Music, welcome to the hole in the head podcast. This week, we're talking British projects. The Ariel square fours have been delivered, and one has already hit a major milestone. Here's Andy and Blaine.
Andy. This is the episode where we talk about both leaving home searching for British junk and seeing if we screwed ourselves or not. I can't wait to get into
it. Yeah, it's funny, yeah, oddly specific, but 100% true, driving real far to find a British thing and bringing it back
and hoping that it wasn't a complete folly. So let's see what happened. Where have you been going? And what have you been getting?
Well, so I recently virtually acquired the Ariel Squares, and okay, we now have them in our positions possession. That's right. Yes, we own and and have two Ariel Square Fours.
So now we can talk about the deep buyer's remorse, or the deep celebration about feeling terribly successful and smart. Let's see what we felt. Andy, you
Okay, so I feel great about mine because, well, you go first. And I'll say, because I have a feeling I'm gonna have the opportunity to rub it in, and I don't want to waste that. So yeah, of course, of course. So I brought you a pile of Ariel to Tucson, ish, Arizona, and you took receipt of your sight unseen. Ariel Square Four purchase. Mark one, Ariel Square Four purchase. How do you feel? 1950
1951 mark one, pile of junk. I knew as a pile of junk. When I got it, I was totally fine with that, because what I was really interested in was restoring a motor and putting it in and making it look somewhat period correct. I'm not at all tied to have it all be the same year. I'm not at all
tied to matching numbers. And so for me, it was worth just buying something that had a motor that could be, you know, a vintage bits bike, that I think I could take the kind of, the best of the of those years, kind of a resto mod with it. So, like, I won't mind putting a better front wheel and brake on it. I won't mind doing anything that can be upgraded. I will. But I love the Ariel square for motor. The idea of that engine is so
appealing to me. And you arrived and opened your trailer and in the back was way less shit than I thought I bought because I thought that's it.
Yeah, it's just two handfuls. It's
like, what that's that's the whole thing. And it was really just a motor in a frame. There were a couple wheels tossed to the side. I ended up buying a tank from someone else that came, that came in the in the deal, but I do have a vintage tank for it, which I was excited about, but that's pretty much all I got. And so I'm going to have to round up a front end for it, and triple clamps and all kinds of stuff that I'm interested in. But I'm thrilled with it. I'm totally I don't have any remorse
over it. But then again, I have no idea what I have. The motor does turn over, but there's no compression so and I have a gearbox that clicks, goes through gears, but it's semi apart. I have enough to start dreaming about the project and
what I want to look at. And I know that I'm going to do a complete, you know, go through everything, and that means I'm going to have to start out by taking the motor down and doing the dreaded clean out the sludge traps, not because I want to do it, but because the internet demands that I have to do it. And I'll maybe let you explain that a little bit further, because you're kind of on the edge about that?
Well, you're in a position where you would be irresponsible if you didn't, because the engine is so you're so far from getting it into the frame anyway, like at this point the engine's in there in pieces, you may as well just go ahead and pull the crank right, whereas mine is all together, but just very rusty and squeaky, like it needs lubrication and a tune up. Which, which is, you know, I don't want to downplay it, but it needs a lot, but
well, but it looked like a motorcycle. Yeah, yeah. You know, it just didn't look like. Yard sale, you know, collection of junk. It looked like a motorcycle, yeah, I
rolled it on vendors, yeah,
has a seat. It turns over,
yeah, well, it's funny. The seat, I found out really quickly what the previous owner used for fasteners on the seat. So in order to attach the, you know, bad vinyl faux leather to the degraded foam. He used deck screws,
awesome, yeah,
so I just jumped right on it, and it went right into your ass, and I jumped right back off, yeah? And like, Well, that was okay, so I just, I tossed that, or at least stripped it. And it's like one of those bed of beds of nails, you know what? I mean? Like, it's just, yeah, yeah. So I'm going to get a aftermarket, maybe a solo seat for but I got mined Oklahoma. Got it off the trailer. It's heavy. It is a bear that buy, yeah,
yeah, this is a lot of metal moving to get this thing to move around.
Man, doesn't have a side stand. Doesn't have a center stand, okay, so you gotta lean it. But I ended up pre ordering some bits from dragonfly
center stand. Dragonfly is kind of the world renowned supplier for Ariel old junk and a couple other bikes too. But, yeah,
got some pieces, so I'm able to stand it up anyway, and here's where I get to gloat. Okay, so I didn't want to just strip it down, because it's a long term project, like, it's going to take a lot of things, and so to do it justice, it's going to have to come apart completely, if nothing else, to get cleaned and put back on so that it functions. All the things function, the grounds, etc. But I, of course, couldn't help myself, so I put some fresh oil in it, took the carb off,
clean the carb. I've adjusted the valves, you know what I mean, and got everything new battery, new battery positive ground, by the way, got everything on and kicked it over a few times, sprayed some carb cleaner, and Blaine, it fired up. Oh my god, it runs. I have a running Ariel square for Oh,
yeah. Well, congratulations on that. But where do you stand now on the demand of the internet legend is that an Ariel square for can't possibly run unless the sludge traps have been cleaned. And let me just quickly explain to everybody the theory of this, of having to do this is because there's an oil passage that gets blocked in the crankshaft, and you have to disassemble the entire motor to clean it out and then put it back together. And then you gotta, you know, stay
on top of it. But no, everybody is afraid to run an Ariel square motor. That's been unknown, because the virtual promise from everybody that that participates on the Ariel square for a website, is that you are going to ruin the motor unless you do this. So now you have an unknown Ariel score motor that you've run without cleaning the oil sludges the sludge trap so far. So you're in violation of the principle Andy. Are you going to take it apart and obey the it's
not even a legend. It is a religious commitment that the aerial group has to cleaning these sludge traps. It's just a thing you do. It's a thing you do, and there's not a chance that, if you ever sold it, the first thing someone's going to ask is, Did you clean the sludge
traps? Right? And so that there's not a chance that you're going to be able to sell it with any of our Ariel group knowledge that's knowledgeable about it, because they simply do not allow the transfer of ownership of an Ariel square for without verification of having the sludge traps cleaned. So Andy, yeah, is the motor coming out? Are you doing the sludge traps?
You know, I'm gonna TBD, because honestly, once I get everything off, I'm gonna all the wiring is going to have to be done. You know, everything's going to have to get I don't want to paint it and restore it, but at least clean, because all the Chrome's flaked rusty. So by the time I get all the ancillary items off and the you know, like, just tell
me what your feeling is now. Your feeling now is, should you are you going to do it? Because you believe in it? Probably, I
probably will take your time. Yes, I probably will end up doing the traps, because I have a feeling I'm going to get into it anyway. And boy, I sure would rather regret having spent the it's supposed to take six hours. Now it takes six hours if you know what you're doing and have the Ariel guy over your shoulder looking and watching you and telling you what to
do based on the fact that you don't ruin any fasteners or or other other bolts going in after it, which is sure to be ruined. And then, of course, these are going to be there's two different types of British fasteners, right? There's the British Standard, whatever. Burden or something else, or whatever. And evidently, this is going to be a mix of both out here, from what I hear, so I'm afraid of touching the nuts and bolts. So
truth be told, I will probably get it back together and run around the block. But before I do any serious anything on it, I probably will pull the engine and do the traps. But, I mean, it pumps oil. I know that that's not the telltale, but I got oil spitting back out of the tank. That's a good sign. Yeah, definitely. Sean seems to think, you know, just send it. It ran, it's probably not going to blow up on you tomorrow. So just, you know, put it back together and ride it.
Well, there is something to that, because what I understand is that one, there's this religious commitment that every Ariel square for will fail by overheating the rear cylinders, and it's due to the fact that the sludge traps are blocking the oil flow to the crankshaft, and so you're going to have a catastrophic failure. Connecting rod's going to come off and burst through the case, alright? So that's whatever that's that seems to be everybody's experience who chooses to pro
post on the website. Now there is a guy that says, hey, listen, the whole problem with the Ariel running hot in the back cylinders is that we've never really had a very good fuel mixture and that the back runs lean. And then if you correct his idea is that if you make sure that you're running the correct fuel mixture, and getting enough fuel in the back cylinders that that is the primary problem for where things
overheat. Now, of course, these two religious worlds collide on on the on the little forum there, and some guys will, you know, continue to swear that it's this sludge problem. Other guys will get there's a minority of guys that continue to swear that it is a problem with getting the right fuel mixture to the rear cylinder so they don't run as hot. So Andy, where
do you decide? Where are you going to be in this religious quest to find out the truth about the Ariel square for are you going to pick any one idea over the other? To
be honest, I probably won't. The more I talk about it, the more I realize I'm not going to clean those goddamn switch. I mean, I just I know that because it's in Oklahoma, my time there, when I'm there, is finite, and space certainly is as well. I don't want to bridge this thing over years.
It's probably worth doing that, but I will get it back together and run it around, because it's, by the way, I've slipped into a, we're talking about British things, but I've kind of slipped into a British black hole, a rabbit hole, whatever I'm suddenly need all the British projects.
There's a, there's a few other things that we have to have, don't we? Yeah,
yeah. But with this, with this Ariel, it's, I feel good having it, and it kind of feels like, well, I didn't really have the time and the space to work on a giant project like that this month, but I did happen to have some money to where I could acquire it and work on it later, you know? I mean, that's how this is working out. So I know that I will probably just put it back together, not clean those sledge straps. I don't know, TBD. We'll see. We'll see. Well, ask
me what I'm going to do. Andy,
what are you going to do with yours? I'm
going to take it apart and clean the sludge traps.
Just you're a good citizen.
Yeah, like you said, because my motor's already lying beside the frame, it just makes sense to go ahead and get it out and go through it, although I am suspect that that really is the primary problem with the overheating. I believe the fuel guy, the guy that figured out that there's not enough fuel, you know, getting to the rear cylinders. So I'm going to be more intent on getting the right carburation
overall. But I think it doesn't it to me, it's not a big setback, since it's already, you know, laying there, the motors complete, but it's not in the frame. So I'm going to go ahead and do that, do the sludge traps on it and but I'm going to go ahead and mess with I'm going to go after some non standard ideas after that to improve the electrics and the charging and whatever. We'll go into that when I get there, but I've got some ideas about how I want to
do that. I'm afraid to mention early, because it'll just give all the Ariel religious zealots a chance to criticize me. But so I'm gonna wait to the last minute before I disclose what horrible things I've done to eradicate a weak charging system.
Yeah, well, Jason, I was on, Jason, last week was on, or last two weeks ago. Anyway, last time would be a good resource, too. I know he's got off the cuff. He'll have 1000 different yes or no's, don't even try that kind of things.
Yeah, though that would be helpful. And there's a, there's a number of other modifications I would consider, you know, so, so mine is definitely in resto mod mode, so it's fun to collect a variety of parts and thinking about it like, like I mentioned before, I don't have to have a period forks in the front any forks will do. I don't have to have a period front wheel because I'm not restoring, you know. A museum piece or anything like
that. So to me, a front wheel off of a later model British bike with a great front brake is a word the upgrade. You know, I won't feel like I've cheated myself out of something by doing that. So I'm looking forward to making a few of those things just better to ride. But I do like staying within the parameters what it's supposed to look like, because I do love the looks of the original tanks. The original fenders are a little bit expensive to acquire. I'll see about repops or whatever, if
I have to. But I do like that single seat, solo period look from the 40s and early 50s the best and the to me as it strays towards later in the 50s, I realized that was a better model of the of the square four. But I don't like the looks nearly as much as I do for the mark. You know, I love the mark one, and the mark to look Ariel, square force the best. So I'm kind of happy with that situation. Well,
oh, and the way that, the way that things work out. I want to you know, obviously, that we have another drove somewhere to get a British thing, thing to talk about. But while we're on you mentioned fenders. I don't know if I told you not my wife. I talk a lot of shit about my wife, but you know this, and truth be told, like I fucking love my wife. She's awesome. She had a serendipitous moment at work when a co worker found out they couldn't go to Formula One in Monaco and had
extra tickets. Oh, oh yes, and my sounding interesting. My birthday is right around that time. And so dear that she is, she asked me if I'd be interested in going to, you know, this little race in the race of all race places this summer for my birthday. And I said, Well, you know, I'll think about it. It sounds fine. So we're gonna, yeah, no, of course. Like, are you serious?
Like, wait a minute, I got an Ariel I, like the people I live with, I have a Yeah, like, my my financial prospects aren't dire. I have pretty good health right now, and my wife just got tickets to f1 in Monaco. Something's about to happen to me. I'm waiting for the other
things are definitely in going your way. Because one, your wife is a lovely person, and two, you're a hard guy to love, and the fact that she's coming she the fact that she wants to give you this is testimony to what a lovely person she is, and the fact that the universe is willing to look overlook all your bullshit. Boy, that's a pretty that's a pretty good season. You're in.
I'm gonna coming up. Andy, right now, in spite of myself, I know I'm okay. I mean, doesn't always feel like it, but right now, literally, right now, it's a feel really grateful for the things that are in my life. You're
living the life of a successful, decent person, which is not, not exactly how everyone thinks of you.
God, damn, yeah, yeah, yeah. For better or worse, it's true. Well, So way
to go, Andy, you're in your side.
That's a humble brag, I realize. But the point is, is that I'm able to to what I'm going to do is fly into London, and I have an old friend that my old roommate that I lived with when I was there, is doors always open, so I have a place to stay. And so I'm going to take the, you know, four or five days before and go craigslisting, whatever the equivalent is in London, yeah, to find Ariel bits.
Oh, that should be good. That should be good. And we're going to make some bits, Yep, yeah, yeah, and get some tips. That would be awesome, yeah.
So make a list, and I'm going to start, you know, barking up trees and finding, making, making some friends across the pond, and sort of, sort of check some things off the list. You know, I don't think I've never been to Ace Cafe. I'd like to go to bike shed. There's this, you know, bike cafe in North London. So it's going to be a good trip. I'm looking forward to it, but I'm going to try and maximize my downtime to do some shopping for the Ariels.
How many people are going to England to shop for Ariel parts on an expedition that ends in Monaco at the race. So that's a pretty, that's a pretty, not pretty, top notch experience. Charmed.
Yeah, I'm pretty lucky right now.
Well, I think maybe I've been wrong. That is that you're just a better person than I am, because I never have that kind of decent happen to me. So I'm going to reverse my viewpoints. Usually, I always thought I was a little bit better. Bit better than you, but as it turns out, I'm not. You're so I'm going to have to submit to that reality.
I'm I'm empirically a better person than you. That's, that's, yeah, I
mean, the universe is investing a lot more in you than they are me. So I guess we, I guess I have to conclude that my perceptions of. Been incorrect, so Well,
I would okay. So now to counterpoint that, I would challenge it, because I also I really want a lot of things. I'm I'm a I have a hole in me that is not filled with anything that I can get my
hands. Yeah, there's a certain level of counseling that we both need because we are not fulfilled, and trying to fill our Yeah, make our happiness based on material possession. So there's a certain problem that we
have well, so one of them, one of those vacancies, is a Land Rover
product. Oh, yeah. I remember you were thinking about getting a Land Rover and you bought an Arcadia.
Well, I inherited an Acadia, and so now I can't justify a late model purchase. Yes, yeah, no. What All
I'm saying is that you were out looking for a Land Rover product and you ended up
with narcadia. Yes, yes, that's true. Which, which, yeah, which, which. I
mean, that happens. You got to pay attention to the reality of like, what? Like you said, either you inherited it, or the fact that you wanted something that started most days. Yeah, I get it. You know, you can't.
Well, I still want one.
You should. They're lovely.
You're rover rich, and that has to do with your recent long trip. Yes,
yeah. I left the house looking for some British junk, and I was able to find 1994 Range Rover classic in beluga black in her garage in Atascadero, California. Second owner. First owner was her father. Second owner was this lovely lady, and she had the rover in her garage. It quit three years ago. She put it in there and left it. And I decided I was going to resurrect it. And so we talked on the phone. We
came down to a number. I left the house with the tow bar in the back of my Volkswagen tour egg and drove out there and stayed at Motel Six for one day and fitted the tow bar to the black beluga black 1994 Range Rover, 129,000 miles new BFG Goodrich tires, and I rolled it out, washed it, hooked up the front toe bar, took the fender off, had drilled a couple holes,
and I drove it home. And I got it home and went through the sequence of what it takes to make a Range Rover run that's been sitting for three years, and it just give you the short story. It would not start, and the main culprit was because, again, you know how I hate disinformation and lost information when it comes to fixing something, everybody so immediately identify. I don't have any fuel pump action. And so I think, well, I'll replace the fuel pump, but before I do,
I'll check the relay. So you check the relay and the fuel pump, and then you have to check the inertia switch in case that's been triggered, because that shuts off the fuel there's
a security protocol. There's a little bit too much wiring bullshit, you know, going on, but I work my way through it, and what I find is that there's a 10 amp fuse hidden underneath the passenger seat that needed to be replaced, and that was it one, yeah, but, and already, and someone had already gone through the sequence, they'd put in a new fuel pump, they'd put in a new relay, and there's this one little, tiny 10 amp fuse, it's hiding underneath the seat over
there that it needed as well. So that's what brought it to life. And then I was able to, kind of, you know, I went ahead and did a few other things to it, to kind of resurrect it, just so that, because I didn't want to have troubles with it. Troubles with it, and it is lovely and clean and it looks good, and I decided that I cannot own it because it's black. I live at the end of a dirt road in the middle of the
desert with a black car. And as much as I love that thing, there's not a day that goes by that you shouldn't be washing it. Yeah, it is just, I mean, I love it. I love driving it. You know, I figured out some performance things. I got a few secrets to share with the rover guys later on that'll make a rover experience happy. But you know what a black car is, a city dwelling car that belongs in a pavement world, because this thing, I don't care where I wax
it. Here at home, I drive it down literally, the dirt road section of my house. I my my driveway you've been here is 500 100 yards long. Right go down the driveway, it's 100 yards, and then it's a new another 200 yards to the paved road. So I only have 300 yards of graded dirt road that I have to go down, but it's enough to completely make your car look filthy every single time. And then it rains here, of course, you know, we get we get we get
weather. But it has made me I've never once gotten out and looked at the car and thought, look at that. That's clean. That's way I like it to look. I look and I go. I just cleaned it five minutes ago, and now I've got to clean it again. You ever had a black car?
Yeah? My truck? Yep, yeah. I just cannot
stay on top of it. So I love it. I, you know, I may keep it for a little while longer, but I just just very, very difficult to make a long term commitment to a car. Car that wants to be constantly washed, and I can't stand to see it dirty. It'd be one thing if it's like it looks good dirty. You know, black cars, a black Range Rover does not look good dirty. It looks like a junker. And this thing is not a junker. It's kind of pristine.
It's such a nice they're they're nice cars.
Yeah, it's a really nice, nice thing to drive. I drove it back and back and forth to Texas and drove it back and forth to Colorado or California one time, you know, since I've had it, I put about 7000 miles on it, and it is just, I mean, a strange variety of things still work on it, you know, which I'm just thrilled about. And I think I could be happy with it for almost forever, but I just don't know how to reconcile the black so that's funny.
One, the one thing where, and where'd you go to get
it? You went to, it was a California taskadero. Yeah, there was
something in Colorado. Was that another rover or no, because you've got a discovery.
Oh, you know, I bought that down the street. So what was funny is that right after I brought the Range Rover home, 94 Range Rover Range Rover classic, just down the street from my house, there's this junky, faded red, metallic red, maroon, 1996 discovery. And it won't, won't start a guy who wants to sell it, he's got there for $1,500 and so my few people tipped me off to it, I think. And I don't want a discovery. I don't I don't like the way they look. I don't like the red
color. I don't want to pay $1,500 for a junkie of discovery. I'll just keep going with my, you know, my beautiful black beluga Range Rover. And then about three weeks later, I drove by that thing every day again, of course, what happened? I'll just stop and look at it right. This ends, so I stop and look at it. Guy comes out, we shoot some starting fluid in it,
and it turns over. So I know it's got a fuel pump problem, which I've already just recently been through, so I know how to do that, but it started up on the starting fluid. So I thought, okay, it's got a chance. And then the guy said to me, I'm going to take it for scrap today, because I want it out of here, unless you can give me 500 for it. Well, I'm giving you 500 for it. So I got 500 and I towed at home, and I ordered up a replacement fuel pump. I don't ever buy the right fuel
pump for the cars anymore. I always just buy the standard little core Walbro pump unit and install it. That'll make sense to fuel pump guys, because not as you take out a fuel pump, it's a receptacle and a filter. It's on a rack. It goes down in the tank, and it's got the fuel gage stuff kind of connected to it half the time. And so it's this whole setup, right? It's
like 400 bucks. And it turns out, if you just replace the electric fuel pump, which is the part that failed, a wall bro pump was about $30 but I decided to buy a Chinese repop of the wall bro pump for $17 took it out and I saw it up the connections and put it in. Thing just runs flawlessly. Since then, I've taken it to New Mexico and to Texas once to go scrounge parts for something else. And I had to do, you know,
fix up a few things to it. It wouldn't stay in the same lane, so I had to deal with some handling issues and swivel joints and walls and tightening up certain things, replacing uh, u joints and ball joints. But eventually, now I got it to thing goes down the road at 70 miles an hour. It's straight as an arrow. It's easy to drive. And now it's my throwaway rover.
So anything that's too nice, like, if I have to go put something inside that I don't want to scratch up the back or anything, I take the white one, because I painted it white since I got it and with rust oleum, by the way. Total, total cost, $75 for paint the
roller. A roller paint job. No, I
sprayed it. But that did include all the masking tape and everything. So $75 paint job and $13 fuel pump, and it has been flawless until last week when it ate up its power steering pump seal or the pump of shit, which is a very common occurrence. So I'm expecting the worst there, but nonetheless, I've got two Land Rovers parked in the driveway. And what's funny is that the one I painted white, I haven't washed it since July. It looks perfect. It looks
clean right now. And the black Range Rover has been washed literally every third day and wiped down with detailer to maintain its black, non dusty finish.
Yeah. So I just, I love that you're, you're that fussy over the black Range Rover, like, I don't, I've never known you to be fastidious about the cleanliness of any other than just, like, well, it's, you know, knock the dirt chunks off or something, but to hear the wax and this is bothering you, yeah? No, no, I
am particular. But that's just because it's such in good shape, you know. So it seems a shame to let it go backwards, but like the white one that I painted with the rust oleum, I don't care about that. We'll bomb that through the bushes and scrape all the paint off eventually, and I'll just touch it up or not. I don't care about that one. I got $500 in it, you know. And it's worth about $700 you know, in its top
form, it's just not. Valuable vehicle at the moment, but I think the discovery ones will be later on. They're kind of coming on. But anyway, it's a long term deal for me to keep that one, but the black classic 94 Range Rover is a little bit of a has a little bit of a following. So someone will want that because it's so clean, absolutely rest free and so many things are perfect on it. I'll sell that on. Bring a trailer at some point. But because it's so clean, I can't bear to see it
get away from me, you know. But in terms of what I would rather own, yeah, I'd rather own a slightly beater Range Rover or discovery that I can just use the hell out of and use it everywhere. And if someone comes out like, you come out and said, Oh, I've gotta go to, you know, I want to go pick up something that's like, yeah, you take this to Oklahoma. I don't care. Oklahoma. I don't care. And if it died on the way, I'd say, just take the plates off of it
and shove it in the ditch. You know, I don't have to be committed to it. And I feel lovely about that. Where the black Range Rover is so nice and so hard to come across them in this good of shape, I feel like I gotta be a little bit more careful with it. And that's the place I never want to be in automobile ownership. And in terms of trucks that I use, you know, I don't want to have something that I've got to be
worried about. So I think this should, this should go to somebody who wants a vintage, you know, Range Rover, wants to keep it at their mountain cottage, you know, and drive it down to the local Whole Foods and get fancy food and drive back to their house and, you know, occasionally shovel out their driveway and drive it in the snow, you know, on the way to a fancy coffee shop. That's where this one should probably end up, because it's so perfect.
Yeah, yeah. So I've been digging. I've been out of that hole for a little bit, so I appreciate you kicking me right back in there. So now I gotta look up Range Rovers, like I have enough shit
to do. Yeah, you're gonna have to decide what vintage you want to get. You know, well, yeah, I
guess don't have that much experience with the rovers and and I guess the one that I did see was a Range Rover, but it must have been a later model, and it felt very plasticky and not high quality, whereas it sounds like the earlier ones, pre, oh, nine or whatever, are to a much different standard, or maybe not. Yeah, there's, there
is something to that, you know, it kind of goes both ways. There was a couple years where the interiors were famously shit because, you know, like, all the finishes peeled off, and it was a real betrayal for the guy that spent a few bucks on a Range Rover. Then later on, like you said, around after 2008 or 2009 they kind of
got that sorted. And those vintage ones are okay, but probably the biggest difference is deciding where you want to be in terms of complication, because they're just infinitely complicated. You know, as they go on the line, they first came to the United States in 1987 they started building those back in the early 70s, actually. But by the time they came here in 1987 you know, they they had a few complications already. They were getting, you know, all the
all the things are there. It's got cruise control, air conditioning and all this kind of stuff, and then a complicated security system, you know, in a few later years, and all those things were nice at the time. But obviously right now, like, if my alarm goes off and, you know, disables the car, that is a long term solution to figure out is to get the alarm turned off, you know, or disabled. And if I buy a ranger over a couple years newer than that, there is no disabling the range the
alarm. You're just going to have to fix it. And so, I mean, I hate to see a car get sidelined because of keys, because you can't get a key made for it, because you got to have a transponder key that's cute to the, you know, to the ECU. In some cases, you can't do that with these older cars, and then having an alarm issue. To me, those are two ridiculous reasons to bring a car off the road.
Yeah. But so anyway, there's that spectrum, but I will tell you this, that if you ever decide to own a Land Rover, the one thing that's going to make you say I'm happy with my land rover. Is that, the fact that it has such great suspension. I mean, you'll ride it down the road, it's good. You'll drive it off road fast. It soaks everything up. And they are just such nice, decent, soft riding off road machines and on road
machines. They're not good handlers, you know, you don't see how fast I can go around this turn. They're not fast, but I can drive it all day across the country, and it's quiet and it just, you know, it floats
over everything on the road. And so the driving experience can be really attractive to the right kind of person, if you're willing to swallow, you know, the typical British bullshit, you know, well, stay away from the ultra complicated late model ones, which, you know, it's funny, I can find a late model Range Rover every day, you know, for two or $3,000 and they have some sort of error code, you know, the trend. And it's like the transmissions out of it.
Transmission is probably not out of it, but you'll never figure out the computer components to make that transmission work, yeah, on your own. So it might as well be out of it. So anyway, there's those kind of things that happen. So well,
late model would be, what? After 10, I'm like, I'm founding, yeah, I'm finding a lot of oh 403, because there's the one body style that was, like, you. Um, it looked like a ranger, but it had these two little air vents on the side that were like a gray, yes, yeah,
yeah, yeah. Enthusiasts, some of the enthusiasts, will tell you that whatever that model is, it called the L 322 type in just range over L 322 and see if I have that number right. Real quick. Two, two, I
see L 322 Yeah, that's the one. That's
the number. Okay. There are people that say that that's the best range rover that's ever built, and it's before it got it's still very complicated, but they'll say that's before it got infinitely complicated, and that it was a really solid, solid period in their production, and the quality was good, and the motors ran for a while. And so there are some that say that that is, you know, definitely one to try to pick up for dependability and a reasonable, reasonable amount
of simplicity. And the only way it gets simpler is if you go all the way back to, like the era that I'm in, which is the original Range Rover and the original discovery that came out. Those are much less complicated, but harder to find when they're not rusty and not junk. And I don't know, I mean, I'm trying to think what creature comforts I'm giving up. I don't have an onboard entertainment system. I don't have a flat a touch screen in in you know, you don't have any of
those type things in there. And if you want those, you got to stay towards the lower stuff. But I don't mind having a gas a dash with gages on it. Remember what those are? They're like, Yeah, I'll just remind you. They're little circular things, and they have little needles that move, and the needles indicate something that you need to know. And you can kind of do it at a glance. Well, mine has those, and I'm happy with it,
the twitchy clocks. Yeah, yeah. Well, alright, now, okay, just, I'm going to put that down, not by arranger or the van, still to shop. Wait till that to get done. But okay, well, so we got British bits, and we they were hard won, and so they're not yours. Seems like they're done, but we still got two Ariel, long term projects. Get your list going, thinking about
it, yeah, how much space in your luggage Are you setting aside for me? I'm
taking a couple pairs of underwears and a nice shirt. Okay, so you're gonna mean, so yeah, luckily, it'll be spring, so I guess I'll be wearing shorts. Yeah, that'll take up less less room. So I'm pretty easy going on that, all right, so we'll have updates on that. That's not till later in May. But yeah, it's gonna be exciting. You
look at the races, I wonder where you'll sit and what you'll see. I'm curious to see what your report where that would be, because, I mean, obviously you stake out a section on the track, or wherever your tickets are, and you get to see everybody come by. And how many laps do they do in Monaco? Do you know, that's
60. I
bet you look it up, 56 be curious. But anyway, so you'll see, you'll see everybody pass by your section, you know. And so, I mean, I'm assuming that the sound and that action will be incredible, but, yeah, I'm just curious what it's like, if the overall experience of doing what's happening in the race is easy sitting track side, you know. And then the other thing I want to know, Andy, is that, what kind of snacks do you get when you're at Monaco? It
sounds like I don't. I'm sure there's not a there's not a guy wandering around selling popcorn and beer so that I can't imagine that set.
I love me having a corny dog. Um,
I'm sure I want to see, I want to hear what sort of fancy snacks you choose, and I want to hear what they cost. Because my guess is that I think you're going to be you and your wife, you're going to be $200 into food, I think at for the day. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I think that's where you're going to
be well. So, I mean, I can't wait to hear but, yeah, if there were any other it's, it's like, if you were ever going to go to one, Formula One, and, like, face it, how many of these am I going to go to? Right? Like, how many times have I got a Formula One? Like, if you're going to go to one, Monaco's the one to go to
Monaco's. So Monaco's the one to go to Las Vegas, is the one that we will end up going to most because it's close to both of
our houses. Yeah. And tickets are super cheap because nobody wants to go, and everybody hates it, and they the cars explode. And did you see the last one?
Yeah, yeah. Or, like, and I don't know this year if they're racing in Austin again too, but like, from where I live, I live right in between Las Vegas and Austin, so I could technically visit two tracks if they're both there. I don't follow Formula One enough to know what their schedule is. But anyway, but Monaco, obviously, is the top of the, I mean, of any place I would want to go see a race. Well, here's, for example. I don't want to go to Bahrain. It's too damn hot. I
don't want to go Saudi. That's too damn hot, you know. I'm trying to think of where else do I love the food, you know? So sorry, I'm going to skip Japan. Not my food choice. You know, Goodwood going to England. What a disappointment. That'll be for food. So I'm not going there. Maybe spa. Maybe I could go to spa or, and I'm assuming all the Italian races you get good food at, yeah, where they've raced. Here. They reach in Italy,
Imola, yeah, Emilia, yeah. Well, so here's two things, and then we gotta go. One, is okay if we do ever go to another formula. One, please be conscious if I'm ever that guy that says, Well, when I went to Monaco,
oh, yeah, yeah. No, you will be that guy. I cannot wait to catch you on it. I cannot wait.
Yeah, just like
your celebrity friends, you're just going to not be able to stop speaking about it. Yeah, yeah.
Geez. And then the other thing is the real, real quick, real quick.
What watch you gonna wear, Monaco. You
know, I have given it some thought
already. You've thought about wearing the Rolex, I know, because that's gotta be I'm gonna say, I'm gonna say $300 jeans, a $200 t shirt. I'm gonna say you spent $120 on a belt, and then I think you got about $400 into a pair of shoes, and then you're going to wear your Rolex, and you're going to make it look like this is just a casual day,
because every day, yeah, yeah, I feel like you kind of, you kind of have to, though, in Monaco at f1 you're right, you're right. So I you're, you're, you're not that far off, but you're far off like the jeans I'll I'll own up to anyway. So here's the here's the rub of this is that's the 25th 26th the only other motor swap meet D type things that are in the EU are on that weekend. Yeah. So before and after, there's nothing really going on except the week after is Isle of Man.
Oh, that would be really fun to check that out you.
I mean, so it's like, I wonder if I yeah, you have to see how
long you could lay, yeah. So I just want to go back to Monaco for a second. I think you're going to be 200 into food. I think you're going to be 800 800 to 1000 into apparel. That's what I think you're going to be. So you got, you got, like, I think you got about $1,200 to spend just on race day,
yeah, yeah, just, just to go, just to show up.
What's it? What's it overnight in Monaco, cost, that's got to be a three to $400
we got, we're doing an Airbnb in nice which is, you know, a train ride away, yeah, staying in Monaco, I think, is unobtainable, yeah, for the likes of us, you know, but
yeah, so I think you're $2,000 in before the ticket
just showing up. Yeah, yeah.
Anyway, I love the idea of going, and I love that you're going, and I love that you're paying for it, so that's
awesome. Yeah? Well, it'll be fun. And, yeah, we'll see. But the other bit of that is, well, there's all the intrigue around it, and I've sort of the Netflix show is certainly, Oh, I love that, yeah, yeah. But, like, I've always been keen on it and interested, but you need that sort of foot in. It's just like, it's just like, football or rugby, like, and I mean, American football even, or soccer or rugby, but like, you just need a little bit of background and then you can
understand it. But I never had that, like, you know, I didn't grow up with my dad, so it's like, we never had that sort of football, Sunday type thing, where I knew who was, who to root for.
Let me, let me just say that's the reason why you continue to buy things to fill the void in your life because you didn't watch sports with your dad when you were young. But
nonetheless, go ahead, I made therapy. Oh, I know that, but I know I think a Studebaker might fix that. I think a suitor might problem that will take care of it, but you need that sort of foot in. And what Netflix did for certainly, for me, but I think for a lot of people, was like, oh, there's a face behind the car, or, you know, it's Ferrari, but your allegiance to Ferrari
only goes so far. But once you start to think about, you know, the guy behind it, and the team and the drama and the bullshit, it's certainly a lot easier to root for something right. Like, yes, because it because you're right. I
think there's a there's a minor connection, there's some brand loyalty for the cars, you know, yeah, because, like, I'm always disappointed to find out that Red Bull runs Honda engines, because I don't care about job. Honda engines, you know, they win. Everything they win. But
that's the thing. It's like, well, of course they win. They're running the brand new Honda engines. Like, of course they are, to
me, it's just, yeah, running Honda Accord engines. Who cares? You know, which they're not, but, but I pull for Aston Martin until I find out that they're not running Aston Martin engines, you know. But the drivers you get, you get mildly connected to, you see some of them, and, of course, me, I whoever the oldest bat, the oldest driver, is the guy, who's
your guy, who's your guy,
um, Alonzo
Fernando Alonso, exactly. I don't know why I have, well, I have a man crush on Fernando Alonso, just because, well, because his experience. He
raced Paris doc R, or the new doc. He went out and raised doc R on the off season. You know, he wants to race in Indy. I mean, he wants to get Monaco doc r and an indie race in his lifetime. And meanwhile, he's still killing it at his age in Formula One. So by far my favorite guy, and he seems to be like a relatively different person. Second favorite person, Carlos Sainz, I love Carlos science, because, actually, I love his dad, Carlos Sainz, who wins DACA art just
about every year. So there's that
that's awesome. It's going to be fun with all the Hamilton going to Ferrari and then leclaire's hometowns, Monaco, there's all that. And was dropping Carlos signs the right thing to do. I'm all that bullshit. I just had no frame of reference before the Netflix thing. And I hate to be that sort of let late jumper on her, but like, so
I was, that's how we all came into it. Was because of Netflix, you know, which, by the way, Netflix has transformed a lot of sports and made them interesting. But anyway, let's just sum this up. You're going to spend a pile of money on fancy snacks at Monaco. I can't wait to hear what you got and what it costs you.
All right, man, we'll talk soon. All right. Good call.
This podcast is produced and edited by hole in the head Moto, follow along on the socials at hole in the head Moto, or you can send an email to actually at hole in the head pod.com, we'll see you next time you