EP2: Goodwood and an Arthurian Odyssey in a Transit Van

Guns and Roses and Kenneth Williams

M’s new M2 – initial thoughts

M’s spins

Used car suggestions for a long commute

Chops Garage’s diesel Jaguar

More of M’s thoughts on the M2

Karting with a 7 year old

Mike Booth of 44teeth update

1300 miles in a rental Transit van in the footsteps of King Arthur

Bexhill and the site of the first motorsport event in Britain

Diecast racing and 3dBotmaker

Alain de Cadenet – J’s personal recollections

Upcoming:

M’s Alps in the M2 trip

J does Pebble Beach

[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.

Alright, well, good day, good afternoon, good morning. Whatever time of day it might be for you. It’s John Summers, the motoring historian, with Mark Gami. Mark, go ahead and introduce yourself. Last time I forgot to ask you to introduce yourself. Oh, okay. Um, yeah, I suppose I work in sales. Um, for my sins, which must have been manifold.

No, I just meant said, I just meant say hello. [00:01:00] Hello. It’s funny though you say, you say you work in sales because in the little blurb that I wrote that was actually one of the things that I mentioned that you and I had in common, and which I feel like it defines our approach to motoring, the abuse of company cars in our 20s.

Repping the repping. Yeah. So look, um, we did Goodwood, didn’t we? We’ve, I’ve, I mean, I had a lot of things on my list here. We, we did Goodwood, didn’t we? That seems like a long time ago. It does. I mean, you remember at Goodwood, you remember at Goodwood, you go often. Tell me what you remember specifically about that particular festival of speed that we went to.

Well, I mean, I think the emotional highlight has got to be Wayne Rainey going up the hill, hasn’t it? I mean, it’s difficult to argue with that. I took a screen cap of him on the, on the, on the following day when I was watching a bit of the live stream, but seeing him go up there, seeing the guys from, you know, um, Yamaha and so forth over there, [00:02:00] helping him out and stuff.

That was awesome. What about you? What was your highlights? I thought it was great that we went on the Thursday because, and we literally stumbled into the grandstand and sat there being like, it’s nice to have a rest. It was raining a little bit, wasn’t it? And then we went, oh, there’s some motorcycle people down there.

And then you were like, oh, is that Kevin Schwantz? And then you were like, oh, is that, is that dude in the wheelchair rainy? And it just sort of happened organically, didn’t it? So that was, uh, was a Uh, a really, uh, uh, special thing, of course, I, I guess I, you probably saw the film of it. How Rainey wheelied the bike other days.

So on, on, on, on our day, he, he didn’t, he didn’t do that, did he? But, uh. Yeah, but, you know, a lot of the film on YouTube, it says first time riding in however many years it was, we actually saw it, you know, we actually saw him chatting with [00:03:00] Schwantz and Roberts in the moments before. But yeah, 50 years of MKAR, that was good.

Um, lots of stuff there, some cracking, uh, 2002s and stuff. So yeah, um. Yeah, the, the sculpture was, was awesome. And, and, um, you know, I had the little die cast of the three liter CSL and I could take a photo of it by the real three liter CSL. So that was, uh, that was cool. Um. I mean, you asked me about what I thought the highlights were.

Um, so I enjoy most the bits where you can walk in the paddock and get really close. Um, I enjoy the, I enjoy doing that at the end of the day or early in the morning. I, when there’s not a lot of people around and when maybe a lot of the cars aren’t even there. So when there’s that sports racing Ferrari there, you can take 10 minutes.

Being like, God damn, the lines on this car are perfect. And then sit there looking at where [00:04:00] it’s red line thinking this is a sports bike, like piece of kit in terms of how it would be to, to use, um, you know, and I just. You know, I always think with, with them, I always find myself, I look for details, right?

That a lot of those sports racing Ferraris that we used for long races like Le Mans and the Carrera Panamericana or even the Mille Miglia, they might have like 40 or 50 gallon gas tanks. That were out behind the rear axle. So imagine you start the race with a full tank of gas. So the car handles one way as the tank empties, the car handles a different way.

Then you get a full tank of gas, but now the car’s knackered because you’ve done like from Brescia to Rome. Out racing speeds. Now the shock absorbers are knackered. Maybe the wheels a bit out of alignment. Now you’ve got a whole [00:05:00] different car, but Hey, you know, it’s got four tires that are like sports bike tires and about 400 horsepower.

So, you know, nothing to. Worry about that. So yeah. And, and, you know, this is right. There’s why I think, you know, sports racing Ferrari’s deserve their places, the most valuable cars. And every time I go to event like Goodwood, I, I love looking at that. Um, I also love that there were Taz Suzuki’s there. I love particularly that it was the same year of Taz Suzuki.

2005 as I have two examples of a, um, the little vents that that year of the 05, 06, um, GSXRs have, um, the little vents is makes them very distinctive. So it was cool to see, you know, my bikes kind of a contemporary bike, even although it’s 15 years old now, 20, 17 years old, cool to see that at, uh. At Goodwood, a call that [00:06:00] whilst we were standing there, like, stood 20 feet away from us, just chatted away, looking at, you know, the modified Yam that old, uh, Rainey had ridden up the hill, was Steve Parish.

And neither of us noticed, or I didn’t notice at least, you know, we were busy enjoying the bikes as well. So that was, uh Well, I took a photo of him actually, I noticed him later, he was, he was chatting to someone leaning on Guy Martin’s Taiko Suzuki. Um, that he’d won, I can’t remember, it wasn’t, it wasn’t, it isn’t one of the Isle of Man, but it was, um, uh, I’m not, it might have been the Northwest 500, but it was, it was one of those Northern Ireland road races, um, that he’d done on it, and, um, Yeah, just, you know, elbow patches and being an enthusiasts, and I think I said to you the other day, I think, I dunno whether it’s come from the, the, you know, the Duke of Richmond or not, but I, I, when they interview them, you get like one or two questions on the, and that’s it.

I think the, the, the, the ethos very much seems to be, everyone hears an enthusiast, so let everyone be an enthusiast, don’t bother [00:07:00] anyone too much, even in the interviews. And so, you know, you get, uh, and you get everyone being car people, which is nice to be for a bit. So, um. Uh, what’s his name? Um, Mr. Lamont was taking photos of the Outer Union, wasn’t he, when he took photos of it?

Oh yeah, yeah, my, my moment of Instagram fame. Well, I won’t say fame, but uh, Instagram cheap thrill when Tom Christensen likes my image of Tom Christensen photographing the interior of the Outer Union. D type hill climb special that he was driving that weekend. And, uh, you know, yeah, say what you like about him.

I mean, I happen to like him. Um, but, uh, but you know, not by any reason, not as any reason why I mean, shouldn’t that, you know, I, I love the guy. Um, but to see him having that enthusiasm was, was super cool. Yeah, it’s, it’s, it’s a cracking day out and, um, uh, I would highly recommend it. And then of course we stumbled across [00:08:00] Nige giving his lecture.

I, yeah, yeah, Birmingham’s finest, yeah, and, and, you know. It’s, I mean, you know, for the, just to rehash it right in my mind, the rain was thin and I had beer in my, a beer in my hand and we were like, somehow I was on, it was like, you know, it was like that moment in a concentration camp movie where the fence was between us, you know, and you could go in, but I couldn’t, there was that kind of moment going on, wasn’t it?

But yeah, but you’ve got me beer, so it was all right. And then. There was Nigel Mansell, like, 50 feet away, talking, like, as if he was, he was doing his best David Hobbs, like, after dinner entertainer, but my word, was he the same old fashioned He was the same Grouchy, point score y bloke you would meet in a pub in Birmingham, right?

He’s like a bloke [00:09:00] who you would meet in a pub in Birmingham. He’s like the kind of bloke who, when you were selling tech products, would say he was going to buy it and then would say, Oh, well this happened and that happened and that happened. And you’d be sitting there listening to him, but you’re going to get to the punchline in a minute.

And that was why you’re not going to buy it. Stroke didn’t win the race. You know, he’s like that, isn’t he? It’s like, you know. Yeah, yeah, I mean, to be fair to him, I mean, you could cut him some slack, um, knocking PK, given some of the things PK said to him, um, about his wife, but still. Yeah, I mean, yeah, the, the Yeah, I mean, PK’s in the news, isn’t he, with this being banned from the pit lane for, uh, uh, this slur that he allegedly used or didn’t use or translates in one way or in a, or in another way and, and, you know, but it’s, it’s classic PK to, to be in hot water over that and with PK, you’ve got to feel that he [00:10:00] kind of knows what he’s doing.

Um, you know, I think, um, you know, nobody raced like Nigel Mansell, right? Maybe guys in the fifties like Sterling Moss, you know, but nobody came through and like charged as Murray Walker used to say, like Nigel Mansell did. And yeah, that’s why the, the Italians called him the lion, right. That he did have this lion heart.

In terms of, of racing, but I mean, you and I used to say at the time during his career, like often he had to do that because he’d made some mistake and hadn’t qualified the car properly. And if you, you know, I always came from, uh, in with the perspective of a center fan and, and his up and downiness and the requirement to dig deep in the race, you would just like.

Dude, like if you just like set the car up properly and qualified, well, you could have just driven off at the front and there wouldn’t have needed to [00:11:00] be any of the histrionics, but you know, yeah, yeah. So anyway, it was fun seeing him, seeing him. It was fun. I mean, it was fun. It’s, uh, cause I used to support a late, I was starting to think why didn’t I support knowledge?

And I sort of did, but I, I was in a Lacey fan at that time. But that was why, that was why Mansell mania didn’t grip you and me. I was reminded of that stood there. Cause he was just too, like, he was too much, you know, yeah. Of, of, of, uh, Britain can’t do for me, you know? And, and, uh, you know. Yeah, he, yeah, it was, yeah.

Yeah. You know. Yeah. It was quite something to see. The steering wheel got smaller, which meant that, you know, you needed to have some upper body strength, which I had, but PK couldn’t do it. Rei, my teammate, Petrey my teammate, but later on he said Petrey, just to, to put that, yeah. Rei, who I always remember some journalist in a piece about him saying like, you [00:12:00] know, it was always hard to reconcile.

The hobby of having model trains with the seven minute Nürburgring time. And, and, you know, this is always the thing about the, the Patrese character. You know, the other thing is interesting about Patrese is of course that, that lap he does of, of Jerez, which is somewhere on, uh, somewhere knocking around on YouTube, where it’s like the launch of a new car and he goes out with his wife and she’s just had dinner.

And as they leave the pit lane. He, she’s like, you don’t know this circuit, do you? And he goes, I know it very well. And that really tells you, and he’s got like some 200 horsepower front wheel drive car that he’s going to do, do the, do the lapping. Um, and that depicts a different kind of side. There’s Italian machismo there, which when.

You know, 10 years ago when I used to use it in class to provoke discussion, [00:13:00] we were in a different place from where we are now. I think now people would say that’s, um, abusive behavior. Um, and you know, so I, I, I don’t know, but yes. But yeah, I’ll make Patrese a nice guy. Um, so, you know, we do have a little agenda here, don’t we?

A talking point here. So, so, uh, just to, to structure what we’re doing. So if there could have been only one, what would you have taken? From the show. What, what car will I take away? Yeah. If there could have been only one, I don’t know. You can’t sell it either. You can’t sell it, you can’t be like, I take that thing and sell it.

You can’t be like that. What would you like? No, no. In which case it is tricky, isn’t it? Because one implies that I would want to, you know, have something I would use every day, in which case I really struggled to look past, like the Carrera gt. I, I love that. I wouldn’t have that, um, and just drive it all the time.

Um, but. I mean, some of the [00:14:00] 330 Ferraris were just, I mean, they’re just pornographically beautiful. Um, there’s all sorts of stuff there. I mean, it’s just so much, it’s really tricky. I mean, did you have a particular standout? Yeah, whatever those sports racing Ferraris that we were looking at, um, there were a couple and I would have been happy with both of them.

I think one was, uh, um, Um, there was another one like 500 TRC or something. I, I could look on my phone, but you know, I’m not that, I’m not that well that brown singer of 9 11 as well that was, like, just had a stance to die for. Yeah, aren’t they? I find, I feel singers are a little bit like, um, Harleys, you know?

When I first moved to California, it was kind of still cool to have a Harley, but somewhere in the last 17 years, it’s gone from being cool to being kind of like, really like chest wig, really, [00:15:00] you know, and and that’s, that’s fine culture can can shift and change. But, you know, I feel, uh, yeah, um, Yeah, yeah, I know where you’re coming from.

I mean, the thing, the, the, the, but, um, that’s the thing that’s still cool. Those are, are, are those Alphaholics, um, Julia thing that I showed you a while back that I saw on, um, I think on the Evo channel, it’s just an astonishing piece of work. It’s similar sort of repro, but it’s, you know, you’re paying a huge amount of money for those things.

So they’re not sort of real world for a mere mortals. I mean, I, I don’t know, I, I read a really interesting book, um, about the history of Mulholland Drive and it’s written by a bloke who, um, in order to win races up on Mulholland, um, drove to, uh, went to Germany and basically had Porsche build him a Targa Florio spec.

911 RSR that was wasn’t like it was like Targa Florio spec, but this [00:16:00] was the car that was going to do the best Porsche Thor along Mulholland Drive based upon the specifications that Ede He’d given them. Um, and you know, I, uh, uh, so, so the concept of the 9 11 perfected, I do understand that just as I understand the coolness of the Harley thing.

I just feel it’s like a bit kind of done to death now that, um, you know, you’d, uh, yeah, I don’t know. Is it, is it me a bit like not liking Guns N Roses because everyone else liked them? Like is, you know? No, they weren’t heavy enough. For us. I know. I mean, there’s some cracking tracks, there’s some cracking tracks, but I mean, I had a, I got, I had an argument with a couple of, uh, my brother’s friends on his stag do in Amsterdam about whether or not Use Your Illusion 1, or whatever it was, [00:17:00] um, was the best album of all time, which I argued it wasn’t.

Um, but, um, I was distinctly argued down. See, I have time for Use Your Illusion 2. Or was it, maybe it was the Appetite for Destruction one. I can’t remember which one it was. Appetite for Destruction is the one that everyone says is arguably the greatest rock and roll album ever. Must have been that. With like, Welcome to the Jungle and Rocket Queed and, you know, Sweet Child of Mine and, you know.

Um, the, uh, Use Your Illusion 1 was the one that was all orange. Use Your Illusion 2 is the blue one that has the Kenneth Oh, the blue one was better, yeah, yeah. Yeah, the Kenneth Williams, You Could Be My Aide. Remember it? Ha ha ha. It sounded like Yeah, yeah, I quite like that. It was old Kenneth Williams doing the soundtrack there, wasn’t it?

Or at least it did to You and I for a moment there. Yeah, it’s, given the stuff Metallica were putting out at the time, there was better stuff to be had, but it’s, yeah, that is personal choice, [00:18:00] there’s nothing wrong with the albums, nothing wrong with the albums at all. So, we’ve, we’ve dithered around it up to now, um, I even put you off when you were talking about it, um, after you went and picked it up, but this M2, how is it?

Yeah, it’s, I mean, I haven’t really, I haven’t really driven it much, yeah, I drove over to Colchester and dropped the RS Megane off, um, picked up the, um, M2. And then drove it back. So, a couple of hours of motorway work, largely. So, and other than that, just sort of pottering about. So, I’ve done a couple of little sort of blats on the OB roads and stuff, but the, the two tests will be, starts Friday.

So, I’m, I’m taking, we’re driving down to, uh, just north of Reims, or Reims, if you’re French. Um, and then staying overnight there and then we’re driving down to Avignon after that. So I’ve got to tour across the Côte d’Azur and then through the Pyrenees and then back up the middle of France. So I’ll get a proper feel for it then.

So far I like [00:19:00] it. I think the dynamics feel good. Um, it’s turbocharged, so it’s, you’ve got a sort of usable lump of torque to make, you know, lazy, not really bothering to rev it, put, um, progress rapid. Um, but, you know, and then if you spank it a bit, there’s, there’s plenty up at the top end. It doesn’t get sort of full feral at the top end, but it does go.

The exhaust, the performance exhaust, which I wouldn’t have ordered because it was a ridiculously expensive option is egregiously loud, but I got the impression from watching a few videos on YouTube. they were allowed, the standard exhaust is pretty bloody loud as well. So when you fire up the, if I was commuting and leaving every day at 5 30, I wouldn’t have many friends amongst the neighbors.

It’s like, and then it sort of starts with the bowels open, then closes them to say like, I’m here. Yeah, but as you were, you know, but Yeah, no, it’s it’s nice. It’s got [00:20:00] the tech side of it. I’m getting my head around. It’s not much of it I mean BMW make a big fuss of it You’ve got an app and all these other things you can do and there’s some fancy bits and bobs But on the other hand, it’s a 2016 or 2017 car.

So you have to remember that because the tech’s a bit old So yeah, there’s online stuff, but it’s 3g not 4g. Yeah, there’s Um, map updates that I’ve bought for, because the maps are from 2016. So I’ve updated the maps because, you know, I’m about to drive across Europe and I’ll have the new ones, please. And that’s not a ridiculous amount of money and it updates it to the 2022 maps.

You have to use a certain file system on your, on your, uh, on your USB stick. And the USB stick can’t be bigger than a certain size and all this sort of faffing. Um, net net I had too big a USB stick matron and had to order another one from Amazon, um, to arrive tomorrow. So I still haven’t actually got the maps updated.

So, yeah, I mean, you know, but as, as a package, I think it looks great that the, um, the, the, uh, respray on the wheels was [00:21:00] a, was a win as it turns out. And, um. Yeah, it feels really tying together. I mean, so it’ll be interesting to probably get it up into the Pyrenees and give it some beans. Hmm. The, um, the, uh, um, the wheels, the gold wheels, total winner, total winner.

Please. You did that. Um, well, I mean that, that also, um, I managed to scuff them like an absolute. Barely, but nonetheless, um, not paying attention and not used to the fact that the steering is much more tight and direct, even though it’s an electronic rack than in the, um, Megane. Um, so like smack the curb gently, but still annoyed the hell out of me.

But it also proved to me because I spoke to a chap just to get a quote for how much he would charge to come in and redo the wheel. And he pointed out to me that, uh, that’s not frozen gold, which is what I ordered. And what they said to me is, and I was trying to work out why it wasn’t because frozen gold, he described to me as sort of more [00:22:00] nine carat gold.

And if you look on the pictures of the competition and stuff, that’s what it looks like. Um, so what they’ve done is they’ve just done a couple of coats of frozen gold straight over the top of the flap and thought that’ll be fine. Um, so what they, so they’ve done a sort of quick and dirty re spray.

They’ve refurbed them and they haven’t bothered to repaint them properly. Um, which is why it’s a much darker gold. But, I mean, it is, I like it. So, but it’ll just be a problem to get the touch ups done. Yeah, I mean, the, the, I’m not surprised they didn’t refurb the wheels, you know, to a kind of a high standard.

I follow this YouTube guy, Chops Garage, and I see now, Chops Garage, he’s in, Devon, isn’t he? So I should say Chop’s Garage. Um, he, I mean, he makes decisions about whether to refurb wheels based upon how much the car’s worth. Um, and, you know, I see how much work it goes into turning an alloy wheel into, you [00:23:00] know, something that was as it was when it left the showroom.

Um, yeah, um, I, I, uh, you know, I, I feel this is somehow traditional, Gami, this is almost a good sign that this has happened because didn’t you destroy an alloy wheel on your Nissan 350, indulging in some dukes of hazard foolishness? Many moons ago. Overestimating my talent as usual. Yeah, yeah. Well, you never framed it like that years ago.

But I, I, uh, I realize now, thinking about it, that that short wheelbase makes that car quite, uh, quite tricksy on, uh, greasy, cambered British roads. I just wasn’t used to the car well enough and was just doing a sort of small power slide round the corner, but I didn’t know the car well enough and was, uh, you know.

Just rotated it too far round. Um, so just spun it around and it sort of dinked the curb on the, on the left hand side and, uh, [00:24:00] damaged the rear wheel. Not very much, um, but annoyed me. Yeah. Especially when I rang up in this end and said, can I buy a new alloy wheel please? And they went, certainly, sir, that would be a thousand pounds

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That was a long time ago now. Like 2009 something. Yeah. Well, I’ve still got three, um, spare raise alloys in the garage because, uh, I bought a set of four on eBay for 450 quid. Um. The one that’s got the dink in it is on my mate’s wall as a hose holder in this carriage. Ah, nice. All well, so all’s well that, uh, that ends well.

So which wheel was it on? The M two, uh, front left. It’s not that too bad. It’s just slightly mildly annoying pride. If nothing else, it’s a bit like the missing chin spoiler on your, on your McGann. It’s kind of, you know, as you said, it looks kind of rakish tend to agree. Yeah, that one I wasn’t too bad by that.

I’m not quite sure why that happened. I think that happened in the Alps. Um, but, um, yeah, [00:25:00] battle scars. That one’s all right. So, um, whilst I was in England, I, uh, I saw, um, old, uh, John Um, he’s still living up north, but is spending more time down south because of the job that he’s doing now. He said to me as we were walking to the station, um, Any thoughts about what I should try and drive?

So he has at the moment, for the family, like a Macan Turbo S. Well, it’s not a badged Turbo S, but apparently that’s what it is. Um, which for the family, you know, I see why you would do that car. It’s a practical decision. I did get him to admit that he very much missed the C63. That he had some two or three cars ago, because I was, I’ve not really talked to him about cars since he got rid of that C63, because I, I just.

You know, I don’t see how you could have, I mean, that’s like, that’s like trading in one of your [00:26:00] children is now I could never have parted with a C. I’ve never owned a C63 AMG. I just know if I had, I never could have, uh, uh, parted with it. Um, yeah, but, uh, but no, so this would be a second car. This might not be a lot of money.

This might have to street park a lot. So isn’t gonna need to be too attractive to, uh, to our light fingered friends. Um, what would you do? The advantage here being the budget is, is probably more than, than, you know, I might normally spend on a beta, but probably less, you know, probably would need to be 10, 15 ish.

What do you do for, for that? I, I said to him, I’d get as much Jaguar. As I could for the money and just roll the dice on reliability and he didn’t say anything which implied that that had been deeply unhelpful.[00:27:00]

Without having heard you say that before I would have argued that that is deeply unhelpful to be honest. Well in England there’s so many lovely Jags here they’ve all got mirrored wheels and and whereas you get you get good diesel ones. Which models are you talking about? I, I mean, this chops garage guy, he had, um, a turbo diesel XF that was like a 2012 or something that 450 foot pounds of torque.

I mean, I know it’s a diesel, right? But you know, that, that would have, I found myself, I, I, I can’t, when I was in England, I, I almost reached out to him and said to him, can I like have that car off you just for a little bit and then you have it back. But then I realized it would. Potentially be an even more difficult conversation when I blown it up at the side of the motorway and needed to explain to him and to my wife that I Not got a car for the job that I, uh, I [00:28:00] needed to do.

So I didn’t take that any further and just rented. Probably, probably savvy. Um, I don’t know. So it needs to be what four seats, four doors. Not necessarily. Um, you know, the Replacing a McCann S It’s not replacing, it’s sitting alongside, it’s an additional car for him to use commuting to and from the North.

So, you know, if it has four seats, great, but, you know, if we could make a strong case for something that did now have four seats, he might think about it.

Well, I mean There’s, um, what was that? I found that, um, Jag, I was pointing out to you recently, didn’t I, the, um, with the, with the, with the, that XK, uh, 500 horsepower supercharged one. Yeah. That was like nine and a half. Yeah. Um, with 70, 000 miles from you. Don’t they do that in like a five series size sedan?

That’s the kind of thing [00:29:00] you, that car would be a cheaper car to buy. He can get the XFR. Yeah, that would be, yeah, yeah, yeah. They may look correct. They’ve got a nice grill. I also said to him, VXR eight or Monro, they call them either way, the voxel version of the Pontiac, GTO, Alden, you know, coor V eight, whatever that, that GM thing.

But the reality is they’re a little bit vulgar, aren’t they? Frankly, A little bit. I mean, I like them, don’t get me wrong. Yeah. But I’m a chubby scumbag. Um, they are. They are not, you know, yeah, they’re, they’re unfortunately that they have the kind of image that Capri, that Capri, Capri’s had in the 80s, right?

And when you’re getting rinsed for nearly two quid a litre, do you know what I mean? It’s, um, it’s, uh, yeah. You can sort of justify it in your mind if you’re putting it into an AMG or, uh, or, uh, you know, or an M car or something like that. Cause, or a Porsche, you know, it’s [00:30:00] expensive motoring, but there’ll probably be some sort of clever tech that means you can still scrape 25 on a long run.

Uh, not, not in the, uh, not in the voxel. This, um, tomfoolery with updating the nav. Um, all of this is just, to me, feels like BMW and Mercedes, uh, you know, we over email, we were talking that, that, you know, you need the forums. Yeah, yeah, I’ve been on the forums. Yeah, yeah. But yeah, I mean, that’s where I got a lot of the information.

I mean, look, I mean, I’m a tech, uh, uh, official, not official, you know, that’s over egging it, but I’m a tech file, if you like, I’m keen. So I’m happy to sort of play around with it and read up on it and stuff. Um, and yeah, I mean, look, it’s got an internal hard drive, I still can’t find out how big that is, but I mean, it’s gonna be 10 or 20 gig or something like that, so I can chuck a bunch of tunes on there before we head off.

Um, I’ll get the maps updated. Yeah, I mean, it’s, I mean, it’s quite fun to be able to play around and see what the weather is going to be like on [00:31:00] their way. You’re going, you can do it like three times faster on your phone. Um, but, uh, you know, uh, it’s got, it’s got like, I mean, random tech that you think, well, I mean, I’m not that bothered, but it’s sort of, I suppose it’s sort of nice in the same way as having breakdown recovery is there’s a button for if you have an emergency.

Like, you see a biker go down in front of you or something like that. There’s a button up by, up by where the lights would be, you know, up on the ceiling, um, to press for like SOS and ’cause you’ve got GPS in the car, you can just, they’ll come over the mic to you and say, what’s going on? You can say there’s a biker gone down or whatever, and they’ll send emergency services.

So that’s, I mean, there’s, you know, little things like that, that’s quite nice. They do that on the mobi, on the BMW. Um. S1000 and stuff, don’t they? There’s this little trigger thing on there, on the thing that you can essentially call BMW emergency, um. And if they, if you crash the bike, it’s got a lean angle detector thing.

So if it detects you’ve gone off the road, it could, they call you. And if you don’t answer, they sell it, send the ambulance anyway. So there’s a sort of an [00:32:00] additional wrap that you, uh, that you don’t get with some other car. I mean, you’ve got Mercedes and so forth, but I’ve not experienced that before.

Renault had some nice tech in the, uh, RS. But as I said to the guy at the dealership, when I was handed over, they spent the money on the oily bits and I was very happy with that. So, um, Yeah, it’s just a different experience. I’m sort of getting my head around it. Yeah, I mean, my wife’s car, she has a 2004 E46 325 with the Sport Pack.

The Sport Pack makes it, you know, gives it the handle and stuff, which is, which is really nice. But I mean, it’s an old car, but it’s, and we’ve had it for like 100, 000 miles now. I, I’m still impressed by it whenever I drive it. I mean, I’ve probably, you’ve heard me say that before, but yeah. The. The virtues of the car will come through the longer you own it.

That’s the, the point. So I, I think this drive, well, I’d like to know what you think after the drive. We’ll [00:33:00] talk again after the drive. Yeah, I mean, it certainly feels, you know, really tight and together. Um, and you know, there’s no, you know, the suspension is a suspension that you can soften up a little bit when you put it into comfort, and the comfort makes it bearable.

I mean, I’ve driven a lot of hard ass suspension cars that Cooper was ridiculously hard. And I had two of those. So I’m not I’m not that bothered by that. My long suffering wife is aware of that. But, you know, the It’s enough and the sport pack doesn’t make it extra egregiously loud, but it really does feel, um, urgent and because of the way it’s, I mean, it’s really a straight six, but at 80.

Or 85. It’s sitting at about RPM. So it’s kind of in the bottom of the zone where the turbo is about to kick out because it’s a twin scroll single. So it’s, it’s ready to pick up about there. So you’ve got reasonable laggy below two and a [00:34:00] half, but it’s not slow. Um. But when you lean on it, even in any mode, comfort, whatever, because it’s just the same springs, it’s not got clever adaptive suspension or anything like on the three other four.

But, uh, yeah, it’s, it feels really punchy, irrespective. Um, but I was worried that a lot of the reviews said that the low speed ride was painful. I’m not feeling that. Um, And this, yeah, this trip will give us a good idea. And it’s, you know, it’s, yeah, there was a thing, the, I didn’t realize before I bought it, watching a few videos afterwards about the difference between the N55 and it’s not an S motor and it’s sort of like, whatever.

Um, but it has got other stuff I learned, like, it’s got a double sump oil thing, so that if you’re doing sustained high speed cornering, it’s not gonna Run out of oil and screw the motor and the guy I saw this video produced that I can’t remember the gentleman’s name is but uh, I watched it earlier on excellent video said that his buddy had just wrecked a 240 M [00:35:00] sport or 235 M sport doing the same doing the same track work, but it didn’t have that modification So I think he is a genuine M car and we’ll see Yeah, so far so good Yeah.

Yeah. Well, let’s, uh, let’s wait and see with that. Um, you know, like Wednesday, I feel about it after the trip, but, you know, I think it feels like a keeper. Um, so I’ve been carting with the boy. Oh, yeah. Yeah. How did I go? Oh, dude. The, uh, uh, well, firstly, right. It’s better to be having the conversation. Do you remember what Stoner was like, where every race he was like, win or crash?

And you were like, well, he’s obviously fast, but Jesus wept, right? It’s great that I’m not having those conversations with Ollie. It’s great that the conversations with him are, you know, uh, this is where you can make touch. So we had like the track [00:36:00] map out and to his credit, he has consistently found time in each session, um, to the extent that he won his first race when we went, um, earlier this week.

Um, so the lap record for the juniors is, um, 32 seconds and he’s, his fastest lap is a 36. Which, as I say, was good enough to win one race, but, um, put him ahead on the track, but second in the race, because the race is purely, is determined based purely upon who does the fastest lap. And this other lad did a 35 second lap.

Although he was hopeless in the rest of the race. Oh, Ollie’s got really good smooth lines. Um, and, uh, has, has really begun to, to enjoy it. He most comes alive because he wanted me. He was very enthusiastic for me to do it. And, uh, dude, I’m. Such [00:37:00] a child with it. I mean, when I sat in the car again, I’m fully, like, absolutely fully psyched.

And after about three laps, I realized that I’m, like, absolutely fully adrenalized. Like, I’m taking adrenalized huge breaths, like, you know, gas. breadth. I’ve been gripping the steering wheel so tightly that my arms and shoulders are absolutely done. Um, yeah. So I, I did two lap, two races the first time and, and was faster than the other guys.

And Ollie was most excited that, uh, uh, You know, I, I, but then I, I looked at the adult lap record and realized I was some distance off that. So then began to really think about lines and, and, and what I could, uh, and what I could do. Um, so I’m, I’m now two seconds off the, uh, the adult lap time, which puts me in the top 100 people in California [00:38:00] or something.

Um, I mean, uh, yeah, dude, it is nice when the guys at the place who run it are showing you a bit of respect. So that was, was, was, uh, was good. Um, I was also pleased that when I had to pass people who thought they were fast, I was able to just follow them for a little bit and figure their lines and then just drive past them.

where they were slow. So they, it was like, I wasn’t like affing to like Dale Earnhardt them. I could just, you know, put them typical to me. I’m again in the pits after you’ve dealt. Well, these kids have no shame. I mean, I, I watch, I watch one lad go for a total like, you know, like Senna at Suzuka on Prost.

[00:39:00] Gap that wasn’t there on his sister on his like six year old sister and put her like hard into the war Mind you I mean you beat up on those closest to you don’t you I mean Well, me and my brother used to reenact wrestling moves after the 18 on a Saturday afternoon, I mean, don’t DDTV for real, yeah, yeah, no worries.

Yeah, so that’s been, uh, so that’s been fun. Have you been following, um, Mike Booth and his updates? Um, I haven’t actually caught up with it for a little while, which I feel bad about, actually. What’s the latest? Well, I noticed on Instagram there was a photograph of him in his wheelchair. in the hospital. Um, he’s, um, there is also, I’m not sure if you see it on 4014th, the YouTube channel, there are a couple of videos now of his [00:40:00] TT diary.

So one is like up to the day of, and then the last one is, I think the morning of, I’ve not watched all of that when I was watching a little bit of it this, this morning. Um, but yeah, there’s, there’s a complete documentary right up to the time when, uh, When yeah, so, so, so yeah, he also in the TT video, we’re still there on his, on his helmet.

He does the pan around and, uh, Halvar and Clarence. com is, uh, is very much still there. And, and in the shot, if you, uh, If you, if you know exactly which frame to pause it on at least. Well, I mean, it’s, it’s, it is what it is. I mean, obviously I feel awful for him, but I’m sure he’ll go on to impress us with like what he does next anyway, because he’s that kind of guy.

Um, so, uh, yeah. Um, you know, I’ve ridden bikes for years. Bikes are dangerous. You get unlucky on the road. That that happened to you. Um, so, [00:41:00] you know, you go and take a risk at a place like that, you know, I’m happy to support you and I wish him all the best. I feel awful that it happened. And, you know, but it is what it is.

And I’m sure he knew what he was going into. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So, uh, um, in a, uh, uh, kind of a segue, does this, does this count as a slick segue whenever I do emceeing at any events at the Blackhawk, they always say to me, Oh, you always have a good way of segueing from one thing to, to another. So, so many of these scenes at the TT featured transit vans.

And, uh, you and I last saw each other when you dropped me off at Bays and Soak Station and I rode down to Portsmouth to, to pick up a enterprise rental van. Well, they gave me a transit, a new transit and, and I did 1300 miles around England in it and, uh, absolutely loved it. Absolutely love it. [00:42:00] Um, is it me or is it because vans of people who drive a lot that the actual business of driving and how it feels on the road, all of those things are like done right for vans.

I feel like they’re done right for vans. And in so many cars that I drive, they’re just not the dynamics just aren’t there. Whereas vans. The dynamics are always there. I, I, I just, I feel that they’re good to drive. Maybe other vans that aren’t Fords or Mercedes might not feel that way. But this was, you know, the, the shifter was close to the steering wheel and was slick, just like the, the one on my Fiesta ST.

Um, yeah, I, I absolutely, uh, uh. Loved it. I, uh, I did stupidly drive on a beach and get some stones caught up in it and it started making a peculiar noise. And, uh, and I ended up You loved it, but you wrecked it. Well, [00:43:00] I was like, Jesus, this was only about a hundred miles into the trip as, as, as well. Because I did, um Were you in Wales?

No, no. So, so I started, I started at the end because obviously it’s, it’s me. Right. Um, and I went to Hastings cause I’d never been to the site of the battle of Hastings. Oh yeah. And that’s the end of, I, I was exploring the, you know, I was in the footsteps of King Arthur and I thought I would have a look at the end of the Anglo Saxon period.

place, Pevensey. So I went to Pevensey first, and then I drove round from Pevensey to, um, Bexhill. And it was there that I drove on the Pebbly Beach and got all sand, or got all stones up inside the, uh, the transit. But I’ve been a heavy braking. soon fix that. So that was, uh, that was, you know, that, that solved the problem and it stopped making the peculiar [00:44:00] noise it was making and made me feel a lot better.

But, um, whilst I was there, in fact, whilst I was dealing with the stones that I’d stupidly scraped up into the front of it, cause I was driving too fast, um, on the. On this pebbly, on the pebbly bit, um, I noticed a plinth at the side of the road that said that Britain’s first motor race took place here. Uh, Bexhill.

And I was like, what? But yes, that’s the truth. In 1902, there was a speed trial on the seafront at Bexhill, right where I was. Right near where William the Conqueror landed, and not very far from Hastings where the battle took place. So the following day, I went to the place where the race, like, organized, was organized as a hotel now.

And they have this, like, foyer, like, you know. Like interest point, which is all photographs and the [00:45:00] history of, of the Bexhill trial. So I looked at all of the cars and was highly amused to see that the fastest car was a 60 horsepower Mercedes in like the last year it was run in 1906 or something like that, which is, uh, so yeah, so it was like a run down the hill and it was a really popular thing.

And then when Brooklyn’s opened and Brooklyn’s was in competition. With, with it kind of, when Brooklyn’s opened, that was the end of, of Bexhill as a, as a venue. So then I went to Hastings and that was was quite cool. And then I did a lot of other Arthurian stuff. So I went to Winchester where they’ve got the original King Arthur’s round table.

It’s there’s record. The original from what? The actual King Arthur’s round table.

No, you’re you’re laughing, [00:46:00] right? They carbon dated it. to the middle of the 12th century. So it was made up about the time that Lamont d’Arthur or, um, you know, Bernard of Clairvaux, these like chroniclers who talk about Arthur, who made up the Arthur myth. those people, um, it was about that time at the table.

And it’s too, it’s too small for like a bunch of knights to sit around. But at the same time, there’s record of it being on the wall of this, um, church in, uh, or, or, court of law in Winchester. There’s records of it being on the wall there in, in the 1300s. Some like Traveller Guy, whose record that we have, talks about it hanging on the wall even then.

It was painted by Henry VIII when he had a lot of his children. A couple of his children married off, uh, at Winchester. So, so I, I left Winchester having learned lots of [00:47:00] interesting history, but nothing to do with Arthur. So then I, I went to this place, Cadbury Hillfort, which they think is the site of Camelot.

And it’s a basically, you know, you and I, sorry. Who are they? These are the people that think this. Our historians. Right. Historiads do, so, so, um I’m just checking, we’re not, it’s not like Glastonbury people, Glastonbury people kind of thing. Uh, you know, um, the line between, you know What you’ve generously, what you’ve described as Glastonbury people and, and, you know, all I would say is in a moment when I come onto Glastonbury Abbey and Arthur’s Burial Site, there’s, there’s considerable cause for doubt of any, the veracity of anything that you, you hear, but certainly, um, Cadbury, the Iron Age Hill 4 is an amazing Hill 4 [00:48:00] and, you know, you get out of there.

A, a place where I feel like, um, Camelot could have been, you know, it was big enough to have a town inside. It took me 20 minutes to walk the perimeter of the, of, of the, the earthworks. So what could have been inside was, you know, as big as Uffington Hill Fort, not like a small kind of So I was, I, you know, so that was So that was, uh, so then, then at Glastonbury, um, I talked for a while with a man who had a Volkswagen van from Leeds on vacation and holiday, I should say, and, um, we talked about how nice it was having vans, and I moaned about the size of English parking, British parking spaces, and he too said he thought they were unreasonably small, and I said, uh, you know, they needed to be bigger, and we agreed on that, and then I went and saw the place where Arthur was buried, [00:49:00] um, Except they’re not really sure about that because they moved the bones.

And anyway, the bones that they dug up, they weren’t really sure if they were Arthur’s bones in the first place. Um, well, that seems like a sure thing. Yeah, which hurts the credibility of the whole, like, Arthur’s Arial site thing. Although, the actual setting of Glastonbury Abbey with, you know, the Abbey in ruins, and, you know, in 1500, it was one of the finest libraries in Europe, and by 1550, it was completely gone.

Um, it was the ruin that it is now, all thanks to, um, Henry VIII who seems to have been kind of Trumpy as far as I can make out when it came to the destruction of the, uh Yeah, that’s a good point. I didn’t make that connection, but there was an air of Trump about VIII. Well, I, I, when it was, when I was looking at a picture of him, um At, [00:50:00] uh, when we went around the Tower of London, I went around the Tower of London with my family and, and I was looking at him and, and it was the orange hair that made me, that made me think, and, and, you know, and the willingness to, you know, upend tradition for what works for you and for the agenda right now.

Without wanting to make this podcast about, uh, Yeah, yeah, there’s an expediency to both individuals. Yeah, absolutely. Um, no, it’s, it’s interesting because I mean, I’m, I’m, we’re, uh, when we’re coming back up from France, I was looking through things I’ve wanted to do on the way past and we’ve got to spend a couple of days driving back up.

Um, So we’re, we’re, we’re popping into Amboise to get some of the patisseries that I like because I’m from out of time there 20 something years ago. Uh, the legend that is Bego Pastries Milfeuille. Oh, gee whiz. Uh, but we’re then popping into the, we’re doing the Lascaux Caves on the way up. Um, but then more to the point, after that, uh, we’re doing the Bayeux Tapestry.

Um, so, uh. I wanted to do [00:51:00] the walk, the, uh, the, uh, warm museum and stuff, uh, at the, uh, uh, Omaha beach and that sort of thing on the, on the way past. And in order to be there, you sort of have to buy Bay Area as the natural place to stay. So the tapestry is over there. So, yeah, I’m looking forward to seeing that.

So, uh. Yeah, no, it’s interesting because I sort of saw the pictures of you at Hastings, so it’s, uh, yeah. Yeah, well, I did, uh, went down to Tintagel as well, and that drive along the northern, deliberately drove along the north coast of Cornwall, and that was, um, probably the most enjoyable part of the trip from a, from a motoring perspective.

I should say, I kept told the GPS to keep me off main roads, so I stayed on A and B roads, and what I found was that quaint England. Of, you know, country pubs and narrow country lanes. Um, I found that. In absolute spades, I’d, you know, I grew up in the South of England, lived there for 30 years [00:52:00] and saw a side of the South of England that I’d sort of not seen visiting as a tourist and doing this like crazy Arthurian thing.

So the sum up on the Arthurian thing was I looked for Arthur, but I found lots of Norman history and the Norman history was cool. Because the other thing I did, I went to the lake where, you know, the lady brought the sword out. Well, there’s nobody there. There was nobody there. And then, so I was there at the side, seeing if I could feel a spiritual moment.

And then these farmers on ATVs drove cattle along, and the cattle, like, ran over the top of me, um, because I had, like, nowhere to go, because the lake was on one side and the fence was on the other side. And the farmers just, like, looked at me, as much as to say FU Townie, frankly. So, you know, the spirit. So there was a little bit of, and there was me being all like, Oh, you know, cause I, I saved the last of the, uh, the comestibles that you left for me, uh, for, for [00:53:00] there.

And I was there, you know, and the water was, was shimmering and I was the only person there. And then it was, Hey, Hey boy, come here. And then it was like revving engines. And then the cows were on top of me and it was all a bit of a. Nightmare, frankly, you know, that’d be a bit hectic. Yeah. So, um, we’re, uh, we’re into the, the, the home straight of, of our time now, Mark, and I, I wanted to talk about, uh, a couple more things with you before, uh, before our close of play here.

Um, uh, that, um, I’ve been very much enjoying die cast racing. And specifically this YouTube channel, 3D Bot Maker. And this is where he does exquisite dioramas, often by sponsors of the channel. And they, it’s Hot Wheels that then race downhill courses. And, and you would really be surprised [00:54:00] at just how good.

The racing is, I would go so far as to say I’ve not been watching MotoGP recently, but I would much rather spend half an hour watching some 3d bot maker diecast racing that I would any real motorsport now. Well, I will give you a, that I have watched a couple of, they are pretty good. I think you would be, uh, advised if you’re going to watch any current motorsport, I would watch World Superbikes.

World Superbikes is an epic three way, uh, tussle, um, between, uh, Top Rack, uh, Jonathan Ray, and, um, oh, dear, oh, dear, I can’t remember the gentleman’s name. Uh, come back to me in a second, but yeah, the gentleman on the Ducati, it’s just cool. It’s some really good races at the moment. So you say World Superbike is the one, if I was going to return to watch it.

I like motorcycle racing because it’s short. The whole Formula 1 thing, where it’s [00:55:00] The whole weekend and it’s qualifying and all of that. I’m just like, whatever. But WSB, you get a race on the Saturday, full length race in the race on the Sunday for the next race.

And they do some other like hyper pole qualifying and things like that. However, I’m not caught. So I’m a bit out of date with the rules and regs to be frank, but it’s exciting stuff. Yeah, well, um, I should, uh, I should pay tribute to, uh, a lad cadenae, um, for we, uh, before we sign off today, um, I meant to say to you, um, the, uh, You know, I did that event with him, that front of camera TV show, where we drove that, um, 50s Ferrari.

It was, what, 13 years ago now? And after that day, the bloke never acknowledged me ever again. I sat with him in a car [00:56:00] for all of that time, and ever since that day, he never spoke to me again. And, you know, I don’t wanna, um, uh I, I felt firmly put in my place and reminded of my status just as Ollie did when the fast guys picked up bits of rubber from the track and threw it at him as they overtook him.

Right. That was how, um, he made me feel, but I do have two stories about him that when towards the end of the time, um, the car pulled to one side, had these terrible brakes, but it could still drift, right? Uh, it was a fifties Ferrari and it was, was balanced and, and we were on highway 33 and he had the thing full on Japanese, you know, initial D spec drifting.

Through these long curves and he sang [00:57:00] he like sang opera and sang like, you know, it was, you know, that was how the experience was for him. And I always thought that was a magical thing. And so I mean, I was very lucky to, uh. To, you know, to, to be with him, you know, to, to experience, right? Not just the driving masterclass, but, but also the, the, the fact that, that he, he sang.

Um, and the other thing I was going to say about him has of course slipped my mind. Oh, I know what it was. Nixon. Great bloke. I shared first class with him on a Pan America flight. just before he was president. Absolutely great guy, could see nothing wrong with him.

Um, so, um, I, I’m, you’re off to France. I’m fiddling around, um, getting ready for, for [00:58:00] Pebble Beach. Um, I’m, I’m still in the chairman’s suite apparently. I’ve got my annual haircut. lined up. I’m not sure if my razor is going to be able to take in my, my beard off, but I’m all, all lined up. You’re de stubbling, are you?

My word. Yeah, I’m all lined up for, for Pebble Beach this year. Pebble gets more, more attention than your wife. Oh, you know what? Yeah, you’re absolutely right. It does. That’s uh, yeah, now you’ve framed it that way. I feel guilty. Um, yeah, so I’m, I’m getting ready for that. Um, I’ve, I’ve spent this last week getting ready for a conference, that conference that I go to that.

Um, international motor racing research center conference at Watkins Glen. I’m all set up for that. And I, I’ve semi negotiated that I think I might be able to drive home from the conference. And I realized that the route. Um, or you can, if you take the southern route, it’s basically the route [00:59:00] of Route 66.

Cool. So, we’ll see if I can, uh, negotiate that and, and make that come to pass properly. But that might be what I’m up to, uh, up to in November. So, um, yeah. So, uh, well, I, I, I won’t say next week because it’s not next week because I’m not doing these things weekly. But, um, I’ll, I’ll, uh. Um, I will sign off now, Mark, thank you for your time and, uh, yeah, and good luck in the Alps and, uh, we should reconvene shortly.

Take care.

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