Jay McToldridge 'Players Jay: My Dad's Skodas, My Great Aunt's Fiesta Super Sport and Champagne Silver Golfs. S4E3

[00:00:00] Welcome to My Dads Car, Enjoy!

[00:00:12] Welcome to My Dads Car, a podcast discussing our personal relationship with automotive nostalgia.

[00:00:18] And you know what? It doesn't even have to be about your Dads Car.

[00:00:21] It can be your Mums, your Grants, your Parents, Guardians or even a Neighbours.

[00:00:26] If it made an impression, let's talk about it.

[00:00:29] Good afternoon. Hello.

[00:00:35] Alright. Yeah, yeah.

[00:00:37] How you doing Jay? Good, how are you?

[00:00:39] Yeah we're good thank you man. We're good thanks.

[00:00:41] Meet my friend Jon up here. Hiya Jay.

[00:00:44] How you doing Jon, you alright?

[00:00:45] How's it going? Yeah good thank you. Very good.

[00:00:47] Too bad. Not too bad.

[00:00:49] Cool. So for the benefit of the tape we're joined by Jay from Players Shows and what's your business Jay?

[00:00:57] Wheel something isn't it? It's Hoonigan.

[00:00:59] Hoonigan? Oh you're Hoonigan now?

[00:01:01] Yeah we're Hoonigan now so we were wheel pros and yeah we've transitioned over to Hoonigan who we bought four years ago now.

[00:01:12] Oh amazing.

[00:01:13] Been a big sort of big transition.

[00:01:16] Yeah, yeah.

[00:01:17] Yeah that's my day to day job I run the sort of European side of the business.

[00:01:22] So yeah essentially wheels, suspension lights all of that stuff.

[00:01:26] Yeah, yeah.

[00:01:27] We've got a warehouse in the UK in Essex and I've got another one in Antwerp that I look after.

[00:01:32] Oh cool.

[00:01:33] That's my day to day job and yeah Players is like a, it's been a passion project for 17 years now.

[00:01:43] Well yeah we're joined by Jay and let's jump in. What's your earliest car memory?

[00:01:50] Weirdly it's not my dad's because I grew up as a single parent for the first few years of my life.

[00:01:57] Okay.

[00:01:58] So I grew up with my mum and my nan in East London.

[00:02:01] Yeah.

[00:02:02] And we would go down and see my nan's sister, she had two sisters who lived in Devon, not Devon, Dorset.

[00:02:09] Yeah.

[00:02:10] And one of her sisters randomly was called Rose but everybody called her Mick.

[00:02:14] Of course.

[00:02:16] Yeah it made no sense. Anyway she was a very interesting woman, she was a chauffeur for the Atomic Energy Foundation which was based down there.

[00:02:29] Okay.

[00:02:30] And she would drive all of their executives around. So we're talking I would have been eight so we're talking this is like early eighties.

[00:02:38] Okay.

[00:02:39] And she had a Mark 1 Fiesta Super Sport.

[00:02:45] Nice.

[00:02:46] And she was really into her cars. She had a garage, they had this lovely little bungalow down there and she was the first person who ever taught me anything about cars and I absolutely loved the Mark 1 Super Sport.

[00:03:00] It was, I thought it was fantastic.

[00:03:03] Nice.

[00:03:04] What colour? Black are they?

[00:03:05] It was black with the check interior, the little wheels. Yeah, absolutely killer. And she was actually the first person who ever let me drive their car.

[00:03:15] Like when I passed my test, jumping forward sort of like 10 years, I passed my test when I was 17. By that point my mum had remarried.

[00:03:24] Yep.

[00:03:25] And my dad was very clever in not letting me drive his car.

[00:03:30] I would go down to Dorset and Mick would lend me her car and I'd be able to go out driving in that no problem whatsoever. My dad was completely and utterly right to not let me drive his car.

[00:03:42] So I'm hoping you didn't wrap that Fiesta around a tree or something with that?

[00:03:46] No, I didn't. No, no. I wrapped a few of my own cars around trees, which is exactly why my dad didn't let me drive his car.

[00:03:53] But yeah, that was my first foray into cars and I think it's pretty cool.

[00:03:58] Yeah, absolutely. Can you remember what any of those chauffeur cars were at all Jay?

[00:04:02] I have absolutely no idea. No.

[00:04:04] No, fair enough.

[00:04:05] She never brought any of them home. I never saw any of them.

[00:04:09] But she was like, you know, she never married, just purely did her job and had a real fascination with cars.

[00:04:17] She showed me all of the sort of how a car works and everything. So yeah, it was, yeah, really cool lady.

[00:04:25] Oh cool. Nice. Is she still about?

[00:04:27] No, she's long gone unfortunately. She died when I was 19, which is Christ 30 years ago now.

[00:04:33] What happened to the Fiesta Jay? Do you remember?

[00:04:35] I think she actually part exited for a Honda Civic.

[00:04:38] Oh right.

[00:04:39] Which randomly when she died, she left to me.

[00:04:42] Okay.

[00:04:43] And at that point in my life, I had a Ford RS Turbo van, believe it or not.

[00:04:49] And that Honda Civic was like my normal car.

[00:04:52] Yeah.

[00:04:53] His van was kind of like my show car, so to speak.

[00:04:55] So you kept it for a bit then?

[00:04:57] Yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, I run it into the ground. I literally run it into the ground, yeah.

[00:05:01] That's quite nice that she left it to you though. She must have known that you were obviously banging into your cars.

[00:05:06] Oh yeah, like by the time I passed my test, I was fully immersed in cars, like fully obsessed.

[00:05:12] My first car was a Mark 1 VW Golf GLS, which started my whole obsession with VWs.

[00:05:20] Yeah.

[00:05:21] And yeah, she knew that that was it. I was just, you know, even when I was a kid, it wasn't Hot Wheels so much. It was more Matchbox.

[00:05:26] Yeah.

[00:05:27] Really sharp age. And yeah, I used to mess about with RC cars and stuff like that.

[00:05:32] So she knew that leaving me her car was, it was going to go to good use and it did.

[00:05:36] Yeah, yeah.

[00:05:37] What was your first memory of kind of your mum or your stepdad's cars?

[00:05:41] My mum married my dad when I was about 12.

[00:05:46] Okay.

[00:05:47] And he was a police officer.

[00:05:49] Oh, cool.

[00:05:50] And at their wedding, he owned a P6 3.5 litre V8 Rover.

[00:05:56] Nice.

[00:05:57] And he had the number plate and I don't ever know what happened to this number plate. He had the number plate 999 BAN.

[00:06:05] Wow.

[00:06:06] My dad passed away 12 years ago, but in my mum's house, she's got their wedding picture and it's of them standing either side with the number plate between them, which was super cool.

[00:06:16] Yeah, nice.

[00:06:17] And that was like he would let me sit in that car when I was a kid and I would pretend it would sit on the drive and I pretend I was driving.

[00:06:24] And that was really cool. I've kind of always had to think for him. I've never wanted to get one, but I just do think they're kind of cold.

[00:06:31] That was kind of my first thing with him. And then he was very, very sensible with his money and he was one of the first people I ever knew, much to my embarrassment, who was into Skodas.

[00:06:43] And this is the Pirelli VW.

[00:06:45] Yeah, yeah.

[00:06:46] Engine in the rear Skodas. And we had since moved out of East London and gone to live in Upminster, which was quite a nice area.

[00:06:54] And a lot of kids at my school, their dads all had Granadas and all of this. And my dad had this like, it was brand new, but he was a Skoda and back then they were terrible.

[00:07:04] Yeah, yeah. They were the butt of all the car jokes weren't they?

[00:07:07] Oh, they were horrific.

[00:07:09] Yeah.

[00:07:10] And I would let him come pick me up from school and that would be like, I'm not getting into it.

[00:07:18] Like, yeah. I look back on it now. It's funny at the time. It was awful.

[00:07:23] What colour was it?

[00:07:24] The first one was white. And he literally from that moment on I was 14 right the way through to when he died, which is 12 years ago now so I would have been 37 Skodas, constant and he saw the complete evolution from Czechoslovakian trash to owned by VW.

[00:07:42] Yeah, yeah.

[00:07:43] Yeah, he loved them. At one point, he was thinking about buying a dolly, a Citroen 2CV and it was my mum who talked him out of it.

[00:07:51] Okay.

[00:07:52] Because he thought they were great. We would go down and see my, by that time my nan had moved down to Dorset with her sisters.

[00:07:58] And my mum would be like, they don't do 60 miles an hour. It'll take us like eight hours to get to Dorset. So yeah, he was for a man who had a P6, he was not into cars in the slightest and neither was my mum.

[00:08:12] The Skodas followed the P6, all right?

[00:08:14] Yeah.

[00:08:15] Was it just you? You got brothers and sisters or was it just you in the back?

[00:08:19] Step brother and a step sister. My step sister was considerably older so she'd moved out but me and my brother were there. And yeah, my brother is five years older than me.

[00:08:29] Yeah.

[00:08:30] Yeah, he was just as embarrassed to the Skodas as well. But he was kind of at the point of getting his own car and he wanted a MG, MG Midget.

[00:08:39] Nice.

[00:08:40] I can't even remember what his first car was but yeah, it was a house of shame when it came to vehicle.

[00:08:46] Was the Skoda reliable? Did they break down or?

[00:08:48] Oh God no, never ever broke down. This thing was impeccably reliable. It was awful.

[00:08:54] Like I vaguely remember it having a heater but that was it. It had nothing, literally nothing.

[00:09:01] I think I saw one, some sort of old Facebook advert was posted the other day of one of those Skodas from sort of the 80s. I actually thought it looked alright in terms of...

[00:09:10] Honestly now I'd have one.

[00:09:12] I mean back then, yeah back then you were going to get it weren't you if you were involved?

[00:09:18] Oh God yeah, it was terrible. Thankfully I could look after myself because otherwise it would have been terrific.

[00:09:25] But yeah, I mean now I quite happily have one and mess about with it. I see a few like this.

[00:09:31] I go to a big event in Poland most years and there's a few out there that the boys met. They look great.

[00:09:37] So yeah.

[00:09:38] It's amazing really that pre VW getting involved. That was a massive thing wasn't it? For someone to go and invest in a Skoda you were taking a big risk.

[00:09:45] But as soon as VW jumped on board then it was, I wouldn't say it happened overnight. It was quite a slow burner I guess.

[00:09:51] But before you knew it that sort of stigma was gone wasn't it?

[00:09:54] Yeah and I remember when my dad passed away I had to go and sell his car and he had a relatively new Skoda.

[00:10:01] I can't remember so it's like 12 years ago and it was an estate.

[00:10:05] And I'd spoken to the guy. He'd bought every single car from Skoda Forest Gate in East London.

[00:10:12] Nice to live in Forest Gate weirdly.

[00:10:13] Oh really?

[00:10:14] Yeah.

[00:10:15] Do you used to sell Skodas?

[00:10:17] No comment.

[00:10:20] And I took it back to him and the guys gave me more than the car was worth and said to me your dad,

[00:10:28] one of our first ever cars when we opened as a Skoda dealership and he bought every single one from us so we'll happily take it back.

[00:10:35] They were fantastic.

[00:10:37] Did you ever go to the dealership with him when he was buying them?

[00:10:39] I don't think I did, no. I think again I was just too embarrassed.

[00:10:43] I mean I don't want to talk ill of him obviously he was my hero to be perfectly honest with you.

[00:10:48] But yeah his taste in cars was tragic. Absolutely tragic.

[00:10:51] Any of them fitted with radios? Were you treated to music while he was driving or?

[00:10:55] Yeah I think as time passed because every new one that came out he would get the new one.

[00:11:00] And gradually we got to a point where we got a radio and he was like yes we have a radio.

[00:11:06] And then they would play some sort of tragic music that me and my brother had to listen to.

[00:11:11] But pre then looking back he had some cool cars, he had a P6, he had an Avenger.

[00:11:16] Oh nice yeah.

[00:11:17] And literally the moment he hit Skoda all of that went aside and my mum actually kept one of the Avengers for herself.

[00:11:23] Okay.

[00:11:24] And that was kind of cool and it was an orange Avenger which I mean again sadly enough I love something like that now.

[00:11:30] It's all come round isn't it? They spent a long time kind of you couldn't give them away.

[00:11:35] Yeah I mean I'm sure you say it all the time if you had a time machine.

[00:11:38] Some of the cars I've got rid of in the past that I've literally thrown away.

[00:11:42] Yeah.

[00:11:43] Horrific stories of what I've lost money on or what I could have made money on if I kept it.

[00:11:47] Yeah yeah. Was your dad hands on at all? Would he tinker?

[00:11:51] Yeah yeah yeah. So when he retired as a policeman he'd worked at the same station Barking from 1967 till we retired in 98.

[00:12:01] Wow.

[00:12:02] And then he then became in charge of the garages there so he looked after all of the police cars there for another 12 years before he finally retired.

[00:12:09] Yeah yeah.

[00:12:10] So yeah he was very hands on. I think that whole generation were though they could do anything.

[00:12:15] They could build a wall, fix your car, put your money out.

[00:12:19] Yeah.

[00:12:20] And like you know my son comes to me and I'm like just Google it.

[00:12:25] Yeah it's true.

[00:12:26] Yeah.

[00:12:27] I'm a gardener so I've got to work for a lot of elderly people and some of the older ladies that have lost their partners they obviously get the lights in me to cut their grass but they always say oh you know my Davey used to do this.

[00:12:37] He'd do the garage door, he'd do the wall, he'd do the fence, he'd do everything. So yeah spot on it's totally true.

[00:12:43] That generation they could just turn their hands to everything. I don't know whether it was the trades or not. They just didn't want to spend the money.

[00:12:50] Yeah.

[00:12:51] But yeah I mean my son fixes anything that's technical in my house and my wife does the DIY.

[00:12:59] She's an expert.

[00:13:00] You build the cars?

[00:13:01] I don't know what really I do to be perfectly honest.

[00:13:04] Are you mechanically minded Jay?

[00:13:06] No not particularly. I have a basic understanding of it but anyone who works with me or knows me will tell you that most things I do on a car generally go wrong.

[00:13:17] I tend to use professionals. My theory has always been with anything whether it be building a wall or a car I work a little bit harder to pay a professional to do it because I'm chronic.

[00:13:30] But most of that stuff like Rick who works here and he's my partner with players, the stuff he has to get me out of that I've put him in like I've done this and this, I've taken this apart and this won't work because he's very mechanically minded.

[00:13:43] Yeah.

[00:13:44] I was like alright let's just leave it at me I'll sort it out.

[00:13:46] Do you recall friends when you were growing up with kind of enviable cars? Obviously most stuff is enviable over a Skoda but anything which was like yeah I wish dad had...

[00:13:54] Might have been someone that had a Lada potentially.

[00:13:57] Yeah no so I remember vividly, I won't mention any names but there was a guy who lived in Arminster and I would have been 16 and we were all going to a terrible nightclub called Hollywood's in Romford.

[00:14:14] Okay.

[00:14:15] And he would turn up this dude every year, well he would turn up every night and he would always drive but every year in September when the new registrations came out he would all turn up in a brand new car at literally 10 past 12.

[00:14:30] And I will never forget he turned up one year in a Mercedes 198 Cosworth it was a K-Reg so I think it was a 92.

[00:14:39] Nice.

[00:14:40] And I was like wow what a dude that boy is. I actually got to know the guy and I couldn't stand him but he did have some enviable cars and when we were sort of like 15, 16 we would sort of hang around Arminster and we had like older friends who had Granadas and Mark 2 Escorts

[00:14:59] and that's what I grew up on. Prior to buying my first car everything was full. We'd go out in our mates like Mark 1 and Mark 2 Escorts, I had both of those. A good friend of mine had a Granada and they were great cars back in the day.

[00:15:13] But yeah I'll never forget standing outside that nightclub and he just pulled up in that Cosworth and I was like yeah what a boy.

[00:15:19] You've got a 190 haven't you?

[00:15:21] Yeah it's kind of my obsession sort of.

[00:15:23] That's where it's come from?

[00:15:24] Yeah I think that left an imprint on me and then even as a kid I was like fully obsessed with motorsport.

[00:15:30] I would sit with my great aunt Mick who I was talking about earlier and we would watch the F1 at which she would complain and say they look like rocket ships.

[00:15:38] Back in my day they were proper cars but I got an unhealthy obsession for 90s DTM which is what then just escalated into desperate need to one day have a 190 Cosworth.

[00:15:53] Which is why I've got one now.

[00:15:55] Lovely. I was going to ask Jay if there are any memorable journeys in the Skoda that you might have took like holidays or?

[00:16:04] Only ones I try to forget like when we would go down to Dorset and I would sit in the back for four hours and there'd be no music.

[00:16:12] Me and my brother quite often would just sit there and literally go back and forth talking about Blackadder too.

[00:16:19] We were both obsessed with Blackadder and we knew every single line from that whole series because we would watch it and video it and watch it.

[00:16:26] And we would just sit in the back doing Blackadder too.

[00:16:29] Nice. Did your parents smoke?

[00:16:32] My dad did, my mum didn't. She was never allowed to smoke in the car because of us.

[00:16:36] My mum was very firm on that. She had no interest in smoking and she was like no you're not smoking while they're in the car.

[00:16:41] Good on her.

[00:16:42] Yeah good bit of foresight there yeah.

[00:16:43] Yeah I went out the window when I was older and my dad would smoke when I was in the car when I was like 17.

[00:16:48] It's terrible now thinking about it but my dad actually used to roll his own cigarettes so he would drive with his knees while he was rolling his cigarette like this.

[00:17:00] And then he'd just flick it and then spark it.

[00:17:03] And I do it now. I still now drive with my knees.

[00:17:09] My son would sit next to me and go what are you doing? I'm like your granddad Eddie taught me how to do this.

[00:17:16] It's evolving from rollies.

[00:17:19] Yeah I mean if I ever see my son driving with his knees I'll probably slap him. It's not good.

[00:17:24] I think you see your parents do it and you think I reckon I might be able to do that.

[00:17:28] You've got to give it a go and you see if you could just do the length of a road.

[00:17:32] I wonder whether I can do that corner.

[00:17:34] Yeah.

[00:17:35] Like try and just feed it with your knee.

[00:17:36] Yeah my dad was like because he drove cars for the police so he could do sort of fast speed pursuit stuff.

[00:17:42] And it was funny because he would always drive in a straight line relatively slow and my mum was convinced that he would purposely speed up for the corners.

[00:17:50] Because she'd be sitting there quite relaxed and then all of a sudden she'd be like that going round the corner.

[00:17:54] So yeah it was always quite funny.

[00:17:57] Did you ever get to sit in any other police cars at all Joe?

[00:18:00] Yeah I sat in the old Rovers and when I was younger I used to box for the police.

[00:18:07] I think it was my first ten amateur fights was boxing for the British police team.

[00:18:12] I was never a policeman or anything but my dad trained the British police team.

[00:18:17] So that was how it all evolved and I would go places in police cars and stuff like that.

[00:18:23] Many times I sat in there and asked him to put sirens on and he would never do it.

[00:18:27] He'd probably be good but he didn't.

[00:18:29] Just put sirens on, just for laughs, let's do what we can do.

[00:18:33] Get through this traffic?

[00:18:35] Yeah.

[00:18:36] Was there a stigma to your dad being a copper?

[00:18:38] My mates yeah.

[00:18:39] Obviously he picked you up in the Skoda but...

[00:18:41] With the people that I was friends with when I was younger yeah your dad being a police officer was like really?

[00:18:48] Bit of a problem?

[00:18:49] Yeah it wasn't much of a problem but it was like yeah you know you had to earn your stripes put it that way.

[00:18:55] Yeah yeah.

[00:18:56] So I think you mentioned obviously your first car was a Golf.

[00:18:59] What got you into the Golf and have any of the other cars sort of influenced you on that?

[00:19:03] It was completely random.

[00:19:05] I assumed that I would end up with a Ford.

[00:19:07] My dad gave me, which looking back was a lot of money, gave me a thousand pound to buy a car.

[00:19:14] And he had people that he knew in the car trade.

[00:19:17] One of them was a good friend and we went and looked at, I'll never forget, we went and looked at a Beetle.

[00:19:24] I'd never had any intention of owning a Beetle but I just thought that might be quite cool.

[00:19:28] We looked at a Beetle, we looked at a couple of Ford's but they were all rotten.

[00:19:32] And he had a little sort of like, I'm not going to say showroom, like a yard.

[00:19:37] So this is like 1992 in Raynham and he just happened to say look I've got a 1.6 GLS Golf here.

[00:19:47] And my dad was like oh I saw 1.6, didn't really want him having a 1.6.

[00:19:51] And he's like well it's a GLS so it'll be relatively easy to ensure.

[00:19:54] It's not a GTI or anything, it's a five door.

[00:19:57] I went and saw it and I'll never forget it had a Mountney steering wheel.

[00:20:02] This is the one.

[00:20:03] Literally as soon as I got it I put a Bernini back box on it and a set of teardrop alloys off what was back then a GTI.

[00:20:12] Mark 2 yeah.

[00:20:13] Yeah and then that was it.

[00:20:14] Bought my first edition of PVW.

[00:20:17] Bang.

[00:20:18] Because all my mates had Ford's.

[00:20:20] I did have like some nice Ford's.

[00:20:22] I had a Signal Yellow RS2000 and I swapped it for a set of SL1210 Technics decks because I wanted to be a DJ.

[00:20:32] They lasted about six months.

[00:20:34] So I gave his car away and we all know what RS2000 is worth nowadays.

[00:20:38] A bit more than a set of record decks.

[00:20:39] Yeah exactly.

[00:20:40] But I quite liked the VWs because it was a bit different to what all my mates had.

[00:20:45] And I actually got into an accident in that car which was completely not my fault.

[00:20:49] One of the few cars when I was younger that wasn't my fault a woman pulled out in a Cavalier and I literally went into the side of her doing about 30.

[00:20:57] Completely totaled this Cavalier and all I did on the Mark 1 was do the front bumper.

[00:21:03] I made my dad was like that's a solid car.

[00:21:05] Yeah yeah.

[00:21:06] And yeah I just loved them.

[00:21:07] They were like semi-cool understated whereas like I say when you go up in sort of Essex everybody's got a fault.

[00:21:14] So it was kind of cool.

[00:21:16] What colour was the Golf?

[00:21:17] It was like now I know it was champagne silver but technically it looked gold.

[00:21:23] So I've since had many champagne silver cars.

[00:21:25] I was going to say you've had a few Mark 2s haven't you that colour.

[00:21:27] Is that kind of a throwback or just fluke?

[00:21:30] Yeah no it's kind of coincidental really.

[00:21:32] It's not a particularly it's not a colour I love but I love old VWs and Mark I've had two champagne silver Mark 2s out of about

[00:21:43] I think I've had about 12 Mark 2 Golfs in total and that's just the colour that seems to pop up and they always work because I've built those cars as just kind of granddad spec cars.

[00:21:54] That colour works for them.

[00:21:56] Absolutely absolutely.

[00:21:57] I was going to say Jay you mentioned you got a son yourself have you passed on the sort of car bug to him do you think?

[00:22:03] I seem to he's got a very eclectic taste in cars.

[00:22:09] He's not Skoda's.

[00:22:11] No I bought him a 2012 Polo as his first car.

[00:22:17] I wanted him to have a VW and they're good safe cars covered in airbags and it's a 1.2 so it's very fast.

[00:22:24] But like he desperately wants either a Mark 2 Polo bread van or a Hilman Im as a car that he can work on.

[00:22:33] Alright okay.

[00:22:34] I've steered him towards the bread van because Hilman Im as cool as they are are death traps.

[00:22:40] So yeah I think at some point he also wants a 944 as well or instead of.

[00:22:47] He's still got to pass his test.

[00:22:49] I mean he's failed his theory twice so he's you know much to the abuse that we give him in the office.

[00:22:56] Yeah once he passes he's definitely into it and he's obviously been a player's forever.

[00:23:03] Yeah yeah.

[00:23:04] And he's definitely into it like he loves some of the older more random stuff that I've got.

[00:23:08] I seem to recall did you have a white Mark 1 that you built kind of for him?

[00:23:11] Yeah I did I had a white Mark 1 Swallowtail that I kind of built four different iterations of it.

[00:23:19] I think it's.

[00:23:21] You still got it?

[00:23:22] Well technically no I sold it to a gentleman but I still store it at my workshop.

[00:23:29] He's never picked it up or he just bought it.

[00:23:32] He collects cars essentially.

[00:23:34] Yeah yeah yeah.

[00:23:35] He owns a couple of other sort of ex-show Mark 1 Golfs.

[00:23:39] But yeah I built that for JJ and I built it in its last as it sits now as a green G60.

[00:23:46] Yeah yeah.

[00:23:47] Basically I needed to sell that to get into at that time I wanted a Datsun 240Z.

[00:23:52] Nice.

[00:23:53] But yeah I still see that car anytime I go down my workshop it's just in storage in the corner.

[00:23:57] Hucked away.

[00:23:58] Mark 2 Braidvan that's my first car actually as it happens.

[00:24:01] Oh really?

[00:24:02] Yeah.

[00:24:03] That was actually my wife's other car as well which is kind of rad.

[00:24:05] Was it?

[00:24:06] Yeah I think they're really cop.

[00:24:07] Yeah really nice.

[00:24:08] Like I used to go to like Treffins in Holland back in the late 90s and you'd see them all done up.

[00:24:14] And they were just ridiculous.

[00:24:16] And so I've always had a kind of a soft spot for them.

[00:24:18] Yeah likewise.

[00:24:19] I've had a fair few of those.

[00:24:21] Yeah good little cars if you can get a solid one then not very fast.

[00:24:24] But I think you can learn quite a lot about driving a slow car.

[00:24:27] Yeah they're solid cars but they're not cheap anymore.

[00:24:30] No.

[00:24:31] You can buy an absolute rock box but if you want a solid one they're reasonable money now.

[00:24:36] Yeah a few grand yeah.

[00:24:38] Yeah as is everything unfortunately.

[00:24:40] I remember aquaplaning in mine once at about I was doing 70 let's say and yeah that wasn't very nice.

[00:24:47] That was scary stuff.

[00:24:49] Scary stuff.

[00:24:50] Yeah aquaplaning in any car is scary but yeah the Mark 2 Olo's yeah.

[00:24:54] If you could go backwards and just regain one of the cars your dad had or maybe like Mick had would you want one?

[00:25:01] What would you want?

[00:25:02] Oh dear I'd probably go back to the RS2000.

[00:25:07] It was super cool there was nothing wrong with it.

[00:25:10] Worst thing I ever did really was I suppose probably that from a financial point of view.

[00:25:15] Would you go looking for a Mark 1 Fiesta or something like that to go back to that?

[00:25:19] No I had a Mark 2 Fiesta for a while.

[00:25:22] A Mark 2 XR2 but no I probably wouldn't do that because I always felt that the VW Golf was better than the Fiesta.

[00:25:30] As I say I've been mildly obsessed with them forever.

[00:25:33] Do you think your dad ever had like a dream car Jay that he had in his mind that he liked to have got his hands on?

[00:25:39] The P6 was his dream car.

[00:25:41] Oh was it okay.

[00:25:42] Yeah yeah yeah.

[00:25:43] The P6 was his dream car he got it and then he never drove it.

[00:25:46] He never really wanted he would take it out every now and then but it sat on his drive.

[00:25:50] And then I think my parents decided to do an extension and he was like right it's got to go.

[00:25:55] So that was his dream car.

[00:25:57] Okay.

[00:25:58] And a friend of mine did have one a few years back or quite a few years back and they're not particularly nice to drive.

[00:26:03] I suppose they are in a certain degree they're like wafters.

[00:26:06] Yeah.

[00:26:07] So no that's not a niche that I desperately want to scratch.

[00:26:10] I like to remember it as it was.

[00:26:12] That's the problem you think of these cars and then you get them and you're like oh god they're trash.

[00:26:16] They don't meet your heroes.

[00:26:18] Yeah like that was the thing for me when I got my 964 I was like is this going to be as good as I think it's going to be?

[00:26:24] And thankfully it was but I've had other cars.

[00:26:27] To be fair the Cosworth it's a great car but it's slow as, you know it's not fast in any way.

[00:26:33] It's a great car and yeah you can wring its neck and that's what I like.

[00:26:38] I like cars that you can wring its neck and you don't feel like you're going to die.

[00:26:41] But yeah I mean that car is in no way fast by today's standards whatsoever.

[00:26:47] Yeah I've got a 944 and that's a similar scenario that it's not a fast car but actually you can be doing some serious pace within it.

[00:26:55] But you're probably not that far over the speed limit.

[00:26:57] You're probably not going to do a jail sentence if you get caught.

[00:27:00] Actually I mean I've had silly fast cars like 700 horsepower, C63 S's and they're just ridiculous.

[00:27:09] I mean my wife drives a new KN Turbo.

[00:27:12] You don't need a power bank.

[00:27:14] It's outrageous.

[00:27:16] Everything that I drive is 1992 and older.

[00:27:19] 964 is the fastest thing I've got and even that's only 300 horsepower.

[00:27:23] Everything else is like 200 horsepower and I love it.

[00:27:27] Like my Scirocco is you wringing the neck out of it.

[00:27:30] My 86 you're just killing it and I love it.

[00:27:33] That for me is great.

[00:27:35] The 90s stuff, do you think that's sort of a pinnacle era for you?

[00:27:38] You're like actually I don't need anything newer than this.

[00:27:40] It's got everything I need.

[00:27:42] It does what I need it to do.

[00:27:44] Yeah for me I feel like the stuff you grew up with.

[00:27:47] So like in 92 I was 17.

[00:27:50] So that was the year that my 964 was built and the year that one of my Range Rover classics was bought.

[00:27:57] So they were like god cars to me.

[00:28:00] I think when you're at school you kind of see a brand new car don't you?

[00:28:03] Or that's a brand new car, that really is something.

[00:28:05] So when you get a bit older and you go back to that and you're like...

[00:28:08] I started work in 91 when I was 16 and I was working in London just outside of St Pauls.

[00:28:14] And I would often see 964's like the city boys.

[00:28:18] And I would just think, I like those cars.

[00:28:21] I'll never forget when I first met my wife 22 years ago.

[00:28:26] I was sharing a flat with a friend of mine.

[00:28:30] Looking back now it's probably a little bit weird.

[00:28:32] But I would have been 26 and I had a...

[00:28:37] It was either a Hot Wheels or a Matchbox Black 964 just on the windowsill.

[00:28:42] And she was like why have you got that?

[00:28:44] Because it's a bit weird, I'm a grown man.

[00:28:46] She was like why have you got that?

[00:28:48] That's just my dream car.

[00:28:50] That's what I've always wanted since I can remember.

[00:28:53] So going back to meeting your heroes,

[00:28:56] that was quite lucky when I got that and it was like

[00:28:58] this is everything I expected it to be.

[00:29:00] And I think that's why I'm obsessed with 90s cars.

[00:29:03] 80s cars as well but yeah.

[00:29:06] I mean I've got a 68 Datsun which is ridiculous.

[00:29:10] But yeah, I'm into that sort of thing.

[00:29:14] I watch 60s racing which I was never into.

[00:29:17] I never used to see the purpose of an E-type or stuff like that.

[00:29:21] But I love all that stuff now.

[00:29:23] I think as you get older you start to appreciate more things.

[00:29:25] Yeah, yeah.

[00:29:26] Do you go to Goodwood?

[00:29:27] You do play obviously but do you do the Goodwoods events?

[00:29:29] Yeah fortunately in my relationship with Goodwood I'm very lucky.

[00:29:32] I'm a member of the Road Racing Club so we get to go to all of their events.

[00:29:37] I spend a fair bit of time down there.

[00:29:39] So yeah I go to revival, I go to the members meeting.

[00:29:41] I love it.

[00:29:42] I absolutely love it.

[00:29:43] Yeah they do a good event don't they?

[00:29:44] They know what they're doing.

[00:29:45] Yeah, yeah.

[00:29:46] Obviously I work at Festival of Speed because we always have a big booth there.

[00:29:49] But for me the members meeting is the best because you haven't got all the fancy pants palaver.

[00:29:54] It's just the cars racing.

[00:29:56] Yeah about half the crowd isn't there?

[00:29:58] You can see stuff.

[00:29:59] Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[00:30:00] The crowd like you can get in there.

[00:30:02] Like at revival you have to have a special pass to get in to see the pits.

[00:30:06] Which fortunately I can but at the members meeting everyone can walk into the pits.

[00:30:10] And it's just cold because you can get up close and personal with all of the real spicy stuff.

[00:30:15] Yeah, yeah.

[00:30:16] Fantastic.

[00:30:17] I think this is a good place to kind of wrap it up.

[00:30:19] Anything else we should have asked you as well?

[00:30:21] Any other ones which you'd like to kind of bring up?

[00:30:23] No not really.

[00:30:25] No I think we've covered everything.

[00:30:27] All my sort of old car fascinations.

[00:30:29] Cool.

[00:30:30] I think it's been really good fun.

[00:30:31] And yeah really appreciate your time kind of coming on and having a chat with us.

[00:30:35] Yeah no I enjoyed it.

[00:30:36] Thank you very much Jay.

[00:30:37] Nice to meet you Jay.

[00:30:38] Alright no worries guys.

[00:30:39] See you later.

[00:30:40] Bye bye.

[00:30:41] Cool.

[00:30:42] That's nice wasn't it?

[00:30:43] A little trip down Remarie Lane in Essex.

[00:30:45] Yeah exactly yeah.

[00:30:46] East London.

[00:30:47] Yeah he's a nice guy Jay.

[00:30:49] Quite a good storyteller.

[00:30:50] A few people I've spoken to.

[00:30:51] Remember Lee Sibley came on, the Porsche guy whose dad had a van.

[00:30:54] Yeah.

[00:30:55] And I mentioned to him that Jay was going to come on and he was like oh he's got some great stories.

[00:30:59] I had the pleasure actually during lockdown I did an Instagram live video with him.

[00:31:03] Yeah.

[00:31:04] We had kind of some chats not particularly about his dad's car but what got him into cars was the fact.

[00:31:08] What got him into cars and things like that so yeah didn't disappoint.

[00:31:11] It was a good one.

[00:31:12] No really good.

[00:31:13] He's got a nice collection of cars himself hasn't he?

[00:31:16] Yeah yeah.

[00:31:17] It's good to know that the Essex Ford thing is definitely real isn't it?

[00:31:23] Certified.

[00:31:24] Yeah although he's kind of he's bucked the stereotype to a certain extent isn't

[00:31:27] he?

[00:31:28] Kind of going with VW but.

[00:31:29] True yeah.

[00:31:30] Just going back to Lee Sibley, does he have a 964?

[00:31:33] No he's got a 996.

[00:31:34] He's got two of them actually now.

[00:31:36] 996.

[00:31:37] Okay.

[00:31:38] Yeah 964 was air-cooled, 996 was the first to water-cooled.

[00:31:41] Right okay.

[00:31:42] But yeah they know each other obviously through Porsche's as it happens.

[00:31:46] Yeah.

[00:31:47] Jay does a show at Goodwood another one called Flat 6 which is a Porsche show.

[00:31:51] Yeah.

[00:31:52] So kind of worked together on that previously.

[00:31:54] Yeah.

[00:31:55] And he's been a guest on Lee's podcast etc so.

[00:31:57] Okay.

[00:31:58] Cool.

[00:31:59] Okay that was well on time wasn't it today?

[00:32:02] No I think that would make for a good edit actually some good stories that made

[00:32:06] me chuckle Aunty Rose known as Mick.

[00:32:09] Yeah who knows?

[00:32:11] No explanation needed on that one.

[00:32:14] Yeah.

[00:32:15] Okay cool thank you very much John.

[00:32:18] Alright mate no worries.

[00:32:20] Yeah we'll wrap it up and roll the credits.

[00:32:36] And tell all your friends.