Mike Fernie - The Engine Guy: My Dad's MG C, Lanchester LD14, Rover 600, Mondeo and Aston Martins at the school gates.

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[00:00:24] I wrote letters, put them in envelopes and I put them under the windscreen wipers of all the interesting cars in the area. You go back to like the late 90s that was pretty futuristic looking little hatchback. Oh my god, like your dad's got the fastest car in the world mate. So I would say she's potentially the best driver in the family. Welcome to My Dads Car, enjoy!

[00:00:54] Welcome to My Dads Car, a podcast discussing our personal relationship with automotive nostalgia. And you know what? It doesn't even have to be about your dad's car. It can be your mum's, your gran's, your parents, guardians or even a neighbour's. If it made an impression, let's talk about it. How are you doing Mike, you alright? Thank you.

[00:01:20] Wonderful. Yeah, we're just waiting for John to join us. We'll be along in a sec. This will be, his laptop's probably decided it wants to update or something ridiculous like that. Oh, okay. How's the YouTube thing working out? Are you glad you kind of jumped? Have you found unexpected headaches? No, to be honest, everything was expected. And it's going really well. I think the main thing is just not expecting too much.

[00:01:47] Because I'm now doing the job of like four or five people that were at DriveTribe. So it's just about sort of just knowing that you need to take time with certain things. And there'll be days where you're filming and therefore no emails get done, no WhatsApps get replied to. But then you take an entire day to do all that stuff and not get too stressed that you're then not filming. So it's kind of, it tugs either way. So like from the start of the year, straight back after Christmas, it was like film, film, film.

[00:02:16] So I was filming for like six days in a row or something. And then you start to get stressed that it's like, oh, is it enough? Like there's money in my inbox that I'm just like not trying to do at all. So then you get back and it's just like a few days on the laptop, just nailing all of that. It kind of goes in ebbs and flows. So it's just about sort of having the chill to know that that's the way it's going to be. And just like, yeah, as I say, not expecting too much from yourself. Definitely. Let's see. Okay.

[00:02:45] I've not got any answer from him. So what I'm going to do, we'll make a start. And then when he comes through, we'll introduce you. Okay, fine. We'll crack on. It's okay. So yeah, for the benefit of the tape, we are joined by Mike Fernie, who's a YouTuber, I guess in the automotive sphere. That's probably your ballpark. And you've got your own channel now, but previously you were doing some stuff with Drive Tribe as well. Is that right? Yeah.

[00:03:13] I think up until recently, Drive Tribe was my first job. I was there for eight and a half years. And then I decided to do my own thing now. So yeah, my channel is called Mike Fernie and it kind of focuses in on engines. I've kind of gone into a bit of a niche there that's like interesting, cool, or to be honest, really bad engines. And driving into them, stripping them apart, looking through how they've been designed. And you might think that that's like too much of a niche within cars.

[00:03:42] But frankly, an engine is almost always the most interesting part of a car. Unless it's got some crazy aerodynamics or some really trick engineering elsewhere. The engine is like the main thing. So yeah, yeah. I'm quite happy to kind of stand by it. You want to be able to tell people like, bang, like what you are. And it's like, cool, the engine guy on YouTube. I think kind of having the niche is really good, actually. Like there's a lot of sort of broad church stuff, isn't there?

[00:04:07] You might have a smaller sort of pool of people to start with, but they're probably going to be more engaged because you're talking exactly their language. Yeah, exactly. And the videos have performed really well thus far. I've been blown away. Frankly, I couldn't have asked for a better start in terms of the amount of views the videos are getting. Weirdly, despite sort of saying, oh, I'm the engine guy, my biggest video is about to become my biggest. It's about cat's eyes.

[00:04:30] It's something I think the title was like, the engineering in a road cat's eyes more interesting than you think. And that's going to probably do like 700, 800,000 views. Because I bought this cat's eye off of eBay for 25 quid, one of the old school ones with the rubbery middle. Okay. And did a video on like how these things work because I don't know if you know this, but they're self-cleaning these cat's eyes.

[00:04:55] So like they rely on cars to drive over them because they have a little water reservoir in the bottom. Okay. Now there's rainwater. And when you drive over an old school cat's eye, they've changed now, rubber sort of presses down into it. So it like, it's got a little windscreen wiper and it washes itself in the reservoir every single time a car goes over it so that those reflective beads stay clean. Really cool. That is really cool. Oh no. Yeah. I'd never even thought. Do they have cat's eyes in other countries or is it just a UK thing? No, it started in the UK.

[00:05:25] Yorkshire was invented by a guy in Yorkshire and Halifax. But yes, they became worldwide, but now they're all just kind of reflective studs. Yeah. And they don't compress like they do. But up until sort of 90s, 2000s, they were the same design from the 30s, which was this kind of cast iron housing. Yeah. And then a white rubber center that had the reflective beads in it. I've got it somewhere in the house. The one I bought in the UK.

[00:05:54] God knows where this guy got it from. It clearly had been like excavated from a road. Yeah. But really, really cool thing. And yeah, it's God knows how many hundreds of thousands of lives that Yorkshire invention has saved. You have to click on that guy's shop and see what else he's selling. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Traffic lights and God knows what. But it's very handy. It's always good to have a bit of a prop with those things. But yeah, it's weird.

[00:06:20] With my content, I always try to nail something that's niche, but mainstream. And I think the cat's eye perfectly suits that because everyone knows what a cat's eye is. They've seen them on the roads. They're everywhere. Yeah. But has anyone done any content about it? No. Yeah. It's kind of the perfect mix of like, they're everywhere and kind of similar to some engines as well. They're everywhere. Everyone knows about them. But in actual fact, no one's actually decided to make content on it.

[00:06:48] So yeah, niche, but mainstream. I think that's where the real peak on YouTube is in terms of views. Fantastic. Mike, meet John. Who's hi there, Mike. Sorry. Sorry. I'm late. It's all good. Tesco delivery. Oh, really? Yeah. They're here now. Yeah. Job done. Yeah. You're here for the juicy bit. We're going to jump into earliest car memory if you're ready to go. Good to go. Yeah. So yeah, Mike, what's your earliest car memory? I think my earliest car memory is opening the garage door in sort of first house in

[00:07:18] Edinburgh when I was two, three years old. And in there was, I need to get the years right. I think it's a 1969 MGC. Okay. And then behind that, a Lanchester LD 14 from the thirties. My dad was a chartered accountant. He's retired now, but his hobby was restoring classic cars. So that MGC, so straight six, three liter, that was the sort of family classic car. And then the Lanchester, it's never ran in my lifetime.

[00:07:47] I don't know if it will ever run in my lifetime. He's still got it. But yeah, that's always just kind of been this thirties thing in the corner. Well, me and my dad, we'd drive about in the MGC, went on road trips down to the Sourston Grand Prix, lots of MG events, the NEC classic car show, those sorts of things. So yeah, I'd say my first car memory is opening that door and just seeing those cars sitting there.

[00:08:13] In terms of like driving, the car that sticks out to me most from my childhood was my dad's Rover 600. Okay. So I think he had a few company cars before I was born. Yeah. By the time I came along, that was the first car he bought new. I think it was the Honda engine one, which is kind of the one you want back then. And it was sort of British racing green with a cream cloth interior.

[00:08:37] And again, we would go on loads of trips, sort of holidays and trips to car shows and stuff I've got, although the audio listeners won't see it. There's me at sort of two, three years old in my dad's Rover 600. Okay. Yeah. That's kind of the reason why one of my sort of final project cars on Drive Tribe was a 620 Ti. Cause I've got this slightly weird, I'm sure a therapist could sort of dive into it.

[00:09:06] My dad had the Rover 600, but like the smaller engine, the Honda one. And my granddad had a Mark II Ford Mondeo. And that was all, I think it was a 1.8 Ghia. Nice. And then when I've come along and be like, right, what cars do I want to drive and restore? I bought the Mark II Mondeo ST200. That was like my first ever project car on Drive Tribe. Okay. And then as I say, most recently I bought a 620 Ti, this sort of Tomcat turbo engine one.

[00:09:34] So I'm kind of got this like weird, like one upmanship versus my dad and my granddad. They had like the base level cars and I've got the fast ones. Yeah. So I don't know where I go from here, like with their other cars and whether there are options to have more powerful ones. But yeah, clearly there's something in my head that's like, no, I want the one up from that. But yeah, I still own the Mondeo. That's still in the collection right now. I sold, I sold the Rover, but it's amazing what things come back to you.

[00:10:02] Like the locking and unlocking sound Rover 600 makes with that little stock coming in and out of the door. I remember when I bought the 620, you know, a couple of years ago. So 25 years since I was in it as a kid, just hearing that blipper going. Yeah. That little stock coming in and out of the door. It was like, wow, that takes me back to 1998. So yeah, I'd say those were my early car memories. Fantastic. What color is the MGC? It's very similar to the Rover.

[00:10:32] It's sort of, yeah, I'd say British racing green with a black interior. So yeah, three litres straight six, but a bit of a beast compared to an MGB really. And that's currently being restored. Now that my dad's retired, he's kind of just flat out restoring his cars. Cool. Yeah. So the aim is to have that car back on the road. It's a whole load of welding, but hopefully have that car back on the road for the NEC Classic November 26.

[00:11:00] That's the kind of deadline for that car to be done. So it'd be really nice to, I've not been in that thing driving probably since I was 10, maybe even younger. So it'd be really cool to get that thing. Is it fair to say, Mike, that obviously your path you've taken with motoring is down to your dad and your grandfather? Yeah, I think so. I think my dad probably inherited a bit from my granddad. I think granddad was like a massive petrol head, but he had some quite interesting cars.

[00:11:27] Like he had like one of those big three litre Vandenpla princesses. And I don't think he ever had like a particularly boring car. He'd always go for something quite interesting. So then I got my dad's mind going. And then, yeah, literally since I was a toddler, there was always some form of interesting car around. And I would say that meant that as I grew up, I only really knew of classic cars because you only really ever went to classic car shows.

[00:11:52] I never really got exposed to more modern performance cars and stuff until, you know, I was flicking on the channels and I came across Dave and there was this rerun of Top Gear. And I was like, oh, I've heard of Top Gear, but they're actually giving it a second thought. And I switch it on and it's Jeremy doing his thing. It's like, oh, do you know what? This is actually quite good. So that's something that got my mind ticking. And before I knew it, I was suddenly into all this sort of modern performance stuff and whole new doors opened up that way in terms of events and things.

[00:12:21] So, yeah, I would say I've always been embedded in like British classics. But the second Top Gear came along and started watching on the BBC, it was like, oh, OK, there's much more out there. Yeah. Nice. So you mentioned doing kind of trips in the Rover. Whereabouts were you going and who was in the car? You got brothers and sisters or? The ones that stick out to me are when it was just me and my dad going down to, yeah, as I say, like the NEC Classic or Silverstone for the MG Fest that they used to do there.

[00:12:51] I must say that there's also a memory that sticks out where we got pulled over on the way back because dad was more than happy to get the foot down a bit. OK. Going up and down the M6. So, yes, I remember me staying in the car and him being taken to the back of the police car for a bit of a chat. He won't like that. I've said that. But, you know, it happened. Whatever. I'd say like the classic trips that stick out to me are heading down the M6 to either Birmingham or Milton Keynes or some of these places.

[00:13:20] There were also family holidays. We went in the 600. It was always a very cozy car. Doesn't matter how cold it was outside, because it was that cream cloth interior, it was never cold. It was always like quite cozy. Nice. But yeah, we went all the way down to Cornwall, I think, in that thing. Well, I've got this abiding memory, actually. Silly thing for me to do. But I remember we pulled up at this village in Cornwall that we were staying in. And I think he just switched off the ignition.

[00:13:48] And for whatever reason, I just had this impulse to shove the car into gear. I just like leant forward and I put this car probably into like third gear, just like straight forward. And I remember getting an absolute... The car was off. But I remember getting an absolute tailing off big time after it being like that. It could have been incredibly dangerous. And I'm sitting there being like, well, clearly I'd seen him changing gear and fancied a bit myself. And therefore, you know, I just went to go give it some. But I would say it was the next car after that. I think it was probably...

[00:14:18] Actually, no, I think it was in the Rover where, you know, the classic you're in the passenger seat and your dad lets you change gear for the first time. I reckon that was in the Rover. But he then moved on to a Jaguar X type, which I remember thinking, oh, my God, Dad's got a Jag. Because Jags were my thing in terms of Corgi models and sort of aspirational car brands. Jag was always the one. So, yeah, when he got that, let me do first, second, third, fourth, all that stuff. Yeah, it was awesome.

[00:14:46] Did you have any influence, Mike, on your dad's company car choices at all? We've had people in the past, haven't we, that have said that they were allowed to sort of have a look at the brochures, that sort of thing. I don't think so, to be honest. Like, as I say, the company cars were kind of before I was along. And then he started just buying cars outright. So that was from the Rover to the Jag X type. I would say I did have influence over the next one. So the X type had basically rusted away.

[00:15:14] And then he was looking for his next car. And I basically opened the door to an S type R. Oh, right. Again, he'd never really been into performance cars. Just wasn't really his thing. But it was like, could we just go test drive this 4.2 supercharged V8? Great cars, S type R. It's really underrated. And we went and drove it and it was like, wow, like the step up from, I think it was a 2.1 litre X types,

[00:15:39] like the small V6 X type to this 4.2 S type R, which he still has now. So I reckon he's had that for like 15 years now. Okay. Wow. It's still daily drives. It absolutely loves it. Great car. Yeah. So yeah, I would say I was at the start where I was like proper petrol heading at that point. And I said, let's have a look at this one here. And he went and bought it. So yeah, I would say that's probably the only car I've influenced him to buy, but a damn good one. Yeah, absolutely.

[00:16:08] Did he have anything on the radio? Were you listening to music on those drive downs? Yeah, he was big on CDs, still is. Yeah. He's got loads of CDs around. So the ones that stick out to me, he was actually pretty cool in terms of his music choice. When I think about it, you know, it wasn't Neil Diamond or any of that. It was like Linkin Park, Marilyn Manson, Green Day. Wow. Yeah. The older school stuff would be still like rockin'. So like ACDC, status quo, all that sort of stuff.

[00:16:36] So yeah, my music taste, I would say has definitely been influenced from those road trips and just like, you know, even going back from school in that car, listening to those CDs. Yeah. Yeah. And he would play loud. Like those X type speakers would be cranking out some Linkin Park. And yeah, we've still got those CDs to this day. I think there's some upstairs that, you know, you put on and you're immediately transferred back. Like for me, it would be sort of 2007, 2008 probably was probably that sort of heyday.

[00:17:04] And just before MP3 players came along, then suddenly, you know, Dad, can you turn it down? Cause I've got, I've got my walk thing on. So yeah, there's probably a nice few years where the CDs were still king. But even now, as I say, in his S type R, you go in his glove box and it's absolutely packed with mostly like, I would call it like Kerrang music, like that TV channel, like all this kind of stuff that was on there, Blink 182 and Foo Fighters, all that, all that kind of genre

[00:17:32] of music is still in his glove box. I don't know if that still exists, that channel, is it? The music channel still exists? I'm not sure if there's a... I think Kerrang closed down. I think I saw something on Instagram. I think it closed down like two years ago. Really? But it went a long time. Yeah. Like that was a staple of music TV. Do you remember anyone else on the school run, Mark, having sort of particularly memorable cars, parents, teachers maybe?

[00:17:56] There was a guy in my year, Cammy was his name, his dad, I think he made his money in property and he used to get dropped off and picked up in a DB9. So I reckon he bought that when we were 12. So that would have been 2006. So like, that's quite early DB9 actually. So that must cost him a few bob. And yeah, he would just turn up in this thing. Oh my God. Like in Edinburgh, there wasn't that many supercars back then.

[00:18:26] If you went to town on some weekends, you might see some stuff, but seeing a DB9 turn up at school was pretty mind blowing. Especially when all the other parents, you know, a lot of them had like Chrysler Voyagers. I would say that was a go to sort of, you know, if you've had a few too many kids, it's like straight into the Voyager. Airport taxi car of choice, that one, isn't it? Yeah. Yeah. Actually, one of my good mates, he was also called Michael.

[00:18:52] And his dad, again, was property and he had that early Merc CLS. Right. You know, the really lovely, like almost teardrop shaped Merc Coupe. And I remember because it was a German Speedo, it said 360 on it. And that blew, like this car's 360 miles an hour. Because we didn't know what the kilometers were at that point. It was like, oh my God, like your dad's got the fastest car in the world, mate.

[00:19:22] Like, this is unbelievable. That was a lovely thing with pillarless doors and really sleek kicking about. They're the ones that you can sort of pick up now for five, six grand, can't you? Yeah. If you fancy some risk. Yeah, exactly. I think, I don't think it was like full 63 version. I reckon it was probably a 500. So still a V8. Yeah. So yeah, those dads were definitely quite pleased to turn up to parents evening in those cars. I would say those were the two that stuck out. Yeah.

[00:19:50] But my mum actually worked at the school. Okay. And that meant that when I turned 17, I could drive to school in and out. Oh, nice. Yeah. So I remember that some other teachers were not a fan of it because they'd look and see, you know, a student driving into the staff car park spaces. It was a Peugeot 206 1.6. It's actually a really nippy car, especially like first car learning to drive it. Like that 1.6 Peugeot engine was pretty punchy for what it was.

[00:20:20] So I thoroughly enjoyed it. It broke down when I was 18 or something and got traded in. But yeah, that was the commute in to school was in my mum's 206. So it was cool to then actually get behind the wheel at some point while still at school. What's the first car you remember your mum having? Uh, Renault Clio. It was a blue Clio. I don't know what gen it would be, but like the Clio Williams generation. Yeah. Like that boxier shaped one before it went quite round.

[00:20:48] So before like the 172s and stuff. I think that was first gen, wasn't it? Yeah. That's the car I remember as a kid, proper like two, three years old. So similar time to the Rover 600. They were kind of the two car garage, family garage at the time. Nice. But then going from that to the 206 was like a crazy jump because that 206, the designs actually, you go back to like the late nineties, that was pretty futuristic looking little hatchback. So jumping from that, it was like, wow, look at mum's new car. This is epic.

[00:21:15] And going for, I don't know what engine would have been in the Clio, but I imagine it was a bit of a dirge compared to that 1.6. Um, and she held onto that thing for probably 15 years, really looked after it before going, you know, to PCPs with fiestas and stuff, which is what she's still doing now. But yeah, I've not got too many memories of that Clio. It's kind of hard to know if it's a memory or whether you've just seen it in a home video or in a picture or something. But there's definitely pictures of me in a pram next to it going off on, on some trip somewhere. Yeah.

[00:21:45] But my mum has always been an incredibly good driver, even to this day. Like she's very confident, but also very precise. So I would say she's potentially the best driver in the family. She won't listen to this. So she won't get too big headed. I don't think. You've thrown your dad under the bus and the compliments be a must. Yeah. Well, that's not to say dad's a bad driver, but as I say. Bad driver. In trouble with the law. Well, exactly. Yeah. He maybe pushes things a bit.

[00:22:13] To be fair, there's other members of the family that have been in much more trouble, but I'll definitely not get into that. Did your mum have the radio on or music? What's her taste like? Well, she would just be straight in fourth one radio, 97.3, which is being put on. And it's the same now. If you muck about it with mum's radio controls, it's, you know, hard coded. Yeah. Like you better be fair for a bit of a scuffle. So, yeah.

[00:22:40] But to be honest, that means she's kept up with like modern music the entire time. While dad's been sort of stuck in his kerang mode, which is perfectly great. Lots of great music there. Mum will just keep up with the trends. So she loves a bit of Dua Lipa and all that. Sabrina Carpenter, all that stuff recently. And she's always had that like throughout. So to be fair, that's kind of kept me and my sister as well, kind of in the loop there because every single trip, it would just be like radio on playing all the brand new stuff.

[00:23:08] And so, yeah, my mum's a bit more hip in that regard. It's funny how when you make that move, which I've done a long time ago now from radio one to radio two, it's kind of like a shift in. Yes. That's that part of life is gone now. And like you say, Mike, there's so many songs now that I wouldn't have a clue who they are and what they are just because I'm not tuned into that anymore. It just is gone. I feel I was saying they all sound the same. Yeah. Just noise. Yeah. I've recently made that exact shift.

[00:23:38] I've recently gone from radio one to radio two. Welcome. Yeah. You know, you just stand there, put it on. Then you switch it over and you're like, wait a minute. This is so much better. Yeah. I'm not like being like hacked by the side that's coming from my speakers. It's just so, so much better. But I realize I'm now settling in to dad vibes at that point. That's one of the first steps. It's like, right. Okay. I am. I think when Greg James makes the move from one to two, that's going to be hitting home for a lot of people, isn't it?

[00:24:07] That they've, they're not young anymore. Basically. Yeah. But then at the same time you'd listen to radio one and the best bit was, I've forgotten what they called it, but basically you could phone in and get a throwback tune put on. And it was like playing three in a row and you'd be able to text in and do it. And that was by far the best bit of every radio one morning program. So that to me, that says all that, you know, radio two is actually where it's at. Yeah. Yeah. Do you remember interesting cars in the street kind of stuff that neighbors had either interesting or just dreadful?

[00:24:36] You kind of looked at them and you kind of think, yeah, they made a poor choice. I'm trying to think what neighbors had, I guess. Yeah. One neighbor over, when we moved house from the kind of Rover houses, I would call it. He always had either a Range Rover sports or a Porsche of some sort. I don't think he ever had a 911, but it was always Boxster or Cayman. And there was also a guy just down the road who, you know, you initially look down on

[00:25:05] him as like the boy racer, but then you actually get into cars and you're like, do you know what? That's actually quite cool. He had a Integra DC five. I want to say I'm not good at my Hondas, but I think that's the one that sort of point to your front end versus the DC two. And it was blue. And actually when I started blogging, which was kind of the first thing that got me into the car media industry, I wrote little notes on, well, I actually wrote letters, put them

[00:25:34] in envelopes and I put them under the windscreen wipers of all the interesting cars in the area and just put my email address. It was like, if for whatever reason you would allow me to drive your car for a blog, let me know. And that Integra was one of the first ones. And I think he also had a pretty spicy Civic, the one before the spaceship. Yeah. But yes, I remember going around Edinburgh, F types, DB sevens. There was always some stinky stuff around.

[00:26:00] There's even a Phantom Rolls Royce, like the V 12 one right in time that I went for as well. It's safe to say, I reckon I wrote between 50 and 100 letters in those envelopes, put them under the whisk of your cars, did not hear back from a single person. Wow. That's disappointing. If I think about it now, you know, if I went out and there was an envelope and it said, can I drive your car, if you use my email address, like, would I answer? I'm not really sure.

[00:26:28] So it was maybe a bit of a rash way to go about it. You live and you learn, don't you, with those sort of things. And it's, it's just kind of, yeah, you feel at the time that's what you've got to hand, isn't it? That's, you just got to do it and put it out there and see. And yeah, I remember the one I really wanted was just round from the corner from my school. There was a DB9 Volante that was street parked. Right. British racing green cream interior is absolutely beautiful.

[00:26:54] And I still, I actually want to make up a film of the DB9 now, because I feel like they're getting slept on a bit and they're so cheap now. But yeah, back then that was like, oh my God, like it didn't get any better than that because you were never going to see a Veyron come down the street or anything like that. But as I say in Edinburgh, where there weren't that many performance cars at that point, and there's plenty now, but back then seeing an Aston was like the epitome. Was that a poster car for you? Did you have kind of a thing you sort of idolized or kind of thought,

[00:27:22] oh, actually when I grow up, I really want one of? Yeah. I think from a youngster, it was always Jaguar. Okay. I was just into classic cars. A Jaguar Mark II was the thing. That's what I wanted. But then, as I say, when Top Gear came along, that's where I would say more classic poster cars started to come in. So Veyron was big for me. Carrera GT was also massive. That's still, I would say, in my sort of top two dream cars, Porsche Carrera GT. The SLR, the Enzo.

[00:27:52] So, yeah, I would say that like 2004 to 2008 supercar era would be my poster cars. I think something that's swung in since then is XJ220. Yeah. Yeah. I'd say that and the Carrera GT are my kind of top two dream cars. I don't know if either of you were at the Buster Scramble. No. But there was a TWR tribute, 50 years of TWR. Yeah. All those cars there, three XJ220s, the Racing Le Mans one as well.

[00:28:22] Nice. Yeah, I absolutely love those things. It's tough between that and the Porsche. I kind of alternate week on week as to which one's like my number one. But if I make it massive and have Clarkson style numbers in the bank, those two cars will definitely be bought. Yeah, cool. It's fitting in a way, isn't it, that those peak years of Top Gear, they were lucky that you said, oh, 4208, that sort of era of supercars, were really special, weren't they? Sort of the beginning of the end, I guess,

[00:28:50] before it kind of moved into the more modern things, which, well, I'm not really okay with it at all, to be honest. I don't know if you are as well, Mike, but it sounds a bit more in tune with the older stuff. Yeah, I think that the peak of Top Gear nicely coincided with cars that were quite powerful and had enough technology on board that they could tune their engines quite high and be reliable, but they also weren't crazy technical. So hybrid systems weren't really around.

[00:29:21] Electronics were like fairly advanced, but nothing crazy. Safety systems, again, were just like okay, but like not amazing. I think those two things coincided for it. It was just, yeah, you could kind of say that was sort of peak car, peak petrol head. I would say it probably started to come to an end. I see the McLaren 12C as a bit of a benchmark. So that was probably 2013. Someone can correct me on that, but I'd say around that point,

[00:29:50] that's when suspension systems are starting to go a bit mad. Braking systems are getting massive and going all carbon. Safety regulations start to get in the way. Emissions just start to creep in. Nothing crazy, but it does start to affect certain car manufacturers. So yeah, I almost feel quite lucky. I guess it's maybe not great in my position now, because maybe I would rather have been a car media person back then to experience those cars.

[00:30:17] But what I quite like now is that my audience, like the DriveTribe audience, we kind of inherited the old Top Gear audience because, you know, the BBC to Grand Tour shifts, it happens. So we were kind of like the internet outlet for those Grand Tour fans, having Clark's hand to me on the channel. Yeah. So what's quite nice is we could do quite a lot of nostalgic Top Gear content on DriveTribe and people would love it. So I drove a Merc SLR.

[00:30:46] We did the Top Gear Arctic truck, the Arctic Hilux when did that, that went absolutely nuts. We went to a museum for all the Top Gear cars. Yeah, the audience absolutely loved that stuff. So I kind of feel now as well on my channel, there's definitely space for that kind of Top Gear nostalgia, because I've always portrayed myself as basically the Top Gear kid that got very lucky and ended up working for those guys.

[00:31:11] So I feel like, although I'm definitely not trying to like copy or improve on the reviews that the three guys did back in the day, I feel like I can take those cars and, you know, basically be that Top Gear fanatic kid that's like, right, well, I'm having a go now. Let's see what this thing is all about and kind of have some form of experience that those guys had back in the day. So, yeah, there should be more of that type of content coming along.

[00:31:38] I'm nearly booking Alpha 8C in because that's the car. I'm kind of going on the negative side of things. That's the car they hated on Top Gear. It was a massive letdown. So my video is going to be like, OK, Clarkson hated this back in 2008. Is it still crap now? Or does like nostalgia start to improve a car? Yeah. Do you actually get into things? You know what? This actually feels quite good because it's just that bit older. So that should be a really fun one.

[00:32:07] Out of interest, obviously, because you've worked with those guys. Who do you think's got the best sort of backstory with regards to parents' cars? Ooh. I swear that I think there's a grand tour clip where Clarkson talks about his dad's cars. I think he had a Cortina 1600e. I don't know if that was for some reason that picture. I think it might have been one of the last episodes where they're talking about the Mondeo was going out of production. That's right. And I think you're right, Mike.

[00:32:37] They all talk about their dads having owned a Cortina. It's actually a very interesting piece with regards to how the Mondeo ended up being in existence and its predecessors. Yes. It was a really nice ST200 estate in that. Yeah. I think they're driving around in it, aren't they? But yeah, it's just fascinating when you look at the evolution of those Ford saloons and how everyone had them to slowly becoming nobody's got them.

[00:33:03] And obviously it's due to the influx of the German cars and how cheap they are now compared to what new Mondeo was. Yeah. I must say, I was always like, oh, three series came along and ruined the Mondeo situation. But then I have recently owned and driven a E46 330D, which would have been like the direct rival. And you get in it and you think, Jesus, why on earth would someone have got a Bondeo instead of one of these? This is so much better. Yeah.

[00:33:32] But I think in terms of parent stories, their side, I can't speak too much for Clarks or May, but Richard actually recently has quite a nice sort of full circle moment.

[00:33:42] When he kind of probably made on top gear and had some money floating around, he bought his dad a Morgan. I want to say it's a plus four, the Ford engine in it. And his dad used to drive around Hertfordshire because they live fairly close, used to drive around there all the time in his Morgan. And his dad passed away last year, I think. Okay.

[00:34:07] So Richard has now re-inherited that Morgan and he's got plans to like do it up a bit and maybe even soup it up a bit, like get some ITBs. And last time I spoke to him, that was a potential plan. So I imagine at some point on Drive Tribe, there will be a really nice series. We touched on that a little bit. Richard and his daughter Izzy built a catering together. Yeah.

[00:34:30] And then once they built it, the drive on the road was kind of this multi-generational thing where Richard got his dad's Morgan out and then Izzy in the catering that her and her dad built. So that was a really nice piece. Yeah. So yeah, I'm hoping in the future there'll be some more of that on Drive Tribe where they go back into that story with the Morgan and get into it. But yeah, I can't say I spoke to any of the guys massively about their parents, but that's the only stuff I really know.

[00:34:56] Yeah. I think when you start kind of uncovering those stories behind it, then just makes whatever content you produce afterwards just a little bit more passionate and emotional. Yeah. And people sort of buy into it a little bit more because all of a sudden there's a reason. It's not just, oh, we like the look of this. So we did this. It's that actually, yeah, because of this or because this happened when, yeah, I was 10 or whatever. I really want to kind of relive that moment. So yeah. Thank you very much, Mike. Yeah. Really appreciated having you on. Yeah. Thank you.

[00:35:25] It's been good fun. Any more questions for you, John? Anything to, uh, I think the only one I was going to ask that sort of slipped by was it, was your dad particularly mechanically minded, Mike? Was he one to get underneath the car at all or was it sort of outsourced? Yeah. Um, yeah. Yeah. Through sort of restoring the likes of the MG and sort of tinkering with the Lanchester. Are you going to do the Lanchester? That's the other question, isn't it?

[00:35:48] Well, his main thing was fabrication. I would say that he had the most training in that, but he would also be more than happy to strip apart an engine and put it back together. He'd always had the big workshop manuals that he'd work out of. And I can't say there's been any sort of disasters despite being an amateur. I don't think he's, he's ever had many issues. Um, yeah. So the goal for the MGC will be November to have it running in terms of the Lanchester.

[00:36:17] This is where me and my dad, we don't really share opinions at all because being an engine guy, I'm really interested in like quirky engineering that's gone on with an engine, especially like quite powerful ones. Well, these things, I mean, I don't know if that Lanchester will do 40 miles an hour. Oh wow. I think it's got 30 horsepower, maybe four cylinder, uh, little single carb thing. Yeah.

[00:36:47] Um, maybe as I grow older, I'll become nostalgic for it because it'll be connected with my dad and the Vandenplass 3L with my granddad. But I do struggle to sort of get on board with that side of my dad's car taste. That's why I'm glad I've got him into like the supercharged Jags because I'll, I'll happily kick about, I'll happily buy that car off. And the S type bar has been, it's been awesome. But yeah, there's this other strands, the thirties and forties stuff that just goes straight over my head, to be honest.

[00:37:14] What is it about the Lanchester that kind of flicks his switch? Why has he got it? I think, I think it's also nostalgia. I have a feeling it is like granddad and uncles. In fact, no, I think, I think his granddad. So my great granddad owned Lanchester's and Austin's and early Rovers, P3s and stuff like that. But again, I do not have much knowledge of at all.

[00:37:39] So I do think, yeah, he harks back to when he was a kid, seeing the adults in his life driving those. So yes, maybe I will inherit that sort of thing. But as I say, I already kind of have with the Rover and the Mondeo. Yeah, yeah, definitely. Nice. It's been really good hearing your story and having a chat. So thank you. Yeah, nice one. Thank you. Thanks, Mike. Yeah, well done, Mike, on your YouTube success. Seems like it's going really well, what I've seen. Yeah, yeah, it's been nuts. I couldn't have answered a better start, to be honest. I'm thinking a bit of a chill time at the start of January.

[00:38:08] Yeah, but we'll be plenty of stuff coming out soon. And yeah, it's definitely been the right move. Good. Fantastic. Good to hear. Yeah. Yeah. Cheers. Cheers, guys. See ya. See ya. Yeah, we'll do a wrap up quickly. And yeah, sorry for calling you. I was like, ah, I wonder where he's got to. No, no, it's my fault. I lost track of the time. I knew that Tesco was imminent. And obviously, of course, it turns up literally the minute that I need to be in front of the laptop. So yeah. Yeah, sorry about that. So yeah, we just did a quick sort of chat there.

[00:38:38] So actually, I'll be able to run that all together as normal anyway. But yeah, I really enjoyed that chat. Nice guy. Absolutely. Yeah, really, really nice guy. Glad to see that he's doing well with his new venture. Yeah, he's obviously built up a decent following over the years, hasn't he? So yeah, I think kind of prior to the NEC, I think you'd seen a little bit more of his stuff than I have. But yeah, he was talking at the beginning about the fact he sort of niches down on engines, which is quite interesting. And that's sort of his thing.

[00:39:04] But yeah, some interesting stuff in obviously the classics that he grew up with, like his dad's MG and that's coming back out. Yeah. Yeah, the 1930s car, which I guess at the moment he just doesn't sort of get or understand. Yeah. But yeah, I'm sure in time that kind of nostalgia will probably come back round and you start kind of loving the weird and the wonderful. Yeah.

[00:39:23] Yeah, I think we've spoken to people about it before, but the cost of buying a 1930s era car is sort of rock bottom because there's just there's not any interest in it from a lot of the people that are into cars these days, unless you are older, I suppose. Yeah, I think as he said, like it does 40 miles an hour. Yeah. What are you going to do with it? Yeah. Yeah. So yeah, it's the sort of thing you have tucked away in a big garage, isn't it? And it comes out for a Sunday fate or something. Exactly. Yeah.

[00:39:51] Then you put it away and yeah, unless you get a call from from a TV show or whatever, who's making a period drama, it's not going to come out again. No. Yeah. Some nice stuff in that incredible music taste for his dad. Yeah, that did catch my eye because I was thinking that seems quite modern. I know Mike is a bit younger than us, but yeah, it's weird to think that a dad is into sort of the kerrang movement. Yeah. Yeah. Definitely Linkin Park, et cetera, which was unexpected and also high volume too. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Very cool.

[00:40:21] Yeah. That's raising a few eyebrows at the school drop, I'd imagine. A few Astons, weren't they, kicking around? Yeah. Yeah. I don't think we've heard of one of those on the school run before. No. So credit to, was it Cammy? Yeah, I think it might have been. So yeah, definitely. That's a cool car, isn't it? Mm. Yeah. Hopefully on the flip side, they weren't bullied kind of for the fact that dad had done all right, as we've heard kind of so many times that, yeah. Can go the other way. Yeah. Yeah. Criminal really, isn't it? It can't win. Just need to have something mediocre back in the day. Yeah.

[00:40:50] Rovers and Mondeos. Yeah. That's the way to go. Follow the line. But yeah. Yeah. Appreciate him coming on and, yeah, sparing us a bit of time. If you haven't already, do go and look him up on YouTube and give his channel a watch because there's some really cool stuff on there. Yeah. Definitely. And yeah. Thank you very much, John. Thanks very much. Cool. We'll wrap it up. Roll the credits. Thank you for listening to My Dance Cart. I hope you enjoyed the show. Please support us.

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