Takona Tlks.

Takona Tlks with Stuart Quick, a personal friend and a man helping keep people safer in their cars, we have an explore into the world of safety harnesses, retrofitting seatbelts, and wander down some automotive tales.Stuart and I met over coffee in west London at a car meet, of course, and have become good friends ever since. We attended the Octane Magazine Historic Motoring Awards together, and often head to a lot of the same car events. Stuart has had some of his lovely cars on our stands at events like Radwood, and we're both regulars at the Wimbledon Southside Hustle, which means we've a fair few stories to share. This episode is a long one, and meanders down some different roads, with stories across a broad range of topics.

This episode Takona Tlks with Antony Ingram, Freelance car journalist and writer. Antony and I met in unexpected circumstances (and thanks to twitter) when I created a mazda inspired t-shirt and was on the lookout for a local enough RX7 to grab some photos with. Antony being the gent kindly offered to let me pop over and get the photos and our friendship started there. Often spotted at car events around the country, Antony's back catalogue of work is extensive and covers not only writing for EVO and Hagerty, but also publishing his own book on the MX-5 (which you can get here)If you fancy a gander at the Photos I got of Antony's lovely RX-7 (which happened to be the Mazda press car) and possibly even some video footage we got on the road, it's up on the Patreon page.As mentioned in the new outro, for mental health resources head to the Takona site

Takona Tlks with Dave Edmonston, the founder of PistonHeads, now working with Collecting Cars, and has spent time building and developing websites and platforms across the automotive world. With his latest venture being Driving Masters helping people to learn how to better handle the roads safely.Dave's influence across the automotive world is somewhat profound, being behind some of the communities that have brought so many people together, and having helped to improve existing platforms that people love. On a personal level it was the piston heads forums that helped me to grow friendships with other car enthusiasts, as well as providing a plethora of interesting stories and groups that got me through long night shifts in the psychiatric hospitals.

Takona Tlks with Jon Hancock, Car builder, race odyssey founder, and somewhat feature guest on the upcoming Paddock Speedshop TV shop.Jon and I became friends thanks to coffees and cars of all things, having met at one of the Paddlup meets last year. We've since spent time at events and bumped into each other at various car shows around the country, a real life example of the Takona idea bringing people together and capturing the spirit of the automotive world. Jon has built a name for himself within the automotive circles as someone who makes fantastic custom cars, most notably his outlaw 356, often mistaken for a Rod Emory build. We sat down for a chat about how it all came to be, and what's in store for the future, including an "RWB Style" 914, and the Race Odyssey 62 Corvette.If you're a Patron you'll have seen some photos of that corvette, it's also featuring in an upcoming YouTube video we're making.

Takona Tlks with Dan Allard, one of the founders of the RollHard Brand.Dan and RollHard have built a name for creating not only amazing events catering towards the modified car world, but also some fantastic clothing and automotive merch. Dan and I met, as many do, at the Bicester Heritage Sunday Scramble and immediately became quite good pals, sharing a common interest in both the automotive and the communities that create around it.This episode is one of our Scalextric Sponsored episodes, use Takona10 for 10% off at checkout. (we're very proud of this partnership, its a real testament to how much things have grown, thank you for being a part of making that possible)If you do like what we do, you can support us on Patreon where we share extra bits of supplementary content like the cars Dans talked about in this episode for example. (have absolutely gotten this idea from Smith and Sniff)

Our good friend Tim Oldland suggested that we do a reverse episode where Takona founder Lewis (me) answers some questions about Takona and how it all came to be and where it might (hopefully) be heading. So after luring me into BMW's M2 Press Car in the car park at Caffeine and Machines newest location The Bowl, we sat down for a chat about what's been happening, how things got started, and answer some of the questions you lovely people sent in.

Takona Tlks with William Heynes, Jaguar restorer specialising in early E-Types.I rather ignorantly didn’t know that much about William till we sat down for this chat, other than his amazing workshop and being married to Amy Shore (now Heynes). It turns out the William Heynes name goes back to his Grandfather, who Sir William Lyons approached to be chief engineer when starting Jaguar. William goes through this story properly in our conversation and shares an incredible insight into the ordeal that was his first Goodwood revival as a race engineer. We also go through his incredible story of heading to Goodwood as a race team for the first time, a rollercoaster of emotions throughout and something that deserves listening to. A real pleasure to record, and a great opportunity to see a proper craftsman in his element.This episode is also sponsored by Scalextric, use code Takona10 at checkout for 10% off!

Last weeks an episode didn't come out, because Christmas and new years messed up planning for recording. Fortunately ahead of the Sunday Scramble I was able to sit down with Paul Wooding at Hagerty's Clubhouse. Paul is the man we have to thank for the Cloudera GT86's which I created a special edition t-shirt for, along with the replica Goodwood Scalextric track. It's all a bit of a small world isn't it! Paul shares his story of how his life in the military enabled him to step into civilian life with some well learned lessons and skills, and we go through how he's gotten so involved with Mission Motorsport. There's also a brief cameo from James Cameron (again, becoming a thing isn't it)