Podcast 197 - I got me a Chrysler, it’s as big as some kind of whale
Added 2024-02-11 18:00:05 +0000 UTCJonny is still giggling about a strange B-52s reference. Also in this episode, old Skodas, car sellers who have unnecessary opinions about paint colour, the imminent return of the Vauxhall Frontera, a manual gearbox with an amusing name, the BMWs you wouldn’t miss, a listener’s experiences of the Eagle Quest limousine, Richard’s attempts to fence a knackered Picasso, the movie career and surprising fan base of the Ford Flex and incredible tales from the Franchitti brothers. Plus, we’ve had a lot of messages about The Corrs going on tour with Natalie Imbruglia.
Comments
In the early 2000's I was head groundsman at a prep school in Buckinghamshire. Somehow, the head managed to get hold of one of the Frontera three door test beds in black from Luton for the engineering dept. I grabbed it as a work truck and we had a farmer down the road weld a tow hitch on it and used it to pull a set of gang mowers. Was great until one member of staff left a rake sticking out the back and slammed the door just as the head was walking past, showering him in broken glass from the exploding rear window. Mowing in it after then resulted in the back filling with cut grass so we had to bodge it with DPM as the school was too tight to fork out for a new window.
Maurice Barnes
2024-02-13 10:36:48 +0000 UTCI think "Battered By An Irish Flute" was the working title to 2018's "Blackbird".
Jem Barnard
2024-02-13 01:04:14 +0000 UTCThese have aged so well, and if you want further proof that they are a future classic, the M version values shot through the roof a few years back. Yours is probably more fun to wring out than the M.
Brendan McAleer
2024-02-12 22:08:25 +0000 UTCNever really much fancied Porsches. Not keen on coupe convertibles. Maybe if I were 30 years younger.
Chris Rayner
2024-02-12 20:59:30 +0000 UTCFriend of mine had one like yours when I had an F80 M3, we swapped for a drive in the Peak District, I thought it was a hoot, plenty quick enough, good steering, nice gearbox, etc. With the new Z4 though, wouldn’t you just buy a Boxster?
William Moses
2024-02-12 18:56:26 +0000 UTCAshley yelling at Dario, "would you get that pool cleaned , dammit!
david marden
2024-02-12 18:46:52 +0000 UTCTesla Model S, Ford Flex almost equal wheelbase...
david marden
2024-02-12 18:44:26 +0000 UTCRichard just tell her the Skoda is Jonny's....
david marden
2024-02-12 18:16:09 +0000 UTCGuys, guys, is it not about time to quietly retire the electric guitar version of the outro music. Whilst I know it was created with the best intentions, I'm not convinced the musician has ever listened to the original masterpiece. It's abit like the 80's when you could play two different tunes at the same time on your twin cassette ghetto blaster! Thanks see you bye.
Bertie
2024-02-12 11:53:15 +0000 UTCDid the Picasso come with automated manual? I have a feeling it was the 4-speed torque converter on the 2.0 petrol?
Ed Storer
2024-02-12 10:38:28 +0000 UTCIf you want a RHD Skoda Estelle, may I suggest Malta? They were something like the 3rd most popular car there for several years, because there were strict import controls on anything, y’know, good.
Ed Storer
2024-02-12 10:35:13 +0000 UTCZ4. I have one. The arrival at the point of ownership might interest you. I was a guest on Wrong Car Right Car with your colleague Jason Barlow and his oppo Dominic Littlewood. I didn’t buy the secondhand Morgan which I ended up choosing as part of the program, but bought a new 4/4 from the dealer who was trying to sell me the rather questionable used one i ‘chose’ on the programme. I drove this happily enough for about 10 years, but my wife became increasingly uncomfortable as a passenger in it. I searched around for a similar car to p/ex it for, and came upon a Morgan agent who had a Z4 3 litre coupe with very low mileage on his forecourt. I’ve been driving it now for some time, and couldn’t be happier. It’s the short-lived E86 coupe, which was not produced in huge numbers; about 3,500 were sold in the UK, of which most were automatic. Mine has the 6 speed manual, and is such fun to drive. With the twin VANOS engine you can short shift up to top and never change gear again until you drop below 30mph, or you can wring its neck and get to 60 in 5.6 seconds. Age 75 now I don’t do that much. I have the choice of three cars in our personal fleet. The Z4, a BMW i3 which we bought at its launch, so it has the weediest range, and a Merc E series diesel estate, which we’ve had since 2011. I’m sorry to say that the Z4 is the one which accumulates mileage most slowly. I have a set of allys with winter tyres on, but what with one thing and another they haven’t been swapped for a couple of years. I’ve got a trolley jack, but me knees and hips aren’t what they were, so it just stays in the garage over winter these days. Mileage can be coaxed up to about 30 odd a gallon, but that’s not really the point. On the open road it can be a bit of a handful on the original runflats, so I’ve binned them and got a set of proper tyres. There’s a tin of tyre in a can in the boot which mercifully had never been used. I think it’s a future classic. The ragtops will mostly fall apart from being left out in the rain with the top down, but the coupes are pretty tight, and so long as you don’t put them into the scenery they should run pretty much forever. Sadly I won’t, but perhaps one of my grandchildren will get some fun out of it.
Chris Rayner
2024-02-12 10:24:53 +0000 UTCVoice notes....... I had a personal voice note from Kylie yes that one, thanking me for attending a concert in Manchester in 2001. It came from a friend who was a DJ on a local radio station, who was interviewing Kylie......yes voice notes disappear.... Argh!
Paul Fargher
2024-02-12 09:20:12 +0000 UTCThe original Vauxhall Frontera was based on the Isuzu Rodeo. The larger model, the Vauxhall Monterey, was based on the Isuzu Trooper.
Richard Fitton-Perkins
2024-02-12 01:49:10 +0000 UTCI’m not an engineer but recall I left uni 1993/4 and they were advertising for recent engineering grads to work specifically on frontera production. Stuck out as being a really specific ad and having read car press I thought ‘and I know why!’ Must have been either a great education or total disillusionment!
Jim Galbraith
2024-02-12 00:17:43 +0000 UTCI had the misfortune of working in a Vauxhall main dealership when the Frontera was launched.. I went down to the factory in Luton for an introduction course.. They gave us the keys and told us to give one of the launch cars a run, go anywhere but "don't go off-road".. It was all downhill from there.. Absolute horror shows.. You could fill a whole episode with Frontera stories.. I have no good memories of them... 🏁
Kevin Cochrane
2024-02-12 00:01:38 +0000 UTCGreat podcast gents. Sorry I can't make the Scottish show, I can't make the 250 mile round trip work, especially on a school night.
Graham Dallas
2024-02-11 20:53:01 +0000 UTCOh are you? I can recommend some good stuff to check out. Plenty of really goofy car culture around - someone local has just imported a Roewe 750, the Chinese-market Rover 75.
Brendan McAleer
2024-02-11 20:46:56 +0000 UTCI absolutely lost it at the Night Lude bit 🤣
Paul Renowden
2024-02-11 20:32:02 +0000 UTCAmazing track love shack, photo of my first car. That I've still got
Andrew Barnes
2024-02-11 19:42:40 +0000 UTCIn the mid 80s when I was a teen, an older co-worker here in Canada who had emigrated from Poland had a Skoda Rapid I imagine it would have been fairly new at the time. All of us being used to North American V8 cars were unimpressed by the strange little European car with an engine in the rear despite his stories about the rally heritage.
Ed Nicholson
2024-02-11 19:39:39 +0000 UTCVery weird exchanges were happening back then for sure haha. I'm headed to the west coast of Canada later this year. Will keep an eye out for them for sure!
Zdeněk Posejpal
2024-02-11 19:36:35 +0000 UTCWe have an unusual amount of Tatras here on the west coast of Canada, as a shipment of Trataplans was exchanged for wheat in the 1950s. They still turn up in odd places. I also know a fellow with a T87 who dipped the front wheels in the Atlantic, Pacific, and Arctic oceans. The photos of the car in the far north are amazing.
Brendan McAleer
2024-02-11 19:27:08 +0000 UTCAs someone hailing from what once was a communist Czechoslovakia, hearing 80's rally Škodas being mentioned is a music to my ears. So many ambitious racing projects back then sadly all axed by communist government.
Zdeněk Posejpal
2024-02-11 18:33:41 +0000 UTCThe marvellous Jason Torchinsky wrote a piece about this and reasoned a 50s Crown Imperial. No mention of it being a sordid sex party wagon.
Jim Galbraith
2024-02-11 18:19:14 +0000 UTC
