3 On The Column Classic Car Podcast Thinks It's Too Hot for Air Con

It's 33 degrees on the other side of my air conditioned screen and I'm nice and cool, yet Andrew and I are dreaming of the open road and maybe a summer convertible to enjoy the best of this sunny weather. Time to call in our expert friend, Mike Renault from episode 15, who re-joins us today and gets us focused on the best of the 1960's convertible road scene and, in the case of Nash, a little air con too.

Listen in and see where the road takes us!  

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:19

Hi, you're through to the three on the column podcast with Brian Thomas and Andrew Roberts and our very special guest, Mr.

SPEAKER_01 0:29

Mike. Oh, we've I assume that was the thing. We had to introduce ourselves in case anyone forgot what they were called. Well, well, Mike Renault remembers his own name, so ready, this is going to a swimming start, this podcast. Also, probably the last true fact I'll give you this evening. Absolutely. And my name is Ridford Bryars.

SPEAKER_00 0:50

Fantastic. I had a wonderful drive home this evening in my air-conditioned car in 33 degree heat, lovely and chill. And then I was thinking, as I was sitting in traffic, if we go back probably 40 odd years ago, what kind of car might I have to have to be nice and cool in summer? And I thought, maybe we could come up with some ideas. What would you choose, Andrew?

SPEAKER_01 1:21

I'd have a Mark II Ford Zodiac Convertible two-tone with white wall tires.

SPEAKER_02 1:27

Wow.

SPEAKER_01 1:28

And also I'd have to wear a Robbie Coltrane suit from Tutti Fruity. One of my favourite Robbie Coltrane programmes. I hope you've both seen it. Oh yeah. Absolutely. You can see why I want the suit, the suit that he wore when he was in the Majestics. Obviously, when I press the button and the Zodiac's semi-power operated hood, shall we say, opens? What could be more not Hollywood but pine wood than that? Right, if you can't find a Mark II for Zodiac convertible, singer gazelle convertible.

SPEAKER_02 2:07

Am I right in thinking on the Mark IIs?

SPEAKER_01 2:10

Um the the convertible roof, if it was powered, you still had to wind back the top section. That's right. That's right. It's only semi-power operator. I think only electric to the coup de ville position. The rest you do yourself. And if it's console, it's entirely manual. Yeah. Yeah. So it was an option on the Zephyr, and I guess standard on the Zodiac. I think it was even standard on the Zephyr. I mean it's a it's a nice it's a nice gimmick, and it's a it had no direct rival in the UK. There was no um factory option from memory, um, voxel PA convertible, which would have looked rather splendid. It it was the gain, it was the sort of car that gave that touch of Pinewood Film Star Glamour. You could imagine Diana Dawes having one. It said um Does it car bodies to convert to dunno? I think it may have been car bodies, but we'd live we open to our listeners on that. I mean, it was it I don't know how much money Ford made on them. Thinking about the expense in a monocock-built convertible, you know, with again with semi-powered top. I'm not wondering what the profit margin was. But also at that time, and I think you're right about car bodies, they also farmed out their um estatecar production. That was far them, though, wasn't it? That's right, Abbotts. So again, so anything specialist obviously went to outside suppliers. But um You got to stick on the Mark II Zodiac for the rest of the show, but uh I have to throw in that obviously the convertible had longer doors. The other models were four doors, but they longer doors for the convertibles, and Ford at one point did take a convertible and cut the roofs off one of the four doors and made a coupe Mark II Zodiac, and then decided it would cost too much to make, but it was a fabulous looking thing. It wasn't just so uh pretty rare back at the time to have it. It looked great on the Zodiac, and I really wish they'd made that. It's it had a certain elegance. I wonder how close it came to um actually entering production. I mean, a reason another reason for buying the Zodiac is one starred in Dr. Blood's coffee.

SPEAKER_02 4:26

Now the film is appalling, but the car's fabulous. Oh, what was that what else was there?

SPEAKER_01 4:35

Uh was there a zodiac in um uh one of the one of the scooter movies, was it Quadrafinia? And one of the Zodiac? Um there were several cars movie, I think, had one in it, didn't it? Which what which which which one had a zodiac in it? Um then wasn't there one in um Psychomania? Psychomania, it was it would have been a background car. They the gang use a Mark II Zodiac saloon in the 1961 crime film payroll, shot on largely on location in Newcastle. So you may have s you may have seen one you may have seen one there. They ha oh of course, um and in what was it, um, Horrors of the Black Museum has a very press fleet-looking Zodiac saloon. Nothing particularly much to do with summer, but um rarely. Sorry, sorry. I mean, obviously you don't already think of Horrors of the Black Museum when you're meant to be enjoying summer. So we've taken a haven't we? We have, but Mike, would you buy an American car for a hot summer's day? I I would like to. I mean, we're talking sort of 40 years ago, it would be nice to have something convertible. Yes. Uh I've never owned a convertible. I've always felt that it's a bit of a compromise in the UK when you can only use it for five days a year. Um, so I the obvious would be 50s Cadillac, a Buick, something like that, but uh I'll I'll throw into the mix slightly more unusual. And say um mid-50s Nash. Yes. Nash. The only things that were really known were being small and cheap. And the police used to use them for a while. If you ever watch Highway Patrol, they were the they were called bathtub Nashes because the front wheels were covered over as were the rears. But the reason for it being a summer car was they were involved with the Kelvinator Company, Nash-owned Kelvinator, who made fridges and freezers. So they were some of the first American cars with air conditioning, which they just put the freezer stuff straight into the cars and sold them. So you could get a cheap car with AC, which was fairly rare in the in the 1950s. Oh, America and probably virtually unheard of in any other country, I would think.

SPEAKER_00 7:08

So we're not talking about the Nash Metropolitan, are we?

SPEAKER_01 7:12

No.

SPEAKER_00 7:13

Or are we?

SPEAKER_01 7:14

Related, yes.

SPEAKER_00 7:15

Related.

SPEAKER_02 7:16

Well full size. Right. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 7:20

Yeah, if you imagine a Nash Metropolitan elongated concurvier. Uh, but yes, certainly there is there is a resemblance. There is. And Etro was built obviously by Austin for Yeah, there's there's a there's a related market, there's a chain of and of course the UK market Metropolitan Convertible appears in Tracy Ollman's sunglasses video. Oh wow. I was watching a Tracy Olman video the other day, and I cannot actually remember which one it was, but the Ford Anglia from the Young Ones popped up in it in the uh right at the beginning. And it was one of the cover versions that she did, but I can't remember. Was it they I know I seem to remember Reliant Regal in They Don't Know About Us? Yeah, it wasn't that. It was one I didn't done a cover of, but was it Breakaway? I don't think we'll have to have a look. I have to have a look. I mean, her pop career was uh not long-lasting, which is a shame. Because it was one of her many, many, many, many talents. Yeah. So um I did like her cover of sunglasses. It's nothing to do with um carried listeners, but it is a superb cover version of um sunglasses, it really is. With Adrian Edmondson in it as well. Yeah. And of course, Adrian Edmondson appeared in the Terry Pop video with Kirsty McColl. Okay. Well, don't worry, listeners. Your 15 minutes start now. Kirsty McCall reference. So we we were talking off-air before we um before we began recording. It mentioned Mini Moat. Yes. I've driven a couple. And they are fantastic fun. You don't don't always feel terribly safe in one at speed. But they are everything a mini does and and and less, really. Good fun. I agree. Um I was privileged to be a passenger in one at Port Merion.

SPEAKER_00 9:31

Ooh, nice, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 9:33

It was one of the four prisoner moaks. I think at that time only two were on the road, and this was the main car that appeared in the first episode. Uh from memory, I think it had a Cooper engine. And being driven around Port Merion, you've thought, you know, you know, basically I am, you know, number, well, number 38,000, though not good enough to be number six. And my second thought was, please don't let me fall out of the side.

SPEAKER_00 10:07

Yeah. I think I imagine with a car like that, um, and I've never driven one, and I would absolutely love to drive one, I can recall, and I think it might be in an edition of Car Magazine, where very early edition, about the time the Moak was out, and there was like four wonderfully attractive people racing around London, and they're all kind of hanging out the side of this mini moak as it was driving round to Falgar Square, I think it was. And I'm thinking, what a wonderful car for summer.

SPEAKER_01 10:49

Was it was it the Dave Clark 5? In my opinion, yeah. Which opinion. Which was it uh John Borman, 1965 script by Peter Nichols, Catch Us If You Can, which is actually a downbeat, depressing road movie, and I think an extremely good one, masquerading as a pop film.

SPEAKER_00 11:10

Right, okay.

SPEAKER_01 11:11

Youth of Joyce is wonderful in it, and so's David Lodge from Barbara Ferris. It was the first film to use a moak. Wow, okay. My my memory of driving a moak was being stuck in traffic and being able to pick blackberries from the You see, they never put that in the brochure. No, it's amazing. Oh, yeah, across the passenger seat. And those blackberries look quite nice. It was probably covered in, but uh that was nice. I I mean what I love about the Moak is that virtually everything was extra, wasn't it? Passenger seats. Yeah. Heater. I mean I mean, clearly the village authorities and the prisoner were on economy drive. Because their MOACs have I know they have the full wooden picket trim, but they have very few factory options. No heater, for example. You know, obviously, you know, with um, you know, number one chundering away, you wouldn't really need a heater, would you? Maybe that maybe that was a subtext. They they tried to sell them to the army, didn't they? Or did they indeed speed? They did, didn't they? Yeah, because they used to remember the dinky toy parachute mode? Yes. I think wasn't the problem that lack of ground clearance. And of course, it has only two-wheel drive, and I the twin emo never entered production. You've seen the famous news reels of Isigonis driving a twin emo in the big snow of '63, having the time of his life.

SPEAKER_02 12:38

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 12:39

And of course, the larger project 4x4 project, the Austin Ant, based on the ADO 16, as I understand it, was a casualty of the BMC Leyland merger. Of course, I suppose what did for the Moak here was HM Customs Excise deciding it was a car, not a commercial vehicle. Yeah. Subject to tax. Exactly. So 67. Yeah, but yes, I mean I I'm intrigued how many filmmakers and program makers use it as a symbol of um liberated or disaffected youth or for sort of comic car traces. It worked, I guess, because the mini obviously was was that symbol. But then as soon as the moat came along, it's easier to film. Exactly. Um in a mini, it you struggle slightly for camera angles, but get a MOC and you can put them anywhere. As Michael Winner found out in um there was a time listeners when Michael Winner was a very promising young director, which is true. The 19th film he shot released in 1967, The Jokers. Oliver Reed and Michael Crawford as two upper class brothers who decide to steal the Crown Jewel for a joke and cruise around London in their mini moak. And they use one in the Italian job as a filming car as well. Yes. And the underground, the volcanic layer, I mean, you only live twice, naturally, you know, a blowfelt, put in a mass order in his local BMC dealer for moaks, you know. Any born supervillain worth his halt needs his army of extras in a moak, it is the law. The hip the unconvincing hippies in carry on camping.

SPEAKER_00 14:22

Oh, yes, I heard it. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 14:25

The spectacularly bad Roger Moore B movie, crossplot. That's where you that's a film you may have seen, Brian. It opens in London.

SPEAKER_00 14:34

I have actually. Yes.

SPEAKER_01 14:35

It opens in London with a gang of groovy hippies encountering Roger Moore in Dorn London. The film then manages to go downhill from that point, which I thought was quite impressive, really.

SPEAKER_00 14:47

It's quite good that they can get 30 seconds into a film and then it goes downhill.

SPEAKER_01 14:54

Trust me, trust me, cross plot, people are back projected to death.

SPEAKER_00 15:01

You think they could make it last a little longer than top in the point?

SPEAKER_01 15:05

Trust me. I swear one of my colleagues was noted veteran cars with a key starter that sounded like a Ford Corsair. But with but with summer, I mean, my only problem with American convertibles that era summer cars is it keeps making me think of that Pepsi Cola ad from the late 70s. The one with Kirk Sanmaritz from uh Dear John. Right. Peter Blake? Lip smacking Pepsi cures the summertime blues. Oh, end of the words. Yeah. Peter Blake done up as a teddy boy. Can't remember which cars were in it. I vaguely do remember. Yeah, it was a I mean I'm a fan of Peter Blake, etc. I just keep thinking of that. I keep thinking now of aging TEDs, not in smart American convertibles, but with decaying Ford Console Classics outside the Parkgate fish and chip shop. Just not quite the same thing. We've never really been a country for convertible, though. No. Um, and also standard saloons with a convertible option were really on the wane by the early 60s. I think obviously the Morris Minor, the Triumph Herald, but the um Ford Consul's episode at Mark II ended in 1962. Hillman Supermin's convertible ended in 64. You apart from that, you'd have to go to to Crayford. Yeah. You know, um the Corsairs look extremely attractive, and I have to say, the Mark I Cortina really does suit the convertible treatment. It really does look very fine. It looks great in top top. Well, but so does the HB Viva. I mean, but Crayford were my. I mean, but we're forgetting, I think the ultimate summer convertible was launched in '66. The uh Heinz 57 Wolseley Hornet convertible. I mean, you we'd all need one of those in the summer, wouldn't we?

SPEAKER_00 17:13

It came with a picnic basket, didn't it? It came with a it came with a lens of something.

SPEAKER_01 17:19

It came with an electric kettle and a PowerPoint in the boot for brewing tea. It came with a max factor uh compartment for um the Wolves that Mrs. Wolves the owner. This was 1966. It came with storage compartments in uh with lids either side of the rear seat to um keep sausages hot and your salads crisp.

SPEAKER_02 17:45

But as far as I'm aware, a few of them still are still around.

SPEAKER_01 17:48

Oh yes, the um they are. I have I have had the privilege of going in, I think, experiencing one for a magazine shoot, and I loved it. It was absolutely wonderful. It's it's a car not for the mini moak swinging myth. It's a car where dad would look like David Lodge and Mum would look like Joan Sims. There was a startled silence at that. They would live in one of those pre-war semis in Bittam, and they would take the Wolseley Hornet, Heinz 57 convertible, for a jolly day out at either Leap Beach or Mia. And they'd turn on the radio, the wireless, to the BBC Home Service to listen to the news and fulminate about those long-haired beetles and kinks. Did Heinz do any other giveaway cards? Was there the was there a mo or something? I believe and again the Crayford Club would know that there was a mini saloon, maybe a Morris before the Wolseley. I would say that the the Wolfley Hornet convertible, probably the most high profile in terms of sort of mass marketing, because obviously Heinz 57 Soup or Heinz food products appeal beyond motoring enthusiasts. Was it the greatest glow on earth competition, which again I thought was quite brilliant? That's how it was built. And it was obviously superb publicity for Crayford. So there's that. I would think that is a particularly charming sort of summer convertible. Cars were built to order as well, weren't they? They were just a production line. They were actually commissioned and were they special colours or they I think I think the Heinz 57 Woolsies are either white or grey. You could have your initials on the door, if you wish, if you're one of the 57 winners. It's no, I mean there's a I think there's a register for them. It's a it's worth they're worth they're worth writing about. They are absolutely delightful vehicles.

SPEAKER_00 20:06

I think there's a club as well, isn't there? That's right.

SPEAKER_01 20:09

There's the crazy It's wonderful how many clubs are out there to preserve such um beauty, you know, beauteous vehicles. I still say who would have owned it would have looked like David Lodge and Joan Sims and San Terrianne. With David Lodge smoking a pipe. That's my always think when you're starting a club for something that special. I hope the other 56 Yes. Just me again. Yes, let's have fun.

SPEAKER_02 20:46

Come on, there's an incentive.

SPEAKER_01 20:49

That would be sell the idea to uh Messrs Shear Smith and Pemberton if they ever bring back inside number nine. Someone who started up his own car club by himself in his own shed with only one member himself. And he's still the the Gordon Keyboard Club never gonna have more than 100 members, and Bugatti Royale Club never gonna have more than six who actually own cars. So obviously in both those cases, they've got a great deal number more members than cars exist or did. But you you do sort of think it must be taken a bit of a chance when they just say we're gonna be, you know, rally winners from 1978 club or something. Where was that term that that can be there? Or the Ford Granada 2.3 GL Automatic in Green Mark II estate club, Isle of White Division. Yeah, like the two point AI Club. Yes. Oh yes, which absolute hens teeth to find now. So why did the Ford not make a Mark III Zodiac Zephyr converter? I wonder I wondered if the Mark II just wasn't proving cost effective. Would have been a splendid looking car. It would have been a splendid looking car with those wonderful canted tail fins and the um that aggressive nose with the quad headlamps. It would it would have it would have genuinely worked, but I think by the later 60s, the only two saloon-based convertibles were the Herald family and the Miner family. I mean, again, if you want if you wanted a mini cover, again, Crayford would build you one to order, as we were saying before, this started. Or you could order between 63 and 67 the Triumph Herald 1250, which had a full-length fabric sunroof. But that was, I think, unique in that class. And you might ask, what about Citroen? Um, the 2CV wasn't sold here. I think you're right in saying between 1960 and 1973. Once the Slow the Slough-built models, the Slough built models came to an end in about 1959. Obviously, replaced by the short-lived Citroen Bijou. But I don't think the 2C V was officially imported after that until 73.

unknown 23:08

Oh.

SPEAKER_01 23:09

Obviously, the Diane, I think, was the first flat twin citron to catch on with UK motorists. I think the imported started in 69. I definitely remember seeing Diane's around, yeah. Which is why you don't go to shows you don't see UK market right-hand drive 60s two CVs. Because I think the Amy was only available, six was only available to special order here. I mean, I mean convertibles, obviously the um or the DS. The DS stunning, I've just an amazing looking car, but yeah, the styling's wonderful, but the the proportions are slightly out of whack uh with with the two-door version of it. Um but of course, traction of vont, you also had a convertible. Yes. And they're happening as well. And obviously, obviously, there we're sort of thinking of sort of cars for for want of a better term, the social elite. More affordable, but equally beautiful, I would argue, the Renault Caravel. Yeah. Now that is a handsome vehicle. It is. And one appeared in that Riviera touch. Yeah. So so that was that's always a trial. I mean, obviously, when you think of Carmen Gear, you think of you something of the Caravel, you think of its German rival, the Carmen Gear type one. Because the type three was not 34 was not available as a convertible, was it? Was there a Razor Edge convertible? That's what I think of the Chap 34. I thought it was only a coupe. It's a handsome vehicle, isn't it? There was. There was a convertible version, and I I should tell you for why. Um friend of the show, Matt Richardson, I was with him in the house years ago, the et cetera shop, they were selling matchbox models. There was a Razor Edge convertible matchbox model, which he and grumbled slightly that they never existed in reality. We looked it up and they did. I do know there was a convertible RazorEdge type 34. That's a boring story. No, it's not because it's one of the most beautiful cars. The Cooper is one of the most beautiful cars I've ever seen. Oh, there were 17 prototypes made. Well, something like that. Type 34 convertibles. The rest of us are just pouring info out of our head.

SPEAKER_00 25:34

I am absolutely amazed by the Razor Edge because I went to the Volkswagen show at Stoner Park um three or four weekends ago, and I think I saw my first Razor Edge Carmen Gear. I looked at it and I thought, wow, I don't think I've ever seen one of these before. And what an incredible looking car, isn't it? And I think it actually looked far newer than its actual age. Did you see what I mean? It's an incredible thing.

SPEAKER_01 26:11

And I don't think any picture ever does it justice. You have to see it in the metal to appreciate its the beauty of its angularity. And I know I sound like Tony Hancock in the Rebel when I say that, but it is the case. We're talking a lot about Continental Convert, obviously Fiat 1500 um Cabriolet. There's a beautiful vehicle indeed. Any what about a Peugeot 404 Cabriolet?

SPEAKER_00 26:42

Oh, what's his name? The detective Columbo. He had a 404. Ah, right, it's a 403. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 26:52

The 404? I've driven a 404. I didn't expect it to be anything particularly out of the ordinary. It was fantastic. Isn't it? Without so much better than you'd expect. All the classic car things that you want looks lovely, isn't difficult to drive, but just felt so modern in terms of how easy it was. They they really got them right. I I urge anyone who's never experienced a 404 to try and try and driving one for a few miles. It would be amazing, but they are. I mean, when I experienced a 404, it I mean, I love the Z-shaped pattern for the steering column gear change. I love the sense of quality. But I thought at the end, there is, you know, with all due deference to BMC and BMC owners, there is no way that the A60 Cambridge slash Oxford Series 6 could compete with this.

SPEAKER_02 27:52

No. No. One of the nicest cars I've driven, the Peugeot Correct Corps.

SPEAKER_01 27:57

I remember thinking, I wonder if the others are all good. Um quality, and we're going back to one of our favourite films, quality connections, but it's right. Quality isn't about extra equipment. Quality is about integrity of engineering, which is what, of course, made Peugeot famous the world over. And you can understand why the 404 sold around the world and not just in Francophone territories either. Something else worth mentioning regarding Peugeot. Um, Ford in the late 1950s made a Ford of America made a big deal out of building, they said, the world's first metal-roofed convertible. Where the roof into the boots, and they're the Ford retractable built between 57 and 59. Peugeot did it in 1936, I think it was. They did indeed, but of course Ford had, you know, the unerring eye for publicity, and of course, you have um Lucille Ball and Desier Nas advertising it on national television. I love the I imagine Peuge were Peugeot equally parsimonious with boot space, though. Yes, because the the the roof was a fairly big thing on the Peugeot. The boot lid was rear hinged, as with the Ford, uh, and the whole thing dropped down in one piece. Um, so it didn't even fold. Ford couldn't find a way of getting their roof in without having the first 18 inches of the roof tuck underneath so it would fit the boot, but Peugeot just put the entire thing back in one piece. Um the Peugeot looked great, top up or top down. The Ford retractable again styling wasn't perfectly aligned. Uh, the the rear deck was very long, the the back seat was squashed in a bit, whereas Peugeot got it right, and it's a fantastic looking car. And I'm spying to think what it was. Was it the 203 or something like that? Let's have a look. I'm not too proud to look something up. You did research. We don't have to. I'll do the research you don't have to. I mean, obviously, our our friend Andrew in Leicestershire has a skyliner, which is a thing of wonder. Utter wonder.

SPEAKER_02 30:21

Yeah, they developed the the hard top convertible, retractable roof for Lincoln.

SPEAKER_01 30:28

Uh, it was going to go initially on, I think, the Continental Mark II, but they lost so much money on those anyway, they were hand-built luxury cars, that they put them onto the Ford line for the 50s, the Fair Lane Galaxies, and then continued them on the Thunderbirds into the 60s and the Lincoln Continentals. Basically, to get their money back on how long it had taken to engineer this thing. Um, 610 feet of wiring, something like 30 motors. You push the button, the boot lid opens up, and then the roof goes up and bends in half and drops down, and then the trunk lid goes down on top of it. But your boot space is basically something like 18 inches by two feet. That's what it's a hat box. Yeah, the effective hat box you can get a handbag and a toothbrush into because the roof takes up all the space. It was the 402 Eclipse. 402, thank you. Yes. It which again is one of those beautiful streamlined vehicles I think you're ever likely to encounter. Beautiful looking car. I think with the sky the Skyliner and the Peugeot, I think, have different objective. The Peugeot is obviously for, you know, the old bourgeoisie, it is elegant. The Skyliner is openly and abashedly conspicuous consumption on wheels. It is the Eisenhower era dream manifest. And hopefully, in the showrooms, it will distract from that marketing debacle which is going on elsewhere in the Ford Empire. Yes, they actually uh again made some of the money back on those that they lost on the Edsel. Um notably they never offered a retractable on the Edsel. No, although when I encountered Last of the Line EDS, I was very taken with them. I thought that obviously by then, shall we say, that they uh their muted styling really suited them. But the 1960s were basically just the face lifted forward. Exactly. They they toned it down great, they lost the horseshoe grill. Or collar grill. Um when we talk about these calls, I keep I keep thinking of the um nightmare scene in Christine, the book. You know, the where where suddenly shades of 50s Americana manifest. Have you read the book, Mr. Bryan, sir?

SPEAKER_00 32:58

I have. Yeah. Good, isn't it? It's really good. It's brilliant, it's amazing. I enjoyed the film as well.

SPEAKER_01 33:04

Yes. I like the way the I like the way in the film, our young anti-hero, gradually becomes a sort of throwback psycho rocker. Wasn't the last car that Christine destroyed a Ford Cortina, Mark II?

SPEAKER_00 33:17

Mark II, yeah. Mark II since I saw that.

SPEAKER_01 33:23

Um I do like the payoff line with the um strapyard worker carrying a ghetto blaster. You know, I hate rock and roll. Yeah, and that was um the the chap who sang The Bad to the Bone. Uh as George Sorrogood carrying the radio. Yeah. And of course, as um the great the great actor Harry Dean Stanton as Mr. Judson, the detective. Yes. No, uh film, but don't get me started. No, or the Plymouth film about it. I mean, obviously, this is Christine is not your ideal summertime car, not really. Not unless, you know, you have certain sort of issues you're trying to work, trying to work your way through. If Christine was a British car and it was a British film, what would you cast?

SPEAKER_00 34:16

Oh, golly.

SPEAKER_01 34:17

Um somebody said a while back, and I've never been able to get it out of my head, and next time you're at a car show and you see one, have a look at the front of the Mark III Zephyr. Yes. It does. That would do something nasty to you and then skulk away sniggering. And the Mark III Zephyr just looks really quite evil. Yes. Uh you have to see it to know exactly what I'm talking about. But all right, so it'll be about a young chap. Obviously, if we make the film in the same way it would be in the early 80s, buys a 20-year-old semi-derelict for Zephyr 6 Mark III. Would work. Exactly. And so gradually the Zephyr takes him over, but instead of playing American rock and roll songs, it plays British rock and roll songs. So it murders all its h victims playing Billy Fury numbers. Or um, with alternatively Vince Taylor and the Playboys. Yeah, I'm I'm imagining all the the death was rolling down the production line at Dagenham and then one bright red export model that's that's not something in the internet. Right red with a white. And you know the name of the unfortunate worker. It would have to be Eddie, because then the Zephyr's radio would start playing Just Like Eddie by Heinz Burt. I've maybe I've devoted a bit too much thought to this.

SPEAKER_00 35:52

It sounds like he might have done actually.

SPEAKER_01 35:54

Yeah. Yes. So um that's it. And also, at one moment it would sort of murder another victim whilst playing Shaking All Over by Johnny Kidd and the Pirates. If you wanted it to look like Christine, I guess then the Humber Hawkins be the possibly, but the Hawk's only a big four, and it doesn't it has a sort of more municipal image, doesn't it? But I think the Zephyr I guess you mean about the American styling, but the Zephyr, you said it looks aggressive. Menacing. Although we were to be carrying a flick knife. Sorry, Zephyr fans. So yes, that's the greatest, that's the greatest film never made. Um the British version of Christine. So I'll put that alongside my idea for a British version of Night Rider, which would be a Morris Ital II Lita with the voice of Charles Hawthry. Which to be fair, I would watch. Want, no, I'd watch it. I would be an avid viewer of that of that. Um who would play the lead then? Who'd play Michael Knight? Yes, who would who would in 1982 if would play? We've gone down this rabbit hole. We may as well see what's in there. I've got it. I've got it. Lewis Collins. Fresh off the fresh off the professionals. In a leather jacket. Yes. I'm serious about Lewis Collins because it was a rather nice sense of comedy timing. I saw an utterly dreadful thing the other day related to Knight Rider. And I wish I'd if I'd known I was coming on, I'd have actually done some research or given this and thought. But so I can't sadly remember what the show was, but it was something in the early 80s, and it was one of those song and dance number on bits of comedy shows. And the the lead guy picked up a microphone with a long lead and went, right, it's time for the duet, walked across the stage, and there's a Pontiac done up as Kid, but clearly not one of the cars from the show. And he did a duet with the car.

SPEAKER_02 38:08

And I just watching this with my mouth open, thinking, This is some of the worst television I've ever seen. And then they were thinking alternate line, but it wasn't even Are you actually course the original car?

SPEAKER_01 38:22

No, it was like in Hicks tapping away in the background who's now gonna No. I mean, I'm trying to think about, I mean, I'm trying to think because this is Night Rider was made, arguably, the early episodes in the absolute twilight of the American comedy variety show. Yeah. Which were really peaked, I think, in the late 70s. Thing dreadful, dreadful programs like the Paul Lind Halloween special. Um, all the what was it? Um, what was the the Brady Bunch, the Brady Bunch um Variety Show. So why not have Kit Kit, you know, duetting on stage? Well, there are three million reasons, but they have airtime. Tying this back into um summer cars and convertibles. They uh in the final season of Night Rider, they did make it into a convertible. When they really jumped the shark on that show. There was uh I think they converted into a you know you never saw it happen because it was completely impossible to hatch back car. A little bit of camera trickery where you saw a roof go up and then it would cut to suddenly the roof was on the back of the car. Well, I I would say the the the other terrible, terrible piece of television involving motor cars of a sporting nature, the last episode of um was it El Dorado? The exploding Alpine 610 that turns into a TR7. Yes, it was somebody somebody I know is a massive fan of El Dorado.

SPEAKER_00 40:02

I actually thought it was quite good, you know. I did actually watch that when it was on the TV. I thought, what a nice place, lovely location, plenty of sunshine. I've not found anything to beat it since Death in Paradise, to be honest, which probably tells its own story about my television viewing habits, to be fair.

SPEAKER_01 40:23

Oh, I don't know. I like Vendetta for the Saint for that reason.

SPEAKER_00 40:29

I recommend it by I've got to raise a point because you said something earlier about the Brady Bunch variety show. Yes. And I'm thinking that sounds horrific. Because the Brady Bunch was about a somewhat slightly disjointed family um of kids that came together. It's just a completely different Brady Bunch. I know this is opening another Rabbit Warren, but it seems to be quite a popular theme for this evening.

SPEAKER_01 41:02

Yes, it was um that's right. There was the it they turned it into a variety show by the later 70s. The Brady Bunch hours.

SPEAKER_00 41:11

That must have been dreadful.

SPEAKER_01 41:14

Yeah, it was so bad. The Simpsons did an absolutely spot on proof of it. I remember the Simpsons one was brilliant because the character of Lisa refused to be in it. That's right, so they had a fake Lisa instead of a fake Jan. Well the brilliant that was absolute and total cheese. Yes, it was the idea of turning a sitcom into a variety show. Um, you know, I think the worst one, although there were a lot of contenders, were what was it um The P Pink Lady with Jeff. Look it up, it's Grease Tine or somewhere. No, it was um the basically Pink Lady Japanese pop duo, famous in Japan, who were brought over to the USA, you know, to appear in their own variety show. Um Pink Lady and Jeff, that's it.

SPEAKER_02 42:22

Except um I don't think they can speak English. Oh. So I think you've got a flawed concept to start with.

SPEAKER_01 42:34

Puts me in mind of a story I was told by a friend who was on a cruise, um and the uh it was a Japanese boat, and the the singing duo came out and did that that song, you know, you say potato, I say potato. Except no one had explained to them the joke what we pronounce it two different ways. But went through the entire say tomato, and I say tomato, tomato, potato, potato, tomato. And utterly hilarious to watch.

SPEAKER_02 43:06

But you also think can we cut these people out of their misery?

SPEAKER_01 43:11

Oh no, I mean I I'll have to watch that. I mean, I'm uh I'm quite a fan of 1960s Japanese pop. I recommend to you Emmy Draxon. Emmy Draxon, isn't it? Emmy Drakson Crying in a storm, 1965. I I I am very, very into sort of 60s surf music and hot rod and drag racing music. And the Japanese covered various um various songs, uh, but of course had no clue at all as to the context of the words or or what they were talking about. And a lot of the car songs, very intricate words. And you can hear the Japanese just trying to phonetically sing and guess what it is that they're talking about. And it is utterly I mean, I I couldn't sing in Japanese to save my life, so I'm not uh ridiculing them, but it Is amusing to hear that uh you think that's not what they said. No. Because Emmy Jackson was different, she's Anglo-Japanese, you know, and excellent singer, superb backing group, Surf Sound. I really recommend it, Crying in a Storm. You know, if it should have topped the charts here as well. It's that good. Apparently, she revolutionized Japanese pop music. Also, I've looked at the group The Spiders, whose I think lead singer and flute player, of course, later starred in Monkey. The um show that we got on the on BBC, the Monkey Magic kind of Yes, the Monk The Monkey Magic about. Yeah. Yeah. That's one of many shows in the 70s that scared me as a child. Oh, yeah, very frightened child because most things scared me. But that of course David Collins, who did the English voice for Monkey, was silver in Sapphire and Steel. Well, I mean, there was lots of terrifying things as a child, you know, not desperate as a motor, because obviously there was the changes. That was traumatizing, wasn't it?

SPEAKER_00 45:07

It was, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 45:09

But speaking of starve, um, I looking at the window yesterday, a beach buggy went by. I've seen a beach buggy on the road in years. It's good to know there's still some around. It's clearly Volkswagen base. Right. My father my father tried building one out of a derelict beetle in the early 70s. It was a sour family joke. I think it ran once. You had to narrow the sh or or um shorten the chassis, didn't you? We had to put it this way. I think at the end we had nine cars in the garden, only two of them moved. He's trying to amalgamate second cars into a beach buggy. Well, apparently he said to my brother when he passed um someone with a similar taste, that's the way to do it. Start one half-baked job and then go on to the next one, then the next one. That's the way to do it. What was the Elvis movie where Elvis drove buggy? Las Vegas, was it? But it must have been around that time. Was it Speedway? Could have been it. Or Spinout. I mean, they all merge into one after about 1964, don't they? Basically were the same film. They just changed his outfit and the song, but it was all they're all interchangeable. That'll be a good fun time. Get all the Elvis movies and edit all the best bits into one film and see if it's still a coherent plot. I mean, Elvis was, I think, his own serious, serious, severe critic. So something like him, I tend to sort of sing a song to the guy I beat up in the previous scene. Yeah. But while he's beat up, that's something I'd like to see. A fight scene where they sing. That sounds like Dennis Potter gone wrong, and therefore I want to see it at once. I suppose it's a bit guys and dolls, isn't it? Well, yes, but a British guys and dolls. Oh, there we go. Who would star in a British guys and dolls? Sidney Taffler and Sid James.

SPEAKER_02 47:09

There you go. You did not that you've given us any forecall.

SPEAKER_01 47:17

No, no, no, it just came to me because they're they're two superb actors. Um no, we were both wrong, it was live a little, love a little. Was it? Yes. Also, and you'd know this because you're a beach buggy fan. Wasn't there a beach buggy used in one of the very bad episodes of the Protectors? And most of them were bad. But this one was really bad. One of the Maltese set episodes. I think they had a beach buggy in that, and the police turned up in a mock 2 for console.

SPEAKER_02 47:52

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 47:55

I mean, watch it for that, ladies and gentlemen, don't watch it for the acting.

SPEAKER_02 47:59

The banana splits at beach buggy.

SPEAKER_01 48:03

Yes, they did indeed. And uh as a child in the late 70s, I thought, A, this is incredibly out of date. You know, nothing dates more quickly than yesterday's supposedly hit. And B what am I watching? For four points. Nine each of the banana flip.

SPEAKER_00 48:26

Oh flea go. Uh that was definitely one.

SPEAKER_02 48:33

Pingo. Yep. Pingo. I thought I could do more than two. True pay and snorkel.

unknown 48:43

Right.

SPEAKER_00 48:43

Trooper. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 48:45

Well, right, Mr. Renault, in revenge. I want you to meet to name for us all four of the animal quackers. I can't. Never seen the show. Pongo, Rory, Twang, and Boots. Name name all the animals, which I would get stuck on with Eric Burden. Beyond that again. Um Hilton Valentine, um, etc. Alan Price, Jazz Chandler. Yeah, I mean, that's it's quite it's quite straightforward. I mean, Jazz Chandler's height, you know, is quite bad. Of course, Jazz Chandler was instrumental in the career of Jimi Hendrix. But we all right, we're there's nothing to do with cars, so talk amongst yourselves. Well, dragging on the cars. Was it one of the animals that owned that 1960 Buick that was painted up in all rainbow colours with one on one of their album sleeves? A white car, psychedelically painted. White converted. I'd have to ask Mr. Eric Burden's agent about that, because that um that does intrigue me. Which America which British pop star from the Southampton Easterly area had a Ford Consul Capri. So so not Heinz, then. Yes, it was Heinz. It was Heinz, yeah. Heinz Burt. Yeah. Just to avoid getting confused with any other pop stars called Heinz. Well, exactly. There's another 56 of you out there from the Southampton area, and you're all slightly different. And they could set up a car club, couldn't they? They could. Look, they could just wanna car. There could only be one Heinz. I've seen him in his attempt to act and live it up. It was not good. Yes. Steve Marriott still built as Stephen Marriott in those days. Fair play though. I do like the song, just like Eddie. It is, and of course he played bass on the Tornado's Telstar. And um I love the biopic of Joe Meek.

SPEAKER_02 50:49

Who did Joe Meek drive?

SPEAKER_01 50:51

Did he drive? I'm not sure he had quite I'm not was driving one of his accomplishments. Incidentally, have you heard the demo tape for Telstar? Yes. It's genius, isn't it? Well, Ryan, type go to YouTube and type in Telstar Demo Tape. Oh, because I will watch that. Rick was obviously was a genius. Anyone who's who's not aware, he was the guy who came up with so many of the 60 pongs and songs like Telstar. But he wasn't musically trained. I believe he couldn't even read music. He couldn't read musical playing instruments. To to get across what he wanted on his demos, he would very tone-deafly just sing the notes.

SPEAKER_02 51:37

So the Telstar one is literally Joe Meek with a tape recorder thing, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah nah, nah, nah nah.

SPEAKER_01 51:47

In a in a marked Gloucester accent. Yeah. Yeah, it's it's difficult to put a Gloucester accent. But it it's wonderful. It is and you I mean what I personally appreciate the most about the film is it does not downplay how dangerous he was at the end. It doesn't downplay, you know, what happened to the landlady. It doesn't gloss over that. And I think that's the mark of a very good um an very good film. Also, the actor, is it J.J. Field who played Heinz Burt? His grasp of the local accent was remarkable. Yes, it's a sad story. Genuinely sad story. Nothing to do again, nothing to do again with um summertime uh summertime cars, although I still keep thinking of that Pepsi Colad, which proves what what a susceptible child I was at the age of eight. We may have to look that up now and find out what the cars were. Yes, I mean it is Peter Blake. It is Peter Blake, isn't it? I don't know. I don't know who Peter Blake is, but I'm interested to see what the cars were. Kirk Kurt Sammaritz from Dear John. Kirk the Burke. Oh now that one on me, which is Will. Yes, I know who you mean now. That's right, you know, I you know, ideal, you know.

SPEAKER_02 53:07

Yeah. Uh he was sort of leaving the British pond, really, wasn't he?

SPEAKER_01 53:15

That's right. I mean this I mean he'll probably be he'll probably I remember it being circa 78, but I'm willing to be corrected. Do you think it was to Pepsi? Lip smacking pe Pepsi Cola, lip smacking Pepsi Cola. Fascinating for anyone uh listening along. It says 70 oh here we are. 77 it says here. I'm I'm looking up the advert now. I'm gonna do um so 70, I would have been seven, I would have been forgiven. There was nothing much else to do in um Swannick in those days. Yeah, so it was apart from waiting for the Pepsi out. Well, basically it was either that or watching our neighbours erect Wicker effigies again, you know. They loved us so much. That's fire and so I'm sorry, Brian, we've done something again.

SPEAKER_00 54:00

I think on that note, I think we have given the summer concept of driving and keeping cool really well, actually. And I think the conclusion has to be it's some kind of nineteen sixties convertible in my book. And that I think is a good solution to this hot weather, but I'm gonna retrofit air conditioning to it as well, because I think air conditioning with the top-down, there is nothing better. And I can relate that to driving my convertible, Chrysler LaBaron, with the top-down and the air conditioning on in Florida in 1990.

SPEAKER_01 54:51

Oh, which LaBarron did you have? Was it a a new one at the time?

SPEAKER_00 54:56

Um it was a rental one, so I would have thought it would have been. It was one that had various kinds of we could never get the indicators or the lights or the windscreen wipers to work when we needed them. It was the most strange kind of column thing. I just couldn't make it work. Just couldn't make the lights or anything work. All it did was go bomb and nothing different happened. Really strange.

SPEAKER_01 55:26

But apart from apart from that, it worked beautifully well. Um did. Of course. It was amazing. And of course, Mike, wasn't one of the isn't this a Liberan in planes, trains, and automobiles? Uh Chrysler Town and Country, yes. Town Country, yes. We, you are going to die. Bizarre. I mean, I I saw it's such a such a niche joke, but somebody sent me the other day. Um, Snoopy, you remember you he Snoopy had an alter ego that was fighting uh in his flying over someone washing a a red La Baron and Snoopy scoring a direct hit on the red LaBaron. And I thought no one is gonna understand. That's way too uh I I'd I'm watching the advert now, but the the car can't come me up in it, sadly. So I may not have an answer for you before this podcast ends. It lips back in PepsiCola.

SPEAKER_02 56:27

But it is Kurt from um yeah, from uh Dear John. Okay, guys.

SPEAKER_00 56:34

On that Bond fell, remember listen in, remember to like and subscribe. Thank you, and before we go, I just need to make a mention of um our chap Dan Ferrari Ford, and uh he's got he's asked me to tell you, Andrew, that he's bought a Sierra XR4i and it had a shoddy interior, and he has replaced it with a full leather trimmed Riccaro seat, and it looks absolutely fantastic with leathering the door cards as well. And don't you think that's the sort of interior trim that the XR4i Sierra should have had from Nouke?

SPEAKER_01 57:24

I agree with you. Can you imagine that little chef advert with Mr. XR4i if his car had that sort of interior? It'd be amazing. He'd have been too distracted to visit the little chef.

SPEAKER_00 57:37

He would. So, for anybody who hasn't seen it, Dan Ferrari Ford, and you can hear all about that that story. So, and he's also done a lovely little mention for us on his recent uh video about the car as well. So uh I thought we need to endorse the story of a leather clad SR4i, which sounds like a bit of class to me. So, thank you very much, guys. Okay, we shall see you all again very soon. And as Andrew said, don't forget to like and subscribe. Cheers, guys, goodbye.

SPEAKER_01 58:19

Right, right.