The AutoChat Podcast

This week, Alistair has driven the new electric Lexus RZ, which has a yoke instead of a steering wheel.

Meanwhile, George has been working on his cars to varying degrees of success, and reports back from his first karting race of the 2023 season. His team, The Luton Birdwatchers, had good pace, but were let down by a loose helmet strap and a driver comms system mistakenly tuned to receive travel updates from the local radio station.

They also chat about Formula One and what cars they'd buy with a £90,000 lottery win.

In this special episode Alistair and George head to Arjeplog in northern Sweden to experience the Jaguar Ice  Academy. There, they took part in an entire day of driving activities in the Jaguar F-Type, F-Pace and electric I-Pace, all on a frozen lake with world-class driving instructors.

The next day, they went dog sledding and drove to the Arctic Circle in a V8 Range Rover Sport, which is actually less adventurous than it sounds.

The Ice Academy takes place between January and March each year, and the 2024 season is available to book now https://www.jaguar.co.uk/experience-jaguar/ice-academy-sweden/index.html 

This week, Alistair drives the Ineos Grenadier in the Scottish Highlands and George's MG Maestro gets its YouTube debut with the HubNut channel.

It's also part two of the lottery wins challenge, and with a budget of £24,000 there are plenty of options to considering, from V12 Aston Martins and BMW 7-Series, to a replica Lotus Cortina and, for some reason, a Hummer H2.

Lastly, Alistair visits Dynisma, a company in Bristol that claims to have built the world's best driving simulator. He drives an F1 car around Spa – and a Golf over a cobbled road – to put it to the test.

Show notes:

Ineos Grenadier first drive https://www.t3.com/features/ineos-grenadier-review 
MG Maestro driven by HubNut https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cul8Be24YAU
Dynisma https://www.dynisma.com/ 

This week, George's MG Maestro makes its YouTube debut on the HubNut channel, but things don't quite go to plan. On a similar theme, Alistair almost gets a Maserati stuck in a muddy field in Italy.

This episode also sees Alistair and George try to find roadworthy cars for a disappointing Euromillions win of just £700, and it's far more difficult than they expected.

Show notes:

- HubNut's YouTube channel
https://www.youtube.com/c/HubNut?app=desktop
- Maserati Grecale GT
https://www.forbes.com/sites/alistaircharlton/2023/01/27/maserati-grecale-gt-first-drive-of-the-stylish-suv/
- Classic Car Loan Project
http://classiccarloanproject.co.uk/ 

Alistair and George return for a second series of AutoChat. This week, George talks about 'Lucky!', the new Bernie Ecclestone documentary, and how he discovered Barbie Jeep Racing on YouTube.

Meanwhile, Alistair saw a colour-changing BMW in Las Vegas, avoided an imaginary Elk in the Arctic Circle, and drove the Jaguar F-Pace SVR Edition 1988.

Show notes:
- Barbie Jeep Racing https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=barbie+car+racing
- BMW i Vision Dee https://www.bmwgroup.com/en/news/general/2023/i-vision-dee.html
- F-Pace SVR 1988 https://www.jaguar.co.uk/about-jaguar/special-vehicle-operations/jaguar-f-pace-svr-edition-1988.html
- Polestar Snow Space https://www.forbes.com/sites/alistaircharlton/2023/01/21/welcome-to-the-snowroom-polestar-opens-frozen-ev-retail-space-in-finland/?sh=7c4855950212
- Lucky! https://www.discoveryplus.com/gb/show/lucky
- Collecting Cars podcast with Manish Pandey https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZaETKDrDWcY 

We're back! After an impromptu break, Alistair and George are back for another season of the AutoChat podcast.

In this episode, George talks about competing at the karting 24 hours of Le Mans, where he qualified in pole position, set the fastest lap of the race and led his team to finish 2nd in class.

Meanwhile, Alistair shares his experience of visiting Bugatti HQ and driving a 276mph Chiron Super Sport with none other than 1988 Le Mans winner Andy Wallace in the passenger seat.

In this episode of the AutoChat podcast, Alistair drives the new Range Rover in California and George is told that, "for as long as there's a hole in his arse", he wouldn't have been able to fix his Volkswagen.

They also discuss the 'Max Mosley: It's Complicated' documentary, the 2022 Formula One season and the new Lotus Eletre electric SUV, along with George's upcoming American RV road trip and Alistair's visit to the Cotswolds in a Bentley GT Speed convertible.

In this episode, Alistair and George chat about Gran Turismo 7, the upcoming Formula One season and the joys of driving in London.

Also this week, they take a trip down memory lane with Pimp My Ride UK, discuss electrified classic cars, and Alistair drives a Rolls-Royce Ghost to Edinburgh.

In a special episode, Alistair and George sit down with Gavan Kershaw, director of vehicle attributes for Lotus.

Gavan has worked at Lotus for over 30 years, and in that time has driven just about everything, including historic F1 cars. He is currently working on the 2,000-horsepower electric Evija hypercar and upcoming Emira sports car.

As well as all things Lotus, Gavan chats about his own car collection, his role in designing the TopGear Test Track, and the time he beat Colin McRae in a drifting competition.

In this episode, Alistair and George reminisce about their first cars and driving as teenagers. They also cover this week's F1 2022 car reveals, tackle the ever-boring topic of buying new tyres, and wonder what happened to shady F1 team boss Flavio Briatore.