David Gandy: How to Collect Classic Cars Properly

People then of course started not getting these cars for passion value. We're buying them from investment value. I'm a big believer that you have classic cars in your store and it's for everyone else to enjoy it. You let you have junctions and they wave at you and everyone's happier. We're just generally all happy being in classic cars. Yes. The cars are too fast, they're too boring, they're too capable, they're modern stuff. And classic cars you then got something that are just a bugger to try. But yes, the Italians love speed, they love cars. And when you think I'm going to get pulled over here, they're going to have to go there to go. No, no, no, go. Go faster. You just want to look at your car. You go faster. You go in totally. That's basically it. Hello and welcome to the luxury dispatch. The podcast that reveals the refined and the rare. People, items and stories that make up the luxury industry. I'm Tom Chamberlain and today we shall be stepping into a world where engineering becomes art and where the act of collecting is as much about preservation as it is about passion. It is of course the world of classic cars. From coach built bodies to racing pedigrees from the centre of old leather to the quiet authority of a perfectly tuned engine, vintage motoring occupies a singular place in luxury culture. These machines are not simply objects of beauty but moving pieces of history, each with its own story to tell. To guide us through that world naturally, I've asked a male model to join us. It's David Gandhi, racer, devoted restorer and a man who's appreciation for craftsmanship extends well beyond the wardrobe. David, welcome. Thank you, sir. My apologies for kicking off. So flippantly. But to some extent, I rather like that people, obviously you are known for being the most successful male model of all time. However, it's always fascinating to people behind the public profile. People have passions that extend beyond what they're known for. You and I have waxed a lot for many, many years now about fashion tailoring, the things we both enjoy. But classic cars, it's very much where your heart lies. Where did that begin? To say to them, really, I just remember loving cars as things I couldn't remember. My mum and dad brought me a little pedal go car and I was off. That was it. I would just go down the driveway, hand brake turn and come back and that was just a wide do for hours. We used to sit over and be friendly. Of course, the road, his father had an old dats and his garage. We used to sit in that, just playing tunes and pretending to drive. So no love of cars in the immediate family whatsoever. Especially my father, I'm always so, I could turn up in a yellow lamb bikini and he could see me turn up and then I could leave him. He would notice a difference. He would still remind me to mine the grassy banks because I crashed into one to one and he still reminds me it was about 20 years ago but he still likes to remind me as I go and visit home. It's always a very good piece of advice. It is a way to mine the grassy banks. Yeah, yeah. And that's where the love came from reading. My reading was the history of cars, the stories of cars. Every poster on the wall would be a Ferrari F40 or a Porsche 959 or XJT20. There was always a magazine, always car magazine in my hand and then traveling. So yeah, it just, it wasn't forced on me. I didn't have any mentors or anyone that got in from a family point of view. It's in your blood and that is, and you say it's a passion. It's not, and it's a quite expensive passion to honest. Well, we'll dig into that at some point as we ask you about the cars that you've both restored and raised. But in terms of accessing that world, was it through the cars themselves as an object of beauty, was it the technical side of things for you, was it the people who raised them? What aspects of it sort of entranced you the most? I definitely think probably it was the racing side first of all. These were days of the WRC rally when I was growing up as well. Is that the one when when people, hundreds of people would go along a thin path and the cars would be? That was the middle. Yeah, I mean, that was group B, which of course got banned and it was just absolute madness. That's not what it was. When you see videos that, I mean, genuinely young kids today when they're going out, they would not believe that that ever existed. No, I mean, there's stories about that. When one guy who one of the races was, he, they stopped at the checkpoint and there was a hand in his grill because they were trying to touch the car and clearly they did. And it ripped this guy's arm off and they had to pull the arm out the grill and, like I don't know. Thank you. That's his fault. Not the drivers. Well, I wouldn't buy a winged bike with a plane. Not a winged bike, but a winged car. Yeah. And then the history of everything, the milling milling, some fascinating stories, the milling milling mill is a thousand mile race around Italy, which you've done in the fifth. If I don't, it's not a race. We do race, but it's an hour timed rally. It was a thousand miles around Italian, partly open roads, but still kind of with general public driving in it. Yeah. Jaguar and Ferrari and everyone would participate in it. And, you know, there's facts in that, it's a stern moss, completed that in ten hours. So he was averaging, so he's a thousand miles, ten hours. He averaged a hundred miles an hour in a 1950s car, a Mercedes silver arrow on open roads, some of the on open roads, but not closed roads racing in the milling mill. So it was a few average, sort of civilians in their firts. Yeah. It could be. And it's just phenomenal. I mean, we do that race and we're doing four days. We're doing four days. You're doing three days. You're doing ten hours. So it's like they have a different mindset. Once you get into the history and some really interesting stories, and then of course you had F1 with that in center, and you know, WRC when you had Colin McCray, Richard Burns. So it was definitely the racing side that I was fascinated by. Yeah. And then sort of getting into the cars after that. But it was just the love and the freedom of driving, I've always said, like I don't, I still don't care. I think people think I care a lot about what car I'm driving, whether that's a classic or something very new and flash. It doesn't have to be. I love Volvo. Yes, I love Volvo. Absolutely. Volvo, I've been to each family. But I could just drive that because I'm just happy driving. I'm with you actually. I do all the driving at home because I don't just love it. Yeah. What was your first car? Not the UK. I had a 1988 Ford Fiesta gear. I'm not still trying to work out what the gear part actually meant. Okay. Aftermarket electric window, four speed, four presets. It was a bit of a hammer down from my way, Dad's company is I think it was a pull car and then it was like the death track was given to me. But that guy absolutely loved it. Absolutely loved it. And he said to me, when the quite funny thing my dad still reminds me is that, so of course there's a 17, 18 year old, a bit older. So Dad can we get a new car? I read he used to take some some fantastic holidays where the world. I want to say that these trips to Amazon and Alaska must be very expensive. And he said, yeah, they are, David. But I like to take him places and you'll think basically one day. I said, well, maybe I couldn't come on holiday, but I could have a new car. And he said, well, you can make a choice. You can not come on holiday. But you're not getting a car. So what do you want to do? I'd like to come on holiday. But good decision. Get out of my office. That was the end of the story. But Dad would take on holiday to like, yeah, we could have probably like the frustrated David Adam. They could have to explore that little bit. That's, that's interesting because I guess the entrepreneurs would be passed down. So how, how, how well did it get? The travel. Yeah. Yeah, there were 11 hours on long boats through the Amazon rainforest, 14 flights and 13 days catching piranha, eating piranha. They're getting hit by a rhino one stage go to listen to the guide, not going back to a heart in Botswana. Yeah, Alaska brown bears walking around woods having to clap so that they can hear you run away instead of attacking you. Yeah, there it was, it was immense. And I guess traveling and cars have such a great history together. I love the road trip. Yeah. And we had Simon DeBurston on in the last season to talk about the history of off-roaders and he was talking about the peaking to Paris rally and stuff. And then also there was the Dorian Pass with John Blaschard Snell who did, who took a bunch of land drivers through it. And so, you know, cars, adventure, seeing the world, you know, it's such a great connection. I wonder whether perhaps you're upbringing in adventure in that sense, meant that ultimately your love of cars and hitting the road and getting out and about was inevitable. Yeah, I think the road trip, I mean, we were sort of dumped as true. I mean, we used to take my back of the day, we used to go around Europe with my grandparents and us in the back of the car dumped into the back of the car and just driving around Europe with my mum's mixed tapes. That's my happy place. And why, I don't know, because travelling with my children is hellish. Absolutely hell. But, you know, I mean, if I'm going on a, I'm going to say road trip or there's a car event or a rail or something else, I'm still to this day, got the buzz of I, I know I won't be able to sleep that night or whether there's car being delivered for me review or new car for business. I've done deal with a car company. I won't sleep that much. I'm literally that excited. That excited. They can check you. It could be replacing exactly where we're at the Jaguar Land Rover. They could replace in car with exactly the same car. Yes, but I'll still be excited. It's a different car. You took me out in one once. I took it out in the. Yeah, the project date. There's a very particular clip where you went a bit faster. Yes. And I wasn't expecting it. For strange noise that came out to me. I remember that world. Yeah, there was a look. That's quite something. Yeah. Shabby pads. Shabby pads. And so would you say that you're more track guy or a. I know, I'm not a distance. I'm a rally car. Grantora. I'm not a great track day. I'm a. If you rally courses, I've got my racing license. And definitely rally and road is better for me. To track is. I find it quite boring. And actually people who are very good on track, they can literally like, very methodical increases by two seconds deep. And that's basically what F1 drivers doing. Like, they're pushing it to the limit. Yeah. Where the rallying is trying to control. Basically, you were out of control the whole time. You were just. You were on the limit. And that's why I used to love about WRC rally during 120, 130 miles. But there's a 500 foot cliff that way. A crowd of people and a rock face over here. And it was. That just baffled me. They told me about the danger of F1. I was just like, have you seen these guys doing 140 miles an hour? Yeah. There is not. They cannot make. A niche this way. And it makes a difference. You're going to end up over a cliff. And it was fascinating. That mindset is quite hard. Until I raced in the mille. And then I got the red mist of understanding you have. Because we were. My first race I raced with. Jasmine Lebon. So if you have a racing partner. Of course. You choose Jasmine. You have an incredible job. I always said my. I said, "Where was your light?" The happy one I said, "On the mille." I was going through the Tuscan countryside in a classic Jaguar racing through racing with the Italians. And he has me in Lebonne's hand feeding me Harry Boe into my mouth. To kind of keep him going. Good for the Ralph. Yeah, that was okay. I was like, "If I die at this moment, I die very happy man." You did a JD kid as well. We did a whole different ballgame. I mean, she's unhinged. I'm unhinged, but she's then that next level. So we were very good together. Because actually it's quite scary when you're in a car. And you have a very good driver. It's a wonderful experience. But it's not fun for people when you are going so that fast. But we're both slightly unhinged when we're racing. Okay. So it's kind of like fine. Great. And that or the mille, you're in over the width of the road. And you're in your, you're on a 400, 40, is that the 400 cars you're going to be taking them there, open with it. They're not all closed roads. And of course, we're driving in right-hand drive cars. So you're on the other side of the road. So you can't see it. So you have to completely trust your car driver. And you have to go. And they literally, and you look out and you go, "Yeah, go." And on the instant, if you don't go. And then if you pause and you go, "No, don't go now." You're going to hit someone. You guys are coming on it. And there's a lot of accidents. No, you just have to be like, "Absolutely trusting it." And we crashed. And your Jojo and Yasmine was in the, we were in the XK and she was driving, wet road coming out to Rome. She was overtaking a couple cars and a couple cars trying to overtake us. Which sounds so absolutely ridiculous. It does sound-- And then they hit the touch dust because they had to pull in great quickly to get in from oncoming traffic. It hits us, which pulls us into a bit of a spin and we went down to garage to the bank. And my head is the roll-box. Back to the garage, the garage branch. And I have a much luck. Avoiding a house and a number of people sitting watching, spectating, because the Italians will come out and watch. Frontside, the car was crashed out. We were on our side. I was just trying to get my head. So if we did turn over, because we're not wearing helmets or anything. It's ludicrous when you actually think about this now. And then I saw our, we were number one on the Jaguar team at the point and Andy Wallace overtook us. And I didn't care about, I'd know sympathy by the way for us crashing or all the rum or Yasmin. I was just here. I did it. I did it. That just pack up and get on because now we're second. It's getting dry. Yeah, you've got to get back in. And I saw that. Yeah, you have no self-harm or self-depcation. You would literally just go, I don't care. I was going to win this race and I'll do it any cost. So I got to slightly see what race is experiencing. And is it, when you do things like the millimetre is there a sort of, to people go because there's a big sort of social aspect to it as well, because you do have your stops and you take four days rather than being like starting moss and it's just like a one day thing. I'm assuming afterwards everyone's quite sort of paly and not sort of wanting to go. They are. I mean, you make sure the rival is, we were Jaguar. Mercedes did not like us whatsoever. They were like, "Oh, I'm going to go to the car." They were like us whatsoever. They were trying to put their support fans in between us so we couldn't get to timing spots on time or delay us. And stuff. So it was sort of the English verses of James. So I was hunting down goal wings as I used to say. Actually, there was one where we came in and we were, there was three, five, sixes, porches. And then there was the goal wings. We were racing for hours. And it's kind of said the checkpoint, you don't win. You basically just have to get there first. You have to wait longer. Because you can't go until you're checking your time and stuff. That's come not the point. And there was traffic going into this small town. I'm heading towards up into a brush near. And there was a very wide pavement. I was like, "Can I use the pavement?" So I went up onto the pavement, overtook the Germans and then carried on. So we were in the lead. Do you get legal leeway in these situations? The Italians like me, which is quite. That's a good old chick. Why did they? I got away with a few things. But yes, the Italians love speed. They love cars. They are the. I would say the most passionate car people in the world. And when you think, "I'm going to get pulled over here. They're going to have a go there to go, "No, no, no, go, go, go." Go faster. It's going to look like you can't. Go faster. You're going to go into the. That's basically it. We did it twice, fantastic. The best memories. The first year, the first year, the second year they had made it four days. The original was three days. And I knew about the history of it, but it didn't really. It didn't quite understand the intensity of it. And it was peeing down for two ways. And you have a map book. There's no sat nav. You've got two timers. And you've got a guide, like this, that says 0.5 kilometers. Turn right. So people get lost. Get lost all the time. Because you have to kind of go back in yourself and then try and find your mileage on where you are. But you are driving for. It could be 12, 14 hours a day. You kind of break down it's. You're getting total. I was just exhausted. And then you're off. But sometimes 5, 6 am. I'm wanting to get back into the car after having a lovely Italian dinner and. Fair enough, guys. Yeah. Yeah. It was pretty old school. I imagine that speed is sort of. It deals with the hangover quite quickly. Yeah. I mean, you talk about sort of mindsets and things like that. I'm interested in the collector psychology. And what. Firstly, what makes a classic car to you? I mean, that's a good question where you are determining classic cars. I mean, if you went on the government website, what class is a classic car? I think it's like pre-1986, is a classic car now. Which by the way, in my head, I don't think that's that long ago. You're a classic car then. But yeah, it's. That is a long time ago now. I was born in 1987, so I didn't know. Oh well. I was born in 1980, so. Yeah. But I still think. You look great. Oh, thank you. I don't know if anyone's ever told you. You're a good looking guy. But I still think in my head. So even so now you can determine that 80s or some 90s cars, per 0205s, they're calling them. They are coming into the classic status. I think the classic status is doing something that there's. I think the classic status is doing something that there's not many left of those vehicles. The rarity adds to that, of course. But in my head, the classic status is still probably the 56th is cars. Not even even 70s me. So that meets your personal interests. That's when I think cars were the most beautiful. Fine. And for the collector, and in terms of the collector's mindset, what do you think people think? People look for when they want to collect. Or make a collection of cars. I think this has changed. So when I. I mean, I started probably. Oh, I go to about 15 years ago, sort of getting into classic cars. Because I'm getting a bit bored of like the modern day stuff coming out and so I was getting into the classics a bit more. And you kind of felt the community then, and before. I mean, a bit before that was they bought cars because they loved that car. They were buying it from the passion of they just loved the car or the history behind it, the look of the car. The road was a bit. rarity of it. And of course you had passions of people passionate about Jaggers, people passionate about Ferrari's, and I had a mixture, but you kind of read by like Jaggyrim Saed is guy or Ferrari guy, you know, asking guy. But then of course the price of these cars started going through the roof. We took him Ferrari's 20, 30 million. Some Jaggers were the same semesters, but nothing near what the classic sort of Ferrari's were doing. And then people then of course started not getting these cars for passion value, they're buying them from investment value. So of course then people were, you could buy 10 of a classic Ferrari, you own 10 of them, you can pretty much say what the price is going to be. So you make sure one sold for 10 million and the rest you think it's going to be sold by 10 million. And they weren't being driven. I'm a big believer that you have classic cars, you restore and it's for everyone else to enjoy. Whether that is you driving it itself, whether that is you taking it to a hampton court or a concourse, it's for other people to enjoy. That's why we got them on the road. But it wasn't, they were, they were investment pieces. And of course then you see these vast collections being built of these cars that never really going to be seen. So I think it changed. So you think that the creation of classic cars as a sort of asset class has diminished it as a market because it's private hands away from the kind of passionate to me. I mean, to me, and I, if I'm judging, started luck with Cartier at Goodwood. And you just hear the different stories. And instantly when a car has been brought on a trailer dropped off in the thing and it's immaculate or completely, you can because things are completely original, but it's not driven. It's brought from a collection by the team that's there. And it could be the best car that I straight away personally for me. I just off the list, you're not going to win. The people who have checked in the back of the car and there's a weight troze bag with some launching and people have driven four hours that morning to bring their class car. And like we're telling the story and they've always got the best stories. And they're still driving the car. Do you think that that is what makes Goodwood so special because it transports people who will never see these cars driven in any other circumstance? There's other things like the London to Bryson from outside the RAC where I mean, those are like the first ever car stuff. I mean, they're there, they're extraordinary. But seeing, rallying, upheld sort of achievements with these old cars is a really special thing that the two managed to do. More than every way I think we've got, of course, you've got the two forms like Goodwood, but I mean, still like that we have revival. And again, I don't think people are appreciating, you know, I can watch that race. And I know there were two Ferrari 250 Gios with a racing and an E type or an XKS. Yes. An inch from each other, proper racing. And I go in that corner, that's 60 million quid. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And then once it's gone off. And you're like, good God. Like this is, yeah, that is the most amazing thing I could do to Vuel is it's the most expensive race, all set of races in the world. And I interviewed Tom Christensen, the chap who's, I think he's one or more nine times and podiumed 14. It's a lot. Yeah. Yeah. And he was racing. So, you know, you are also seeing the kind of great, some of the greats down the track. You know, it's no joke. No, no, it's no joke. And that's where, and that's again, you'll just see that. It's not like Tony's, Tony's, tall kind of like, you know, it's really, really not. It's slightly sort of, well, of course, you want to have me driving an X KSS now, the X KSS was 16 cars made, because actually after they made the 16 cars, the factory burnt down, they had the 16 cars. And there were D types and then they said, we can make even money made from these and people buy them as kind of racing road cars. Stephen Queen bought them. Right. I was not the one that he would race a mohondrive in. Yeah. And the rumours had his back lights turned off. So the police, they did try and get him. They just didn't, they couldn't see where it was. Yeah. Yeah. And he sold it. And then he regretted selling it. He has to, he had to run and bought it back. And they are, they're a race car. I mean, they are, this thing is only happy doing 100 miles an hour. I mean, the, the accelerators like a little bit of metal. Is it on off? And Jagger gave me, they say, well, Debbie, you've driven it a few times. You better drive like that because other people who were doing what we were doing, they went, they were just drive it. But when we got it, Mill, but protesting around, I remember the guy who delivered to me said, just F1, I'm just going to have the owner of this is just a note of 16 million for it. So basically, he was saying, please try not to bin the car once you're going around it. So first, I was like, you got to go five miles now, hootling around. And then you get a bit faster and a bit faster. And then it's not actually, when I'm going to get chance to drive it, it's going to ever again. And it's just the car heats up. And you know, you're double the clutching. And then you don't even have to change your gear with a clutch because you've got that the change just right. And then Jagger had to send a car like I just switched off the, but they were going, Debbie, can you come in? I just switched it off. You can come get me. And that's what they had to do. It's mega, unhelpful things have pointed out that the fact. I think that putting that in your head was probably unhelpful, but I'm glad you managed to overcome it. What I like about Goodwood is the race track that it's on. It used to be RIF West Ammet. And the reason the track is there because RIF fields in the war used to have was planes all spread out. They weren't all kind of packed together like the yesterday because if there was a raid and it was bombed, they were spread out. So often lots of planes were surviving. One would be hit. And so when the ding, ding, ding, ding alarm went off and the pilots had to scramble, they would jump in cars and be driven all around track to get to all their planes. And all the pilots there realized this was a really fun track and could make it for a really good race track. So they would meet after the war and race around it. And it was then the Duke of Richmond, who initially was like, excuse me, get off my land in that accident. And he saw him, he sort of liked the spirit of it and so began hosting races there. And that's where the kind of audience come from and I really love that. Just when you thought you were listening to the only podcast in the world without an odd VPN advertisement, think again. In fairness, there's a reason you hear about them everywhere. Many of you listening to the luxury dispatcher fairly well traveled, regularly moving between London, New York, Geneva, Dubai, or indeed the less corporate, more recuperative destinations like Sub-Barts, Aspen and the South of France. Wherever you go, there is one modern ritual we all perform within about 30 seconds of sitting down somewhere, connecting to the Wi-Fi. They say that home is where the Wi-Fi connects automatically. I say it is where it connects safely. 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I'll link will also give you four extra months on the two-year plan and there's no risk with Nord's 30-day money back guarantee. The link is in the podcast episode description box. You mentioned restoration. You have restored classic cars. Tell me about the process. I'm personally restored classical. You've own cars that have been restored. You have undertaken restoration. I have. I know, I'm trying to sell you as a sort of engineer. There are better people than you. I could be. You got enough in your hands. It was the Jaguar, wasn't it? It's the most amazing looking car. I started to have started to have started off. I always wanted a, I love Mercedes gold wing. It's superly with offered one many, many, many, many years ago. I was just going to steer remember the price. He was asking $295,000 for it. And I didn't have a, anywhere near that sort of money. That car today will probably be about 1.2, 1.3. I knew it was stupid at times. I actually thought this is people should invest in this. That's why it's time was kind of realizing I had a bit of an attack for realizing cars that will be increasing in value. Because I can see the rarity and I knew the history of them. I couldn't afford a gold wing. So I got a, on the same line as the gold wing in the 60s was the 190 SL beautiful car. So I had that fully restored, not, not in bulk. I had the luggage set, was the luggage set was a six piece luggage set, especially made out of the same leather that you chose as an option. So I had that made. Can I just also about the decision making process of something like that, because people would argue that original parts make for a better classic car, and at the same time others might argue that restoring it to its former glory, using as close to the same materials as would have been used initially, and all these sorts of things is as noble a pursuit as kind of leaving it. Because at some point, patina is just basically rust, right? So, there is a point of which you can't keep it up. Same with restoring watches. You will, but if your car is being judged, if something is totally original, untouched, and restored, you will gain points and respect for that car not being touched. So, you could have a car that has had a 2 million pound rebuild. As you said, parts being sourced from all the way around the world, re-crumbed, reed, you know, or people building machines to mill the metal in the same way it was done. Yeah. Jaguar classics do that very well. And it's better, you know, what exactly it is, as it would have come from that show. That's the Mazen Clasad, I do. I drove the DB5, and that was quite something. I don't fit in that car. No. I am not. I think fitting classic cars. No, I'll take you with it. I think you're going to check your e-time. It was jolly fine. But the only problem was, they're quite near Milton Keynes. And a lot of people, before they weren't care, but they won't know. The Milton Keynes is basically one round about after another. So, when you're really big for a car like that, having to stop every 50 meters to go around and not around about, and change gears and sort of, it was a really interesting drive. But the effort they went into to sort of remake this, I mean, and also it had all the gadgets in there. And the bond one. It had all the bond gadgets. So, it had the spraying oil, it had the changing license plate, it had the machine guns that I've been afraid just made a noise. They have the injector seat flip. Yes, it did. Yes. And so, they totally remade it. It was an expensive thing to buy. It was really fun. But as you say, because it was clearly a new car, there's a sort of, I think it's a moral issue. I think it's, there's a spiritual aspect that goes missing. So, the way I did the X of the 19 TSL is the tangible, what I thought, historical parts of what people have used to steer, to change gear, I didn't change. Everything else was restored. The steering wheel, the gear knob, the patina on it was not changed for me. That in my head made it okay. And there was a non-negotiable to sort of when you were speaking to the restorers. Yeah. I mean, to that point, you have to, I mean, Parry Janna is a, who restored that car for me at Lux Classics. He judges concourse. Now, he will tell you, he will tell me, telling me stories about how this car, they all thought this car should have won. And then he brought it to another car and they were distraught and said, why? And they said, that nut bolt that you used for, what is that for the windscreen wife? Is that not the original bolt? That leather, that's not German. That's connoisseur. It's best leather, it's not German leather. I mean, he literally knows what, so when he was restoring my car, I had to stop him in the end and say, Parry, this is a lovely process. And I love the process. And I love the process more than actually driving the cars. The process of choosing everything and the colors and finding parts and original parts I had to all. But we had to cut it shorter and get one point and say, okay, let's not go, we're not going concourse level here. Yeah. We bought a car for the million and I based on an XK120 lightweight. They sourced a car from California. And we built it as a lightweight would have been built. It's not original because there were XK120s. It actually went to the XK120 stands for 120 miles now. It's fast as a car in the world at that time. In Jaguar, creating all these things with the C type, they've been the immense of disc brakes. And the K120s, the car I race to. It's one of the Jags I can fit in. And I still have my head popping about thing. The windscreen. It's conversable, luckily. So you know, it's a sort of. Well, yeah, you can get the hard top, but I couldn't have a hard top when it fitted in. I've seen it. And it doesn't have a. It's not a cabriolay. It doesn't have no top. It's good. It's a wee reach just for the. Yeah. I've seen the car at the Savaro concourse. It's a beautiful thing. It's very pretty. The belt. The belt over the bonnet. Yeah, you've got the. I mean, you originally wouldn't have had that that was in it. That's a racing piece. So the bonnet, you know, if the latch goes, it doesn't fly up. You don't do it with the belt. Yeah. Quick release. Petra gauge. And of course, with a bit of modern tweaking, the original engine, original chassis, disparate for the same. We had a little bit of adjustable suspension on the adjustable pedals because I don't fit it very well. So I'd that too very much to my car, but. Where do you keep it and what's the pincage for getting into the garage? That's. It's a very expensive play thing for my children, the living. It's terrible. They bring. So people can't believe. I mean, I've got the cars in the garage and all of them that they usually off events or doing something, but the Jagger Zero at the moment, that's got to go off to classics this next week. And so my kids will go, "Can we see my dad is car?" And they jump in the car, they pretend to drive. And now people cannot believe I let the kids do this. And now I always think you can go two ways. I can be the father shouting at my kids to get out their car and don't go to the car and it's not. Or I can be the wonder where they have the great memories. "Do you remember be sitting in that car?" Yeah. "Without our friends in that city on the side, we've got great pictures of it." And they've scraped it and they've scratched it and everything else. I don't care. Yeah. It's for them to enjoy. And when you tell that car, that's for everyone to enjoy. I go out and put the game and say to me, "Steph, I'm just going to run the Jagger and it's bugger to start because it's a racing car, so I've got to change the spark plugs before I do it for the oil, up in the car breters, make sure that the batteries can fully leave 100% charge and still on the charger to get it going." And I go, "Well, now I've got to take you for a drive and I'll be about half an hour and fill up with petrol." "Out and half later stuff." "Where are you?" I'm like, "I'm still talking to people because let's stop at the petrol station and someone will come and talk to me about it. I'll stop at a traffic light. They'll talk to me about it." You know, I park it up and then it's just conversations. They want to see the car. They want to be in the car. Now it doesn't matter what car you have. I think what modern supercar you have, hypercar maybe. The love and the passion still that feeling of what people see when they see you in a classic car because it's still such a rareity to this day. It's a lovely thing. They let you out of junctions and they wave at you and everyone's happier. Yes. It is a wonderful thing. Also, I stupidly know that car Matilda after my daughter. I can't ever get rid of Matilda. It's just that car's with me for a red car. Okay. That's another question for each of us. Does it scratch the itch or does it make it worse than you just always looking for the next project? You have a rest. It's like restoring a house. Same thing. You have enough. You're a good godly spend. Money on it. It's taken up one way time. I probably need a bit of therapy afterwards. This is why you're here. Yes. Thank you. Welcome. I feel you're actually very good therapist. Actually. I'm talking about it. Then a year goes by and I'll be like, "I'm just going to have a see what's on prime location. It's like me. I'll have a quick look on auto trader or watch a program or I really can't. I think I'm going to be interesting to have one of them. How much they are and start getting into it and then you can't stop. After Jaggo, I did the 356. I had kind of designed that car how I wanted the car to look. How I think it should have looked the best. A lot of that was handbeat and panels and bumpers and lowers and I did not stick to any rules. Even with the Jaguar, I went back into history because I've got everything remember the car. It has a middle bit. It's like a lattice level. That was a pit try found. Because the international race and the Italian race car in German race cars realized that if you're in a racing car, you should really have the center should be fabric because when you're driving around, you're not slipping. The British never did this. We were just sliding around on leather. That's what the British do. It got to be leather. God bless. I found somewhere clearly just lattice. They're leather. So you got traction. You're not slipping around. I found an image. I wanted that. The guy at Jaguar Classic would let us this leather send post it to him. Is this okay? A bit smaller. That's in the back to him. I didn't get to spoken to me again. That's the detail of that car which I love. The 356 is very different. Then we've just done a 90s mini. I sat down with the Encalum. It was a history of Encalum. Design of Fast Fords. The Aston Martin, as we know it, was him originating from the DB7. He went to Jaguar Land Rover. And the most iconic guy, we hate me saying that. We're actually important designers of cars ever. He would hate me saying that. He'd talk about himself, always achievements. And then we sat around, he'd left Jaguar, and they started to call him design. But many things, furniture, cars. But mostly cars. And we kept talking about what's the project we're going to do, what's the project we're going to do. And we would literally be able to talk about our collections, and we love porches, but people are going porches, as Aston, I don't want to do it the only way Aston. Jaguar, we can't touch, we're just too much kind of association with them, but both are sort of working with them. And I see you. And then I suppose most iconic British cars, and we said, mini, it was the mini, the genius of the mini. Yeah. And where the engine was, it was designed in the United States, and it's where I'm peturing. Petr, a so expensive, it had four, a family of four had to be fit in this tiny car. Now, if you see the size of an original mini, and people, how do you fit in it? Mean you could fit, you could sit in the front, I could sit in the back. The genius of that design. And then someone realized it was just a bloody great racing car. So they took it to Monacoa and it won the Monacoa, or the Monte Carlo rally. Yeah. Just like the one best bit of British design. So I said to you, and I was like, this is what we should do. And they put a case together. Instead of directing enough people, we'll want these if we put a business case together. And meaning out, restorations and motting is more of a restomod these days. But people were starting out, when you see these cars, they're like, to find restomod. Restomod is taking probably a car from the maybe 70s, 80s, 90s. Singapore, we weren't letting me to say that Singapore, restomod, but they are. And you are putting modern technology into the rest of the generation to make it. So the engineer of today, going into a car of the 80s or 90s, I would probably say that's the best idea. And they look phenomenal. But it's gone a little bit crazy with everyone doing them. But they are a quarter million, a million singers, hour over a million quid. And if you want to restore a car now, you're probably looking at a very well-restored car, a quarter million. And so it's priced a lot of people out of actually restoring cars. You can get land drivers. There's a whole bunch of companies who are making land drivers. They're the defenders. Yeah, they take the shells and turn them into sort of, I mean, multiple hundreds of pounds. Yeah, if you want them. Yeah, yeah. Anywhere between 400,000 and a million. I mean, defenders are a little bit different. They have to change a fender that much, but you could. But yeah, as you said. And so a lot of this isn't attainable to a lot of people. And that's what I kind of wanted. I wanted to get back to the right-- OK, so what's the car? I'm just bored of driving. I'm bored of electric cars, bored of road. And I wanted to get back to that excitement of when I was 18, 19 and the driving a 100 brake horsepower car, to its maximum, to its getting everything from the car. And you're still doing 50 miles an hour. But it was so much fun. Cars are too fast. They're too boring. They're too capable nowadays. They're modern stuff. And classic cars, you think, got something that they're just a bugger to drive. Yeah. Especially if they're original. You said about driving the DB5. They don't have power steering. They're exhausting. They're lovely on a journey now and again. The best driving experience I ever had was in a Morgan. Yes. Because I sort of felt the asphalt of the motorway underneath my bottom. Your balance reaches off. Yeah. And it was like driving a go-karts. It was the best fun I've ever had in a car. But you're getting the advantage of a classic car. Yeah. But I mean, Morgan is a modern car. Yeah. You nearly made things. You loved it. And so we did it with Mini. And there are a kind of a making them from about 75, fully restored, modern tech in it. 110 brake horsepower engine. The design has been fatter a little bit by ear, and which you wouldn't notice. Which made just the difference to this engine I did to what was already iconic design. And they have flown. They've sold so many of them and restored them because it was this idea that people I think could buy them, could restore them and not have to spend £14 million. And I think everyone's a little bit bored of motoring. And I think they just wanted something fun. Something you know, the Mini is one of these things as well, which is it was driven by Enzo Ferrari, apparently around his factory. He was driving a Mini. Steam McQueen had one. That's what mine's based on. It's bronze like steamer cranes. Cool. Steam McQueen state is actually precious. I thought it was going to get a lot of trouble. Yeah, I was going to say they kept trying that. They kept trying to see you because they're quite litigious. No, no, no, no, they absolutely loved it. I remember working with, not on a calmer, working on a project. But it wasn't saying that I wasn't coming his car. It was just saying, because people went to Mini, that's not true. So I mean, they steam a green had one. And they're going to know, I said, pretty much called this car. I'll give you a cool corner, well, handle it. Yeah. So you've got these people that were complete petriots driving Minis. And I love that idea. And I think that's why could you have done it with another kind of things? So I think the history and everyone's got a Mini story. Yeah, Mini's a Mini. Do you think we're making cars today that will, at some point, be considered a classic? No, I think the classic status would have been, we'll stop. Made too many of them, of course. So if you have derivatives or models of that car-- so like I would say, so if you took a night of 2000 as the marting Vantage V8s, then where would be a classic? The V12s-- it didn't make very many. That would be a classic. But I think with that ear of the classic, that there's too many made-- Do you think that needs to be an analog aspect to it? That sense of going back in time with the way that John now does a special engine manual. Manual. Yeah. Not this is-- I mean, yeah, I always have a manual. I think when you start looking at cars when they came to automatic gearboxes, nothing else, they're going to be a classic. And I think I'll top my head here. So you've got the Lancia Delta and Tegrale, which was classic. We're even just a rally car, one of the most important rally cars. You'll see it's probably super impressors. RB5, stuff like that. There will be classics. Quite a few of those are made, whether it's still on the road or not. So you are getting certain cars. You're like, a Peugeot 205 GTI. They are going for a lot of money at the moment. So I'm probably thinking-- anytime, I'm like, I think there was a great time wait. They were making cars probably about 10 years ago, 2015, a little bit later. I think some of the best cars manufacturers will ever make in more of an analog term more than-- because now, yes, they are. They handle better. But it's down to computing, really. And that digital era. And they've all got hybrid systems. So they're all stupidly fast now, not six to two seconds. It's fun. But I don't think they're going to be classic cars. They'll be collectors cars. But I don't think it'll be classics. And I think you've lost that. But when there was a normally aspirated V8 manual, which is exactly what I'm looking at, it was still that-- I had a next KRS 2014, I think. And it's the car I've never forgotten. I see what I'm like. And I don't seem very often, which is why I want to find one again. OK. We are now at the phase of the podcast where you need to put your reputation on the line in a way that I've not actually asked anybody else to yet. So you have 10 questions sent in by listeners/viewers. Because this, of course, is an audio and visual podcast, of course, which is why it's such a delight to have you here today, because visually, you make everything look wonderful. Favorite car ever driven? Jaguar X, KSS, the one of 16. I've driven two of the 16 else. Favorite car never driven? Never driven a Ferrari F40 or McLaren F1. Or the XJ220. And actually Jaguar did bring it to good with four-metre drive. And then the heavens opened. And it was just used on my-- so I still have not driven the XJ. And that was the car I'm going to walk. Bucket list, car and road. I would love to race. And it's a really-- I'm not going to say specifically a road, the Pan America. There's a Pan America race, which apparently is even more intense and even more ridiculous than the Millie, Millie. Great. South America. So I would do that. And I would-- I haven't raised my XK enough. I would have to do it. But I'm going to have to do it in the XK. Great. The question that was sent in was three car garage. It wasn't particularly clear whether it needed to be-- the car you currently have and therefore can talk about. Or your dream three that you don't currently have. So I'm going to ask you to give both. Right. But what's in the garage of the movie? The three in the car. So three that you have that's your obviously curated garage. And then three that you don't have that you would like to have. OK. I'm very happy with the three out of the moment. I'm going to call them both a matter of passion rather than money for your value or anything else. So I've got the 57X here on 20 to 64 Porsche 356. And then the E and Calum, the Calum Mini. Perhaps you'd love. Dream, my goodness. XKSS, that would be the number one card of all time. Ferrari F40. I probably would plan on the collection. I think I'll probably. This could be a discussion, three carguards can go on for hours at a dinner party. And then, what I choose after that, maybe something's a bit silly, like a Lancet Delta Integrale EVO 2 from the A-tas. Best and worst road. Racing in the mill is pretty special around Italy. Just driving in Italy is incredible. The worst road I can tell you is when we're tracking for Gorilla, we had to drive about two days through Uganda. Most horrific, a Toyota Land Cruiser just has been battered about for two days. They are the worst. Apart from London roads at the moment, which, for honest. Yeah, pretty much on the path. We're getting rid of them. Absolutely. Parts are extremely bad. Come on, Cedrican. All four. I mean, the P1 Highway is a beautiful road in the California, down Pacific. There's nothing racing, right? Not a dry road. The PCH. Yeah. No love for the A-3A3. We used to get this. We had this. We had this. You know, we had a pass at it. We've not talked about that. We had. I lived in Beloriki when I was growing up. I lived in Great Burst, and my friend lived in Little Burst, and there was a 60-mile-hour country lane. We were both car nuts, and that's where we would go and take our cars. The Burst, it lanes. Funny I was with him last night, and we still talked about the Burst, it lanes. Because of the new car, and we weren't able to take it down the Burst, it lanes yet. And I said, no. But. Yeah, so in my memory, that's one of the best. Super. Best Bond car. Well, you'll know that you know originally original Bond car, what it was. I do not. Bentley. Yes, yes. Yes. You were sorry. When people talk about the Aston Martin, the DB5, everything else. Absolutely crap. It was the Bentley Continental. Correct. Sorry, yes. That's absolutely right. The worst ever, I'll give you the worst Bond cars, when BMW came in and made him drive a BMW Z3, I think I walked out the cinema. I'm not even kidding. Wasn't having any of it. You know what, usually when you talk about Bond, there's controversy around people's opinions on this. I don't know if I'm going to go angry about it. Well, no, I just just say, I don't think anyone's going to fight you in the comments on that. What in particular? God bless you, P. Ender. My. Well, it's a BMW. I think it's my personal favorite. I loved the Lotus S3, but also because it had Roger Moore. And if you see that scene where he goes, it becomes a. Yeah, yeah. It's a serious, serious, serious walk-out. Yeah, serious. He's a driving. No, submersive. Submersive. And he drives up onto the beach after being in the water. If I'm right, I think he puts down the window and takes a fish and puts out the window. Now, I might have just made that up, but I think that's in the film when he does his very Roger Moore. And I'd love that soon. Because that's where I kind of like, I said I was working with Lotus, I worked with them. And I said, you know how to launch on your car? I said, you bring it from submersive. Like, you literally have you AI or whatever, Roger Moore driving your new Lotus, be it driven out, and it's the new one. So it goes in as the S3 comes out as a new Lotus. Yeah. And that's your new Lotus. That's a good idea. That's a very good idea. Yeah, yeah. I have them now. Very good. Well done. Favorite decade for cars? I mean, probably the 50s over the 60s, yeah, the 1950s. Would it be sort of 50s American cars? Because those were, you know, everyone's okay, sorry. Just shot down. Best electric slash hybrid. That's not a bad one. They're all average. Very good answer. Jamie Clarkson, although big, I've got no. What's going to be the best looking electric on the road is going to be, and I'm not saying this because I work with Jaguar. If you see the new Jaguar, 0-0-1, wherever they're called, in the flesh, it's incredible. I mean, if you like Burex and like the old car, this car has a statement piece. Electrical is, it's just, the pictures don't do it, just because. Because I went to LA and the number of those Tesla pickups, electric pickups, they were really shocked me because I think they're dreadful. I really haven't seen them. I've never seen one on the road. They are everywhere in LA. In LA, I was stunned. Worst car ever driven. The most disappointing car I've ever driven is a car called the Alfa Romeo 4C, and I want to love it so much, and it was a hateful car to drive. And I'm beautiful to look at, just hate it. The car that you missed out on buying, that you regret not buying the most. I mean, I couldn't have done it at the time. I mentioned the gold wind. Yeah, I loved the gold wind. I knew that was an amazing price for that car and where that car values are going. That's still the one that I wake up at night. Go! When I said, "Lance of Delta and Goli," they are now. 120, 130. Used to be 15. I used to look at them thinking, "Oh, maybe I should tap into that." Yeah, that one means for the garage. Yeah. That was stupid. Well, I think we've all learnt a lot. And this is. This is obviously. It's difficult. With the idea of the luxury dispatches that we want to create a sort of resource for people that goes granular into all sorts of worlds. And I am aware that we've barely scratched the surface. I'm aware that we could do a lot more on this. And so I think that at the very least what we can say about from an introductory point of view, this conversation will have educated a lot of people into defining this particular passion, interest, area of expertise, whatever you want to call it. And a part of the luxury industry that has through wonderful artistic engineering, prowess, good taste, and all these things has managed to be so everlasting. And creates such wonderful. I guess it creates dreams for people. It creates the sense of fun adventure and play and strikes so many wonderful tones. And I think people's hearts that we couldn't leave it on tapped as a subject to talk about. Thank you so much for coming in. But I might have to call you back. And. Not that fashion is. Probably couldn't. Maybe a shorter podcast, it was about fashion. Yes, it was a little weird on my passion. She just run everything. Anyway, so I'm going to have a litriotic go and have t-shirts say fashion pays for the passion. Pasy fashion pays for the classic cars. That's. It's a very good line. I remain Tom Chamberlain and this has been the luxury dispatch, the podcast that explores the stories, objects, and passions that shape the world of luxury. My thanks to David Gandhi for sharing his love of classic cars, and for reminding us that true collecting is never only about ownership, but about stewardship and knowledge. If you've enjoyed today's conversation, please do like, subscribe and leave a comment. We read everyone. Tell us the objects you treasure, the machines you dream about, all the worlds of luxury you would like us to explore next. Thank you for listening and happy dressing. Oh, and mind the grassy banks. [BLANK_AUDIO]