Ben Bought An S2000, Crashing Cars And Dyno Stories Ft Charlie @ SRR - C.R.E.A.M. #52

0:00 Introduction and Rule or Ruin

And by Madrid, my wife was pretty much ready

to divorce me in a full degree.

So I just went, "Does it work?"

He went, "Yeah?"

I said, "We'll drive onto the trailer,

I'll give you some money."

And off we went, young people shouldn't

drive fast cars, because they'll crash some

of it, in my

case.

Very true.

It's like watching someone stress test Genan

in front of you.

Hello, and welcome back to the 52nd,

one whole week of the year, every year.

What?

Of cream podcasts, of the Cars Reliving

Around Me podcast, we are joined today with a

special guest, Charlie, from Sorry Rolling Road.

Before we intro you and get into your life

and your cars, we have to answer the

question, whether cars rule or ruin

everything around us.

Will you like to demonstrate for Charlie?

What is it?

It will be a rule for me this week,

because, well, one, there is still a

Lamborghini Galado on my drive.

Which you bought quite recently.

I don't know if I haven't let everyone know that.

You've just bought a car, so you don't need

to buy another one?

No, no.

I am going back to Scotland the next Friday.

I'm

going to go with a rule this week,

but nothing has

dropped off any of my cars this week.

That's always a rule,

but it's only Wednesday.

There is time.

There is time.

So,

okay, Ben.

Yes, rule.

Big rule.

No, what's happened?

For

the audio listeners, why is it rule?

For the audio listeners.

If you look over Edwin's shoulder and you

listen very

carefully, you'll be able to hear my Honda S2000.

I'm

No, I got a phone call from Ben on that

Friday, and he was the most anxious human

being on us.

I could really get in

there and twist a knife on that day.

It was nice.

That was

what the...

You know what Ben?

It's a good spot.

We did

miss that one.

We did miss that.

You can reduce your bid at one point.

Yeah, so you can't take your bid off,

but the one thing you can do is you can

reduce your max bid.

So it hadn't reached my max bid yet.

So I just put it down to £50 higher than the current bid.

He just prayed someone bid £100.

But yeah, so I got that one.

Luckily you got out of that.

Yeah.

And instead...

And after the whole conversation last week

saying that I wasn't going to buy S2000,

I bought S2000.

I want to hear your recollection of what

happened yesterday morning, please.

Yesterday morning.

Yes.

I wish you wanted to thank you too.

Okay.

I'm not going to do it.

I'm just going to get rid of that.

I'll go on, please.

What is it?

No, I want to give Edwin Wilson credit

because we have a very busy work quicker stuff.

And this car was in Southampton,

which is far from me.

So I was like, I basically came in yesterday saying...

But like 40 minutes from where we are right now.

Yeah.

Yes.

Yeah.

I was like, I want to buy the car,

but I don't have time this week to go look at it.

It was quite cheap.

It would probably go.

So I said to these guys, let's go...

No, I didn't say that.

Sorry.

This is why I said, I'll go and call the guys

what I said.

No, no, no.

This I did.

No, no.

This is why...

This is why I wanted to bring up because Ben

said, yeah, it's nice, but I don't have time.

I can't go do it.

So I said, okay, Ben, what about before work?

Because it's 40 minutes away.

You could feasibly work out.

I said, what time is he said so far he can do?

You're like, I haven't called the guy.

I was like, okay, we'll have our after work then.

He's like, I can't, I can't bet.

I can't do it.

So there was no, I don't know.

That's what I want.

I want...

Remember my comment before about...

We also have Ben's video footage of all this.

Yeah, exactly.

We filmed the pain.

I walked out the room forever.

I looked back.

And auto trainer was up.

The ad was there.

And the guy's phone number was just sitting

on your phone.

I could see the big green coal thing and you

were like, I can't do it.

So we made Ben call him and Ben had to leave.

He didn't want to be with us when he called the man.

And we said, make sure you asked some questions.

We came back and we said, did you ask questions?

And he said, yeah, I'm not an idiot.

We said, okay, well, did you ask him about

the typing chain?

He went, no.

Ben, what did you ask about?

I just asked about Rust.

That's it.

That's the whole, that's all.

I mean, yeah, but among other things,

I'd say.

Perhaps he went, as he got rust,

he went, no, you went, oh, well,

take it.

After that, we went and looked at it.

He bought it.

Yes.

There will be a video on it.

So many students, we weren't revealed too

much about it.

No.

But are you happy?

Very, very, very happy.

I drove at home last night and so I've done

like 250 miles, isn't it, in the last 24 hours?

That's it.

Tuck it away from winter there.

Yeah, well, probably might have to with a witty rust.

So we make dreams come true now.

Yeah, bullying becomes cars.

So thank you.

Thank you for bullying me into it.

I do appreciate it and taking me there and

someone helping me.

We will take lots of the credit.

Yeah, I'll take it home.

And also to everyone, because I got,

I put on my Instagram story last night and I

had hundreds of messages, all from podcast

listeners, all of them from podcast

listeners, all very excited.

It was nice.

Literally just saying because it was all podcast people.

Well, no, good job, Ben.

It is for me, it's a rule.

Yeah, fine.

It's a rule.

There's nothing, not much has happened.

And no reason to ruin.

No reason to ruin.

is always good for me.

I'm sure I'll think of a reason.

Still nothing for Jeremy yet.

Come on, Jeremy, man.

Let's get that moving along.

That's the, that's the crash Ferrari,

the one I've shown you.

It's scary, but I'm still excited by it.

Now, Charlie was one of the people you

messaged

6:13 Charlie's Car Collection Overview

about the 550.

About the 550 because there might be ITBs for the 550.

That no one's ever fitted.

Yeah, that no one's ever done enough.

Yeah, it's a bad idea.

But shall we get into the meat,

the reason that we wanted to have you on the

podcast, Charlie, is because you're a very

interesting man.

I'm thinking.

stories, but even more than that,

an even more interesting car collection.

You have one of the best car collections of

anyone we know.

And that's not just monetarily.

That's taste wise.

It's TDC.

Can you run through?

What is the current fleet?

The current fleet, gosh.

I think it's about 20 now.

It's a nice round number, though.

Yeah.

Of a sorted tat that I've collected over the years.

It's not that I don't like supercars.

I just can't afford supercars.

So I just buy shit.

buy cars.

I still seem to manage.

But I tend to wait until

something comes along that you just need to

be in the right place at the right time.

During Covid, I was walking my dog and I

passed a garage, which is local to my house.

And out the front was a 9-4-4,

S2 looking rather sad.

I had rusty sills.

And I inquired, I put my mask on.

How much?

And he said all 1500 pounds and you can have it.

So I said done.

And I got the 9-4-4 and it's now all been

welded up and did the suspension on it.

And it's been sprayed as well.

And it's a great car.

But I don't

really go out and seek.

I was going to say, if you saw one at 9

grand, you wouldn't be interested.

I wouldn't be interested.

Maybe 20 years ago, but then things weren't worth.

I bought, I've got an E-34 3.8 M5.

One of the best things.

They turned a violin.

I bought it from a chap in North London.

This is 20 years ago.

It's probably slightly naively who assured me

that I had a fresh M.O.T.

and had no rust.

And to give you an indication of how much

these things were worth back then,

I paid two and a half grand from a dealer for it.

It had done 290,000 miles.

No one wanted them.

You couldn't give the stuff away.

Yeah.

And this was a car.

It was only 13 years old.

Yeah, exactly.

I mean, I had an E46 M3 at the same time.

I bought that in about 2004,

five, I think, which I'd given good money to

a dealer for.

And I actually sold the E46 M3 and kept the

E44 because I enjoyed driving the E34 because

it is, in my mind, one of the best guys I've ever made.

It's now done 230,000 miles.

I used it with my daily for seven years.

I was going to say that's a recurring theme

with your cars.

You like home mileage cars.

I do like home mileage cars like that.

The eight series is on.

I've got an E31 that's on 235,000.

Nice.

And you'd keep going with mine.

It's not like you do it with a load of miles.

I don't buy cars to look at.

I mean, they've got to be used.

The only problem I'm coming to now is having

a lot of these cars for a long time and use them.

They're starting to get us the point where if

I don't start dealing with some of the issues

like the rust and everything,

they're going to die.

They just die, yeah.

I've just had the E34.

We spent two years.

is restoring it.

Massive sections were cut out of them because

it was just so wrong.

Actually, because the chap had assured me it

had no rust, when we got it back to my work

20 years ago, you could run a screwdriver

down the inside of the sill and you just daylight.

It was just but for two and a half grand,

you don't think it has.

I had no MOT.

If you've been to, sorry, Rolling Road,

you will notice just to the left of the

diner, there's a two-post lift.

There will be some form of long-term projects

that will bond the go.

I don't rush them.

They take as long as they take.

I often don't have time to the mechanics of

myself and probably not that talented the mechanical.

So I have a group of friends who come and

help me out.

And the eight series is on there.

Now I bought that in 2012 from a friend of

mine called Aussie Pete.

His name's Pete, he's an Australian.

And anybody who's met Aussie Pete,

he's a bit of a legend in BMW circles.

But I was up at his and it's a slough way.

And he's got...

Sorry to hear that.

Yeah.

He's either, sorry, either.

Oh, that's nice.

And he's got about 40 cars in his garden.

And he's an absolute legend.

And in the corner, I just popped in.

He had this 840CI, one owner from you.

And it's Barbados Green?

No, it's Velvet Blue.

Oh, it's the Velvet Blue?

Velvet Blue.

And it had done 206,000 miles.

And he just paid two and a half grand for it

from a guy.

And I gave him three for this thing.

And he used it as my daily.

And then a couple of months later,

my wife said that we were going on honeymoon.

I said, got married.

And then my wife said, what are we going to

take on honeymoon?

And we took the eight series.

And the aircon didn't work.

And we were going to the south of Spain.

So I took it to a friend of mine.

And actually a friend of-- because we were so

busy preparing for the wedding,

I took it-- a friend of mine took it to a

mother mate to get the aircon sorted.

I got it back.

And it got to Calais.

The aircon broke again.

And by Madrid, my wife was pretty much ready

to divorce me.

in the 40 degree heat.

And then I got to the south of Spain and

pulled the front bumper off on a speed bump.

Oh, no.

Yeah.

So I mean, the rest of the honeymoon was fired.

Oh, and the batteries-- there's two batteries

in an eight.

Yeah.

One of the batteries was obviously faulty

because it kept emitting quite bad fumes in

the middle of Spain in the 40 degree heat.

And my wife almost died.

But apart from that, it was a great honeymoon.

And for that reason, the car's sentimental to me.

It's sentimental to me.

Probably not to hurt.

But so yeah, they've got the eight series.

BMW's always been a recurring thing for me.

I've got it.

Well, it's not to Monaro.

It's a Holden Commodore VTS.

It's one of 50 they brought in,

TWR Racing brought 50 in, official cars.

In about, I think it was about 97,

98, they brought 50 over.

None of them were rust-proof,

so they all roll.

And I bought that from Liverpool about seven

years ago for a very nice chat.

needed, it needed, yep, the same color.

And it needed welding.

But I love it.

It's such a brutish car.

It's just, there's no finesse to it.

So that's 5.7, LS1.

They said there's no finesse to it.

It's just very brutish, but so much fun to drive.

And they go sideways very nicely as well.

You wouldn't know on the road.

You wouldn't know.

It's pretty much a Corvette saloon.

So much fun.

And you just, every time you,

you get into it, you're just waiting for it

to say, all right, mate.

So what about, so the car that it would have

gone out by now, Ben?

The Model T video?

Yeah.

The Model T.

What's the story on that?

Because I'm a Model T.

As I get older into my more advanced years,

I actually have become, I had a Porsche

turbo, off the M3 actually.

I bought a 996 turbo and have,

we put turbos and stuff like 500 make your spare.

It, then my wife got pregnant and we sold it

more next five.

And these days I actually, despite my,

my job is telling people how fast their cars are.

I pretend I like the older

stuff more now and I'm going,

I'm going older as I get

older.

Yeah.

So I've got obviously the Camino,

which I

bought so good about eight years ago and that

sort of

restored.

And then I've always wanted a Model T for

what I don't know what it is.

I've always had a thing about out them just

because they're so opposite,

you know, to drive and a little bit of a challenge.

Oh, yeah.

And then yes, they do it cheap.

Yeah.

You know, I paid £8,000 for a car and it was

last Christmas and having wanted one for a

while, my wife went to visit her family over

Christmas for a couple of days,

left me and my son together alone in the

house, which is probably never accessible.

With access to eBay.

Yeah.

eBay and a car and a tow car is a sell.

Something's going to happen.

my son up and I said, look, I found a Model T

Ford in Swindon.

And I rang around one of my customers,

actually, who does races in the BMW combat

car, the 116th car.

And said, look,

can I borrow your trailer?

I bought a car in Swindon.

So we

went to Thruxton, picked the trailer up,

went up to Swindon.

15:19 Model T Ford Adventure

And this bloke drove this Model T out.

And I thought, well,

there's no point test driving it because it

can't drive one.

Yeah.

So I just went, does it work?

He went, yeah.

I said, we'll drive onto the trailer.

I'll give you some money.

And off we went.

And it turned out that the guy had done no

maintenance at all in the year,

20 years, they don't do it.

I mean, the bull was black and it was just

lots of things needed to adjust.

Did you say he took the battery with him?

Oh, yeah.

Yeah.

I paid him the money, put the car on the

trailer, I hiked the battery out and said,

see you later.

I said, why?

He said, I only put the battery in it to put

it on the trailer.

It's not included in the sale.

I was like, well, I made it.

See you later, then.

car parts.

I mean, as it happened, the battery was just

balanced on the back seat with a couple of

leads on it.

But, you know, I kind of, you know,

you kind of expect to come with a battery.

Yeah.

It might be a really cheap battery,

but it's just still come with a battery.

Yeah.

So, you know, we got it home and then we got

CCTV cameras at home, which on the ring and

my wife messaged me as we were unloading this.

My son and I were unloading this thing at the home.

And I just got what, if you bought now.

Okay, so that's a few of the cars you've got

at the moment.

What was your first car?

My first car was a Land Rover Series 2A.

Okay, so you're 109.

Left field.

I think this, I have a theory.

Anyone that starts with an English car is

destined to carry on with them forever.

Yeah.

I believe this.

It's like Rory, even though Rory didn't have it.

But like, anyone that starts on the path of

dealing with English shite goes,

I'll live with this forever.

It gets in the veins early.

It's in there forever.

I mean, it was in the, I grew up with the countryside.

It was natural things.

But again, naively, I wanted a car on my

parents that said, you know,

you should buy yourself a golf or something like that.

And I went, no, I'm going to buy a really

shit old Land Rover.

And we went, my mum and I went to buy this

thing, not knowing anything and be very naive.

I bought this 1960 something,

and I still have it.

Really?

It's in a shed at my parents' house and we

do, that's clown.

And it's only been 28 years or something.

But we got it back and this thing was a big

part of shit.

You know, it broke down every time we drove it.

And then grew up near Dunsfield Land Rover's,

took it in and they just ran me up.

They ran my mum off and said,

"Your son's gone."

You could put your fist through the chassis at points.

It's just, you know, so then I bought a golf.

A 1.8 GL, which was, which I put a TSW Venom.

Oh, yeah.

See, that's, you know what?

Now I know why I love Charlie.

Yeah, this makes sense.

I had a super sprint exhaust.

No, that's the real first car,

really.

Back when secret exhausts were affordable.

Yeah.

And I went to the Guilford Cruise.

Was it a Mark II?

No, Mark III.

Was it Mark III?

Yeah.

I mean, I just look at it.

I have a picture of it somewhere and I just

look at it now and go, "What were you thinking?"

But back then, you know, it was fine.

And my best friend at the time had a 405 MI16.

So we tooled around in those.

And then I got my first, I started working

after that when I was 19.

I'd already been working part time,

but I started full time in IT and I bought

myself a E36 323 coupe.

Nice.

BMW Belk, that was to be in the Audi Doug.

And my mum said you'll crash that.

You're on.

And then behold, I was at in

Hatfield outside the university there and I

driving along

quite happily at a lady in a quite frankly

immaculate 16 val of Mark II anniversary,

pulled straight out in front of me and I teaboned her.

And as you wanted to.

The car was the car.

It was a bit of a mess, but they did fix it

and I did get it back and I kept it for a

couple of years.

Then I had a company car, which was a fox foxhole Astra.

Nice.

Out where Astra is, we used to call him.

And then I had that for about a year.

And I went to, I'd moved out of house on my

parent's house by this point,

went back for Christmas day.

I arrived on my mother and she will argue

this by the face.

from when I lived there, I hopped in the car

and drove to the local village to go to the cash point.

And on my way, I probably, I mean,

I was driving too fast.

I mean, let's be honest about it.

I came around the corner to find that the

British Telecom closed half the road and were

working on the lines.

And a little old lady in the Volvo was coming

the other way on my side of the road.

And I put the foot on the brake,

skidded, went up the bank, barrel rolled onto

the roof, where I pulled a little lady in the

Volvo, drove into me.

(laughing) That's what she accelerated to.

Yeah, right in the window was there,

it was a Volvo alloy.

And I went, oh, so I got out of the car and

phoned my boss

and said, I've just written off your car on

Christmas day.

He wasn't very pleased.

And he said, you're not having another company car.

So I went and bought myself a Volvo 850 T5 estate.

You look there and went, all right,

my turn.

Absolutely.

Which was a car, absolutely adored.

Because we were doing, we were working in IT.

We were doing huge mileage around the

country, 75,000 miles a year.

But petrol was so cheap that then you could

have a 50.

They paid mileage, you know,

so you could always make money out

of it.

And it was in red and I bought it off TGI and TGI.

It was still there, I had to think.

And I absolutely adored that car.

And sadly, after a couple of years,

the turbo went on it.

And instead of actually getting it fixed is

what I should have done.

I part exchanged it for a 406 SRI.

valve.

Yeah, possibly the worst car I've ever done.

I mean, the thing was a big part of shit.

And in the meantime, I bought myself an E36 M3.

All nice.

Evo in historically.

Oh, okay.

As a toy.

Yeah.

And my mum said, you'll crash that.

And learn behold.

There's a running theme here.

Yeah.

Learn behold, I was driving back after one

night from the Farland to Heinhead Road,

which is quite a twisty road.

It goes south of final, all the way down to the Heinhead.

Well, the east wasn't a tunnel back then,

but it would be where the tunnel is.

With two friends in the car in the E36 M3,

and simply race for disaster,

driving too fast.

And people say, you know, young people

shouldn't drive fast cars because they'll crash some.

And in my case, very true.

And I came around the corner,

lost the back end.

And it straightened up and went straight up

an eight foot earth bank.

And it went up about 10 foot in the air.

car.

We were doing about 80 by 80.

We were waiting.

And it came down on its roof and it barrel

rolled down the road.

I mean, there was just bits of bodywork everywhere.

And it we came to a stop.

And the three of us looked around and we were

all totally uninjured.

Really?

We got some cuts from getting out the car

with all the glass.

There wasn't a single panel on the car that

was not dented at all.

You know, it was a whole lot of gone.

And we got out and the police arrived and

said, you know, where are the people in the car?

Have they gone to hospital?

And we're like, no, we're here.

And the traffic officer arrived when he said,

you know, he said, if you hadn't bounced up

the bank, I'd gone into something hard.

He said, I wouldn't say.

So I phoned my mother and she said,

you're told you so.

And then I bought a Subaru Legacy GTB.

Oh, those are nice.

Which you still, isn't that so hard?

No, no.

Actually, a friend still owns it.

But that is where the rolling road started.

Well, that's what going to be my next question.

How come about?

I quit, basically.

It was the good years of IT.

It was sort of '99 to 2005.

They were very good years.

I didn't have any dependence.

And I thought, you know, if I'm going to

start business on my own now as well.

So I left the business.

No clue what I was going to do.

I just literally went one day to my boss.

I said, I'm going.

Yeah.

And he went, thank you very much.

And I had the Subaru and I got into like the Subaru.

tuning scene slightly.

I was interested in it.

And I had a chap who serviced it.

And he wanted to expand.

It was right around the time when Subaru

tuning was getting really big.

And there were loads of 2004,

loads of tuning packages, mapping and

becoming big and everything.

So try the origin of stage tuning.

The stage tuning was when it became a

24:24 Starting the Rolling Road Business

thing, you know, stage one, stage two,

stage three.

Does anybody know what it made?

No one's going to do it.

20 years later.

And so I said to the guy, look,

if we want to start a business together,

doing Subaru tuning, I'll put the money up

and we'll get a big unit and we'll do all this.

And we spent about six months planning it.

And it became apparent during it that the

chap who I won't mention, but lovely guy,

a little bit unhinged in terms of not

mentally, just generally his life was a bit

of a mess.

And things like you turn up,

he just disappeared for three days.

And after a while, it became apparent that

I'm very glad that happened,

that he just wasn't going to work.

And while doing the business plan,

we kind of worked out that we could,

or I'd worked out, that we could make more

out of the dyno, that we could out of

the ramps.

Interesting.

So I went and bought a dyno.

We got, I mean, me and my two best friends,

we got shit faced in the pub one night.

And at the end of it, next

morning, I bought a dyno for 100,000 pounds

from Australia.

And didn't have a unit to put it in,

or anything, no

business plan.

No, nothing at all.

Took a small loan to,

you know, got a big loan actually,

to buy it.

And thought, okay, so we rented a unit in

Cambly, or I rented in Cambly.

and it

was between two other businesses.

And we built a

soundproof cell, which was mainly made out of

steel and

sort of rubber, blocks, and we didn't know

what we were doing.

And it was three mates, and we mostly powered

by big tasties.

And we made this cell, and I mean,

the doors, the doors, when you open the

doors, they sort of fall off.

It was just so Heath Roberts.

And we opened it up, and the response was

absolutely huge.

You know, we had Dino Day booking straight

away, you know.

Were you one of the first to do that,

where you could just rock up to a Dino?

No, no.

Power engineering in Uxbridge had been doing

it a long time.

And G-force in Ellsbury had been doing Dino

Day this for a long time.

And they actually had a Dino Dynamics Dino,

which is the one I know I bought.

And I actually, they were very useful to

point me in the right direction of what Dino to get.

But there were only a few in the country.

So the concept for those listening that don't

know, so you run the rolling road where you

can rent it for a full day of tuning on your

car, but you run days, which is always Saturday's?

Yes, it's Saturday.

So things are slightly, where are the

businesses slightly different now from back there?

Then, back then it was like,

we're renting a building, we're paying business rates.

Let's make us, we need to get some money and quickly.

So it was like 30 quid a car for the clubs.

But it was all internet forums back then.

There was no Facebook or anything.

So and the internet forums, they're like

scooming out and everything.

They all did Dino days.

And I did 50 a year, sometimes 70 Dino days a year.

With how many cars would turn up?

Anything from 20 to 40 cars.

Wow.

So you're getting through, so basically I try

to stick a car on the Dino.

So you have that printout piece of paper for

all your mods.

Because it's the early 2000s,

you don't have a list of mods on a Reddit

thread that tells you exactly how much power

your car's going to make.

It's people guessing mods and

then working at how much power their car makes after.

I didn't.

I was young and didn't really live a lot to

live on luckily.

But it was about two, three years before it

started making money.

And then I started to get to know

particularly Subaru Judith.

So Patrick Herborn, who's a Subaru tutor,

he came down to map a car that one of my dyno

customers had got a mapper in.

So he rented the dyno for a few hours.

And I got to know Pat, the late great Simon

Rowe who jolly green monster,

I got to know him.

And after two or three years,

I was still doing 2007 to 2010.

I had the dyno in use three or four days.

We were doing 13 Subaru's mapping,

32 bus a day at a time.

Which in hindsight was probably too many if I'm honestly.

And then we'd do 20 cars on a Saturday.

And sometimes we'd come in and do 15 more on a Sunday.

And they were very good years.

And then we started making some decent money.

And then we've continued that really over the

part next 17 years.

The only difference now is after COVID.

I have another business as well,

which I'll get to in a minute,

if you haven't all fall asleep.

And that business has been really expanding

over the last few years.

So I took the decision over COVID that the

mappers who I'd been sitting next to for the

past 10, 15 years driving on the dyno for

them all day while they map cars.

Because of COVID, couldn't do that.

So they decided to drive on the dyno.

So after COVID, I really established that

they could just pay me the money for the

renting the dyno.

And I could sell upstairs and count it.

And from that I went on, I don't really do

any dynoing during the week.

Now, I've got three, four mappers.

A chap with Chris Todd, he does a lot of all

the full stuff.

In fact, Chris does anything.

He's very good as well.

Duncan Graham, who does Subaru's--

Race dynamics?

Yeah, Race dynamics.

You did?

He came to you guys.

Yes, he did.

Back in many, many years ago.

And Tim Cox does Subaru's, and I've got a

couple of other guys as well who visit.

And they just got--

They got keys.

Oh, they just turn out--

They just turn out and then--

We'll get a set of those from you,

Charlie.

Yeah, I'll put the Cadillac on me,

man.

You have some dyno related questions,

right?

Charlie?

Oh, there are a few.

Hold the line.

I'm just bringing them up.

Now, what is-- we've obviously had our Cadillac.

on the dyno, which I'm gonna assume is one of

the worst I've ever had.

But have you ever had a really bad dyno fail?

Something that's blown up or something along those lines?

I've

done-- I think we're approaching 20,000 cars now.

We've

done 20 in 20 years.

Yes, there have been some classics.

I

had a-- Used to-- Used to do dyno days for

the passion Ford.

Lovely people.

I say that because I'm probably about to

offend most of them.

Because you could buy a saff for probably

about five grand back then.

And I'm right now where the love is lavished on them.

And the cars are being restored and they're

very, very nice.

A lot of them back then were complete shatters.

And the dyno day, you'd have at least one

head gasket go on a YB.

You know, don't even mean they drove there.

We had an alternator fall off.

That was quite fun.

'Cause that'd be bolted on properly.

The bolt fell out, they all fell off on the dyno run.

the full fall off of a Ferrari race car.

Wow.

And it hadn't been bolted up while it was on

the dyno while spinning.

On the rear.

Yep.

Luckily the wheel went up into the wheel arch.

Oh, that was okay, yeah.

But the

wheel arch was doing it damage to the dyno.

I have had the little o-ring at the top of a

Subaru oil filter on a drag car blow out at

8,000 RPM and the whole lot went up.

It was still on fire 10 minutes later when we

pulled out the dyno.

Wow.

You know, some of them are quite scary.

I mean, you can also tell in those situations

you could tell who are your friends.

Yeah, because it was when we tended to do the

big stuff back in the day.

It would tend to be in the evenings and you'd

have lots of mates around and when we were

watching around.

And the people who ran away didn't get

invited back, you know, 'cause you get a

couple of mates, you grab the fire

extinguishers and actually try to put the fire out.

Get in this fire with me.

And you see what it made for 20 years,

cough down the road.

And, you know, I've seen, I've seen most

things, I've seen it all.

We've had engines.

I mean, generally, during dyno days,

these days, certainly, it's incredibly rare

for a mechanical failure because generally,

they're cars that are used.

When cars are being matched,

you do get a failure.

I mean, bottom ends going, sobering,

blowing rods through blocks,

stuff like that, you know, it does happen.

I was gonna say, I mean, if you cut your

teeth on Subaru's, you've seen every car.

Oh, I've seen, yeah.

I've seen, I've seen bits of Subaru engine

eject out of most of Subaru,

but apart from out the front,

out the back, out the top.

Evo Rod snapping to the floor.

Oh, yeah.

Well, not snapping.

I had my Evo and actually, I was gonna say a

few, I've had a few of my cars on your,

like, I think it was a 40 pound Saturday at the time.

But I used to go there all the time.

It was just the thing that it was like,

I got out of car, people had a car,

they'd go, I wanna know how much power it makes.

I remember them.

I remember them, you make mods and the amount

of times that car throttle that will come in

after a weekend went, well, it was chilly,

so we can fan out how much car,

fan with me.

I remember it was just great.

I went with my friend, actually,

again, this is Ford.

It's a focus ST that he'd been told was

running 350 horsepower on a standard turbo,

and I warned him at the time,

probably not.

And we both came to one of your days,

and he's strapped it to the diner,

I think it made 300 horsepower.

And you told him, it's very unlikely that

your car will be making that.

He's like, nope, nope, I'm stage nine and a

half, and I've been told it's 350 horsepower.

So it's quite good seeing those days.

You can really put some people down.

This is one of the questions we have on there

is, which owners do you love telling the most

that they made less power?

Now, they're not necessarily the worst

customer, but they are people who are like,

come on, it's not going to be what you think it is.

So over the years, it thinks that the diner,

obviously, I still do the sad faces,

and I'm pretty much only on the diner on a

sad day for that.

Because I still enjoy it amazingly,

I don't know why, but after 20 years,

and be the still the demand to do it.

But the cars I do have changed.

Back in the late 2000s, it was all JAP cars.

200 Essex.

Supers, Evos.

It was all JAP stuff.

And the occasionally, it's 673.

I do a lot of random stuff now,

but a lot of it's German.

M-140s.

So I was waiting for it.

And golf bars.

Yeah, a golf bars.

And I probably do 250 M-140s a year.

They're just ubiquitous.

I mean, they're very good.

I can't really argue it.

Do you go to sleep with B58 just stuck in your head?

It's a great engine.

It is a great engine.

Stage one, stage two, stage two,

decat, stage one.

I usually tell them what it's going to make

with a stage one or stage two before they go

on the dyno.

And most of the time I'm right.

But who do I like disappointing?

Who other than TDC?

Box or loaners?

Oh, nice.

Because they invariably, especially the

course of VXRs, they'll come in and they'll

go, "I've done this, this, this,

36:03 Disappointing Power Outputs and Dyno Days

and it's this power."

And I'll sit there and go, "I don't think so."

And then it doesn't, I go, "Right."

And then

they start, then they start,

then they start going.

And it's

not, I'm not slagging your full vaults all over.

I

essentially have one.

But it's like, you try and impress on people the mindset.

You're paying for a service.

I don't give a shit what your car makes.

I will do my job to the, best of my ability,

you know, to give you an honest reading of your car.

If it isn't what your expectation is,

it's not my problem.

No, yeah.

You know, I had a guy recently,

actually, and I'm not going to name the car

because he probably watches the channel and

he was, he's a nice chap.

Didn't make what it should have done to the car.

It was supercharged.

And he went off and actually went to another

dyno where it made less.

He wanted a second to pick.

Or it made less.

Yeah, made less.

No.

The tuner who blamed the dyno.

Yeah, okay.

And then he went back to the tuner again and

they found eventually actually that it was

quite a colossal boost leak.

And it actually came back fairly recently.

And it made exactly what it should make.

But that's the use.

It's not a vanity thing.

It's a health check.

Absolutely, it's to work out if your car's

working as it should.

The figure at the top, the power figure at

the top is one of the most meaningless things.

Yeah.

And I say that.

I know it sounds strange for me it's running

a dyno, yeah.

You're looking at where I'm looking,

but the customer's normally looking at the

figure at the top.

Yeah.

I'm looking at the torque curve,

I'm looking at the fueling curve.

I'm looking at the power curve,

the shape of the power curve.

I'm looking for any indentations in the power

curve, 'cause he usually, you know,

dare or miss far.

All of those things are important to me and

it's my job to impart that to the customer

when they're sitting there going.

Big number, baby.

Big number, baby, you know.

'Cause you can get cars that make huge power

that aren't very fast because they make it

somewhere up there, you know,

and then you get big lazy things that make

loads of talk and no power, you know,

diesels.

But, you know, it's, that's a job,

but I still try, I still, I'm still

interested by it.

I still enjoy what I do, you know,

will become a time where I come not

interested in and give up and leave the

country, probably at some point,

just not yet.

As long as we've got keys by then,

that'd be fine.

That'd be okay.

I remember seeing an MX flight.

a devil developments, Dino Day,

they did like a Ford one, but in the middle,

they did a couple of random cars,

like Sobs and whatever, but there was a Mark

II MX-5 that went on, 1.6, and I've never

seen a more disappointed Dino graph.

It went up, and then just went flat,

all the way along, and it was both talk and power.

It was, I looked at it, I thought,

I would sell that car instantly after that,

but it was quite, he was like,

okay, with it.

No, he was like, I was like,

that's perfect.

But it's just, it's quite funny seeing a

Dino, one, it's incredibly stressful to watch.

It's like watching someone stress test your

nan in front of you.

Like, it's just, just stretching around and

making it, it's like watching someone do a

health check in front of you.

They're on the, on the treadmill,

sprinting and running, and the car is

screaming because you never see your car.

You never see your car in that condition.

The car's doing a hundred and something mile

an hour according to its head.

If you, if you do a big, obviously you do it

in the correct gear for, for as close to one to one.

So it's usually a high speed anyway,

but like, like if you do one big pull in your

car, it's the exact same as it being on the dyno.

But yet when you see it on the dyno,

you're like, no, no, no, that's too much.

That's going to go bang.

Surely that's going to go bang.

And then you also have the, the stress of,

oh, it hasn't made the number.

I wanted all the, something's not right.

But yeah, the, the dyno number thing is

always the thing that you, I always have to

explain to people that don't worry too much

about the number.

So it's also really good for a before and

after as well.

As long as like you come to the,

I did it with my Evo with you before I had

some bits done.

I came to you before made 380 or whatever.

Then you come after and it makes,

it's a different number, but the power,

the curve is different.

So it's, it's good for that.

A dyno is a tool, you know, it doesn't

affect, a dyno is not there to hurt your

feelings, you know, don't feel offended by it.

It's there as a tool, either as a tool for

tuning cars or as a tool, just literally,

you know, I get quite a few guys with Elise

series ones who fit camps, the case here.

And I'll do it before and after the go,

I do the camps, you know, and it's,

we can overlay the two graphs and see where

you've gained and where you haven't.

And things like, it works really,

really well for, you know, there's things,

some stuff these days you can't dyno,

you know, or I can't dyno.

PDK Box 911s.

And that's because of...

The front wheels have to be

moving.

Yeah, I mean, we had a sort of similar thing

with

the crossfire.

The crossfire.

Yeah, which is not even that modern,

really.

We did, same thing.

Yeah, I mean, certain cars, a lot of the

newer dynos have links, so the front wheels

turn, and the back wheels turn at the same.

You can run them on those, but on the

Porsche, unless the front wheels are moving,

and the PDK, like, 911s, they won't go into third gear.

Wow.

So, probably someone somewhere has found a

way of making it happen, but I haven't yet.

So, that kind of rules them out,

but I get asked about them, someone says,

"Why didn't you find a way of doing it?"

It's like the same as the 911 surveys.

Very difficult to keep cool.

Unless you have big fans at the back,

they're very difficult to keep cool,

and when they're hot, you don't make the numbers.

So, as a result, I just don't do them.

And someone said, "Well, I'd get all the fans

to do them."

And I'm like, "Because for the two cars,

I get asked about it."

Yeah, it just isn't worth it.

Have you ever refused a car from going on the dyno?

Someone's come with a car and gone,

you've got no--

Absolutely.

Yeah, at least two or three times a year.

Oh, really?

What would it tend to be that you--

Generally, if the smoke coming at the back

before it goes on the dyno, it's not a good sign.

I mean, I've had cars turn out on three,

you know, I'm not on all six.

I've had a, you know, just when there's oil

leaking out the bottom fast and it's going

in, you can hear big ends rattling outside.

It's easier just to go, "I'm not doing that."

You know, it's just not worth it.

No, yeah.

I don't want to clean the mess off.

I'll kind of like might not be going on the

dyno after all that.

What, but on the car like?

Yes.

The lowest, lowest power car you've had on

the dyno and then the highest power car.

'Cause I know you've got, there was a picture

at the dyno, which I think is a Subaru,

but I don't know what is the highest power

car you've ever had on there.

So that was enough.

The one on the wall is a Subaru drag car,

which we made about a thousand something with

them without the nitrous.

And that was actually done, but I wasn't

there when that was done.

That was not my friend of mine.

And because he's a friend of mine and likes

to take the piss, he framed it and put it up

on the wall.

And it's still there many years later.

The highest car I've ever done would have

been an R35 GTR back when the R35 was

launched in the big tuning wars started.

And again, there weren't that many diners around.

So they used to come and use me.

And they're an absolute twat to dyno the R35.

I mean, again, link dyno situation.

If the back wheels and the front wheels

aren't moving at the same speed,

the forward drive, how do it kick out?

So they're not, I don't do them anymore,

mainly because I can't bother.

But, you know, back then, it was a thing and,

you know, when you're trying to push a

business forward, you'll kind of push

yourself, you'll do stuff.

And these things would have like eight straps on them.

And we had one that made did 1380,

I think.

And it was mid-pull.

I mean, the four drive clutches kicked out.

And that was a bit scary.

I've done loads of holdings and stuff at like 900,

1000.

I did, I did one of the, I think it was Andy

Robinson's cars, which was a green Barracuda drag car.

And this thing,

that's like two and a half thousand horsepower.

Yeah.

And it arrived and it fired off.

And I went outside the unit.

I just looked at it and went shit.

You know, I'm sitting there going,

this needs like a big American diner.

Yeah.

It's not suitable for my diner.

Got in this thing.

And I just like scared the shit out quite frankly.

Got it on the dyno, put eight straps on it,

loaded it up and it just snapped all eight

straps, just drove off the dyno.

Didn't go very far because as I explained to

people, on your dyno, the car's got no inertia.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So if it comes off, you just put your foot in

the brake, as long as you stop the wheels

moving, it won't go anywhere.

And it did.

But after that, I just went,

I think it's still made about 900 horsepower,

even just at that.

And I just went, you know what,

I'm going home to change my pants.

But, you know, it's, I think I suppose these

days, I do choose a pick.

Yeah.

I was the beauty.

I won't do, generally, I won't do diamond.

The only thing I still do during the week is

the historic stuff.

I do the Cobras and GT40s and bits of readies

and stuff for various historic race teams.

One of the reasons is they arrive with a big truck.

They put the car on the dyno.

You do one run.

in like 10 million quids worth of GT40,

which still gives me a buzz.

Yeah.

And then they go, right, you give us a couple of hours.

We just want to change some things.

Yeah.

So you wander off a couple of hours and you

come back, Charlie, would you mind giving us

another run, please?

And you give them another run.

And this is all day.

And I still, the historic stuff,

I still love doing.

I guess, yeah, that versus I've got a wicked

stage two plus map on it.

Can you give me seven runs until I get 400 horse?

Yeah.

It's a little bit different.

It's a little bit different.

They arrive with mechanics and everything.

Yeah.

I mean, it's probably, the owner of the car

has probably been charged three or four grand

a day for this because they've got the

mechanics and everything.

Yeah.

But I, you know, I really do enjoy the stuff.

We've done some over the years.

We've got a lot of stuff I can't talk about,

but it's, we've done some really nice cars.

Yeah.

And they tend to, the owners never come.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So it's just the mechanics and everyone else.

The owner's probably on his holiday yacht in

Barbate, you know, Barbate or somewhere.

Yeah.

So you get a lot of banter and,

you know, you just have a little bit of fun.

serious because obviously there's a lot of

money at stake.

But, and the noise of it, of a,

of a open pipe GT40 at 7,000 RPM is,

is something I did, I did a 512,

the toner winning 512 S.

Rook it back 15 years ago.

In memory and long cross, when we were in the

old, you know, long cross studios.

We had the doors open and I had a noise

complaint for five miles away.

I was going to say, I was probably,

it's pretty good that you're next to an airport now.

Yeah, we don't, well, because we've got to

sound, I mean, the, the cell we're in now is

the third iteration of designing cells for dynos.

Yeah.

And I'll stick it up, you know,

it's, it's, you learn every time you do it.

And other things that I would have done differently.

Yeah.

But it is a lot, I mean, I spent some money

on that, you know, I mean, the doors were

like eight grand or something just for the doors.

Because you, because I had to.

Yeah.

differences now.

And the best thing I ever did was after I got

kicked out of long cross in 2014,

I bought the unit I'm in now.

Yeah.

And it's the best thing I ever did,

because A, you're paying a mortgage,

you're not paying rent rent.

Yeah.

And B, no one can tell me what to do.

You know, so I mean, we're next to an airport.

We used to a diamond cutting place that makes

loads of noise anyway.

And I just, as I said, it's,

it's really the best thing I ever did.

Because otherwise we still be bloody renting.

And I'll probably go through another

premises, because Landels hate diners.

I mean, Landels hate the motor train.

Let's face it.

Yeah.

Don't eat up all that.

You know, so it's, you're only just the end.

I said, it's really, you know,

business-wise, the best decision I've ever made.

Have you got, are there any other ones on the dyno list?

I think that's about it.

Oh, who got Ben's got one?

You said your most powerful car was like 1,300,

right?

What is, how much could you put on there?

Is there a limit?

So let's think about it yesterday.

2000.

Well, I don't think it's in 9000.

Well, the problem is there's not a talk limit.

So it's not a problem with the S2000.

Is there a minimum talk limit?

Well, we're about to find out.

But yeah, so I mean, I think the dyno's are

rated at two and a half thousand horsepower.

Okay.

Yeah.

And that's actually is what it can break in

terms of the frittadas on the dyno,

what they can break.

The problem is not with these type of dynos,

it's not what the, the dyno can handle.

It's the tides.

Yeah.

So.

There are obviously things that moved on.

You've got, you know, you've got other types

of dynos, you've got the hub dynos,

which are very good for the big pad stuff.

They use them a lot in the Middle East,

a lot in America.

You've got the big old dyno jets,

which the Americans love, but they've got

much bigger rollers.

So you've got the types that they can,

you can actually run more power.

So in terms of mapping a car,

if you said I want to map a thousand

horsepower, I'd just say go to a hub dyno.

Yeah.

But, you know, all one of the big dyno jets,

because it's so much easier to do and you

won't have the wheels to improve them.

Yes, I can power on it.

You know, yes.

I can get a reading off it.

But if you're going to repeatedly do runs,

you'll just melt the tyres.

And once the tyres get too hot,

it's getting over.

But no, no microcar, I'll try that.

We'll overload it.

I like that dynos have a power limit,

but it's like, so someone comes to you and

says, "What's the limit?"

And you go, "It's two and a half thousand."

You go, "How much power are you running?"

"Oh, I don't know."

That's what I'm saying.

That's what I'm saying.

I was hoping you could tell me.

So I've got to put it on the dyno to find out

it's making 3000 horsepower and I need a new dyno.

Yeah, excellent.

It's when you strap them down and you sit

there and you go, "Right, okay,

we're all good."

You go to run and just put it in the gear and

you put your foot down and then you first

ride it, it just goes like that and you're

like, "Oh, I might have had some wheelspin on that run."

Because in the winter, the tyres are cold and

the rollers are cold.

So you have to get some heat into the tyres

for them to grip.

In the summer, it's less of a problem.

But yeah, you can very easily,

I don't know whether it's just experience,

you can kind of tell if a car isn't very

powerful on the dyno.

I know.

By the way, it's sort of sitting in the way

it's reacting.

If you put your foot down and it just sits

there and goes, "You're sitting there and

going, this is pretty cheap."

If it sits there and just wheelspins,

it's arse off.

You're like, "Oh, it's got some beans."

Yeah.

Now, speaking of big power, I think we've got

to say speaking of beans.

So I was thinking--

I haven't mentioned beans just yet,

but maybe we'll answer that.

For the audio listeners, there is next to

Charlie and Edwin, a quite a big bottle on the floor.

Yes, now it was in the last episode,

but not for this.

something we need to speak to your off-camera.

We have mentioned it, but we have a plan for

the Cadillac to restore some power to it.

Well, I've just seen it in the car pocket,

just in your way.

Yes, that will be the car's final movement.

The engine we will take with--

If it survives.

If it survives.

We have a plan to put it in something

English, old and English.

It's going to be a drag.

We want to put that Cadillac engine in a drag

with maybe

51:23 TDC and Cyvex Businesses

some different heads and make somewhat of a

burnout machine.

We want a TDC burnout car--

Entertainment car.

Because that engine is so horrific.

When we brought it to you, it made 150

horsepower from 8.4, is it?

8.4, is it?

Absolutely ridiculous.

Just ridiculous.

For anyone who's an enthusiast from American

Cars Listening, we're not selling the car

because it is so rusty.

It's been sat for a year since we looked into

the video, which is a long time,

but it's not been sat on a field.

It's been sat on a car park,

and it is significantly more hot.

It has got much--

Jolly, you're a connoisseur of shit cars.

Would you let anyone drive that car?

You can see through from the outside into the back seat.

From the outside, you can look through the

rear quarter, through three different layers

of metal to the back seat.

It's behind the B-pillar when we picked it

up, or at the bottom of the B-pillar,

whether actually it's chassis.

There's just a hole there, and no one's moved it.

No one's touched it.

It hasn't moved at all.

It's just been sat still, it fell into it.

It's the hole on the accelerator pedal,

particularly.

I do like that, 'cause I moved it the other

day, and when I went to hit the accelerator,

the pedal moved from the back seat,

so much with the flex of the metal that I

over-accelerated, so I jumped back.

I was like, "Jesus."

Whoa, 115 Osbauer.

We better watch it out.

Although potentially a little bit more,

actually, now.

We've had some timing bits, so we might have cracked 120.

Surely.

Surely not.

But with a little something up his nose,

he might make a bit more.

Yeah, you're going to have some matches in it.

So, downstairs, it's a rolling road,

but you have something quite cool upstairs.

I do.

Massive pornography collection.

No, so in--

That wasn't untrue, but it's not untrue.

Going back to, I mentioned earlier,

the other business.

So, through one of the mappers I met through

the Subaru business was a chap called Patrick

Herbert, who, a streaming calibrator.

And he was showing me some ECU stuff back then.

Sometimes about 2007, I thought it was very interesting.

I said, "Why don't we potentially do some ECU

stuff with the business?"

This business, but they were primarily

race-based, LNP cars, stuff like that.

Would they be interested in working with us

to develop a road car version for all the

stuff?

'Cause a lot of the stuff out there was

complete shit back then.

So that's like a standalone ECU--

standalone ECU, runner car.

Primarily for Subaru's, it was--

Okay.

You had the thing called a six row link,

which is basically six rows of the Bingo and

they were shocking.

And we went to them with a cap in hand and

said, "Do you want to do this?"

Thinking they'd tell us to fuck off,

quite frankly.

And they said, "Yes."

So we started off

in the business panel.

I mean, on all best business plans,

it was made in a curry house in Napierling Woking.

Nice.

'Cause we shed many curries back.

I was going to say,

actually, that is how TDC started.

We went for a curry.

'Cause it was a bit of all the best

businesses that started the curry house.

And so we started off and we bumbled along

for a couple of years.

And we sold maybe 50, 100 ECUs a year.

We did a general purpose version of the

Subaru boards, the plug and play boards.

We started going to Supras.

And through the Supras NEMR2,

a young cocky lad, it came in called Ryan

Griffiths, or Ryan G, as he'd like to be called now.

We still take the piece of A8,

but I mentioned that, by the way.

So he was mapping up mine anyway.

So he was about 10 years early.

He must have been in early 20s at the time.

And he, after a while, decided to,

he got quite involved with us,

and he bought himself an R35 GTR.

One of the first ones.

And then after a while, we developed a kit

with him to,

well, he'd actually be fair to Ryan,

him and Pat to develop the kit completely on their own.

I think it took Motek to, years to do a kit

for the R35.

We did it in six weeks.

And we made a load of these kits.

We did a rather poor, in my opinion,

still deal with American dealer to sell them.

We sold a lot of them.

And then Ryan became part of Syvex.

He became, which is the business.

I should have mentioned that properly.

So it was originally called Solaris.

Well, I was going to say, if you're into

modifying cars, especially in the UK,

you have heard Syvex.

Yeah.

is lots of focuses, even if you don't know

the ins and outs of what a Syvex is,

many of you will have heard big power car.

It's running.

I think there's a Syvex.

I think there's lots of different cars.

You hear Syvex and I go, well,

oh, okay, hold on.

You spent some money on that.

I think you're serious.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I mean, we, over the years, Ryan joined and

over the years, we did the R35.

We started developing our kits.

We started developing our own products.

And so almost 18 years later,

we're still growing, we're still growing.

We do all sorts of cars now.

We do things

that we, we primarily specialize in things

like with the 8Y

RS3, we did loads of kits because you can't,

you can map those, but only if you change

whether chips in the U.C.U.

But we do kits for still the R35,

still sell kits for the R35.

So you see lots of the drag cars and I've

seen on, I don't know if this is a recent

thing, but where obviously it's a four-wheel

drive car, R35, but people like to use it for

drag racing.

But they now, bonds with Cyvex can go rear

will drive for a burnout.

Yes.

And then back to four-wheel drive.

We do little four-wheel drive controllers,

we just do that.

You don't even need to

buy the E.C.U.

We like it if you buy the E.C.U.

But yeah, so we've got, we've probably got

two or 300 of products now.

And I've got a team of staff,

Ryan decided that he didn't like the U.K.

anymore and now lives in Dubai,

where he concentrates on developing the product.

and often technical side, Pat,

born and I, you know, we're all still involved.

I do the sales and run the business side of things.

So if you have had an abusive email from the

sales address at CyberX, it was probably me.

It's one of those things that started off

literally as two blokes in a curry house.

As a bit of a, let's see how this goes.

It's now, and it's why I don't do the dyno

generator anymore because it's my full-time

job, all of us are full-time jobs.

And we really enjoy doing it.

It's a real challenge and it works.

We all have our own specialities,

you know, mine's mainly that we don't go to

prison, you know, so.

That's Ben's job for us.

It's a wise person.

But it's growing and it is my,

it's my primary focus now.

Just to develop new products.

Literally released a, we've got a couple of

new Bluetooth units, DPS and track logging

software and things we've just released.

Have a look at the website or Facebook or

Instagram or whatever you look at.

But yeah, and that's, you know,

that's where it was, it was,

all three of us look back and think how the

hell, you know, has it been this successful

over the years.

Will and I have actually had this

conversation before where we said if the day

that TDC has something Cybex is the day we've

made it, I asked one word there.

Will it be really building something cool?

My gosh, I was getting a real good.

(laughing)

Well, if you stop by shit cars,

then I'm sure we can put something.

We'll never be in contact with that guy.

On the focuses, 'cause that was the kind of

thing I always, that was the first time I

ever saw that it was a big power,

Focus RS, is that they were able to,

like, things like traction control systems

will weigh more advance compared to the

standard Ford one on cars over five,

five, six, central horsepower.

But you'd always hear it.

Mm-hmm.

Whenever you hear a, really big power,

Focus RS taking off, you can hear the

traction control cutting in.

I mean, that was Lee at Devils.

Yeah.

So Lee, 'cause obviously, I mean,

there's the core team of the three of us and

there's people who work for us and all have

made a massive contribution,

but there's a lot of friends and tuners over

the years, certainly in the early days,

who came along to us and went,

"Well, I see you're making an ECU.

"I'm specializing in this, or I'm

specializing in that.

"Can I do an ECU?"

And with Lee, it was the Mark II Focus.

Yeah.

And I met Lee because he kept bringing really

shit forwards to my dyno.

(laughing) And then they'd fall apart on the dyno.

And he decided to get his own dyno.

'Cause he'd had enough of me.

I don't blame him, to be honest.

And he, at that point, he said,

"Can we do an ECU for the Mark II Focus?"

And we said, "Absolutely."

And Lee SID was another one with Supras.

Again, he was somebody who's one of Ryan's customers.

And him and a chap called Jamie P wanted him.

Jamie P.

we'd like to get on the podcast,

he will be at some point.

Yep, lovely man.

I've had many Cyvexes over the years.

And again, it was like, "I'm building a big

pad Supra, I want an ECU for it."

And they've been, the numerous people,

the support of Scumacenic Up North,

which is where Pat was originally working,

with all the Subaru stuff.

And over the years, we've had just massive

support from, we've had a lot of wankers as

well, quite frankly, people who just want to

see you fail.

But that's the same in everything.

every business.

We try to have a rule that we try never to

slag the competition off, because they're

happily slag off us, because if your products

are good enough, they'll speak for themselves.

Well, to be fair, literally,

an example of characters that I asked you

about this Ferrari project, about doing ITBs

on it, and you said, "Don't go with us,

go, you will be better off going with one of

the competition."

Yeah, because for the money,

and what it needs to do, the simplest

solutions out there that will work.

The stuff we do is very good.

Don't get me wrong.

And it's very high-end, and it's very

technically advanced.

But if you just wanna run a V12 and ICB's,

there are simpler solutions out there without

spending nine grand on an ECU.

And I've always tried to over the years,

be honest with people about stuff.

I think, if you've seen any video of Charlie,

you know that he is quite honest.

I think that's made one of the one words I

just described up front.

Do we have any anecdotes and what such?

Oh, we got some anecdotes.

Do we?

Starting off with a scary one,

that I've spotted on Instagram that I have to

say I've done no further investigation into.

I'm going into Ben's territory here.

This is a Mercedes-Benz E63 AMG police car.

That's quite worrying.

private, private plate as well.

Because all police cars have private.

Yeah.

It concerns me.

Not that I'm looking to go on a high speed

pursuit anytime soon.

But now isn't one of the things that if

they're a real police car, they have to have

a number on the rear quarter panel.

Isn't that a thing?

Is that a thing?

I think that is.

So if they're real, they will have like XP3 NL.

So we could be looking at a fake here.

It could be someone doing it for a charity rally.

Again, we're not willing to do the research.

Absolutely.

We want the audience and the listeners to do it.

for us.

But if I was being chased by that,

I'd probably

pull over anyway.

Probably been sourced from Bradford.

Yeah.

That was my first thought with a private

place.

Way better than like a Corsa.

Have you seen the electric ones,

the little leafs?

The what?

The police cars are like a Nissan leaf.

The left eye, you mean?

What's the blur of leafs, Ben?

Leaf leaves.

No, I don't.

There is.

There's a whole argument about the blur of this.

I mean, when you see one of those,

it's not, I don't think it scares people off

running away because they're not recording,

they run out of charge.

But as you've seen that, you're thinking twice.

If I was an unhinged criminal,

I'd see it as a challenge.

Interesting.

That's very will.

Because that's very will.

I beat that.

If, yeah, but again, you say you're in your

RS6 or you might have an M5 and the thing,

I don't like AMGs and you see the AMG police

car, you go, what better to race than an AMG police car?

Who tuned it?

All right.

1v1v.

Let's

1:04:13 Miscellaneous Car News and Anecdotes

go put it on Charlie's Dine.

We'll see how much power that makes.

But that was quite worrying.

It does say it's West Yorkshire though,

so it should be wrong.

I would find down here.

Safe.

Just after us in the leaves,

according to Ben.

Some more misinformation potentially from me.

The Ferrari 612 from Jose Mourinho that I talked about.

only, well, so for the reason that you

mentioned before, which is, so the reason

that it was a misinformation,

is it not the club?

Apparently, and there's some very

disappointed about this, because I am

actually a football fan of sorts,

is that apparently it was nothing to do with

Inter Milan, it was given to him by Roman

Abramovich at Chelsea.

You read a headline and didn't research it.

It wasn't a headline.

It was possibly a comment.

And do you know what the other thing is about it?

It's a sassante.

It is a sassante.

We literally said in the thing,

is it a normal spec?

And we were like, yeah, it's just black.

Not like a stupid, special-ish,

like a sassante.

And yet here it is.

If you don't know, 6/12, sassante has a

two-tone, the bonnet and that's a bonnet and

smiley mouth is in a different color.

And it is absolutely horrible,

don't they?

I'm not a fan of 6/12.

No, they are.

Oh, so then the 6/12 is, I actually think

it's a bit underrated.

There was a time when they dropped to late 30s.

Yeah, there are still some for that.

Because Robin of Viking detail is obsessed with them.

He will have one.

He is told us he will have one and we're

excited for the day he does.

But we were going through cars for sale.

There's a couple still in the 30s.

Are they auto-auto or is that F1?

I think they're F1.

I think they might be, let's do some research.

They are not dual-clutch.

Let's have a look.

I think they're too early for dual-clutch.

Are they a single-clutch?

But I don't know if they're an auto seems

like it would fit it more.

But if you've got F1 spec gear changes.

Six-beat Gratziano automated manual.

So it's an F1, man, I think.

Yeah.

So it's one of those ones where you put your

foot down, pull the pedal down.

then goes.

Yeah.

And you're a luxury force eater Ferrari.

Yeah.

But at least he does have the polished

wheels, which I like.

He has the proper challenge wheels.

I just think they look so gormless.

You know what?

It's it's completely spec dependent back off.

If I see one in a good spec with the those

wheels, I'm OK with it.

And then I see the one with the little five spoke wheels.

God, what an awful thing.

It's it's the caster wheels thing with the eight series.

Yeah.

If you get the 850 I early ones,

they got horrible.

It's not a looker, is it?

I mean, the five 50s.

is is I don't know it.

Yeah, it's got to be one of my favorites,

the five 50 to be honest.

But also, it's that similar gen to a 599 and

sort of similar design language.

Yeah.

Same design.

It's like a 599.

It's it looks like if you ever seen the it's

like online misinformation photos of it's

like someone a half man, half sheep has been

found somewhere and they look all deformed and weird.

It's that it's a weird AI slot image.

has been born with problems and two extra seats.

For a four-seater Ferrari, the 456.

Would be mine every time.

456 is good.

I actually quite like a 400.

Yeah.

I quite like a 400.

I think that the thing is with four-seater

Ferraris is they have that period where

absolutely no one cares about them.

No, they get to sort of like 40,

50 years old.

John's back in it.

Yeah, classic that is.

I mean, the four five sixes.

you buy a bad one, it'll break you.

They'll break you.

No, they are.

The notorious of being it, absolutely ruin it.

But I think one of those in green,

I think what I would love.

There is the one of the Brunei wagons was

originally green and that color is made in

the four five sixes.

Yeah, it's like a dark green.

I can't believe it's cool, but it's a lovely dark green.

Also, shout out Larry Chen at,

well, it's for Hagerty.

He recently put out a video on the Brunei collection.

You can get to go in the collection,

but he got to go to some of the ex royal

family cars that are stored outside the

collection, some of the abandoned ones,

the very good video.

For me, I saw it pop up.

I was alone with my girlfriend for her

birthday for the weekend.

She was like, I don't sit down.

I went, there's a Brunei video from Larry Chen.

I have to watch this.

So I did, but yeah, very good video.

So yeah, a bit of misinformation on the old 612.

Next up, the thing I have written here is the

Chris Harris M5, which was kind of revealed

this weekend's gone.

I guess it'll be a couple of weeks old by this point.

Chris Harris of journalism and sliding fame

has an E60 M5, only 61 M5, actually,

touring, which he's spent a lot of money on,

I think.

So it was originally a carbon black over black interior?

Yeah, kind of old spec.

But now I actually deliberately haven't

looked into it because I saw you post this in our chat.

So I didn't look into it.

But is that BMW British Racing Green?

Did it say anywhere?

Because there is a BMW E36 where many covers have them.

I didn't write this down.

Oh, OK.

You're going to have to research this out.

I am sure that I might have been on the

configurator for BMW the other day on an M3 touring.

OK.

Yeah, because I was seeing how much you could

get one for.

And the answer is they're quite a lot,

actually.

Yeah.

And I wanted mine in Daytona Violet to match

my individual.

Because it's my fattiedies.

That's a BMW Avis Blue, my favourite colors.

I've got an R33 GTR, which is braiding BMW Avis Blue.

And everyone, all the purists said you can't

you can't pay it in the BMW car.

It's a Nissan.

It's a Nissan.

As usual, as usual with R3 GTR,

it's currently broken.

But I was playing the configurator and I did

actually come up and I'm sure one of the

individual colors, because you can still have

if your car painted in any of the individual

colors that BMW have done, 10 of a violet,

Daytona violet, Dakar yellow,

I've got an E36 M3 Evo in that convertible in

Dakar yellow, which is a car that most people

color absolutely hate.

And I absolutely love, even though it's three

shades of different Dakar yellow,

because you can't match the color.

But I'm sure in the configurator that was

British, BMW British race and green.

I think it is because I've seen enough 36ers

in it and it looks, the shade looks nearly identical.

But either way, so that car is now British

racing green gloss, not metallic,

but with corduroy red interior.

Ben, surely this is your car?

I don't want to speak from the trouble.

You don't like it.

I respect the build.

Do you, is it, oh, okay.

Respect all builds.

No, absolutely not.

No, I don't like it.

Is it that it's gloss?

I think it's because it's not metallic.

Same as Will's clear.

I would like that if it was in.

So if it was in Oxford, you'd like that.

Oh, okay.

That is, yes.

I think I might like that one.

Yeah, but that, I saw, all the Instagram

posts in the weekend.

And I, I wish green.

It's Irish green.

I wish green.

I'd delve into Instagram for that one.

That could also be misinformation,

but four people said so, so I believe it.

I have real problems driving past pubs in

that with you without stopping for a Guinness.

But it's, it's a, it's an interesting

combination for sure.

It's, I have to say it's not to my,

not to your taste.

I respect a lot.

I love it that people paint things different colors.

I think it's great.

And I, and I, and I've done it myself.

It's just not, it's those two colors.

I mean, they do.

I'm sure my mum would say it's-

It's a flat green and I just,

if it was on interior design,

she'd say it's silent.

There's probably some French word or

something that's, you know,

It's very 20, 25 Instagram.

It would be Oxford or Boston green for me,

I think.

Yeah.

He's a bit London.

Yeah.

Yeah.

But you probably can't drive it into London

'cause you lose all that.

He actually owes it.

And I owe seven, it'll be all right.

Yeah.

You can drive it too.

Yeah, you can take your V10 to London.

That's fine.

Yeah.

Yeah.

This is, I'm possibly misinformation,

but I'm pretty sure isn't the engine rebuilt as well.

Yes.

So basically it's with brands.

Yeah.

So just in time to spend about 50 gram,

getting it good again, as with all E60.

I think if that was metallic green instead

and it had, the corduroy was a little bit less saturated.

'Cause it's almost orange.

Yeah, it was darker.

That would be, that could be the guy.

The corduroy, I want to feel it.

I want to see when we get Chris on the

podcast, we'll let him know that you hate him

and all his cars.

No, that's not why I said it's all.

So Ben won't be there for that one.

No, he doesn't like it.

You know what, actually, Charlie,

there's a very big moment in the fact that

Ben has decided to stay with the guest,

usually leaves on the and bake.

I feel privileged.

I don't like this, I'm not a slander at all.

What else have we got?

Now Ben, some

news from you here, which could go downhill for you.

You've

put in here something about a Mansory 12

salindry, which I

can already tell I don't look at.

Absolutely.

Look at that.

This is horrible.

12 salindry, which I already don't really like.

Ben, describe it for the audio listeners.

Okay, imagine the new Ferrari 12 salindry.

I think that's done.

Make everything bigger.

It's Batman's--

Now make it purple, wheels black,

yellow calipers, big stripe down the middle,

and then have the purple fade to black at the

rear, and then move to Dubai.

Okay, you've got it.

That rear is tough.

And then also, what is the forged carbon?

Oh, God, I just hate it.

All of it glued on with Pritt stick.

Also, the worst thing is the wheels.

They just look like standard GT3 911 wheels.

Yeah.

That feels like a downgrade in the wheel department.

I get it, it's A, as a statement,

but B, it's to get people talking about it.

They build the first one to be mental enough,

so everyone goes, "Whoa, look at this thing."

And we talk about it on the podcast.

Also, aren't they silly money,

those kits?

Oh, everything is silly money.

But that car built is worth loads of money.

Oh, yeah.

And there'll be some, listen,

I'm not saying my pin is right here,

but if you have less taste, perhaps,

than the average person, maybe you like that.

If you have less taste than you have money,

perhaps.

But that's what it's for.

Because you meet someone and they go,

"I have a 12-cylinder," and you go,

"That's cute.

I have a Mancery 12-cylinder."

Hey, listen, what color is "R" Mancery 12-cylinder?

Is it purple and black and yellow?

No, no.

Kind of thing that would potentially become

cool, again, in like 20, 30 years.

Because you're looking at, like,

you're thinking about kernig kits.

Oh, candle.

Yeah.

You look at that then.

But then you look at some of the stuff that

Tech Art did with the KN Turbo and stuff like

that, and they were horrible back then,

and they're still horrible.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

But that's, I wonder that.

Do people think that about kernig stuff?

Was it still cool?

But a kernig stuff is, I think we've gone backwards.

So these days, it's more about purest stuff.

So the cars that have them, it's the same

with the French hot hatches or the voxel

novers or stuff like that.

The problem is, you can't find a decent one

now because people like me and my friends

buried them all 25 years ago.

So, you know, finding a decent car now,

and it's the same with the testosterone.

of tier, people want to completely stand a car now.

Yeah.

Same with the BMWs.

Same with all the fords.

You know, try finding a standard saff.

Yeah.

You know, that hasn't got a massive exhaust,

although it actually on a saff,

a massive exhaust is kind of like a roll out.

But you know, it's, things are going,

I'm not sure that will, in my mind,

the buried in mind, I probably have no taste.

That will never be cool in my mind.

The other thing I think is that if you look

at like an old conig or a gimbaler or

something like that, the modifications are

but they're basically a race car wide body

without the livery, which is always cool.

Like a dimmer kit is, it's a T16 without a,

without a livery.

That's cool.

Whereas that does not look like a race car.

It just looks like a car that you've stuck bits to.

And I don't think that will ever age well.

Yeah, it's not, yeah, it's stuck on bits.

The exception means, is people like Brabas.

Yeah, which in some cases look great.

And Alpina and all the tuners from,

that a Brabas will never not be cool,

by frankly.

Even I know some of the stuff they do today,

it's a little bit questionable,

but the stuff they did in the 90s and with

the EV12 and stuff like that,

I mean, you know, and the rocket,

they were, they were proper cool cars.

You know, we are gonna take a Mercedes and we

are going to ram the biggest engine we can in there.

You know, and I, you know, I still think they're awesome.

But stuff like that, I could take all these,

by frankly.

'Cause it's never, as far as I'm aware,

they never do anything performance either.

'Cause I always, the Novitek stuff was always

an event like this, where it was,

I never quite liked the kit.

But then when you hear the exhaust,

they do a little bit of engine work or

whatever, you're like, okay,

all right, I can see why the entire theater

of this thing might appeal to some.

But that is truly disgusting.

It really is vital.

It's surely coming to the Manchester United car park.

Oh yeah, that is a footballer's car.

And then it's gonna be sold to a drug dealer

and then, yeah, that's...

And that's gonna end up on TVC.

(laughing)

For eight grand.

Probably along with the football around the drug team.

Another piece of news from you here,

Benjamin, DB12s.

DB12s, S, sorry.

Not plural.

Yeah, it was a small S.

Well, they have many of them,

but this is the new performance one.

Tell us about it, Ben.

I've got no idea.

Haven't seen this news yet.

That's tough on me.

This is the only thing I put in this week

that I haven't researched.

Of the two things he's put in.

Also, that doesn't help your case.

That's like pulling up to class with each go.

Have you got your homework?

But this is the only class I didn't do my homework.

Let me pull up.

That means 50% of my work I didn't do.

This is the 2026 Aston Martin D12.

No, I'm doing it, I'm doing it.

This is the 2026 Aston Martin D12.

Just say what Will says after him.

Okay, joins the family as the new

crown jewel of the DB12 lineup complete with

Ben's idiotic

news section.

Still researching, okay.

I'll carry on.

The power output has been stretched from 671 to 690.

Oh.

Is it still a V12?

A horsepower.

Well, we'll see.

These V8, these are V8.

I didn't know that.

Yeah.

Say these V8.

Yeah, it's the 42 one.

See, I'm still, 'cause this is now,

this is,

there's no more DBS Super Legera,

right?

I don't think so.

No, 'cause that was built on a V11.

Is this technically the biggest grand touring

Aston you can buy right now?

Well, you've got the van question.

What's that?

Is that

a new one?

Is there a new one?

Yeah, yeah.

I don't know anything about Aston Martin D12.

You've seen this and you like this.

The last one, the last one they're gonna make.

See now, now I'm okay with it.

'Cause in my head, I thought that was the,

yeah, not the hyper parlor one.

Well, you know how the Valkyrie?

Valhalla Valkyrie, all right.

Nordic people talking.

There's people on the podcast going,

I actually wanted some news and they're just tuned out.

So, my point was gonna be, if the DV12 is the

biggest one they have, a V8's not allowed.

You must have a minimum of V12.

Oh yeah, yeah.

Below that.

If that exists, if the vanquish exists,

I'm fine with the other one being a V8.

I do, however, I like that vanquish.

Hell of a gob on it.

But I keep looking at first gen vanquishes.

I love them with my heart's whole.

Why are you shaking your head?

It's a second gen vanquish.

What?

The second gen vanquish.

No, because the second gen vanquishes are cheap.

If that was the manual.

Not far off, not by--

The first gen really.

You'll get a second gen for 60,

65 grand and I've looked at them and gone and

kind of thought that.

Well, I'm sitting there dreaming in my magic

fantasy world where I can afford all these nice cars.

Actually, similar year to maybe a 5.99 or

something or actually probably an F12 I would

think actually.

F12 is about 150 grand and you can pick it up

65 and the good cars.

The first gen, James Bond version,

James Bond.

A lot of them have been converted to manual

now because the automatic was horrific,

horrific or the touch of the first.

Did they not do a second gen automatic?

They didn't.

So the S I think had some updates.

Yeah, but it's the interior on those as well.

The interior is tough.

That is what would bug me the most about.

I would, I know there is the,

is it the E in Kalamon?

Yeah.

The Vanquish, but anyway, there is a Restomod

Vanquish Mark I.

I could leave all of the exterior mods as if

there was just a little bit update to the interior.

That is one of my perfect cars.

'Cause that is, that's childhood.

My first James Bond was die another day.

So for me, that Vanquish is the Aston Martin

of all time.

The DBS.

I'm slightly older and it's gotta be the X-Pac Vantage.

That is cool.

From 1988 to 1999, X-Pac Vantage,

they are

stratospherically pricey.

Yeah.

And I think if you were

to say, have some money, pick any car,

I think probably one

of those.

It's a skis car.

Yeah, skis.

Yeah, knowing of course it would break

because they do.

I've got a customer who's who has one as a

daily and he's dailyed it for the city.

He bought new in, it was actually,

so it's an earlier one.

It's an early '80s one.

He bought it new in the early '80s and still he's daily.

That's so cool.

And 200,000 miles.

That's crazy.

He's also got, he's got some other very nice

cars as well, but he's still,

he must be in his late '70s,

'80s now.

Still dating.

Tooling around the back.

I think it's had three restorations at the time.

But he said, "No, I'm not gonna give it up,

why would I?"

And I love that, I think that's right.

Yeah.

Absolutely.

The cars aren't built to last these days.

No.

You know, the stuff from the '80s,

it may rust, but the rest of it,

you know.

It was good to go.

Apart from the Nazis.

Yeah.

Straight out of the factory into the rust repair shop.

My first James Bond was tomorrow,

never dies.

What's that, '70s?

'70s 38, yeah.

That was, it created an obsession with the

seven series as a child, which is quite bizarre.

It's just not a car you should be.

I remember seeing it and finding a 740 on

Gran Turismo and going, they've got,

that's one of the, that's James Bond.

Bond's car, it wasn't, but it's very similar.

Five year old years ago.

What's interesting is it's a pre-face,

but it has the M parallel, which is the first

time you saw it.

It does.

There's a pre-face lift out,

I've come off today in the 70s.

The cars in the film were 740s.

Oh yeah, yeah.

Yeah, BMW wouldn't give them 750 direct,

so the car's the same.

But the one I brought today is actually did

the same spec as the James Bond,

it's a different color, but it's the same

spec as the James Bond ones,

without the guns and stuff, because

apparently they're not loud.

But the-

Stevie LA, please sir, it's for accurate representation.

I want the best gadgets.

Some of the best gadgets.

I want the best gadgets.

Really good gadgets, it's just a shame it

was, I like a BMW 7 series,

but it's not really a James Bond car.

The BMW badge that comes up with the-

Oh, that's crazy.

Yeah, great, yeah.

It's not a drill though.

My first property, there were a couple

before, but Octopus, he was the first film

that I really enjoyed as a James Bond fan,

and I always wanted an alfeta.

And about 17 years ago, I took a little trip

down to the new forest, where I found a chap

who restores them and stuff,

and he in the corner, he had this little

alfeta, DCB6, which was okay,

it drove and everything, 1500 quid.

Really?

And I bought it naturally, 'cause he can't

walk away from some of this.

And the noise, it was fantastic,

it was just, I mean, it wouldn't start most