EP1: 1100HP Lucid Driven; Isle of Man TT, Our Man Still in Hospital

Jon Summers is the Motoring Historian. He was a company car thrashing technology sales rep that turned into a fairly inept sports bike rider. On his show he gets together with various co-hosts to talk about new and old cars, driving, motorbikes, motor racing, motoring travel. J drove some new cars on the Western Automotive Journalists annual test day, #waj, #wajmedia days, #wajmediadays22. Thanks to everyone at the manufacturers, #waj and Page One Automotive for sorting that out. Discussed are:

BMW M4 Competition Convertible

The new BMW grill with giant kidneys (altho J calls it a Mercedes grill…)

BMW I50 M4; range anxiety, and the city car According To J

Electra Meccanica Solo

Lucid; the drive; meeting the design team

Toyota Tundra Capstone; looks like a Lexus drives like a Hellcat; Americans and their trucks

Ford Maverick; 21st Century Model T?

Not driven, but also discussed is the new Nissan Z car – M has driven his 350Z 170k and crashed a 370Z; comparison with Mustangs.

Fleet news: M is considering buying a BMW M2 to replace his Renault Megane RS265; the importance of independent specialist mechanics if you’re running second-hand premium cars.

J compares V twin sportsbikes, a BMW 1150R, and his most recent acquisition, a Ducati 900 SS/CR and the value of an “Italian Tune Up”.

The Isle of Man TT, the deaths, the ethics, and the guy we sponsored, Mike Booth, being seriously injured.

Nurburgring and Spa track days remembered.

[00:00:00] John Summers is the motoring historian. He was a company car thrashing, technology sales rep that turned into a fairly inept sports bike rider. Hailing from California, he collects cars and bikes built with plenty of cheap and fast, and not much reliable. On his show, he gets together with various co hosts to talk about new and old cars, driving, motorbikes, motor racing, and motoring travel.

Good morning. Good day. Good afternoon, whatever it may be for you. Welcome to the motoring historian podcast. My name is John Summers. And today I’m going to be talking about cars with my old friend from school, Mark Gany. I guess with this episode, um, what was front and top of mind for me, what even prompted me to want to do these podcasts in the first place [00:01:00] was I had that day.

With the Western automotive journalists, hashtag WADGE media days. Um, yeah, I had that day with them down at a hotel in half moon bay where they contacted manufacturers and laid on a bunch of cars to drive and you go down there and, and drive them. And it’s a pretty good test route. And, uh. Yeah. I just thought that was something worth talking about and sharing.

Yeah. So which stuff did you drive? Well, you know, I sent you that list before. But you know, before we talked here about and that wasn’t everything I drove, I drove this Jeep compass or something as well. But that is didn’t stick in my mind. So I didn’t want to talk about that, particularly because there’s nothing to say about it.

But I sent you that list before of that list. What are you most interested in? Um,

well, I mean, in terms of the store [00:02:00] stuff, I might well, let’s read the list out. So we’ve got the lucid the tundra The i50, the BMW i50, the BMW M4, the Mercedes GT 53, and the Maverick. Um, so, I mean, bluntly, I probably wouldn’t buy any of them, but I would be most likely, of any of those, to buy the M4. Yeah.

The one I had was green. Well, that’s a bottle green. Um, it was, uh, it was like, it shimmering, really bright. Green and and it was the one with the full on buck tooth grill and and and And a convertible and I guess they’re badging it as competition now So it’s like it was an m4 competition, um That is different to an standard [00:03:00] m4 though, isn’t it?

Because they did the for what for the m2 There’s the m4 the m2 the m2 competition And then M2CS as well. Ah, well, you’re, you’re better informed than me then. Because this, this was, this was Badger’s competition. And, I, I suppose, when I first got in here It had already been set in sports mode and the journalist who was getting out of it showed me how I could like toggle the, um, different, you know, the steering setting and the throttle setting independently, which was this really nice sort of slidey touch screen.

And, you know, you, you would, you would hope that. It felt like a racing car in sport plus and it really did. Um, and it revs just in such a, you know, the shifts are like a Lamar car, you know, that kind of really sharp, [00:04:00] um, cutoff and, uh, all around, you know, it was okay. So the buck teeth, they are polarizing, aren’t they?

Um, You know, and I said, I don’t mind them, to be honest, but as you said to me years ago, sort of Mercedes and BMW tend to do something and you go, I’m not happy about that. And then about 18 months later, you like it. Yeah. I mean, I guess a couple of things on, on the Mercedes kidneys. I mean, my understanding is it’s done for the Chinese market.

My wife’s comment on it was the, it probably didn’t look too bad on an SUV. Especially an SUV in a dark color. And if you think about what actually sells nowadays, the SUV in the dark color, that’s actually a lot of what they sell. So in other words, there’s not too many. Four series that are being disfigured by that, you know, by that big grill.

There’s an [00:05:00] awful lot of X5s and X3s and all of that kind of thing that are, you know, flying off the shelves presumably as, as a result of it. Um, I don’t know, um, you know, the, the BMW rep, I had dinner with the BMW rep the night, you know, before the driving. And, uh, I put to him what my wife had said to me, and, and he said that the, um, really the, the kidneys weren’t big and, and really this was not a new thing.

This was in fact, an old thing, because if you go look at a picture and you, I mean, Bowman’s doing now of, of like a 1938 328. They have that very big kidney. The kidneys years ago were that big. So his comment was, was that, you know, it wasn’t a new thing. It was, uh, [00:06:00] it was an old thing, but, uh, you know, I, the fact is, I mean, but this green one, um, it actually wore them pretty well.

And if you’re driving a convertible BMW. In that lurid green, you are not, you know, you are a retiring wallflower. You are not. So you, you know what I mean? To me, it seemed, um, yeah, I’m not bothered by them. And overall, I like the car, although You know, I drove it on the Pacific Coast Highway on a really sunny day, and I drove it on a piece of the Pacific Coast Highway that I know extremely well from riding motorcycles on, so an environment where you’d be surprised how much you can actually, you can’t test a car like the M4 on a piece of road like that, but you can get a great deal closer to it than, you know, a drive around Low, your local roads [00:07:00] might, might anticipate that the test.

So, so the test route, this is worth saying, actually, the test route was down PCH and then you turned off PCH and it was like a little winding road in land. And then, which, which you might approximate to an English B road, and then it put you on to a road that you might approximate to be more like, you know, a B stroke C road in that it was crowned and it had a couple of hairpin bends and it had gravel.

And then it just a little bit on the edge of the road. Um, and then it dunks you back out on PCH and PCH is this, you know, uh, a section of road where you can, you know, I, I, you know, I, I didn’t necessarily do this, but other journalists may have achieved Autobahn speeds. On pieces of road. I definitely have never done anything like that on a motorcycle and [00:08:00] certainly didn’t do anything like that in any one of the cars that I drove today.

I’m telling you, you would have liked this M4. This, this would have been, uh, I take it. It was paddles. It was, but you know what? I just don’t, I don’t around with them. I just don’t touch paddles. I don’t even use the switchable automatic in my wife’s. Like E46 3 Series or in my AMG Mercedes, I don’t, I don’t even, I just, I, I don’t mind, I, you know, I don’t mind stomping the gas and waiting a minute and, and with this BMW, you would just have it in, you know, I just had it in the sport mode all the time and it was great.

Although I did find myself thinking, would it be that enjoyable around town? And I’m not sure that it would. I mean, I’m going to test drive, well I’ve got, I haven’t spoken to the dealer, but the one in Farnham’s got four, so I’m going to go down and test them two tomorrow morning. Um, but um, I [00:09:00] can’t bring myself to get paddle shifts.

Um. I mean, I want it because I’m going down to the Pyrenees this summer, um, to spank whatever I’ve got around, and obviously I’ve done that in the Megane RS a lot, well, not the Pyrenees, but the Alps and, you know, Spa and stuff like that, so I want something a bit different, and I was looking at the M3, and like, the M3’s great, but, you know, most of them are paddle shifts, and it’s, uh, I quite like the size of the M2, it’s a bit smaller and a bit more, um, you know, less horsepower, I grant you, but, um, we’ll see, the, the, the, the, uh, The fluff on them is that they’re a bit jiggly, um, in the ride, but you can get a Litchfield pack for about 1800, um, quid that, uh, will alter the suspension, and if you so desire, they’ll do a bigger intercooler and a chip as well to get you up to about M2 competition spec on horsepower as well, so I’ll be interested to see what it’s, what that’s like, but, um, I mean, I, I like, I like all the b BMW stuff, but, um, I, I mean, I wouldn’t do a, a [00:10:00] rag top.

I did actually consider that the same dealership that’s got the M twos has got, um, an XKR, uh, 10-year-old XKR, um, obviously soft top. Um, and I did it contemplate having that for the lulls, uh, driving around in the Pyrenees and I thought, thought it’d be pretty good. Uh, but then I consider that with petrol at two quid a litre, I might not be able to get rid of it.

Yeah, I, I, I think the petrol’s the least of your worries with JLR product. But they are, the reliability is just not there. It was one owner from you. 10 years old full dealer history. So, I mean, I hear what you say, but for three months it might last. Yeah, it would, it would for three months. And, and, uh, you know, I’d, I’d be tempted.

What year is the M3 that you’re looking at? Um, 2017, something like that. M2, M2. M2. Huh. So I also drove on this [00:11:00] PCH test day, an electric. And three basically, which they watched a, which they badged. I can’t remember exactly how they badged it, but it’s the, I, I, I, on the list I sent you, I called it the I 50, but it’s, it’s not, it’s like the I 50 M plus or, um, the M 40, I, I, either way.

Right. It’s basically. a three like a three series size sedan that’s differentiated by the fact that the door handles are flat. And if you look closely at it, all the styling of the front clip is totally different because the M the M four and this electric guy will park next to each other. And the rep kept saying to me, I’m really interested in what you think driving the two of them back to back.

And I’m telling you, Danny, the electric one drove like a BMW. It didn’t drive like a Tesla. It didn’t drive like a Leaf. It drove like a BMW. And by that I mean that my [00:12:00] wife’s car, you don’t need to put it in sport mode for it to hold the gears. So if you’re like climbing a hill on the freeway, and it’s like drop the gear to climb the hill, if you come out of the gas for a moment, It won’t gain a gear.

It’ll just hold that lower gear because it knows as a BMW driver you’re likely to want to come back in the throttle again. It’s one of those little things where I just think it’s a well designed transmission. Other transmissions don’t do that, although it’s old and clunky now. This BMW, this electric guy, he held the brakes in the same way.

Is it the i4 M50 or whatever? Yeah, the i4 m50. That’s right. That’s right. Yeah. Sorry. I’m not. I mean, it’s a total bloody alphabet soup, isn’t it? The point is it felt it Did not feel that different from the m4. It didn’t have the soundtrack I didn’t feel that the question that everyone always asked at this point is what’s the range on it?

Well, maybe not everyone because range [00:13:00] anxiety is still the big issue with them electric gubbins. Yeah, um I mean, I can’t remember because I don’t worry about that kind of stuff. We will. That’s something for us to put in the footer, isn’t it? To be to work out or for you to, for you to Google up now. But I mean, it was governed, it was governed to 135 miles an hour, allegedly.

Um, and, uh, I was told it got there with more alacrity than the M4. So I’ve just looked it up. So allegedly 318 miles. Allegedly, yeah. Allegedly according to the WLTP, who I’m sure is a stand up organisation, a test cycle. And there’s no history of German cars ever fiddling with tests. With those, yeah. But look, even if you only get 300 out of it, that’s still enough to alleviate most range [00:14:00] anxiety.

But you know, here’s an interesting thing with this electric stuff, right? I think one of the best reasons to buy a Tesla is, at the moment, is that you get to use the superchargers. I don’t think there’s, you know, I don’t really like Tesla’s so, you know, but I think imagine buying your Taycan and then arriving and having to wait in line behind all the other people who’ve got plug in Nissans and so on and Priuses.

You’re in like, whereas if, when you arrive in the Tesla, you’re in your own private line. It makes a difference that that makes it except on the occasion when there’s already somebody on the Tesla supercharger, and then it’s like, you know, you have to like what it’s then. Then it’s like, you know, waiting outside the ladies loop.

The line moves way slower. Yeah, I mean, range anxiety is one of those things. I mean, it’s for general usage. It makes no difference whatsoever. It doesn’t matter because most people can go to and from wherever they’re going on a daily basis and just plug or charge up at home. Um, [00:15:00] but it’s, I mean, I read an article recently about, um, some guy tried to drive, he tried to drive round Wales, or did he just try and drive from London to sort of like Angle, to Anglesey and back, something like that.

Um, and really struggled, um, and, you know, he was happy to sort of stop and spend an hour here and there charging up. But it was little things like, you know, if it rains and you put the windscreen wipers on, or if you put the air con on, you know, the, the, uh, the range dives and all that sort of stuff. So, and of course, availability of charging spots.

But. I mean, look, for me, they don’t make any sense because of the holidays I do. And I can’t be asked to spend that much time sitting around on the side of the road somewhere in the middle of nowhere. But, um, for most people, that shit doesn’t matter. Yeah, I mean, the whole notion of the 300 mile range, it’s, you know, most people’s commute is a fraction of that.

If you really sit and look at what a practical electric car would look like, it would probably look like a [00:16:00] golf cart. The the had like a windshield and doors because because really you don’t need to if you live around town you don’t need to go more than like 30 or 35 miles an hour and and if you live I guess if you’re suburban I mean it might be a bit more than you you might need to go but my point is right even in a suburban run the the 50 000 mile seven year old leaf that maybe only has a 50 by a range now.

That’s fine. Cause most people’s commute is like 10 miles there and 10 miles back. And the key is the key thing. You need a second car and most people have that, right? So if you have a second gas powered car or the flip side, and it’s like that, did you read that thing I wrote about that weird three wheeled electromechanica dude?

The electromechanica solo. Did you read that thing? No, I didn’t. Well, I was confused. Dude, it’s like, it’s a one person car. [00:17:00] It’s like a trike. So it has like, and it’s about the size of a smart car. About the length and size of a smart car. Electric. To drive, it’s just like a car. But there’s like a door on both sides of you.

It’s kind of weird. Kind of weird. Certainly took a little bit surreal. Um, yeah. Anyway, BMW in comparison to the Lucid was kind of forgettable. The Lucid has 1100 horsepower. Yeah, I read about that. There’s an article in Evo this month about it. Um, so go on then, what was your take on that? Well, it’s more exciting on a Gixxer, I’m telling you.

When you come in the gas, it’s more exciting on a Gixxer. Yeah, well, I think motorbikes are more exciting, but yeah.

But it’s pretty fucking exciting for a car. I will say that. Um, I guess, you know, one thing that was really special about the experience was the, um, the evening [00:18:00] before or the event was spread over two days and there was a sort of evening meal and the evening meal was at this weird kind of, of, uh, Like Western ranch set up.

It was like, it is, it is, it’s less like a Western ranch and more. It feels like you’ve stumbled onto a film set, but of a Western, but so probably a Disney Western, you know, if you did, that’s the, the, um, Western automotive journalists do a number of events there. I wish I could remember the name of the venue, but it’s not important.

Well, anyway, I got talking to the lucid design team without realizing it was the lucid design team. And I talked first to Uh, uh, middle aged woman who I, you know, I, I don’t remember, I don’t actually remember her name, but, uh, she was obviously involved in the design. She introduced me to two younger people who were also involved in the design.

Um, and then subsequently it turned out when [00:19:00] she was presenting, she was the chief designer. Well, what I thought was fascinating about it, about, and about her. was the, the, the, the, she was, she, she positioned herself as, and it was a design term I wasn’t familiar with, um, CME or CMA, it was like colors, materials, and, you know, aesthetics or something like that, it was, either way, the point is that the car was designed from the inside out, not the outside in, and it was designed With a thinking about, well, it was, it was born with what she described as California luxury, which is, you know, so, so it’s got this giant moon roof.

So the material that the, the, you know, the, the glove box is made from recycled plastic bottles. Right. Yeah. The whole [00:20:00] thing. Um, you know, that furniture store that they have in California that, that my wife buys stuff from restoration hardware, when you sit in it, it feels like restoration hardware. Um, it is every bit as spacious as an S class inside and it has that.

I mean, I sat in that, um, you know, I, I, I sat, I sat totally. Separate story. I sat at the back of the my back recently and and it fell every bit as as spacious and as airy and as comfortable as that either in the either in the front or the back. Um, so yeah, so the other people that she introduced me to was the guy that did the interior design and then the girl that did the exterior design.

The girl that did the exterior design was was these are people in their like mid twenties and what the chief designer. woman was saying to me was that you [00:21:00] rarely get the chance to create a brand language, right? We were just talking about the BMW kidneys, weren’t we? And we wouldn’t say so. So when BMW designed that.

I for M 50 or whatever it’s called. Um, I was just saying, you know, it’s great. Cause it drives the same way as my wife’s old BMW. There were these not only visual design cues that BMW designs have to stick to, but there’s whole ways that the vehicle has to be engineered to feel, to fit, you know, BMW design ethos with lucid.

There was none of that, none of that. So I said to them, why didn’t you do an SUV? And they were like, yeah. If you want to establish credibility, you need to do a luxury car and they’re very Establish credibility with who? The buying public. In other words, if you want to do a Lexus, if you want to do [00:22:00] a Genesis with, you know, Hyundai’s Genesis sub brand, if you want people to take you seriously, you have to begin with a luxury car.

In other words, you have to take on the Mercedes S Class. And, and that’s, they’re reluctant to do that comparison, but that’s where you need to think about this car. Um, which then brings you back to the fact that that’s the ambience, the giddy up from, you know, Autobahn speeds to, you know, or from, from, you know, you know, from American freeway speeds to far beyond that.

Is astonishing. The other, the other dude I met was the chief engineer guy who used to write for one of the car magazines. So I kind of knew the name from, from that. It was a surreal experience because I, I, when he introduced himself, I thought I vaguely knew him, but anyway, um, [00:23:00] He, uh, he said that we, we don’t publish the like 70 to 120 mile an hour time, you know, we don’t like market it, but if we were to market it, that would be more impressive than the zero to 60.

Um, yeah. So, um, the future is now. That was, was how I, I felt about it. I, I was. Um, firstly, how cool to be in the same room as the three designers and to be chatting with them and for them to be talking about this concept of California luxury and creating a whole fresh design language and, you know, all of that and, and then, you know, the following day to be able to get out on the highway and, and, uh, actually experience it, uh, a little bit.

Um, I don’t think you’d have wanted it. I read the [00:24:00] article in the Evo magazine and I can’t pretend it particularly excited me. Uh, there were some nice things about it. I like the sort of story about how they based it on an early M5 and they wanted it to be that sort of like, you know, usable performance and um, sort of clean power ishness.

Yeah, the CEO, the designer told me the CEO had one and they would go out and drive the roads that we were going to drive in this E39 M5 every time they were trying to make a decision about how to engineer, how the Lucid should feel, they’d be like, let’s, let’s just take that E39 up in the hills. Yeah, and there’s nothing wrong with that.

I mean, yeah, it’s, um, it’s a lot of money though. For something that I, I mean, I don’t want to like shit on the design, but I don’t find it particularly exciting. Um, and I’m sure it’s not trying to be particularly exciting. It’s more, it’s [00:25:00] more exciting close up because your first thought is fresh design and all they did was that jelly mold.

But you, it’s, it’s, that’s why this inside out ethos is important and that’s why this California luxury thing is important because it’s, it’s this idea that you don’t, this is, this is luxury, but not expressed in the way that Rolls Royce do it with, you know, lots of opulence and, you know, wood and leather and all of that.

No, no, that was the last century. California luxury is understated. Yeah, I hear it. I mean, where are you using this performance, though? You’re not taking it on a track, are you? So unless you live in Germany, you can’t really use it. No, no. And that’s why they don’t really lead on the performance. The[00:26:00]

vast majority of Lucid Soul won’t be 1, 100 horsepower. They’ll be 800 horsepower or 400 horsepower.

This, this 1100 horsepower one, it’s almost a bait and switch. It’s like they’ve come to market with the GT3, but you’re only going to be able to buy an S or a Carrera or the, you know, or the Basie and literally like. Yeah, I mean, Porsche always deliver the Turbo S first or something. Don’t they first? I mean, I, I, I’m sorry.

So why you spend the expensive one with lucid is the way that Porsche do it where, you know, the motor sits on the rear axle. And then if, if you want the faster one, there’s a motor on the front axle. As, as well, which is different from the way the, I remember, I don’t know what Ford do, but Nissan, the motors on the front axle, [00:27:00] which is a bit like man.

And then, you know, you can make it all wheel drive and they put the motor on the rear as well. You know, I know I’d rather have it rear wheel drive and, and, you know, that, that BMW, um, The, I, I, the, the other I 50 affair, I, I kid you not, it pins you in the seat, a launch at sport plus, or if you stomp the gas at like 20 or 30 miles an hour, it, it pins you in the seat and I didn’t mess around with the settings on the lucid.

I’m sure you could have done that as well. I mean, it was, it was literally, it, it, it was, it was, yeah, You know, it’s pinned you in the seat. As I say, if, if your only experience was other cars, it would have been life changing, but because my experience is sports bikes, it’s, you know, the, the, the visceral reaction is, is there, but, but sort of, uh, but sort of less so.

I preferred the Lucid to the BMW. I didn’t say that to the BMW rep. [00:28:00] Um, and with Hind. You know, looking back, I, uh, the M4 is the car that I, I remember the most and enjoyed. You know what else I enjoyed, right? And we’ve not talked about this yet. Um, the Toyota Tundra Capstone. Google this guy up, right?

Because when you first look at him, you’re just like, Oh, he’s a Toyota truck with a big grill, but I was walking around the car park the night before, and when, and I, I snapped a photo of the interior because the interior looked like it was a Lexus, not a Toyota, and of course that’s where American trucks are going, that they’re, they’re luxury cars, my.

God Ganny. This thing was spectacular inside. So the following morning, um, I I, it was the first vehicle I drove and, and the rep said to me, make sure you floor it away from the traffic lights. I kid you not make sure you floor it away from the traffic [00:29:00] lights. Well, well dude, it’s a hybrid and a turbo. And when it launches, it’s like a cross between a Toyota Le Mans car and a Dodge Ram muscle and like a Dodge Charger muscle car.

It has that kind of, of, and it pulls like that. Really like, uh, to far beyond anything that you might be able to safely use on the road. Um, it also has this cool little graphic like turbo boost graphic that shows so you can see how it’s using the hybrid and the turbo to make this super compelling launch.

I don’t know what the gas mileage is. I mean, I didn’t sort of worry about that too much, but I, uh. And, and it’s just, and, and, you know, to all intents purposes, it is a luxury car, but then when you want to tow something. You can do it easily. When you want to move [00:30:00] motorcycles, you can do it easily. Um, when you want to, you know, there’s, you know, it’s, it’s like, all right, it’s not a three row SUV.

You know, if, if, you know, my in laws come and visit all of us and our luggage can fit in it easily. Um, yeah, I loved it. I absolutely loved it. Um, I loved it more. I loved it so much so that it almost distracted me from wanting a dually ram, which I still kind of want. But, uh, but yeah, it was not good. I mean, I mean, it looks, it looks nice.

I mean, I mean, I live in the UK, so like American trucks, I mean, I like them, but yeah, I mean, yeah, it’s, it’s like most people over here who buy, I don’t know, um, sort of soft road a bike, you know, they want it for the look, they don’t take it off road, you know, they might do a fire road or something like that once, you know, blue moon and convince themselves they’re [00:31:00] bloody doing the Dakar.

But like, I mean, I’m not saying I do either. But like, that’s not why they buy them, they buy them for the style. I mean, do most Americans actually use their trucks for towing? Or is it about the image? Because if so, what’s I think I think there’s, there’s a minute, right? The, you know, Americans love Boats and jet skis and that kind of stuff.

And they love camping and, you know, so this camping school camping trip that we did recently, that was like driver, it’s like drive up camping. You know, we, we were the only, you know, most people have trucks and tow a camper, you know, that’s, that’s just the way a lot of Americans like to, to vacation. So, you know.

So the maverick, have you read about that? I know that is again, not a relevant for, so this is, is in, uh, in some ways, right, I think this is as cunning a product as the Ford model T and it’s, it’s like in a, that this electric Mustang, the Bronco. [00:32:00] And now the Maverick, these are three vehicles that have really, you know, the, the, your, your, your weight, the waiting list for them is months and months now, because they’re so popular and Ford have just really captured what American consumers want at the moment.

So the Mavericks normal size pickup, like it’s, it’s, it’s, so it’s what used to be the Ford Ranger. But when ranges, the range is still around and is, is just a small ish, you know, pickup, the Maverick is aimed at somebody who would otherwise maybe be buying, um, you know, they start at 20 grand. It’s a two liter hybrid.

That’s about 200 horse. Um, and it’s, you know, it’s peppy enough. I mean, obviously in comparison to the other stuff I drove, it didn’t feel that peppy and the base model, the. The, some of the fittings are just, just so cheap. [00:33:00] You’re just like, guys, the door handle looked like it was the interior hand rest for, you know, my parents, 1977 Mark one Ford Fiesta.

That was literally what I thought of when I put my hand on the handle and the test car that I drove at the weekend. had was it was color coded. It was a higher trim one. So there’s two, there’s one with like 200 horse, I think that’s a hybrid. And then there’s another one that’s gas only that’s a bigger turbo and 300 horse or something.

But, um, you know, I just thought as an alternative to a Corolla. Or a civic as, you know, um, I, I just, I just, uh, I just get it as a great piece of, of, uh, of product design. Yeah, so it’s just quite an interesting thing. Ah, yeah, I mean, but I mean, I’m looking at pictures of it. [00:34:00] Yeah, if Douglas Bardo is your kid and you want him to sit in the back all the time, no problem.

But like, you know, there’s not a lot of room in the back, is there? Oh, no, no, that’s like your extra cab rather than your, yeah, yeah. This is, this is not a family car. This is, uh, uh, you know, room for people in the backseat in a push or room for, room for little kids. Yeah, I mean, that’s what they do, sort of, they do their They do the full crew cab, don’t they?

Which is like a proper back seat. And then they do extended cabs, where there’s like a little fold down seat. So do you remember Mark’s Tundra? Remember when we picked you up in Vegas that time? Mark’s Tundra, it had a sort of little extra door that opened up. That’s the size of cabin that Maverick is, uh, is going for.

The day that we picked you up, he picked me and, me and Alf up, um. And, uh, Al was a bit surprised that [00:35:00] he was standing on his guns in the footwell. Yeah. Yeah. Shotguns in the footwell. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Well, that is, uh, that is the man in question. So, um, I see now CNET. I’ve skim read a CNET road test of the new Nissan Z.

Um, and I chat, I’m chatting with, uh, with, um, Michael Shanks, that guy I work with, uh, uh, at Stanford. He, um, is still doing some work for, for Nissan. He, I, I did that project with him a couple of years ago now, and, but he’s still doing work, work for them. Um, you know, you’re a long time, two time Z owner, long time, 350 Z owner.

What, what do you make of this new one?

Um, uh, I think from a lot of angles, it looks a bit blobby.[00:36:00]

I don’t think it’s for sale over here. Um, why not? To be honest, probably not. Um, I don’t like it enough. Um, it just, if it sort of feels like they’re trying to do, I don’t know, quite a lot with the design sort of homage to all sorts of different things. Um, it doesn’t quite work for me. I just think 350 is a better looking car.

I just need to get that one fixed, to be honest. Um. I mean, uh, yeah, because I had the three, I’ve got the three 50 and kept all always at the three 50 and the three 70 and then wrote that off, but, um, but I don’t know, yeah, I think Nissan have lost their way a lot lately. Well, the R35 is, I mean, I watched a commercial and, and the R35 is still there as the halo car.

And, and you’re like, wow, imagine if BMW. We’re [00:37:00] still using the E60 M6 as their halo car. Yeah. Like, that’s how much times have, have changed, but I mean, I’ve, I’ve the book about Carlos Goan, you know, the chairman of Nissan who like escaped Japan in a. In a bloody box, like pretending to be some, some amplifier speakers.

The, i, the, the, the book, I not read it, of course. Um, but yeah. Um, about the whole like detailing the whole like escape plot. Um, but back to the car, um, I feel like it’s, um, you know, it, it’s, I wanted original ideas. That car’s the halo car. I wanted original ideas and you were like, it feels like it’s elements of other cars.

I feel like they’re like trying to be, you know, the three 70 was too much of an evolution of the three 50. They should have been more radical, but it was a facelift. It was a. You [00:38:00] know, it’s a mass market, Japanese product. They were always going to do that, do what it took to, to sell, you know, and, and, you know, we know how the two 40 was diluted through two 60 and two 80 and, and, and through then the 300, but, you know, the final.

Z31, 300 ZXs, they were really something different, you know, they really, the old platform had life breathed into it. I feel like, you know, I wish they’d done something a bit more radical is, is, is my thought. Um, you know, have you compared it to the, um, the offerings from the competition? I mean, the, uh, the Toyota is a dramatic design.

Um, you’d have a super before this. No, probably not. Um, but I, well, I wouldn’t have either, to be honest. Um, I quite like the Supra, but it doesn’t, I mean, I haven’t driven one. I’d be interested to try it. What’s the alternative? The alternative is like a, uh, a secondhand Boxster, isn’t it? Like a nearly new [00:39:00] Boxster or What else is there?

Here, they’re always pitched against, you know, in the States, they’re always pitched against Camaros and Mustangs. And there is no way I would ever have a Nissan Z car over a Mustang V8 or a Camaro SS, if that’s what I could buy instead. Yeah, I mean, I’ve driven a lot of Mustang V8s, and I like them, but they’re not sports cars properly in my mind, in the sense that they’re not sharp enough.

Um, the handling’s too baggy, even when you have it in sports mode. Um, I mean, I’m talking about the standard five liter V8. I’m not talking about like anything with the, you know, one of the special editions, um, and they always feel a bit, they just sort of feel a bit wobbly. Um, there are plenty of punch, plenty of straight line go.

Um, Yours have been rental cars though, haven’t they? Rather than if you were stuck in it yourself, you could do a track, you [00:40:00] could order a track pack for them. And, and, you know, I, I don’t know though, see those track pack things. I I’m, you know, I always feel, and this test day confirmed it. I’m not a sport plus guy.

I like. sport. I like it to feel, I like the throttle response to be sport plus, but everything else, I, you know, the handling, I don’t need to be sport plus. I don’t need to feel like the wheel’s going to fall off every, you know, every pothole. Oh, agreed. I think for American driving, it doesn’t make sense.

And it doesn’t make sense to have like a manual over there either. I, I, there’s too many cars trying to take things away from you and interact in terms of interactions with the car and the enjoyment of driving. And, uh, you know, you have to struggle to find ones Let you do that these days. Um, so, um, hence to the fooling around in m2s and not wanting the paddle shift versions, um and stuff, but Yeah.

I mean, it’s in, in America, I would definitely have an auto and, you know, having a GT three Mustang or something like that, or whatever the version of it has to come over the GT three [00:41:00] 50 rather, or something like that would be great. Yeah. It’s the 500. Now the three 50 was always more of a track car. The 500 is the drag car, but so that the one they’ve done at the most.

So the three, the three 50 that they were doing was a stick and it had that flat plane. Um, voodoo. V8 that rev to like nine grand. Yeah, that’s the one. Um, yeah, that’s the one that you, the one they do at the moment has more horsepower. It sounds like 800 horsepower, but they do the Mac one as well that they do the Mac one, which is, or even if you just got a GT.

With the track pack on it, or even if you didn’t get the track pack, you could just did aftermarket stuff. You could get it to a stage where it was, you know, how you wanted it to be. I guess that’s, yeah, I mean, I’m sure there’s, there’s an aftermarket for Nissan’s as well, isn’t there? I’m just, I don’t know, in America, I, I love Mustangs and Camaras.

Yeah. Car, those rear lights. No, don’t, I mean, I know where they’re coming from with it, but it just doesn’t work. [00:42:00] So you’re looking at this M two, are you now off Hyundai ends? Um, I mean, look, it, it depends how much I wanna spend, doesn’t it really? Uh, if I trade the, the RS McGann in, um, then it’s, yeah. It’s just a case of how much do you want the personal loan to be, to cover the gap.

Um, and you can make a huge argument why I don’t need anything more than the i30N. Matt loves his. Um, you can drive it harder more of the time because you’re not in danger of losing your license every time you put your foot down. Um, I’d like to get back. I mean, the Zed is, is a work in progress sitting in the 170 clicks and it’s got a reasonable amount of stuff I need to do with it.

I bought the, um, bought the trolley jack and the axle stands and all the bits and bobs that I need to start getting that stuff going again. Um, but, uh. I would like a rear wheel drive car, and if I’m going to go out and blast around the Pyrenees, which I am, that’s all booked now, then, um, you know, I’m driving it there, I’m driving it [00:43:00] back, uh, I want a relatively small car, um, most of the time it’s just me and Angie in the car, I don’t need much from the rear seats, and I can fit like the nephews and nieces in the rear seats if I want to, um, 360 or 370 brake or whatever it is seems, seems perfectly adequate, um, so, And it’s new enough that it’s still got some warranty left on it.

I’m looking at one with about 20 K on it. So it’s been fun to get one owner, one pretty well running, you know? So, uh, yeah, it’s difficult to find anything else in that sort of bracket that offers you 300 plus with a stick and a rear wheel drive. Um, Outside of BMW really because yes, you can look at something from Porsche.

It’s more expensive. It’s older and it’s slower Um, and yes, it’s probably slightly better built and maybe a little bit dynamically sharper at the edges But how often am I at the edges? So not that often so it’s um And look, I mean it’s I did two track days at Spa and Brands and a bunch of other places with the Renault I’ve done.

I’ve really enjoyed that car. [00:44:00] Um, but uh, it’s Yeah, it’s long in the tooth now. Really. I just don’t like the idea of it as a long term ownership proposition in terms of, you know, feeling that the things will go wrong and it just has a little feel about that. Um, so yeah, I think the BMW is probably a decent bet.

Yeah, for me, um, you know, because, um, there’s that great. Independent BMW specialist in San Francisco, Phaedrus, and because we’ve worked with him for ages, you know, at that point, I’m more comfortable thinking about, you know, a 2013 M5 than I am thinking about, uh, you know, a Panamera Turbo or E63. Um, you know, I have that independent Mercedes guy, but he’s like one standalone guy.

Whereas Phaedrus is, is, uh, is an infrastructure there. And I feel like if you’re going to do, [00:45:00] um, you know, for me, that’s a reason to stick with, with BMW and, and, and, uh, yeah, I, and you know, the, the, your, your, to your point of, you know, BMW offer to me, they, they offer, um. You need to spend a lot more money to get more performance in a Porsche.

Um, yeah, for any, for a given bang for the buck, the BMW is gonna be nearly as good as you say, nearly as good to drive as the Porsche, um, and offer you a good deal, more power and for me, ease of maintenance as well. Of course, there are independent Porsche specialists. I’ve just not tried them, and that will be a whole new adventure to try and get the right.

mechanic. And of course, you know, the argument might be, well, why don’t you just buy a newer car? But you know, I, you know, I’m like, I always try and use as much of my budget as I can to buy old horsepower rather than buy new, um, new reliability. Well, I mean, we’re, you know, we’re, we’re driving to Avignon, staying there for a couple of days.

And then. pouring [00:46:00] across the bottom of France into the Pyrenees and then back up the left hand side. Um, and you know, even though the place we’re staying in Avenue, I was like, Oh, be careful at narrow streets, be careful of having a big car. So the M2 kind of fits the bill in a lot of ways. Um, that said I was feeling a little bit more comfortable speeding in France and the French car.

So, you know, I am losing. Yeah. No, I always feel that that’s, uh, when I was just to be categorical, but, you know, in theory, yeah, if, if, if one’s going to be pulled over, always better to be pulled over in domestic product. I agree. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, so on the subject of things, BMW, I’m sitting here looking at, um, John Garcia’s.

BMW 1150 R. Oh yeah. Which is final evolution, if you know that classic BMW motorcycle design where the motor is like horizontal. So this is like the final iteration of it in the sporty mode. So it’s [00:47:00] like naked, but it’s, you know, and the R is sporty and it’s like a 16 valve. It’s a four valve head rather than a two valve airhead.

So, uh, yeah, he was very enthusiastic for me to try it. I don’t like it. Um, what’s the, why don’t you like it? I’m sorry. Why don’t you like it?

Well, Ollie keeps repeating this and now I’ve, I’ve soiled the whole bike with it, but the exhaust note is like a wet fart and I just can’t get that out of my mind. It’s not endearing, no. It’s, and, and, you know, because I, I just recently had that Ducati off, John. And, um, I, all I’ve done, I’ve not been out on the freeway.

I don’t think I’ve been out and out of third gear in it, but I’ve just been out and ridden it around the neighborhood and it is just such a lovely bike to ride. I totally get the V twin [00:48:00] thing. Now the, the. Um, it affects me the way Ferraris, vintage sports racing Ferraris and Maseratis at Pebble Beach, it affects me in that way because it’s got the welded tube frame and it’s got the same Velia instruments and it smells the same when it warms up and there’s just something about the power delivery that’s just, absolutely spectacular.

So I was waxing lyrical about how much I love the Ducati and then it must have hurt me because it started leaking gas. So, um, obviously Dana’s over the moon about the fact that the house stinks of gas and the air purifier is like going crazy and saying the air is like terrible quality, like worse air quality than it was worse air quality than Beijing.

Thanks to, you know, this one motorcycle. Um, Leaking gas. Well, so John hypothesized that [00:49:00] it was a bit of dirt because he cleaned the carburettors, but he hadn’t cleaned the fuel lines. So he thinks a little bit of dirt got off the fuel lines and then got stuck in the carburettor and was just holding. One of the needles open because it has two carbs and the upper one was leaking.

It was very easy to tell where the leak was, was coming from. And it didn’t do it at first. It sat for like 24 hours before it started to leak. But then when it was leaking, it was, you know, there was a definite pitfall and the stink was, was complete. You know, it was like giving everyone, giving us all a headache because the garage is downstairs and all the water, all the, you know, the fumes were penetrating upstairs.

So he was like, Oh, I’ll just take it out for an Italian tuna. You know, which, you know, I get why that works, right? Cause you’re just going to blow all the dirt through to the carburetor. The next time I saw him, he’d done bloody 200 miles on the bike. I was like, geez, dude, scrubbed my tires in for me. But yeah, so, uh, So he left the BMW and that’s why I had the, that’s why I had the [00:50:00] BMW.

So I took it out and I rode across the bridge in the sun the other morning. And as I say, the, uh, it’s very comfy and it starts nicely. And of course it’s super, super smooth, but dude, that’s not why. I, I ride motorcycles. It’s, it’s, uh, yeah, no, and I can understand. Yeah, it’s got a nine grand rev line, which on that BMW M four seemed like a lot, but when you’re used to like 14 , you know Yeah.

On a jigsaw, you, you’re just, uh, you’re just spoiled. Yeah. Yeah. My CBR goes to 13 or something, so Yeah, no, I can see, see why it would feel low revving. So on the subject of things sports bike, did you watch the T two? I did, yeah. I watched, I watched some of that. I watched a bit of the Northwest 200, um, and of course the ones I guess you don’t get up over there, the Cookstown and, um, stuff.

But, um, yeah. Um, I mean, it is difficult to watch, I think. I mean, I really, I enjoyed it, but [00:51:00] I’m not, and the coverage was good value. You know, the sticking point for me this year was obviously we sponsored Boothy and the poor guys in fucking hospital again. Um, but the, the one that got me particularly was I thought idly on the second to last day.

Um, I didn’t watch the sidecars and I saw that there was, I thought it was a brother pair, but it wasn’t. It was father and son. I thought, I hope they’re all right. And then the next day they’re both dead.

Um, which is a bit, I mean, I know I’m getting old now and giving a shit about people, but, uh, still it’s, it’s, um, it’s difficult. Um, no, no, I, I did my, you know, I have the little, you know, it’s not cars and coffee cause we drink beer and it’s in the evening, but we do as sort of like people on the block, cause there’s that guy across the street with that Cuda and the Mustang and the bloke down the street with a couple of Ferrari 308s.

He had just done a thousand mile tour. With a bunch of, with like some San Francisco car club, not, [00:52:00] not Ferraris, but he’d taken his, that black really early three Oh eight that he has. And he was like, I’m going to be like hanging outside, you know, eating chips and drinking a beer. Come along and join me. So Ollie and I strolled down the street and we, we looked at the, uh, we looked at the Ferrari there and, and the, the guy that does, he’s really into motorcycles, engineer, loves racing, really into electric stuff now.

So he has like an FCR 600 that he put an electric motor in years and years ago. Not my bag, but you know, his bag, he drives a Chevy Volt. You know, to engineer, it’s an engineering passion, plus, you know, a background of, of, of motorcycles. And he was like, you know, I’m all about the freedom of riding. I’m all about being in, you know, you being in control of your own destiny.

But that is a blood sport and it needs to stop. I wouldn’t go that far. But no one’s making him do it but it is it does make it increasingly [00:53:00] difficult to watch. Um, But dude gas monkey garage, you know sponsor hickey and hickey wins Spoiler for people who haven’t watched yet. Bloody five of the sixth event.

Four. Four. He didn’t, he didn’t match Huie, but he did, um, match, um, um, one of the other gentleman who’d done it before and Phil. Phil Macall. Yeah, that’s right. Yeah. Macal. Yeah. Ago, like before, before we were watching basically. Yeah. No, um, yeah, I, I, um, anyway, he looked, he looked the absolute class, although obviously Michael Dunlop won the one on the six hundreds.

But still, I mean, you know, the, um. The, uh, the, was, was it one of the races on the, uh, the, not the senior tt, um, but one of the race, the previous one or the one the um, the super tour? Was it the Super Bike? Right. I can’t remember. One of the earlier races was a really, really good race. ’cause there was what, a couple of seconds between them the whole way round, which is absolutely ridiculous.

Um, but, uh, and it’s amazing and [00:54:00] epic in every way. Um, and it couldn’t, it couldn’t, and it’ll survive, but it couldn’t survive anywhere else. Could it? Yeah. No, he couldn’t. In any other environment there would be the pressure to stop it. It’s because it’s put on by the government that it can survive. It’s like the Mille Miglia in the pre war period.

There were a lot of accidents that just never got reported, that never made the newspapers. I’m, I’m, I’m sure there were many more deaths than were ever recorded in that period. But because, um, the fascist government in Italy was so into motor sport at that time, they just, you know, they just turned a blind eye to it.

Oh yeah, yeah, I can believe that. You may not know this, but the Mille Miglia was actually stopped in 1938. It didn’t stop with the war. There was no Mille Miglia in 1939. Then there was that one in 1940, but that was on closed public roads. That was the one that took place actually after the war had officially started.[00:55:00]

Um, but it was closed. It was a much smaller route. It wasn’t, it wasn’t the fact that the full, the full thousand miles, but there was an accident in 1938 that meant that the event was, was stopped where, uh, where it was like a level crossing and a car bounced into a crowd at the, at the level crossing. But no, you’re, you’re right that because the Isle of Man government’s like allied with it, it, it will survive.

It’s just because the guys actually doing the racing, um, think they understand the risks, but really they don’t. And the guys building the bikes and, you know, John McGuinness and Michael Rutter, us, the old blokes, we really understand the risk. The young guys, they, they don’t. And you don’t need to think about how you and I drove in our twenties.

To get to see that.

Yeah. Yeah. So there’s something there’s, there’s something, there is something not quite ethical about guys in their [00:56:00] 40s and 50s. You know, building motorcycles and organizing a race for guys in their 20s to race and die in, there is something, um, you know, because, because even if the riders themselves might say, I understand the risk, the loved ones who were left behind, you know, and that’s, that’s the part of the story that you, you, you have to, that I think you’re more likely to take into account, you know, now you’re the wrong side of, of, of 40 is, is the, you know, the, uh, yeah.

The WAGs, to use a, uh, you know, to use a, uh, the term of the time, the WAGs are the ones that really suffer. And, uh, I guess as I’m on this mental tangent, Farina, the first Formula One world champion, when, uh, oh, Gregor Fiskin, who was editor of Road Track, or Gregor Grant, the dude that was editor of Road Track in the 60s.

Said [00:57:00] to him, why’s there never been a proper biography? Why did you never try and write an autobiography? Farina’s comment was, ask the women, ask my wife. They’re the ones that really understand it. In other words, this isn’t a story of heroism on the track. This is a story of injury and slow, painful recovery.

Yeah, yeah, I mean, and I, and it’s, it, it’s As I get to being more of an old fart myself, um, I find myself looking at Conor Cummings, two cute little girls coming up and hugging him and he’s there in the TT and thinking, I just hope that doesn’t end in tragedy and they have their dad, you know? I mean, it’s, it’s so Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah, yeah, and, and, you know, I, uh You know, I, John McGuinness, every time you see him interviewed, he will always, always end by saying, I hope everybody gets back safe. Yeah. I won’t try and do an impersonation of his, of his accent, but it’s on his mind all the [00:58:00] time. And I was thinking about that before we came on the call here.

Oh, Michael Rutter going off first and being passed by all those young lions. How much discipline did it take not to chase them? He knew his pace. He stuck to it. He’s 50. Yeah. And then we’re getting some. Faster than you or I’ll ever be. I’ll ever be. So, you know, at that age, so it becomes, uh, yeah, the sport becomes more about staying alive than about winning.

Staying alive is the win. Yeah. Yeah. It really is. Um. But, uh, no, it’s, it’s, yeah, I mean, they’re heroes. It’s just, um, yeah, I, I don’t know. I, I, you, you implied a feeling of slight guilt cause we’d sponsored Mike booth and he’s lying in that hospital in, in Liverpool anyway. He would have gone anyway. And I’m happy to sponsor him.

I like the guy he’s cool. I like 44 teeth. I like the stuff that they do and you know, Hey, no, one’s making him do it. And I [00:59:00] saw an interview with him a few years ago, um, talking about how. Um, or maybe it was last year. I can’t remember, but it doesn’t matter how, you know, his dad had said to him when he first thought about going years ago.

No, if you go, I’m not coming with you. Um, and it was his dad’s way of saying you aren’t ready. Um, and he said that he thought on reflection, his dad was absolutely bang on the money and that he wasn’t ready and he wouldn’t have learned it properly and he wouldn’t have taken it seriously as he should have done.

Um. But this is the lottery of the event. You know, you can do all that, um, and be, you know, again, a rider way out of my echelons in, you know, or whatever be, um, and, um, still have a bit of misfortune or one little mistake and, you know, multiple operations on your legs later and, you know, misses in bits, I’m sure.

But, um, I mean, I hope he’s all right. But, I mean, it’s It’s difficult not to support people to, to, to go for their dreams. I mean, I just don’t know where I stand on it now. Do you remember when we were at the [01:00:00] Nürburgring and we’d done a couple of laps and you’d moved out of that phase where you were like, right, I, you know, the sighting laps were done.

And you are now thinking, right, I can get down to business, get down to trying to find the places where I might, where I might be faster. And at that point, where you’re out of that, I’m just sighting, I’m just getting a feel, I’m just learning the lines. If you’re out of that mode, and you’re in a, I’m trimming the lines, I’m trying to hold the throttle flat for a little bit longer, I’m trying to brake a little later, at that point, you are putting your, well, it’s, it’s like, um, I don’t know who said this about motor racing, but it’s, it’s a true story, it’s like leaning out of a, seeing who can lean farthest out of a high window, you know, it’s, it’s gonna end with somebody falling, probably you, potentially you.

Yeah, yeah, um, and I won’t profess to have tried, if you like, uh, [01:01:00] any sort of percentage, really, at the Nürburgring at all. Um, just because the place terrifies me. I like the idea of it, and I enjoy driving around, it’s great fun. Yeah, there’s, especially with the Nürburgring, which other track days don’t really have, is that, you know, you’ve got a sort of touring carousel of random accidents driving around with you, if you know what I mean.

There’s all sorts of people who are more than happy to sort of have an accident with you where you don’t, you didn’t do anything, you just came upon someone at the wrong point or someone made a mistake or someone was inexperienced and trying to drive, you know, to their car. Well, I mean, you know, when we went for my stag dude, you know, we, that guy, Porsche, came off on the truck.

And chatting to his mate, who was, um, standing at the side of the road, said that, you know, they’d been followed, he, he’d, uh, his explanation had been some guy had come past him in a, um, in a, in a 911 S, or, and he’d had a GT3, and he’d said, well, I’ve got a faster car, and followed the guy, and obviously, you know, he didn’t know the track as well, and wasn’t perhaps as good a driver, and then his [01:02:00] car’s the one on the truck, um, with the front left door smashed in, um, so, you know, even with the best of intentions, but, so, I, That said, I did try a bit at Spa, um, and uh, but again, everyone’s going one way.

It’s a more select group, I guess, less people on the track. There’s less sort of tourist farting kind of folks who’ve just turned up in a You know, whatever, they happen to have driven home from work, so, you know, it’s Yeah, Volkswagen Campervan, yeah. You were classed at Spa. I made a conscious decision to not try and stay with you.

Because I had that same feeling, like, you know, I rented a McGann RS. Um, so I had that same feeling that I’m in the same car, so I should be able to keep up with you. With hindsight, I hadn’t worked out where, wasn’t there some power mode where you could make it make more power? There’s a button on the bottom right, yeah, so you can press.

Yeah, I didn’t know, I didn’t know, I didn’t know about that. So I was, so my excuse for why I fell off the back of you was, uh, was, was that I wasn’t, um, I want that, [01:03:00] uh, it was that I, uh, I didn’t find the power switch, but, but My favourite bit of that was when we, we let everyone out of the pits, and I, for a joke, started weaving from side to side behind the pit car to, to, in very quotes, warm up the tyres.

And, uh, you were, I could see you laughing in the rear view mirror. And then all the Ferraris and Lamborghinis and stuff behind were all doing it as well. Yeah, that was a bit of a tactical error though in our slow cars being right out at the front. It meant that you, you, you spent the whole time. I spent the whole, I spent the first three laps of the session.

just watching in the rearview trying to let people get by before I wanted to concentrate on the lap. But you know what? I still, I was talking with, um, some of my students about this was, was that, um, the, the run. Um, you know, Blanchimont that, um, you know, that, that blind left hander that you can just, [01:04:00] you know, you’re approaching it, uh, more than a hundred miles an hour and you can just turn in and go straight through it with just a lift.

That one is without question the most terrifying experience I’ve ever had on a track. More so one before Blanchimont. Is Blanchimont the one right before the grandstand? Yeah, Blanchimont’s the fast left, where in F1 they take it flat, and I’m sure in loads of other disciplines they take it flat as well.

I never took it flat. Um, but that’s the one, then you come down from there, put, put to the chicane onto the stuff. Yeah, yeah, Blanchimont. The one before Blanchimont is a sort of, doesn’t, I don’t think it even gets named. But that one you can go through flat. And as you say, I’m a, I was approaching on him.

Well, I’ll stop at about a hundred or 110 miles, 110, 115 miles an hour. So, I mean, I’m not sitting anywhere in the world of light on it, but it is still shit scary turning in at that sort of speed. Because you just don’t do it. I mean, when do you do it? I mean, I’m, well, that’s what they were saying in the practice for the TT is that they were just getting used to the fact that [01:05:00] on short circuits, you might exceed 150 miles an hour numerous times on the track, but you’re not there all the time.

And you’re not trying to steer the bike through curves at North of 170 or 180 miles an hour. So the whole business of there’s a whole like maneuvering thing. That has to, you know, there’s a whole like adjustment that they have to go through to get used to that. And that’s basically what practice is.

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, and it’s, um, leaning, leaning the bike at that sort of speed. I mean, I, I’ve never done it at those sort of speeds. Um, I mean, I’ve done. Did the Ron Haslam track day at Donington a few years ago, a lot of years ago now. That, I mean, that was great fun. But even there, you know, it’s um, scratching the surface.

I mean, I was fat and slow and remained fat and slow. And uh, it would take an awful lot of effort to be anything other than fat and slow. But uh, I still enjoy it. But even then, you’re leaning over [01:06:00] at sort of 70, 80 miles an hour through a corner. I mean, god damn, it focuses the mind. Yeah. Yeah. Well, I’m just noticing that we’ve talked for more than the hour that I thought I’d allocate to this, to this first thing.

And there’s even a topic left over for next week. So, uh, so let’s save that. And, uh, and I appreciate your time speaking with me today, Mark and, uh, pleasure. Well, I’ll see you next week for the Festival of Speed. Absolutely, yeah. Absolutely. Looking forward to the Festival of Speed. Why won’t you listen? This episode has been brought to you by Grand Touring Motorsports as part of our Motoring Podcast Network.

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