Lewis Warren from Takona: My Dad's Cars - 205GTI, Toyota Celica, Audi TT, E46 M3, 996 Turbo. S3 E7

[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

[00:00:17] nostalgia.

[00:00:18] And you know what?

[00:00:19] It doesn't even have to be about your dad's car.

[00:00:21] It can be your mum's, your grand, your parents, guardians or even her neighbours.

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

[00:00:31] Hello, you're right.

[00:00:35] Hello.

[00:00:36] Yeah, good.

[00:00:37] That's things.

[00:00:38] Not too bad.

[00:00:39] Can you hear us?

[00:00:40] Are we there?

[00:00:41] I can hear you now.

[00:00:42] Super.

[00:00:43] Yeah, Lewis from Tacona, welcome along to My Dads Car.

[00:00:46] Well thank you for having me.

[00:00:47] I was up, yeah, aware of your work for a while and we saw you up at Harry's ignition opening.

[00:00:54] Obviously you did some talking and which was great.

[00:00:57] And then got chatting to everyone and we sort of missed each other a little bit.

[00:00:59] And then, yeah, reached out and said would you like to come on for a chat?

[00:01:02] And do you like, yeah.

[00:01:03] And who are we?

[00:01:04] So, yeah, I'm Andy.

[00:01:05] This is Jon, who's over there.

[00:01:07] Nice to meet you, Lewis.

[00:01:08] Nice to meet you, Jon.

[00:01:10] Before we kind of jump straight into it, do you want to give us a quick minute on what

[00:01:14] Tacona is all about for those who aren't aware?

[00:01:16] Hopefully we'll continue to spread the message for you.

[00:01:19] Yeah, sure.

[00:01:20] So Tacona in its kind of purest essence is a clothing brand that uses cars to create

[00:01:26] conversations.

[00:01:27] So it's automotive themed that acts as a very easy identifier for someone who's interested

[00:01:32] in cars and it allows for the conversations to be started with strangers basically.

[00:01:38] So alongside making automotive clothing, I run a podcast and a network of car meets.

[00:01:44] So the whole idea is let's use cars to connect people, get them talking to one another.

[00:01:49] And hopefully if we can encourage them to talk a little bit more about their mental

[00:01:53] health, we'll be doing a good thing with it all and breaking down some barriers around

[00:01:57] those conversations using cars as the easiest way to get started.

[00:02:00] Fantastic.

[00:02:01] I think yeah, we found any sort of talking is good talking isn't it?

[00:02:05] Once you kind of get going, yeah, then it's like peeling an onion, I guess.

[00:02:09] Yeah, exactly.

[00:02:10] It only takes a little bit to stop breaking down the barriers and you find quite quickly

[00:02:15] that you end up into a proper chat without too much encouragement.

[00:02:19] It's just that initial bit of momentum is kind of all that's needed to get things going.

[00:02:24] Fantastic.

[00:02:25] So yeah, business matters I guess.

[00:02:27] We ask everyone the same question.

[00:02:29] What's your earliest motoring memory of car memory?

[00:02:33] So my dad had a 205 GTI, which is appropriate for the name of his podcast.

[00:02:41] And I think my earliest car memory is him selling that car and me kind of crying about

[00:02:47] it right up until he turned up with a silica to replace it.

[00:02:52] Constellation price.

[00:02:53] Yeah, well when he sold the silica, the guy that bought it often came in an XJS and asked

[00:02:59] him, well, can we just swap for his car?

[00:03:01] And I was like, no, that's a much nicer car than our silica.

[00:03:05] And it was the wedge shaped silica is a deregier silica.

[00:03:08] Yeah, so it wasn't even like a GT4 or the more modern stuff back in the 90s.

[00:03:13] Pop up lights though.

[00:03:14] Yeah, pop up lights used to break down all the time.

[00:03:17] What color?

[00:03:18] Red.

[00:03:19] Okay.

[00:03:20] Nice.

[00:03:21] I would have one now if I had the space and the money I'd have one now just because they

[00:03:23] were quite a cool thing.

[00:03:24] They're a little bit like forgotten about.

[00:03:26] I've seen one every so often.

[00:03:28] I'm always tempted to go knock on the door and be like, how much do you want for it?

[00:03:32] There was a red MR2, Mark 1, which was around the corner from where I grew up for years

[00:03:37] and years.

[00:03:38] Always fancy one of those.

[00:03:39] Yeah, yeah.

[00:03:40] They're a lot of fun to be fair.

[00:03:41] The front of mine's got a Mark 2 and he's just put the turbo engine in it.

[00:03:45] And it's probably quite dangerous because they're all five with glass and flashton.

[00:03:48] But it's a lot of fun before you have the crash.

[00:03:52] Absolutely.

[00:03:55] So where did you go after the silica?

[00:03:57] What did he have after the silica?

[00:03:59] I think he got his first company car, which was an E46.

[00:04:04] Okay.

[00:04:05] Which got hit by a lorry.

[00:04:06] Right, you went down the side and just destroyed this BMW.

[00:04:09] Yeah.

[00:04:10] I think after that he had a Mark 1 TT back when they first came out.

[00:04:14] So the 180 brake one.

[00:04:15] And then he got rid of that and got an E46 M3 convertible and then swapped that for

[00:04:22] a 996 turbo portion.

[00:04:24] Nice.

[00:04:25] That's quite a back out, though, isn't it?

[00:04:27] Yeah.

[00:04:28] And then we got board of cars, I think, and stopped by interesting cars.

[00:04:31] I can't remember what you had after that.

[00:04:33] We had that push for a while.

[00:04:34] It wasn't like you gave it a year and then it was gave up.

[00:04:36] We did a couple of trips to Le Mans in it and a trip to the south of Spain in it amongst

[00:04:42] other rides out here and there.

[00:04:44] So a lot of fun memories connected to that portion before.

[00:04:47] Yeah.

[00:04:48] Was that all of them really with a family car if you got siblings?

[00:04:52] Was there a few of you squeezed in there?

[00:04:53] Was it just you and your dad or?

[00:04:55] Yeah.

[00:04:56] So I've got two brothers.

[00:04:58] So none of them had five seats, which meant one of us was always kind of squeezed in

[00:05:05] some way where it probably shouldn't have been.

[00:05:07] And if it was current day we would have gotten a lot of trouble, especially with not having

[00:05:10] car seats and things like that.

[00:05:12] Yeah.

[00:05:13] But at the time you could kind of just get away with sneaking a small child in a cubby hole

[00:05:18] somewhere.

[00:05:19] And with the porch, I remember the transmission tunnel kind of sits in between the two

[00:05:24] rear seats.

[00:05:25] So it's not like a bench, like a bigger car would be.

[00:05:29] So my youngest brother would just sit on that and me and my other brother would kind

[00:05:32] of hold onto his legs.

[00:05:33] That was kind of how it went.

[00:05:37] But yeah, it was always fun turning up at like a car park and parking in the parent and

[00:05:42] child, especially in a portion getting all the funny locks and then the three of us just

[00:05:47] kind of fall out the back.

[00:05:49] And I was like, oh, fair enough for a parent and child that's quite appropriate.

[00:05:53] Like we would get a lot of funny locks until the trio would fall out.

[00:05:58] Did you have any involvement in selection if your dad's cars?

[00:06:01] There was when it came to that point.

[00:06:03] No, no, no.

[00:06:04] He'd set up a couple of businesses and he was doing all right.

[00:06:07] So he made a lot of friends in the kind of car dealer world in the area.

[00:06:12] And it was always a, oh so and so he's got this in sort of bought that and there was never

[00:06:16] any consultation.

[00:06:17] It is quite impulsive really, which I kind of test to was that's how I ended up with my

[00:06:21] GT86 was a, oh that's fun.

[00:06:24] I'll see if I can make the numbers work and here we are.

[00:06:27] So yeah, one day he left in an M3 came back in a Porsche.

[00:06:31] That's how it went.

[00:06:32] Nice.

[00:06:33] Was there a more sensible family car on the driver?

[00:06:36] Did your mum drive or my mum does drive you?

[00:06:38] She had a Citroën Zara Picasso for a bit.

[00:06:41] Lovely.

[00:06:42] Beautiful.

[00:06:43] And about as sensible as we got for a time she was driving a escort van that my dad had bought

[00:06:51] because he bought a second house that it needed loads of work.

[00:06:55] So he bought a little van and that used to kind of blow our head gasket every so often.

[00:07:02] So we'd be on the way to school and then there'd just be a plume of smoke trailing behind us

[00:07:08] as all the oil and water would mix.

[00:07:11] Would you be in the back of that kind of?

[00:07:13] Yeah, pre-paying attention to safety regulations.

[00:07:18] There'd be two of us sat on the wheel arches and usually the smallest one in the front because

[00:07:24] it was easier for them to strap in and me and my other brother to kind of just hold on.

[00:07:30] And that continues so that van went a bit further down the line with my dad bought a Suzuki

[00:07:34] Cari which was when I was about 14, 15 so I learnt to drive in that thing because we lived

[00:07:40] on a place with a bit of space around it so I could at least just drive around without

[00:07:46] kind of being on the road.

[00:07:47] And they're a bit like a Bedford Rascals, that's the same sort of thing.

[00:07:50] So it's technically an MR2 because it's mid-engined, rear-wheel drive and two seats but not in

[00:07:56] the kind of sports format, it's more of a utility MR2.

[00:08:01] But it meant that you could if you really wanted to, you could get the back end to kind

[00:08:05] of go a little bit which if you're in a field it's much easier to do because it's muddy.

[00:08:10] It also means it gets stuck way quicker.

[00:08:12] Quite a high centre of gravity though, I drove a Bedford Rascals and it wasn't a pleasant

[00:08:16] experience.

[00:08:17] Yeah, we obviously not on the public roads tried to see how fast we could get it to go

[00:08:24] and got up to about 85 before it started to get really terrifying because just any slight

[00:08:31] like breeze and the whole thing would really sway quite aggressively so that they're kind

[00:08:36] of limited to the speed limits by physics more than anything else and fear.

[00:08:42] You don't want to go faster than that in one of those things.

[00:08:45] The engine's under like the passenger seat or something isn't it I think on this?

[00:08:48] Yeah, so 1.3 though so you've got a little bit of poke.

[00:08:51] It's not like it's a K-Car 660cc thing.

[00:08:55] It's got enough to kind of carry stuff around and turns out three kids all in the back.

[00:09:02] Just rolling around on cushions.

[00:09:04] Yeah, so we had a piece of carpet that was like the shape of the floor but not like

[00:09:10] car carpet like out of a house off cut and then the wheel arch is so you just hold on

[00:09:16] and hope for the best I suppose.

[00:09:18] Because I grew up in the countryside it was all twisty country lanes to get anywhere

[00:09:23] so in the back of that thing if you weren't paying attention to where you weren't looking

[00:09:27] forward it really threw you off in a shopping of corner.

[00:09:31] I think me and friends have all thrown up in the back of Vans whilst being driven somewhere

[00:09:36] by my parents just because it's so much movement.

[00:09:40] It gets some hand rails installed inside didn't they like it bit like a chubo something?

[00:09:44] Yeah, what we do is we pop the headrests up on the front two seats so that you had two

[00:09:51] little bars to hold onto and that would make it substantially easier but then you're

[00:09:54] on your knees so you were fighting against how long your knees would last before they

[00:09:59] started to ache but yeah I think even that will just a seatbelt across the paneling so

[00:10:05] that you're just strapping while you were on the wheel arch.

[00:10:08] That might have made a bit of a difference too.

[00:10:11] Quite considered just having a bit of carpet down at least for the knees I suppose.

[00:10:15] I think the carpet you know when you really compress something on a carpet it's become solid

[00:10:20] and that's all that happened.

[00:10:22] I remember travelling in the back of a lutean van we'd picked up a sofa from somewhere

[00:10:28] and yeah naturally we had more people than the cab of the van would take so I was travelling

[00:10:33] in the rear of this lutean van on the sofa and while we were travelling down the jaw

[00:10:38] carriageway the roll shot or the back started opening and it was a horrible experience kind

[00:10:45] of trying to just keep your foot on that you see stop this sofa moving around in the back

[00:10:50] and says are some sort of bit of a James Bond moment.

[00:10:52] Yeah, good by Mr Bond.

[00:10:54] At the end of the Italian job I thought could it be nice.

[00:10:58] Can you take any straps or rope or anything to hold that down?

[00:11:01] I don't know whether we did you know I think it was just a case of I think we picked the

[00:11:05] sofa after doing something like maybe someone had moved house and we managed to pick up

[00:11:09] a sofa like on the flight free ads or something it was like before we take this van back

[00:11:13] let's go and get this sofa from East Preston or something I think it was and yeah I ended

[00:11:18] up with the back of it sort of peering through this gap which kind of just kept going like

[00:11:21] this with the roll shot up to you just hoping I wasn't going to be scraped off the carriageway.

[00:11:26] My friend's mom had I think it was like an e300 estate that had the rear facing backseats

[00:11:34] yeah but it's like a seven seat of back before people carriers were I think and even though

[00:11:39] she'd only been taking two of us home from school we'd always sit like facing out the

[00:11:43] back window and just wave at everyone and like it's way more exciting when there's a little

[00:11:48] bit of mystery to where you're going and you're facing the wrong way and you can wave

[00:11:52] it strangers as a child. It's very similar thing to being stood in the back of a lute

[00:11:57] in van with the shutter up like that you've got some really funny looks.

[00:12:01] We've had a couple of guests somewhere that have mentioned those marks before with the

[00:12:05] rear facing seats the death seats I think I'll label them before yeah you lose your knees

[00:12:11] in a rear track and they're good for travel sickness as well aren't they looking the wrong

[00:12:15] way that and the coloring book you're going to throw up.

[00:12:19] Well funny you should say we took the TT to Malaga in Spain so there was my dad my grandad

[00:12:27] me and my middle brother and we were going through the Pyrenees and it was back when you

[00:12:33] didn't have like screens and things in cars I had a laptop I was watching high sage the backseat

[00:12:40] and then we kind of go halfway through the Pyrenees and I'd kind of snapped back to reality

[00:12:44] for a second and then all of the motion just hit me in one go and I think I gave my dad

[00:12:48] about four seconds warning before just throwing up everywhere. I just filled this TT and that

[00:12:54] was on the way down so we then had like ten days in Spain and then the drive home with it

[00:12:59] just getting warmer and warmer as we got further off the south and because it was fully leather

[00:13:05] interior it just created like a bowl in the back and just absolute destroyed the inside of this

[00:13:12] TT. At least it wasn't cloth. Yeah if it was clothed it had really soaked in and we'd have

[00:13:18] had months of that just kind of seeping out every softened with the smells. Oh, so renders.

[00:13:23] Yeah travel sickness is a real thing and you don't not look at the road if you are in any way

[00:13:28] susceptible to it because it catches you like immediately. Yeah I used to suffer a bit really

[00:13:33] bad even when I was younger to the point where if I knew we were taking like a semi long journey

[00:13:38] I'll make the point of not eating which would probably just make the situation worse to be honest

[00:13:41] because I used to think oh if I eat it's going to come up so yeah it's not nice. Would you

[00:13:47] attribute kind of interesting cars to your father or if you kind of had other influence from kind

[00:13:52] of other people as well? Now I'd say it comes from my dad and from his dad okay growing up my

[00:13:57] granddad had an Austin 7 in his garage just in bits but he stripped apart as all project cars

[00:14:02] are you strip him apart and then you go yeah get around to that and then 15 years later it's still

[00:14:07] in the garage in bits yeah and by the time I was old enough to kind of understand what it was

[00:14:13] and help put it back together you sold it oh no so I spent like all of my childhood peering into his

[00:14:18] garage looking at this really old car in pieces and going yeah one day we'll fix that up and then

[00:14:23] we move to the my dad and my granddad bought a set of barns that they then converted into houses

[00:14:29] so we moved over there and he's like oh just I haven't got the space for it so I've sold it

[00:14:33] I was like great there's that project car gone yeah he's had I went to see him the other day and

[00:14:39] he was telling me he had a Rover 75 but like an original one and his favorite thing is just

[00:14:44] the headlights on it were like three foot every time he says this they get bigger three

[00:14:49] foot tall these headlights but he bought a Rolls Royce for like seven pounds back in the 60s

[00:14:57] and it cost him a tenor to fill it up he got one tank out and then sold it again he was like

[00:15:02] it's way too expensive to try and run this thing so I think that's where the the love of cars really

[00:15:07] originated from and obviously my dad's a bit of a petrol head or he was I don't think he is any more

[00:15:14] he used to be a lot more interested in cars but I don't think the same way that I am I think he

[00:15:21] is of the generation that you kind of had to know what cars were otherwise you couldn't drive them

[00:15:25] if it broke you kind of had to fix it unless you were really wealthy yeah kind of you had to have

[00:15:30] a bit of an interest in them whereas a lot of people now they're just they're not that first

[00:15:36] because most cars just work so they're like what features does it have like how does it sit

[00:15:41] how does it drive and from there they're not really interested whereas my interesting cars is now

[00:15:47] I like unique quirky things that people've kind of forgotten about which is why I've got my little

[00:15:51] Renault 5 but my dad's never really gone down that I'm going to buy a quirky little classic and

[00:15:56] enjoy having a classic car he's always just been like oh I can afford this fast car now

[00:16:01] and that was kind of his interesting cars was what's the fastest thing I can afford

[00:16:06] rather than what's the most interesting car or what classic car can I have or anything like

[00:16:09] that it was always just uh I like cars but I'm not a nerd about it whereas I'm very much

[00:16:16] a bit of a nerd about it would you say there was kind of a status thing that with his choice of cars

[00:16:20] probably a bit yeah he was a financial advisor which obviously comes with a bit of that territory

[00:16:25] anyway and he's always kind of liked having something that's a little bit flashy but fast yeah

[00:16:32] so he likes driving or he did I don't know if he still does I think he's not been on the road for

[00:16:36] a few years now um he likes driving quickly so if you could go quick he was happy yeah whereas it's

[00:16:43] not the same as like my little Toyota is really good dynamic car but it's not that fast

[00:16:48] but I enjoy that more than something really high-powerful yeah so I think it was often more of a

[00:16:53] it goes really fast and I look like I've got some money

[00:16:57] right happy with that because you could go turn up at places and people would kind of treat him in

[00:17:02] initially with a bit of extra respect almost um because he was in finance he'd turn up at

[00:17:07] customers house and he'd look like any way he was doing yeah yeah it's kind of half the battle

[00:17:13] when you're meeting someone for the first time and trying to effectively get money from them

[00:17:18] it was uh I'm good at my job because I can therefore afford a Porsche so I must be good at what I do

[00:17:25] so you can trust what I say is accurate true or whatever whereas I'm not really that inclined

[00:17:30] I'm not bothered what I looked like I've my run 05 cost me 500 quid and I'm happier in that car

[00:17:35] than I am in anything else because it's fun it's interesting and it's quirky and it has its own

[00:17:41] charm its own character I would happily drive that every day if I could yeah which

[00:17:47] is a big difference but it does mean that I grew up around cars so I can't really complain too much

[00:17:51] yeah absolutely sounds as if your dad kind of had like stepping stones to the not the end game car

[00:17:57] but you could tell hundreds like 205 to M3 Porsche's yeah I think the 205 and the

[00:18:03] Selica were his like these are interesting cars and then he got into kind of the financial world

[00:18:09] and it was like oh BMW and then it was kind of on this what's the coolest thing that's going to

[00:18:15] make me look good for customers rather than what do I find interesting so with the TT it was

[00:18:21] kind of the only sports car that they could get in the company car range yeah so that's the one

[00:18:26] that's going to make me stand out from everybody else because everybody else is in a beamer or a

[00:18:29] merc because I'm in a sports car so I therefore I'm a little bit more interesting and then that

[00:18:34] obviously progressed up to scale who said like M3 and then the Porsche it was all kind of for a

[00:18:39] purpose to put it in that box. Apparently that's why E46 M3's quite often I've got a lot of

[00:18:45] previous owners because they do exactly what your dad did yeah they get it and then maybe

[00:18:50] have a year or two and then go on to the Porsche not that I know that at first hand but

[00:18:55] the friend of mine's got an E46 and she absolutely loves it it's her favorite car ever yeah and

[00:19:01] it's not that she couldn't step into anything else she just genuinely really loves it as a car

[00:19:05] I've had a few in the family that yeah it sounds exactly the same thing they just

[00:19:09] think they're a bit like a comfy shoe they're just a great sort of all-rounder yeah yeah

[00:19:14] someone was comparing the current M2 to the E46 M3 the other day and if you go on

[00:19:21] inflation an E46 M3 in today's money would be about 65-66 grand which will get you an M2

[00:19:30] without the high performance pack on so it's a very comparable car and the E46 could be smaller than

[00:19:36] the M2 now yeah battering softer and squidier and more pedestrian friendly do you recall any

[00:19:41] music from childhood trips out in the cars right so when we went to Spain in this TT we had a

[00:19:49] 6 CD multi-changer which my dad was like yeah I brought the CDs we were all right got enough

[00:19:54] to get us to Spain but what he hadn't done is actually put them in the car so we had one CD

[00:20:00] and that was country and western's greatest hits very nice so after the first couple of

[00:20:07] goes round on boy name Sue 9 to 5 cowder the cat like proper like classics me and my brother got

[00:20:14] bored and started just re-wording it all with as many poo jokes as we could basically so we had

[00:20:21] probably I think it was a 3 CD box so it wasn't just 12 songs we probably had 35 songs of just country

[00:20:29] and western music that my dad didn't listen to it's not like that was his music my dad's an 80s pop

[00:20:34] man it was just the only CD that happens to be in the car because he forgot his like wallet thing

[00:20:40] of CDs yeah but that's all we had for 14 days brineman so we had the radio while we're in England

[00:20:46] and then as soon as we left England it was like everybody's talking French and then Spanish so we don't

[00:20:51] actually know what's going on so then we had the one CD and it never occurred to us to buy a CD here

[00:20:57] we had literally oh I guess that's what we've got we drove all the way to spade with it

[00:21:00] is this the vomit trip as well that's the vomit trip yeah so we had the vomit vomit and country and

[00:21:05] western music and then when we got to spade your poor brother it's worse for my brother in this story

[00:21:10] unfortunately we were staying in a friend of my dad had a in an apartment down on the south coast

[00:21:16] that we were staying in and one night my brother got out of bed and slipped on the granite floor

[00:21:21] his head on the granite corner skirt in board that was there and split his head open oh god so he'd

[00:21:28] had me throw a ball over him country or western music for I think they probably got six days by

[00:21:34] that point and then crack his head open on a stone skirt in board unfortunately I think he was

[00:21:39] about six so he doesn't remember any of it it was not a good one for my little brother

[00:21:43] no you need some counsel enough that what color was the TT black metallic black coupé or

[00:21:48] cap coupé or the cabrid a2c yeah cabs are two seats they've got the roll over hoops

[00:21:53] haven't they if it was a cab would you have vomited over the side louis rolls and like a bow

[00:22:01] that's true I want to be in it because there's only two seats so I couldn't have gone anyway

[00:22:05] no I don't need a boot those it was the one eight it was with the spoiler so post recall

[00:22:14] book pre 225 yeah and he bought the number plate m10 ktt so it said my okay TT on it

[00:22:21] he's always been quite good to get an interesting number plates that's always been a fun thing

[00:22:24] that he's done okay that was the defining factor of the car was my okay TT was the number plate

[00:22:30] that's probably worth more than the car these days isn't it that plate I'd imagine potentially

[00:22:34] yeah probably is I don't know if it's around I need to do a DVLH accompanied yeah there might

[00:22:38] one TT's kind of rock bottom isn't it you can buy one for 500 pounds that you it's going to

[00:22:43] cost you another leg but yeah yeah make mine to just bought one I think he paid four grand for it

[00:22:48] because it's 60,000 miles on it's really nice spec and within a week it's gone through a coil spring

[00:22:55] failed its MOT so they are rock bottom for a reason at the moment hopefully enough people will

[00:23:02] save them and keep them going so that they'll kind of mature a bit as a classic yeah I can't

[00:23:08] make a piece of design like really um of its time and it kind of pre-maledium styling yeah they

[00:23:13] did a really good job with it uh another friend of mine who runs the cafe we started copying

[00:23:18] his cars from he's got one on his drive that he's slowly kind of he says he's OEM plus restoring

[00:23:26] but I think before he took it off the road it was running about 400 brake okay though uh it's

[00:23:32] quite a spicy little thing uh and he's done the 240 conversion where you take the back seats out

[00:23:38] and put the brace bar with the netting in yeah um so it's quite a cool little thing actually

[00:23:43] and I'm hoping he gets it sorted so that we can go and take it for a drive because I imagine it will

[00:23:48] be ridiculous with 400 horsepower from the the 180 yeah yeah any cars lowest that your dad had

[00:23:54] that you would like to get your hands on well not obviously the same one but I would like a 205 GTI

[00:24:00] I would like a Selica I would like a 46 entry and I'd quite like 96 too but yeah yeah

[00:24:06] for all his faults he's got quite a good tasting car so that was easy

[00:24:11] he also had high looks it's his first car and uh for the Ryan injection gear I think it was

[00:24:19] nice um so he's had some interest in stuff I can't fault him for that um I'd probably also like

[00:24:25] as you could carry again because that was like a fun little thing but I'd like to let it pick up

[00:24:29] 4x4 version that they did I think that would be quite good fun to just play around more than anything

[00:24:35] and that is Johnny Smith just wrote tested something sort of similar isn't it?

[00:24:38] that was the die hat suit also yeah yeah and that looks like he had quite a good day with it like

[00:24:45] probably took it off road and everything I've not seen the video yet but um yeah yeah so very easy

[00:24:50] answer I've just yes to pretty much everything on both except for his E46318i which I'm not really

[00:24:56] that interested yeah yeah no what you mean I still see those floating around actually so

[00:25:00] testament to the build but as soon as I see it I know it's a 318 because of the wheels or a

[00:25:06] single exhaust so yeah when I'm on the spot there's three two five i which is quite a nice car actually

[00:25:14] but they did uh like a Williams edition which had the Williams logo stitched into the head rests

[00:25:20] and had a bit of extra trim on it okay I don't think I've seen that yeah I think if you can find one

[00:25:25] they're quite rare but this is interesting like niche spec BMWs that as I spend more time around

[00:25:31] BMW people I learn about but this is the difference between my dad and me like he wouldn't know

[00:25:36] any of this sort of stuff so I didn't inherit that kind of interesting cars so I'm kind of learning

[00:25:41] all this niche car trivia from scratch as I just am around cars more often yeah um so I see

[00:25:48] friends that really know really specific details of a lot of BMWs more than anything and I'm always

[00:25:55] how how do you know this stuff it's such a weird like niche thing to know so much about but it's

[00:26:01] like an E39 in a specific color with a specific set of wheels that they only made for like six months

[00:26:08] or something like really really niche then you could just end up on these little rabbit holes you go

[00:26:12] I don't know how you end up with this knowledge and then I start coming up with like the Williams E46

[00:26:17] I think go ahead oh wait no i'm picking up on it as I this is how it happens you spend time around

[00:26:22] people that know stuff and then you just kind of learn by proxy were you into car magazine to the kid

[00:26:27] no i wasn't actually i had a book of dream cars there's a really thick really like big yeah yeah

[00:26:34] book that had this was in the late 90s early 2000 so it kind of went up to them a clarinet one

[00:26:41] yeah there's like the big daddy supercar and I kind of just religiously studied that I just went

[00:26:47] through and learned all the top speeds all the break-course powders all the engines like all the

[00:26:52] statistics on it it was that in top trumps so childhood me just got really into memorizing facts

[00:26:59] that I can't remember any of now as always just like the hj 220 was supposed to have a v12 and

[00:27:05] then they put a v6 here and then it did this and then it did and I could sit there and I spool

[00:27:10] off all of this random information to anyone that would listen for more than five minutes

[00:27:15] but yeah never got into car magazines which is quite frustrating because now I quite like a car

[00:27:20] and I actually have just written an article for one okay they were regular online bit of writing

[00:27:26] and stuff like that so it's another of those things they're like if I was into that as a kid I'd be

[00:27:29] like way further up down that line by now more than likely you'd have a lot full of old magazines

[00:27:34] like me hmm that's what you'd end up with because you can't better throw them away like that one's

[00:27:39] quite good yeah yeah like when am I ever going to read that magazine again all right the amount of

[00:27:43] time that you would need to just go through all the stuff that you have well I get it and I haven't

[00:27:47] got that big of a magazine collection and I'm still like three issues behind or one that I really like

[00:27:53] and it's just a time management thing it's like how can I not have the time do something I really

[00:27:58] enjoy like what is going wrong in my head that I don't just go oh I'm going to read that magazine

[00:28:02] I really like that yeah it's a weird phenomenon but no unfortunately no magazines aren't a thing

[00:28:07] that I grew up with which they should have I've got a large box in my shed that's got several magazines

[00:28:13] mainly like old football magazines and stuff but there's definitely a lot of sort of old car

[00:28:17] stuff in there so some might to do this to sift through all of that and see if it's anything

[00:28:21] interesting I've started trying to give them away sort of car magazines you just think what's the

[00:28:27] point in keeping it at the time but looking back they're fun to flick through kind of 20 30 years

[00:28:33] down the line yeah I've got some of my dad's like stuff from yeah when he was younger I remember

[00:28:38] going up to my grandma's house and where he grew up and kind of finding like motorsport magazine or

[00:28:44] whatever from like the 60s 70s you've flicking through that that's kind of interested

[00:28:49] still the adverts and stuff yeah we had a similar thing recently someone brought I think it was an

[00:28:54] auto sport from 1987 something like that along to a car meet recently okay and all of a sudden

[00:29:01] like seven of us we're just holding around this magazine looking at all like the old John play special

[00:29:06] adverts and the new datamaso pantera was like the headline thing so they have that and a

[00:29:12] con tash next to each other but it's so much more interesting now because you've got all the nostalgia

[00:29:18] for stuff yeah whereas at the time it was just another car like like most recent one that I went

[00:29:24] back and found was like the 2012 top gear car of the year one that had the GT86 in it okay and

[00:29:31] that's just because I have the car I'll have that one then because it's got my car in it

[00:29:35] well then I imagine in 15 years we'll look back and go I remember when that came out how cool was

[00:29:41] that and why didn't we get that car and why don't we do this why don't we do that and all that

[00:29:45] in the stowage or then completing through was with satin our driverless cars all in a big loop around

[00:29:50] the M25 barely moving I think yeah when you look back and I guess we know the how the story played

[00:29:55] out now like you know kind of the journey the con tash or the pantera went on or like your car

[00:30:00] for example and you know that they've kind of gone like that whatever with prices and it's nice

[00:30:05] isn't it you've picked through it like I could buy an e-type jag for a thousand pounds

[00:30:09] and then you go would I be able to afford a thousand pounds 40 years ago where houses still

[00:30:14] like 10 grandbugs and you're like maybe I couldn't get a jack yeah I found a we've just bought

[00:30:19] our first house and it's like a 70s bill house I was up in the loft just putting stuff in the

[00:30:26] loft and they've put a little bit of carpet over the boarding just so that you feet on on hardwood

[00:30:32] flooring and I pulled this bit of carpet back and there was a car sales section from a newspaper

[00:30:37] there nice and I think it was from 1979 so there was some really cool quirky stuff from back in

[00:30:44] the day that was like 300 quid and then it's like this car's brand new it's 7,000 pounds right

[00:30:51] yeah it was like a Mercedes not like a a daisier would be like a proper nice car 7 grand

[00:30:58] it's absolutely wild and then I look back at how much our house cost when it was built and how much

[00:31:02] we've was paid for it and I have the exact same feeling of oh I wish I was just buying it back then

[00:31:09] yeah although it's not in correlation is it anymore but obviously what people were earning back

[00:31:14] then was kind of a fraction of what we are now although house prices are dramatically higher

[00:31:18] than what you earn sort of thing exactly on this topic the other day and it was saying to earn

[00:31:23] the comparison of 30 grand back in the 80s yeah it was in America so if you were earning 30 grand

[00:31:29] in the 80s it's the same as earning 160 grand today good god that's the amount of buying power

[00:31:34] you had back in the 80s yeah so we're very much off that track at the minute I'd love to be

[00:31:41] earning 160 grand the amount of cars I could buy for that much right yeah wonderful wouldn't

[00:31:48] an amount of space that I could buy to keep all these cars there that's the trickier thing

[00:31:52] like that also comes back to like yeah had you have bought an e-type jacket over a thousand pounds

[00:31:57] in whenever it was like yeah where would you keep it like what sort of state would it be in now if

[00:32:02] well Johnny Smith have been doing a video on it as a barn find yeah you start really assessing your

[00:32:10] life path when you see those old ads you sort of think what if I hadn't a met her and had those kids

[00:32:15] and maybe I would have invested in that car and it's it it that been out and yeah I'm sure she's

[00:32:23] going to hear that oh that's what you think she doesn't listen anymore novel season one off yeah

[00:32:30] my other half says I have a podcast voice if I'm ever recording anything at home she can tell

[00:32:35] because it penetrates the walls much more effectively normally I'm quiet in my own little cave

[00:32:42] and in the garage and then every so often she gets you like oh he's talking to someone

[00:32:46] must be podcasting today you should probably happens for you too and they maybe just haven't said

[00:32:51] anything yeah yeah potentially yeah I guess I agree I've been going so all with a little glass

[00:32:56] tumbler eavesdropping yeah that's it she's heard what you just said so it was a marathon

[00:33:03] he's going in the notepad yeah that'll come back to get you in about three years time yeah

[00:33:09] back on the 15th of December in 2023 this is what you said about me when you did I was here

[00:33:16] thought that bang on the head was funny did you yeah just a light cushion was it I could have died

[00:33:25] it's good job sure it's in the back of an old Mercedes isn't it that's a good point yeah

[00:33:29] she lost her knees probably want to go to concussion yeah I'll be installing a stanna wouldn't

[00:33:35] I know something right now I'm sorry man I can't do the podcast anymore I've got to put it

[00:33:39] sterling yeah very good goodness well yeah we'll bring things to a close thank you very much for

[00:33:49] joining us that's all right absolute pleasure I tell you what you guys are a lot more structured than

[00:33:53] I am with mine to fair play to you the tangents are a lot more frequent when I record with people

[00:33:59] so you've got a lot more control than I have we try and bring it background it's some I don't

[00:34:04] think one of those reasons off we go on a tangent is there are a lot of car podcasts out there aren't

[00:34:09] there where people kind of goes into opinion or just a life story of a particular person and their

[00:34:15] cars and whilst it's nice to hear those we try and focus on kind of the cars which may be influenced us

[00:34:21] but belong to particular people rather than yeah what we're driving now yeah absolutely I think

[00:34:26] it's important that there is a bit more about the actual subject matter rather than just what I think

[00:34:32] about BMWs or whatever it is and it's probably better to keep it on topic which suits the style of

[00:34:39] what you guys doing so fair play well yeah thank you very much for joining us and yeah becoming part

[00:34:45] of our journey pleasure thanks for having me thanks Lewis nice to meet you cheers guys see you soon take

[00:34:50] care like oh it's a wrap it is a wrap yeah I like Luis he's got some nice stuff to say we did have

[00:34:55] a few tangents yeah but some good stories as well he must be a few years younger than I think but

[00:35:00] yeah some more modern stuff I suppose some interesting bits yeah no it's good to get him on because

[00:35:05] we had him lightened up for a bit of a way but yeah looking forward to that one another thing

[00:35:09] disappointed it was really good and there's a very nice car history that his father had as well

[00:35:14] yeah that's a good checklist isn't it like obviously 205 GTI is a bit of a staple isn't it for

[00:35:18] I guess people of a certain age and if you're into cars maybe you did golf GTI maybe you did 205 GTI

[00:35:25] yeah um the Salika are a little bit more of a wild card yeah you can see color the track but his

[00:35:30] father was taking towards a sort of sports car wanting something that yeah had a bit of a look to it

[00:35:35] see enhanced what he was doing business-wise or at least sort of set him aside from others so

[00:35:40] yeah and it's a good thing that Lewis has got going on as well isn't it with the whole

[00:35:44] tocona thing yeah obviously circling back around motoring but looking at the bigger picture

[00:35:50] yeah doing some good stuff there yeah I think so and yeah yesterday he announced he's just

[00:35:55] been sponsored by Skeletrics brilliant so yeah hats off to him that's that's pretty cool isn't it

[00:36:01] I'd like to see Skeletrics become like a Christmas favourite again it's probably slipped down a bit

[00:36:06] isn't it of late I guess with all the other sort of toy competition certainly in our day it was

[00:36:12] as right up there wasn't it yeah I guess computers have taken over and they you can just

[00:36:16] pop a a disc you know we probably don't even have to do that now just turn it on signing

[00:36:21] oh look at it oh yeah it just knows that you want to do something and yeah you want to do dry

[00:36:26] and then you've not got to take over the lounge yeah yeah that's true and then after half an hour

[00:36:31] like yeah mom comes in with a tray of something the trip's over it yeah who's left the Skeletrics

[00:36:37] out I'm coming back to it your upstairs with a basket and Lego on the floor mom's crushed your Capri

[00:36:46] yeah exactly yeah broken windscreen on your mighty metro and

[00:36:50] and the yeah the barriers come off the hairpin grandstands flattened yeah dogs run off with

[00:36:55] the runoff with the controller I can't remember if I've still got some Skeletrics either in the

[00:37:01] shadow of the loft might well have I have to dig those out I've got some actually and actually

[00:37:05] we had a Renaissance like some of my friends we probably while we were at college actually we decided

[00:37:09] to chip together and went and bought like a load and I think one of them had some from being a kid

[00:37:14] so we literally we filled like the downstairs of his house with this massive massive Skeletrics

[00:37:21] set then we set about trying to make twin engine cars using a soldier in our to cut bits of plastic

[00:37:26] out and lashing these extra engines up cutting stuff up fuel our bills going off and the health

[00:37:32] and safety department aren't there with with Skeletrics back in the day oh yeah especially I

[00:37:36] think when you start doing that but I remember we had um must be my brothers I think it's probably

[00:37:41] from the 80s there was a pair of porches there's a go one and maybe a silver one but they had these

[00:37:47] light up headlights yeah which is very cool back in the day yeah I think they weren't missing

[00:37:52] sadly yeah I think you'd done well isn't you if you hadn't just got sort of the oval you'd got

[00:37:57] like a figure of eight or hair pin or something that had the lights on it as well like this wasn't

[00:38:02] just the the entry level yeah and a jump maybe I remember there was a few of them with jumps

[00:38:06] isn't there few marshals maybe few marshals a little cane where it went closer together and they

[00:38:13] kind of bumped themselves off yeah yeah that was a I was just remember playing it and then you'd

[00:38:18] get the smell of Skeletrics but we're slightly alarming like it's hot dust yeah we sort of two minutes

[00:38:25] away from a house fire is that all normal I'm not sure the other thing that's just nice with Skeletrics

[00:38:31] massive box so if it was a birthday Christmas you you really felt like God something it wasn't just oh

[00:38:37] yeah yeah that was like you you there was a big box under that tree and I actually remember um I think

[00:38:44] for my birthday one year I didn't know what I was getting but I knew Dad had gone to the cash

[00:38:48] in carry not just for the shop but I knew he's gonna pick up a present for me so I just remember

[00:38:54] looking out the window and seeing him sort of shot in the boot of the muck and he had like you say a

[00:38:59] huge box which is clearly I think it was a Skeletrics it had Senna's McLaren on the front and

[00:39:05] probably Mansoul's Williams yeah again I think that's long gone but I'll vividly remember that

[00:39:10] it wasn't like the proper Skeletrics it's like another version of it with small sort of F1

[00:39:14] yeah yeah but um yeah that was a phenomenal track like in terms of the twists and turns and stuff

[00:39:20] like that yeah good memories common did the lounge for about a week probably yeah yeah absolutely

[00:39:27] so um yeah great to have Lewis on big fans of what he does definitely yeah looking up at

[00:39:32] Tacona dot com at UK something like that he's on instagram and uh those sort of things yeah yeah

[00:39:37] he's doing some good stuff so yeah hats off to him and thank you very much for coming on the podcast

[00:39:41] okay thank you very much John we'll wrap it up roll the credits

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