BTCC legend Matt Neal life of cars // The Jonny Smith Late Brake Show
this is yeah you get a man's plate i feel like i want a man's blade for most of this chat it's just more comfortable his kid's got long legs i don't know seats and really low seats exactly yeah that's the way it is this is good matt i like this in here sitting amongst your race cars with a cup of tea admiring you can sit out here normally dear yeah no you're in there in the water he's looking at your staff i didn't know you uh you could write egyptian yeah it's that's got progressively worse or is it latin i still like writing stuff down you know i've got i've got books a4 books and everything i do every day i make it i note it and date it and number the pages so i've got stacks of them and then it's my reference guide to do to-do lists and stuff or just to-do lists from on the phone to anybody yeah an engineer or whatever and then because you do your reports yeah at the end of a race meeting but just anything in life i just write it down and then it's your reference book to go back to so you've got you've got boxes of them like that exactly like that but i i've run a4 size how did you become enthusiastic about vehicles my dad obviously raced the only memory i have of him racing because he was sort of retired i have two memories of him racing he had a big accident at nurburgring european touring cars and um these blokes and smashed all his face up and his patches over his eyes and everything i remember some blokes bringing him home propping him against the front door and um my mum getting him up into and lying on his bed and he's just lying on his bed like this and i've stood at the bottom of his bed watching him and not gonna go that's my dad's sort of when you were like two years old yeah so how did that have been in the 60s i think it was 1976 grand prix at brands hatch yeah and there was a celebrity race in mark one escorts yeah i've seen video the old video he was he was sort of running about top six and then got spun out coming out of druids so and we were in the grand stand just with all the other people and my mum stood up screaming i mean my sister just trying to disappear because my mum's so embarrassing those are the only two memories i've got my dad but he obviously got me into he had a passion for cars we didn't get into karting like they are nowadays or even have been yeah so he bought me this little i've got a picture of it somewhere avec cowboy house i'm just gonna say you're wearing you're wearing you're wearing a cowboy hat which you'd drive around around the paddock yeah and i just went round and round and round from dawn till dusk does that have an engine yeah yeah i think it was about two horsepower or something that's just started a stunning photo in 1973. we we went to the odd grand prix um and we went because it's when we were small enough we could fit in the boot so we didn't have to pay so me and my mate used to go in the booth yeah yeah you said you used to lock it down and um and i can remember cueing it for the autograph so i had a real hunger for it i was up there looking at the fence queuing up the autographs and i so much wanted to to be it to get it and to do it and how and it was just completely unaccessible to me um because my dad didn't have all the contacts you know we've got now you know because he'd retired and gone out the business yeah um when my boys they've grown up in it it's almost a pain they've got to go to a race meeting and and so it's they were there in the middle they were there where it where the heartbeats of it all so yeah i can see why why the difference is i mean they've got a passion for it now yeah um which is great to share that with them when i was 17 we drove to donnington me and mate paid away in because we heard the renault five turbos were racing that day yeah and we just wanted to go and look at them and and touring cars were racing that day when we looked at the touring cars we went oh yeah that's great we'll watch that oh just these renault five turbos if i could just one day one day drive one of those i'll be arrived so i never thought i'd get to touring cars okay let alone drive one let alone winning one because my dad was developing the wheel business he uh had a six-wheeled jaguar xjs built did he yeah yeah um oh my gosh that was so cool i've seen the pictures of them this went round europe um and it was mega it was yeah spun the wheels everywhere it was just it was in big side pipes of course yeah because my sister burnt a leg getting out of it one day because he took us took us to the bus we had to get the bus to school so he took us the bus in this thing which i thought was amazing that was the coolest oh yeah my first car i was lucky my dad got me a car it was a 950 ford popular plus oh maroon so i had that for about a year and that was great it was fast you know it's fast yeah to me it was that's my one and only picture i've got of it you've put some rims on it though man yeah yeah you've got to do that you've got to put alloys on it yeah then i saved up because i'm working i was working from 17 i didn't do a levels or go to uni or anything and i bought a mark one xr2 did you yeah but again silver i put red wheels on it okay alloys on it just to just spam it up a bit yeah yeah um and after that i got a golf gti uh mark ii mark two yeah then i was the astra gte was coming out 16 valve one now you're talking which um too much power no grip yes no handling yes it was on bicycle tires so what i did is i got some big fat alloys and an angle grinder and ground all the all the arches out at the back did you yeah yeah so i could fit these wheels and tires on it then i got probably the best car and the one i should never have sold which was a um uh revaglia limited edition which i saved up and bought wish i kept that what year was that that you bought that 91. okay so that's is that new got a real good deal on it that's a hell of a rare bird though back there sold it for nine grand nine grand what's that now eighteen it's right it's a wonderful thing in there you haven't had it i mean you you've all you've had performance cars so far apart from the first fiesta xr2 gt before that okay after the astra i had a renault espace for about a year you want to go to the extremes and it wasn't even the v6 one or anything like that it was the proper proxy was it the first generation yeah yeah yeah the real horrible looking thing with the with the composite panels yeah good bus for your mates a bit harold shipman though see what i always wanted when i was a kid was um a hearse yeah i really wanted a hearse i wanted a hearse and i wanted to put knock the back out put benches in the back so all the lads could get in and then we'd go cruising and it's funny isn't it i've always fancied a hearse and it's the one car that my wife totally draws the line at just as it's just it's never going to be on the drive it's we're never going to travel in it maybe maybe we should we need to to scratch that itch i feel matt ah [ __ ] that scratch it's that scratch scratch that edge yeah exactly motocross i know you did a bit of motocross in your time as well i got to the top level in amca which is the amateur level yeah and at the top level i wasn't good enough okay i was brave enough so i could i could hang on to the the real quick boys for a bit yeah and then i'd have a i'd have an almighty accident okay um and that's why my dad got me eventually got me into a car um just to get me away from the bikes yeah i'd had i'd had a couple of big ones because as soon as i was still on walking sticks and i got on this bike yeah and went off a big tabletop jump looped it landed on my ass and compressed my my back my heart wasn't in it my dad's business went a bust on my 18th birthday really so he was driving around in old old cars and everything and you know he was remortgaged the house and and everything which was then became rimstock and we started rimstop when i was 18. 11 of us um my dad at the helm and so it was it was frugal in those days we were making 60 70 wheels a week that was it wow all by hand so you're painting them machining them really so you were actually on on the machines doing it yeah wow okay i didn't know that and then i go and race at weekends he got bought this old mark ii um fiesta challenge car some kids come straight in with a big load of cash we didn't we couldn't we were just going to go and we weren't going to race we were just going to go and go out and i remember going to silverstone in it never been around silverstone never seen a racetrack on on the track yeah and my dad had dug out the lofties old bmc two-piece single-layer nomex overalls and winklepicker shoes which obviously i'm a few inches taller than my dad so um it's a really ill-fitting yeah i get in there and just completely just have no idea everyone's banging hell out of each other i find myself in the lead on my first ever race and looking back and there's 30 fiestas all you know you [ __ ] buried to the floor absolutely suddenly the nerves kick in don't they so we get halfway down the straight my right leg starts to quiver and shake and it starts going so bad i take my hand off the steering wheel and put it on on my leg to stop it shaking and my foot comes off the accelerator and i go from first to 10th place um i did catch up and got into the top five yeah yeah um but it's that feeling of being chased by a massive package yeah but people know i've had a good you know close relationship with my dad over over in the racing and work over the years and the first um time i saw my dad going past the pit wall was him leaning over shaking his fist at me because he could hear it on the tunnel what was going on couldn't he so um yeah because he's shaking because you've got the shade since then bloody hell i've never made that mistake again though that was the one and only time wow that um is a picture of my dad and uh john rhodes back in the 60s so those are the overalls i wore in my first outing they still got him somewhere well they're fit for goodwood revival now i suppose no they wouldn't you wouldn't they would they wouldn't be what because they're inflammable probably they're made of rice paper so your your dad's weapon of choice was the mini off yeah yeah he was known for the minis he did a few things um but he was known for the minis you had uh production championship saloon cars which was group n so i got in an m3 and we re-shelled it into a motorsport shell okay um and that suddenly it was a lightweight car and that was fast and um we won the championship in it so i went up to the skyline and again one in class a which was good yeah and that's when i sort of had my first toe in the water dipped into btc really wow i'm also digging the cars in the background which also dated you know the people's cars you've got a honda crx behind and very oh right i got lots done for speeding in that was it yours yeah i forgot about that one um it was like a roller skate but i was on the way back from my girlfriend's house and it was like two o'clock in the morning and the roads were empty yeah and i got um i got what did i get done for i got lost my license because i was doing 90 in a 30 in the honda crx yeah yeah but it was it was a dual carriageway it was okay it was a 30 mile an hour but i didn't realize the police were even chasing me i stopped at the traffic lights and then suddenly this police car arrives like star skiing behind me all locked up like jumping out the car i'm going what's the problem i'll tell you the problem physically pulling me out the car i'm going well what have i done wrong it didn't really wow the 330 m3 my um first full season 92. what a car please tell me that you've got some of these 90s race jackets stuffed away somewhere i think my dad has oh just brilliant the same car but that was knock hill when i had a big run in with colin mcrae and that all kicked off yeah i mean it is mad that you've been racing in btcc for 30 years i mean like mad amount of racing in 2000 is the first independent to do to get a win in the modern era people don't appreciate now how downtrodden privateers or independents were then you weren't allowed the same tyres engines everything really okay so and all the trick michelins would be there or dunlop's and yours will be here right and they go oh can i have some of them i'll pay for him no problem yep no these are yours and they would just be two seconds left slower bolt on the first rate the race we won was the first race we ever did with the same tires as the factory cars was that when you you were the first independent um racer to win a race in in the modern touring career that was the only so i woke up the next morning and i actually went what now you know what now you know i've it was i was felt so deflated really you get the money i you know i felt really deflated and i went into the office and tati was on um on the phone to australian radio stations and blah blah blah and you just suddenly got to pick yourself up and you go right and it it was the same when you win your first championship you go right what is that because of the what now thing this is why you see people burst into tears yeah um because you just release all that you hide it away really so you don't actually ever you never enjoy it because you you're just you're worried about the next thing and and the and the whole the whole thing around it and then yeah that's why the likes of lewis hamilton are him and and sebastian vettel are impressive okay they're earning squillions of quid out of it she's always helped but to keep that motivation and focus when he's already got more money than he'll ever need for the rest of his life yeah to keep that motivation and focus is that's pretty impressive that's the bit that i can't quite get my head around because you i would keep questioning why am i doing it still when i've ticked all these things off the list why am i still going but he obviously wants to do it for um you know to become the greatest of all time which is in his in his reach now for me i i it i sort of changed because i've done it so long and it's almost like growing up when christmas suddenly becomes about giving you get more from giving than you do from receiving yeah and for me these days if if you know when when flash was with us and now with with dan um if we can get him to win a championship and win races and it's all about the bigger picture you know and doing it as a team and everything that's that's the reward i get now more than standing on the if they stand on the top of the podium is fantastic don't get me wrong because you know you've you've been a a part of helping them helping them together yeah i'm i'm massively superstitious are you um i just drive myself nuts yeah i'll have a good result in one and i'll mark them all so i know if there's a critical race i will i will put that suit on will you yeah 100 boots are you superstitious so it's not just racing it's like life yeah really i don't like to walk on cracks on the pavement say get in the race car i have to get in a certain way in a certain order do my belts up a certain way um i eat a certain way in a certain you know time of the morning it's more it's a habit thing and this is every day all race days mainly race days okay you know if there's something important i had a big accident in 94 in the mazda um before you did i was watching before okay the race before that was schneiderton i would remember it vividly because it was the same weekend cena was killed and uh it wasn't a good weekend anyway i rolled into um rolled the car into the field and i'm stuck upside down in the car which is quite scary because all the fuel pumps going and because the furrows of where they plow the field you can't open the doors so you just got to let yourself out and sit on the roof inside waiting for people to come and get you out while the you know the thing can go up anyway they took me back to the med center and i had a pair of lucky underpants my sister had given me 10 years prior when i was a teenager or whatever and they were what they were they were flesh-coloured boxers with women's women's underwear on you know printed onto them these have become my lucky underpants just go back they're flesh colored with women's underwear printed on printed onto them okay right but better still they were a bit threadbare because i'd use them so much so like all the bottom was hanging out of them right so i'm in the med center and i go right just strip off take your blood pressure blah blah blah check all your limbs and everything yeah yeah and there's all these pretty nurses around i'm in the early twenties or whatever and i said right uh like strip off no no no i don't think you need to go any further and i had to go into this whole explanation why they couldn't go further which they had a good chuckle about and then they laughed and let me off so then two weeks later or three weeks later i had the massive accident at silverstone when i barrel rolled the mazda yeah that's a hell of a crash and are still wearing these pants not they're obviously been off and washed in the meantime meantime um and i got these after the meeting i got these pants i'll throw them away um but then you know with my superstitious head or my thing i think well that's the biggest accident in my life and i did walk away from it did you fish the pants back out no i didn't i left them i found a new new lucky set of friends i just didn't think i'd be talking i'm on to mark five or six since the treadmill yesterday yeah that's just brilliant i wanted to talk to you about max power because you you your name appeared on my radar it would have been in the sort of mid to late 90s with the primera the touring cars of that era dictated the style that we were trying to imitate with the road cars we wanted the single wiper we wanted the um we wanted the wheels tucked right up in the arches with a little bit of you know negative camber were they good days i mean they were very good days i mean you look back at them you don't appreciate them when you're in them you just you just ride the wave yeah but we raced hard and man we parted hard and you know that it was it was the some of the stuff we got up to was just mental that epitomizes the max power days which you'll relate to oh my word but that's what it was about so crowds girls girls messing about asked about girls in swimwear yeah on the roof of your just like a house a weekly event wasn't it that was just what went on i like the fact that there's all the blokes and they just stood there with their arms crossed all that yeah brilliant soapy soapy bucket of water matt neil's touring car two ladies with a hose pipe different times matt good times those are the that's the champ that's the cut of the money-winning car that's the money shot yeah it was the stunt the stance of it the the white wheels the negative camber splitter practically dragging on the floor what a thing you single-handedly made nissans look cool that was me with my two sons uh camera what year was that 95 wow gosh look at that with the mondeo that's a really very 90s but very cool photo i love that the mondeo looks good what it was in its day because you had it you you raced a gear and an si is that right gear in 95 that'd be the gear yeah and the s i in nineteen yeah was horrible was it oh yeah that was a horror story that is the worst car of my life was that one day of 96. that was pretty horrific yeah i mean you'd
be doing 150 mile an hour and thruxton all it wanted to do was turn sharp left or sharp right while you're trying to keep it in the straight line my word it was a horror story but at the end of the year i got out and i kissed the floor and i said i've never got to get back and i'm thank god i've made it through the year i mean i guess no i think if we do something we can get it going better not a flipping chance really was that bad yeah one more picture of my first my teammate i had to go at nascar over racing my teammate was jason plato what year was that 2001. right let's go for a walk this is the workshop where the touring cars are put together and maintained so this is you this is this season's car yeah yeah okay so which you can see the modular so it's got no front end on it there's literally six 14 mil bolts hold the whole front end on which is the engines located in there yeah yeah the first time we tested the thing i was probably we were rocking them and i was i was not happy i thought the front was going to fall off but it's incredibly strong so that's the front that's the engine that goes in there that goes on there so you just got mainly the the central tub yeah which is where the driver sits yeah so this is 2020 yep 2021 cars 2021 um we've got um well it's we're moving into hybrid soon so which is great i mean we're all worried about cost but it's we've got a game we've yeah you've got to embrace it haven't you it's coming yeah yeah yeah yeah so you're looking forward to this hybrid era yeah i am now just embracing it you know something because you've got to use this a bit more yeah how you deploy it where you deploy it yeah where is it where's it all going to go where's it all it was mostly it will go it'll go um the cooling will go at the front yeah which they hope will stop us driving into each other but that's the bone of contention um the rest of it will go in the in the cockpit with the driver i do love a build i can look at the cage on it the cage is beautiful so this is your this is your sort of been handed down to your son henry are you managing your exit or is it you just bringing him up i mean i'd love him to do it and his brother will as well um but he's they're really good they're good lads so he's been going well he's won the championship yeah two years on the bounce so um it's what we can do with them and i always said my thing about i know you're an electric fan my thing about electric cars is when i've driven them i always say they've got no soul except but they did they say that about these when we were getting rid of horse and carts or steam yeah it went from stealing yeah yeah so it's we you've got you've got to give it so you've got to give it something yeah just a collection of uh of coolers it's nice yeah they get a bit of a hard life how about they bloom and do they're doing touring car front ends well that's rear end oh that's really that's a bolt in that clips up inside oh okay it's beautiful the way you work it is you can you can manipulate yeah of course but we've all got the same box of kit yeah yeah yeah which which works for close racing if you if you built a car got into the btc grid there's no reason why you cannot win you've got the same tyre same power it's down to you down to the people spanning the car there and what the hell are those little adjustments i like that and a bit of luck of course great believer not not not your superstitious or anything exactly next room it's not often that you get to see an old piano on its back next to current what spec it is absolutely stunning goodness me is it yours no unfortunately only eight ever built apparently which five are still owned by porsche three are in private hands this is one of the three there is some serious weave going on here serious serious weave okay so this isn't yours we won't dwell on it it's lovely but it's not yours is this yours well it could be that's my dad's it could be yeah it's one of my dad's i remember which was the first v10 m6 i was supposed to remember the the launch of this car i remember remember testing it gearboxes were a bit clunky in them they were i keep on telling them to sell it but you won't sell it yeah i'm a bit more ruthless are you yeah on on cars and you're not ruthless with trophies for crying in a bucket look i've just noticed that whole the whole side of the building is is is trophy we've got a container with them in that there as well have you well did you say 160 podiums where did you put it all yeah now look this is my favorite shape of civic really yeah really really is it not for you well i had some good success in it but i see no no probably not i think it's aged the best out of all of them this looks like it's had an incredibly hard life it has this actually wasn't a race car it was a race replica which we used to use for demo events i noticed something not honda on the wall there is something on the wall yes but there's also something non-honda on the wall yeah that's how we get an fka eight which is the modern uh type r uh that's that would be its starting point uh below that is um we build uh historic lotus containers for the racing we bought it and stripped it and put it on the shelf ready to go in the fab way and that is a non-lotus it's just a two-door we'll make the modifying or modify the shell so from the early mini to the latest nsx which i know is yours do i sell it or do i keep it i mean you've driven one they are an amazing amazing piece of kit they are they're really impressive almost i think very underrated you know you can i've had porsches i've had ferraris have you yeah you didn't tell me that i forgot didn't know julie can't just forget about having ferraris surely what porsches and ferraris have you had uh i had a 996 turbo did you which was ridiculously fast as well i bet it was um and i had a 550 maranello ferrari did you okay yeah but how often do you see an nsx of any type on the road no you don't it's not so often is it they don't really shout about themselves enough nsx's i don't think don't you think that's honda's problem all together they've got some amazing products and amazing achievements and you know yeah you know even the mark marquez's and all that yeah just and they don't shout loud enough no they don't shout out and now they've got an amazing engine in f1 they always say honda's the best kept secret they're best keeping their own secrets yeah yeah completely i hope you've enjoyed this episode with matt um matt thanks for showing us around your workshop slash garage office i did a little bit of everything in it um if you want more episodes like this let me know in the comments um and if you're a subscriber already brilliant thank you there is a patreon link in the description if you're a supporter of this channel via patreon thank you so much it means a lot there will be more chat with the chairs soon goodbye and they just took the piss they'd literally rattle down the inside of you because they had so much more performance and grip and it just got tired of me they literally i can remember like you know on the limit it's a good one you just turned the clock back on in 20 years
2020-12-24 11:33
