Greg and Adam from Viking Covers: Beige Mk2 Escorts, Peugeot 205, Audi RS4, Jag E-Type, we chat to our sponsors about their earliest car memories. S7E10

Welcome to my data card. And you know what? It doesn't even have to be a bad data card. It could be your mobile. If it made an impression, let's talk about it. Hello.

Hi Chap. Hello. How are you doing? You're right? Yeah, good. Yourself? Yeah, we're good, thank you. Nice to meet you, Andy, as well, because we haven't touched paste yet. How are you doing, Greg? All right. Oh good. You? Yes, we're good, thank you. Excellent. And John, nice to meet you as well.

How's it going? Yeah, nice to meet you both.

Hi, John. Nice to meet you.

Oh yeah. A four-piece. Yeah, indeed.

Yeah, we're really excited to be on. Thanks for having us.

Yeah, cool. So for the benefit of the tape, we're joined by Greg and Adam from Viking Covers, who are our sponsor, which is uh great news. Uh both of these gentlemen are directors at Viking Covers, and if you're after interior or exterior car covers, they are the people to speak to. Um, Greg, do you want to give us just a little bit of something on what you do, uh why you do it, etc.?

Yeah, I'll uh I'll try and keep it somewhat brief, but it requires a little bit of background, which is um from where our dad's uh set up Viking Extrusions um 32 years ago, I think it was now. And uh that's manufacturing industrial rubber products. It was actually rover car seals that um they were doing when they first started off, hence the Viking name. But uh over the years, me and Adam have sort of joined forces and took over the business, and we decided that we wanted to go along the route of getting into something car related, sort of more explicitly car related at least, um, because we're both sort of huge car enthusiasts, really.

Okay.

And um the Viking covers brand and idea sort of just spiraled from there over the last couple years. So we're just trying to now grow it and make it into you know a sort of fully fledged business in itself, away from the extrusion side, and um it's obviously a good opportunity for us to come and do things like this, which we're really excited about.

Fantastic. So uh yeah, if we start with you, Adam, what's your earliest car memory?

Um, I'd say a rather unfortunate one, really, but mum had a 1.6 gear Mark II escort here in Aid Page, brown vinyl roof. Um, I think that's what she had when I was born, so I remember it from sort of day dot, but then one day it got stolen.

Oh nice.

So the earliest memory in cars was not off to a great start of um one being stolen away while she'd left me at a kid's party and gone shopping and then come back to get the car to come and collect me, and the car wasn't there. Oh no. So then she had to arrange other transportation to uh come and pick me up.

Was the car ever located, Adam, or was it gone for good?

No, it wasn't, no. And uh I think it's annoyed my dad to this day because I think I got about 200 quid for it through the insurance company.

Oh no, maybe it's still pottering around in Nigeria somewhere or something.

Yeah, it could be anywhere, couldn't it?

Other African nations are available, yeah.

But then I suppose after that comes the car that I remember most really, because that was around whilst I was growing up the whole time and running me around, was just a little silver Peugeot 205.

Nice.

It's quite funny really, because my love of cars doesn't come from my parents at all.

Okay.

Um, I'm not quite sure where it came from. Okay. But I always had a fascination with cars and bikes.

Yeah.

But yeah, the little 205 used to ferry us around all over, really, and we used to get up to all sorts, especially because with work and dad setting the business up, he was away Monday to Friday, coding my mum into all sorts, putting quads in the back of it with like four of us in, driving us to a field somewhere to like rag this quad round, and then you look back and you think, how on earth did we fit four people and a quad bike in a Peugeot 205? You just wouldn't get away with it now, would you?

We used to have a go-kart actually, and um yeah, we used to get three of us in the Mark II uh no, Mark One Astro it was actually. We folded the seats down, three-door one brown three-door Mark I Astra used to put the go-kart in the back. And then, yeah, one of you would have to sit on like the folded back seat with no backrest.

That's it, yeah.

Yeah, with a go-kart next to you.

Yeah, you find a way to squeeze in, don't you? Yeah. But yeah, that ferried us around everywhere, really, my whole childhood, because mum and dad they've always just kept their cars the whole time. I think my mum's had five, and my dad's probably only had four or five as well, so they've just kept them long term. I've had more cars than they have put together.

What was your dad driving? Did he have a company car or no?

So the first car I can remember him having would have been a Mark II, I think, Astra.

Yeah.

Um, had that for a little while. And then when I was quite young, so again, with the one I remember mostly we then turned to Audi, so he had an Audi 80.

Yeah, yeah.

And had that for quite a while. Then he switched to a Ford Mondeo. I think that was a company car for a bit.

Okay.

That was when Dad and Pete put the uh cars as company cars for a bit. But Greg will shed some light on a more interesting side of a car habit from his dad when we get to him. But then they quickly pulled them back out of being company cars, and then he went to another Audi, A4, just 1.9 TDI. Yeah. Now another Audi, A4 S line this time and diesel, and that's it up to this day, is what he's had. He's had the last one for about 12 years, I think.

Impressive.

Um is he a car guy, your dad? No, not at all. Mum or dad just have no interest. Dad was his vehicles are immaculate, very well cared for, washed, cleaned. He looks after them, but it's not a passion or a hobby.

Yeah.

They've always just been used as a as a tool to get around in, really.

He must be quite meticulous on the servicing of said cars, though.

If they're going on forever and ever, he must be Yeah, he's never scrimped on servicing them or looking after them. He always wants to try and get them as far as he can. I remember the first A4, he was absolutely gutted because he wanted to get it to 200,000 miles.

Oh, okay.

It got to about 185 and the head gasket went.

Oh no.

So it wasn't really worth repairing it. And then he was like, Oh, I wanted to get to 200. Um, so yeah, he just drives them until they're sort of past it, really, and then replaces them.

Sounds like the sort of chap that's had the same pair of shoes for 30 or 40 years, just reheals them. That's it, yeah.

Again and again and again. Comfortable pair. I'm pretty sure the battery lasted 10 years on his current A4, didn't it, before he replaced it. Yeah. He has this amazing ability to just make parts last twice as long as they should.

Yeah, like brake pads, he never seemed to have them change or anything, but it was mainly just motorway miles. So it was all long distance, no short journeys, really, which I think helped him last.

That's always a classic on the old auto trader ads, isn't it? X amount of miles, mainly motorway.

Yeah, that's it. Not under stress. Fantastic. And yeah, mum's migrated to Audi's now as well. She's had two TTs, so they're both stuck on the Audi brand.

That's a bit of a car person's car, though, isn't it? A TT, I would say.

That's yeah, the TTs are more that way than the 205. I think there was a 206 in between as well. So Peugeot, Peugeot, Audi, Audi.

Have you had any influence on it as a car person yourself? Are you able to kind of lean on them a little bit and sort of influence that?

No, I've tried. Um, Dad always had a lifetime ambition to own an Aston, and he's fortunate enough to have got him into a position where he could afford one now. And I keep trying to push him into getting a V8 vantage, but he said he's too old and he's not interested now, so he won't do it. So I've been trying for two or three years to force him into it, even if it just sits on the drive for him to look at. But he's he's more interested in pushbikes than cars.

Yeah, different podcasts.

Yeah. But Greg's dad's had a colourful line of um cars. He'll have a few more interesting stories, I'm sure. I've driven one of them actually, but I won't give the game away on what it was.

Okay, well, um, yeah, the floor is yours, Greg. You've been set up here. Yeah. What's your earliest car memory, sir?

Um, we're feeling very ill in the back of Dad's RS4 as a child. Um, I remember distinctly always asking Mum, I said, Mum, my cousin used to live just around the corner from us. I said, Mum, you know, why can't we have a big garden like them? And it was always well, your dad likes spending money on cars more than he does houses. As a kid, I remember being like, oh yeah, I'd love the garden, but I'm really grateful now. I'm older that I've sort of got to have those car experiences.

But um Does that mean you had a massive garden, Adam? Sorry, I'm just jumping in there. No, six acres. It's not a farm.

No, it's just a standard-sized garden. Sorry, Greg. No, no, no. Um, but yeah, it's one of those things where it's a weird one with Audi because I feel as though you know they're obviously a massive brand now, and even in the early 2000s, they were uh you know relatively well known. But unlike BMW, they're still sort of making their mark on the world, I think. And when the B5RS4 came out, I mean as a kid I didn't really know much about it, but um, all I knew it was as fast, and I felt ill in the back of it, and usually be out cleaning the wheels because dad could never be bothered to do the multi-spokes. He'd sort of give me a little bit of pocket money to get all the brake dust off them for him.

Oh, okay.

Um, but it's been an interesting childhood growing up around so many cars. Um my dad's brother, so my uncle on his side, he had a Series 2E type. He kept that for 42 years and he only sold it, I think it was last year or the year before. Oh well. Just because he's um he drove it five miles and that was to the MOT station back, and still to that day he MOT'd it every year. Unbelievably. So what a car that was. But I've sort of been weirdly similar to Adam growing up in a sort of Audi-oriented family. So dad went through the B5, then onto the B7 RS4, then he got a C6 RS6 for the V10. Um, that was a monster. Then he went to the C7, RS6, then he went C63, and then obviously past that point, sort of when I was getting a bit older, so things changed past, then, don't they? But all growing up, always amazing sort of cars, really, very exciting to be around. But again, massive influence on me. I think the only thing is that all of these cars are a fortune or cost a fortune to run and maintain, don't they? That's the trouble.

Yeah. Do you remember the first car that you thought actually this is a cool car? Like, we when with the say the first RS4, did you realise kind of its its position maybe in kind of car hierarchy as it being kind of a cool car, or was it sort of later in the years when you like you sort of look back on that and go, actually, yeah, that was kind of a pretty hefty family car?

Yeah, so I mean that's a really good question, to be fair. I at the time, no. But then I'm not sure, it's hard for me to reflect because I was so young at the time. I don't know who would have really noticed that RS4 back then. It's hard for me to say, but certainly as I got older, um, you know, you start thinking, wow, that was very cool. Um, a very cool thing to be carted around in. Um, mum wasn't quite so lucky. I think she got a voxel signum, um, as far as I recall. Okay. Um, I remember having lots of hatches in there and cubby holes, which as a child was uh enough to keep me occupied, but yeah, still perhaps not exciting to be driven around in as the Aldi.

Small garden and a voxel, it's it's tough, isn't it?

And car sickness. Yeah, and the car sickness, yeah. It was worth it, it was worth it for the Aldi. Um but my uncle was a big influence as well. Like I said, he he done a lot of restoration himself, so he had a lot of classics. Um he had an 80, Aldi 80 sport as well in white, which I remember being really cool. Um, then a sunbeam rapier that he restored from scratch. Some really interesting bits. But again, things that perhaps when I was younger didn't recognise so much. But the e-type will forever be the one sort of burnt into my memory, just because you know, going to car shows and things, he'd have me under there polishing exhausts and bits and pieces like that. And they're really lovely memories, to be fair, you know. I'm glad I got them. What colour was the e-type? My dad had one. My dad had one in yellow. Did he?

Yeah.

Uh Dave's was blue. Okay. Almost like a baby blue. What series was your dad's?

Uh one and a half, so it was a 67. He got it, he had it as a US import and restored it. Okay. Yeah, Roadster. Yeah. Print Mary's yellow, it was a lovely car. So what's what's the difference with the one and the one point five?

I actually don't know the differences between ASC.

I think the covers on the headlights, I believe, are potentially tail lights. Okay. But I remember him him saying it was series one and a half. I think series one was potentially 3.8 and series two four point two.

Got yeah.

So this was 4.2, but I think maybe earlier body.

Yeah. Yeah, I'm not a complete aficionado and can't afford to be one, but well, I think it's the series ones and the threes that demand the most money these days, isn't it?

Yeah, the threes I think have the V12. That's it. Which I think is an acquired taste, obviously a massive engine, but I think aesthetically they don't look as good as the early cars. No. They've got that big gaping grille.

And the windscreen's a bit more upright, I think, on it from memory. It's not quite as nice looking, is it?

Especially if you've got a two plus two. So they're then sort of like a bubbly roof, which is to fit the back seats in.

Perhaps that's what I'm thinking of, yeah.

So, um yeah, either of you really, we I guess were you going to motor and events? Adam, you were kind of into cars, but your parents weren't. And Greg, sounds like your dad was into them as well. So, yeah, what sort of events were you going to?

I think I started going to car shows and stuff when I was a bit older, probably started to secondary school, I'd say, so about twelve. But I had a mate that was really bang into cars, and his parents had a three-door cosmetic. Yeah. So we always used to con them into taking us to like classic Ford show and around all of those. So that was when I really started to then get into cars properly.

Yeah, yeah.

And I think growing up I remember you sort of get influenced by ones around doing the school run and bits and pieces, don't you? So there was a few dotting around. It's funny because it's just a like bog standard normal school parents weren't super wealthy, but when you look back now, there was some three in particular cool cars knocking around. There was two escort Cosworths.

Nice.

One of them being Mallard Green Monte Carlo.

Wow.

You remember that one for sort of ever. And then somebody else had a Subaru WRX. Uh that was obviously when McCrae was driving for Subaru, so it was quite a popular thing back then.

Yeah, yeah.

So yeah, that sort of age, I think 12 to well, all the way through secondary school, really, just get into as many shows as possible, but you had to con somebody into taking you because you obviously couldn't drive yourself.

What colour was the Coszy?

The three-door was white.

Okay.

And then he had one himself later, so it obviously it affected him.

Yeah, yeah.

I think as we got a little bit older before we could drive, actually, I think we got the train up to the NEC a few times, going to various different shows, yeah, um, classics. I think we we'd done a max power live, it was that sort of era grew up in really.

Yeah, yeah.

And then yeah, just going to shows continually since. Never never shaking it.

Were you one for car magazines? Was that kind of your thing?

I was well, I was quite lucky because the same friend had a subscription to everything. Yeah. So he had a magazine land, I think they were monthly, weren't they? So I'd always once he'd finished with them, I'd get a fast car or max power performance forward, or we'd probably spend too much time reading them at school than actually doing any schoolwork was uh getting passed around the classroom. Yeah, I remember that well. Yeah. Well, it was much more interesting, wasn't it?

Yeah, definitely. Every kind of notepad had got a car on three spokes drawn in the corner. That was the that was the thing.

Yeah, then what can I buy when I'm older? What can I aspire to? Yeah. I think one thing I remember in particular, Greg saying about cost of cars going crazy, was looking, I can't remember what magazine it was now, but I remember looking at a 964 RS, and I think it was like £20,000, and you think, oh yeah, one day, one day maybe I'll be able to afford one of those.

Yeah, you should have bought it.

And then you get older and they're like £180,000, and you think, yeah, I'm not buying one of those.

Yeah.

So you've I used to spend a lot of time trawling through classifieds even before I was anywhere near old enough to drive.

Yeah, it was the eBay dreaming, wasn't it, of the day?

Yeah, it was great.

I remember my parents had a news agent, so we used to it was kind of around the time my brother had just passed his test and then obviously been driving for a year or so. So yeah, we'd get auto trailer and then try and find stuff that he could potentially get next, you know, as he looked through like all the stats, wouldn't you? Right, hot hatches, 0 to 60, and see which one was coming in the best, and then yeah. It was a good old game that wasn't it? You could just sort of find what was available in dream.

Yeah, it was. And they were all regional, weren't they, better than the auto traders, I think. Yeah. So you could only see within sort of 50 or 80 mile radius or something. Yeah. Whereas now you can just look everywhere.

Then you had to have a copy of Parker's, didn't you, to work out your insurance?

That's it, yeah. Insurance group basically always the highest one. You think, right, it's gonna cost me three times the amount of what the cars were to try and insure this.

I think that's why my brother got into an old five series back in the day because he worked with someone and they said, Oh, have you looked at this car? Because insurance-wise, because it's kind of like regarded as quite a respectable old man's car or older gentleman's car, it does fall into a more affordable bracket. So, yeah, that was a top tip back in the day.

Yeah, if nobody's crashing them, it helps keep the cost down, doesn't it?

I do love an old man's car, it's the way to go. I think so. That's where me and Adam differ greatly, to be honest. No comment. Yeah, he's he's the chav, I'm the old man.

So, yeah, were you going to events as well, Greg? And what do you remember kind of being maybe uh yeah, the first one you went to or one of note?

That's true. I find it really hard to remember um because they've all sort of amalgamated into into one, really. They were much smaller shows. I think we went to Goodwood once or twice. I just remember having the leaflet and on the back of it, it did my little bedside table in my bedroom as a kid, and it had all of the brands on the back of it, all the logos, and I just remember my memorising them and sort of dad would you know, test you on it. Oh, what one's that, you know, and you know, oh that's that's Jaguar, that's Audi, that was cool. Really, really distinct memory that, oddly enough. Yeah. But with the car shows, most of them were all sort of you know smaller classics with my uncle, he'd take the E-type and we'd meet him up there, sort of thing. So I wouldn't say I necessarily have one standout with the shows because there's sort of almost too many to go through. Yeah.

Did you do any motorsport, any kind of races you went to?

Uh not so much, no. I I spent more time probably playing Grand Turisma on the PlayStation with dad. Um, it was a long, long learning curve going from just sort of smashing the car into the barrier on the circular tracks, you know, moving up to actually being able to have the dexterity to use the controller and make the car go round. But we had great times with that, you know, sort of flipping the uh PlayStation cable controller over the dinner table and stuff like that to each other. You know, good memories there. I think Adam's Adam's always been the one sort of more to go out and go to these things. Whereas I've probably been to more of the classics, and now as I'm getting older, we're starting to go to more events together, you know, like revival and bits and pieces like that. We went to Essen a couple years ago in Germany, didn't we, Ad, which was good fun. Yeah, that was good. Yeah.

Yeah, that looks a good show, actually. Try and make the NAC next year, the one that we've just been to. It's worth a look, isn't it? And it's good.

Yeah. Yeah, I had your podcast on on that one. The NAC does some good events.

Yeah, they do a few.

Yeah, I've not been to the NEC for a while, actually, so it'd be good to uh make a trip up for that one next year. Essenti's definitely worth a visit, especially the time of year. I think it's actually late November this year, but it's normally early December. Um, short hop on a flight, and then you got the car show in the day and then Christmas markets and stuff in the evening, so it's a little bit different to your normal atmosphere at a car show there, make a weekend of it.

And it was huge and cold. Take a coat. It was really cold. I remember waiting for that burger at the van outside was not enjoyable.

Have you guys uh they've just been sort of pleasurable trips rather than business? Do you plan to exhibit at any car shows at all with the car covers, or is that not on the agenda just yet?

I mean, we want to, it is definitely on the agenda. It's just picking and choosing which ones to do, and I think starting off relatively small, just because to go to some of the big ones that are getting the floor space for a half decent stand would be quite pricey. Yeah, yeah, I definitely want to exhibit at a few shows and Goodwood and stuff would be good.

Well, judging how um there was quite a lot of space at the NEC, wasn't there? It was probably worth giving them a call the week before like the practical classic show. Just say, have you got anything last minute? Yeah, it's true. Not a bad shout. Yeah, have you got any floor space you haven't sold? Yeah, yeah, exactly. Yeah, I've got 300 pounds. What can I get for that? And it'll be like, oh yeah, we'll put you next to the hand warmer guy.

The timing of the one that we just went to as well is pretty good, isn't it, really? Because people are thinking about tucking their vehicles away or just looking for sort of general coverage. So definitely. Yeah.

I think as well, trying to get products out there where you can offer people a little bit more expertise and peace of mind. Yeah, it's um it's so easy now to pop on yeah, Amazon and places like that to go and buy something that you don't know a lot about because it's just a basic product and it's cheap. But to have a product out there where you know you're gonna get sort of a little bit of information and help when you're going through it, because you want to buy something. that lasts, especially if you're going to spend the money on it, and um especially if you're trying to look after something that's going to be precious to you like your car. I think it's better to try and you know buy right the first time and that's what we're trying to do is just make sure that we're there for people throughout the buying process if they want some advice. So yeah people can come to us and say well look I had someone in the US come to me recently and he said look I live in Florida getting really hot summers I want to protect from the sun but in the winter I want this and we can go okay we'll recommend this cover for the summer, this cover for the winter. In the UK it's a little bit easier you can almost just offer one up for all year round because obviously it's just grey permanently bar five days throughout August but um that's what we're aiming for. Plus on top of that it's nice to have don't get me wrong we love the the rubber product side of it. We do love running that business uh obviously it's the family history as well in that and um it's actually really quite an interesting industry to be in if you serve so many other different industries but having something like Viking covers where it's a bit more of a passion project probably much like what the podcast is for you guys getting to do work but also being really enthusiastic about it and getting into the car scene a little bit more is such an exciting prospect for us I think um especially getting to meet you know more and more people as well like yourselves it's gonna be going to be fun I think yeah yeah fantastic are there any vehicles from your history I guess your parents had or maybe neighbours or teachers at school had that you think actually are quite fancy getting into one of those or maybe you have done that already. Well yeah Adam Adam always makes fun of me for that because I bought myself a B7 RS4 I think it was last year or the year before and I remember my dad saying to me he said Greg you know you're stupid don't do that you might be able to afford to buy it but it'll cost you a fortune I said no it won't dad and I tell you what every time I don't listen to him it burns me because um I owned it for about nine months and yeah it just went wrong oh no three months in came out the garage for about a month after that and eventually I sold it because it's still having problems. So Adam jokingly calls me the lemon capture now because it seems to be every German car I touch goes catastrophically wrong. So I might have to explore other brands I think.

Yeah his secrets are yeah you're doing it all wrong getting over excited and rushing into buying the first one was the first mistake I recorded yeah he tried to stop me. I said to Greg when he said he was going to do it I said right when you're gonna go look at one give me a call and uh we'll go look at it together I said because if you're anything like me you'll get blindsided and you'll just buy it and about a week later he rugged me up he was like I've got a B7RS4 I was like what you've bought it I was like I thought I was going with you to look at it and uh yeah like you said it went it went a little bit pear shaped.

So um consumer advice what did you replace it with? Um what did I replace it with? I'm trying to think now oh a van wow there we go ladies and gentlemen yeah I g I gave up I gave up temporarily did you not have the Lexus after was that before that was before yeah was it I can't remember now I mean I have decided that I think dad's right Lexus is the way forward because at least it can't go wrong. I think it's literally impossible for Lexus to go wrong. Yeah yeah rather boring for the most part unless you get one of the V8 models but um yeah I've just been driving around in the van for the last couple of years um in a in a bright blue ex British gas caddy and you know what I quite like it. Adam's got a more exciting garage than me at the moment.

Well I think I must have been corrupted by that early hearing aid beige Mark II escort because that's what I've got.

Okay.

Heavily modified um without the vinyl roof but it it's yeah started off life as a 1.3L left hooker from Holland and it's been converted to right hand drive and it's now run in a 415 horsepower COSI engine. Wow I think I uh yeah combined the escort Cosworth seeing them at school and the Mark II escort from the early years of my life and put it all into one package.

Where did you source that out?

I know you said you got it from Holland but where about was that just online you've seen this or no I've got a good friend that modifies cars actually he's got his own small business called Xanto Sport and it was one of his cars.

Okay.

But he just moved a house and he was uh building his workshop and unfortunately for him and fortunately for me he needed to sell the car to fund the workshop project. Fair enough and he was selling it just as a rolling shell without the engine which is what made it affordable really because the prices had already gone through the roof. I brought it off him in 2018. And I sort of knew him a little bit before but not too much and we've become good mates since and yeah he's done me lots of favours putting that thing together. Nice. It's been together apart together apart it's just gone back together again now. Hopefully it will stay together for the foreseeable um it's actually still up with him at the moment and due to land back with me in the next week or so.

Fantastic is 450 horsepower and a Mark II escort more reliable than a B7 RS4 oh yeah definitely so far well far goodward story last year.

Yeah that's it yeah well it's it's running on a when I bought the engine it made 450 on the jig its high boost setting now is 415 which on 13 inch wheels is ample probably I mean it's got a low boost setting of 300 and a high boost of 415.

300 sounds pretty sensible doesn't it to be fair otherwise you're just gonna see barriers and trees aren't you that's yeah well I think it was running about 330 when it was just on like one map and Greg drove it at that and yeah it's pretty lively at that so the high boost setting probably won't get used very often I guess um from a sort of a crossover point of view that that's ripe for taking like players classic isn't it or retro rides which maybe you can do take Viking covers to as well and do a bit of a crossover.

Yeah that's what we want to do I think I mean players players classic I've been I think I've been to every one bar the first one.

Okay.

And the Mark II's been at a few of them hasn't been for the last year or so obviously because it's been off the road but I think actually it broke down the wave back from players classic June 23 that was when it was last on the road. Yeah but yeah that's always always one of the shows that's first on the calendar for me to be fair. So yeah if we could try and do something there that would be good.

We had Jay from players on actually um I can't remember how long ago it was about a year or so really nice guy.

Yeah he's a good bloke in the jail I know him but not like really well but yeah he's a he's a good bloke.

Yeah yeah his dad had scoders which were really embarrassing that was kind of my memory from that I think his dad was a policeman I think so yeah the fact he was a cop at he was living in Essex and he drove scoders I think was kind of a bit of a killer.

Yeah I'm surprised that's legal in Essex come on it's got to be a Ford yeah he's had a more colourful car history since then then as well oh yeah absolutely yeah he's got some very cool cars.

Um so yeah you've got the Mark to escort which yeah influenced by by that car.

Yeah that's it it's funny how it's gone full circle really because same colour same model just with a heavily modified engine in it.

Um one of our favourite questions uh do you recall kind of music from in the car when you were a kid and what were your parents listening to? That's a great question that is I'd I love that.

That is a good question yeah I don't remember Dad would always have um like prints on or something like that but then he had quite an eclectic taste in music I suppose so he'd go from prints to Bjork to something random. Okay. I don't really remember mum having music on really too much in the car. I think she probably did but we were probably always up to no good and getting told off or something to remember what music was playing but yeah Dad did always have music on but it was yeah that sort of that sort of taste.

Yeah fair enough how about you Greg I know exactly my answer to this soon as you asked it I thought yeah that's I love that. So Martin Otford solo album sailing to Philadelphia every time when the first track comes on I can play that whole album through on every journey because I just remember dad playing it. But he's from Leicester originally and uh every time we go up to see my uncle um again you know car memories going to see him always being excited to go and see what cars he had in the garage and on the drives he'd always been changing them out and um yeah every journey up in whichever Audi it was at the time that album would be on and um I remember the first time when I did get my B7 and when it was working for those very short three months it's like it's got that little tiny like Audi MMI system in it with like a little CD changer in the blog box and I remember putting that on just thinking yep that's amazing. I remember even oddly getting in the back of that car and thinking this is such a bizarre throwback to my childhood and now it's my car but yeah 100% that album um I still love it to this day. I'll put it on whenever but that's the one for me that stands out nice.

I love to listen to that I like Die Straits I've not listened to his solo stuff.

What about you T mine's um a Queen album but I think it was their last album and it's not really like all the other queen stuff. You know it's all a bit weird isn't it the early Queen stuff it's kind of yeah very different. Yeah but the last album is more of just a sort of rocky type thing and yeah it's exactly the same as you Greg whenever it's if I put it on I can just listen to it back to back no problem. It's just yeah etched into your mind now.

Lots of memories yeah yeah yeah the miracle I think it's called okay how about you Andy uh so yeah um grew up in a lot of different cars my parents were separated as well so kind of fairly sprawling family but yeah from my dad's point of view um yeah Dire Straits the Stones Tina Turner you listen to so I used to go up and see him every few weeks and we'd drive back so on the drive back we'd do um Radio 1 Top 40 and then it'd be Dave Pierce dance anthems if we kind of running slightly late so we'd get a bit of Dave Pierce and then on the way up quite often actually I'd take like a cassette of something I'd recorded and it would generally be it would be like happy hardcore or it would be rock or something and I'd subject him to that and then he he had a cavalier which we found a tape in when he bought it and that we've we've spoken about this but when you used to buy a car you'd find that there was a tape or a CD in it and this tape had like 90s dance hits with um Urban Cookie Collective the Key the Secret was kind of one of the ones on there. But yeah we used to listen to that quite a bit that was a that was a welcome find was it yeah absolutely yeah that was that was good I guess there's been some there's probably been some rubbish ones as well but that was a we need to create a Spotify My Dad's car X playlist don't we get a get a song from each guest put it all together.

What about a playlist of found CDs and tapes unfortunately none of mine are that great the best I got was Christine um Aguilera I think it was or something like that. Oh no nothing particularly brilliant.

I think we got Billy Ocean in one car I think yeah I remember you saying yeah she was alright actually yeah that's another one that's kind of etched um when songs come on from that album yeah I feel like I've been shortchanged.

I don't remember ever finding anything in any of the cars I've brought don't have that joy anymore.

I actually made the effort of leaving a CD in my old BM when I sold it as a sort of token and um what was it? Oh I actually went around the charity shop and I found the Verve um hymns in there I did you I stuck that in and I think that came out the same year that the car was manufactured. But yeah it's off the road now that car for some reason.

So fair enough I was just about to say I'd happily buy a car from you then for ECD but if it's off the road perhaps not you could add it to your collection we took that up to Scarborough didn't we yeah it didn't have any wipers did it the wipers weren't working that day so optional but yeah very comfortable ate the miles up very nicely yeah which BMW was it? It was just an E395 series um 2.5 straight six but yeah it was taken from nothing to be sniffed at nice car no nice car taken from me by the mayor of London unfortunately uh yeah yeah I had to sell it yeah don't get me started on that subject that's another story where where we do swear I won't be able to refrain if we go onto that subject yeah yeah speaking of emissions regs I've actually recently just gone fully electric even after swearing I never would and it's a strange experience and I wouldn't say it's unpleasant it's very relaxing okay but it's just never gonna be as exciting as something with a manual gearbox and a nice engine I mean I'm I'm sort of really big on my engine if I'm gonna buy something it has to have something special under the bonnet. Yeah that sort of other people go for handing and things like that. I'm quite happy to cruise as long as I've got a nice engine to listen to so you take that away from a car you're losing so much aren't you?

I think the engine note yeah I think I've said before that I I don't really care about going fast but if it makes a nice noise then yeah it just makes a lot of difference. Yeah yeah you're right you know you're never gonna get that are you with electric unless they invent some sort of strange way of giving an engine note out of an electric vehicle which probably not gonna happen. It's basically a speaker isn't it I think some electric cars have it.

Yeah they do yeah yeah uh but I think it's still get your wife to do it next yeah I still think it lacks something though that it can't possibly recreate I think that mechanical interaction between all the parts and gearbox is just something that no matter what noise you fake it's it's never going to be quite the same is it I think they're soulless aren't they like the thing.

Wives or electric electric cars electric cars.

I'll be in trouble for that really it's an extension of modern cars anyway though isn't it because there are a lot of sort of very vanilla cars which are a miserable driving experience with a petrol engine so you add add an electric engine into it and yeah you've not even got the joy of a a proper engine you know you're removed because it sort of handles like jelly and you can't tell how fast you're going anyway and then you add into the fact that it just sort of takes off like a train.

Oddly enough I think it actually adds a a level of luxury to the most basic cars because without the noise of some horrible little four or three cylinder diesel in the background I think it's actually more pleasant. Yeah I'm not all against electrics I think for something like that yeah if someone said to me would you rather got around in a I don't know I'm trying to think of a new line example now a Toyota I go at 70 miles an hour on the M25 or a Nissan leaf you know I'd I'd pick the leaf every time but if someone said would you rather have a nice pan If someone said would you rather a RS6 or a a taekan you know an RS6 every day of course.

I always when I see electric cars particularly on the motor always makes me a bit nervous because you do know that they've pretty much got instant speed when they need it. They can just go like bang. So you never quite know what's going to happen anymore when you kind of approach and overt are they gonna come out or yeah yeah so whenever I see those number plates with the little green bits on I just sort of think oh driver beware. Yeah what what's gonna happen but steer clear.

Well yeah thank you very much guys it's been kind of good to chat to you and um yeah hear some of those memories and kind of find out what's obviously inspired you really to create Viking covers and push forward with sort of a passion project to help other owners I suppose kind of look after their cars a bit better.

Absolutely but yeah no thank you for uh having us on it's much appreciated it was uh really nice to come on chat yeah thank you both good to meet you both yeah yeah yeah really good to meet you both we get to meet in person wouldn't it at some point yeah we'll have to go to a show or something and yeah yeah we'd definitely like to organise that absolutely yeah if you know any caddy shows we'll meet you meet you at a blue caddy van show some sort of British gas specialist event I'll tell you what I'm I might get that organised I might get that organised spoiler event take your old combi along have it looked at I I could I can think I'm in the perfect spot in Sussex right now for that excellent I'll bring the dogs so yeah thank you very much yeah once again appreciate you coming on board and supporting what we do and uh yeah just helping us to uh take it to the next level really so yeah thank you very much no problem at all yeah so we're excited to be involved so it's really good thank you guys cheers cheers guys take care cheers bye bye bye bye bye cool here we go our first four yeah well it wasn't too bad really was it no I guess yeah what we didn't do is sort of dive into more detail but um yeah obviously the fact they've got a history going back from childhood kind of really helps yeah yeah I guess it sounds a similar sort of friendship between their parents doesn't it and then it's just gone down through yeah yeah yeah the next generation which is quite nice yeah absolutely yeah some good stories in there yeah beige beige mark to escort which Adam's now kind of got himself yeah Greg dabbled with the RS4 after his dad having one so um I saw um an A4 on the road earlier today actually and obviously now it looks quite dated but when it came out it was a bit of a game changer really wasn't it from memory it's I think it's the first sort of really rounded Audi wasn't it as well and yeah followed the AT didn't they and then they did the AT was it an S2 which was sort of the sort of the RS4 runner or the RS2 maybe the whole sort of touring car thing kind of that's right probably took it to the next level didn't it and then yeah but like like Greg said Audi's weren't necessarily real popular vehicles back then were they whereas all of a sudden they did sort of boom early 2000s.

Yeah they they did very well I think it was Frank Bieler and whoever the other driver was but yeah they did really well didn't they and they were four wheel drive weren't they the quattro which yeah apart from like the 80s quattro like the coupe etc I guess you wouldn't really think about having a four wheel drive unless you were like a farmer or whatever but yeah I guess that paved the way maybe for I suppose Suba in the rally scene.

That's funny isn't it on the old sort of car magazine programmes it would have been old top gear. I mean old old top gear. If there was a four by four vehicle they'd always have to take it onto a fill wouldn't they or uh drive it over some cobbles and see how it really lives up to sort of tough terrain.

And yeah it's peculiar isn't it really I guess we now we don't really think about it but I suppose there was a bit of a or maybe there was a fear for people that if you bought a four wheel drive just for pottering around and you were over engineering things you were going to spend more money on tyres and wear and tear and all the rest. But yeah I guess um yeah they've done pretty well out of it haven't they already so yeah yeah not too bad and ideal for the performance models for the S4s and RS4s yeah if you want to get that power down then uh that's the way to do it. Yeah so yeah enjoyed that conversation as we've said many times thank you very much to Viking covers for coming on board and uh supporting what we do and um yeah until the next one John thank you very much thank you uh yeah wrap this up roll the credits thank you for listening to my L I hope you enjoyed the show please support us have a coffee and subscribe and tell all your friends