, I, I watch, I watch one lad go for a total like, you know,
38:57
like Senna at Suzuka on Prost.
38:59
Gap that wasn't there on his sister on his like six year old sister and put her
39:05
like hard into the war Mind you I mean you beat up on those closest to you don't
39:17
you I mean Well, me and my brother used to reenact wrestling moves after the 18
39:23
on a Saturday afternoon, I mean, don't DDTV for real, yeah, yeah, no worries.
39:31
Yeah, so that's been, uh, so that's been fun.
39:34
Have you been following, um, Mike Booth and his updates?
39:38
Um, I haven't actually caught up with it for a little while,
39:41
which I feel bad about, actually.
39:42
What's the latest?
39:43
Well, I noticed on Instagram there was a photograph of him in his wheelchair.
39:48
in the hospital.
39:49
Um, he's, um, there is also, I'm not sure if you see it on 4014th,
39:54
the YouTube channel, there are a couple of videos now of his TT diary.
40:01
So one is like up to the day of, and then the last one is, I think
40:07
the morning of, I've not watched all of that when I was watching a
40:09
little bit of it this, this morning.
40:11
Um, but yeah, there's, there's a complete documentary right up to the
40:16
time when, uh, When yeah, so, so, so yeah, he also in the TT video, we're
40:22
still there on his, on his helmet.
40:25
He does the pan around and, uh, Halvar and Clarence.
40:29
com is, uh, is very much still there.
40:32
And, and in the shot, if you, uh, If you, if you know exactly which
40:36
frame to pause it on at least.
40:39
Well, I mean, it's, it's, it is what it is.
40:41
I mean, obviously I feel awful for him, but I'm sure he'll go on to
40:44
impress us with like what he does next anyway, because he's that kind of guy.
40:48
Um, so, uh, yeah.
40:50
Um, you know, I've ridden bikes for years.
40:54
Bikes are dangerous.
40:55
You get unlucky on the road.
40:57
That that happened to you.
40:59
Um, so, you know, you go and take a risk at a place like that,
41:02
you know, I'm happy to support you and I wish him all the best.
41:04
I feel awful that it happened.
41:05
And, you know, but it is what it is.
41:07
And I'm sure he knew what he was going into.
41:09
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
41:13
So, uh, um, in a, uh, uh, kind of a segue, does this, does this count as a
41:20
slick segue whenever I do emceeing at any events at the Blackhawk, they always say
41:25
to me, Oh, you always have a good way of segueing from one thing to, to another.
41:30
So, so many of these scenes at the TT featured transit vans.
41:35
And, uh, you and I last saw each other when you dropped me off at Bays and Soak
41:40
Station and I rode down to Portsmouth to, to pick up a enterprise rental van.
41:48
Well, they gave me a transit, a new transit and, and I did
41:52
1300 miles around England in it and, uh, absolutely loved it.
41:58
Absolutely love it.
42:00
Um, is it me or is it because vans of people who drive a lot that the
42:06
actual business of driving and how it feels on the road, all of those
42:10
things are like done right for vans.
42:13
I feel like they're done right for vans.
42:15
And in so many cars that I drive, they're just not the dynamics just aren't there.
42:20
Whereas vans.
42:21
The dynamics are always there.
42:23
I, I, I just, I feel that they're good to drive.
42:26
Maybe other vans that aren't Fords or Mercedes might not feel that way.
42:30
But this was, you know, the, the shifter was close to the steering
42:35
wheel and was slick, just like the, the one on my Fiesta ST.
42:41
Um, yeah, I, I absolutely, uh, uh.
42:45
Loved it.
42:46
I, uh, I did stupidly drive on a beach and get some stones caught up in it
42:52
and it started making a peculiar noise.
42:55
And, uh, and I ended up You loved it, but you wrecked it.
42:59
Well, I was like, Jesus, this was only about a hundred miles
43:02
into the trip as, as, as well.
43:05
Because I did, um Were you in Wales?
43:08
No, no.
43:09
So, so I started, I started at the end because obviously it's, it's me.
43:15
Right.
43:16
Um, and I went to Hastings cause I'd never been to the
43:20
site of the battle of Hastings.
43:22
Oh yeah.
43:23
And that's the end of, I, I was exploring the, you know, I was in the footsteps of
43:28
King Arthur and I thought I would have a look at the end of the Anglo Saxon period.
43:34
place, Pevensey.
43:36
So I went to Pevensey first, and then I drove round from Pevensey to, um, Bexhill.
43:43
And it was there that I drove on the Pebbly Beach and got all sand, or got all
43:48
stones up inside the, uh, the transit.
43:50
But I've been a heavy braking.
43:52
soon fix that.
43:54
So that was, uh, that was, you know, that, that solved the problem and it
43:58
stopped making the peculiar noise it was making and made me feel a lot better.
44:02
But, um, whilst I was there, in fact, whilst I was dealing with the
44:07
stones that I'd stupidly scraped up into the front of it, cause I
44:10
was driving too fast, um, on the.
44:14
On this pebbly, on the pebbly bit, um, I noticed a plinth at the side
44:18
of the road that said that Britain's first motor race took place here.
44:24
Uh, Bexhill.
44:25
And I was like, what?
44:29
But yes, that's the truth.
44:31
In 1902, there was a speed trial on the seafront at Bexhill, right where I was.
44:38
Right near where William the Conqueror landed, and not very far from
44:42
Hastings where the battle took place.
44:45
So the following day, I went to the place where the race, like, organized,
44:49
was organized as a hotel now.
44:52
And they have this, like, foyer, like, you know.
44:55
Like interest point, which is all photographs and the history
45:00
of, of the Bexhill trial.
45:02
So I looked at all of the cars and was highly amused to see that the fastest
45:07
car was a 60 horsepower Mercedes in like the last year it was run in 1906
45:13
or something like that, which is, uh, so yeah, so it was like a run down the
45:17
hill and it was a really popular thing.
45:19
And then when Brooklyn's opened and Brooklyn's was in competition.
45:24
With, with it kind of, when Brooklyn's opened, that was the end
45:28
of, of Bexhill as a, as a venue.
45:33
So then I went to Hastings and that was was quite cool.
45:36
And then I did a lot of other Arthurian stuff.
45:39
So I went to Winchester where they've got the original King Arthur's round table.
45:46
It's there's record.
45:47
The original from what?
45:51
The actual King Arthur's round table.
45:58
No, you're you're laughing, right?
46:00
They carbon dated it.
46:01
to the middle of the 12th century.
46:04
So it was made up about the time that Lamont d'Arthur or, um, you
46:11
know, Bernard of Clairvaux, these like chroniclers who talk about
46:15
Arthur, who made up the Arthur myth.
46:19
those people, um, it was about that time at the table.
46:23
And it's too, it's too small for like a bunch of knights to sit around.
46:27
But at the same time, there's record of it being on the wall of this, um, church in,
46:33
uh, or, or, court of law in Winchester.
46:37
There's records of it being on the wall there in, in the 1300s.
46:42
Some like Traveller Guy, whose record that we have, talks about
46:45
it hanging on the wall even then.
46:48
It was painted by Henry VIII when he had a lot of his children.
46:53
A couple of his children married off, uh, at Winchester.
46:56
So, so I, I left Winchester having learned lots of interesting history,
47:00
but nothing to do with Arthur.
47:03
So then I, I went to this place, Cadbury Hillfort, which they
47:08
think is the site of Camelot.
47:11
And it's a basically, you know, you and I, sorry.
47:15
Who are they?
47:16
These are the people that think this.
47:19
Our historians.
47:21
Right.
47:22
Historiads do, so, so, um I'm just checking, we're not, it's
47:25
not like Glastonbury people, Glastonbury people kind of thing.
47:29
Uh, you know, um, the line between, you know What you've generously, what
47:36
you've described as Glastonbury people and, and, you know, all I would say is
47:41
in a moment when I come onto Glastonbury Abbey and Arthur's Burial Site, there's,
47:46
there's considerable cause for doubt of any, the veracity of anything that you,
47:51
you hear, but certainly, um, Cadbury, the Iron Age Hill 4 is an amazing Hill
47:58
4 and, you know, you get out of there.
48:02
A, a place where I feel like, um, Camelot could have been, you know, it
48:08
was big enough to have a town inside.
48:11
It took me 20 minutes to walk the perimeter of the,
48:16
of, of the, the earthworks.
48:19
So what could have been inside was, you know, as big as Uffington Hill Fort,
48:25
not like a small kind of So I was, I, you know, so that was So that was, uh,
48:31
so then, then at Glastonbury, um, I talked for a while with a man who had a
48:36
Volkswagen van from Leeds on vacation and holiday, I should say, and, um, we talked
48:42
about how nice it was having vans, and I moaned about the size of English parking,
48:47
British parking spaces, and he too said he thought they were unreasonably small,
48:52
and I said, uh, you know, they needed to be bigger, and we agreed on that, and then
48:56
I went and saw the place where Arthur was buried, um, Except they're not really sure
49:05
about that because they moved the bones.
49:08
And anyway, the bones that they dug up, they weren't really sure if they
49:11
were Arthur's bones in the first place.
49:14
Um, well, that seems like a sure thing.
49:16
Yeah, which hurts the credibility of the whole, like, Arthur's Arial site thing.
49:23
Although, the actual setting of Glastonbury Abbey with, you know, the
49:27
Abbey in ruins, and, you know, in 1500, it was one of the finest libraries in Europe,
49:34
and by 1550, it was completely gone.
49:38
Um, it was the ruin that it is now, all thanks to, um, Henry VIII who seems to
49:44
have been kind of Trumpy as far as I can make out when it came to the destruction
49:49
of the, uh Yeah, that's a good point.
49:50
I didn't make that connection, but there was an air of Trump about VIII.
49:54
Well, I, I, when it was, when I was looking at a picture of him, um At, uh,
50:00
when we went around the Tower of London, I went around the Tower of London with
50:03
my family and, and I was looking at him and, and it was the orange hair that
50:08
made me, that made me think, and, and, you know, and the willingness to, you
50:12
know, upend tradition for what works for you and for the agenda right now.
50:18
Without wanting to make this podcast about, uh, Yeah, yeah, there's an
50:23
expediency to both individuals.
50:25
Yeah, absolutely.
50:26
Um, no, it's, it's interesting because I mean, I'm, I'm, we're, uh, when
50:29
we're coming back up from France, I was looking through things I've wanted
50:32
to do on the way past and we've got to spend a couple of days driving back up.
50:35
Um, So we're, we're, we're popping into Amboise to get some of the patisseries
50:39
that I like because I'm from out of time there 20 something years ago.
50:42
Uh, the legend that is Bego Pastries Milfeuille.
50:46
Oh, gee whiz.
50:48
Uh, but we're then popping into the, we're doing the Lascaux Caves on the way up.
50:51
Um, but then more to the point, after that, uh, we're doing the Bayeux Tapestry.
50:55
Um, so, uh.
50:59
I wanted to do the walk, the, uh, the, uh, warm museum and stuff, uh,
51:03
at the, uh, uh, Omaha beach and that sort of thing on the, on the way past.
51:07
And in order to be there, you sort of have to buy Bay Area
51:09
as the natural place to stay.
51:10
So the tapestry is over there.
51:12
So, yeah, I'm looking forward to seeing that.
51:14
So, uh.
51:15
Yeah, no, it's interesting because I sort of saw the pictures of you
51:17
at Hastings, so it's, uh, yeah.
51:21
Yeah, well, I did, uh, went down to Tintagel as well, and that drive along
51:25
the northern, deliberately drove along the north coast of Cornwall, and that was, um,
51:30
probably the most enjoyable part of the trip from a, from a motoring perspective.
51:33
I should say, I kept told the GPS to keep me off main roads, so I
51:39
stayed on A and B roads, and what I found was that quaint England.
51:46
Of, you know, country pubs and narrow country lanes.
51:50
Um, I found that.
51:52
In absolute spades, I'd, you know, I grew up in the South of England, lived
51:58
there for 30 years and saw a side of the South of England that I'd sort
52:02
of not seen visiting as a tourist and doing this like crazy Arthurian thing.
52:08
So the sum up on the Arthurian thing was I looked for Arthur,
52:11
but I found lots of Norman history and the Norman history was cool.
52:16
Because the other thing I did, I went to the lake where, you know,
52:19
the lady brought the sword out.
52:21
Well, there's nobody there.
52:23
There was nobody there.
52:24
And then, so I was there at the side, seeing if I could feel a spiritual moment.
52:28
And then these farmers on ATVs drove cattle along, and the cattle,
52:34
like, ran over the top of me, um, because I had, like, nowhere to go,
52:39
because the lake was on one side and the fence was on the other side.
52:43
And the farmers just, like, looked at me, as much as to say FU Townie, frankly.
52:49
So, you know, the spirit.
52:51
So there was a little bit of, and there was me being all like, Oh, you
52:54
know, cause I, I saved the last of the, uh, the comestibles that you
52:58
left for me, uh, for, for there.
53:00
And I was there, you know, and the water was, was shimmering
53:03
and I was the only person there.
53:04
And then it was, Hey, Hey boy, come here.
53:07
And then it was like revving engines.
53:09
And then the cows were on top of me and it was all a bit of a.
53:13
Nightmare, frankly, you know, that'd be a bit hectic.
53:15
Yeah.
53:16
So, um, we're, uh, we're into the, the, the home straight of, of our time now,
53:22
Mark, and I, I wanted to talk about, uh, a couple more things with you before,
53:27
uh, before our close of play here.
53:29
Um, uh, that, um, I've been very much enjoying die cast racing.
53:39
And specifically this YouTube channel, 3D Bot Maker.
53:43
And this is where he does exquisite dioramas, often
53:48
by sponsors of the channel.
53:51
And they, it's Hot Wheels that then race downhill courses.
53:57
And, and you would really be surprised at just how good.
54:03
The racing is, I would go so far as to say I've not been watching MotoGP recently,
54:08
but I would much rather spend half an hour watching some 3d bot maker diecast racing
54:14
that I would any real motorsport now.
54:18
Well, I will give you a, that I have watched a couple of, they are pretty good.
54:21
I think you would be, uh, advised if you're going to
54:25
watch any current motorsport, I would watch World Superbikes.
54:29
World Superbikes is an epic three way, uh, tussle, um, between, uh, Top Rack, uh,
54:36
Jonathan Ray, and, um, oh, dear, oh, dear, I can't remember the gentleman's name.
54:41
Uh, come back to me in a second, but yeah, the gentleman on
54:45
the Ducati, it's just cool.
54:47
It's some really good races at the moment.
54:50
So you say World Superbike is the one, if I was going to return to watch it.
54:54
I like motorcycle racing because it's short.
54:56
The whole Formula 1 thing, where it's The whole weekend and it's
55:01
qualifying and all of that.
55:03
I'm just like, whatever.
55:04
But WSB, you get a race on the Saturday, full length race in the
55:07
race on the Sunday for the next race.
55:12
And they do some other like hyper pole qualifying and things like that.
55:15
However, I'm not caught.
55:16
So I'm a bit out of date with the rules and regs to be
55:18
frank, but it's exciting stuff.
55:21
Yeah, well, um, I should, uh, I should pay tribute to, uh, a lad cadenae, um,
55:33
for we, uh, before we sign off today, um, I meant to say to you, um, the,
55:40
uh, You know, I did that event with him, that front of camera TV show,
55:45
where we drove that, um, 50s Ferrari.
55:48
It was, what, 13 years ago now?
55:52
And after that day, the bloke never acknowledged me ever again.
55:58
I sat with him in a car for all of that time, and ever since that
56:02
day, he never spoke to me again.
56:05
And, you know, I don't wanna, um, uh I, I felt firmly put in my place
56:16
and reminded of my status just as Ollie did when the fast guys picked
56:21
up bits of rubber from the track and threw it at him as they overtook him.
56:25
Right.
56:26
That was how, um, he made me feel, but I do have two stories about him that when
56:33
towards the end of the time, um, the car pulled to one side, had these terrible
56:38
brakes, but it could still drift, right?
56:41
Uh, it was a fifties Ferrari and it was, was balanced and, and we were on highway
56:46
33 and he had the thing full on Japanese, you know, initial D spec drifting.
56:56
Through these long curves and he sang he like sang opera and sang like,
57:03
you know, it was, you know, that was how the experience was for him.
57:09
And I always thought that was a magical thing.
57:11
And so I mean, I was very lucky to, uh.
57:15
To, you know, to, to be with him, you know, to, to experience, right?
57:18
Not just the driving masterclass, but, but also the, the, the
57:22
fact that, that he, he sang.
57:24
Um, and the other thing I was going to say about him has of course slipped my mind.
57:30
Oh, I know what it was.
57:32
Nixon.
57:33
Great bloke.
57:34
I shared first class with him on a Pan America flight.
57:38
just before he was president.
57:40
Absolutely great guy, could see nothing wrong with him.
57:49
Um, so, um, I, I'm, you're off to France.
57:56
I'm fiddling around, um, getting ready for, for Pebble Beach.
58:01
Um, I'm, I'm still in the chairman's suite apparently.
58:04
I've got my annual haircut.
58:07
lined up.
58:08
I'm not sure if my razor is going to be able to take in my, my beard
58:11
off, but I'm all, all lined up.
58:13
You're de stubbling, are you?
58:15
My word.
58:15
Yeah, I'm all lined up for, for Pebble Beach this year.
58:18
Pebble gets more, more attention than your wife.
58:20
Oh, you know what?
58:22
Yeah, you're absolutely right.
58:24
It does.
58:25
That's uh, yeah, now you've framed it that way.
58:27
I feel guilty.
58:29
Um, yeah, so I'm, I'm getting ready for that.
58:32
Um, I've, I've spent this last week getting ready for a conference,
58:36
that conference that I go to that.
58:38
Um, international motor racing research center conference at Watkins Glen.
58:42
I'm all set up for that.
58:44
And I, I've semi negotiated that I think I might be able to
58:50
drive home from the conference.
58:53
And I realized that the route.
58:55
Um, or you can, if you take the southern route, it's
58:59
basically the route of Route 66.
59:01
Cool.
59:02
So, we'll see if I can, uh, negotiate that and, and make that come to pass properly.
59:07
But that might be what I'm up to, uh, up to in November.
59:12
So, um, yeah.
59:15
So, uh, well, I, I, I won't say next week because it's not next week because
59:20
I'm not doing these things weekly.
59:22
But, um, I'll, I'll, uh.
59:25
Um, I will sign off now, Mark, thank you for your time and, uh,
59:31
yeah, and good luck in the Alps and, uh, we should reconvene shortly.
59:35
Take care.
59:46
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