Mate Rimac's Car Collection, Daily Driver Choices and The MX-5 Debate - C.R.E.A.M. #43

0:00 Introduction and Tom Lenthel Interview

Can you tell us a story about a bold man that is small?

I can't actually believe I'm sat here

defending an MX-5 owner.

But undertaking is not illegal.

I think it might be.

Hello

and welcome back to the Cars Rule Everything

Around Me

podcast with myself, Edwin.

Will, to the left, Ben, to the front,

and to the right.

Tom Lenthel, owner of the very creatively

named Tom Lenthel Limited, Jaguar Land Rover Specialist.

He's the man that

saved us countless times, carts,

tools, help.

So he thought,

"You know what?

He's also a very interesting man.

Don't

tell me he said that."

And we thought we should get him on the podcast.

So firstly, first and first,

how are you doing Tom?

I'm all right today.

Yeah, you boys.

Good.

Very good.

Thank you.

At the beginning of every podcast,

we answer with a Cars Rule or Ruin everything.

Everything around us.

Tom, do you want to start?

This week, or last week, as it's the

beginning of the week, isn't it?

I'm ruling at the moment.

Oh, okay.

Interesting.

Yeah.

But is it allowed to be a two-wheel thing

instead of a four-wheel thing?

That's fine.

It has to be fine.

It has to be very brief.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Because it's two-wheel, it's going to be half as long.

I could talk for hours on this.

So I did a track date, Donnington on Friday.

I went to the-- On a bike.

On a motorbike, yeah.

And I've been having a bit of bad luck on my

cars recently.

Track cars broken.

I've done the engine on that.

I broke down on the way to Switzerland and my E-Tart.

It's not-- I've had a few ruins.

Very top-length old problems.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Third-world problems.

And I've been building one of my old bikes

that I've had for 15 years.

And I gave it a complete refresh,

powder coated the frame, rebuilt the engine,

did it.

And it's the first time I used it.

And it was perfect.

And it was brilliant.

And it was great.

And I walked away with a big massive smile on my face.

And yeah.

So it made my week.

made my last, my last five, 10 days is perfect.

Nice.

Did I see that on your Instagram?

Was it the two stroke?

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

You're the vice of woman.

I didn't actually have my two stroke there.

I took one of my four strokes and the one I rebuilt.

You can say what bike it is.

It's a GSXR 750.

Okay.

Those are numbers.

Suzuki GSXR 750.

That one is 2005.

Okay.

And it's a two stroke.

No, no, no.

It's a two stroke.

So I've got two stroke.

Okay.

I don't know if my mates took their two

strokes, but I took this because I literally

just finished it.

And it was actually supposed to be a pre-2000s day.

You just broke the rules.

You just paid them off.

I just paid them off.

They were all right at the game.

They always say it's in the spirit of and I'm

like, well, I'm pre-2000s, so it's fine as it is.

The rider.

Yeah, the rider is pre-2000s,

exactly.

So starting on a rule, William.

I'm gonna go with a rule as well,

if I'm honest.

You got a new delivery.

5 outside, Renault 5 electric truck picked up

this morning, which is a press car,

not our first press car.

No, it's in the same group though.

Yeah, exactly.

So yeah, it's one of

3:08 Rule or Ruin: Will’s Renault 5 Electric Truck Experience

those cars that I've always found interesting.

New cars do not interest me at all,

but when that came out, it looked quite interesting.

So I just emailed Renault and said,

can I have visuals?

And they said, okay, boss, we can give you

one, but only for three days.

But it's interesting that literally every

single person that's seen that car so far has

gone, oh, I really like this.

Yeah, they're cool.

They're cool.

If someone parks a tester in the car,

up up, which there has been and other

electric cars have been here.

Everyone just walked past it.

But that it might be to do the fact it is bright green.

It's quite great.

But it is quite cool.

So I'm going to drive it this week and we're

going to film a video with it tomorrow.

Yep.

Well, we'll

get on something quite funny about it later on.

And yeah, other than that, yeah,

no reason to ruin for me.

Oh, sorry, another big rule,

which Tom likes.

Yeah, I got excited.

So behind visual people, we'll see a Ford

Mustang behind us.

For the audio people, there is a Ford Mustang behind us.

You might be able to see GT350 on there.

It's not a real GT350.

But subscriber Neil, yeah, 1965,

describing Neil as let's borrow this car for

a video we're shooting on Wednesday and a

couple days time.

He's also a creamer.

Shout out Neil.

He really wanted to have the car behind on the podcast.

And obviously we obliged because this is

possibly the coolest car we've had.

Usually we put the TV on the car,

but we thought, you know, Neil,

let's not scratch up the paperwork.

So sorry, you can't see your car a bit more,

but you know, maybe next time.

That is a cool car.

That is a critical car.

It sounds, we haven't driven it.

Yeah, we haven't driven it.

We've got delivered on a trailer.

That's another thing.

Neil was cool enough to go.

Yeah, basically I live four hours away.

But if someone wants to come collect it on

trailer, you can have it for a few days.

So it's now none of us have driven it yet,

but we're all kind of drooling over it.

But it's like one of his dream cars.

He always wanted it.

So he bought it, I think earlier this year.

And yeah, he reckons it's over 400 horsepower that car.

manual.

Yeah, I'm a bit scared to drive it.

But yeah, looking forward to it.

That's going to be good.

Is it a lefty, isn't it?

Yeah.

It's a proper one.

I've been rule currently.

I've been over the weekend working out the

list of things my cars need to make them happy again.

So I'm about to go into ruin stations,

but I've bought a part for my ex-five.

What is it?

I bought a steering angle sensor.

Oh, you don't know.

Excuse me.

Exciting news on the Grand Tour.

Exactly.

So that's going in this week by me and then.

Cleo gearbox.

Has one.

Sure.

It still has one.

He's in desperate need of an alignment.

So I haven't driven it for about two weeks.

But when that happens, we're back.

We're so back.

We're so

back.

And you like the five as well.

Are you saying that?

I

don't have one of those.

Yeah.

I just can't get home in it.

It joins the very long list of the bikes.

The context of

every single time Benjamin gets in a car,

no matter what

car it is, he goes, I can have one of these.

It's quite nice.

It could be a seat filled with nails.

Is this generally due to a lack of sitting in

lots of cars prior or?

Sure.

I'm going to say it's hard.

I've probably sat in a lot of cars.

I like them.

They're cool.

But we get to meet cool cars.

I'm going to sit in it and like it.

Sometimes.

We're thinking of doing a video.

We probably won't.

But funny is that we find the video Ben doesn't like.

But it could be upwards of an hour.

Yeah.

It could be just in every car.

I like it.

The Renault is nice.

But overall, it's a rule.

Sure.

for now here.

And for you.

It's a road for me.

Because I was driving home in the M3 the other night.

And I pulled up at a junction.

I had the windows down.

And as I pulled away from the junction,

I had pulled over.

Yeah, it was a hole in my tire quite badly.

So managed.

Jamie, thankfully, was

6:46 Benjamin's Daily Driver Choices Discussion

still at the unit.

I was only 10 minutes away.

I stole a set of Alex's M3 wheels.

He brought them over to me.

It's like my back of my car.

They might be still on there a week later.

Oh, well.

So I've had to buy new tires.

And while I was under there,

I looked my rear camera on and there is a

crack in my rear camera on.

So I'm not driving that car anymore.

I need to drive my WiFi 36 home.

So it might be time for an M3 refresh of parts.

There's bits and bobs on order.

I will see.

Also, I might be fixing the suspension by

buying a boot lid for it.

So that won't have anything to do with the

way you drove it.

No, no, no.

What do you mean?

I drove completely normally.

I was going to say, there are photographic evidence.

Yeah, yeah.

It has been slightly abused,

I think.

Oops, maybe.

We have a mixed bag this week.

Have we got some anecdotes and newses?

We are having newses.

Sorry, I'm just trying to find the,

here we are.

The only real news we have is something we

made sure you found this last week.

So this is old news, but again,

this is our podcast and we do old news.

Corvette Chevrolet even have come out with

another Corvette and then they've taken them

to the Nurburgre, three of them,

and absolutely blitzed a load of times.

Actually ridiculous.

But the only, now it's all very,

very impressive and it's like six minutes something.

I can't remember what it is.

And it's this 1,200 horsepower hybrid version

that's, which I think is that one,

the yellow one with a huge wing and blah,

blah, blah.

But the difference between the very,

very, the ridiculous one and the next most

ridiculous one is like a second and a bit,

but it is quite a cost difference.

So they've gone out there and gone,

"Oh shit, maybe it's not worth all that.

I need to do all that."

But either way, ridiculously quick.

So the time, what was the time?

It was a six, something in, so it's 649.

No buggering time, which is insane.

And that's an American.

What an American drove it round?

I doubt it.

I'm going to doubt that.

I bet it was a German.

I doubt it, didn't actually say the driver to be fair.

So supposedly the base price of a ZR1 is $178,000.

The ZR1 X is supposedly going to be around at

least 200 to 250.

So that is a, that's around about 70,000.

$105, $75,000 markup.

That's quite chunky.

That's quite a lot.

The driver seems to be the American.

This is a short American victory.

Not crazy.

But yeah, I just said it was,

it was like big news.

We've done this and they went,

I am.

Very expensive one is only ever so slightly

quicker than the next most.

Normally you'd want it to go right five seconds quicker.

So I would love to throw one of those.

That is an absurd car, a 1200 horsepower car

that you can buy from a dealership.

So they are retailing them in the UK as well.

Well, they are right hand drive.

They are right hand drive.

I think the E-Ray might be right hand drive.

I want to say that there are C8 corvettes

that are right hand drive offered in the UK.

Because there's all the companies that sell

the, yes, you can get it done.

You can get a ZO6, I'm not sure about a ZO1.

Yeah, but right hand drive?

Yeah, actually right hand drive.

Right hand drive.

Which I actually think takes me away from it.

I bet the ZO1 won't be surely.

And that, as it was, it X.

But they claimed when they launched that,

that it would do not 60 in 1.9 seconds.

It does have a little asterisk next to it,

which we reckon is probably prep track,

semi slicks, perfect conditions,

racing jockiers of driver, a nice wind.

Well, not to 60 in under two.

Yeah.

Well, I mean, it's so the base car is what,

800 horsepower?

Or the ZO1 is still 1,000.

Oh, it's 1,000, sorry.

And then there's another 200 or 300

horsepower of electric motors on the front

wheels in the ultra one.

So that's, I buy it.

I buy a low two.

Around about two.

Yeah.

But 1.9 is that there's enough room for error

there that the wind could be ever so slightly

off and you're going to be in the twos.

Also, I remember like growing up,

watching Top Gear, a car that could go into

three was like, what?

What the hell?

And then just recently, it feels like we've

just got into twos.

And yet now they're like, yeah,

one, we're going to be tomorrow.

They're like, yeah, since then you're at 60.

Yeah, as soon as you get in it,

it's doing 60.

It's gone.

But that was the only news.

I've spotted that was a very--

Sure.

Any use.

So we're going to anecdotes.

And first one we'll start off with is this

terrible car ad.

I'm going to start off with a apology on this.

A man on Instagram sent this somewhere.

Let me pull it up to someone.

And I've forgotten your name.

So if it's you, all credit goes to you,

but you sent us this incredible eBay ad,

which is one of the worst adverts I've ever seen.

Here we go.

Pulling it up now.

That is a photo of a phone on a magazine.

On a table.

On a table.

ITTOI Estate.

So that is the rear shot.

The first photo is the rear shot.

You click through and then you get a video,

which when you click on it, is plays a man

filming another phone of a video walking

around the car, which is ridiculous,

which means he's got two devices to be doing this.

He's holding two devices.

And then we go through it.

Yeah, we've got another one.

The reflection on the glass is quite nice here.

Just really just taking away from you,

being able to tell anything about the car.

And then the final one is just fully on a newspaper.

Justin's flip out phone, Tom,

you got one of those?

Well, the thing is, I'm seeing it thinking,

even someone as IT non-savvy as me,

think that that's ludicrous what you've done.

I am guilty of recording footage off of my

laptop by recording the screen because you

sent me that one.

Did I really?

Yeah, I do do that because I'm a bit,

you know, like backwards with that sort of stuff.

But I mean, does he not have WhatsApp?

No, probably not.

Did you know what I mean?

I don't think he's aware of an eBay app.

How did you work out to even create the

advert on eBay?

Exactly.

You know, maybe he's gone to like a family

member and said, "Can you put this on eBay?"

And there equally is.

I'm struggling with the logic of the whole thing.

Because you have access to two mobile devices.

Surely your brain could make one connection.

Was it the Mustang that we found on eBay the

other day that was incorrectly listed as the Ford Mr.

Tang?

It was listed as Mr.

Ian Ford.

Mr.

Ian Ford.

The eBay ad had expired three times.

He had re-listed it, seeing that the title was Mr.

Ian Ford.

Every single time I'm gone.

That's right to me.

If I'm certified for Mr.

Ian Ford.

Surely you take one moment to look at your

listing and go, "This sounds like a man from accounting."

Not my car.

I couldn't really sell it.

Mr.

Ian Ford.

I was my car not selling.

Why is that?

Because it was listed as, literally,

Mr.

Ian Ford.

Maybe he thinks he's like in some sort of stuff.

No people say like, "Not Mustang,

not this.

I sell it like that.

It'll be different."

Also, quicker side.

Tom, you've chosen.

Yeah, I know.

It's good in it.

You've chosen Driver 2 to be on the script behind it.

I haven't seen it for years now.

I'm just going to sit here watching it.

So this is, someone has remastered this to

play nicely on PC.

So it looks really nice and clear.

But is this in your head how you remember it looking?

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Because we do it every week.

We look at it and we go, "That looks amazing."

And then I go home and play it on PS2 and go,

"Oh, no, this looks dreadful.

This looks great."

Yeah.

Will you play this?

You play derivative?

I remember this one.

I remember the three more.

Yeah.

I'm having the number three because I'm all over.

But yeah, two is, I played at a friend's house.

There's something about these games that are

just irreplaceable.

So good.

Oh, games were better.

They're not better in that.

They're more advanced than you can do more.

But that doesn't make a game better.

I don't want to get into gaming and stuff on that now.

But I think that's, it's like super cars.

If you gave me a brand new game of,

I don't know, Formula One or whatever it is.

I would go back to this and have more fun

playing this for sure.

You might spend less time on this,

but you can, as in, like, you can't.

We used to spend hours on it.

So we were tight.

Yeah.

So in my mates

shed, so my mate, as I shared where we used

to go around and play cards and drink and,

you know, all that sort of stuff and play.

I played on the team.

I played on the team.

So we would pass, you know, there'd be like

four or five of us in there.

We'd have a go each.

So we'd be there all afternoon,

all day, you know, you know,

it'd be brilliant, you know.

It's also a bit more sociable than all being

in their own houses.

Yeah.

Well, we didn't have, you know,

it wasn't online then.

Yeah.

You know, we couldn't, we couldn't,

you know, sit at home and be unsociable and

talk to people over the internet.

And abuse people over the internet.

And abuse people.

And generally abuse people because that didn't exist.

So you had to get in your car and drive.

So we weren't going to visit people.

It was very, very strange by today's standards.

And abuse them to their face.

Yeah.

Tom's quite good at that.

Yeah.

I've had years of practice.

Right.

Next up, something we spoke about in a recent

podcast, Ben's Daily Choices.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I thought that wouldn't be very interesting,

but everyone, everyone was commenting on messaging me.

And also that was in the last two minutes of the podcast.

Shut up and creamers.

You guys listen the whole way through it.

Or just go crazy.

Yeah.

So Benjamin, hi, you asked, you said you're

getting

15:54 Daily Driver Car Suggestions for Ben

fed up of using the X5 every day.

You'd quite like a something reliable cheap

that you just run around, but at the same

time you did have a few requirements.

You wanted it to be at least a good,

good MPG and kind of comfy.

Yeah.

What he actually said is he doesn't care.

But and then we started pitching things and

he was, well, I'd like he seats.

That would be nice.

Well, I'd like an automatic gearbox.

But have you seen any of those?

Because there was a lot of good suggestions.

I don't want to admit what I looked at.

Okay.

I was looking at Volvo V 50s.

Fair.

Cause I was not as getting bullied by Will

and Will and Will for that.

Yeah.

And myself.

Quite, quite nice.

No, I just, I just, I had like the X5.

What in a Volvo?

Yeah.

Well, I think some of you probably want this

more demographic isn't it?

Jesus Christ.

Yes, he's all agrees with me.

No, some, I, I like the X5 a lot,

but it's, it's either when it isn't really go

wrong, when it does go wrong,

then it costs a lot to fix.

Got a Volvo?

No, the X5.

Oh, sorry.

I phased down.

So our discussion was, was that whether Ben

buys something boring or whether he leases something?

He looks at getting finance on something.

You know, that he never has to worry about.

And he just munches miles onto it.

And a lot of people responded and said,

I like cars like you guys do buying project

cars, buying old pieces of shit,

but I have leased or financed the car and

it's changed my life for the better.

So we were saying Ben is the perfect guinea

pig, because we're not doing that.

So I've looked at lease in a car.

Okay.

So I like to have one sort of,

you know, sort of normal car for me to use,

you know, that works.

That works.

And drive in the van.

Yeah.

So I looked at leasing it, but then I find

what I do is I buy a car, I drive it around

for six months and then I sell it and then I

change it for something else.

And if I lease it, I'm kind of committed to,

you've got to be committed to like two or

three years or something like that.

And I'd get bored.

I know I would.

But that's my, I'm assuming there are ways

out of stuff like that.

But again, that's what puts me off is I have

never owned a car for that long.

Normally you have to put, I don't know,

a few granddads.

It's a down payment, isn't it?

And then there's a certain amount,

pay per month for three years.

And then at the end of it, you hand it back.

Yeah.

So it's quite an expensive way.

People think it's a cheap or it comes across

as a cheap way of owning a car,

but I think it's quite expensive.

Yeah, especially when if you're,

if you're a wet as aware as we are in our

industry, you can get good cars for cheap.

Yeah.

You can get a £2,000 car that will run for

the next three years with minimal servicing.

So some of the cars that I've bought so

cheap, but obviously actually pumped 30,

40, 50, 60,000 miles on them.

But a lot of people it's a it's a scary,

you know, cost of ownership was literally

zero, you know, in reality, you know,

compared to sawdust in the gearbox.

Yeah, just keep it going.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, definitely.

But how much did you spend a month,

Ben?

That's the thing I don't want to spend the

money a month.

I have my issue is that you do three years of

paying for a car and then you have enough to

show for it.

Yeah, that's it.

You just renting it.

It's spent money.

Yeah, exactly.

So I don't know.

I would not.

I mean, from what I've seen,

mostly still, on anything half Disney is

going to be able to put a month,

at least.

But so, so Volvo, use Volvo as where you're leaning.

Yeah, probably.

Your other problem is mileage on that thing.

Yes, that's what a lot of people say.

So obviously you come here from,

I mean, how many miles have you done in the

X5 since you bought me?

Since November last year and I've done 25,000?

Yeah, see, they find that somebody's going to

bend you over.

Yeah, they do have a mileage limit over 10 or more.

12,000 a year.

So yeah, if you're paying like 400 pound a

month, you know, that's sort of the thick end

over three years of 15 K plus what you've got

to put down for nothing.

Yeah.

And there's always going to be like a five,

10 grand put down, isn't there?

So I don't know what one of those cars cost new.

Are they like 40 grand?

Are they something like that?

Well, it depends what it depends what you'd

be looking for.

If you did.

Yeah.

Usually it's what 30, 40 grand.

Well, most cars are 30 grand.

Yeah.

So they're now expensive.

So I probably won't do that.

I'll probably buy this for more something else terrible.

And then she used that six months think it's me.

terrible.

Fair.

We all do.

What you have right now is an X5,

which is slightly more complex than the average.

It's a cheap car compared to what it was new,

but it's still relatively complex.

It's still a big four-wheel drive SUV,

bushes, bigger brakes, blah,

blah, blah.

So if you had something that was a bit more

simple, in a similar price, I don't think

you'd have the same.

How many miles has the X5

got on it?

175.

Yeah, exactly.

Oh, a lot, yeah.

It's another point where it's kind of around for it.

It's like, you know, you get a buy a car at

100K, it's had stuff done to it.

And again, for that second, give me more

bushes, give me more bits and bobs.

But I was looking at like three series.

Have you got a manual M57 three series?

A manual.

Yeah, because what's going on with that?

True, but also you get an auto,

Ben.

Yes.

The amount of miles you do, just get an auto

and just live life.

Also, they're just scamming.

First traffic jam you get.

A manual, yeah.

It's cheaper and obviously the only real cost

with a reliable manual is a client.

It's very much.

Really?

Yeah.

Are you scared because of the brown barge?

Very, very, very, very scared.

I'm scared because of the what?

So Benjamin bought a, to be fair,

under our duress, we suggested this 530D that

came up on car.

It was on car.

Yeah.

It was like a ground was 1500 quid.

It was, it was pretty cheap for them.

And Ben bought it and literally everyone was

like, this thing is amazing.

Apart from Will, we'll hate it because of the

baseball ball.

But everyone was like, this is a solid car.

It was really good.

It happened to be on my back open one day.

Sorry, before you say that, we went to TRS

Performance, right?

And they have their, they're all like,

obviously into cars and stuff.

And they all came out and we're looking

around the car and telling me how good it was.

And I was like, it's just great.

Cause Will's abusive me about not having air

conditioning, whatever.

And then I was driving home.

You're now feeling good about yourself.

I love it.

One day and five.

And then I just, I accelerate and the color

is, and it just red lines and like gets stuck in gear.

And then just tells me transmission error and

I had to pull over on the shoulder.

And then it kept doing that or it just

slipped out of gear.

So.

box.

Why didn't do anything to it?

It just went.

I don't know if, and so Ben,

Ben sent it off to the big next person next

donor in the sky without telling them.

That's not true.

I think it's been.

So yeah, so that calls God.

So it's not

white.

That's why you're scared of gearbox.

Yeah.

Cause also the gearbox in that is the exact

same as what's next five.

But let me, let me be your devil or your

angle, your shoulder, your manual Clio.

What, what does that need?

What part does that need?

A gearbox?

So we will watch your career with great

interest on whether

or not you're right.

I don't think, I don't think it's that

interesting to me by any deli.

Cause it's not anything

interesting.

It's just, we might have to make a video on it.

Just cause it's quite funny.

On the V 50, even though the final car was boring.

I like a V 50 and our design V 50.

Cool to me.

Get a little D five in there.

I'll show you.

I'll put a pull up now.

Small estate, he's the smallest estate.

If you're not going to lease a car,

I'll budget if you have to buy one.

I'm going to buy a car.

It's going to last me six months to a year.

I'm going to put 25,000 miles of a car.

I'll probably, I'll probably,

cause I need to rely on it quite a lot.

I probably go, quite like three and a half to four.

Maybe if I've ruined ice when we got five.

There you go.

Never liked six.

Nah.

I like those.

I could push to ten though.

I think they're still smart as well.

That's right.

There's some camera going the back of that.

Am I like saying that's for Ford?

A nurse of all things.

Yeah, they're focused.

I've got a really nice L32 camera.

Oh, that sounds reliable.

We can talk into this.

You know, to Alex Towers, that's the base job.

I bought off you.

I want free maintenance for life.

Free maintenance.

Yeah, that's what Alex says to me as well.

Nobody flips a coin on it.

I'll lend you that double-sided coin.

Yeah.

What do you do, Tom?

That Range Rover is what you use all the time.

No, no, no.

The Range Rover that I'm in today is actually

that used to be my daily journey.

driving.

I sold it to a customer.

Okay.

I actually thought you were going to say it's a customer.

No, no, it's a customer.

He's a really good, he's actually a mate of mine.

And I'm just, I've literally just been fixing

it for him.

24:13 Tom Lenthel’s Car Collection Overview

And so I've wanted to drive it and test it

and make sure it was okay.

So my, in the summer, I tend to just ride the

classic cars.

What I've got kicking around.

So the Lister Coupe, the V12 Coupe,

or the type of that was working or just

whatever's kicking around.

But yeah, I don't really and then in the

winter, rest of the time, I just drive the van.

Well, that actually brings us on to one of our questions.

We've got more anecdotes than things.

Yeah.

But what do you own currently?

What cars?

Because people probably won't know that you

have a very cool collection essentially of cars.

I've got a few bits and pieces,

yeah.

One of which is our favorite that we keep

bugging about that's not Jaguar Land Rover.

But what is it that you've got at the moment

that's your stable?

What's in the stable at the moment?

So if I start with the oldest,

1957 Mark 1 Jaguar, which is a Saloon and

it's also a race car.

Which I've been building for a while,

nearly finished.

1957 XK150, convertible, so that's quite a

cool car, quite like that, Meg really likes that one.

Then what do we go to?

A very small photo.

Yeah, it's in that color as well actually.

I knew, yeah.

You didn't know you've seen it.

That's your car, Tom.

'69 Mara Smyrna convertible.

Oh, I wouldn't.

I wouldn't, that doesn't worry.

No, no, no.

That's a brilliant car.

I can't see, I can't even picture you driving it.

I actually bought it for my wife as a present.

It was very unhappy.

So I'm not very good at buying my wife

presents, like, you know, like jewellery and

rings and stuff like that.

So anyway, I bought with this,

I bought with this Mara Smyrna and I wrapped

it up in a, I went to the jewellers and got a ring box.

And put the keys in it, and she thought I'd

bought her a ring.

(laughing) But actually, that is the classic

car that I've driven the most out of all of

the cars I've got.

Really?

Yeah, because we used to use it in the

summers

all the time with the kids.

I'd drive it to Cornwall, Devon and Lake

District and I've been everywhere in that car.

That's cool.

So that was actually, it's really,

really well used car.

What is the fastest you've got that up to?

Ah, that's good question.

So on the A303, going down to Cornwall,

the speedo is going all over the place,

going down the hill, and of course,

you know, the sat-nav in '85.

(laughs)

Yeah, with one, oh, I think they had one,

I think one, three, five times or something like that.

Look at my, you know, 'cause I'm very,

very safety conscious, we've got seat belts

and my 10 year old daughter sat in there with me.

Nailing it down the hills, yeah,

it's brilliant.

Yeah, so Meg would always drive her car,

which is, my wife always drives a Range

Rover, I've never seen one for years.

So she would take the Range Rover with my son

in it normally, and all the luggage,

and then me and Erin would go in the Morris minor.

In the slipstream of the Range Rover.

Yeah, but this is, I

remember being in Padstow, we were staying at

Padstow area,

and we've gone down into Padstow in Meg's

Range Rover, 'cause it was raining,

and it's like, I don't know if you've been in

the Padstow, but it's very pedestrian-y,

and there's lots of people walking around,

nowhere to park, everyone hates you,

in a rainstorm, then the next day,

the sun's shining, and I come down in the

Morris Mine, and it's like, everyone just

smiles at it, and it's a universally,

it's the car that makes people just universally happy.

People are always happy to see a Morris Mine

convertible, and I've pulled into the car

park, and it's an attended car park,

right?

And as I've literally pulled in there,

and mate, he's moved to Kona that way,

he's all you can park like that there,

mate.

And I love it, I just love that car.

So we've got the Morris Mine convertible,

I'm trying to think of what else we've got,

XJS, 'cause I've got other XJS,

so I've got the XJS race car,

I've actually got a couple of XJSs.

The stuff that you like is the sum,

I'm sure you're not about the C.R.E.

Cosworth.

Yeah.

So I've got a 1986 whale tail,

C.R.E.

Cosworth, which I've had for a very long time.

But again, that was a boyhood dream,

you know?

It was from Car for my youth,

one of my friends, Dad had one,

and it's in white as well, yeah.

Just one of the best cars ever.

Yeah, that is a stunning car,

that is, I love it.

We're still going to see that one.

Yeah, no, it's, well I've been doing a load

of work on it.

We gave it a full repaint, and I just haven't

got round to putting it all back

together.

So I was going to try and get it out this

year,

but I don't think it is.

I think it's going to be next year.

You are going to have to be patient.

I've got my balaclava

in my hand.

I am ready to round raid a shop.

That's cool.

Hey fellow owners.

Yeah.

I've got the Peugeot.

That's quite a cool thing.

Obviously the project eight.

Oh, that mother is very cool.

So what is the story of you getting that?

Because that was a customer that offered it to you.

So that journey started with Harry Metcalf.

Right.

So I always knew they were quite a cool car,

and we've actually had quite a few unit work,

but I don't actually test drive the cars that

work the boys do.

And when I was doing Harry's XJ for him,

he came down to do some film.

And he brought the project A,

and he said, "Have you ever driven it?"

And I was like, "Well, no, he's a straightforward answer.

"I've never driven one."

And while he was setting his equipment up,

he just threw me the keys and said,

"Go and take it for a drive."

And I was like, "Oh

God, I need one of these.

"I've driven loads of 5-liter XKRs."

But that is in a whole different territory of

performance, just the way it handles,

the way it breaks, and just the driving.

I'm impressed.

Yeah, it's a quick bit of kit.

So we looked after them for a few customers,

and I just said to my customers,

"If you ever come to sell, please let me know.

"I'll be interested."

So they do two different types of do,

what you call the track pack,

which has got all full roll cage in it,

and two carbon seats in about no rear seats.

And then they do a touring one,

which doesn't have the rear wing.

And then they do the one that I've got,

and I've done even really know what sort of

name they put to that particular model of such.

But it's got four seats, and I thought,

"If you're gonna buy a four-door car,

you've got a four seat."

Yes, I own in the same thing.

The me personally.

It's the, 'cause they do the Julia GT-A-M.

Which is, it still has the rear doors that

you can open, but there's just a cage in there.

Yeah.

What's the point then?

Yeah, I do.

And it's

like, why do they, I know they say they do it

for taxation reasons, but like if you look at

like an XK-R, you know, why did you put those

rear seats in there?

What, you know, apparently it's to do with taxation.

two plus two.

You know, what is the point?

No one in their right mind is gonna get in there.

I mean, even when we're looking at that

Renault 5 earlier, we're talking about it.

Oh yeah, we're struggling.

With the seats for about, I was gonna say I'm

gonna break my ankle trying to get into it.

But it's, so anyway, it's got,

so I wanted the four-seater one,

which they're only allegedly so I'm told and

I, you know, I don't know the full numbers,

but in the UK, there's like 15 of them.

Right.

With four seats.

Is that the car you would keep if you had to

get rid of them all?

Or would it be the Morris Minor?

Is that a drink you want?

So, no, there is, there is a car that I own

that, I can't, I can't sell.

Is it, wait, is this the one that you're not

allowed to talk about yet?

No.

Okay.

I'm not allowed to talk about that one,

but I would sell that.

Okay.

Oh, wow, okay.

So what is the car that you wouldn't sell?

Is the, the Lister.

Is it the Lister?

Is that the?

Yeah, the 1977 XJ Cube.

Yeah.

Only because I, when I was a 16-year-old and

I turned up at the workshop,

it was there.

It was that exact car?

Yeah, yeah.

Oh, that's cool.

So when I was 16 and I turned up at the

restoration company, there was out the front,

there was a green Koopay Lister,

which I now own, yeah.

And next to it was a Jaguar Mark II race car.

And they both belonged to a guy called Derek Pierce.

And then when my old boss retired,

Piercey then came to see me and said,

"Well, can you look after the cars?"

And then I ended up subsequently racing the

Mark II car with him.

So I've raced that extensively now.

he loans that and then I bought the Lister.

That is cool.

That's a very worthwhile car to keep.

Yeah, so I've known that car and worked on

that car since I was 16 years old.

So I can't, and it is still today,

probably one of my favorite classic cars to drive.

Also, I mean, when we saw you drive it,

we saw some lovely black marks end up behind

that, which were quite cool.

Oh, yeah.

We went for carry.

That was quite good.

I felt like I was 17 again.

Yeah, I did.

Yeah, I felt like I was in an episode of Minder.

It was a little bit after daily.

It was really quite nice.

I felt like just a moustache,

go pin.

Everything went in sort of

like a scene.

Yeah.

There's a pre-somewhere ring right

around.

So, and then it's obviously the E-type,

which is--

The type, which is--

You don't want to talk about us painting me

at the moment.

Yeah.

Which is a real pain, yeah, but anyway,

I'll fix that.

But yeah, so long story short,

the engine did not end you anymore the way

to--

Yeah, it's really, I don't, I'm gonna take it

a bit, so I've got a horrible feeling that we

had a few problems with the fuel pump,

and I don't think it's an engine failure,

I think it's, well, it is an engine failure,

but I think it went lean.

Oh, wow, okay.

And I think it's nipped up on a piston.

That's what I think's happened,

'cause I pulled the spark plugs out and they

were like, "Why?"

So I know it's gone lean.

Yeah.

Oh, I think it's, so I think it's just--

Fuel pump's not happy.

Some pinks, 'cause I was thinking with a fuel

line, a fuel pump, there's an issue.

Going down the motorway at 18 miles an hour

and just in France and I think it's just

gone, I think it's just gone lean.

Well, I mean, but if there's anyone that's

gonna get the car back up and going,

it's you.

Oh no, we will.

My goal is to get it to food and fuel.

The food and fuel up the hill.

Yeah, and take it out.

You got it up the hill?

Yeah, of course so, yeah.

That's gonna be good.

That is gonna be good.

That will be around about a month.

20, no.

From when this comes out.

From when this comes out a bit about a month.

About a month away, so the other way.

It's the September, isn't it?

There is another food and fuel.

We hosted the last one, this next one.

Walsh up a little bit towards Gloucester somewhere.

I actually don't know.

Somewhere like--

I couldn't point it out on a map.

Somewhere in the country.

But there are tickets to go,

and I think there might still be some tickets

if you want to take your cars up.

So if you're a creamer who wants to take

their car up, please go ahead and grab some tickets.

There has to be somewhat cool.

Also, we have been authorized by Shellsley

Walsh to do a rolling burnout until halfway

up the track.

So I'm bringing the E55.

So we're gonna see if we can do a big old burnout.

Both cars behind us should be sort of jagged

on the left.

I don't know if you can see it,

but that's just had an exhaust,

which, well, we're gonna call it an exhaust.

It's a set of pipes.

It's a straight pipe that come out of the back.

So it sounds the same.

What way did you get them from?

That was from Horsham developments.

Oh, well, a cake on there.

They just knocked him out of the way.

Yeah, they called us and said,

"Do you want pack boxes?"

I just said, "No, no, you're all right."

And it just sounds ridiculous.

But that will go.

And also, I was spoken to Neil,

who ends the Mustang, and he'd also very much

like to take this up.

Also, that would be cool.

Oliver, who lent us the TBR Tuscan.

He's done up the hill.

Oh, really?

Yes, that's cool.

We got some cool stuff coming.

There's some really cool stuff.

We're still like in the process of finding

people on cross.

You said there might be a 918.

It might be a 918.

And there's very might be a P1.

Or a 918.

I just thought that's the same.

918 or a 918.

And 918 or a very, very loud eventable.

Yeah, perhaps a P1.

Perhaps a P1.

Perhaps a P1.

Perhaps a P1, those.

Who knows.

There are invites out there.

Yeah.

So, what else have we got on?

Alec, folks, and what's up?

Alec, folks, and what's up.

Any more interesting cars, Tom,

though?

Oh, yeah.

We don't know about that you think we might like.

Well, the L3-22 that I've got to take to

Croatia, wherever it is we're going.

This is the three litre diesel one.

Three litre diesel one, yeah.

So, I've got one of those.

Do you like

that?

No.

Good.

We add one of those, if you very early on,

TDC.

It's a great, an L3-22 is fine.

And everyone goes on about, oh,

that's a great engine.

It is a great engine, but just not in that car.

It's so slow.

It's so slow.

It's the same engine that's in Ben's X5,

but it's a difference of about 40 or 50 horsepower.

And that's noticeable in a two and a half.

I've driven X5s with those engines and then they're fine.

They're fine.

It's relatively nippy.

I drove the one that we had briefly,

and that one was, it felt like genuinely slow.

It reminded me of my three or six author,

my BMW, where it is literally your nothing's happening.

Why is nothing happening?

I cannot imagine that towing anything.

They can't even tow itself.

It's painful, isn't it?

Yeah.

Because you map it though.

And it's got a gearbox.

No, because they have different elbows,

you know this.

Yeah, yeah.

The turbos are there for something to do.

And also, well, I think the engine

and stuff can be mapped and you can upgrade

the engine blah,

blah, blah, blah, but the gearbox is GM and

is making

cheese.

Yeah.

So we don't do pre-2005 Range Rover.

Really?

Yeah, basically.

That's because that was when the diagnostics joined up.

Oh, interesting.

So before that Range Rover wasn't owned by

Ford, was it Ford?

Yeah, Range Rover, Ford Ford Ford,

Range Rover, which I think, can't remember

who owned Range Rover before,

can't remember.

I'm from the head.

But anyway, they had a different platform for

diagnostics with P38s and all that sort of stuff.

So which we don't have.

And then when it went JLR, when it really

actually merged and the technology merged,

we could only have one piece of diagnostic

equipment, fixes both cars.

Interesting.

And that's 2005 onwards.

So that is why I don't do pre-2005

rangeovers, 'cause I don't want to mess

around with that diagnostics.

Fair.

So if you're a pre-2005 JLR owner and you

want someone to work on your car.

Feels a December 2004 car touch.

So that Range Rover I've got is 2003.

So you can't work on it yourself?

No, you're working on it.

I can't, I've spoken to Tom in there.

Yeah, I touch it, sorry.

Yeah, I can fix them.

Well, it's just more trouble than it's worth.

We've got nothing going on anyway.

So yeah, there's the Range Rover.

Well, this is obviously got a Range Rover.

That's obviously a little bit newer,

that one funnily enough.

That's the 4.4 V8 one, which is diesel one diesel.

Yeah, great car that is.

Do you wanna think, is there any other cars?

You wouldn't know about that 'cause you've

switched to electric cars now.

Yeah, I've got electric, yeah,

just an EV man now.

Sandal wearing slip-flop man.

XK8 convertible, it's just bought.

Oh, I've forgotten about the MX5.

Yeah, I do, yeah.

That was one of the most, that and finding

out that you're a cyclist are two of my

shocks of this year.

I am

definitely, I was, you know,

MX5, hair, dresses, car,

bloody hell, what would you want to own one

of them for?

You know, it's just, you know,

load of rubbish, you know, blah,

blah, blah, blah, blah.

I wouldn't even consider ever looking at one,

let alone buying one, until I got offered one dirt cheap.

I was six or seven years ago.

I paid 400 pounds of my MX5.

Is that car being sat there for six or seven years?

What, the MX5?

Yeah, we know, we use it.

Okay.

Every day.

Okay, but it's been outside for seven years.

Yeah.

Okay, interesting.

And they're still limited on it?

Yeah.

Okay.

(all laughing)

Just checking, you know, the structural

rigidity of it.

I've had to weld it up.

Oh, okay.

(all laughing)

I've done the seals at the back and then

there's a bit on the front that goes.

We've done all of that.

Okay, cool, that makes sense.

But in actual fact, that wasn't bad when we

first bought it.

The only thing that was wrong with it was it

had a couple of dents in it and someone had

slashed the roof and slashed the tires.

So I thought to myself, 400 quid a bite,

stick set of tires on it with a little bit of

paint, we'll flip it for like 1250 quid or whatever.

Yeah.

You know, at the time.

And then I started driving and I was like,

can't sell it.

Ooh, I could see myself in this.

(all laughing) It's funny you should say that.

(all laughing) It was, but it's the 1800 one

and that engine's so revving and great.

It's brilliant.

I was like, I was blown away.

I was like, I cannot believe how good this thing is.

Now, you let me know if you want me to come

around and whack a turbo on that,

'cause I've done that a few times.

So they go much better.

Yeah, I know, but see, now, funnily enough,

my son wanted to do that.

He's not into cars with James,

right?

But him and his mate go, oh yeah,

you can buy a turbo kit for that.

And James is like, oh, can I have the MX-5

then and we'll turbo it and all this sort of stuff.

And I'm like, no, you want me to buy a turbo,

get fitted and then you wanna drive it.

I just, I go on the theory that the chassis

is so short and all the rest of it,

you're just gonna put too much power for it

and you're gonna ruin it.

Nah.

Well, I'm the opposite side of it for it

because I believe that standard MX-5s are

God's worst gifts to this earth.

I hate them and they can only be made better

by doing that sort of stuff.

Why is that?

What, can I ask that?

I actually never ask this.

Why do you actually not like them?

'Cause if you drive anything comparable to

them, especially for the money,

now, when they're worth as much as they are,

there are so many better options out there.

Floppy and slow and whack and shit.

But even back when they're 1,000 pounds?

Yes.

Really?

For 1,000 pounds you go out and buy an E36

through on AIS, you go out and buy an MR2 SW20.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, but, I don't know,

wait a minute, whoa, whoa, whoa,

whoa, whoa.

No, Ben's asking me why.

I'm interested 'cause I, Ben's asked me why I

don't like them, and it's for that reason I

don't like them.

'Cause Edwin's very strong about that.

I've actually never actually asked him why he

doesn't like them that much.

But the biggest reason I hate them is because

of the people that own them.

Because the people that own them go,

well, they're the best thing in the world.

All I've done is suspension under turbo and wheels.

Yeah, you're talking about a modified car now.

Yeah, yeah, but my car is completely standard.

I've done nothing.

No, it's your standard one.

It's not shit.

It's standard ones I can actually kind of understand.

I've only ever driven, well,

I understand the turbo one.

It's faster.

I can't actually believe I'm sat here

defending an MX-5

owner.

I remember driving a Mark III MX-5 completely

standard and being quite surprised.

And it's not amazing.

It's not, the performance isn't amazing.

And it's not, it's not handsome.

It's handling like it's on rails,

but there is something, something nice to

drive about it.

But the only other thing I've driven is a Mark I.

We drove that over my two and a

half.

You remember?

You drove that.

And I did quite like that.

He did.

Yeah.

'Cause I can't speak on a Mark III.

I don't know, I've never actually driven or

owned one of those.

But Mark I's and twos, I just think of whack.

I remember thinking it was, it would be nice

if it had ever so slightly more power.

Like sort of like, like, like,

hot hatch power.

They're like, what, 150 or whatever.

Is that all 146?

The other thing I like about the MX-5 is,

if, it's just that I've driven it away when

I've got the roof down, which most of the

time I drive it is when the roof is down,

'cause otherwise it's just, what's the point?

Yeah.

It's the only convertible car that I've ever

owned, that when I'm sat in a,

sat in my living room, watching TV or at my

dinner, whatever, and I notice it starts

raining outside that I don't care.

You don't care.

I don't care.

(laughs)

But that is, I just think well,

you know.

That's why I kept mine, because it was the

first car I learnt to work on.

Everything is battered, like it is ruined by

me, but that's why I love it,

'cause I don't have to care.

How many times will I slip that into a ditch?

Many, many times, but that's the best part of it.

If I do that on my M3, I'm upset.

It's the cult following around.

Again, I don't mind the actual car of the

MX-5, I can understand it in standard form

and in modified form, but the problem is,

there's the standard form people that are

like, you can't get a better car on this,

and they don't tell you there is not worth

earning anything other than an MX-5,

which is wrong.

You get the modified one.

I would say they're clearly blinkered at this point.

There is the owner's club thing where it's

like, this is the car I have chosen.

I mean, we do have a Jaguar specialist on the end.

But see, this is the thing I like,

with car culture, everyone would expect me to

like, oh no, it's Jaguar's, it's possibly this.

But well, why wouldn't I like a,

you know, I don't know, a Porsche or an MX-5?

There's no point in the typecasting yourself

into a single manufacturer.

No, no, just because there's so many other

cool cars out there.

The raunchy is the spice.

Yeah, yeah, definitely, yeah,

no, I think you can, you know,

you are allowed, you are allowed to like other things.

Agreed.

Agreed.

I'll just take it later.

See, I like it.

It's the sign on the door, currently.

I actually like now it's life.

But that's because you have a personal

connection to them, you're that one.

Yeah, that's completely fair.

That's the first somewhat interesting car

I've experienced, but it's, it's,

I call it them, they're quite cool.

Hey, fair enough.

Yeah.

I'm just, I'm speaking my truth.

That doesn't mean they're good,

though.

No.

But I do call it them.

It's not like they're, again,

they're not the fastest or, but the only

thing I gleaned from the MX-5 that I drove is

that I drove it on a track and I could drive

it at absolute max 10.

Yeah.

And I was, I was never out of control and it

was, it was a good way to learn that sort of thing.

But again, it's, you don't get out of it,

you're not breaking any records in it,

it's just good fun.

Yeah, that's the one thing.

It's hot hatching nature, but in,

you know, sort of real drive sports car for,

it's an old British sports car.

Yeah, that's the one thing I would agree that

the, the turbo loses out then on,

is you cannot then, because it's like the

Honda beat, you can beat the ever-loving shit

out of that, and you're never breaking the

law, and you're fine, or as a turbo MX-5,

you can get into trouble.

So your turbo MX-5 now, has it got like super

lag on it?

Yeah, no, it's like the TVR.

It's built for that, because I like that.

If you buy a TVO4, and you go a little bit

smaller, you can make it.

So you see, the trouble is with what,

as I told you this the other day,

we did this with a VXR.

Yeah, if you go too crazy with a turbo,

it's like, and you do go on track,

or even on the road, even on a damp road,

you go around a corner, and you start putting

your foot down, and you're like,

oh, it's gonna come, it's gonna come on,

I need to get out of this corner,

or at least pass the apex before that turbo

kicks in, otherwise I'm in the ditch.

Yeah, no, I love that.

That's my favorite thing.

Really?

But that's what, that is again,

a thing I will give the MX-5,

that is a beauty of one.

You can build it to whatever you want.

If you wanna stick an LSVA in it,

they make kits for it.

If you wanna do an ITB, if you wanna make it

off-road, people make something for

everything for it, that, I think,

is that there is worth in building an MX-5.

I just don't like the model very much.

They're so rarely modified tastefully.

That is, again, that's my gripe with it.

Whoa, look at Alex's.

But I think that's usually because they tend

to be people's first foray into modifying a car.

It's the only thing they can ensure,

it's the only real-wheel drive thing someone

can ensure, that's what stuff.

I'd be yours as one of the first.

I don't think, well...

I don't think you ever did anything about it.

They were pretty, they were not great.

But I reckon you could get away with it with

the way it was sat and that kind of thing.

Yeah, but with the comparatives and stuff,

that was...

What you'll really say is you can forgive

them for getting it wrong.

Absolutely, we've said it before,

I think.

Anyone that is into cars, your first few

years, you're gonna build something shit,

you're gonna build something that you look back on.

Yeah, I know, yeah.

That was not great.

If you're 40 and building that.

Yeah, then it's tough, then that's tough.

Which actually brings me on to a little

anecdote thing I had, which was I wanna do,

we might wanna bring this in every few weeks.

Is an automotive would you rather?

So Tom, for you, I give you the two options.

Would you?

You can either have an old person at a car

show talking to you about their replica car

endlessly, and they're telling you about how

it's the real deal, even though you know it's

very clearly a replica.

It's one of those 250 GTOs built on a Z3,

it's tough.

Or you can have a person in front of you on

the motorway who slows down to around 62,

63 miles an hour through every gantry,

each, and you can't get past them.

They are stuck in the fast lane no matter what.

Which one would you prefer?

I'll just get stuck here on the car.

Yeah, you can't deal with

the person talking to you?

I'd have to

tell him.

Yeah.

Did you know what I mean?

I can't, you know, it's like even Adam at

work says sometimes my filter's just all wrong.

I'm just like, particularly if you,

it's why I, when four rooms first became a

thing that's kind of like when I was sort of

like in the early days of the business I

thought, oh, it'll be good for the business.

I'll go on there, I'll do the four rooms and

I'll try and give people advice and help,

you know?

And then there's always somebody telling you

that you're wrong and I'm like,

I know I'm not wrong.

What do you mean, you know?

And I'm like, and I'll get really quiet,

you know, wound up by it.

And I think, right, that's what I'm just not

doing this anymore.

It's just ridiculous, you know?

How can you tell me, you know,

how that works.

I know it works, you know?

And I just get really sad.

So when you've got someone there that's,

you know, I've been to a lot of car shows and

I've seen a, you know, I've seen a lot of

fields and listened to a lot of chat.

I've seen a lot of fields is actually a great

quote for cars.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And it's, yeah, yeah.

And I'm probably my tolerance for it as

probably worn away a little bit.

Do you just hit me with like,

Oh, okay.

And then just start to try and edge off.

You try and walk it up.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Well, look, look, look, the exact thing that

you'll describe being has happened to me a lot.

You know, I mean, you are in Jaguar.

Yeah.

At least when I'm in Jaguar world.

So like, if we go to, you know,

the, the concourse shows and stuff like that.

So I used to do a lot of concourse stuff,

like, you know, like really big time into it.

And we won, you know, we did,

we did very, very well at it,

you know, but oh my God, some of the people

that do it, you know, there,

there is something wrong with them.

Me and my mate Max and Lee that used to do

it, you know, we would have a laugh with it.

It was good fun.

You know, we'd, we'd rip each other and some

of them are just sort of, why,

why do you take it that seriously and that,

you know, it's like your life depends on it,

you know, and, you know, it's like,

oh, you, you know, you do realize that that's

the wrong jubilee clip on that hose,

don't you?

And I'm like, yeah, but it's,

it's not leaking, is it?

You know, it's like, and, and,

you know, it can become all consuming.

Yeah.

You know, and it's just, and it was,

you know, like, I've always,

one of my customers always wanted to get a

car to Pebble Beach, you know,

and we, you know, we kind of sort of like

something that we still want to do.

Yeah.

It's, but you have to be very dedicated to.

Oh, yeah.

But these people are petrified of driving the thing.

Oh, no, you can't

drive it.

No, no, no, you can't drive it.

No, no, no, no,

50:55 Undertaking Debate and AI in Cars

no, silly.

You must be trailer there.

I must be trailer there.

We were trailer than there.

I must put the mirrors under the rear.

Yeah, you can see the other carats.

Three miles from wherever we got to go.

Because the rule of the Concorde stuff that

we did, yeah, they had to be driven to the event.

We didn't say how far.

Yeah.

So we would literally trailer them,

not far from the event.

And then we'd get there and then we'd jack

the thing up, right?

And then we'd take all four wheels off,

we'd clean the inside of the wheels and clean

all the underneath.

And we had a routine where every winter,

the suspension would come out year one,

right?

And then you change every single plate and

that unbolt, du-du-du-du-du-du-du-du.

And this is when we're doing the V12 one.

And then the next winter, we'd do all the

stuff under the bonnet.

Every switching every year.

Yeah.

And I had spare plated pipes and all of these

bits and pieces that I'd have to swap around.

So I pretty much had two of everything so

that we didn't lose too much workshop time.

So I could literally, I could bring the car

in, drop the suspension out,

swap all the plated bits over,

and then we'd do the stuff under the bonnet.

And then if we got to this thing,

what was called Champion of Champions,

which was like, it was invitation only it was

always held up at the NEC and it was

considered like the Jaguar Concourse thing.

I've been five or six times and

I've come second five or six times and it's

like, you know, always the bridesmaid,

never the brides.

And then you go

there the next year and you haven't got,

you haven't qualified that year or you

haven't done the right shows to go.

And then there'll be, you know,

the five or six cars in there,

what I would describe as substandard and then

a car that was nowhere near as good as ours

would then walk away with it and I'd be like,

God, I can't believe it.

We picked the wrong year again,

you know, and because we would be doing,

but then we'd done, it was called all ugly.

I think it's McGuire's now.

The big concourse thing is run by McGuire's,

we used to be all ugly.

So we won the all ugly in quite a few times.

So okay, so you were in those circles then?

Oh, yeah, yeah, we were right up there,

yeah.

Okay.

Yeah.

Well, what are you choosing about in that instance?

I'd choose the driving one, but I would drive

into the back of the person.

Which ever one is the violin option.

Yeah.

Or that person and just tell them exactly

what's going on.

We thought of that, or you thought of that,

because we were looking at, there was an

auction however long ago, and there was a Z3

that was meant to look like a DB4 Zagato or

something like that.

And it obviously wasn't.

The interior was dire.

It was a Z3 with some retramed bits in it.

But in the middle of that--

Yeah, yeah, pretty much.

But in the middle of the dash,

like card holder, and they were printed out

cards with pictures of the car on it,

and it said above it, please take a card.

And it's like, did you--

I know that--

No, we just went online, but I wanna know

what was on it, but I know what it'll be.

It was the end, they kind of ended up--

Built in 1962, the Fast and Madam,

you know, it isn't.

It's not what it is.

It's the Z3 with a 1.9 probably.

I'm completely fine with if your goal is to

own an unobtainium car, you want to build a

replica of that car.

I get it, completely fine.

But why are you then being like,

come and look at this car, it's not it.

It's fine that you like it and you want it,

but don't try and make me think it is.

Don't force me in, 'cause it's not how it is.

It's not how it is.

It's knocking door to door and go,

have you seen--

You see my replicator, if you picked up the million pump.

Well, people who want to do what they want to

do, but it's--

So would you, you know, are you not very good

at driving down the motorway where people are

being a little bit woolly?

Can you not just sort of like back off and

just go and teach you know what?

It depends on the car.

I am better now, actually.

I would say I'm better now.

You reformed,

but I do a lot of undertaking.

But undertaking's not

illegal.

I think it might be.

(all laughing)

I

was under the impression that undertaking is not illegal.

Under the understanding.

As Mr.

Officer, I was under the understanding that I

could do this.

Like if someone's going, you're less than the

speed limit and then you're not breaking the

speed limit and you just go past them on the inside lane.

That is undertaking.

Which is undertaking, yes.

I do not believe that that is illegal.

You might not believe it.

(all laughing)

Well, I can't believe it.

I don't think they do you for undertaking.

I think that--

No.

They do you drive a vacuum care attention or

dangerous driving or something like that.

If you're not being a penis about it,

if someone is being quite clearly doing 55

and they're not moving out the way and

they've got space, and you as who slowly go

around them, I don't think they're gonna

throw the book at you.

I was driving down the motorway the other day

and it did actually, I haven't seen this before.

It did say don't hog the middle layer.

Yeah, I love it.

And I was like, I've not seen that.

Yeah.

And I was like, did you see--

Did you see anyone make a conscious effort to do it?

It was like an advert for it.

I was driving and there was someone,

a long way ahead, I haven't got up to them yet.

And as they got to the sign up in the

distance, I watched the move over into the layer.

It was amazing.

I was so pleased to see that.

Yeah.

Because I think are in this country,

are lane hogging or driving etiquette in that

respect is terrible.

Oh, we're rubbish.

We are really, really bad.

You can tell Tom hasn't listened to the Cream

Podcast before, 'cause that's basically what

we talk about every

year.

Yeah, but if you go to France or into Europe,

It's so good.

They understand the difference between the

fact being an absolute arse and using the road popular.

The fact that they are taught to have the

indicator on, to remind them that they are

they are overtaking, they are not sitting in a lane.

They are, is that why they do that?

I believe it.

I believe it, what my dad told me,

and they do that in Holland as well sometimes,

rarely.

In France, it's to say, you're not,

you're not sitting in a lane.

I just thought they were all really

forgetful, just to suffer.

They're from there, they were forgetful.

French music on, man.

He said, you could talk good.

Yeah, 'cause it's, 'cause you're not,

it's not a lane, it's not a driving lane,

it's an overtaking lane.

Yeah, yeah.

You're there to overtaking the move back in.

It's great.

The amount of times that I've been late for

the channel tunnel, and simply due to the

fact that people understand,

you can still drive the speed limit and make up time.

You have to be incredible.

You have to be a criminal here to do that.

You have to break the law in order to drive

efficiently in this country.

I think the only place you can undertake

legally is in an average speed check and on a slip road.

So have you actually looked this up?

Yes, I did, yeah.

Okay, I'm fairly sure that was,

as far as I'm aware, someone will know

probably, but it's average speed checks.

You can undertake, obviously within,

you can't just do 90s for it,

but if someone's in a, because I don't think

you're meant to change lanes in like a 50 mile.

So what you're saying is, is you can

undertake in an average speed camera area.

Yeah, 'cause it's normally like 50 or 60 miles.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, but you say you could

potentially get done for speeding if you're

going too fast, but you won't get done for undertaking.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly.

And on a slip road, which makes sense,

'cause if there's traffic on the motorway,

(laughs)

I can't go past that.

I simply couldn't.

But yeah, undertaking is, I get it,

'cause there have been times where I've seen

someone undertaking me, and I've gone to

undertake, and then someone else is

undertaking, but I didn't spot them because

they're in your blind spot.

So I was driving down the motorway a couple

of days ago, and it was, I think,

described it as surfing.

I don't know, I don't really understand,

but basically this guy was just weaving around.

Oh, yeah, crazy.

Like fishing.

(laughs)

I've heard surfing say before,

that's what they call it in New York.

Yeah, he was flat out, I mean,

he was really going for it, and I thought,

oh my God, this is gonna get messy in a minute.

It is crazy.

Oh, I don't hear.

And there was a cut of them.

Really, just.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, once one went in,

then they went back.

Were they all in one series,

BMWs?

No, no, they were, I think it was a BMW actually.

Lots of them.

Yeah, it was a free series, sorry.

I was a free series.

Yeah, yeah, so that checks out.

Yeah, wild.

What else were you doing?

I have some more questions for Tom.

You've put in your quad pipes or what?

Quad pipes, this is just a quick aside.

Okay, early 2000s, I remember when the E46 M3

came out, thinking a six cylinder car with

quad exhaust, that can't run,

that doesn't feel right.

Quad exhausts are for things with the eight,

V10s, V12s.

Okay.

Recently, I saw this that is a mini

countryman, JCW, with quad pipes from factory.

That is what a four cylinder,

three cylinder, I don't know.

And then, I mean, kind of related,

same thing, UBMW1 Series M135I.

Quad pipes.

You know what, I believe, you know what,

I believe broke this trend.

What's that?

It's the Golf R.

That's true.

'Cause he actually can't think of something

off the top of my head, I'm sure there will

be before that, that didn't.

Yeah.

'Cause I remember the Golf R came,

obviously there was a Golf R,

which was twin, like an R2, two tailpipes.

Two tailpipes, cool, fine.

So what is it you object to?

It's too many pipes.

You don't have the balls to back up the pipes.

A quad pipe should mean you have V8,

V10 noise.

'Cause I have a six pack.

Exactly.

There's something wrong about a four

cylinder, but yeah, when you said that,

a Golf R does have four quad pipes now,

and I don't feel that bad about it.

It kind of differentiates it from a GTI,

so there's that thing.

Yeah.

Whereas that just feels, there's no reason

for that to have four pipes.

Also, MCAR, I've got all fine,

whatever, do what you like.

MCARs with quad pipes, that's it.

You can't go putting quad pipes on your one

series M3, whatever that is.

Yeah, it should be a one-air mone.

Yeah.

But I don't know, I just saw,

I saw the countryman, I thought that's not allowed.

Four pipes on a mini countryman,

straight, I'm not allowed.

I don't get that.

I think the one series, they're quite sort of

like, you know, hitting a young cool marker,

aren't they?

Okay, yeah.

So I kind of get it, 'cause it's a star.

But the countryman though?

It's a starling thing, isn't it?

Well, I guess that's what they're going for.

They're going for the ultimate drivers.

The Cersei drivers who are like,

"Yeah, I might pick up a country."

But they're not gonna buy that,

aren't they?

I know.

So now, I kind of see where you're going

from, you know, on this point of view.

You know, a mini, a mini should have a single

little P-shooter, just a little crooked

angle, just like a original mini.

I just love the way that you take real

offense to it.

It's great.

I really do.

It's like, oh, he's really quite,

it's really quite annoyed him.

I was driving on the motor this morning,

Why do you have it?

Sometimes it's nice to have no tailpipes.

On my Range Rover, I have no desire to have

tailpipes, yet there are lots of Range Rover

owners who are like, I need for a source.

Yeah.

And it looks bad.

And it looks bad.

And I'm like, I'm talking more like luxury or comfort.

See, I don't understand, and blinging up a

Range Rover like that.

You know, I know lots of people like the

overfinches and all that sort of stuff.

I don't get it.

No.

I just sort of think, well, why would,

you know, what's the point in having a,

a luxury four by four, which is supposed to

be comfy and wafty down the road and all

that, and then stick 23 inch wheels on it

and, you know, and slam it.

Yeah, yeah, I just kind of defeats the object

at the point of a thing.

Of a thing, yeah, yeah.

But then I also think the manufacturers are

just as,

Well, I think, I think that's the thing.

Back now.

The manufacturers watch people going out and

buying the kits and going, well,

we might as well make the money off this.

Yeah, yeah.

Let's make our car look dumb.

So, you know, don't we, a Range Rover,

sport, SVR, five litre supercharged is a very cool car.

And they've got like bucket type seats and

like, it's very, very, very cool,

you know, but you drive it down the road,

you know, I wouldn't daily my project eight

because it's quite a harsh, you know,

it's not terrible, but it's quite a harsh car,

yeah.

And the same reason why I wouldn't buy an SVR

Range Rover because it's for people from Birmingham.

Exactly.

It's not comfortable.

It's a bit, it's also that it's to show offs Range Rover.

Not that a Range Rover is like that subtle

and devastated, but you can be,

there is an element of taste or class with a

Range Rover that an SVR absolutely demolishes

it in every way.

So do you drive a Range Rover because you

feel as if it lifts your profile?

Is that what you're saying?

No, I like it because I think they are

actually very good cars.

But I do also quite like the fact

that I feel like a Royal, or at least a

driver of a Royal.

Do you drive down a road going?

That's fantastic.

Let

me go, thank you very much.

It's just a brilliant car.

There's a brilliant car.

I agree with that.

Many of you will disagree, but we've got Tom

on the podcast and he just confirmed it.

I want to talk about Mate Remak.

Sure.

Here's one I made earlier.

This is, again, this is a video from a little while back.

Do you know who this is?

No.

Interesting.

Not a Remak is?

Sorry?

Not a Remak is?

No.

How do you think it might be to do with

shaving legs, Remak, but the actual Remak?

Do you read "Mamak"?

Do you read "Mamak"?

Is that not the same thing?

Do you mean "The Manscaped Bull"?

Not sponsor.

Remak is, well, Mattie Remak is CEO of Remak,

which is electric car company.

They make ridiculous--

That's why I don't know about it.

Yeah, but I mean, they are quite insane.

It's a 2000 horsepower.

I think one of them just did a ridiculous

record, the Navarro or whatever.

Anyway, they now own or part own whatever,

Bugatti.

Oh, okay.

So they are currently working on the new

Bugatti, which is a V16 Tourbillon,

but Top Gear just did a video with Remak.

And Remak is a bit of a young prodigy seat,

I want to say he's probably still in his 20s.

And out of interest, what do you think you would drive?

What's the date?

He's like a CEO type thing of a--

CEO of Bugatti, an electric car manufacturer,

Remak.

Anything, do you think you would drive

anything interesting?

You would think so.

I suspect he's, you're going to tell me it's

something, you're going to run around in a

sack cell or something.

Well, I mean, here you go.

So Top Gear, I mean, will you,

you know, the headline stats from before,

but Top Gear, we've got a very good video.

It's, and he 46M through CSL.

Would you have two off?

Other headlines.

For RGT, a E39M5, not, I mean,

it's not, it's not a high mileage one.

It's quite a, it's a nice one.

No, it uses it.

But no means like a show car.

And the basic, most of these kind of,

he said some of these is his friends,

like a Z4M.

He's got a beat all day in there.

He's got all sorts of bits and bobs and he,

and he drives an R32 Golf.

Yeah, the R32 Golf was, it didn't surprise me

the most, but it was like, it's just a blue R32 Golf.

So there's nothing that like special about

it, but he's just, so he's got some quite

normal

But that's, I don't know, compared to what I

saw the other day, which was a,

it was the official BMW plate that's been

owned by BMW for quite some time.

So I believe it's a CLO, CEO of the UK or MD,

sorry, being driven around in the rear of a seven series.

Come on, man.

You are in control of BMW M.

Do something like this.

There's also, as a clip in this video,

where they, I think they're going elsewhere,

so they go out on a RIMAC.

Well, firstly, Maté asks him which way the

camera's facing, and he says,

"Oh, he's only facing into us."

And he went, "Okay, good."

So he wants to go and do some speed,

and then he just doesn't donut them a car park.

So he's one of the coolest CEOs,

because again, he's into cars.

And even he admits that people are not up

taking electric cars.

And that's why the Bugatti, the new Bugatti

is going to have this ridiculous,

it's Cosworth engine.

The, I want to say it's a V16 now.

Is it a high revving, ridiculous horsepower?

It's a little bit lighter.

But it's actually a really, really interesting video.

And you can tell that RIMAC,

he's a CEO, but he knows what he's talking about.

He hasn't been given a spec list and gone,

and this is the car.

He's just a, he's a dream podcast guest,

I think.

So, how long have they been building before?

I mean, it's they shifted and the rest of it.

Of RIMAC?

Yeah.

Or a Bugatti.

No, no, no.

RIMAC's been around since, what,

2010, 2012?

RIMAC's been around, oh, well,

words.

RIMAC has been around for a while.

Yeah.

But even in this video, he admits that they

haven't sold as many as they wanted to.

They said they've sold a good amount and

there isn't an expensive car,

but he's not that bothered by it,

'cause he said that the work that they put

into RIMAC is now what they now put into,

but they sell to most manufacturers for sort

of hybrid and battery tech.

Yeah, yeah.

Some manufacturers they can't even talk about

because they're not allowed to mention it yet.

So, he's a bit of a needle mask,

isn't he's what you're saying?

Yeah, I actually met him.

And years ago, when we worked at Car

Throttle, me and Evian, who we used to work

with, we went down to, I think it was Barclay

Square somewhere, and they had a concept

version of one of these RIMACs,

and we met him.

I wanna say he was in his early 20s at the

time, which is insane to me.

And there's a few bits he talked about there

and whatever else, but I'm fairly sure he

built a, he took an E30, he was younger as a

teen and converted it to electric.

And yeah, sorry, but he's just quite interesting.

But normally when you get someone like that,

they're sort of electric, that's all they

want to do, it's electric.

He also has an interest in...

Yeah, well, then it goes back to all of the petrol head.

You are allowed to like other stuff.

Exactly.

You don't have to...

You haven't got to be one thing.

Yeah, like I said, you don't have to have the

blinkers on in your, you know.

It's perfect, it's funny.

Yeah, sorry, I was just doing quickly a bit of research.

One of the first things he built after his

E30 was an electric VXT 20.

Wow.

And I've just noticed there's a bit of damage

here on the left light, which means he's got

no lens like your car.

Oh, man.

So you and Matta, you've got stuff to talk

about, look, we can get him on,

we're relatable.

(laughs) Anyone listens to the podcast,

the next post he has on Instagram.

Spam the living hell out.

We need to get his

attention.

He's got a book.

Do you think he'll remember you

from all those years ago?

No, not at all.

We were in a room

of a million different journalists,

probably asking the same questions over and over again.

But yeah, he's...

I just wanted to, because it's a cool video.

Very cool.

Go and watch it.

Go and watch it.

Go and watch it.

Right, the Renault 5 that I've got,

we mentioned earlier that we have from Renault.

It has a funny feature that you may have seen.

It is quite quirky inside.

It's very retro, but it has an AI feature that we...

I'm going to say we've abused it.

We have...

We took it out to lunch for the first time today.

And actually, you mentioned it.

I'd forgotten about it.

Yeah.

It doesn't have the AI thing.

Because there's a clip of Johnny Smith and

Radio DJ Greg James talking about it back at the launch.

I thought, "Oh, I wonder if it still has it?"

Looked up on Google.

Yes, you just have to say, "Hey,

Renault, which we were saying Reno."

Yes, but it did understand us.

It did understand it.

And we pushed it to its limits and we have

realised there are certain things it won't do.

But there are many things it will do.

We spent...

I'm going to say it's about 40 minutes.

About 40 minutes in the car.

No music at all.

We didn't do any music.

We were just asking the AI questions.

We'd say, "Hey, Renault, can you do this sum for me?"

Or, "Well, what do we have to do?"

Well, one of the best ones was,

"Can you tell us a story about a bald man in

Jamaican-Patois in the accident of Jamaican-Patois?"

And it did it.

It won't do the accent.

I think it's a bit touchy, but it will speak

as if it's...

Anything phallic doesn't want to do it.

It will say, "I can't do that."

But, Ben, you managed to get around it by saying...

You tend to...

Yeah, medical terms it's happy with.

Robin asked about a fart earlier,

and he said, "Flatulence."

Okay.

And that worked as well.

Yeah.

It also quite likes if you just ask it to say

things back multiple times, it will do that.

So, Ben got it saying the word "egg" perhaps.

15 times.

And beans was said a lot as well.

Yeah, lots of beans.

But it will just do anything you ask it to.

Anything you ask it to.

And before this, I was asking Tom,

do you use AI for it?

I don't understand that.

Well, Tom briefly saw it earlier.

I liked the Renault 5, by the way.

Even I was like, "I like this as a car.

It's quite cool."

But, yeah, me and AI, I was just like,

"You're not mates yet."

No.

You know, it's one of those things that are

potentially that we may be using it for

something, but I just wouldn't know.

Yeah.

You could be AI yourself.

You know, who knows.

Yeah.

You know, I just was at home.

Yeah.

I'm just, you know, I don't do this dump or cost.

Yes.

Yeah.

I struggle with, no, I don't struggle with technology.

That's not true.

But, you know, I'm also probably at a stage

where I don't really want to learn anything new.

No, I can't be asked.

Yeah.

Well, what you said earlier about just

sending clips of you recording your PC

monitor, you messaged me and asked for to

check out a Kafka vertical.

So I did that, sent it to you.

The immediate response to that was a clip,

which was a video of you racing,

which I noticed was you filming your screen.

Yeah, it sounds right.

Yeah.

Not the most tech savvy, but I guess you

don't need to be.

No, no, no, no.

I'm just, no, man, this is easy.

Yeah.

You need to know people who are tech savvy.

Yeah, that's it.

You know, if you're not good at something,

let's just get someone else to do it.

It's fine.

You know, I'll just get on with what you're good at.

Bro, there's a, I've got a link.

So we actually got DM'd this by a gentleman

the other day who said, "I was watching an

old episode of Wheeler dealers."

And round of me enough, I was on an old Jaguar X-K8.

I was reading this question.

I was like, "What are we talking about?"

So I clicked the link.

And there it is.

There's a young Tom Lenthel in this video.

That was a few years ago.

2009, 2010.

Yeah, cool, crumbs up old XJS.

Yeah, it would have been about 2010,

2011 talks.

It was about 15 years ago.

The funny thing was there was the guy that messaged it.

I wish I had his name.

He messaged the TDC account and said,

"Yeah, there's a young Tom Lenthel in a

Wheeler dealers episode."

He said just the episode.

I remembered, because when I lived in South

Africa, the only real car program that they

had on TV was reruns of Wheeler dealers.

And I remembered vividly.

I already knew the episode, meaning I was

just in Africa.

was just watching Tom Lenthel as a child.

Look at this guy.

In about 10 to 15 years, that man's going to abuse me.

Look how slim I was there to Jesus Christ.

So was that your first media,

in what do you call it, appearance?

Yes, it probably was.

Yeah, definitely.

And was it a bit random?

Did they just ring you up and say,

"Yeah, we just need some parts.

Can we come film you?"

It was weird because they'd already bought

the parts off of someone else,

right?

Oh, interesting.

No, this is, I can tell you,

it doesn't really matter now because it's

such a long time ago.

So back then, Wheeler Dealers was run by a

company called AtaboyTV, which is the production company.

And they had bought these parts from one of

my suppliers who was up north,

but they didn't have time to do filming.

So then they said, "Oh, well,