Steve Clyde - Gyeon UK: My Dad could pedal. Peugeot 504, Vauxhall Carlton, Chevette Estate, my Brother’s Capri S8E1

Welcome to my Dad Stock.

Welcome to My DaphneCard. And you know what? It doesn't even have to be about your data car. It can be your mum, your grand, your dad, your dad, or even your neighbourhood. If it made an impression, let's talk about it.

Hello. Hello. How are you doing? All right. Very well, thank you. Sorry I'm a bit late.

I was about to say the same thing.

Welcome along, Steve. Thank you. Good to see you, John. And you? So, yes, uh, for the benefit of the tape, we're joined by Steve Clyde from Geon, which is a cleaning company. Is that right? Cleaning products?

Yeah, so essentially it's a chemicals company that produces car care and detailing products. So ranging through for maintenance, ceramic coats, and paint protection film.

Wonderful. And I think we were approached by someone who works for you, I believe, and they said, I think Steve would be really good for this if you're up having a chat. And it was like, Yeah, yeah, that'd be fantastic. Then since we've been exchanging a few messages, and it turns out you grew up in this neck of the woods and you kind of live 10 miles down the road.

Spooky how good we are to each other. So yeah.

And yeah, I was I was I was explaining to you, yeah. John and I met working in Bogner, he's in southeast London now, but um, yeah, we're kind of down here as well. So yeah, it's quite funny that we've been doing this, and then yeah, we end up bumping into people who kind of grew up next to.

Yeah, very spooky. Is it Storington you're based in, Steve? Is that right?

I am now, yes. Yeah, my hometown was Shoreham, so right, okay. That's uh yeah, where I'm from.

Wonderful. Do you want to give us a little bit of a background on Gion?

Did you start it or are you kind of the no no, so I I mean my career-wise, I've I've been fortunate enough to spend most of it in the automotive industry, which is you know for me is brilliant being a petrol head. Um I had a detailing company myself for about 17 years. Okay. And I was actually a certified detailer for Gion and part of their network. And then unfortunately, due to ill health, I needed to look at doing something else full-time because um I had issues with my knee and being on my feet predominantly throughout the day. I was a bit concerned long term. So had done a couple of projects with Gion, uh, got involved with uh Car Throttle, done a few videos with them, and had a really good relationship with Gion UK. And I sort of approached them and said, Look, I could do with uh at first thinking sort of part-time, you know, would would there be any opportunities for me to work for you? And then it kind of transpired that they were looking for someone to take over running the network of certified detailers in the UK.

Okay.

That was three years ago, and best thing I ever did. And yeah, very much love doing what I do now. Um, obviously not on the tools anymore, but I'm still very much involved with the industry I love and get to travel and do training all over the UK, really. So yeah, very happy.

Fantastic. Well, yeah, we'll we'll uh we'll jump into it. Uh actually, before we do that, where can people find you? That's uh that's the other thing they're gonna ask, isn't it?

Yes, so if you want to sort of search on Gion, so it's um geon.co, that's the sort of global company, and through that you can find us as a distributor at Gion UK. So, in terms of if you wanted to find uh certified detailer in your network, there is a directory page on there, so you can just find whoever's nearest to you. Yeah, but um, yeah, that's uh that's where we are.

And do you sell to the general public or are you through kind of through the trade?

So yeah, there's various different ways of acquiring the products, whether it's through one of our resellers, through Amazon, or through a certified detailer who is also a walk-in reseller as well. So there's plenty of access to our products. We're probably best known for the orange bottle, which is wet coat. Yeah, I think everyone knows how amazing it is in terms of you've got a wet car, you spray it on, rinse it off, and it instantly waxes your car for three to six months. It's that quick, and it's brilliant. Okay, yeah, some great products. I mean, I I've been passionate about Gion when I started working with their products back in 2015, and um, yeah, they're very impressive. Wonderful.

So, um, yeah, Steve, what's your earliest car memory?

I think my earliest car memory is my dad's Peugeot 504 estate, which was as a young lad, I must have only been about four or five, was ginormous. Probably not that big nowadays, but it was huge, it was gold, and we used to get so much stuff in it. I remember our trips to Cornwall, um, family holidays. My auntie and uncle had a guest house down in Cornwall that we used to go to every Easter, and it was just fun times. I mean, my love of cars has definitely come from my dad. Uh, when we were around, uh as in my brothers and I, I wouldn't say he had exciting cars, but it was always exciting to be with in a car.

Okay.

He knew how to pedal, my dad, and it just made driving so much fun.

Nice.

That's not to say that he didn't have cool cars because I think we probably ruined that when we arrived, my brothers and I. Mid-20s, he had a Mark II Jag, he's had a Mark X jag as well, and he loved his car.

Yeah.

Um, I think obviously when children came along, he had to be a bit more sensible, but um, that's definitely where I've got my love of cars from, definitely from my dad.

So tell us, yeah, tell us a bit more about the the Peugeot Estate. There I seem to recall actually, they were big cars, weren't they? They were sort of A6 size, like they did the four series Peugeot, like your 405s or 404s or whatever it was. And then yeah, the fives were just massive boats, weren't they?

It's a very vague memory, but I remember us going to Cornwall in it. Um, I think even took in our cousins in the boot. I I I think we probably got easily eight or nine people in that car going to Cornwall once.

Good stuff.

And it was, yeah, it was Gina Norris. And he went from that to another Persia, I think a slightly smaller one, uh 304. Okay. And then that went to probably the car that I have clear memories of was a Chevette State um in yellow with a brown interior. I remember that quite well. Um, but uh yeah, whenever he had a different car through work, the first thing we would do is like jump in, let's go and see what this thing's like. And as you probably know well, the roads around the South Downs were some good roads, and we'd be out there hammering around.

Was so was the Peugeot a company car for him, and and what was his what was his line of work?

What did he do? He worked in manufacturing and was a production manager. Um the sales manager always had the better car. He had the the sporty Sorocco or the Capri. My dad had a relatively you know mundane car, but he was always a little bit envious of Peter, who had the uh the nicer cars.

I'm assuming Peter had no kids if he's got a character.

Yeah, I don't think he did have kids actually, to be honest.

Nice thick hair, probably.

Yeah, yeah, he was very um and he was a good driver as well. I do recall my dad telling me about some trips out in his Capri where they did some quite tasty driving. I think Peter had a rally background, if my memory serves me correctly. So yeah, it was it was always just fun times being out with dad in a car.

Was um so you you mentioned siblings, how how many how many brothers or sisters you got?

I've got two brothers, I'm the youngest. Okay. My middle brother Phil again was quite into cars, and he was quite a good driver. My oldest brother Andy could take them or lead them, but Phil and I were were were very much really into cars growing up, and I remember my brother having a 2.8 capri um when he was about 18, 19, and we were going to a family um photography session in Hove, and I went with Phil in his car. My mum and dad were already there waiting outside this shop just off New Church Road, and Phil being Phil, he's come around this corner absolutely sideways, all the way down the road, and I said, There's mum and dad there. So he's basically drifted it all the way past my parents who were standing outside this shop. Um, my mum was absolutely livid. My dad, you could just see the twinkle in his eyes, like yeah, god son. But uh yeah, it was uh like I say, just back in those days, just fun times in cars.

Definitely. And you mentioned your mum as well. Was she was she a driver or was it always your dad?

Uh she did drive, she was not a confident driver. I think my earliest memory of my mum driving was having driving lessons with my dad, bless her, in a Morris Minor around Larnton Industrial Estate. You'll probably know where that is. Oh, okay. Uh, yeah, a white four-door Morris Minor, us in the back, Sunday afternoon, and my dad trying to instruct my mum how to drive, which was terrifying to be in the back of.

She sounds like she'd be one of those that wouldn't go onto a big road.

No, she was definitely, as I say, not a confident driver. She had, I think after the Morris Minor, her first car was a Mark I bright yellow polo. Oh, nice. Yeah. And I remember my brothers and I just trying to encourage my mum to go out and drive, and she would only, if she had to, drive a car. My mum and dad were chalk and cheese when it comes to cars.

Yeah. Did you go for music in the cars? What were they listening to?

Absolutely. That's the the other thing my dad installed in me was my love of music. Um, that was a big thing with dad. Definitely at home, always in the car. And my dad passed away a few years ago. Okay, yeah. And I've now got a playlist that I remember all the songs we used to listen to in his car, depending on where we were going. And I still listen to it now on a regular basis. It's you know, I just put it on, and there's all manner of things on there that um there's no real sort of specific genre or anything. It's just a real mix of songs that just remind me of dad.

What's what what have we got on there? What what will people kind of be able to do?

A lot of UB40, okay, Bob Marley, uh Z Z Top, uh Dire Straits. There's a real sort of an eclectic mix, but there were certain songs that I couldn't remember the name of you know the track, and it was just trying to find them through iTunes. But yeah, I've pretty much got all of the songs that I remember listening to in dad's car. And uh yeah, fond memories.

Nice.

Yeah, it's I think yeah, music is a big player, isn't it? Like John and I both lost our dads as well, and we've kind of spoken about music before, but yeah, sometimes I'd kind of just kick back and put like dire straits on the Spotify, whatever, and just sort of kick back and listen to that, and you think actually, yeah, remember being in the car listening to that. He was into Tina Turner actually, so yeah, sometimes it's just kind of a bit of that, which I wouldn't go out and buy a Tina Turner album, but it's just sort of something about that. Absolutely, yeah. Yeah, kind of yeah, it just gets you, doesn't it? Yeah. So do you remember kind of kids at school with interesting cars or their parents having kind of interesting stuff?

Yeah, there was there was always this, I don't know, battle competition between other school kids about what their parents drove to school. Um, my dad did have a Mark II golf GTI back in the day, okay, which was nice, uh, which led me to actually going and buying one myself as a bit of a nostalgia trip to remember dad.

Did it live up to the dream?

Unfortunately, it didn't. For whatever reason, I never gelled with the car. Um, I've since sold it. And it was lovely, and with my sort of background with detailing, got it to a point, it looked amazing. But it was too old for what I was wanting to do with it. So I sold it on a now got an R26R, which is a lot of fun and very much what I like to do with cars, you know, something a bit more club sport look.

Yeah, yeah.

But going back to yeah, school days, there was definitely competition with what parents had and who had the best, you know, whose dad had the best car. So yeah, there was a lot of that definitely at school, a lot of rivalry.

Um, what was the what was the top trumps pick of the playground? What was what were people?

I think there was uh a seven series, seven two eighti, that probably was you know the car. Um the local farmer that was doing very well for himself, and he would bring his two boys to school in this seven series. Nice, yeah. That was that was always a good look that rocking up the seven series.

So yeah, that's unheard of, isn't it? A farmer having a fast saloon car.

I I know, yeah. I mean, I'm not sure what he was farming, but um he was definitely doing well for himself, let's put it that way.

You'd struggle for a space outside the school, wouldn't you, with a seven series?

Yeah, yeah. I mean, it was I again, you know, back in those days you think, wow, that's a huge car. If you saw one today, it's probably about the size of the three series. Yeah. But yeah, that was that was definitely an impressive car to see at school.

How about um kind of neighbours? Do you remember what they were driving?

Yeah, so I've not I'm not wondering for classic cars, but there's probably two that I would love to own. One is an Austin Healy and one is a TR6 Triumph.

Okay.

And there was our neighbours, if my memory serves me correctly, it was a a youngish couple, bearing in mind I was about 10, 10, 11 at the time, opposite us that had a TR6. And I just remember this being fired up in their garage and coming out and just sitting there ticking over on the driveway. And I've always loved the profile of a TR6, just I think it's the shape, you know, with the roof down, looks great. Yeah, but I can still hear it now just ticking over on the driveway. It's like, oh my god, that just sounds amazing. And my bedroom sort of upstairs looked out directly across to their house, and I'll sit in my bunk bed looking out my window and just just watching that car because it was just yeah, for me, that was perfection at that time. I just absolutely loved it. The sound of it, colour, how it looked. What colour was it? It was yellow, it was bright yellow. Okay, wow, nice. That's probably I mean, my other neighbours we did have a guy that moved, uh, there was a couple that moved in two doors down from us who was a bit of an IT geek back again. This is sort of late 80s, and he bought a sort of copper colour 9-11. Okay, and that was, you know, in our street, like supercar territory, considering what else was on people's driveways. And we got to go out on that a bit, which was nice.

Oh cool, you went out in it, nice.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. He was very, very OCD about it, understandably. But that was, as neighbours' cars go, it was pretty special to see that on the driveway.

Yeah, yeah. And you mentioned a Healy as well. Who had the Healy?

Um, no, no, no one had a Healy, but it was as I say, just from a classic car point of view, I'm probably more now I appreciate older cars, but growing up, I was always only interested in the new model. Okay. Classic cars didn't really register on my radar, but the two shapes that I've always sort of loved is the Austin Healy Mark III and the TR6. I just find those shapes gel with me.

Yeah, yeah.

But other classics, I'm not, as I say, other than if I was in a position that I could have one, I'd love to have a Mark II jack because my dad had one. But um, that's probably the only other classic I would be interested in owning at some point.

So you yeah, you mentioned your dad was a petrol head. What kind of what fired him up? Do you know what kind of got him into it?

Or um no, I mean he often spoke not that he was around when I was young, but his dad was uh he was a professional driver. I think, dare I say, something to do with the royal family. I'm not sure if that's true or not. Okay, but it vaguely rings a bell. But I think where my dad's probably passion for cars comes from through that. Yeah, nothing else from conversation to a dad growing up, nothing else, you know, he would mention anyone that has inspired him in terms of wanting nice cars. He always wanted a Rolls Royce, my dad. Always nice. That was the one thing, you know. Numbers come up, I want a Rolls Royce. So that was always his passion. He never got there, but yeah, it's uh one of those things, as they say.

I wonder if the old sort of company car culture back in the day was a bit of a driver for people getting into cars, really, because it was like you were saying, the status thing of trying to get the top model or because you had some genuinely sporty things, didn't you, available back then? And then obviously that would just lead to even more sportier things that aren't company cars in the future, I suppose.

So absolutely, yeah. I mean, as I say, the cars that I recall, my dad had there was four in the two Peugeots, the Chevette and the Mark II Golf. And then from that, he decided to go off and set up his own business, and then it was like he cranked it up a gear in terms of right, I've now got some money behind me, I'm gonna go and get something nice. So I remember going car shopping with dad, and he went round various dealerships all around our neck of the woods back in the day, and decided to go for this very nice Vauxhall Colton that uh he got from a dealership in Horsham. And for me, that was like you know, go from the golf as nice as that was, it's like a proper executive car, the Colton, you know. So it was the the mark one, but the facelifted one. I think it was about a B ridge, B or C ridge. Okay, yeah, yeah. And that was just lovely. Real drive as well. So that's the first experience I'd had with my dad in a real drive car, and that was quite fun. Him sort of getting the back end out on the roundabouts, uh, in particular the one by Lance in Leisure Centre. Yeah, so that was nice, and then he went from that into I think he had a Michibishi galant, which at the time seemed very futuristic in terms of the interior on it, and that was the day that we knew Mum was getting a new car. He bought her a Michibishi Colt, but he didn't tell us he was getting any new car as well. Oh surprise. So my brothers and I were at home and you know, saw the headlights coming onto the drive. I thought, oh mum's mum's home with a new car, and then I was like, those headlights don't look like a Colton. Opened the front door, and then dad sort of said, Oh, I I decided to get myself a car as well. So I thought that was quite cool getting two new cars on one day. Yeah, but uh I have fond memories of my dad driving, and I try and focus on the fun days. Obviously, as he got older, um it's kind of sad to see his skill level precision sort of start to deteriorate, and then he got to a point which I've always respected him for. He had a wobble out driving once and he forgot where he was. Okay. Obviously, this was towards you know the the end of his life, um, and he wasn't far from home. Unfortunately, he had my mum with him, and he got the car home and he said, I'm never driving again. I've always respected that as much as that was an inconvenience with not being able to get around, he didn't feel safe at the wheel of the car. So, you know, we have lots of fun times, and I always think back to the days of him hooning around in cars and just the the latter days. It was a bit sad to see someone with such skill and finesse at the at the wheel of a car just struggling, if that makes sense.

Did your father go on to kind of have dementia or something along those lines?

Um that was part of it. There was various things, um, various things that were were going against him.

Yeah, you know, you don't have you don't have to talk about it if you don't actually.

No, no, no, no, no, no, it's fine. We'd be here for a week if I told you exactly everything went wrong. How my dad survived. Play top trumps on that if you want to find that how he survived as long as he did is a miracle. Heart attack, cancer, stroke, well, everything thrown at him. Yeah, yeah. So when he finally went, it was like Christ, you know, they finally actually got him because as I say, he dice with death so many times, which I can relate to because I was diagnosed with cancer when I was 18. Oh Christ. So that was that was hard for my mum and dad obviously to deal with. Um you know, that was interesting times, but um, yeah.

I think that yeah, the the idea of especially kind of for the petrol head, the idea of kind of surrendering your license, so to speak. Something I don't I don't really kind of want to think about, but yeah, hats off to him for kind of having that yeah, that kind of uh I don't know what the word would be, kind of that knowledge or that sort of foresight to go, I'm not what I was.

Like, yeah, I'm sure he he knew it was coming, but I think it really scared him that though he wasn't far from home, he had no idea where he was or how to get home, and my mum thankfully directed him home. Yeah. There was no discussion. I've spoken to some mum about it since no discussion between them. He just said I'm not driving again.

By that time, I guess I'm guessing you're kind of an adult, like yeah, yeah.

Yeah, yeah. So it was sort of towards the end of his, as I say, towards the end of his life.

But um It's scary that obviously your dad was very brave in doing that, but the amount of people that don't do that and just keep driving around, you know, you'll see it on a weekly basis for any people that shouldn't be at the wheel. Yeah, not necessarily, you know, logistically not knowing where they've got to, but like you're saying, precision wise, just totally not the races. It's just I suppose it's there's the argument, isn't it, of the the retest when you get to a certain age or that sort of thing potentially. But I mean makes sense, I guess.

Yeah, I know it's um I I I think. Nowadays with the roads being so much more busier than when they were learning to drive or or or spent a lot of their time driving. It's a very different world now from a motorist point of view. Yeah. And I think yeah, it'll be a s a struggle for them, you know, for for sure.

Yeah, and I suppose as well when you take into account people that have passed their tests in the 50s or 60s as well, like compared to a test now, uh, you know, theory alone is just totally different, isn't it? So yeah. Yeah, definitely. Definitely.

So as your dad moved away from obviously you mentioned the Mitsubishi as well, and the Carlton, were they kind of personal choices of his rather than company cars? So he sort of he went for those.

Yeah, it was when he when he started his own business, it was it was definitely I want a nicer car, a bigger car as well.

The V6 is the gallants and the Carlton.

Uh no, I think it was two litre. Um, and funnily enough, I Googled it the other day to want to know what kind of horsepower it was running, and it was something quite embarrassing, really. It was like about a hundred horsepower from a two-litre. But I you know, I remember going out and thinking, oh my god, this car's really fast. But yeah, it's amazing when you think of what kind of normal horsepower in today it's uh it's crazy. The difference obviously cars are a lot lighter back then, but yeah, I was quite disappointed. I was expecting it to be a lot higher than 100 horsepower from a two-litre.

So I think a lot of those old saloons used to generate a good noise that probably part of the seed of you thinking, oh, this is quick, but in reality it's just shouting a lot and not really not really moving at great speed.

Yeah, definitely. The sound was part of the package for sure.

Yeah.

I think obviously also you mentioned that his dream car was the Rolls Royce. He was sort of harking at that, wasn't he, with sort of the size of a Carlton or the size of the 504 and I guess the Galant. So I guess you were saying that like if his numbers came up, he'd have bought it, but that's that's probably it, he probably wouldn't have got there just on his own, so to speak.

No, no, definitely not. And I mean, I was very fortunate enough when I had my detailing business. I got to drive some really special cars, and you know, I had a few very nice clients that would lend cars to me, and uh I'd bring them, I'd take them down to see dad and take him out for a drive. Um, a couple of cars I regret not taking him out in, but um, of course, you always think you've got this time to do these things, yeah, and then unfortunately you don't, but um yeah, as I say, it was always a Rolls Royce, he would always come back to that. Yeah, that was, I guess, in his day that was the pinnacle of automotive engineering designer Rolls Royce, and I get my OCD, my everything needs to be right kind of mindset from my dad. Okay, that was how he was, you know, everything needed to be on point, and if you're gonna do it, do it right and do it once. And that was installed into me at a very early age, and I've carried that through you know my working career as well. But yeah, as I say, I think um if he could have, he definitely would have he would have gone down the route getting a Rolls-Royce. Did you take him out in one? Um, no, the two cars I regret taking him out in was a Rolls-Royce, and one of my all-time favourite cars was uh a Ferrari 599, okay, which I had regular access to, which was nice. And I was only thinking about it about a year ago. I was like, I should have taken Dad out on that, because the V12, he would have loved that. But um, yeah, as I say, you always think about I've got time to do this, yeah, and then things work, everything gets in the way, and before you know it, they're uh no longer around. Yeah, hindsight.

Um, anything else we need to ask you, Steve?

I think we've covered off quite a lot, but um Um as I say, I remember we always used to go to work with my dad on a Saturday morning.

Okay.

Uh he worked in a horseman's home when we were living in Shoreham, so we'd go up the Partridge Green Road, which was always nice. And I was kind of looked forward to that drive because again, he knew the road well. We'd go up there a fair rate of knots. But it was just nice spending time with him at work and just it was good quality time. We'd do things in the factory and give us little jobs to do, but it was just that time in the car. Yeah. It was something I always looked forward to coming towards the end of a week at school, going to work with dad tomorrow, and that was always the highlight of my weekend, you know. Ignore going out playing football or whatever. It was getting in the car with dad and going to work and going off and doing bits and bobs or whatever. Is that something all of your siblings would do, or was that just you and him? It was mainly my middle brother and and so Phil and I were quite close in age. Andy, my older brother, there was a five-year gap, so he had a part-time job and then went into full-time employment.

Yeah, yeah.

So majority of the time, Phil and I spending time with dad, and that was always, as I say, good fun going out with him in the cars.

Do you have kids of your own, Steve?

Yes, I've got a a daughter, and what is very nice is she's absolutely crazy on cars, which is a real, you know, it's just a joy for me. We go and do Goodwood events together, and uh nice. She'll send me screen grabs of like cool cars. What about one of these, Dad? Like, you'll she'll send me pictures of an E30 BMW, it's like quite fancy one of these. I was like, oh brilliant. So it's great that you know she's really into cars and we get to do cool car stuff together.

That's nice. I was just sort of thinking when you were saying about you looking forward to little trips with your dad, I was exactly the same. Any sort of trip in the car would be something to really enjoy. And uh, it just sort of makes me think do my kids have any interest in jumping in the car with me, and they they probably don't, to be fair, just because the car isn't very interesting, and yeah, we're just gonna sit in traffic, I guess.

So I know, you know, different times. It is different times, as I say. We um my daughter and I go and do revival together at Goodwood. Okay, she's really into that now, and and we'll have a different outfit for each day. But she loves all the old cars, she's quite into classics, which um which is lovely, so yeah, that's that's always really good fun. We we do that together.

Is she driving herself yet, or is she not at that age?

Yeah, yeah, she's been she's been driving for a while now, so she's got a little mini cooper, but she's wanting to change that now. So trying to steer her away from what I would see as an unreliable car. But when they've got their heart set on a particular car, it's very hard to advise them that that's probably not a good shout, especially if you've got to fund it as well. Well, no, I mean I'm very, very lucky that you know, when she passed her test and we were looking to get her first car, and I said, right, well, obviously, mum and I will help you out with this. And she went, absolutely not.

That's good.

You know, she worked at a Saturday job, and then she saved up and she bought her first car, which I was very proud of. And she, yeah, she's always funded her own vehicles. Um, one thing she's very good at, and she knows it annoys the crap out of me, that she will not clean her car, and she will just leave it, and she'll know that will wind that up, you know, because seeing a dirty car on the driveway is like brings me out of the rack.

It's bad for business.

So she will leave it and leave it and leave it, and just think that'll sort that. And sure enough, I will. So every so often I'll give it the once over and to make sure he looks a bit shiny again.

So is it fair to say your path into detailing has probably rubbed off on her in terms of her getting into cars? Do you think seeing you around them?

And yeah, I think in particular, you know, when I used to borrow some nice cars and pick her up from school or whatever, and yeah, she's she's definitely had an appreciation of cars. That's definitely accelerated through when I had my own business. Yeah, yeah, she's she's definitely a firm, firm petrol head herself, which is lovely. Nice. Because kind of think, probably, you know, having just a daughter that when she was a baby, that probably wasn't on the cards, but yeah, from a very early age she's been really into cars, which is nice.

Cool. Yeah, we both got daughters, haven't we, John? So I guess a similar thing, and yeah, my girls aren't car mad, but they do kind of appreciate it. Um yeah, we've done good with members meeting, we do that kind of every year, and they sort of enjoy the whole the whole thing. They like watching kind of the sideshows and making some craft stuff, and they'll watch a little bit of car racing, but equally they just sort of enjoy the festivity of it. My eldest is 10, so yeah, who knows kind of where that leads in the future. But um have you done any track stuff with the with the is it the McGann you've got?

Yeah, so um back in the day, I mean, I used to work for a car company in Worthing, which you'll probably know of. Uh do you? Oh, yeah, yeah. So I used to work in the test lab there when I was in my early 20s.

Yeah.

And apparently I I got the job on my facial expression as they took me into the test lab.

Oh right.

Because it just lit up as soon as they walked in. I was like, I've I've never seen anything like it. So started working in the in the test laboratory, um, which was amazing, and then through that got into racing carts. Okay, cool. And it was almost like a a department slush fund where we could go and do social events, and nine times out of ten we'd go karting. And then there was a group of us that got quite good at it, and then we decided to buy a cart, and then we started racing carts. Nice. Again, then that group sort of trimmed down to two or three of us that were getting really serious about it, and we'd won a championship and gone sort of I say semi-pro where we were paid to drive, which was nice. Yeah, so I've always had a motorsport kind of I I love motorsports so touring cars, Formula One, that's always been my passion. So, yeah, sort of getting the McGann out on track was brilliant. My first track day with it was at Truxton, so quite a fast circuit to to take it out on, and it was just amazing. The the corner speeds, how for a car with a stock engine it's had no sort of modifications to the engine will hustle cars with much higher horsepower because of its handling through the corners, it's just there's no fuss, and it's just an utter joy to drive.

So have you let your daughter have a go as well?

Nope. Uh no, I'd I'd happily let her drive it. Um, I don't think she would feel uh I don't know, maybe she'll surprise me, but I don't think she'd be confident enough to go out on track. No, maybe it's something we we would work up to. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, no, I'd happily take her out on track, but uh I do a very good job of annoying my friends that I will get a car looking on point and then it needs to go and do the the next project, which will be a 9-11. So that's what I'd like to get into next. Cool. What what era? 997. Okay, yeah, yeah. Something along those lines. And what year is that, please? Sort of a 2005, right?

Yeah, up to 12 or something like that, probably.

Yeah, so something like that, and that would be my almost like a forever car that I would then give to my daughter.

Yeah, yeah.

Growing up, my wall was covered with Ferraris, every type of Ferrari was on my wall. Um Porsches were never on my radar, uh, it was always Ferrari. Interesting. And then through starting my own business and working on Porsches, my appreciation for them just went through the roof. The engineering, how things were put together. It's funny when you're detailing a car, you're looking in areas of a car that you're not meant to see. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And you can look at an Aston Martin and go, yeah, you can tell Ford have had something to do with that. And the same with Ferrari, you can tell Fear have had something to do with it. But in particular, Bentley's and Porsches, they were just so well screwed together, you know, in general across the board. Yeah, yeah. And having got to drive a few Porsches now, they're just so nice to drive, really, really nice. And uh our um brand ambassador for Gion is actually restoring a 964 to a level that is you know beyond anything I've ever seen before. And I'm looking at singers and things like that. The level he is going to is ridiculous. Looking forward to seeing it when it's all done. But um, yeah, Porsches are definitely on my radar now.

Fantastic. Oh, thank you very much, Steve. It's been uh yeah, good to chat with you and yeah, also hear a bit more about the industry as well. So uh you're very welcome. Oh, thanks for having me a lot. Thanks, Steve. Bye. Cheers, bye, bye. Cool. Here we go. Some nice, some nice cars in there, wasn't there? Obviously, big Peugeot. And I guess, yeah, as he said later on, like his dad kind of pined after a Rolls Royce, so he did go for the sort of a the executive saloon, didn't he? That seemed to be the flavour of the month.

Spacious saloon, yeah. Those big Peugeot estates were sort of one step from a hearse, weren't they? Really, I always thought massive, big things, and I don't remember ever seeing loads of them around at the time.

No, and occasionally you see one now, and you're like, that's just huge.

Yeah. Sort of an American feel to it in a way, like the station wagon type station wagon type thing, yeah.

I remember seeing like the Renault 21, which is a big sort of Renault version.

Maybe I don't know, maybe there was more of a Renault presence where I grew up than there was a Peugeot one, but yeah, the French must have just gone a bit wild on the uh dimensions for a bit. One extra bottle of red one lunchtime, perhaps.

Yeah, yeah, I won't make that line longer. What harm will it do? So, yeah, that was that was good. Um yeah, some interesting stuff, obviously. The neighbour with the TR6 and a yellow one as well. I don't know whether I've ever seen a yellow TR6.

Is the TR6 the sort of small wedge-shaped car?

No, that's the TR7. The TR6 is quite square, right?

I thought they were generally yellow, those cars. Maybe it's the other one that I'm thinking of. I thought yellow or blue is quite common with those, like I sort of there's quite a few blues and reds that you get them in. Yeah.

But yeah, they're sort of almost like a brick with a sort of windscreen on it. It's very it's square, it's got sort of round lights, and before that, your TR5, four, three. It's all sort of quite curvaceous. Um, but yeah, the six was quite square. Have you ever watched the um TV show, the detectorists? I think I saw a couple of them, but yeah, I couldn't quote you anything on it.

He's got a yellow TR something in that, yeah, which he's very fond of.

Yeah, the TR7 was like a wedge, like a doorstop.

Right. But at least in Steve's uh favour, both of the cars that he likes, the classics are sort of affordable-ish, aren't they? And achievable. Most people would say, oh, like an E-type or an Aston DB5, wouldn't they? Which is fine in the sky at the time.

Yeah, yeah. Mark II Jag's kind of, I guess, yeah, you could probably get into one for 10. Yeah, teens, something along those lines. I can't remember what's the other one he said he wanted.

Rustin Haley.

Yeah, yeah. And again, yeah, that's probably maybe a little bit more 2030, but it's yeah, a bit more realistic than and yeah, if he's looking at 997, then actually, yeah, he could chop that in and buy one. Uh if he didn't go down the 997 route, so yeah, it's it's what kind of fits, doesn't it? But um, yeah, yeah, enjoyable discussion, I think. Yeah, it's nice. A mixture of the old stuff and a bit more new. Nice that yeah, he's now able to continue that sort of um balance, I guess, that he had with his dad with regards to cars that that's now kind of continued with his with his daughter, and they're able to go to yeah, Goodwood, etc. And and do that. Um, I remember kind of yeah, doing stuff with my dad. Like, if I'll go and stay with him, for example, you'd just help out in his workshop. And it's quite nice just helping your parents out, like feeling like you're you're actually being of use to them. Like that yeah, they might just go, Oh, can you sweep that up and yeah, it's about whether it gets done, but actually you feel like you're you're helping them, you're making a difference. Yeah, so yeah, and yeah, hats off to his daughter for stumping up for her own car.

Like, yeah, definitely, very refreshing in this day and age.

Yeah, hopefully our kids are listening.

Yeah, bookmark this episode.

Yeah, so yeah, that was um yeah, Steve from Gion UK. So, yeah, look him up if you need some cleaning stuff. Yeah, okay, cool. Well yeah, we'll wrap this up, John. Lovely chat as always. Thanks, mate. We'll roll the credits.

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