Collapsing Bugattis, £200k Gearboxes and a Criminal's Mercedes - Ft SBR Engineering

0:00 Introduction and Guest Introduction

Friends worked in the industry and I said,

"If anything ever comes up, we all come and

lick the floor somewhere, whatever needs to

do in, just to be around the cars and do

stuff."

What are some of the parts on them that are

worth

sitting money?

A gearbox?

200-ish?

1,000 pounds?

Yeah.

Oh

my gosh.

It's all good.

I've been ginger as well.

I'm going

like red.

I wasn't expecting this.

Another guest.

We want a bit of a roll at the moment.

We are not a guest at the moment.

Now, at the beginning of every single one of

these podcasts, we obviously ask ourselves,

"Do cars rule or ruin everything around us?"

Actually, I should introduce the guest.

I didn't think of that.

That would make anything of that.

We have with us Stuart from SBR Engineering.

Now, some of you who watch some of the TDC

content will know that that's who's been

looking after Lamborghinis have run of racing

and that's going to get...

There's going to be some more Stuart.

There will be some more Stuart on YouTube.

This is your first podcast.

It is, yeah.

Yeah, a lot of talking.

A lot of talking.

But whenever me and Edwin have been over to

SBR, we always get talking.

Well, actually, this is the first time you've

met Stuart, but you've been over to SBR.

But whenever I've been over,

we end up talking.

I'm like, "God, there are so many stories."

Yeah.

Because you've got some really,

really cool stories because you've done so

much in your career, not just with SBR and before that.

So we will get onto that in a bit.

But obviously, rules and ruins,

are you aware of what we do on the front of the cake?

How would you summarize it?

Is it a rule or a ruin for you this week?

That's a big sigh for it.

It is a big sigh because we've had some wins

in the workshop and then we've had some absolute ruins.

My car hasn't been there for a start.

That's been a win.

Although we have got another martial argue

with an engine coming out imminently.

I'm going to go win, actually,

because there's a couple of long-term jobs

that didn't start off long-term,

but ended up long-term.

There's a lot of high-fiving yesterday in the

workshop when they were done.

I'm going to go win, I think.

For those that don't know, obviously,

you can probably glean from the fact people

working on a martial argue.

That's the sort of stuff you do.

But what is your bread and butter cars?

What do you do?

Because you do all sorts.

Primarily, we're Lamborghini,

Ferrari, McLaren.

The offshoot of that is we've got a lot of

clients that have got other cars that we do

look after for them.

Generally, the supercar side of it,

and then drift into some of the classics.

Why previous places I've worked,

we've done a lot of classic cars.

So yeah, but that's the bread and butter,

the Ferrari, Lamborghini McLaren.

Yeah, the Maserati's.

Yeah.

So that is part of the reason why Stuart's here.

I've enticed him here with a podcast,

but also said, can you please look at our Maserati?

So that should, I think that might be out,

or at least one of the episodes will be out

on the Maserati's.

So Stuart's just been in scanned the Quattroporte.

We'll say no more than that.

I don't know where you are with it.

So we won't spoil anything.

It is interesting.

It's good.

We wanted someone who knows what they're

doing to come and have a look at it.

But yeah, you, so you had, should we do our

rules and ruins?

What do we have?

No, we're, because we're midweek.

Yeah, we haven't done much.

Not much has happened, so don't worry about that.

Again, so stories, that's what I'm trying to

get out of you, because there's so many

things like, you've told us,

you told me before you drove a speed 12 and

stuff like that, you just randomly drop these

things into conversation.

I'm like, you need to write these things down.

These need to be in a book.

So that's, that is why you're here today.

We need to get through as much of that stuff.

What we'll try and do is we'll try and go

through your life.

4:00 Stuart's Early Car Building Experiences

And, you know, I managed to convince my dad

when he was made redundant from his job when

we came out from holiday, which was a nice

letter for him to get.

I managed to convince him to spend his

redundancy money on building a Cobra replica.

Because I was always into, you know,

Ford's, you know, Shelby stuff,

you know, GT40s, Cobras were the thing that I

really liked.

How old were you then?

15.

So 15, 15.

You were building car, you know,

a Cobra.

And there's big, we've found pictures

recently actually of me driving the car down

the outside of the road.

the alleyway, but back at the houses with no

body on it sitting on a bucket with a five

liter can with pipes just did it,

you know, and all those things that you

shouldn't have done.

But obviously, great fun, great story.

So did you go straight from that into,

so you kind of knew you wanted to do

something related to cars?

But is that like your first job or did you do

something else in between?

No, no, ironically, I was like saying to

Ford's, Jim Clark was a bit of a looking

back, probably a bit of a hero who used to

love the quarter in the lift in the wheels and racing.

And I've always wanted to mark one quarter

and I managed to convince my dad to lend me

some money to buy one.

And he said, "Well, you're going to have to

buy a welder and you're going to have to

learn and you're going to have to do all these things."

And he said, "You need a job."

So I literally went and got a job and ended

up

repairing lawnmowers, right on track to that

kind of thing.

And yeah, just that fed the car habit.

And yeah, that was my first car and twin cam

mains and all this kind of stuff.

Friends worked in the industry.

And I said, "If anything ever comes up,

we'll come and lick the floor somewhere,

whatever needs to be, just to be around the

cars and do

stuff."

And my dad said to me, "Look,

if you're going to do

something, try and specialise.

I would have worked in any

garage to be honest.

I just like working on cars."

And the

opportunity came up to work at what now is

HRO in Ferrari.

It was Lotus Bugatti London at the time.

They were the dealership for the EB-110 and Lotus.

And they just went bust as I joined,

which was '94, '95.

They'd just gone bust.

So I ended up going into a workshop.

They were as semi-skilled apprentice working

on Lotus, TVR, Ferrari, the tail end of

Bugatti with the EB-110.

And yeah, that's how I got into the car stuff.

Did you ever get to drive an EB-110 on that early stage?

No, not at the early stage, no,

no.

It was a bit of a battle getting to drive 3,

4, 8, as that was the new car.

I thought, well, 3, 5, 5 was just coming out,

actually.

And yeah, I remember my boss having around

with his boss.

I looked really young when I was 18.

And then he shouldn't be driving these cars.

But that sort of came and went.

And yeah, that's how I got into that level of car.

Yeah, TVRs must have been interesting.

I think you mentioned TVRs, obviously that's

'90s, so it's pre-tasking.

Yeah, Tuscans came out just as I was leaving,

so the Speed

6 was out.

And the server, obviously, with the

6-cylinder engine, but they were,

yeah.

I mean, the customers didn't love R and D for

TVR, but then, you know, we'd collect cars,

we'd get a cause out of the trucks here from

Blackpool, you know, we need to go and get cars off.

And there'd be eight cars on the truck and

all the techs will run down,

jump in the car and you'd put your foot on

the climb over a server, I want to put my

foot on the clutch.

noise when you put the, well,

that's a bit weird, got the car back and,

you know, long story short, someone had put

any thrush washes in the engines when they

built the engine on this AJP engine.

Yeah.

You know, so the clutch, it was like the webs

of the crank hitting the bar.

Wow.

There's a lot of TVR fire stories as well.

I don't want to hear those.

I don't want to hear those.

Yeah.

I can't remember how we got to the

conversation when I came over before,

but I mentioned a speed 12.

And then you just said, you know,

driven one of those.

Now, speed 12 is not, it's not a comment.

That's not like saying I've driven a cigars or something.

That's an exceptionally rare car that only

very few people can say they've driven it.

How did that happen?

Yeah, that was a new, weird one,

because when you, I

8:13 Speed 12 and TVR Stories

mentioned that, you know, you've mentioned it.

God, I forgot about that.

And that's, the car was a pranting thought,

I think.

They were restoring that Vulcan there.

I don't even remember that, but aeroplane,

they were restoring that.

And I'm sure the car was there.

And we were doing something with master at

the time racing with the RX eight came out.

And being car, you know, a friend of mine

said, do you want to help at the weekends doing this?

Like, yeah, I'll go and do that.

Yeah.

And he knew I worked on TDRs and everything.

I said, we've got this car here.

And I do need to do a bit of digging and find

out whose car that is, because I've seen in

recent years pop up online.

And I think, what is that?

The one that was down there,

in revival being the corner.

And it was literally, oh, we want to try and

get this thing running.

He could give his hand, got it running.

And it wasn't speed runs or anything like

that, but it was quite a cool thing to see.

It was nowhere near finished.

It was bits hanging out.

Alfa bit, but quite a cool thing to finish TV

off product.

Yeah, it's ready for the customer.

Because they didn't sell it?

No, that's what I was going to ask you if you

got to have a go in it, because the famous

story being that Peter Wheeler took it home

one night, ready for production,

drove it once and said, "We cannot sell that

to the public."

That's not allowed.

Because when they went to be a thousand

horsepower, one ton car, I don't know how

many of those numbers are.

Seven litre.

Seven litre to be 12.

So I think there are three cars or three

chassis left of them.

company with a blueprint to rebuild engines and stuff.

But that car always felt like a miss.

We'd seen it in games.

You'd see it in a game and you'd go,

"Why does no one else know about this

thousand horsepower, one ton car?"

Actually, this is the fastest thing on planet Earth.

And they look incredible.

I just have the Hot Wheels one.

It just looked different to some of the production ones.

And then that car appeared at a show last year.

I didn't even know existed with the sort of

different headlights in a slightly narrower body.

But there's a fantastic video.

It's on YouTube of whenever the release was.

London Motor Show of them driving it through

the streets of London, the tracking car,

for like 20 minutes before it got to the show.

And it looks compared to all the Metrocabs

and everything that's there.

It looks like what can imagine a 40 look like next year.

I've seen it at the show because it was on,

it was on the stand there.

And I think it's revolving itself.

I'm sure it was on the stand that was moving around.

And we were all working on, you know,

Griffiths and Camiras and stuff at the time.

And we were like, this is nuts.

What have they made?

We were racing the Tuscans as well.

It's part of being a dealership.

Husker and a good friend of mine,

Steve Gillelme, who got me my job at H.R.E.A.M.

with the driver.

And, you know, Peter Wheeler,

again, he was running all sorts of random

engines in his car.

You know, it's the boss.

He can have a 10 liter Rover V or something in there.

You know, and I kind of like that.

I like that about TVR.

It's like, let's have a go with this.

Yeah.

But you're like saying, you know,

cars, we, the Cerberus, I remember PDI and

one of those and coming back,

it's like really hot smell.

There's something that's not right on this.

And it was our demonstrator.

So we said, look, we need to do some was,

one of themselves would like to take it home.

I took it home, went into London to a few things.

Next day, yeah, car caught fire in London.

Quite hot, Ben.

Yeah, yeah, like really, really like went up.

And the, what was happening,

they'd made a two piece brop shaft.

And, you know, it's joined together with

Mastig, you know, to be like a damping,

you know, prop shaft.

So it is like telescopic.

What happened when the cats that were

underneath warmed up the prop that rubber

softened and the prop shaft wound up that

consequently shortened.

And as it shortened, the nose of the prop

came out the gearbox, dripping all the ATF

gearbox fluid onto the cats,

which called fire.

So they, they got,

they issued a bulletin, like,

you need to recall any cars,

but they got this problem.

And it was a solid prop.

So you might get a bit of vibration and you

might get plates of customer,

you have to monitor it.

And they sent down what can only be described

as guttering that went on the inside of the tunnel.

So it was an upside down tunnel up the prop

and it had a crease down it,

which just, if any leaks happened,

it went straight down this tunnel.

It's tucked and out the back of the car,

no, any of the cats.

And that's the fix.

And yeah, engineering solutions for back

four, you know, so it's all there's a

crossover between that and Italian cars

surely somewhere where it's similar.

But so that was all the HRO and stuff.

How long were you at HRO in four?

Up to early 2000s, when I went to,

I went to DK engineering from there.

So before we get on to the day,

we mentioned earlier that you have obviously

bought the play, YV1L from HRO in as a,

well, it was originally an HRO and plate that

went on the first ever, the top gear,

most of them.

And you said you put that on multiple cars?

Yeah, I'm pretty sure.

I'd have to sort of look at the timeframe,

'cause we had a few plates, which we were

always putting on the end cars for press

things, and it started in the other room.

And when you meant, I think I saw it come up

on the podcast.

Well, I had to mention this to Will,

I'm pretty sure that was one of the plates.

'Cause they put it on multiple different,

obviously, like demo's, but for me,

it was like, 'cause it was on that yellow

car, wasn't that bad, so cool.

I was still trying to source that car.

Yeah, if anyone knows out there where the

chassis number of the car, the yellow,

from the first season of top gear,

sorry, not the first season,

it would be the power lap three.

I wanna say, season three with the yellow

car, I wanna say it's like O2 or three.

And there's no information online,

it's if you have them to know--

It's of no use.

Yeah.

I just wanna know where it is.

I just wanna know, 'cause that car is,

it's not like super important,

but that's the first one that I would have

seen on TV.

I just wanna know where that car,

I thought I found it recently and it wasn't

that car, so yeah, I need to know where that is.

It might end up that it's dead or something,

I don't know, 'cause obviously demo car,

I'm assuming they get used quite,

yeah, it's a good chance.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Quite heavily, but yeah, anyway,

but the plates there, and it still exists,

so-- So you mentioned HRO and into decengineering.

I think probably about six months,

no one who listens to the podcast would know

very much about decengineering,

but they probably do now.

Yeah, we've finished it, yeah.

So you were there quite early days of,

if you know what, the new generation of decengineering?

Yeah, I mean, the cut is changed a lot now,

and you know, we're lucky to have a good

relationship when we do things occasionally with them.

But when I went over to David,

you know, James, you know, his father,

I wanted to get involved in some of the older

cars because, you know, being at the main

deal, it was great working on modern stuff.

And obviously we had a mix with Lotus and

TVR, you know, it did a lot of good stuff

with those cars, but my sort of passion was

that something, I want to see some of the older stuff.

And at the time, they were doing a lot of

stuff they do now, still have 50s cars and

race cars and things like that.

I really want to get involved.

And yeah, went over to DK and,

yeah, the knowledge base there,

even then, is second to none.

You know, like, you know, David's knowledge

is in cyclical

15:00 DK Engineering Experience and F40 Work

when you're into cars about,

you know, chassis numbers and that kind of thing.

I just wanted to be around that.

And yeah, it was a good move for me because I

just enjoyed it.

You know, it's very different.

You know, I remember getting there and doing

a Campbell service on a three,

five, five and getting it done.

And it was literally done in a day and a bit.

When the cars were new, the bits were all

rustic, you know, like they used to go on.

It came apart easily.

And I remember David's wife,

I was like, okay, so, um, did that quite,

quite, quite quickly that car.

And so I'm just, just wanted to make it.

And you realize that, you know,

especially, and then how decoy like to do stuff here.

I want to make the sure the finish is right.

You know, the pipe works nice,

everything.

And I'm not going to throw it back together

at the dealer, but you know,

but all of a sudden, you know,

he's actually got quite like this.

We're making sure he lines up nicely.

Everything's done like that.

And it's just, that's a thing you don't see

at main dealers.

I mean, I don't know what it'd be like now at

a main dealer, but I'm sure they're not worried about.

Yeah, lining up, you know, those clips and

making sure the engine is as clean as the

outside, probably not on their radar.

We've been to be fancying the workshop in there.

Yeah, it's amazing.

And it, yeah, it's still, you can just see

the level that everything's taken to in order

like the, no, not just the expenditure,

but like the level of detail.

Obviously, that's what you guys do as well.

So, but when I started the business part,

my thing was like, you know what,

I want to offer some of that,

maybe to people that didn't know it was

available to do or, you know,

you know, if you're a store in a car,

you expect a car to look a certain way.

But when you put your car in for a cam box

service, you know, doing the cam cover

gaskets, change all the nuts,

making it look aesthetically,

like the Italians go to a lot of trouble to

make things aesthetically nice,

asymmetrical, everything lines up,

you know, and yeah, it was good grounding for that.

Yeah, definitely.

No, you mentioned to me, I don't know how

many you could tell, but you mentioned some

F40 related stories.

The F40 is worth a lot of money now,

as you will be well aware.

Yeah.

But they were at a point where they weren't

that popular, they weren't worth a lot of

money, but like in DK, they kind of

specialized in their 40s, they started out a

while ago, before they were really like

trendy and whatever, doing their 40 work.

Yeah, early 2000s, yeah, any one time,

there was probably at least a dozen of them

around other in the workshop or there.

And you, you know, they've got a lot more

now, but even back then, it was a lot.

And was it because so many were made relative

to essentially the other rarer Ferraris that

there was just more around than they were cheaper?

Is that why that was kind of a speciality

that was chosen?

I think so.

It's tough.

The main deal is I like it now.

Once a car is a few

years old, they're not interested.

And their 40s were kind of a bit like that,

you know, even when I was at HRO who did do a

lot of their 40s.

Well, I say a lot.

We didn't do that many.

When you look, I look back on it now,

I think probably only saw a handful in the

years I was there and then you go to D.K.

and you saw those in the week,

you know, at that time.

And it's part of not really interested in

that car because the 360 had come out.

You know, I went to Italy, did the course of

there for a week.

It was difficult.

Did a 360.

Like three, five, five was forgotten about.

You know, they were coming in for warranty

bits and, you know, their consequent services.

But all of a sudden you watched the car park change.

Obviously these now.

I guess 20, 25 years ago, there was much more

emphasis and excitement about the new thing.

Yeah.

Yeah, massively.

Whereas now, because the new thing has

reached a bit of a pig.

Everyone wants the old thing.

Yeah.

That's why we talked about it before,

where the F40, the F50, I don't like their

still very expensive cars, but they had that

point where they weren't much money in terms

of related to what they are now.

But we won't see that again.

You know what I mean?

Enzo's have never gone to, you know,

100 grand, 200 grand.

They've always been worth really,

really solid money.

So it's like, there's almost like,

there was like golden period of like,

cars, no one knew valuable.

Yeah, a 360 was more expensive than an F40

when we started a decal.

That's crazy.

It's bad, doesn't it?

When you think about it, and you know,

288 GTO, who's like, no one really,

I say no one wanted them.

Like, no one was queuing up to buy them.

Yeah, I saw one this morning.

I just fell out the car.

I was driving along, and I saw a red thing,

and it was a 280 GTO.

Yeah.

I was like, what the, yeah.

Little daily Ben on the way into it.

I've never seen one on the street before,

but that was cool.

So around that time, as you say,

there were around, what, 100,

250,000 pounds for an F40?

Yeah, they were probably a little bit lit.

I mean, in the trade at that time,

they were probably, yeah, just over 100

around that sort of figure.

And with inflation, that's it.

And so Will, this is when Will met you and

then came back and told me, he told me this

story that was relayed, that I got excited,

even hearing secondhand, that you guys used

to go over to Europe by them and drive them back.

Yeah, no, that happened a couple of times.

Yeah, yeah.

And I'd done that, actually,

with someone I was doing a job for outside of DK.

So, you know, we're just like gonna do

private work as a mechanic.

And all of a sudden, you end up with this

very small network of people,

like, Stuart, could you come and do this?

And, you know, all of a sudden,

you're doing things that when you look back

now, you think, I need a camera phone.

And, yeah, there's things I'm glad there

aren't camera

phones about, or to be honest,

with cars.

But, you know

what I mean?

We used to kick them turning up on the backs

of trucks from all over, like,

beaver tails almost, they're becoming back.

And you think now, like, you wouldn't transport them.

car around like that, because I don't think

there were blase about it, which is kind of,

that's what those cars were worth.

So, is there a story from when you,

when you went, whereabouts did you go and get them from?

Germany, usually.

Germany and I never came back from Spain in

the car, but a lot of cars came out of Europe.

You know, I don't know where,

where DK would have got some of those cars

from, probably, you know, they've dotted all

over the place because, you know,

in Italy, you know, the cars have quite a hard life.

And, you know, by the time we get them over

here, then they were never up to scratch for,

to be a DK car.

And, you know, the, the, like we said,

the attention to detail, they have to be a certain way.

And driving them back is,

yeah, not something you do today.

And, you know, you know, but I want something

to talk about.

I mean, I don't know what the sort of

thoughts were about.

Yeah.

It was probably different to what it is

today, but driving an F40 back through Europe

to come back to the UK.

Yeah.

It's weird, you know, you, I think that the

excitement of driving a car wears off quite

quickly, because it's like, no radio in this.

It's not great.

You know, there's, you know,

and there's other cars as well that,

you know, we've done a lot of miles with them.

I was talking to someone recently about it.

You know, you think the miles that we used to

do in those cars, you know, you wouldn't even

drive them that far now.

The owners don't even drive them that far.

You know, it's, it seems a little bit sack

religious, because he's just a car,

isn't it?

Some of the miles you've done are things that

people now look at and go, "Oh,

it's a pity this car's got so many miles on."

But you're the one that did that.

Yeah, definitely.

Definitely, but there's a few cars like that.

Taking a few of them off the,

off the value of it.

Yeah.

So

you were at DK, how long were you at DK for?

God, so I had a little sabbatical from DK.

Well, I went, went to work for Pagani for a while.

So this is another, again, this was a nice

AR, and I mentioned Pagani.

It used to work at Pagani.

I was like, "Why have you never said this?"

So we'll get into that.

So you worked at Pagani.

So yeah, because, well, the reason I

mentioned that I ended up going back to DK

after, for any of that, it was linked to an

F40 as well, going back to DK.

We, a friend of mine, ended up being the

importer for Pagani, and he bought one car,

which was a demonstrator, and obviously they

started selling cars.

So that one car was the car that you saw on

top gear, which I ended up driving,

actually, on a couple of top gears.

sort of episodes, because ironically,

they couldn't get hammered and shored on the car.

So really, you know, the thing about now is

like, how is that?

But obviously it wasn't as big as it was.

No.

And we look back now retrospectively,

think, well, we was massive,

but it wasn't really.

So yeah, my friend approached me,

so look, we would need to P.D.I.

these cars.

We haven't got a workshop.

And I said, well, look, I'll have a word with

David at DK and see if we can P.D.I.

the car here, which we did.

And then, you know, unfortunately,

for sort of DK at the time, like I said,

look, we're starting this workshop.

Would you do?

And I thought I can't sort of miss this

opportunity to go be involved in these cars.

And yeah, so we went over to what they were

establishing as the dealership,

which was a Euro sports cars at the time.

Is this the one that was in Gerald's office?

Yes, yes.

Whenever I mentioned this, people,

not like, obviously it's quite niche with Pagani dealer.

But when I found that out, because as a kid,

you saw Pagani on top gear.

You saw the blue car, the C12,

the C12S, and obviously eventually the F.

And I was driving along while I was driving along.

I was a kid, I was in that passenger seat on

the back, and I drove fast, and there was

just like a Zonda F or something.

And I was like, hang on a sec,

that was a Zonda, 'cause you didn't see it anywhere.

And I don't know how many of you drove,

but I was on, people who will know Slough,

will know the bath road.

And I was with my massive parts,

no.

Yeah, yeah.

And I was with my mom, and a C12 came tanking

past, like, tanking past.

I wish I still had the video.

I took it on a crap old, like,

camera phone.

So I will never have it again.

But that was my first memory of a Zonda.

No.

And then I found out that their base was in

Gerald's Cross.

No, is there a chance that was you tanking past them?

Possibly, yeah.

There was only three of us who really drove

the cars there.

And they are quite possibly.

That's amazing.

Yeah.

So you did lots of like PDIs,

or PDIs is what a pre-delivery inspection is.

Yeah, so at that time, I think we sold 10

cars into the UK.

Right.

It was a funny one, because anyone who was

into, sorry, it was a supercar owner who had an Enzo.

And they got like, "Well, what is this?"

And I can't remember what they were at the

time, price was at 270 grand or something,

which was within 2 million at the time.

It was like, "What is it?"

But then in performance, it was quite a cool

thing, but it never quite got the momentum then.

And so yeah, with only 10 cars,

we ended up doing a lot of stuff but did you

remember MPH?

They did an MPH show, which took over from

the old court mode.

Yeah, then became top tier line.

That's it, yeah, yeah.

So we got a call one day and they said,

"Oh, look, have you got anything you could bring along?

We're doing a promo thing.

We're driving around London hanging out,

leafless for the show."

And my boss at the time, Roland,

come at me and said, "Oh, look,

this guy, I don't know how this show's going

to be any good."

And he said, "Look, could you take the car along?"

Okay.

So I jumped in the C12S and drove,

26:00 MPH Show and Zonda Experiences

12's car from Slough, which is always an

interesting drive.

And I've probably popped up there.

And there was, I think it was the 350s,

it was a new car to come out of the time.

There was a lotus, I think a clap done in the

golf colors, which actually turned out to be Max Cooper.

Oh, really cool, yeah.

So I've got out the Zonda and I've walked up

to the guys and they're all just like,

what the fuck?

And I said, oh, they told me to bring a car along.

They were saying like, gonna take it to

pieces, like, what is that?

And then it turned out, we ended up driving

around London for like most of the day,

handing out leaflets for MPH show in a Zonda.

And the rest of them just like,

can I come out with it?

What is this thing?

So there's got some photos somewhere of that.

There must be, like we were stopping in like

the banking district and like,

you know, in Covent Garden, just handing out

literally getting moved on by the police,

like you can't park here.

I've been wanting to know all about the car.

Yeah.

We'll have to see if we can find some of

those photos online 'cause that would be

amazing to come out.

I definitely have photos from,

I don't think it was as early as that.

I went to MPH, I think '06 and '07.

I can't remember if it was an F or not,

but they used to have a thing where they

would, I think it was class and hammed in

May, were like, you know, before it became

like a top gear thing.

And they would bring out all like the current supercars.

And they would like, they were driving pretty

slowly, but they'd drive around and rev them.

And that was one of the first times I had

like, heard a Zonda, like the Zonda F like that.

Yeah, just unbelievable.

Yeah, that's cool.

But working at Begani must have been,

obviously, I guess you wouldn't have known,

obviously, what it is now is different.

It's got a lot of...

I don't know.

I don't really don't understand it.

You know, we did a Begani just before we

moved workshops, actually.

We did a Zonda there.

And the guys that were like,

Barry, you've met at the workshop and they're

like, okay, I don't get the fastest,

like a tube rear end and a bit of carbon.

But it's beautifully done.

And then there's other parts of it.

You think, I could have come out of Blackpool.

But then you look at where it is now as a

brand and it's an icon.

That's what you're paying for,

isn't it?

I mean, we've said a few times,

we reckon a Zonda will probably be F1 prices

just because they're so cool.

I think you're the potential,

yeah.

And the potential.

Although the F1 is kind of a more perfect

car, obviously, boom.

The Zonda is that thing where it's like that unobtainium.

You never see them.

And now they're kind of, because they're

starting to remake a lot of them,

the original ones.

is just going to be worth so much money.

Well, what was really weird with them is as

they upgraded them, like our demonstrator,

which went on to be Harry Metcalfe car.

He bought one of our demonstrators.

That's not offers the C12,

then he went back, then was S.

Interesting, he came back with zero miles and every time.

And we had a thing at the time with Erasio,

he's like, we can't do that.

He said, this is a new car.

This is the S.

It's the same plate.

It's the same car.

And so yeah, God, that's what happened with

that over the years.

Did you ever drive the, is it La Nona,

the one that's the one that's gone through

like every iteration and been,

that's the triggers broom cars.

But yeah, that's cool story.

Did you ever touch or work on an F1,

McLaren F1?

Yes, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

So, 'cause they were the same at one point,

they were multiple available,

not you couldn't give away, but they were

cars for sale.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I remember I did, there was me and one of

David's sons, Jeremy, who's now doing his own

sales thing as well.

I think James, you know, was,

I think we mentioned it was at school at the

time when I was there.

And we were the only guys that really drove

the F cars and, you know, anything that was

like nine, five nines and, you know,

four GTs, anything that was a little bit,

you know, it keeps the risk sort of in one

place and pressure on.

Yeah.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Well, he's the only guy who'd driven it.

You know, what's this scratch down the side?

You know, and yeah, the F one,

it came in.

We needed brake pads.

It was a customer that had a lot of other cars there.

And he was quite adamant that I was the only

one that drove the car.

And so, you know, yeah, yeah,

yeah, yeah.

So the car I drove was Ray Ballon's road car.

Yeah.

So there's a silver car.

And I think he also, he had the race car as well.

But it was his road car.

And was it, was it at the time?

Did it feel like a different experience?

Would it just feel like doing well?

And I feel really bad saying,

having driven all of these cars at various

different times, did you kind of forget was,

was that quick?

Maybe, maybe it was quick.

I don't know, you know, and it's,

yeah, I mean, it's an amazing experience.

The feel of those cars compared to other

stuff at the time was light years ahead,

build quality, how the thing was put together.

It was like, well, this is different gravy,

this is the way we do.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

And I had an experience with Pagani at that

time, but having, you know, then driven

everything, this is quicker than an F1,

isn't it?

You know, I think it is.

You know, you kind of like questioning yourself.

But yeah, I think that was looking back,

you know, driving those sorts of cars was,

like, you look now, I think,

well, not many people could say they've

driven a 250 GTO, a 288 and a 40 or a 50 and

Enzo, an F1, all these cars.

And at the time, you know, I remember

standing at a petrol station,

filling up a 250 GTO once, and they're kind

of like, oh, I bet you wish it was a real one,

mate.

And you're like, yeah.

(laughing)

Yeah, okay, yeah.

Just go along with it.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Yeah, yeah.

With any of you, is there any of them that

you didn't get to drive that you really wish

you did, but you still think of,

like, what have you been called to drive in late?

Or have you driven it all?

No, not really.

Yeah, I think you do.

And like I say, you don't get Blase,

I think being a car guy, there's been disappointments.

You know, I remember driving a 356 Speedster

and a B&D K, it was the one from Top Gun,

the one Kelly McGilis had, I thought,

wait, I always loved the Speedster.

I have a really cool car.

And then I remember driving it,

it's like, (car revving)

No, the, it's a lot of them be flattered.

Would you say that was probably the biggest

letdown or biggest disappointment?

Yeah, that and some Aston's,

'cause I quite used to quite like some of the

Aston's and some of those big heavy buses and

you think it's as cool as I thought it would be.

But yeah, on the whole, I think there's

nothing looking back that I haven't,

oh God, I never got to drive that,

which is really fortunate.

Is there any one car or maybe a couple of

cars, two or three cars that stand out from

everything you've ever driven?

Or are they all kind of like melded into one?

I guess when you've driven that many things,

it's kind of like...

Yeah, I think as well, people forget when you

drive these cars, you've always driven them

from a really analytical like,

oh, the guy said he's got this rattle.

So you end up going on a drive and come back

and you've had your rear pin to the parcel

shelf area looking for a rattle.

You get to enjoy it.

And then someone says to you,

what was your life driving that much?

McLaren is like, I don't know,

I was listening for this rattle that guy

after all the rattle.

Yeah, and so some of it gets a little bit

spoiled from that, 'cause I do look back and

I think, oh, I wish I'd had maybe a bit

better memory of driving.

I'm fortunate to have done that,

but you think, oh God, it wasn't quite the

thing, the experience I wanted.

Like the Zonda was really cool,

you know, I got to do, we drove those in

Germany with Andy Wallace, we were trying to

get to do 200, which we couldn't get it to do.

We had to lower the car, take bits off of it,

trying to get it to do 200.

And you think, been very fast in some of

these cars and auto bars, which some people

will never ever do.

But I think cars that stand out,

Veyron, Veyron's a quite a special car,

although they do feel like a really fast

Bentley, you know, that's quite a special car.

But F40 is probably still my thing.

You can

never say, oh, I feel so comfortable in it,

this is like wearing a little pair of

slippers, but I do get in them and think,

I know how these feel.

We've had two in recently, and I dropped off

on one of the rainiest days before we had

this heat wave here.

And we're like, he's not going to bring him today.

And then all of a sudden we heard,

I think Patrick was with us that day,

and he said, there's an F40 outside,

and then the rain's coming in sideways.

And I was like, yeah, no, I've got to take it

out of an eye.

And having driven cars, those cars,

in that sort of condition, you think,

yes, I feel comfortable, but you're never.

those cars that bite you when you don't

expect it, because they're not managed well,

like modern turbo cars.

That's part of the excitement.

Yeah.

I've only ever been in the passenger seat of

one, and it was on the M4 and an average speed check.

So I didn't get to experience the real thrill.

So the real thrill, yeah.

(laughs)

It was a real effort experience.

50 mile an hour was exhilarating.

But that's just one of those cars that it's,

'cause everyone always says it's like the

ultimate driving car, it's the line where it

feels like everyone always uses the go-kart

analogy, everyone uses it on that as like,

no, this is kind of exactly what it's like.

It's just a lightweight, big V8 turbo thing

and loads of lags.

So yeah, that would be called love to experience it.

I think most owners as well,

we have first world problems.

I had a customer phone at

three o'clock in the morning once.

Well, I think I was at

DK and he said, Stuart, I've got,

I was just thinking about

this.

My McLaren F1.

(laughs) I wish the steering felt like my 288 GTO.

(laughs) He's sitting there lying,

and my partner at times like,

oh, I said, don't worry about it.

You know, you're on the phone.

And you then have these conversations when

you're like, well, we could put like the GTR

rack on it, but it makes it really heavy,

slow speed.

But you get a thing, you think,

what, and thinking back on it now,

I think, what a conversation to be having with someone.

You know, and you're on the phone to like,

Dean Landsat, like even pick companies like

Landsat, they weren't as big as they are now.

But yeah, I'm on the phone to Dean the next day.

It's like, oh, Dean, you're like,

could you do us a rack?

Yeah, no, you get you rack for that.

What car was it, that's going in,

right?

What do you want to do that for?

It's like what he wants this.

And you know, probably not even a

conversation these days.

But it's just interesting stuff.

I'm going to end up that old guy sitting

around a table.

I remember Wayne.

Yeah, it's going to be one of those.

I'll try the Pagani.

Yeah, sure.

There's a 60 million faster.

Yeah.

No one drives those.

But I think that's why these stories are very

cool because back then, no one was thinking about that.

Future resale value.

Even when we were seeing at the Monterey car

week, people drive them but still with kid gloves.

They're very gentle about things.

Everything needs to be original.

The whole point of them was to use them and

use them hard.

There are F40s out there that have been

beaten to within an inch of their life that

are now like show pieces that they're like,

"No, you mustn't touch that too hard."

That's not what it was been useful for the last 20K.

It's been driven for.

There's no point in that.

It's a weird one, isn't it?

I know we often talk about this when we've

got a couple of customers that bought them

still when they will sub 150 grand.

They still

37:06 F40 Maintenance Costs and Insurance Issues

use them.

I hope it does well, I think,

because if you're

not going to sell it, that £3 million ticket

price is great.

But if you're not going to sell it and you

want to use it.

There must be worth so much.

Even if you do use it, even if you do use it,

there are still going to be,

it can't be much cheaper than this.

I don't know how much it is with a broken engine.

You told me once how much an engine was worth.

And it was, I think, was that a six figure number?

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

What are some of the parts on them that are worth?

City money, just like, what's a headlight

for one?

Oh, they're five grand, I think they're five.

Yeah,

a gearbox?

£200-ish?

£1,000.

Yeah.

Oh, my God.

There was a used one up for sale recently for £125.

Yeah.

But you then, you wonder, where did that come from?

Yeah.

I think when you came to ours that we've got

one that we're rebuilding an engine,

we're doing at the moment.

And I remember saying to you at the time,

it's like, yeah, that's a hard thing to replace.

Yeah.

And it's tough for us now as a business,

because all of a sudden, we're now finding

insurance companies saying, well,

yeah, Ford is not here.

That's back in storage, but we've got his

engine and we've got his gearbox.

Yeah.

And that's worth more than a few of the cars

in the workshop.

So all of a sudden, you're ensuring the fact

you've got an engine there and,

yeah, box is which is something that would

have just normally been encompassed in your insurance.

But now it's like, no, you need to mention

that you've got that.

Where's the number where you keeping it?

Yeah.

Yeah.

All that sort of stuff.

I remember because I went into that room

where you have the engine stuff.

Yeah.

Because it was kind of a bearish block at the

time, I think.

Yeah.

I think his heads are over.

Yeah.

He's like, oh, that's an F40 engine.

I was like, oh, OK.

That's just because it kind of looks like

it's just an engine, really.

Yeah.

And do you say it in a car?

You don't realize how special it is.

And we saw one recently, one of the engine

places we went to, they had a block there as well.

I was like, oh, that's just an F40 engine.

I was like, oh, great.

We were trying to figure out if it's how

similar it is to like a 308 or something.

I think it's very similar.

Yeah.

It's like, OK, so it's just the name in that.

Yeah.

So, Pagani, you also mentioned some of the

top gear stuff.

What was that?

So you went, you did, so you were driving.

That was because we were either important and

we'd have to only sell in limit amount of cars.

We were doing everything, you know,

going around to those shows,

like I said, and, you know, we have took that

car to, we did a few top gears,

actually, for different things,

because, you know, it's like when you film

stuff, you go there and you do some tracking

shots, but then the guy was the stig at the

time, I think it was Perry McCarthy at the

time, couldn't be there that day.

So the car then had to go back to be driven,

but then Pagani wanted their car to be

driven, not the UK demonstrate.

So you're always back, but they want someone

there to support it.

So you end up being backwards and forwards

quite a lot.

And, you know, I remember hiding behind a

tire wall with Ben Collins, who ended up

being the Stig, and we're like crouched under this.

tire and he's like, "Could you have a word

over your boss?"

You know, "I really want to get involved in

this Pagani stuff."

And, you know, because we had a tire,

a lot of people didn't realize we were

actually building a car to go to Le Mans.

So that's, you know, half of the guys that

were at Euro sports cars were working on that

project, and which never came to fruition.

Well, not through us, it did happen,

but not through the UK.

Was that the race cars under?

Yes, yeah, yeah.

Is that what I can't remember the name?

Is it GT2 or GT1?

It was GT1 at the time, but there was,

it ended up going in, I think,

as an invitation or something,

because there was something,

therefore I weren't happy with certain things

on the car, there was gonna be a lot of

changes to make it, so it went in as like a

project prototype car, I think,

originally.

But yeah, that project didn't happen,

yeah, and Ben at the time was like,

oh, you need to get me, I need a drive,

you guys are doing that.

And I think we were talking to David Braben

at the time, and a couple of other Aston

drivers, and we said, yeah, that's when I

first met David, and now he drives for us.

with our cars, you know, it's all about this

massive circle in the trade of things that

come round again.

But yeah, a lot of film stuff,

I ended up going and doing what can only be

described as a porn shoot with Zonda.

Zonda.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

So that was in London.

They got people ready with their keyboard.

Yeah, yes words.

Well, what happened?

I'll have to find this and I'll let you guys

know, but it was like a gentleman's quarterly

that went out, and it was, obviously,

ladies, but they wanted to have the

silhouette of the lines of the Zonda.

And I got them from the artistic point of

view, they wanted the lines of the Zonda,

they wanted the curves of the lady with it

and everything else.

So, Stuart Gett says, "Caw, you've got to go

in this photo shoot, right?"

What is it?

You're involved.

What is it?

What is it?

Dress like you all need to take them off.

It's gonna be hot in there.

And I got there and I was like,

"Oh, just usual things, Stuart."

And it got some sort of look like this and

was sitting there.

There's just food like buffet food companies.

It's quite good.

Music's quite cool in here and stuff.

They've got the big setup of these women to

come out and to.

Okay?

Where's her clothes?

She's awkward.

You know, being ginger as well,

I'm going like red.

Like this is really, like I wasn't expecting this.

And yeah, it was quite tasteful.

It wasn't, you know, dodgy petrol station,

blank cell magazine.

It was quite tasteful.

It was still naked ladies in the car,

but that was quite an interesting.

So I've done actually through Pagani as well?

No, that was just people that were coaches.

I think when the car was in Evo magazine and

it was getting, having a bit of momentum

that, you know, they wanted,

you know, I think it was, the Mags,

that particular magazine was like high net worth.

Got into the congregation.

The Pagani.

I've never found it.

And I have looked over the years.

Some odd Google searches going on the level,

I've got to stop this.

But it'd be interesting to find that because

it's out there.

It is out there.

Or it's someone will find it.

Or it's someone will find it.

There was a labyrinth ruse for someone to get

a Pagani's Honda and a load of naked women in

the same room.

Is this some guy laughing?

Yeah.

Do you remember that time he's on a podcast?

So I can remember that time he goes on to it.

Yeah.

Because I do remember especially Pagani at

the time felt like they were big on top gear.

Like they were like the, not earlier doctor,

if you like, but they used a lot of Zombas

and they loved it so much.

And even now if you go to the Pagani factory,

the museum that they've got,

they have the top gear magazines everywhere.

So I think they must love top gear it's like

there are every single cover of a magazine

that's got like, or something that's related

to the TV show.

They have it plastered everywhere.

So top gear obviously, you know,

in their good books.

But I mean, that was the first time you saw

something like that.

Yeah.

There's not many new car companies that stick around.

They don't, they just unheard of,

wasn't it?

Yeah.

Obviously Koenigsegg kind of the other one,

but there's not really that many others are there.

I think they were lucky that Hammond got

behind that as that was his car was the Pagani car.

Yeah.

And then as the devolutions of that car came

out, he was there, P.R.

guy, wasn't it?

Yeah.

But it's odd that that industry that,

I mean, given Horatio's background,

it was probably not a given,

but he had the best chance of making a car

that would break through into the

Lamborghini, Ferrari sort of Cliterati,

he was the only guy, wasn't he?

Did you ever meet and speak with him?

Yeah, yeah.

'Cause we've heard from lots of different

people that he doesn't speak English when he

doesn't want to, that sometimes if you speak.

He speaks really good English.

Yeah, yeah.

He came down to, I'm a slough of it,

which must've been good times.

God, no.

Yeah, yeah, under the cover of Night.

And I remember being introduced him for the

first time, it was a really,

really nice guy.

And I think when you talk to those kind of

people who are car guys and he's designing,

you talk to him about the counter,

she's involved with that, although that

version might not have been everyone's favorite.

You talk to him about cars, it was great,

but I've seen, I've been around when people

have approached him and you see that it's a

great cover, it's like, sorry,

don't speak English, it's great.

The story with him kind of starting Paganini,

because it was, I think it was,

it was, it was, it was, it was a contest,

wasn't it?

It was contest, yeah.

He wanted to make carbon fiber.

And he went to Lamborghini and said,

you should do carbon fiber, this is like the

next big thing, it's going to be lightweight,

it's strong, blah, blah, blah.

And I think the quote, I don't know what the

exact quote is, but the rough story is,

is that Lamborghini said, if Ferrari aren't

doing it, we don't need to do it.

And obviously, now they're all doing it.

So it was kind of ahead of the game,

really, but yeah, Paganini, it does,

feel like that really kind of like legendary,

like they've, they kind of entered in as that

new boy with Ferrari Lamborghini and now

they're somewhere like almost above that in

terms of artwork pieces as well.

You know, you look at the presence like you

say at the car wig, you know,

and I have to check with James actually.

I'm sure one of those, well,

one or a couple of those cars are probably PD-eyed.

Because we saw, because we didn't see one last year.

I want to see if we didn't see a single Zomba.

And in this year was just for us.

It was actually great to sit when we saw

James actually completely by chance when they

were driving the F one that set a few of the

upgrades and he took off down the road and it

was like that.

That's what I wanted to hear.

It was a sound of, it activated a childhood memory.

I think it was from one of the MPH shows.

I was like, that'll good wood.

The only good one I ever went to,

I begged and pleaded for my parents.

And I heard the noise, I was like,

that's the best car noise.

It was something.

I mean, we had so much trouble on track days

trying to get it through noise.

There'll be pictures somewhere.

We were cutting their bottoms off coke cans

and blocking off two of the pipes thinking,

you know what?

50% will be

better, won't it?

And then coming back and they've been

fired off somewhere down a strait somewhere

from dodging

stuff.

But yeah, the sound of those things is something

else.

But you just don't see them anywhere.

Visit.

And David said to me, look, could you drive

this at 40?

Because this is why you're at Peggarnie.

While I was at Peggarnie.

And at that time, the dealership was

actually, it wasn't going under,

but they'd sold their allocation of cars.

What we then realized was their allocation of cars.

And it just wasn't working.

You know, Peggarnie wanted us to have two

demonstrators, which back then was like half

a million quid plus worth of cars.

This demonstrators and no one's buying cars.

You know, it's not a great business model.

It was around 2008, 2009 odd.

No, this was earlier.

This would have been sort of 2002,

something like that.

Yeah.

And so one car went to Harry Metcalf.

I think that's when Bob Fosner took it over.

So Peggarnie was then in London.

And yeah, I, in the middle of that,

I went to DK.

So hi guys.

How you doing?

David said to me, look, drive this car.

We've got a problem with this F40.

It's not boosting.

Is it boosting or not?

Took the car out.

I said, oh, I think the wastegate split.

And typical Ferrari, you have to buy a whole

wastegate for five grand.

You can buy a dollar for our mutual sort of

stuff, which I think DK then went on,

which is what they sort of pioneered now with

the F cars remaking the stuff.

And in most cases, better.

So drive this car.

And you know, and David said,

have you got to have a word?

And I said, yeah, the guy that's the foreman

he is going off and he actually wants to

start his own business.

He said, look, would you consider coming back?

I said, oh, don't you know, let me do it.

But you know, if I came back,

I'd like to have a bit more of a role,

you know, and long story short,

I ended up going back to DK as the foreman there.

And then sort of running the race cars,

doing the good with ease up,

revival things, everything else.

But yeah, back into the Bugatti's and everything else.

And yeah, as I mentioned, I remember going

out in this EV 110.

You worked on these.

Take this car.

car out, it needs to do this,

this and this.

And I think at the time, we were getting

parts from Dower, because they bought all the

old parts and they were remaking things.

And we took this car out and one of the guys

worked with it was Italian.

He said, "You can't take me out in the car.

You can't take me out in the car."

And it's not something you would usually do,

because it's a joy ride.

It was a sales car, but that particular car,

but you know, as long as the boss is okay,

you're coming out, let's go in the car.

As it turns out, I was pleased to have

someone with me, because as I went up through

Watford, where their old workshop went up to

accelerate across this little a road that you

could open them up a little bit,

there was this almighty bang and the whole

car just dove down onto the floor,

front suspension skating around.

We sort of skidded to the side of the road.

And one of the front lower arms had

completely unfolded around the bush.

The bush was still on the car.

car.

The car would come off completely.

And that was us at the side of the road in a Bocati.

Yeah.

And it would be 110.

It was super sport as well.

Cool.

Yes.

And we ended up with typical mechanics things.

Get some ratchet straps.

We'll ratchet strap the arm over.

We'll get the driving and we'll get it up

onto a trailer, which we did.

But looking back now, can you imagine filming that?

Yeah.

There's loads of guys running round in

T-shirts, all the same.

Come on in with these guys.

I'll try to get on to try to quit,

you know?

Boss would have seen it on Instagram before

you had a chance to call him.

Exactly.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Which is what I was saying.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

That would have made good content before.

Even before you had one 10s,

I don't know what they were worth then.

Obviously, they were getting worth more now.

But obviously, that's what pre-Veyron as well.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So pre-Veyron.

So it's pre-Gati being what it kind of is today.

Yeah.

I remember seeing it because the Dow on it,

when everyone understood what that was,

they used to go to Marinello and Eggham quite a lot.

And they had an E.B.

110 and it was a Dow on it.

I think it was like exposed carbon with their ground.

I was like, I don't know what the hell is this?

Yeah.

I've never heard of that before,

but they are really, really cool cars.

They bought a lot of chassis and a lot of

parts and they had enough to make up enough cars.

It was five.

51:15 EB 110 Stories and Pagani Dealership Days

Yeah.

It was quite small.

Because it was a Gati, then a bus company,

then the Dow bought it off the bus company,

then it went to the guys that made that weird

Adonis thing and then it went back to the bus company.

has been through like 15 different hands of

companies and all the chassis get,

one gets lost every time.

So no one knows how many total are in it.

It's genuinely amazing story.

So you've gone from, sorry, you've gone from

Begani and now you're-- Back at Dukane.

Yeah.

So back at Dukane.

And when is it?

This is mid 2000s?

Yeah.

So the says, yeah, early 2000s.

Yeah.

So I did, yeah, it was only there for a year

and a bit of Begani before it was,

I'd say that full fizzled away and it's got

perfect timing.

It's like, actually, that's not quite working out.

I didn't know, you know, behind the scenes it

wasn't working and then yeah,

it ended up going back to Dukane.

So back to Dukane and how long was there

anything between that and you starting up

your own company or was there just,

did you work there for?

Yeah, no, I worked there up to 2008.

So yeah, so it's sort of a fair stint after.

And I was getting to the point where,

yeah, I've kind of done a lot of this stuff.

People were asking me, look,

could you do this?

And they could do that for me.

I said, I can't.

It's a conflict of interest,

you know.

You've got to respect where you've been before.

It's such a small industry.

You know, like we've spoken before,

all of a sudden, you're talking to this guy,

oh, we did this together back in 1995,

I did we.

And all of a sudden, all these things come out.

And so yeah, I did quite a long stint there

and a lot more good wood stuff at DK like the

Racing, which is quite good.

We did, we had some really sort of important

wins with cars that are put together there

and won the TT a couple of times with cars

and it was really, really cool stuff.

And we have still carried them with all the F carpets.

was kind of my area.

But yeah, then 2009, I said to them,

you know, I'm going to do my own thing.

I ended up still working freelance for them

for a bit.

But then I think once I'd started doing a lot

of other work and although we weren't in

direct competition, because I'd end up doing

quite a lot more modern stuff,

more modern race cars, more modern bits and

pieces, there was still a little bit of,

God, you know, quite close to them.

You know, it wasn't like a mass exodus of cost.

Although a couple of customers did sort come

over with me.

You know, it's a small industry and there's,

you don't want to start upsetting people.

And, you

know, it's customers are customers.

Like, well, I want you

to do it.

Yeah, can you do it cheaper?

You know, it doesn't

matter if they've got a billion pounds or,

you know, a

cheap car they want to fix.

You know, they're just like,

well, could you do it for me after work?

You're closer to me.

Yeah.

And, you know, I've always been respectful of that.

And although, like, say, there was a little

bit friction early days, I think they didn't

realize that Stuart down the road is not

really going toe to toe with us.

Yeah.

You know what I mean?

And then their business really escalated,

you know, when James came out from uni and

really inputted some sort of more modern bits

there, you know, with their social media,

that business has just gone.

I know it's amazing to see it now.

I mean, I think if we had the means,

we'd all build a business like that.

Yeah, I mean, even the, just the facility

they've got, it's like, it's hard to explain

what it is without showing it.

I think it's tough when you go,

like, when I started the

business, you know, obviously you want to

aspire to being,

you know, that kind of level,

which I think, you know, when

people come to us, like, "Oh,

your workshop's really clean."

And they say, "No, they're in,

I think, well, you've just bought your 40 down here.

I don't want you tripping over a Maserati

Gran Turismo gearbox on the way here or

something like that."

You know, something TBC.

(laughs) The thing is, I think there's a bit

of a, well, there used to be a bit of a

misconception of, "Oh, you're a specialist.

You're not the main dealer, so it's gonna be

cheap and it's gonna be a bit,

you know, dark dingy place and you're not

fitting original parts and all that kind of thing."

Which, yeah, you just couldn't get away with,

you know, I don't think people ever did.

I think they've obviously been spurious

characters over the years.

But yeah, I think when you've worked in that

kind of background and that kind of ethos,

is gonna be easy for me to go,

well, that's how I like doing things.

So it's trying to do it myself.

And it's not been easy.

You did start your business.

That's right on financial crisis.

Was that it?

It wasn't the greatest move.

I've got to be honest.

I think it's looking back on it now.

I think you kind of blank it off in your mind

because it was so tough.

It's blanked out.

It's like, it's like, it's like,

this is a blurry.

And people have asked me last year,

how did you do it?

And I think, I don't know.

I think long and short of it's having some

really good friends.

Some people I met over the years,

there's a guy,

Nigel Jordan Hunt, who I quite a lot to,

because he gave me

the opportunity to start my business in a

barn that is out.

And he's got an F40, he's got other things.

He said, look, if you can help me out with

some of my cars, I can offer you a bit of space.

You can do a few bits.

He pointed a few people to me,

like, you know, Stuart, you know,

he's background.

And it went from there.

And I started that in 2009.

I did have a little furry with some other

guys, and we tried to do a bit of a thing.

It never quite works out when you've got some

guys who got the money, some guys who got the

experience, who's doing all the work.

So, yeah, I ended up doing it on my own with

the help of friends.

And before I knew it, I had a Zonderef in

there, in that barn, and the maroon's on the

ref in theirs.

I took a picture up recently with like a 250

luso park next to it, a 430 challenge car,

which is quite new at the time.

And Barry Hugh, I met at DK.

So, you know, I've known, you know,

Ari now for 25 years.

And, you know, he turned up at mine one day

when I just started, well, not long after I started.

He said, look, you know, I'm thinking of

leaving DK, and will I do something else?

He hasn't made enough.

Got enough work for me.

But next week, I've got a testosterone coming out.

and getting the engine out.

And I think he'd kind of left and he was

doing little bits with friends in the

industry as well, like helping out.

And then he came over and helped me,

I think, was September 2009.

And he's been with me at the same time.

I've never left.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

That was the first time I came to you.

Obviously, I remember hearing about you guys

from Paul Wallace.

And even just googling it, you were 20

minutes down the road.

You were like the local thing for me.

And I'd never met Barry, because obviously

Barry wasn't that.

You didn't like doing any of the camera stuff before.

Yeah.

And it was obviously the glardo at the time.

And you said, like, what Barry doesn't know about glardo?

It's just not worth knowing.

And I found it out, I couldn't immediately.

It was like 20 minutes in.

It was like, yeah, well, your clutch is bugger.

Do you need this?

You need this?

Okay.

This is, I don't like this news,

but at least we've got to there quickly.

Yeah.

Barry's, he's very much a dying breed in,

I think, in the mechanical industry.

I think there's very few people at that sort

of knowledgeable sort of, you know,

he won't probably wouldn't use the word

passionate, but he, you know,

he is.

And you need those people when you've got a small team.

You know, there's like, you know,

there's only five of us there in that

business, but we've all got very good

background of what we've done.

And, you know, when he came over to me,

he's like, come do whatever you need doing.

You know, and, you know, we could be one

minute fixing a leak on the roof.

We're all ladders on the roof.

And then the next minute, you know,

you take an engine out of, you know,

an F-50 or something like that.

But yeah, it's that knowledge base,

which I think has helped the business over the years.

Because, you know, initially you start with,

I think I said to you, I think I had 500

pounds in my bank account.

And I'm like, I'm scrounging a bit of space

for a customer in his barn, which was really good.

You know, obviously he got a benefit of doing

his cars next to bugger rule.

But, you know, building that up at a time.

I think it's a good grounding because the

financial crisis was there.

And what helped us at the time is people

didn't want to pay low to money.

People were getting out of cars.

They were like, you know, they were fine.

It's the hill.

They wanted to get rid of them.

Or they were like, well, if I keep it now,

I've got to keep it.

I'm going to get the wheels done.

I'm going to get that big service done.

I'm going to get that leak that they've been

telling me for the last three years that the

main dealer I've had.

I'm going to get that done because I've got

to look after this thing.

And I think that worked well for us then.

Will told me a story at some point that

there's potentially it was an F40 that

secured your business.

building later on.

Yes.

Once again, I think it was about six or seven

cars that we looked after regularly.

It was

only the F40s were going up.

They were like one minute.

This was 2009, 10.

One of the customers bought one on a whim at

a good full auction and he paid $215,000.

and pounds for it, 2009.

The market probably would have worn 250.

He really wanted to get out of this car and I

said, "Look, put up for 225.

You've made a little bit bunny."

No one.

No one wanted this car.

Jeremy, who was the salesman at DK at that

time, I spent a lot of time with,

"I did the meal Amelia with Jeremy.

We spent hours in cars together over the years."

He's like, "You've got to take your F40 off

because we've got two of me."

"We can't sell it."

I said, "Well, why don't you take one of yours off?"

We have one each other sale.

I think that car sold for $2.15 in the end,

but we had a battle to sell this car.

Then as we went on, we moved premises,

we moved to Watford, that's where I met Paul.

He helped us with a bit of social stuff.

I'm like, "Hey, what's this Instagram about?"

I might as well open the window and shout out

that I've got Ferrari in here.

What was it about and look where we are now?

As we went on with the business,

cars went on and we got into selling them.

We do broker them and sell them now.

We only sell cars that we know.

We ended up selling the car,

brokering the deal.

That car then got sold again.

The money we ended up earning ended up being

the deposit to buy the unit that we're in now.

All that sounds great.

It wasn't hundreds of thousands,

but it was money for a small business.

It was quite hard to find in a lump.

My dad passed away in COVID,

but he was always a bit of a mentor with money.

stuff like that is like, you make your own luck.

If you're not, they're doing these things.

Yeah.

And yeah, we were.

We were doing it.

We sold a couple of cars.

We got a bigger unit.

And then I think, how are we going to fill this up?

And then cut to six hours later,

we need more space.

Universal Rule of Cars, if there is a space,

you can fill it with more time.

I look back on it.

I think starting with no money was a good way

of doing it.

Don't be wrong, there's been times and I'm

like, I'm thinking, someone will just give me

some money to do this.

I guess it's the journey that makes you

appreciate

1:02:37 Starting SBR Engineering Business Post-Crisis

where you're kind of at now.

You can look at the back of the journey

rather than starting it where you're at now.

And then it's, I think it's normally better that way.

I think so.

And I think I'm very old school.

And I think, you know, if someone came into

me and says, it's a half a million quid I

want to invest in your business,

what would you do with it?

I'd probably go, oh, I don't know.

You know, I put it that looks good in the bank.

You know, what, you know, my naivety at the

time, but I don't know, you know,

I would have gone and bought a business.

You hear so many stories and there's so many

things even going on now.

You think, like Paul Guy's invested all that

money and that's gone tits up.

You know, and I didn't ever want to be that

guy involved in that.

So the struggle was, I think,

worth it.

Yeah.

It was a struggle.

Yeah.

But still getting to work on cool cars.

So sometimes in the evening when you board a

line, tear it up, you're like,

got it for you in the workshop.

I mean, I was 50 this year and the glasses of

now need to

come out.

Of course, this is good.

When you're in the

football, looking at what colour's that wire,

and like

Barry Shout across the workshop,

some abuse.

I'd say the bloody thing, you know,

he'd climb in over me, like,

you've made me say, let me do it.

But I still enjoy that.

And I think, you know, it's hard,

it'd be hard for me to sit in the office.

You know, I do spend one day a week in the

office going, shit, I wish I'd just do stuff

in the workshop.

But it's got to be done.

And I think it's hard to find people that

have got the experience as well in the industry.

The work ethic, I think it's the big one.

I think the work ethic

is not easy.

It's a diesel vest, but because they're

around cool cars all the time,

they don't ever own anything personally.

But do you own anything personally at the moment?

A few, 10 years ago, I booked my first brand

new car, which was a BMW M4.

And for me, I thought I'd won the lottery.

You know what it's like, you're working on this.

I'd really love one of those,

really won those.

And I have have a nice car, you know.

But when they were worth nothing,

like E30M3s, I'm five of those.

And what did you pay on each of those roughly?

I didn't pay you more than five grand for any of those.

That's the dream.

Yeah, not one of the five grand.

And I think I said to you off-camera,

I'd love another one, because I just love those cars.

You can crash the life out of them,

and you won't get in trouble,

like you wouldn't do other stuff.

But I just can't pay that much money for one.

So yeah, I bought an M4, which I still got.

10 years of that car, yeah.

And it's a cool spec also.

Do you have it?

What color was the interior on that car?

It's black with tan.

I was going to say, because the spec you

don't see on an M4, often.

Did you spec that?

So that was another of the connections again,

isn't it?

I was dealing with a customer who owned most

of the BMW dealerships inside the M25.

And I said to him, I don't really like one of those.

If I could get on a decent finance deal,

I'd buy that.

I'd buy one, I think.

I've made a few quid.

I'll buy a good guy.

Not think of it save.

You know that one.

Look, there's a car here.

You could change the spec, but we need to

know literally the next 48 hours,

because it was a car that's been like a council order.

And it was going into, I think,

Ballroom, BMW, I pulled it from.

And he said, it's black within.

You might not have a black with tan.

I thought, no, I quite like that.

Because they're usually red or the black.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

And he said, it's a competition.

Not everyone says.

So it's got the holes in the back of the seats.

And this is before they started putting

competition on the back.

So it's really late.

So he's just black back.

badges.

Yeah.

And I said, I quite like the sound of that.

So I said, yeah.

And yeah, I ended up buying it.

But I ended up getting one of these really

good deals on finance, which turned out to be

like what they offered footballers or like,

as it turns out, sort of you YouTuber guys,

these good deals you get.

I haven't found that much.

I was going to say, if you could let me know

where those are.

Right.

Yeah.

And I know what I should have done.

The thinking man would have gone,

could only this for two years and not lose any money.

And that didn't happen.

So 10 years later, it still hasn't.

How many miles is it now then?

56.

Oh, so you haven't done like huge miles in it.

So yeah, but I had like an E91 Touring three

little diesel with the DPF off of it and all

the usual stuff and that was the daily car.

Yeah.

But yeah, so got, you know, then got rid of

that because you know, you, Les and yeah,

bought a cat S, Audi estate and fix that.

So it doesn't matter.

I love it.

Yeah.

Yeah.

That's TDC, bottom red.

And I bought, I can't, this is nice.

Compared to the BMW, it was like brand new car.

And it was, you know, a 2021 rich car.

Still kept the BM apart.

I kept telling everyone keeps saying,

you keep saying you're going to sell the M4.

So it's still there.

And I use it today, actually,

at the first time we've been using like eight weeks.

I've got to take that for a run.

But it was, you know, three or six years ago

by, I now fiance, and she was always like,

yeah, you know, why didn't you have one of these cars?

Probably should, should not.

I probably should get a car.

Yeah.

And I ended up buying a 355,

which I've only just sold recently.

A car I said, I wouldn't sell.

This is the West.

Yeah.

So a challenge spec car, which I race for two seasons.

Got a few trophies one, which is quite good.

Ended up racing it against clients though.

So you're like, break across the finish line.

It never quite got to that, but I got very close.

And for me, it's like, you know what?

That's like ticked.

Never thought I'd own a Ferrari.

I PD-eyed those when I was at HRO.

Yeah, that's cool.

Got to race one.

I'm like, there.

Some people appreciate this.

I pulled up, took the crash and we offered you anything.

It's like, I just raced a Ferrari,

not my own and everything else.

And I think sometimes when you're building a

business and trying to do stuff,

you don't quite take it all in and think actually.

Because sometimes you think,

I haven't quite made it.

and social media have done all this stuff and

they've got all these things.

And then you think, I know actually in my own

ways, I've done more than any of these guys

are going to do.

So yeah, sold the 355, got a lot of school team.

But the Cortina I've seen is very cool.

Yeah, Mark, when I was

a Cortina, it was an FIA car,

a 1965 car, been all around the world.

It's raced to New Zealand in period.

190E.

Now, these must be fantastic.

The 190E.

turned up at your unit.

Again, mostly like a related and non-starting thing.

And there was 190E in there.

And it's a 2.5, isn't it?

This is like the more rare version of it.

Which we've recently found out that Francis

Bourgeois, a new round tour.

He's got one.

He said his is a, it's a late,

it's still got a Cosworth head on Mercedes head.

Don't know if you know anything about it.

I didn't know.

It's a casting thing.

Okay.

But you've got that.

Now, that has a thousand interesting story behind it.

I can't remember who it was.

Even on Facebook, I think.

Facebook or eBay, something like that.

And I had one years ago, I bought some

projects and converted it into being a

touring car, German touring car.

So wide arches, don't laugh,

3D scanned a 360 engine, ended up mocking

that up into the car.

This was having a 360 challenge car engine in

this project.

I was listening, that's a Ferrari 360

challenge engine in a Mercedes 1.19.

And you did that.

Yeah, so that car, it never got entirely

finished as in full done, signed off.

I think like most things in life,

I think it was when COVID hit,

we're all looking at bounce pack loans and

it's like, I need some money.

I put the car and race cars direct,

I don't want to do this.

And getting grief off of Barry,

like, you ever going to finish that car?

workshop is sitting next to a bit serenee

that we wear as a project to that store as

well, because the guy was like,

I've never got any money.

Guy bought it in the middle of COVID.

Yeah, it was in a sea container.

It was on a boat and it was gone.

And I'm like, and having always had the E30s,

I love that era of touring car.

I thought, why doesn't the 190 get much love?

Yeah.

And I'd always sort of vowed I'd get,

get one.

And this car, yeah, cut to years later.

So this year, this car came up.

It's quite cool.

It hasn't done a lot, looked at the MOT

history, turned out it had a really bad

repair on the back.

It had been recorded as having a repair

really weirdly, but not categorized.

Yeah.

This is odd, but it's kind of pre-checks when

it was done in the 90s.

So it's on there, I thought,

I'm not that bothered.

I'll repair it properly and document it.

I thought, I've got to have a look at this car.

And I could throw a word to Bristol.

I looked at this car, got it back.

And the guy said, it's got some really odd

stuff in the history.

So there's not much service history.

He said, but there's really odd things

there's divorce letters in there.

Which was also in Bristol.

Interesting.

Something in the water there.

And yeah, they turned out the car would come from St.

Ives Cambridge way.

And yes, divorce letter in there.

And this really weird handwritten letter.

He said, I can't make an old tale of it.

It looks like someone's in prison.

And, okay, really weird.

I'm thinking this is not the sort of history

I was looking for the car.

I'm looking for you.

It was a service to London.

What's gone on?

And certainly I bought the car and got it

back to the workshop.

And Jezud liked the sales.

He said, mate, let me have a look at this letter.

So he's like, it's

three A4 pages, handwritten both sides.

Wow.

A really long letter.

And it turns out we would think a letter to a

son from his father who was in prison.

Nice.

And reading between the lines,

I think the family probably got into a lot of

grief that they shouldn't have done and

locked a bit of a name for themselves.

The number plate on

the car alluded to him being one of the names

around the

estate, shall we say.

And yeah, we just did a bit of googling.

It turns out that someone in the family had

committed ABH with tin goods in a carrier

bag, which tin goods in a carrier bag.

as a weapon.

Yeah, I think it was spam, something like

that in there.

And we're reading it.

You know when you read something on the local

gazettes, they really use that as the line.

It's literally spam attack.

And you read Jesus

Christ, there's someone who's really got in trouble here.

You know when you're looking through it,

you're into the thing like, fair you're

laughing about this story, then you're

reading through it like God.

It's like you guys know from the cards,

you've bought some really interesting

histories with these cards.

It's an interesting piece of history to leave

with the car.

When you're going through a history,

maybe he got scooted off to prison before he

could go through the paperwork.

But you don't be able to separate that from everything.

That's probably not relevant.

I'll do oil services here, prison letters over here.

Because there's nothing in it talking about the car.

But then when you look at the names that the

car was registered under and everything else,

would be same.

I want them to know what kind of guy I was.

I think after a little bit more.

You go down this rabbit hole,

you think, what are we doing?

Especially fixing cars.

We were at lunch break, in the middle of

doing our little detectors.

I think it's got sold off whilst these people

were at the...

Her Majesty's pleasure at the time.

And this paperwork was just,

that's the paperwork for the car.

So yeah, interesting story of that car.

I got a little plan for that one.

I think you mentioned ITBs before.

That's cool.

But do I leave it looking relatively?

I'm toying with going with the Evo One body

kit, because I like that era.

I like that amount of arch.

I like the E30 box arches because it's all integral.

But I think the stick on bits look a little bit too.

I don't know if it was all aero proven,

and it was a proper thing.

But when you look at those cars with the Evo

stuff, they've all underfloor as well.

There's a lot of stuff that goes with that kit.

Trying to stick a body kit.

We've seen a few where people have done kits,

and it's like, I'll show if you look

underneath, there's probably a 50 mil space right there.

People in Birmingham will tell you you can do that.

So hopefully that project will.

I've heard many times that there is a

container full of Ferrari 550 parts.

Is that a thing?

Yeah, we've got those.

I need that.

Well, first I'm going to need a car,

and then I'm going to need to come in and

have raid that.

Well, where's they selling off fast,

actually?

Because I think with...

We've got wings and dashboards

and loads and bits and wheels like unit.

You need a winter

set of tires.

We've got wheels.

Yeah, we ended up buying up

a lot of parts from a company that converted,

you know, a

lot of 550s.

And yeah, it was just a load of kits.

They sold a lot of stuff.

When they first did the projects,

people like Eurospares and other places like

that, and they kept a lot of other good stuff

because there were a couple of cars left over

they wanted spares for, but it just got to

the point that we're having to clear out.

Yeah.

And yeah, we went up there and bought all the bits.

And you know, one of those things,

you put it on a sugar.

I've just bought all this stuff.

I guess it's got a 550.

So perhaps you could build a 550.

That's what I'm thinking.

Yeah, I just need to find a shell in the oven.

If you've got one that's been in the front

endo, I can help.

Jeremy, mate, come on now.

Get on the phone, but you've obviously been

speaking to it saying like, as soon as you

see one that comes up, just tell me no.

If there is one.

So yeah, we do get the odd.

Sometimes we get a message.

I've got a 550.

It's perfect.

I want 185,000.

Sounds like a prime car to cut up.

Yeah.

So that's your personal car.

So have you ever been tempted by anything

Ferrari Lamborghini since obviously like the

355 or before that?

Or is it all kind of?

Because you deal with them all the time.

You don't really want to.

I find it hard to justify only one of those

as a road car.

Only as much.

I think once again, sport, driving all the

cars over the years, I think what I do with it.

Weirdly, one of the customers was poking a

bit of fun the other day with my 355 that I settled.

He said, Stuart, all you've done is work on

that car and get everything lovely and make

everything nice.

I think I enjoyed that more than racing it.

And it's hard for some people to sort of get

between the solder 355 manual.

Why didn't you kick that?

It's like, well, actually, I enjoyed the journey.

It's a little bit like my Godo,

the GT3 car I've got.

I bought that when they were worth not a lot

of money thinking, oh, that'd be good.

Need an engine rebuild, need some bits.

They've now quadrupled in value.

I'm like, well, I'll do with that.

But I know I'll enjoy putting it back

together and putting it in the original

livery, because it was a British GT car in period.

And all of a sudden, you're like,

I quite enjoy that.

And that'll probably go.

But yeah, I just, you know, in answer to that

here, owning a road car.

I don't know what to do with it.

Is it more of a race car motorsport?

I like the motorsport side of it.

But then, you know, my Cortini is a

motorsport car, but it's road registered.

So like, it's great to drive to the Mr.

Scramble or something like that.

Because it's not highly strung,

not mega valuable.

And I love it.

You know, I get people coming to the workshop.

I was like, is that a low school t-shirt?

And like, yeah, you just walk past a 40 and,

you know, a 2.96 race car.

And then walk straight to the car.

Yeah, it, let's call Tina feels like one of those.

It's like a 182 trophy, regardless of even

though it's nowhere near the sort of echelons

of a higher car.

If it doesn't matter if you own it in McLaren

F1, you go, that's cool.

Yeah.

And everyone's talking about that car.

So yeah, they are really, really cool.

But yeah, I remember seeing the first time

seeing that in your workshop and I did the same thing.

And it was just, even the most you go on the

left and there was a Cortina,

I was like, "Holy shit."

That's like a Cortina.

And you say that's yours or what's that?

Yeah.

But yeah, I mean, I do like the race car.

I think that's just where I've migrated with,

you know, the cars come up.

It's like, "Oh God, I might take a chance on that."

But, you know, I've always done,

you know, and I've said to the guys at like,

you know, it rolls into the next one.

Like the money that I've made on the three,

five, five is paid for the Cortina.

And, you know, when that goes on,

it goes that because it's, and I like doing

that because it's, you feel like you've

achieved like a little win.

It's a little win in, you know,

and as much as my partner goes,

but you still paid that money for the other car.

And you don't understand the money I made on

this one's paid for it.

It's essentially free.

Yeah.

And then they're like, but you still had to

pay for it.

Yeah.

But I didn't have to find that money.

Yeah.

Yeah.

It makes sense to us.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I think it's a long and short.

It all makes sense.

It really does.

Now, on the race car stuff, you mentioned

again, a sort of Blasey offhand comment that

you drive a 917 K or attempted to drive one,

in fact.

Is this a hill climb or is this a track?

This was a festival of speed.

Yeah.

Many years ago.

Yeah.

So you were meant to...

The psychedelic car.

You would have, it's purple and green.

Yeah.

Bobbie Ray Hall owned it, I think,

prior to the customer.

So is that one of the magnesium chassis cars?

Or is that the...

Because there was one...

You're sure on that car.

Okay.

Because either way, a car that is,

well, essentially a museum piece.

Yeah.

Oh, yeah.

I've seen pictures of it around.

I'm not seeing it out.

Yeah.

And do you think, hang on, driven that?

It was driven by car.

So there's a 917 K that you,

but there was a problem with it when you went up.

Yeah.

That car, I think it was the press day.

So, and it was long, obviously.

there weren't live streamers of YouTube and

stuff like that.

And it was one of these kind of,

and it happens, and people don't understand,

people, these things happen in the car trade.

It's like, the guy's not here,

can you drive it?

Yeah.

Okay.

And then all of a sudden you're driving these cars.

And, you know, a little bit like I mentioned

the Mila Mila, I ended up doing a Mila Mila

in a 250 TR upon to wing TR.

Crazy.

Yeah.

And, you know, driving from Brasher down to

Rome in this car, I'm like poking out the top of it.

Yeah.

And you look at anything.

What's happening?

And it turned out the guy couldn't drive the

car, but he said, "Look, you spent all this

time restoring it.

This was a DK.