Gracie Haddon - StarterMotor Charity: My Dad took us around Europe to meet car owners for a book he was writing. Triumph Herald, Austin Healey Sprite, Porsche 912 S7 E8

Welcome to my dad's car. Enjoy!

Welcome to My Dad's Car, a podcast discussing our personal relationship with automotive stalker. And you know what? It doesn't even have to be about your dad's car. It can be your mum's, your grand, your parents, dad's, or even a neighbour's. If it made an impression, let's talk about it. Hello, how are you doing?

I'm good. How are you? I'm really sorry it says it's Steve Coot. I'm not Steve. I'm I don't look like Steve, but we share the same account, unfortunately, so it's gonna appear like I am Steve.

That's all right, it's not a problem. We don't put the video out.

So good, good. I'm not feeling my best today. So good. Hi John.

Hello, sorry I'm late.

That's all right.

Bit of a disaster here.

I was getting a bit nervous because I realised that there was no meeting invite and I was like, oh gosh, oh no.

Yeah, it took me a while to find it myself, actually. Yeah, apologies. I think we set it up a while ago, didn't we?

It was, yeah. Gosh, I can't believe how quick time's gone. It seems like that was ages ago, but it was only oh gosh.

Presumably you're not Steve Coots, are you?

No, I did mention that. I don't Steve is um the manager, the general manager of the charity, and we share the same Zoom account.

For the benefit of the tape, yeah.

Yeah, just for the record.

So, yeah, for the benefit of the tape, we're joined by Gracie Haddon and she's from Star Smooter Charity. So, welcome along, Gracie. Thank you for joining us.

Thank you for having me.

Um before we kind of dive into the dad's car, mum's car, etc., do you want to tell us a little bit more about the Star Smooter Charity, what it kind of does, who it helps, etc.? Because it's an interesting concept, I think.

Absolutely. So we're a charity, we're based at Bist of Motion, and we were formed by um Dan Gagan um around 2019, so a few years ago now. Um, he recognised that there was an issue with the sector. Um, he was concerned about what's going to happen to his cars in the future and you know what needs to be done in order to keep his cars and the industry's cars on the road. Welcome Stars Motor. Um, so yeah, we're a charity based on BISTAMOTION, and our purpose and our mission is to help the next generation find careers within the classic and historic sector. So we work with education initiatives and schools. Um, so we host careers days on site for the local BISTA community to come in and speak to local specialists, and we bring specialists in on site to talk about their career journey and the breadth of opportunities available in this industry. We also work closely with a young group of ambassadors.

Okay.

So we've got around 20 active ambassadors who are truly ambassadorial and are spokespeople for us and what we do. Um, so we go to multiple events and we bring the ambassadors along to talk about their experiences and how we've supported them with work experience and placement opportunities. And we do that with our fleet of cars.

Okay.

So we've got around eight cars on our fleet, ranging from a pre-war Austin 7 to a 2013 Morgan Plus 4. Nice. And they're sort of the things that the ambassadors can get hands-on driving, fixing, exploring, learning, and ultimately when we go to these events, get that spark behind the eyes and be that talking point and that enticing conversation to get people to come over and have a chat with us and see how we can support. Yeah. Because another thing that we do is supporting, obviously, in general, we support young people navigating this wonderful ecosystem. That's the way that we call it. It's an ecosystem. The classic and historic sector is just a subsidy of the wider automotive sector, but it needs a little bit more protecting. Um, and you know, the skills that are needed in this industry need to be looked after and valued. So, I mean, myself and Steve, Steve Cootes, the general manager of Stars Motor, we're very passionate about making sure that the young people know that when we talk about careers within the classic and historic sector, we're not just talking about engineering and mechanical works, sales, marketing, insurance, auctioneering, you name it, it's needed in order to keep this industry thriving and to prolong it. So it's our responsibility. We all have a responsibility to do this. We all have a passion and a deep love for our cars, and we need to make sure that we are protecting the future to keep them on the road. And that's what we do basically in a nutshell.

Very good. Bravo, bravo, yeah. Um, yeah, we've kind of spoken about this before, and um it's kind of a topic that's sort of close to our hearts.

Yeah.

Kind of in the business that I work in um classic car parts, we kind of have this discussion all the time about sort of the next next generation, how do you get them into it, do it, etc. So yeah, I think it's it's great that there's a a charity out there which is directly sort of focused on generating the careers, not just kind of waving some nice cars under people's noses and go, look, you can do this on a Sunday actually. Exactly.

This can be your career, your I mean that's that's all the community, and it's another thing that we speak often about. Um the community and the careers are symbiotic with each other. You can't have one without the other. If you want the community, you need people who have the skills and knowledge and work in the industry to look after the cars, and as a result of looking after the cars and keeping them protected, you have the community. And we all know how strong this community is. So, as I mentioned again, we all have a role to play. So we all need to make sure that we are working together in order to protect this. Um, so yeah, it's symbiotic. I always say synonymous, but it is symbiotic.

And before we kind of hear more about your story, if someone's kind of sat listening to this, and either maybe they're a young person kind of looking for that, or perhaps they're a parent thinking, I want to sort of steer my teenager towards this, where can they find you? What's the sort of next step?

So we obviously have a website. Um, our website is startomotor.co not com or co.uk, starto motor.co. And it's the same with all of our email addresses um as well, which are on the website. So our main generic inbox is info at starto motor.co. But we are on social media, all under Stars Motor Charity, so that's on Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn. We will be launching YouTube next year, but that takes time. Yeah, yeah. So in the near future, you'll see us on that platform. Um, but we're also appearing in lots of different magazine articles. We've got obviously supporters and patrons of the charity, um, and we work alongside them in extending our reach into things like articles with car clubs, with the brands, you know, Haggerty, for example, they're one of our principal sponsors. So we work closely um with the Haggerty Drivers Club magazine. And yeah, as I mentioned, the Morgan Sports Car Club, they are a the key sponsor and a key supporter of us, and we work closely in their comms activities as well. So you'll see us starting to pop around in different places, but a direct place to go is our website and our social media channels.

Nice, fantastic. Yeah, yeah, it's great. So, yeah, we'll uh kind of hear a little bit more about your story. What's your earliest car memory?

So I was thinking about this, and my earliest car memory, I think I was probably around five, four or five. Uh, we used to go camping um in a campsite in Horsham. We had an old airstream caravan.

Oh well.

And it was a little um village where this campsite was, and every summer, bank holiday, August Bank holiday, they'd have a car show. And I remember going to the car show and I found a yellow Austin 7 because it looked like Brum. And I sat in this Austin 7, and there's a photo of me sitting in this car, you know, trying to reach the pedals kind of thing. And I look back at that and I vividly remember this August Bank Holiday car show, and I remember that car very vividly. So it I think that's probably my earliest car memory sitting in the yellow Austin 7 because it was like Brum.

Is Brum still in existence, or is that one long gone? Not too sure.

I think it's long gone.

It's a shame.

But Brum, the little museum in the Cotsworlds, oh, I can't remember where it is, Porton on the Water, I think it is. There's a motor museum, and Brum is actually there. All right. And I went to go visit that a few months ago, and I was in complete shock and starstruck.

Brum's sawn now off the road.

Oh thing. He's been busy, he's been doing a lot of things, I suppose. We'll give him a break.

Big barn find one day, weren't it, with Johnny? I'm not sure that was actually the registration.

So, yeah, obviously, you went with the airstream. What was what was towing the airstream? What was the car?

So actually, we didn't tow it, we stored it at the campsite.

Okay.

But and the times that we did have to tow it around, we didn't have a big Jeep, and that just about managed to do that. Just about managed to tow it. It was one of the bigger ones as well, so it was quite long. And yeah, I remember the very few occasions that we did have to tow it in the back of the Jeep. My dad like frantically driving it, checking the mirrors, me and my sister in the back, just checking that the caravan was still behind. Um, but yeah, we used to have an airstream and we unfortunately had to sell it a few years ago, but we still have one which is in the garden and used to be used as my dad's office and then turned into my sister's summer room because she had a very small room, so that was where she used to stay in the summer.

That's a good idea.

Yeah, nice. Yeah.

Bit of a hack, that one, isn't it? Turning a caravan into a summer room or an office. Yeah.

So a friend of mine, shout out to uh Alex Liserac, he started a um a business in Lincolnshire called the Lay by Lynx, which is um like a glamping type thing, but he's got he's got an airstream caravan, he's got a fire engine, a horse box, and like a 70s American RV, but he's converted them all so you can stay in them.

Gosh, that is so cool.

And he's got, I don't know, a couple of acres or something at home, and it's basically sort of in this wooded area at the bottom of his garden where he's got these vehicles parked. They're all sort of landscaped, they've all got wood fired hot tubs, they've all got kitchen areas, they've all got kind of proper bathroom suite.

I have to pay a visit.

Um, air conditioned.

Oh, that's something that was definitely not in our airstream air conditioning. It had like the big Una at the top, but I don't think it worked since like the 70s.

Excuse my um lack of knowledge in caravaning, but what what's the airstream? Is that just like a model name?

Was that a specific the airstream but the big metal one? The big metal ones.

Oh, right, okay.

You know what? You've probably seen them recently because they're always food vans at the minute, which is really sad to see.

Um but Wallace and Gromit had one, didn't he? The sort of thing he had. I can't remember now.

Oh no, I'm not too sure.

I kind of see one in my head.

You'll know it if you see a photo on it.

Yeah, okay.

We used to have all sorts of caravans as well. We used to have um a shatter. Um, so like the top was red, the bottom was white. We used to take that to Goodwood, and then we had a camper van, which was an Ester Fett, uh like an old French Renault.

Okay, I was gonna say Renault. Nice.

Yeah, and then my dad built a teardrop.

Okay.

He just built one, he got an old trailer and sort of used the design and made his own sort of teardrop-esque caravans. So, yeah, caravans are a big part of my life as well.

So, carwise, you mentioned your father. Yeah, does it come from him? Is he the reason you're into cars?

Yes, absolutely. I mean, so my dad used to write books. He wrote books on caravans, camper vans, and classic cars. Oh wow, okay. So that's where the caravan well, he wrote seven in total, and it ranges from caravans, camper vans to pedal bikes, motorbikes, and scooters and things like that.

Good stuff.

So my childhood was spent travelling around to visit all of the owners of these motors, bikes, whatever. We used to listen to their stories. We had a photographer with us, um, he'd take the photos, and my dad would write up the stories and present it in this coffee table book. It was the Michael, the Michael series. So there was Michael Classic car, caravan, camper van. And yeah, so a good few years, well, 10 years of my childhood was spent in the back of a car and driving to all of these places around the UK and Europe. I remember doing my homework on a Sunday night in the Euro tunnel after being in Paris for the day. But I think it's no surprise that I'm where I am now doing what I'm doing in this industry because of how big of a part of my life it was. Yeah. Um, and the communications aspect as well, because obviously my role is marketing and event and my passion is communication. I think listening to all of those stories and you know, hearing the emotional connection and the value that these cars or caravans or whatever it was had to them, it must be what sparked my love for communicating and sharing stories, albeit that in a different way now. But you know, it still sort of stems back to that.

Is your sister into cars as well?

She's got an appreciation, but she hasn't got the career drive yet, I don't think, um, for um working in the industry. So she's a few years younger than me. Um, she's in university at the minute, and she's also doing a communications course, so maybe the communications thing has spread there as well. Yeah. But we've got a classic car of our own that she loves to go on passenger rides in. I took her to Silverstone Festival a few weeks ago, and it was actually really sweet to see that spark come back in her and her to it, because that was our childhood, car shows, summer holidays, like that's all it was. And then it wasn't for a good few years. We all grew up, things happened, life moved on, and to bring her back and to sort of be back in that environment, it was it was really lovely to see, actually. You know, I she got to sit in a few cars and I'd see the eyes light up, and I was like, ah, this is this is what we lived for God knows how long, so it's good to bring that back.

Nice, fantastic. What have you got?

So me and my dad share an Austin Healy Sprite.

Oh, cool, yeah, yeah.

In 1970, we bought it a few years ago because there was sort of a period where we didn't actually have any classic cars for a bit, and then a year and a half ago now, we found the sweetest old man you've ever met in your life who had this car in his magnificent estate. My dad stumbled upon it on a bike ride, and I was like, Oh my god, I need to go have a look. Got talking to him, and yeah, a few weeks later, on my dad's 50th birthday, we were driving it home. Um, and Mo is the name of the car. Mo is now a permanent member of our family that we take on many adventures.

Fantastic. Nice. So, yeah, let's go back to kind of yeah, your cross-European trips or whatever, going to visit someone. Do you remember kind of what's obviously you're a bit younger than us, so you might have been in kind of more modern vehicles for sort of moving around. But yeah, what what were you in? Did you have the radio on? Did you have music on? Was there sort of a yeah?

So you know what actually it was a lot of stories. So it would be in the car, we'd hire a car to drive down to Brussels or whatever we'd be going for for the day. Okay. To get to the Ultimate Chute location. But in the car it was me, my sister, my dad, my mum, and the photographer Lyndon. And Lyndon's background was motorsport photography. So honestly, the the conversations that we used to have used to be focused around all the cool stuff that he'd do on the weekend or the week prior and the day job, because this this was a on the side kind of thing. Lyndon and my dad, Chris, both had day jobs. My dad was a graphic designer, so he had all of his clients. So this was our weekend thing. So it was just listening to what was going on during the week, really, and all the adventures that Lyndon would go on, and then us in awe, and yeah, that's usually what it was. But we did obviously have a little bit of music, and it usually was a bit of Jamaica.

Okay, yeah, very cool. Nice.

Yeah, a bit of Jamaica and a bit of Moby. That was the go-to playlist.

Nice. Can you remember anything, any of the stories that Lyndon told? Is there anything which is uh kind of sticks in your head?

He used to tell us a story at Silverstone many, many years ago when he was at the beginning of his career. He told us about this photo that he took one time of the British Grand Prix weekend where there was a track invasion and it was of one person, I think he was Scottish because he had like the Scottish hat. I don't know the name of it, forgive me for that. But he invaded the track, and there's a really iconic photo of the man on the track with the cars in the background, and Lyndon took that photo, and I remember he took me a few years ago when I sort of really, really realised that this is the industry that I wanted to work in, and you know, I had a passion for motorsport. He took me to the Silverstone Museum, and we were walking around the museum, and his photo was there, and I was looking at it, and I was like, this was the photo that I used to hear about in the car amazing in the Silverstone Museum. I don't know if it's still there, but it was there, and I I remember him telling us about that because it's a fun little thing that I like to tell my friends now when I'm at the track.

Do you remember um neighbours or friends kind of at school or anything with kind of interesting cars growing up or cars which maybe sort of had an influence over you?

Kind of things where you went, Oh, that's cool, or that's different, or so obviously seeing all these owners and hearing all their stories, there's always one that stands out, and it was for a little triumph herald. So it was for my Nan's friend actually had the Triumph Herald was this gorgeous white, beautiful thing. And I remember going to visit her, and unfortunately, her husband had passed away, so it was hers, and you know, she'd go in this car to reminisce about the times, and that's just something that has always stuck with me. And now the car that I want, obviously, I share the sprite with my dad. The car that I really want is a herald, and I do think it stems back to that because once again it's like the emotional value and the connection to it. Like that's that's something that's always stood out. Okay. I remember like coming into school and telling my friends about all of these stories and stuff, and they would be interested because it's quite a cool thing to talk about when I'd say, Oh, yeah, I just spent the weekend with like Paul Smith with his bike, and we were gonna go see Jamaica in his car collection kind of thing. But I don't think like it's something that was very unique for me and my sister growing up, so no one could really relate. And when I talk about it now, and I really think back, I'm like, wow, that was a really cool time. Like, I don't think I I can't think of anyone else who would have the exact same experiences that I did, and the things that I do on the weekends, the people that I go to see, the places that we go to visit, like it was just so unique, and I'm I'm very grateful for it. And you know, yeah, it's just some incredible memories.

Does your mum drive at all, Gracie?

Um, she drives a normal car, not a classic, unfortunately. Well, she is on the insurance for my sprite, but I don't think she's driven it. But she obviously has like all these memories. I remember her telling me about how when she was in Australia, she drove around in like a triumph stack, and you know, there's obviously like that connection still, and you see the old photos of her in her cars, and yeah, it's it's very nostalgic. I think that's a really important, one of the most important factors.

I think I think there's something quite lovely. You mentioned your kind of grandmother's friend.

Yeah.

Something quite lovely about kind of an old person driving an old car.

Yes, it really is because to them, like that's my generation's normal cars, obviously, the the modern cars that you see on the road. But when you see a classic on the road and you see who's driving it, one thing I love about them is when you get into these cars and you drive them, because I've been lucky to drive a whole incredible range of different cars, you know that they have a whole story behind them and they've lived a whole nother life, and you're prolonging that life by giving it new adventures, and it has to have a personality, you have to learn how to drive the car, you double clutch it, you know, you've got to figure out how it works and you really connect with it. It's it's really weird to a non-car person to really hear about this, but like you really do have to feel the car and that emotional connection with it. Yeah, sorry, I go off on a bit of a tangent.

No, it's funny, no, it's fun, it's fun. We had a guy on um Ed Jenkins, he said there's something cool about driving a car that's older than you.

Yeah.

And I think there's that is kind of interesting. I I've had a few kind of older cars. I had a 1976 polo for quite a few years. Oh, I love it. And um that had like this original long wave radio, and I what I really used to like about that was you could only get old-fashioned music. You could get capital gold or something. So you'd drive it and you'd be listening to music of the time.

Yeah.

Like at one point, yeah, whoever bought that new would have probably driven down a road. It wouldn't have been the same one, but they'd have had the Rolling Stones on the radio or whatever. It's like, okay, I was somehow I'm sort of following a similar footsteps to the person who chose that car originally.

Yeah. And that's just what's so beautiful about it. I mean, I don't know if they still make cassettes for modern music, I think they do for some people, but you know, even just having CDs or cassettes in a car, like it, it's just a whole new experience, isn't it? Like it all adds to everything, I suppose.

Yeah, I've still got CD players in my cars.

Same.

And the and boxes of CDs everywhere. I had a colour a while back.

I know I've got my dad's old um CD case thing in my car with the Jameric and Moby CDs that we used to listen to on the journeys.

Yeah, I've got a carrier bag with like 25 mixed CDs in there that are all the sort of pen is scratched off, so it's a real sort of lottery as to what rubbish you're gonna get when you put one in.

That's um Did you say you went to Jamaiquis' house? JK's?

We were going to, we were going to, we planned on going to, and Jamaica is still my favourite artist of all time, and we were planning on going to his house, and unfortunately, a few days before we had to cancel it, seven-year-old Gracie was absolutely distraught. Um but um we actually met him at a Portia event a few months after, and he was so apologetic. And we met him, we got a photo with him, so it all worked out in the end. But the plan was to go to his house and have a look at his collection, yeah, yeah, and get his collection in the book. But hey ho, it is what it is. I'm over it.

How many cars has he got? He's got like barns, isn't he?

Too many, yeah. Too well, there's no such thing as too many. No, uh a nice collection.

Yeah, yeah.

Is there from the vehicles that you kind of went to see as a child, are there any particular cars? You mentioned the Herald. Is there anything kind of yeah, money no object? You'd go, well, actually, I'd really fancy one of those.

A Herald.

Wow, okay.

Because of that connection, and you know, I think I don't know, I just have an attachment to Triumphs, I think. Because I was talking about this with Steve earlier and I was like, I'd love a TR4 because we saw one drove past in our office, because our office at Bistomotion looks out into the airfield and there's a road that goes out across. So often we hear a sound and we're like, what is it? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. It's like Bentley Blower from Kingsbury, or you know, it's a TR4 or whatever. And we saw a TR4 yesterday, and I was like, I think I'd also have a TR4 in my collection. But then saying that the other day, I did bid on an old Spitfire on eBay. So really it's yeah, it's I was having this chat with my dad the other day, actually. It was like it used to be my dad. I remember like my dad we'd find these random cars or whatever, and it would be a phone call to my mum and my mum being like, No, you can't have this, you've got enough rubbish, or whatever. Now it's me ringing my mum and dad being, if I win this, can we store this in the carriage? So The batons been handed on to me from my dad.

And your dad, I'm guessing he's fairly hands-on. So if you bought something that needed some work, he'd uh get stuck in.

Yeah, I think that's a generic thing as well. Um, like I don't think we've ever had someone come in to fix something on our house, he does it all. Um, but with the car especially, like we're we are not mechanically trained in the slightest, like at all whatsoever. So since getting our car, we've had to learn. And I think that's another really exciting thing because obviously with StarSmotor and the ambassadors. So I my role at Stars Motor, I used to be an ambassador um and I've been full-time now for the charity for three months. Um, obviously, I still know all the ambassadors, I work very closely with them, and a lot of them are based on site as well at Bistomotion, so I go have my lunch with them, but they're all um trained heritage mechanics, so they've all gone through the Heritage Skills Academy. I don't know if you're aware of what that is.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Yeah, so they're a graduate apprentices from there. So they are working obviously in industry and know how to fix these cars, which we don't. So usually when I am back home and you know, we are working on the car, if something's not right, I send a voice recording of something that doesn't sound right, and then they come back and they're like, it's this, do this, change that, and it works. And it's incredible, it's very handy to know these people. But you know, me and my dad, we are learning, we've changed a few things on the car. I'm no stranger to being under the car, changing something because you know, my dad can't fit under the car or whatever, so you know, I'm in the footwell, whatever. We've changed slave cylinders, we've sorted out ignitions and stuff. So yeah, it's got a Haynes manual, we're learning.

Great, yeah, fantastic. And yeah, the triumph herald, it's it's funny, isn't it? Just um, yeah, it's not always the sort of the the supercar or whatever that turns your eye.

It's the um the emotional meaning, the connection.

I think as you get older as well, you start to realise that you know, when you're a kid and you've got whatever on the wall, yeah, as you get older, it's just not that's not a good idea, is it really? Let's be honest. No, I mean and it's not gonna look good, is it, with a sort of 40-year-old man driving down the street in something bright yellow. It's just yeah. There's something appealing, isn't there, about something older and yeah, more sort of manageable.

That's what we're seeing. I mean, with like young drivers and young owners of these classics. A few months ago, we were at the Festival of the Unexceptional with Haggerty, because Haggerty are one of our sponsors. Um, and that was an incredible event. I've never been to it before, I didn't go last year, but it was really, really nice to see the young people there and the fact that they were driving in in their own cars, but you know, they were driving in in like old GTIs and things like that. So, like classics that may not be like, you know, from the early 60s, 70s or whatever, but to them it's something different, it's something unique, and it still has that history and that heritage, albeit it's a bit later and a bit more modern. But it's just nice to see that it is going down the generations, and you know, the future is getting protected. There's still lots of work that we need to do, and we are doing, but there is hope. There is hope.

For the for the younger people, and I sound very old saying that. Um, what's the what's the kind of the the cars to go for to get the best sort of insurance deals, etc.?

Because I have this conversation a lot with the ambassadors when I talk to them because a lot of them we all have the same car and it is an MG midget.

Okay.

Um obviously we've got a different alternative with the sprite, but an MG midget is something that is increasingly popular. It's relatively I'm not gonna say affordable because it's not always, but it's you know one of the cheaper classics to ensure.

Gateway classic, isn't it? Considered.

Yeah, exactly. It's especially with the Austin Healy as well. Obviously, they're producing the same factory, I'm pretty sure. You know, there's MG parts on ours, and you know, all sorts. And it's something that if you're not trained to fix the cars and you do fix it like we do, if you break something, it's not the end of the world because there's a million other spare parts out there for that exact thing. Yeah, but if so, we used to have a as well, where we used to have a a Porsche 912. My dad was scared to drive that because if one thing went wrong, then that's a big bill to pay to fix it.

Yeah, yeah.

But now having the sprite, he does fix it and he does get hands-on with it, and he does try and he does tinker and he does mess about with it, and it's the same for young people as well. Like, it's not as an as an intimidating car to own and drive, it's a very easy car to drive, it's simple, it's yeah, it's a proper gateway car. I know at least three other young people who have MG midgets, it's just a gateway car, yeah.

Is there is there a leaning towards British classics, do you think, in kind of younger people, or is it just a case of that's just what they've fallen into?

I think it's a case of what's available, really, and you know what they want out of a car. I think the MGs, the Austin Healy's, even things like the Morris miners, like obviously they're in abundance, so they're easy to access and fix and maintain or whatever. So I don't think there's any firm reason why it's just a case of what's available, I guess.

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, interesting. And the people dating them as well.

Yeah, I know. If you there's uh an ambassador, he drives a Morris traveller. Well, he used to use it as his daily, it's in bits in a garage at the minute, I think. But um, that was his daily. He used to drive it to Belgium to go visit his family. Wow. There's another ambassador, um, she uses her MGBGT as a daily, and she's just taken it on a thousand mile rally around the I can't say it right, the Py Pyrenees Pyrenees.

Pyrenees, yeah.

The Pyrenees used to take it on a thousand mile rally there, which is absolutely brilliant. Um, so yeah, they are using it as dailies. My dream is to use my future own classic car as a daily, but they do use it as dailies, and it's brilliant to see. And obviously, being on site at Bits Emotion as well, once again, we look out into the car park. Obviously, you've got the Heritage Skills Academy um apprentices coming in, and there's one cohort, because obviously they have weak cohorts or weak blocks that they're based on site, and there's this one cohort where they all have their fun cars that they bring in, and it is the Heralds, it is the MGs, and you always see them rock up in convoy. And during this week, it's brilliant. I'm like, they're back, they're back, and obviously they use that as their daily. Yeah, so yeah, it's yeah, it's nice to see. Nice, especially when you're on the road as well. You have that iconic wave that you give them, you know.

Yes, yeah, you're mad too.

Yes, we're all in the same boat.

The wave hasn't started yet in the in the Picasso. I'll have to try and get it going at some point. Be the first.

Yeah, one day, one day. Eventually. Um, yeah, thank you very much for um having a chat with us. I think we could probably chat all day about how um yeah, it's great to get the next generation into these cars to kind of keep it all going. Yeah, um, it will probably make John and I feel really old. So, yeah, maybe for that reason we'll have to draw it to a close. But yeah, I I really kind of admire the work that yeah, Starfamo is doing and kind of encouraging that. I think that's really great.

See, we said numerous times beforehand, didn't we, that the career situation at school when if you suggested anything to do with motoring, it was always you've got to get the overalls on, or I mean that was it, really, wasn't it? There was no sort of talk of yeah, mechanic, car sprayer, or maybe selling like car dealer.

Yeah, that was kind of about it.

There's just so this ecosystem, it's just full of life, and yeah, it's our role, and we are doing it, we're actively sharing, you know, what there is available. Um, yeah, it's prosperous and exciting.

I think that the the fact that the internet exists even like when we when John and I left school, it was very, very kind of new, wasn't it?

Really? And do you remember Encarta, Gracie? Sorry to uh interrupt. Yes, yeah, yeah. Yeah.

I don't know. I'll have to have a Google. I might recognise I'm terrible with names, but faces I recognise.

So Encarta was an encyclopedia for your computer, but it came on a disc and you put it in.

Oh, was it floppy disk?

Oh no, CD.

Oh, CD.

CD ROM. It was like Wikipedia, but on a disc. Oh wow. You go on there and you type in whatever it was, and there was a few photos. I remember that you went on David Bowie and there was like a little clip of David Bowie is my favourite artist of all time, so there was a little clip of him singing heroes, I think. I might be wrong, but yeah, there was that, and you could just play like this little pre-YouTube, play the little video of it.

Um that's quite a good gauge to see if someone's in the old or young bracket if they know what Encarta is.

I'm shocked I don't, to be honest.

I think it was the case of when I left primary school, I think there was one PC in the school. And um yeah, if you needed to find something out, you'd have to try and get on it at some point. Obviously, there'd be like time slots. And then, yeah, Encarta was the thing where you could look time slots, yeah. Because obviously, you know, you've got X amount of people in the school, yeah.

So it's like, oh, because with one PC, oh yeah, fair enough. I thought you meant for the actual like Wikipedia wannabe kind of thing.

I was like, oh and then yeah, if you need to find some sort of you want to research something, then you'd obviously whack the Encarta thing in and then look it up, and then it's like, yeah. Brilliant sediment rock of a volcano or something like that. Yeah. Sorry, I completely uh took you off on on a tangent there.

There they go, learning something new.

Yeah, definitely. That was yeah, when the career's advice at that point was pretty bleak. We yeah, we had a guy on Andy Plum who was a car designer. He was talking about how he wrote to Ford back in the day and basically asked them what he needed to do to be a car designer, and they gave him literally a list and he followed it, and he ended up being a car designer.

Oh, I love that. That's brilliant.

And yeah, he's he's worked for various companies. He was involved with like the rebranded Reliant Robin and stuff like that, and amongst other stuff. Yeah, but um gosh, that's brilliant. Yeah, that's really cool. But that was how it yeah, that was kind of how it was. The advice was only as good as the person sat behind that desk, and if they didn't know anything about cars, yeah, you were stuffed.

The power of the internet.

Yeah, embrace it. Well, yeah, thank you very much, Gracie.

Thank you for having me.

We're real yeah, appreciate your time, and um, yeah, best of luck with everything you're doing, and hopefully, yeah, we'll bump into you at some point.

Yes, absolutely.

Festival of the Unexceptional is kind of on our radar. We just haven't haven't made it yet, but um really, really, really good event.

It is a bit of a trek. I don't know where you guys are based, but it is up in Lincolnshire, Grimshorpe Castle, usually. It's an incredible venue.

Yeah, we're further down south. I'm on South Coast and John's in uh is it London or London, Kent?

Uh Southeast London now, new money, yeah. Yeah.

Oh nice. So I'm sort of from Essex area of the accent.

Right.

So yeah.

Cool, cool. So yeah, thanks for joining us.

Brilliant. Thank you very much.

Cheers, take care, bye. See you later.

Meet you later. Bye.

Cool. There we go. These are nice bloke, wasn't he? If I edit that out, then that's gonna sound the first bit that's gonna be really weird. Yeah. That's good. Yeah, yeah, it was nice, nice chat. There wasn't a lot of my dad's car, as we kind of say, but it isn't all about that, it is about kind of the chat that goes with it and obviously the the work that she's working on with starter mode to encourage younger people into careers and sort of hobbies, etc., which are around uh old vehicles, which is really great.

Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, something that we would um well, like I've just said a minute ago, it's all something that is needed, isn't it? And the more sort of awareness there is with regards to how many different avenues there are in motoring in terms of careers, then the better, really.

Absolutely, yeah, absolutely. I think um, yeah, airstream caravans look them up, but yeah, they're iconic. You've probably seen them at Goodwood and stuff. Kind of the polished silver, yeah, yeah, sort of long snails sort of shape type things. But yes, yeah, I know. Yeah, pretty impressive bits of kit. Um, a small mention for the Porsche 912, which is basically an old 9-11 but with a four-cylinder engine in it. But um, yeah, still expensive-ish to run and um a fair bit of value to be whizzing around in. So, yeah, the uh Austin E Sprite or the midget, a bit more sort of uh wallet-friendly. Yeah. So yeah, that's really cool. Um, yeah, thank you very much to Gracie for joining us. Absolutely. Okay, we'll wrap this up. Roll the credits.

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