Steve's Speedshop

Piers Dowell paints crash helmets. He's painted helmets for Petter Solberg, James May, and er, Steve Berry. Over thirty years he estimates he's added a bit of art and individualism to over 6,000 skid lids. Entirely unrelated but undoubtedly interesting is his passion for aero-engined cars. He's acquired a genuine supercharged Merlin engine and is starting out on what he reckons will be the two-year-build to create a car to contain it.  

Steve Tarrant was one of the people caught up in an infamous finish-line accident at The Goodwood Festival of Speed. It was an accident that claimed the lives of two people and Steve himself suffered life-changing injuries. But he hasn't let it define him and twenty years on his passion for motor racing is undiminshed.

Speedway arrived from Australia and quickly established itself as the second most popular paid-for sport. Crowds of 75,000 were not unknown. Ken Eyre comes from a family of off-road riders competing in trials, scrambling, and like his dad, riding for Manchester's Bell Vue Aces at the same time as six-time World Champion, Ivan Mauger. 

Nick Burnett is a man with an interest in interesting cars. And he's owned his fair share of exotics down the years. He's always on the lookout for something different which is how he ended up buying the Sultan of Brunei's much-modified Maserati Khamsin. And he just managed to find a 2009 Porsche that cost 70k when new for - wait for it - 2k, with a full-service history. Find out how in this episode of Speedshop.

Robert Dean has had a long and fascinating career in and around some of the world's greatest cars. And spent a big part of that career managing perhaps the most significant collection of historic racing cars on the planet. Find out who he worked for and much more in this episode.

Like an ill-fated fifties, film star the Vincent motorcycle lived fast, died young, and left a very handsome corpse. There were no underfunded or ill-advised attempts to compete with cheap lightweight bikes from abroad. Vincent only ever built super-fast, high-end gran touring bikes for adventurous gentlemen in a hurry. David Lancaster has made a fascinating documentary that blends unseen archive footage and celebrity interviews with the likes of Jay Leno, John Surtees, and Paul Simonon, bass player in The Clash. 'Speed Is Expensive' is narrated by Ewan MacGregor and tells the story of the man, Phillip Vincent as much as the machine. 

Stephen Mosley is the motoring correspondent of The Chap magazine. A quarterly publication that describes itself as ‘a guide to living well in the modern age’

Guy Loveridge is one of the authors, along with Tim Beavis of Paddock Transfer. 1970-4 an evocative, behind-the-scenes look at top-level motor racing from a golden era.

 Bizzare Jet Ski accidents, the joy of old skool scrapyards, and the iconic Austin Cambridge with my guest John Hanlon

Alex Parkinson is one of the people behind Total Headturners. They're based in Essex and specialise in replica cars for those unable to muster the six-figure sums required for a GT40, a D Type, or a Cobra. But banish any idea of the cheap and nasty,  when I looked the most affordable car on their website was north of 55k.

Paul Jayson is The Motorcycle Broker and sells the kind of investment-grade motorcycles that are built to be ridden. Not just looked at. A man after my own heart.

Stuart Haslam runs the very modestly named Haslam's Body Repairs in Bolton, Lancashire. A garage where you might expect Fords, Vauxhalls, and the odd crumpled Toyota. Instead, his workshop is populated by Bentleys, Fraser Nash, and Ferraris, and people;e bring their cars from all over the world for restorations that go beyond perfection

David Eaton is the man behind the Icon 917K a road-going homage to a legendary race car, the brutal and beautiful Porsche 917K - the flat-12 engined car that dominated the Le Mans 24hrs in the early seventies.

Joe Mehers restores cars. We were supposed to talk about the dark arts of metal-bashing - Planishing, English Wheels, Dollys - that sort of thing but, we got distracted.

Nathan Richardson loves a barn find, who doesn't? The difference that's instead of saving a single neglected classic from the steely embrace of the crusher he'll buy fifty, a hundred, or even more in one go. Hear the car auction business explained and the huge difference between how modern cars are sold compared to classics.

Rupert Richards has never really met an interesting car or motorcycle that he didn't like. Inevitably he found a war to get paid to be around some of the planet's most-desirable motors and his family home Gawsworth Hall hosts two of the North-West's best car shows.

Simon Hope is one the 'H's in the classic car and bike auctioneers, H&H. He's sold a Ferrari 250 for twelve-and-a-half million dollars and once shifted 2 million quid's worth of motorcycles in a single day. But he's never ridden a motorcycle, although that may change after this interview.

'Tim Layzell was voted Young Motoring Artist of the Year when just thirteen. That was a while ago and he's since been established as one of the world's best-known painters who choose cars as their subject matter. He also loves TVRs, but then we all do - don't we.'

Anna-Louise Felstead is an acclaimed artist who is immersed in the world of historic motor racing.

Laurence Sayers-Gillan has bought and sold more cars than he cares to or indeed can remember. He's been involved in motorsport and the collector car world for long enough to have accumulated a stack of stories to amuse, inform and entertain those of an automotive bent. 

Frank Westworth is the editor of Real Classic magazine and likes old British bikes, new American bikes, and things with three wheels made by Canadians. But, as we say around these parts, don't let that put you off. 

Rod McDonagh came late to motorcycling but has moved fast winning the British GP Championship with Spirit Motorcycles and acquiring world-renowned wheel maker, Talon Engineering.

Ian Flux, known to friends and enemies alike as 'Fluxy' has raced in more formulas than he can remember and taught thousands of people how to drive a racing car. His helmet bore the legend 'For Flux Sake', which is - inevitably - the title of the book he's just finished writing about a life lived as hard off the track as on it.

Andy Jones loves pre-war British cars. And post-war British cars. Has a massive Bentley and a tiny Austin 7. Eclectik? We can't spell it, but we do know what it means

Dave Redshaw is one of the team behind the revival of the V10 Connaught and Levis motorcycles. He's also heavily involved in Veterans Garage, a charity that works with ex-servicemen.

Martin 'Monte' Males loves a quirky car. In fact, some of them are so quirky they're not even cars. Although since his De Dion trike predated virtually every car in existence he's got a good excuse. Dan Tanner' Ford T-bird, Beetle convertibles  and The Swallow Sidecar Company all in this edition of Speedshop

Lee Marshall had owned around forty old cars but still isn't sure he likes them. He's owned E-types and Rolls-Royces but thinks the Porsche 911 is so much better than all of them it's almost embarrassing. He also reckons his C Type Jaguar replica is the worst car to spend the night in and the classic  Range Rover he bought himself for a big birthday is, by some way, the worst car he's ever owned.

Richy Barnett has been writing about his love of cars for most of his working life and is an acknowledged authority on the classic auction scene. Although we never got round to that talking instead about handguns, hand-built Bristols, and the predilection of Northern comedians for full-sized American automobiles.

Neil Liversidge has been a motorcyclist all his life graduating from the inevitable Honda Cub to a Harley-Davidson that shares his garage with a Cafe Racer Triumph and a Bonneville Chopper. He's an outspoken advocate of rider's rights and was only too happy to share his forthright opinions on a variety of topics.

Edward Brown is first and foremost an enthusiast. His knowledge of the collector car world is breath-taking but he’s managed to reduce his own fleet to just a couple of cars, both vintage Bentleys. This is one of the most wide-ranging chats in Speedshop history. And that’s saying something

Darren Collins works with Dowsetts Classic Cars, owns possibly the nicest DMC Delorean in existence and is one of the people behind the revival of Radford

Tony Keating is the man behind the Keating Supercar which was, briefly the fastest street-legal car in the world - before Bugatti went even quicker. Now he’s swapped four wheels for two and has revived Manchester motorcycle marque, Dot relaunched at Goodwood at this year’s Festival of Speed.

Tim Fawthorp has been a biker all his life. He graduated from a Puch moped that was flat-out at thirty miles an hour to the latest adventure sports bike from Triumph. He clocked up 50k  miles in a year on a Honda CX500 when he worked as a despatch rider in London and is now heavily involved in the fight for rider's rights with the Motorcycle Action Group.

Matt Kelly has been involved in motor racing since he blagged his way into a kart when he was a kid. He raced in various formulas and wound up running a team for a super-rich Sheikh. He's funny and opinionated and that always makes for a great guest.

Mark Wilsmore is the man behind the revival of the iconic Ace Cafe,  a petrolhead paradise in the shadow of London's Wembley Stadium.

Peter Grimsdale is the author of Racing In The Dark. How The Bentley Boys Conquered Le Mans

Six at Six. We are six years old and still going strong. Although we might need our cambelt doing and a bit of welding in the not too distant. To celebrate my guest is the show's Producer, Paul Ripley. There's chat about his mother's switch from a nifty little NSU Prinz to a big beautiful S-type Jaguar. His beloved Garelli Tiger Cross and his teenage lust for the legendary Yamaha 350LC

The Indian motorcycle market is the biggest in the world worth 19 million sales annually. Sanjay Tripathi has been in it all his working life with stints at Yamaha, Harley-Davidson, and Royal Enfield he knows works for India's largest manufacturer, Hero Motocorp. A fascinating chat about an unique and fast-expanding motorcycle culture. 

When Jeff Bloxham told the careers officer at his school that he wanted to be a motorsport photographer he was informed that such a profession ‘does not exist’ Despite that he’s now been photographing racing cars for a living for half a century and shows no sign of stopping

Mal Nicholson owns more than forty motorcycles, the most powerful Alfa Montreal on the planet, and a replica of Admiral Lord Nelson's topsail schooner, HMS Pickle. Oh, and he’s one of the world’s top 2-stroke tuners.

Vic Norman had to give up racing iconic sixties sports cars to concentrate on his formation wing-walking display team - the only one in the world. But retained a love of thunderous board-track racing motorcycles. It's been quite a life.

Peter Baker used to cycle to Brands Hatch to watch the likes of Graham Hill, Jackie Stewart and the man that many, including him, consider the greatest of all time, Jim Clark. These days he's an enthusiastic competitor in his classic Lancia. and runs the online resource, Team Retro Speed.

Peter Birtwhistle is the author of 'An English Car Designer Abroad. Designing for GM, Audi, Porsche, and Mazda' Quite a career.

Tim Beavis bought a box of old motor racing slides from the sixties at an auction. When he got home and looked at them he realised they needed to be seen by a wider public and put them into a book 'Admission 7'6' He's my guest to talk about that and so much more.

Gary McCaffrey buys and sells motorcycles. But not the kind of motorcycles made in factories by BMW, Triumph, or Hons. the bikes he deals in are built-in sheds, lock-ups, and basement cellars. Choppers, bobbers, trikes. One-off dream bikes that sometimes turn into a bit of a nightmare. And he loves vintage Japanese 2-strokes. What's not to like?

Allen Walker likes the kind of car you don't see every day. I first met him on a SALT - Soviet Auto Luxury Tours - Rally when he turned up in his glorious Tatra 603 with its rear-mounted. air-cooled V8 engine. The next time I saw him he was in a lovely Lavender Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow. A true enthusiast and a great guest. 

Simon Maynard is the Chairman of the Jaguar Club but if you’re not a fan of the Great British sporting saloon don’t worry because we ended up talking about eighties Alfas, modified Minis, and the genius of the VW Golf.

Bernard Williamson arrived at the studio with a list of every car he has ever owned and there were pages and pages of them. A former Chairman of the Veteran Car Club he loves cars from the turn of the twentieth century and from the Roaring Twenties.

Andy Entwistle has worked with cars all his life and the driving force behind the revival of The British Motor Show at the Farnborough Exhibition Centre August 19-22nd. And he owns a Renault Twizzy, but as we say, let's not hold that against him.

Steve chats with motoring journalist, Mark Stone and Mini guru, Andy 'Ace' Harrison