← Scottish Watches
Scottish Watches
Scottish Watches Podcast #766 : Watches That Get Your Heart Racing
00:59:25
We are impressed by anything with wheels, be it two, four, or however many are within a watch movement! Click here to read along and see the photos in our...
Loading summary
Transcript221 lines
- [00:01]
A
Welcome to a very special episode of the Scottish Watches podcast. Because we're in a very special place and we're going to be linking two of our favourite things. Well, myself, Dave, Ed and Jez's favourite things. That's cars, motorcycles. Well, actually, it's racing. It's everything all encompassing. And watches, we've got a lot to get through, so probably the first thing to do is crack on with it and say, everyone should check the show notes. There's going to be lots of pictures, lots of information, lots of tech spec on the watches and the place we're in, because there's going to be a lot of different crossover and it's not what you think, it's not what we've done in the past, it's not just F1, it's not just MotoGP. So, Dave, what are we going to do first?
- [00:33]
B
Well, we should probably make some introductions. We've got someone that's been on the podcast before and we've got someone who's all new to the podcast and is, well, one of our hosts at this amazing venue. So maybe we should talk to Ted first, because, Ted, you've been on the show before, so say hello, Ted.
- [00:46]
A
Hello, everyone.
- [00:47]
C
How are you?
- [00:47]
A
We're doing all right.
- [00:48]
B
Indeed, indeed. And we have Jez, who has not been on the show before, but, Jez, maybe give yourself a little introduction, tell people who you are and where we are.
- [00:56]
D
More importantly, hi, I'm Jez Murray and I'm part of the team at the Molesdale foundation in Glasgow and also an avid listener and watcher to your channel.
- [01:04]
B
Channel.
- [01:04]
A
So we found them the one guy that actually listens and watches.
- [01:07]
D
Yeah. And so welcome.
- [01:08]
A
Thank you very much.
- [01:09]
B
So, before we get into trouble from Mizy L, like usual, we should probably get the wrist check out the way, because it's actually going to be four this episode. Well, guests come first. So, Jez, what are you wearing on the wrist and tell us a little bit about what it is.
- [01:20]
D
Well, something that you probably wouldn't expect because it's nothing to do with cars. It's a Mustang, it's an OV8 Mustang and I've swapped it out with a rubber strap because I found the other one more uncomfortable. Cheap and cheerful, but really durable and I quite like it.
- [01:35]
B
Absolutely. Something we talk a lot about on the show is, of course, watches come in all shapes and sizes and of course, all price points. And this is a brand that we've talked about many times and you say it's not about cars, it's about aircraft. That's another passion certainly of mine. We like anything that's well, noisy, loud and fast, generally speaking. So, yeah, great little watch you're wearing there, Ted.
- [01:52]
C
I am wearing the stainless steel Panda Daytona. I recently picked it up just a week ago and it's very much living up to the hype and the dream.
- [02:00]
A
Rolex must be doing a fire sale or something because it turns out I'm wearing also Rolex Daytona, but it's one I've been looking for for five years. I got offered the Ghost back in 2022 and when you get offered something from Rolex back in the day, you would say yes, you wouldn't say no to it because you might not get the opportunity again. So, yeah, I got the call to say the watch I originally went after half a decade ago had turned up and I went down and picked up literally four days ago. Perfect timing. Stars must have aligned for coming to this event today. Dave, what have you got?
- [02:28]
B
What's David wearing? Well, he's wearing a Mr. Jones and I thought this would be suitable to wear because I've had this for many years. And this is the Graeme Obree, our record special edition when he broke the hour record. He's Scottish, he's from not far away down in Ayrshire. Of course, there's a lot of cycling memorabilia in this foundation as well. And this was to celebrate him breaking the hour record on his homemade washing machine bike. So that's what I'm wearing.
- [02:51]
A
Perfect. Sounds good. Ted obviously has been on the show numerous times before and actually one of the times was when shmee 150 previous guest got us behind the scenes in Edinburgh at Gumball 3000. Remember that one?
- [03:03]
C
Obviously Shmee invited us out to the gumball start in Edinburgh a few years ago. It was fantastic and I think it was kind of the start of people realising watches and cars are so similar. They both just get things that guys love.
- [03:14]
A
Well, the thing is with the gumball, one of the things I noticed was speaking to the drivers on not the grid but the start line when they were about to go. And they had matching watches for the cars. So there were some Richard Milles. There was all kinds of stuff that would link in with Lamborghinis, Paganis and then most recently Ulysse Nardin did the official Gumball 3000 watches. They did one iteration in orange a number of years ago and then quite recently, maybe in the last six months, they did the follow up, the part two. So it all does tie together and
- [03:40]
B
there's lots of alignment as well. I mean, we've seen obviously Jacob and co recently working with Bugatti on the dashboard, so they brought the watch out. But they've also did the actual dashboard in the car as well.
- [03:50]
C
The Tourbillon.
- [03:50]
B
Yeah, the Tourbillon, exactly. So that's even more synergistic. Synergistic.
- [03:55]
C
I mean, it's an interesting thing, isn't it, going back to mechanicals for a car dashboard? Because the question is, is it all about kind of making things timeless? You know, if you go into an old car, what's the first thing that gives away? It's an old car, it's the smell, it's the scream. An older Maserati. And you know, the first thing you see is this old sat nav that at its time was outdated. But, you know, it's now getting to that stage where the ultra Premiums are going back to the traditional ways. You know, they're going back to mechanical buttons. And that's now the sign of the premium because obviously it's so cheap to make these screens in every car. Although that was technology and that was the advanced thing at the time, it's now going back to it.
- [04:29]
B
And there was actually lots of overlaps that people don't even necessarily realise. A lot of these mechanical speedometers, odometers that were actually made in many cases by watch companies. Jaeger used to make dials on a lot of the cars as well, you know, and that kind of disappeared. Nobody really took attention to it. Now, only when we've now got some fancy iPad, that's how you drive your car.
- [04:48]
A
We're here, we've got two Daytonas, fairly recent Daytonas, but when this place opened, it was actually one of Rolex's brand ambassadors, Jackie Stewart, that was behind the scenes. How did it all come to be and when did the place actually open to the public?
- [05:00]
D
About two years ago, Jackie Stewart came along with David Coultard and a few other famous races and he officially opened the museum and the foundation and we co hosted for the Race Against Dementia, which is his charity. And the place was rammed, it was packed upstairs. A wonderful evening. And that was basically the launch of the foundation and the museum in here.
- [05:22]
A
Well, do you want to tell us more about the history, how this came to be, where these cars came from and why it's Scotland's hidden secret?
- [05:29]
D
Well, hopefully after today it won't be so much of a hidden secret. And it's growing, so it's organically evolved, basically from about 18 months ago. And the open days are monthly and they roll over. And most open days, we have special guests come along. We do these open days. We can have in excess of 1500-2000 people on a Sunday. And also when you're wandering around, I'm also looking around at the people and they've always got watches on as well. And I thought, there's a big synergy here. We need to get you guys up here and have a look at that and help us promote this place as well. Because it is probably one of the best museums in the world.
- [06:08]
A
I would say so. But let's ask about your history. Cause obviously you got in touch with us. You do genuinely listen to the podcast, said, come down, have a look. The first outing where I visited, I was just gobsmacked. Walked around, didn't say much. Second time, bit easier. Third time, knowing the ropes a little bit. Dave came down for the first time at the weekend. He never spoke for an hour. It was amazing. If we can find more places like this, the better. But what's your history with watches then?
- [06:30]
D
Well, it goes back, I think, to the early 80s when I first earned some money and I thought, I want to buy a watch. And at the time it was a tag. Everybody wanted a tag. It was the go to watch. Well, if you didn't know much about watches, it was the go to watch. And I wore that watch every day to work for about eight years. And then one day it just fell apart. I put it in the drawer and just left it there. And then a friend of mine, I got friendly with a guy and he had a Cartier Santos, an early Santos. And we went down to Burlington Arcade and I remember parting at David Duggan's with 1200 pounds, thinking it was a lot of money back then, which it
- [07:04]
B
was, to be fair.
- [07:05]
D
It was. It was. It was secondhand. And that lasted me another 10 years and that fell apart and that got put in the drawer as well. And then I think as you get older, you sort of become more mature and start looking at different things. And I thought, yeah, there's more watches out there. And I just sort of evolved really all the way from a tag, maybe to a Rolex or maybe to some off piece to do, like my vintage Heuers as well. I like the history, I like the backstories to something. And to think that somebody's worn a watch for maybe 50 years and now I've got it on my wrist and telling another story with that. And I shall leave those watches to the kids. And hopefully they'll appreciate them. But, yeah, I'd say vintage Heuer has got a soft place in my heart.
- [07:47]
A
But the first time I met you, you were wearing a spinnaker.
- [07:50]
C
Yeah.
- [07:50]
A
So you encompass all the avenues of watch collecting and very much like ourselves, we like things at all price points. If it puts a smile on your face, that's what it's all about.
- [07:58]
D
That is all about that. It's not to make a statement of how wealthy you are. It's to do with something that works. It is a mechanical thing. We forget that. It's still mainly mechanical watch that. I don't like digital watches and I've got some G shocks, but I never really wear them. Do like them, but I just like the mechanical part of an old Heuer or something like that that can tell a story. And yeah, I've got a Camaro, which is quite a rare watch, and I think 1969. And yeah, my kids love that as well. They've all got their name on that.
- [08:32]
A
Good. Glad to hear. Well, we obviously talked about Rolex that is infused with everything to do with motor racing. And the most expensive Rolex was ever sold at auction was back 2017, I think it was. It created a buzz. Massive hype hit all the headlines everywhere that went for I think it was nearly $18 million, including all the fees and stuff. Not the most expensive watch ever. I think that was some kind of Patek with a million complications in it. But there's also a watch that sold at auction a decade ago that was only 900 quid and that belonged to one of the great train robbers. And there's a tie in with this foundation here and that crazy event that happened down south.
- [09:07]
D
Yeah, there certainly is, because we've got Bruce Reynolds Lotus Cortina and it's the original car and originally it was confiscated and I think it spent a long time in the Metropolitan Scotland Yard in their basement under there. And I. The story goes, I can't be 100%, and I'm sure we'll get some comments to put us right. We're wrong, but.
- [09:27]
A
Well, tell us a story for people that might not know about the Great Train Robbery. First, what was that all about?
- [09:31]
D
Do you remember that? Well, it's the most famous robbery. I think the Brink Smokes comes next. And the Cortina, Ronnie Biggs is the most famous Great Train Robber, but actually it was Bruce Reynolds and he was the leader of the gang, let's call them. And he was a racing driver as well, and he had a Lotus Cortina. And apparently the story goes that when they'd done the robbery, they went to the farm in Bedfordshire and the car had unusual tires on it because he used to use it for racing and it was raining. And the forensic guys, they noticed that there was a different tire tread on this track. When they disappeared from the farm, they knew it was them, but they couldn't pin it on them. And they did a plaster cast of the tire and that's what linked the car. And then they were able to link Reynolds with the car and the robbery, and the car was confiscated and spent, I think, 20 years in the pound downstairs. And then Colin Chapman, the owner of Lotus, the famous Colin Chapman, apparently restored the car, got the car out of there, and then it's changed stands a few times and we're lucky to have it here. And it's probably. It sits there and a lot of people walk past that car and look at it as a Lotus Cortina, but actually it's got such a backstory to it and it's still got the original tyres on it. Yeah, it's quite a story. And it's probably one of the most famous cars in here for a British story.
- [10:53]
B
And that's a car in its own right that is rare, and it's something that people would be interested in as a Lotus. One of the early Lotus cars in that nature as well, without the backstory. But there's also another relatively mainstream car, I guess an elderly Peugeot that's around the corner there as well, that's got a bit of a backstory. Probably would be looked at twice, or wouldn't be looked at twice by anybody until they know what it actually is.
- [11:16]
D
Well, they're super popular now, aren't they? Because they were everybody's hot hatch in the day. But the gentleman known, this is sadly no longer with us, but Sir Sterling Moss, and that was his runaround Mayfair car, the Peugeot 205 GTI, a car
- [11:31]
B
that, you know, we all knew. Well, certainly I knew about them when I was a kid growing up. It was one of the ones that you wanted is the kind of fast hot hatch or lukewarm hot hatch out there. And, yeah, so there's lots of cars in this place. A bit like watches is there's a real variety of cars. It's not just supercars, albeit there's plenty of those in here, but there's everything from motorsport backgrounds, rallying, Formula One. We can see behind us if you're looking on the screen.
- [11:54]
A
Whose cars are those, Dave?
- [11:55]
B
I don't Know, I think he might have been on the podcast. Allegedly some Scottish guy that was decent,
- [11:59]
D
I think decent behind us we've got on loan to the museum David Coultard's Formula one cars and Formula two cars. And actually it was quite an exciting day because we went down to Dumfries where they were, met Duncan, his brother, who they've got them in, had them in a very, very small museum down there and I think David wanted some free storage, basically.
- [12:23]
A
Typical Scotsman.
- [12:24]
D
Yeah, absolutely. But no, it was an exciting day going down there and seeing some of his other cars. He's got his German touring car in there and stuff. So. But yeah, these have been up here for about a year now and get a lot of attention. Obviously. Where'd you go and find Formula one cars without having to go to the Ferrari museum or some. Or private collections? But these are here to see and occasionally, you know, we've had David Coulthard up here and hopefully he'll be up here again. He can talk a little bit more
- [12:50]
A
about them next time he's up. Now we know each other, you can give us the heads up of what's happening because there's something happening very, very soon. We'll get to shortly. And David Coulthard's obviously been on the show before, thanks to our friends at iwc. He was, or still is associated with the brand. He wore one of his now vintage IWC watches when he came on and we tried to get one over on him. We'd never met him before. We sat down. We were cheeky upstarts, as you know, you listen to the show and we just tried our best and he just thwart every single thing we said at him. So, yeah, honorary member of Scottish watches team.
- [13:21]
B
There was definitely some outcuts in that one. He made a few propositions that I think didn't make it to the final edit, as always.
- [13:27]
A
Ends up in the cutting room floor.
- [13:28]
B
Aside from four wheels, we've also got lots of two wheeled things here, motorcycles which we'll get to, but also lots of bicycles, road bikes predominantly, but lots of BMXs doing the rounds in here as well. So tell us about how that is.
- [13:39]
D
Well, we've all had one, haven't we? We've all had choppers, we've had BMXs. I was never lucky enough to have one of those. But at the end of the day, I think the idea of when you visit here is not. Is just not just to see the cars, it's to see, say, the Spitfire behind you and the Bicycles. And we were very lucky. A while ago a gentleman approached us in Scotland who had a huge collection of Tour de France bikes. And to go with the bikes, he had all the jerseys as well, which is some collection, I think nearly 100 bikes over the years from all the teams, all the team jerseys. And we had to try and find a place to display them as well. But they get a serious amount of attention when people are here because they don't realize they're here. And then you got people pressing their faces up against the glasses up there looking at the bikes. Yeah, they range across the decades, I think 70s, 80s and 90s. And we've also got the jerseys on display as well and there's always somebody around and we've got the touch iPads that will tell you all about the bikes as well. But yeah, they're interesting. Then we go right forward to our childhood bikes of the rally choppers and the BMXs.
- [14:45]
B
There's been plenty of memories from me just looking at some of these. The choppers, the rally burners, the grifters, the all sorts of stuff.
- [14:51]
D
I never realised how many versions there were of them.
- [14:54]
B
But yes, the bikes. The nice thing about them as well is it's not like the layout of a more traditional museum where you've got cars in one area and bikes in another area. Lots of the bikes are inter dispersed, so as you're walking around, you're kind of going from cars to motorcycles to cycles. So it's really varied the way you walk around the layout of the kind of venue as well.
- [15:11]
C
I mean, it means if there's a couple of you walking around and you're interested in cars and someone isn't, it still means they can take an interest in other things.
- [15:17]
D
And there's the. The alleyways down the side are full of racing overalls as well, of all our famous racing drivers and rally drivers as well. So there's, there's something for everyone here really is. And you can, you need at least two or three hours at least and maybe two visits and you'll probably see, you'll probably see stuff when you come back that you've not seen before. And we do evolve the collection as well. It doesn't just. It's not static, it just gets changed around and there's new cars coming and going and then obviously we're lucky enough to have people offer us cars on loan.
- [15:47]
B
So I was going to say that's one of the beauties of it is you've got lots of people reaching out to you and saying, I have this. Would you like us to put that on display? And you're taking advantage of that. So it's an ever changing collection and you never quite know what's going to be there. Even if you come month by month, I'm sure it changes.
- [16:02]
D
Yeah. I nearly had to change my phone number. Somebody left some business cards out on front. One Sunday and probably Monday onwards, my phone just kept ringing with different people with the best in the world. The best in the world. And I discovered that the business cards with my mobile number have been left on there. So, yeah, we get. But then out the blue, we will get offered something very special. And when you talk to Dave Neal in a minute, he'll tell you about some of the special bikes that we've been offered. And we get factory bikes and Grand Prix bikes and it's amazing what comes out the woodwork. I've been in garages to look at one particular bike and there's been some dust covers at the back and I was sort of looking what's under the back there, and they go, well, you don't want to see that. I said, yes, we do. And they pull the COVID off and there's a really, really rare bike under there.
- [16:45]
B
Or a car.
- [16:47]
D
There's a mannequin as you walk in here of the Predator. And that was a real shock to me. I walked in the guy's garage to buy Harley Davidson and looked at the Harley Davidson. I thought, this is a really lovely bike for the museum.
- [17:01]
C
This.
- [17:01]
D
This should be there. And then I looked up and up and there's this mannequin and it's made of car parts.
- [17:08]
A
So it's not a mannequin, as in plastic. It's made of individual metal parts.
- [17:12]
D
And you have to stand there for at least 10 minutes and look at all the different gears and the cogs and everything in there. And it's just eclectic stuff that you can find like that in people's garages. And it's good fun. We're not sort of actively out there looking, but we'll get a phone call, like you said, and somebody will ring us up and off we go and have a look.
- [17:31]
B
What I also noticed, you know, for my first time when I came and looked around, it's just the diversity of things. The thing that caught my attention more than anything was actually a memory. It was a. I saw, of all cars, you know, there's many a supercar in here, but I saw a Chevette and all I could remember was being thrown in the back of a Chevette by my grandparents. It's memories like that. It's such a diverse collection of, you know, things that move.
- [17:53]
D
Yeah, I think we need, you know, a museum should appeal to everybody. It's a family occasion if you want to come here. Hence the bicycles. The kids love the bikes and, you know, everything from. We've got a car owned by the Alfa Romeo family and it's owned by the grandson of Alfa Rama sitting behind you, actually. And. Yeah, where'd you find that? An early Alpha owned by the family. There's so many things here that you could you spend. We've got rally cars, we've got the Colin McCart.
- [18:20]
A
Hey, listen, you're getting ahead of yourself. We're trying to talk about bicycles and we're about 1,000 pages forward and where we wanted to be and we've only got a limited amount of time, so we're going to rewind the clock a little bit, go back to pedal power. Because we got in touch with a couple of brands, we knew we were doing this, we wanted to balance out the content for the watches because we've not really talked about the watches for a lot of this episode so far. We're going to right that wrong at the moment. And one of the brands we bumped into recently down at Watchmakers Day was Adley. Never heard of them before. Quite a quiet gentleman called Jordan that runs the brand. It's new, it's a fledgling and it's all to do with bicycles, it's all to do with BMXs, messenger commuting around London, the easiest and the quickest and the cheapest way. Ask me about congestion charges and when you don't pay them on time. And I asked this guy if he could sign me up a couple of the latest releases. One is sold out because it was his first edition and the second edition is currently in the pre order stages. So there is a discount, not through any kind of affiliate links, we don't do that in the show. But there is a discount for anybody looking to get a hold of this immediately. And the first watch we're going to show you is, well, Dave, you can pick it up and you can tell us what you think because you're the bicycle guy.
- [19:20]
B
Indeed. So this is a brand all about cycling. I think the familiarity of watches in motorsport especially is a well known thing they've been involved in, whether it be sponsorship or whether it be a theme of many a watch out there when it comes to motorsport, cycling less so there are, you know, plenty of brands, sometimes Do I guess watches to memorize something. Tissot probably being the biggest because of their affiliation with the Tour de France.
- [19:40]
A
Had a thought, maybe Tudor recently as well?
- [19:42]
B
Well, recently Tudor for sure. They've got involved obviously in cycling with their pro cycling team and they've done a couple of special editions. But obviously Tissot have been associated with the Tour and timing for many, many years. A bit like Omega with the Olympic Games. It's become hand in hand with them. But it's unusual to see cycling taken maybe so literally in designs of the watch. This is the twilight grey. This is unfortunately the one you cannot get your hands on. Although I now have my hands on one. So this might be.
- [20:05]
A
Matches your hair.
- [20:06]
B
It matches my hair. Not quite silvery fox as me, to be honest. I'm more attractive apparently. But this one has got lots of little analogies that you would align with cycling. You've got the kind of crank wheel in the centre there. Great looking watch. Runs on a seiko movement. It's 100 meters of water resistance. It's got a kind of tropic style strap in it. It's an unusual colour palette. I'm looking at a car kind of behind Ricky and thinking I'm colourblind. But it's almost the same tonally. It's kind of would match a very nice, unusually coloured Ferrari sitting directly behind Ricky.
- [20:33]
A
It wouldn't actually because that's beige and that's silver. But we'll leave the colour blindness alone.
- [20:37]
B
If this is silver, then I'll not say what I was going to say next because that would get me cancelled. But yes, this is a great looking watch. Check out the show notes and you can get more information on this watch that you cannot get your hands on.
- [20:46]
A
Ah, but Dave, do you notice something else about the watch? Do you notice that it won't hurt your wrist because you have to wear your watch in the other hand because you're a cyclist and you kept digging in.
- [20:54]
B
Well, I did, yeah. Normally that's a problem when you're cycling if you've got the crown digging into your wrist. If you're wearing it on the left hand wrist, which is more common. But this is a bullhead design so it's at the top. So it's going to keep that crown well away from causing any damage when you're riding your bicycle.
- [21:07]
A
And we've got another one, which is the one that I'm more interested in because as with anything the second album, a lot more energy goes into. You'll learn from any mistakes from the previous iteration, if there are any. And this guy has just gone to town with it. When I had him on the phone again, I didn't even spend much time with him at watchmakers, waved, said hello, looked at the watches, moved on to the next. But speaking to Jordan yesterday just ahead of recording, he was running me through all the information on this, how it's a cut sapphire on the front. It's not just a circular disc as you'd expect. That's expensive. It's got a three dimensional dial. That's expensive. It's got an engraving on the back. That's expensive. The clasp itself is tiny and it's got micro adjust on the left and right hand side of it. Expensive again. And then you look at the symmetry because you've got baby crowns that are recessed almost hidden on the left and right flanks. And on the glass itself you've got a tiny little bmx. So all these things added together, you'd think okay, he's moved up from around about the £400 mark to perhaps a couple of grand. No, not at all.
- [22:05]
B
Looking into the. Or leaning heavily into the BMX inspiration, especially from that kind of 70s 80s era where BMX was massive. I can even remember it on the television. It was a televised sport back in the 80s kind of. Things have changed. Although BMX is definitely making a comeback, especially when it's back in at the Olympic Games. It's definitely making its way back into the mainstream.
- [22:23]
A
Bit of the break. Danson.
- [22:24]
B
Well, yeah, especially if you're Australian. That is. The retail price on this one's going to be just under the 800 pound mark. But it's currently on pre order, I believe. Is it a Kickstarter or is it
- [22:32]
A
a. I don't think it's Kickstarter but he's taking pre orders. He didn't want to go through the rigmarole of Kickstarter and all the BS that goes behind the scenes there. But yeah, there is a pre order and all the details, pictures, high res. All the rest of it will be in the show notes so you can see what we're talking about. And Ted has been playing with it. The watch that is. What do you think yourself? It's the first time you've seen it.
- [22:49]
C
It's really cool. I mean obviously you see these pictures online of the Rolex Coronet at 6:00 if you just look carefully you can see a little.
- [22:56]
D
You can see that, can't you?
- [22:56]
C
Yeah, you can see a little BMX almost etched into the Sapphire glass, which
- [23:00]
D
is, I think it's the colour as well. Yeah, it caught my eye straight away.
- [23:03]
C
I mean it's a really, really cool dial and cool design, isn't it?
- [23:07]
D
Like Ricky said, It looks like two 3,000 pound watch.
- [23:10]
C
Oh, 100%. People would easily think it's worth more. It's a bit like driving an old Maserati.
- [23:14]
B
Absolutely.
- [23:15]
A
Without the repair costs.
- [23:17]
B
Literally. Took the words right out of my mouth.
- [23:19]
A
My favourite part with this watch and you will see again with the high res pictures, is the bracelet. Because it's not an off the shelf number at this price point you would expect especially with let's say co movement or I believe this one's got a GMT MIOTA movement in it, but you'd expect it just be a cookie cutter and then on the back that cheap clasp that you get on pretty much all the micro brands that play in that arena at that price point. But no, it's fantastic. And the drip test is really good. Doesn't have any drip. Dave, you're not familiar with that. I know, but it's fine. Well, let's move from two wheels back to four wheels. And it's not pedal power this time. Definitely not the car we're just about to talk about because it's one of my favorites in the entire collection and it's sitting just right behind us. But what is it?
- [23:56]
D
It's Pagani and it's my favorite as well. And I think the reason why it's my favorite, it's not just the design of the car, it's the interior. When you get inside and look at the interior, there's a real analog feel to the car from the gear shifting and looking at the dials and the beveled dials and just the way it's made, it's phenomenal.
- [24:15]
A
So what model is that one? That's the Utopia, right, Ted, what's the spec, what's the 063 quarter mile time, yada yada.
- [24:21]
C
When it comes to Pagani and this kind of car, it's not about the acceleration, it's not about the top speed. What it's about is someone's passion, similar to some watch brands. Okay, Mr. Pagani. Horatio. It's all about art on wheels. Let's be honest. Okay. Even though you don't see the underside of parts of the car, all the carbon weave will be matched perfectly. It will all be bookmarked, which is incredibly hard to do. It's very much similar to, you know, when you look at a watch and they'll decorate the movement. Even though you can't see the movement, only the watchmaker will ever see it. Only Pagani will see underside parts of that car. But the whole thing is it's got to be perfect to go out the door.
- [24:58]
D
They're super easy to drive as well. They look scary, but they're not. They're really easy to drive.
- [25:03]
A
Can we test that theory? Absolutely fantastic.
- [25:06]
C
Well, that's the thing is, I think the Zonda was manual hardcore. You then went Huayra, which was maybe a bit too extreme for a lot of people. And this is almost more about a grand tourer. Yeah, it's almost a bit.
- [25:17]
B
It's driving from London down to Nice.
- [25:20]
C
Exactly. And I think the whole thing was a lot of people that take their Paganis go on the Pagani tour. And that's the point of this is obviously it's not going to the high revs because most of the time you're not in the high revs. They want the torque down low so that you can cruise along, enjoy the car, drive some art.
- [25:36]
D
And people use them? Oh, yeah, they do. The Pagani owners use them. They do a lot of tours.
- [25:42]
A
But there's also McLarens, there's also a whole range of Mercedes that I don't really care about because the Porsches are right beside them. But the Ferraris, you've got some really
- [25:49]
D
class stuff here sitting behind you, Ricky. We've got the F12 in a very unusual color. Somebody ordered that from New in that color. It looks like it should be in Saudi Arabia or somewhere like that. I actually really like it. And what can you see behind you there, Ted?
- [26:04]
C
I mean, we've got what, SF90XX612SCAGLIETTIS. I mean, the thing is, there's a lot of places that you can go and you just won't see this stuff. I mean, when you come to Paganis. I've never seen one in real life, to be honest with you.
- [26:17]
A
Did you know this place existed?
- [26:18]
C
No, but I think that's the thing about this place is it's all these kind of highlights from each brand are here. It's nice that someone's actually gone out and said, you know what, I don't want the resale red Ferrari. I want a beige or a dark green. You just don't see that anymore.
- [26:33]
B
Yeah. Which brings me actually to another car, which unfortunately you can't see on the camera, but is one of my favourites. This was a childhood pinup poster car, which is a Honda nsx, one of the originals. And It's a car that has both aged well, but aged badly because you can definitely tell it's not a modern car. It's definitely on of the 80s, 90s kind of era, but, wow, that's a car you will rarely see in the world.
- [26:55]
A
There was not a famous F1 driver that loved it.
- [26:57]
B
There was indeed. We'll refer to Ted, the encyclopedia of
- [27:00]
A
cars on this one was that Ted,
- [27:01]
C
as far as I'm aware, Mr. Senna was involved.
- [27:03]
A
Correct.
- [27:04]
C
The chassis and the development of it.
- [27:07]
D
He was on the poster.
- [27:08]
C
Yeah. And he was on the poster. I mean, that's a driver's car, let's be honest with you. It's a car that will be reliable, you can take it anywhere. But it's going to be fun to drive.
- [27:18]
D
Very underrated, 100%.
- [27:20]
C
But funnily enough, I think in people my age, they're starting to appreciate cars like that. I mean, guys my age, you're now seeing them going to the R32 GTRs, R33s. They're getting more interesting, obviously, your NSXs. And it's brilliant to see and it's maybe coming somewhere like this that maybe they'll see that and they've never seen one before and go, you know what? That is so different to your usual M's and AMGs. It's a different spice of life.
- [27:43]
D
Not a lot of people know what that car is when they look at it, they're trying to figure out, because the back end looks like a Ferrari.
- [27:48]
C
I think you could honestly stick Ferrari badges on it and some people would go, that's it.
- [27:52]
A
Well, you mentioned senna there. Formula One. It happens to be the 100th anniversary of Formula One Grand Prix here in the UK. First 100 years ago was at Brooklands racetrack. We've also had the guys from Brooklands on the show a number of times, but they have given us a watch to talk about. And Dave, since you've been really quiet in this episode, you can talk all
- [28:08]
B
about this Brooklyn, a brand that we've talked about, because those guys are, well, mainly in the aviation industry, as the background of the guys have to do with the brand. But they are based down at Brookland, one of the most iconic race venues that exists. It's sad that it doesn't exist in its entirety these days, but there are still sections of it do exist, and there's many kind of nods to that heritage within their watches, especially in the rehort ring, where you've got this kind of banked curve, which of course was famous At Brooklands. This is the Triple four, is that right? And this has got the opaline dial very much in their kind of bi compact style chronographs, which is probably what they're best known for in terms of the aesthetic of their watches. I love the little details in this a lot. Like what you were talking about with the cars, especially with the Pagani. Those little details that you don't necessarily initially see. Things like the straps of the watch, looking at the tyre treads of the race cars that were harking back to those ages of when they were racing around those bank circuits at frankly ludicrous speeds with very little in the way of safety. Lots of nice little details on these watches. They've been on the show many times. You should check out the back catalogue. We will get to that. But they've been on many times and I'm sure they'll be on in the future as well.
- [29:09]
A
Yeah, the model we've got sold out, but colored variations of it. The Spectrum series that came out recently and they are available in lots of different colourways. British, can't say British racing green because I think that's trademark copyrighted or something, but something along those lines. The design was from Sir Tennant's Conran and there's loads of different things employed. If you look at the back of it, the rotor is customized. It's based on the Napier Railton, obviously extremely famous down at Brooklands. And it uses the highest point possible grade of solita movement. It's SW 500 inside this one. So everything about it is prestige. Even looking at the pushers for the chronograph, they're reminiscent of the piston from inside an engine. The attention to detail is just stunning. That's why we have had Simon on the show numerous times and it was him that organized myself coming down last year to record a podcast with four world record holders. The fastest men on earth in a production car, which was a Bugatti. One of the Chirons, I believe. Also the guy that was involved with Thrust SSC and the previous iteration in the analog ageback in the 70s and 80s. The fastest guy then and the fastest guy now, Andy Green. Great. Episode one to check out in the back catalog and have a look through these ones because for the money they cost and I don't know the price offhand, show notes I your friend. It is well worth it and the amount of attention these things get at different events and it's only when you look at it really close and you see the way that the Lollipop moves on the second hand. The way it rotates around, it covers the pinions on the sub dials. Everything about it is just done to perfection. So fantastic watch. Great brand. First time you've seen it, Ted.
- [30:34]
C
First time I've seen it. It's beautiful, isn't it? I mean, the dial almost looks like, you know, the silver Snoopy dial. It's got that kind of silver hue to it, obviously, the red second hand, let's be honest, it's just motorsport, isn't it? And then when you turn around and look at the back, that movement is lovely. I mean, the rotor, it just reminds me of like an old car wheel or even an old steering wheel. The leather just feels high quality. It feels like a proper strap. And when you look to the brushed sides, it just looks like it's been really well thought through.
- [31:01]
B
I think it's fair to say, as a brand, they. When you get to meet them, which I'm sure you will do one day, they have got a lot of attention to detail. Their eye is in it for sure. There's lots of little nods to things in the watch that you only begin to see once you've observed it for
- [31:14]
C
quite a long time. What I'd say is you can tell they care. This isn't just, let's put something out and make some money. This is, we care about what we do and we want to release a good product for people.
- [31:22]
A
And when you're saying attention to detail, the fact that they work in the aerospace industry means if there is no attention to detail, people lose their lives. So that's why this is built to these perfecting standards. What do you think, Jazz?
- [31:32]
D
Well, I met Simon and I'm very tempted.
- [31:35]
A
Yes.
- [31:36]
D
And he's a lovely guy and he doesn't need to sell his watches. You just need to talk to him. His passion and as you say, the attention to detail and the way he explained how he made the watch and the strap especially.
- [31:48]
A
And before we move on to something else, and this wasn't planned, but the fact that you wore Spinnaker the first time I met you, second time around, you wore, I think it was a tag you showed me. And now you're wearing something from the same stable. That's the Aviate brand, obviously. Aviation side, we've got a Kadola here, which is the motorsport, the racing inspired division of Spinnaker. So I'm gonna lean forward and pick up something that Jez saw on the table. And he said to me, oh, that's an old one. And I said, no, it's not. It's absolutely brand new. But it looks old. What do you think of this one?
- [32:18]
D
It looks like an early Heuer. Really does. And especially the colour, the colourway they've got.
- [32:23]
B
It's definitely got that vintage vibe, hasn't it? Leaning into that kind of 70s, 80s.
- [32:27]
D
The pushers at the top. It looks like the Heuer stopwatches. For me. It does. I think they've done a good job. I'm not sure how much they are, but they're lovely. No, it's.
- [32:34]
C
I mean, that's.
- [32:34]
A
That's 200 bucks.
- [32:36]
D
No way.
- [32:36]
A
Yeah.
- [32:37]
C
That's crazy, isn't it? It's amazing. I mean, but yeah, it looks like a stopwatch with a bracelet, doesn't it?
- [32:42]
D
If you look at the way from the side, the way it shines, that's
- [32:46]
C
a well put together piece, isn't it? The bracelet feels really high quality, doesn't it?
- [32:49]
A
It feels like for the money, these things are good. And that's why we like to cover on the show. We've been told sometimes we speak too much about the Grubel Forses and the Mosers and the Vacherons, but we try and cover all price points because somebody could be getting into the hobby or somebody that's been collecting for time wants a daily beer. Something that looks cool in the rest, feels good, tells the time, but doesn't matter if you bash it off something when you're out pottering around the garden.
- [33:11]
B
As you mentioned, Jeff, very much in that kind of even. Not even tag. Heuer. Heuer leading back into the days of Heuer era, that kind of stopwatch chronograph. You could almost see a bigger version mounted on another rally car.
- [33:23]
D
Three in the rally, you probably know. Three in the rally cars. And the big pushes on the side,
- [33:28]
B
you could literally see that mounted up in the navigator position on the rally car. Yeah, Great watches. And as Ricky mentions, the important thing is we're in a venue as well, which has got a great variety of price points or values of cars. You know, everything from the supercars right through to the cars that people saw every day and were driving around the road. And watches are very much the same. You'll get everything from very affordable, attainable pieces. And we often talk about pieces at the more premium end as well.
- [33:52]
A
Well, we've done the two wheels pedal per. We've done four wheels going fast on land and all the rest of it. We talked a little bit about Spitfire that maybe we'll get to because it's sitting in the background there. But it's time to revert to two wheels, petrol powered and we've got a new person, somebody that actually knows about podcasting and has been watching from the background while we've been recording this first section of the show. We are the mere mortals. Introduce yourself to the audience.
- [34:12]
E
Thank you very much. My name's Dave Neal, I'm the host of Off Track Podcast, one of the UK's largest motorcycle racing interview podcasts. Me, myself, I've been podcasting for best part of 13 years. Before podcasts kind of were a thing, it was an Internet radio show based in America called Motopod. We started on that in 2013 as a co host talking about MotoGP, talking about World superbikes, British superbikes. Tasked with. The first thing I ever did for them was to go down to Silverstone MotoGP and interview the former world champion Jorge Lorenzo at the time. So that was my first foray into anything to do with podcasts and we've had over 250 guests, 300, 400 plus shows that we've done.
- [34:55]
A
What was it like meeting your heroes, meeting these guys at the top of the game in the world stage? Were you nervous?
- [35:01]
E
Unbelievably, yeah, absolutely. I'm still a fan and I always will be a fan at heart. To do what I do is incredible. I am still a fan of the sport. It's one of those where you make your way into it. I find it really difficult to talk about me because it's normally me that's asking the questions. So you kind of got me on the spot a little bit. It's not something I'm particularly good at, but I appreciate being on the show. You work your way through it. It's a really close knit community in the motorcycle racing world and you build your reputation, you build your tr. You don't throw anybody under the bus, you're always courteous to the guests and everybody knows everybody. When you're within the motorcycle racing world, you're only two steps, two degrees of separation from say, Valentino Rossi, because you know somebody who knows Valentino and word travels quickly. Good news travels slowly, same with anything, bad news travels fast. So it takes a while to build that reputation. But yeah, we're over 2 million views on YouTube. We've done, like I say, over 500 shows between Motopod and off track. And now I'm here, part of the Molesdale Foundation Museum as a group social media manager.
- [36:12]
A
Well, everything you've said rings true with what we do with the watch industry. And that is an industry that makes a lot of money, same as racing. Motorsport is super expensive. That's why sponsorships are very important. And we have to be very careful not to say the wrong thing sometimes. We're honest, we're truthful, we tell you like it is. But we don't go and slander people, throw them under the bus, get the clickbait headlines, because it doesn't benefit anybody. And to get an extra 100,000 views in a video and then lose your reputation, it takes so long to build.
- [36:40]
E
Couldn't agree more.
- [36:40]
A
You can't get it back. And people speak. And in the industry, that's why we continue, thankfully, to get more access to brands, CEOs, founders, creators, all these kinds of folks and about to hit watches and wonders, see all the fantastic folks that are there behind the scenes. Whereas perhaps some of the other creators on YouTube and whatnot that have said things in the past, they don't get that level of access. So, yeah, it's keeping it real and making sure you're true to your heart, but it's time to keep it real and talk about probably one to my third luxury watch purchase. A watch that I have retained, I have kept, I've never sold. And possibly the reason is because it reminds me of my first trip to Baselworld when I got into the hobby in earnest back in 2017. And this is a watch from Tudor. It's an association with Ducati and is the blackshield Fast Rider ceramic.
- [37:26]
C
And this is also actually how we got first introduced.
- [37:29]
A
It was because there was a place in Glasgow in Scotland where they were selling off a whole load of Tudor watches. They were a dealer for Rolex and Tudor at the time. 2017, Rolex said, we don't want our sister brand sitting beside the big one. So they had to get rid of Tudor because obviously they wanted to retain Rolex. I had just picked up my Batman, a story I've told in the show before, and I'd seen this in the window. It didn't look like anything else I'd seen before, relatively new to the hobby. So there were many things out there that were reminiscent, but to me it was brand new and it was the polar opposite of the Rolex Batman. That's a stainless steel watch with bits of blue on it. This is a black ceramic with bits of red. So I asked them if they could do me a deal on it. They were already doing a deal. They said no. I said, well, I'll think about it. I came Back after being at Baselworld to buy this watch. I think I got it for £1,700 including VAT. The retail was about three and a bit grand and it went discontinued quite shortly after. But lots of things in this. Again we talked about the pushers. They're piston, a little bit like the Ducati motorcycle engines. It's got the little triangle on the side as the quick date set, which again is a Ducati thing. And the color scheme is matched so it's never left the collection. But I don't wear it enough. And as is the case with me with most things, it's on an aftermarket rally style strap which Dave is shaking his head obviously. But I just like to keep the leather straps in good condition just in case in the future I decide to sell them on.
- [38:52]
C
I'm right in saying they did it in red, yellow and was potentially a blue as well.
- [38:57]
A
There was a khaki green and a dust coloured one. They were all hideous.
- [39:01]
B
Dust, dust.
- [39:03]
C
It's just such a cool watch, isn't it? I mean, at this point Tudor went into ceramic, which is so different compared to obviously what they are now. Or even Rolex have still not gone into ceramic.
- [39:11]
B
I think for me this is the era of Tudor where they did interesting things. Not to say they don't do interesting things now, but they do less interesting things than they used to do. You know, this is when they were experimenting with things and still maybe trying to find their way as a revived brand. You know, it was a brand that didn't ever kind of go extinct but really died right down and then was brought back to life as we know it today. You know, and then you had things like the P01 and the various craziness that they brought out, but they seem to have settled back into a rhythm of, let's be honest, very Rolex styled watches, retail friendly.
- [39:42]
C
Yeah, they kind of found what they. What did. Well, you know, when it first brought out the Black Bay and they've kind of ran with it and changed the size and changed the colours, but it's very much the same watch, isn't it?
- [39:51]
B
But what we should do is we should talk more about this watch, was Ducati aligned in terms of its aesthetic and obviously there is more than one Ducati hiding in this building and it's someone who knows quite a lot about the motorbikes that are in here.
- [40:03]
A
It's almost as if this is planned or something.
- [40:05]
B
You know, it was a decent segue.
- [40:08]
A
Yeah. So we are going to pass it across to the Motorcycle maestro. He's going to tell us a lot about the Ducatis that are here, amongst other things, because there are many of them. And I looked and I just saw a sea of red on two wheels and thought, leave it to the experts. So tell us about the motorcycles and the foundation.
- [40:22]
E
We have a fantastic collection of motorcycles upstairs in the motorcycle exhibit. The main brand that we do have upstairs is Ducati, as you rightly say, seamlessly done as a segue in with the watch. And we range from original 851Ducati to 916. There's almost a timeline of Ducatis that are upstairs. The original Superbikes, the Raymond Roche era, from the late 80s, early 90s into the 916s that Carl Fogerty rode to the world title. Moving Forward then to 998s, which we've got a Shane Byrne Highland Spring Renegade Ducati, which was Shane Byrne's first win in BSB. He then went on to 85 wins and six British Championship titles. We have a Ducati that was ridden by Steve Hislop in 2002, and we also have limited edition production bikes as well. In terms of Pekko Barnya, there's a 2024 Mijello replica, which is the tricolor version, which looks incredible. There's so much history up there with the race inside of it. There are also Ducati Desmosedici RRS up there, which is based on the GP06 that was raced by Loris Caparossi, Sete Gibbenau and Troy Bayliss won at Valencia at the end of that season, which is basically a MotoGP bike for the road. It's an incredible collection and we've just taken delivery of the brand new Panigale V4R that leads the World Superbike Championship with Nico Boulega at this point.
- [41:54]
A
Now, with the bikes that you've got here, they obviously need to be run so that the lubricants move around. Me and Dave are available at short notice. If you just leave them to take around the car park, it's absolutely fine.
- [42:04]
E
Not while it's absolutely doing what it's doing outside, but we can make an arrangement for that.
- [42:08]
A
Well, when it comes to watches and motorcycles, there have been a number of players that have dabbled. Triumph got in bed with various different companies. Most recently it's been Breitling. They had limited editions that we actually saw across in Edinburgh at St James's Quarter in the Breitling boutique. I almost pulled the trigger on my first Breitling, but I didn't. And then I saw the same thing again over in Geneva at Breitling Kitchen and again nearly went for it. I was there with Keith from ebay and we were both looking at it, never quite did. And we had the CEO of Breitling on the show a number of years ago and we're talking about that obviously, George Carne. There are various other brands that do things. Alster, which was a revitalized brand actually based quite near here in Glasgow in Scotland. That was the watch company that featured quite heavily in the movie Jaws on the wrist of various different people in that. But our friends at Zero west, again a brand we caught up with at British Watchmakers Day and we managed to spend a little bit more time with. They sent us a care package, they sent us a couple of watches up. One that's to do with Cafe Racer style and one that's to do with something completely different.
- [43:08]
B
Zero west, another brand that have been well in and about the podcast since the early days. Actually we've had those on doing quite a lot of their own work down in the southern parts of England. Cases Dials. They've been working on all different areas of what they can do themselves when it comes to watchmaking. Trying to bring more of that craft back into the UK as well. I think Dials is our latest escapade. I believe that's what they're telling us
- [43:29]
A
down at Watchmakers Day, that I don't know what they're doing, if they're doing the pad print or the creation of the dial itself, but everything else. One of the big stories they told me way back in the day was the gentleman behind the scenes and one of them used to work for one of the agencies apparently here in the UK and now he does this and he created the straps himself. He learned how to become a leatherman, how he would actually work the leather, create the stuff, do the stitching, do the filling and the quality of them is absolutely fantastic. The box it comes with, it's a Pelly style box. The foam has been laser cut, looks awesome. The presentation and the watches are very unique. Case shapes, individualized. I don't believe they make the cases themselves, but they are produced locally and everything comes together. The way they've infused, I used to say they look a little bit like grown up Meccano. Just the way it's all put together and if it's on rest, it's slightly bulbous, slightly larger designs. But the way they've got the logs means that it actually does contour, doesn't matter the size of your wrist. You talked about Goliath. These will look great. And they cover all kinds of things. They've done things with the Flying Scotsman, the train. They've done things with Spitfire. They told us a story about taking the engine out of some airplane and trying to put it in their workshop as a display piece. And because they're so anally retentive that when it came in, it wasn't quite sitting perfectly right, but it was hundreds of kilograms, almost tons of weight, they had to move it ever so slightly. So nobody got lunch that day. But what's the watches we've got here and what are the differences between the two of them?
- [44:49]
B
So this is a land speed and we've actually had a few Bullhead watches.
- [44:52]
A
It's a theme.
- [44:53]
B
Yeah. But it's one of the more unusual configurations of watches. Bullhead is. You will not see it too often. You know, I think Omega still have a couple in the range, I believe.
- [45:00]
A
Citizen as well.
- [45:01]
B
Yeah, citizen of a few. But it's definitely one of the more unusual configurations. But I guess leaning into that kind of rally dashboard heritage style, that probably fits with a lot of the cars that you can see in this location. This one is based around the first car, I believe, to ever go over 200 miles an hour, which was the Sunbeam, also known as the Slug. That is a fairly significant speed even these days, to be honest with you. If you ever get the joy of being in a car traveling at high speed, 200 miles per hour will scare the bejesus out of you. Even more so on a motorcycle, to be honest with you. But even in a car, the horizon comes at you rather fast, let me put it like that. But yeah, that's definitely reminiscent of that kind of rally timer back in the 60s and 70s, before everything went boring and digital, to be honest with you.
- [45:41]
D
Yeah.
- [45:41]
B
Really great looking watch. Their cases are always. Definitely an acquired taste, I'll say. It's not going to appeal to everybody in the same way as maybe the Bullhead doesn't appeal to everyone, but something certainly different and a bit like cars. Many cars these days on the road are all jelly moulds, in my opinion, of different cars. They're all the same. You'll see many cars in here that are definitely different and this is, in watch terms, one of the more unusual designs and looks. Maybe you want to have a look and see what you think.
- [46:06]
C
That's just cool, isn't it? I mean, obviously you've got lovely Arabic numerals. Again, we're sticking with the red theme. Very racing inspired. Again, what I'd call like a racing strap with the kind of three punches. It's got a decent weight to it, doesn't it?
- [46:19]
B
Yeah. You will not forget that one on your wrist.
- [46:21]
C
And then at the bottom, I see that, there's some directions. What's the story of that?
- [46:26]
A
Is that right? Okay, there you go. That's something I didn't even think about. The thing with Zero west is they use locations, longitude, latitude, and every watch has got a designation on it that relates to something or other. It could be a racetrack, it could be the Meridian, it could be this, that and the other. And when they did a limited edition for watchmakers, they, I believe they used the actual location of the hall of the show, Linley hall on the dial. That's something these guys do. The other thing is attention to detail. If you look on the side, look at the coin edge, not just on the bezel. It's not actually on the bezel, it's on the flanks. And then you've got cutouts, almost like suspension components on the sides. Everything about it is done to exacting standards. The pushers, we've talked about them a lot. These are even more, I don't know, unique. They don't look like anything else they sit above. And the crown itself has got knurling around it, which in this light, even though it's not the best of lights, it's phenomenal. So we'll have a lot of B roll, lots of pictures, all that information. And then on the back you were talking about designed rotors. Look at that.
- [47:24]
C
That is very cool, isn't it? I don't even know how I'd describe that.
- [47:28]
A
It's like radial wheels or something like that, you know, multi cut spokes.
- [47:31]
C
And then obviously it's got like that kind of different color. If you can see, that's like the back of a cd, essentially. You know where it goes like the
- [47:38]
B
multicolor showing his age against there. Comparing things to CDs. Modern fangled technology.
- [47:43]
C
But yeah, no, that's a cool piece and I love all the screws. Just kind of reminds me of like an aircraft engine or something. On the back you've obviously got. It's almost like a crest, kind of like you'd see it like a traditional race trophy.
- [47:55]
B
Well, the other one I've got there, if you like something maybe a little more towards the kind of traditional layout without having the bull head on it, we've got a chronograph here from them which is their cafe racer inspired watch. That's something that definitely harks back to my childhood. I'm thinking of the video for the Aha song. I can't remember what the song was, but it's a cafe racer in it. That kind of stripped back take off all the little windscreen and all the accessories taken off that stripped down motorbike. This one definitely got that kind of vibe about with the kind of striping there that you would traditionally see that style of motorbike. The little red pusher for the activation as well. Yeah, this is more my vibe than the other one. Still definitely lean in towards that aesthetic. They've got slightly chunkier. They like their watches that have a presence on the wrist, shall we say? It's not for the faint and shy and retiring. But yeah, this one's definitely got more of that traditional cafe racer kind of look to it as well. And I'm sure there's a couple of motorbikes that a cafe racer would like to get their hands on here and have a modification to.
- [48:49]
E
No question. We've got a couple of Mike Halewood style cafe racers Ducati produced up on the Ducati wing. And they're beautiful, they're trellis framed. They take you right back to the 70s the whole way that the seating position, the riding position is absolutely stunning. And you contrast those to the Aprilia RSX MotoGP bike that's up there that is a direct derivative of what Jorge Martin and Marco Bozzecchi are riding today. So we got the complete contrast of motorcycles upstairs. But the cafe races, they do hark back to the 70s. They kind of put the hairs on the back of your neck and it does fit in beautifully with that.
- [49:28]
B
Yeah, it's got that kind of, you know, that aesthetic to it, which is actually one of those aesthetics that's lasted. It's kind of never really changed, does it?
- [49:35]
E
There's things when you look around the whole museum, whether you look in the performance Ford corner, which is kind of from my age, and you look at the Diablo and some of the older bikes, the RG500, it's great. I'm 53 years old. So when you look at, as you mentioned with the push bikes earlier with the rally grifters, I used to do a paper round on a rally grifter and rally shoppers and the rally burners and the strikers and everything that's in here, the retro side of things here for the museum. You see it on a regular basis with the open days. It just blows people away and the same with the timepieces, it works fantastically well.
- [50:11]
B
A paper round. There's something that's dying as well.
- [50:13]
A
Well, the guys at Zero west, they do amazing things. We should bring them back onto the show because they were one of the first interviews that we actually had, 2019, down at the Watchip Fair somewhere in Englandshire. We bumped into those guys and it was our first time throwing a microphone in front of a brand. It was their first time in front of a microphone. Things have moved on over the 750 plus episodes since then and although they've not done anything in the motorsport arena for quite some time, when they were sending these up for us to have a look at, because these are obviously long gone and long sold out, this is the year they're coming back because people have been asking, we want more, we want more. And if these are the original designs from half a decade ago, wait till you see what they've got coming down the line. Not to say that the current iterations, which aren't motorsport derived, but in different areas with vehicles, military, they do a lot of private label stuff that they're actually not allowed to tell us what it is they do and for which brands they do, but they have been really, really busy. So it's going to be a big year for the guys at Zero West. So that's us covered the motorcycles for a little while. There's just so much to cover in this place. I was walking around the first time and one of the areas that caught my attention was to do with rallying, but there was a section with Colin McRae's Subarus and all the cool stuff that he did. And my favourite Colin McRae moment wasn't anything to do with WRC. It was actually when he was piloting a Gold Scooby at the X Games and he was going around this, it was almost like a dirt track, as if it was a remote control car and he managed to roll the thing at the very end and as it was rolling, managed to get it into first gear and as soon as it got back onto four wheels, it went off again. Everybody was just shocked, in awe. People that weren't into rallying were talking about it for days, weeks and months afterwards. So that was one of my standout moments with Colin McRae. And you've actually got quite a collection of his stuff here.
- [51:54]
E
We have. We're very fortunate to have the McRae family vehicles here. We've got a Sierra Cosworth that Jimmy, Alistair and Colin drove. We've got the little Vauxhall Nova that they had. Basically. Basically they started off in and then you progress then to Colin's Acropolis RS Focus. But then the piece de resistance for our rally in Corner is the 1995 Subaru that Colin won the World Championship in the bat. Indeed. And if you played the Codemasters game, the Colin McRae rally, that was the car that they based it on. And it's a real privilege to have the collection here. We also have his Crescent Suzuki GSXR that was built to the same spec as the Crescent bikes of the time in the early 2000s, built by Crescent Suzuki down at Verwood in Dorset. And he just had that as a track day because the family all started on bikes. Originally, they started as scrambling and motocross before they moved into rallying. So Jimmy was a scrambler. Alistair cut his teeth on bikes. Max has done a little bit, Alistair's son and Colin absolutely loved his bikes, which is why he had the Suzuki built.
- [53:03]
A
And am I right in thinking, because he was so famous, when he was doing stuff on bikes, he was almost blacked out, so you couldn't tell who he was or what bike it was.
- [53:11]
E
There are no markings on the bike, there's no name on the bubble where you normally see them. And his leathers were quite plain Alpine stars. It was purely for the joy of riding motorcycles. It wasn't. I'm Colin McRae, I'm going to do this. He was exceptional on a motorcycle as he was in a rally car. And it was purely for fun. That's why he did it. It wasn't to be anything other than Colin McRae having fun.
- [53:33]
A
And you recently had them on your own podcast and maybe quickly tell us, before we run out of time, about the show that you do.
- [53:38]
E
Oh, we did. It was a real privilege to have Jimmy, Alistair and Max McRae on the show here at the Open Day that we did on 28 December, we had an absolute sellout crowd. One of the privileges of working with the foundation is I get to host the Open days. So from James Tosland, the double world Superbike champion, handing over his hand spray 10 car to Honda back in July, we've had a raft of Scottish legends, including the McKenzie family. We've had Brian Morrison recently, we've had Ian Simpson and Jim Moody, TT winners, British champions. And then we had the McRae family down as well. So to chat to Jimmy as a five times British Rally Champion. Alistair as rallied British champion the same year that Colin won the World Championship. So it gets overshadowed a little bit. And then the next generation coming through in big Al's son Max making his way in the British Rally Championship.
- [54:30]
B
It's one of the true dynasties of motorsport. Never mind anything else, you know, there's a couple, but you know, the Sanks family's obviously there. But you know, I think this is one of the longest running dynasties, certainly in rallying and the wider kind of motorsport as well. But it kind of, I think for me highlights the golden eras of rallying. You know, coming out of the insanity that was group B, there's a 6R4 I see sitting down there, which was, you know, that's a car that. That will kill you more than look at you. And leaning into the early days of what I guess we know now as wrc. But it also amazes me, you look at those early Subarus and you think they're not that big.
- [55:04]
E
No, they're not.
- [55:05]
B
The size of cars today is huge. And you look, it's actually putting it to the 6R4.
- [55:10]
E
The 6R4 is a big car.
- [55:11]
B
It's big, you know, and of course that integrale, the one that was also the, you know, the 80s boy's dream
- [55:17]
E
car to have six R4 for me all day long. I love Valencia, I can appreciate it. The Subarus, the Mitsubishi Evos that we've got at the back of the production version. No, for me, the 6R4 all day long.
- [55:29]
B
What car?
- [55:29]
A
Well, we're approaching the finish line. We are at the end of this show. It's been action packed and we've not scratched the surface. There is so much to see here. Want to say a massive thanks to everybody that's involved with the foundation for bringing us along, hosting us, letting us have a look at all these toys. It's all about mechanisms, it's all about mechanical stuff. I haven't even spotted any electric things, although there's probably one or two sitting somewhere in the background.
- [55:51]
B
Mine's parked outside.
- [55:52]
A
Oh yeah, his little buggy is parked outside. But if people want to come along here, how do they get involved? What were these days you were talking about? What the events they can come to. Give us a bit of a quick run through before we finish up.
- [56:03]
E
We host open days once a month on average. We open up to the public and that is the only time that you can get into the foundation is on the open days. They'll be on the website, they're advertised on the social media. If you follow Molesdale Foundation Museum on Facebook and Instagram, molesdalefoundation.org is where you get your Tickets, we're on a structured entry. Once you're in, you're in. And we're. We have Q and A's, as we've said before, with various. With guests, two wheels and four wheels. I'm not sure at this point when the next event is, so keep an eye on the socials, make sure you give us a follow, and you'd be more than welcome here whenever we're open.
- [56:38]
B
So check out, of course, the show notes because all the links that you will need will be on there, whether it's the socials, whether it'll be their website, et cetera, et cetera. Check it all out. Yeah. We have to say thank you to the Millsdale foundation for having us there and obviously for Jez, who was on the show earlier for Invisible, inviting us along, letting us see the place and asking us to come and record something here because it's a outstanding location. And if you're into your cars in any way, shape or form, or bicycles or motorcycles or you just like to come somewhere interesting, it's very friendly for all the family as well. When we were here, it wasn't just guys of a certain age geeking over cars. There was families, there was young kids. Please do come along next time they're having an open day, I'm sure you'll find one. You say once a month. So if you can get along one of the months, come along and see it. You can even stick it into Google Maps and it'll direct you right the way to the. The door. And there's a huge car park, so it's easy to get here, easy to get yourself offloaded. Please do come along if you get a chance, you'll love it.
- [57:29]
A
And you said the big point is the cars. It's also the fact if you go onto the website, you can see where your entry fee goes, because all the charitable donations that are given, they go to the best of places. There are too many to list. Children's charities, it's all kinds of things. It's helping folks that need it the most. So check out the show notes. We'll link all the details in there and we may come along to a couple ourselves. We may even organize something here in the future. Who knows, Dave? Who knows? So if you like what you've heard, we're out twice a week, Mondays and Thursdays YouTube show, usually on a Saturday. By the time Gavin behind the scenes edits everything up and we get it out there. There are many different episodes I would recommend. If you've liked what you've heard today. We've done one recently with Jeff Dodds. He's the CEO of Formula E, which is the electric version of Formula One. If you didn't know that prior to that we've had all kinds of stuff. We were at Silverstone for the Formula one couple of years ago with Moser. They're involved with one of the race teams, teams that Dave has bought a car from. Fun lay enough. Not a race car, a road going car.
- [58:22]
B
We also had David Coulthard on. We met him down at Goodwood and we watched some of the action taking place there. That's another event that if you enjoy your cars, you would definitely enjoy going to Goodwood. There's multiple events through the year for them as well. We mentioned Shmee150, a man who likes some supercars, but he also likes a Swatch watch.
- [58:38]
A
He's a bit of a collector.
- [58:39]
B
Yeah, he's a bit of a collector of large Swatch watches. Even if you have a big wrist to wear. The ones that he collects, they're kind of the size of a wall. But yes, he does enjoy a Swatch watch. Who else have we had on Ricky?
- [58:47]
C
Matt Farah as well from the Sword Smoking tire. We had him a couple months ago.
- [58:51]
A
Were you on that one?
- [58:51]
C
I was indeed.
- [58:52]
B
Didn't realise his name was Ricky, but very good. Well done.
- [58:54]
A
Jump into Ed whenever you feel like it. And there are tons of other ones. We try and mix and match everything. We mentioned the four racing legends, the land speed world record holders that we had on the show, with obviously the folks at Brooklands and that is about it. So thank you for joining us for this fantastic episode. All the guys here, we've got Dave, we've got Jez in the background, we've got Dave two. Dave's is better than one and we've got Ted with us as well. So thanks for listening listening and we'll catch you again soon.
- [59:19]
B
Take care. Thank you.