Transcript of AE 393 REPLAY – Interview: Rev Heads, Car Accidents, & Car Culture in Australia with James Buchan

G'day, guys, and welcome to Aussie English. My objective here is to teach you guys the English spoken Down Under. So whether you want to speak like a fair dinkum Aussie or you just want to understand what the flippin' hell we're on about when we're having a yarn, you've come to the right place. So sit back, grab a cuppa and enjoy Aussie English.

G'day, guys. Welcome to the Aussie English podcast, the number one podcast for anyone and everyone wanting to learn Australian English. So today's episode is obviously an interview episode. I had the pleasure of interviewing one of my childhood friends from high school, James Buchan. He has been a dear friend for probably the better part of eighteen years, and he's a bit of a revhead. So we've talked about cars, we've talked about Japanese cars, Australian cars and how he got into cars as a kid, how he started to appreciate them and develop a passion for cars.

We also talked about when he was in a car accident, which was an interesting story that we'll get into here. And then we go on to discuss what car culture is like in Australia. So today's episode is a good one. It's just the first half of the total interview. So this interview was about 40 to 50 minutes long.

The second half, we talk about what you need to do to buy a car in Australia and that will come up in the next couple of weeks. So keep an eye out for that. Just a few housekeeping messages before we get started, guys.

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Anyway, let's dive into the interview, guys, and I'll play you the call of a yellow tailed black cockatoo to take us in. Listen to this.

Hey, guys, welcome to this episode of Aussie English. Today, I have a special guest with me, one of my best friends from high school, who I probably know now longer than half my entire life. It's pretty crazy, isn't it, when I think about it like that? Yeah. So James and I went to high school all through high school together, and we've been friends since after high school. We've hung out. It's been like 10 or 11 years now. It has been cool.

Yeah.

And I thought I would get James on because I guess you would explain yourself as being a bit of a rev head, James, just to say the least, into cars. Just slightly.

Yeah, that's probably the best way of putting it. I am a bit of a petrol head, although perhaps with a little bit more active in, I guess like a motoring enthusiast or petrol head seen when I was younger these days on. Although I can appreciate a fine motor vehicle, but I don't really get involved with many groups or go to meets, any of that kind of stuff. There are certain aspects of that car culture, especially in Australia that I'm not a huge fan of. So I appreciate a nice car. I can understand the engineering behind it, but I'm not what you would call one of these people that goes out and is really full on. I just..

Just partially.

Partially for it.

Just a bit of a hobby. More than more than an obsession.

That's right. That's right. Yeah.

Yes. I thought it'd be good to have James on because he can talk about I guess we can go through buying and selling a car in Australia, the different kind of cars that you'll find here, maybe what a ute is the Holden and Ford conflict.

Yep.

And then I guess we can just start with your story. How did you get into cars and from what age?

I guess ever since I was born, I've always sort of had an obsession with cars, or at least so my parents tell me. They had an old Mitsubishi Sigma wagon. So they were, I think they called it a Chrysler Sigma originally before Mitsubishi bought the rights to it. Anyway, my parents had this Blue Sigma wagon, and apparently when I was a little baby, I was fascinated by the wheels and everything about it. And I guess from there, I sort of got into, I guess, anything that was sort of mechanical. So like earth moving equipment and stuff. And then ever since, I guess I was sort of like a teenager from then on, it was just cars. Mainly European exotics. But then I guess my world was sort of opened up to Japanese cars and, you know, to a lesser extent, I guess Australian cars and all of the other different, you know, nationalities of vehicles. And they're all got interesting, that there's always something interesting behind them. So.

And is it a family thing, too? Was that the rest of your family were interested in motors and vehicles, or was it just you?

So maybe it was genetic, you might say. Some might say, my- on my father's side, my dad was interested in cars. His father was a mechanic. And on my mother's side, my grandfather, he had 39 cars throughout his lifetime.

39.

39. So every year just about he would go and buy another car. And every car was the best car he'd ever owned, even if it was a complete junk box. Suddenly got better and better than now. Obviously, he only got better and better, despite the fact that I'm pretty sure he took a backward step several times. But he did have a really nice Nissan Skyline on one point, so that was a pretty cool car.

But then your father is well as into motors. Into cars.

Yeah.

And your brother, too.

That's right. Yeah. So my brother knows about them as well, and he would sometimes educate me or vice versa. So if there was something interesting out there, you know, point me in that direction and say, take a look at this. And yeah, I remember his first his first car because throughout high school I didn't really have a job. And then when I was old enough to drive, I had to borrow Mum and Dad's car and I said to my brother, Look, one of my biggest regrets was not getting a job sooner so that when I was able to drive I could get a car.

So I guess he took those lessons on board and his first car was a Toyota Supra. So he paid seventeen grand for this car. This was, I don't know, like 2007.

And to put that in context, he'd saved all this money during Year 11 and Year 12 at high school. So not only was he during high school full time. Right. But he was working after school weekends and somehow managed to save seven thousand for this Toyota Supra.

And I guess my first drive of that thing coming from Camry's or Commodores- V6 Commodores and so on. I remember I had my first drive of this thing and just the power was unbelievable. And from that point, I guess I was hooked. I was on the fence as to what I thought about Japanese cars before then. But I was you know, after that drive, I was hooked.

So what is it like for you when you get into there and you say you get into that car and you drive it for the first time and it's incredibly fast, what are the emotions you're feeling? And, you know, is it- For you, is it the speed? Or is it the sound or is it a combination of all of it? That's an experience.

It's all of that thing. It's a sensory kind of overload. Because you get you know, you get the smell of the interior. It's a Japanese car made in the mid nineties. So you get this weird smell of, perhaps, with some of them soy sauce, Japanese cigarettes, the smell of the interior. You get in there and then you get the sound of the engine and then I guess the speed and the way it feels.

And I guess to put that in context, the reason you get those smells with these cars is because they've been imported from Japan.

That's right.

To Australia.

Yeah.

These specific cars.

Yeah. So, yeah, I had my first drive and I guess I was hooked after that.

What was it like? Can you run me through like when you first stepped in the car and you put your foot down, what was the feeling like?

Coming from little four banger Camry's, or four cylinder Camry's, and V6 Commodores? This, you know, it was a nice big straight six. So it had a lot of talk. It just felt like it was ready to go in every gear that was. And it didn't weigh a huge amount really. So it felt good.

Was it frightening at all?

It probably would have been stupid if I had had that car from a young age. Yeah. Because I would have got myself into a lot of trouble with it.

And why do you think that is with younger kids to buying these sorts of cars and then ending up in accidents? Is it just a common occurrence? Is it and is it obviously just males, mostly?

For the most part, it's just males. But again, I guess it's like anything, you've got something else that get into cars and like any young person, I guess, the brain's not fully developed. And, you know, when you've got a lot of power and you've got irresponsibility, I guess, or that feeling of showing off, it's yeah, it can be a recipe for disaster. So I can understand why the government has imposed legislations banning turbo and V8 cars for P-platers. Or previously, when I was a P-plater, I don't think they had power to weight ratio.

So what would you say to yourself if you could speak to yourself when you were 17 or 18 and give yourself advice on the first car that you would own, would you say go for the most powerful? Or now with all the wisdom that you have, would you say just take it easy?

Absolutely. Take it easy. You know, I had a Camry and thinking about it now like that, that's still a good car. Now, it was manual. So enough to have a little bit of fun with, but it was practical at the same time. It was good on fuel. You couldn't get yourself into too much trouble with it. So if you're just looking for a car to get from A to B, that's still sort of a right.

That was a good car. And if you really want to go crazy later on, just wait until you're a little bit older. You know, got all the time in the world. You don't need to- And also, the other thing is, as a P-plater, that you're restricted from getting as a young person, you're restricted from getting something insanely powerful anyway. So what's the point? Just wait and then really see, I guess, to see if it's for you, because it's a slippery slope. You can spend a lot of money on cars modifying them.

Yeah. And so what happens when you do have you been in anything that was frighteningly quick and had any interesting experiences with that, James?

I have indeed. So I had a friend with a Mazda RX7. That was, yeah, he'd spent a considerable amount of money on this engine, a standalone engine management system. The entire engine was completely built, had a pretty big single turbo on it. And yeah, that thing just lit the tires up at any speed. I can recall the speedo being, you know, saying something like two hundred something and it felt like the wheels are spinning. Yeah, it was. That was actually- and I guess when I was younger, I didn't, I sort of felt like indestructible so that, you know, you do those kind of speeds. And that was OK. But I guess now that I have been you know, I've had a couple of accidents. Nowadays, I very much feel nervous getting into anything that's even driven slightly, quickly or irresponsibly.

Some of my friends up in Melbourne, they, you know, from they use me in Top Gear reference called Captain Slow, James May in Top Gear. He gets called Captain Slow. And that's that's sort of my nickname as well now. But yeah.

That's a derogatory term. But at the same time, it's sort of a badge of honour of being the most responsible.

Yeah, that's, you know, it's genuinely scary. After the RX7, I went in a big single turbo Supra up in Melbourne. That thing had engine management system, another for that big single turbo charge, and it just spun the wheels. First, second, third, fourth. And I remember being I didn't like the feeling of not being in control as a passenger. And then I had to turn in a Nissan GT-R R35. And again, it was the same feeling except I guess slightly lesser extent. This R35 had a lot of security and safety features. So it's not that going really, really fast. You're ever going to be indestructible. But it was, it was slightly safer because you had airbags and ABS brakes.

So ten years back to the RX7, can you talk us through that experience and what it was like?

Sure. So I got in it and it was loud. It was noisy. And rotary engines, they have like a certain unique sound kind of sound.

And I guess to people who don't know what a rotary sort of looks like, imagine a circle and imagine a corn chip or Dorito. And basically the corn chip moves around inside this circle. And it sort of produces this unique noise that only really, I guess, Mazda has used. The engine had been fully built. I think there was something to the tune of almost 20,000 dollars spent on this engine and Turbo. And rotary's famously, they're known for not having any torque because they're not a big engine or anything like one point three litres. So you have to rev them up.

And this thing was revved really properly hard and the big turbo came on. The wheels would light up. It would struggle for traction. Anyway, I had some time off one day I was between jobs. This is when I was studying at uni and I thought I'd go and see a friend who had this RX7. He'd been building it and he wanted to show it off to me. So we went for a drive and perhaps slightly, you know, an ominous sign. It didn't really start very well. There are a couple of problems with it stalling. So maybe that was a sign that the day was not exactly off to a great start.

And yeah, so we went for a drive and the it was, as you would expect, it was frightening. The wheels were spinning. It was going really, really fast. And anyway, we went down to Point Lonsdale. We were just coming down from Ocean Grove. And we went around a corner, I wouldn't say this corner was particularly fast, we just went round at 60, but this RX7 was old. The tires weren't a staggered set up, so they were the same size tyres front and back. And perhaps the owner had spent a considerable amount of money on the engine. But I don't know what kind of tires fitted to this car. And maybe it was slightly twitchy in the power delivery.

But we came around this corner. We weren't going particularly fast at this point. But I think the Turbo is kind of old school as well. It wasn't a modern, responsive ball bearing turbo. It was an old school T67, sort of journal bearing kind of laggy, but gives a really big kick when it comes on. So it gave this big kick, I guess, as it came on.

And the car just it just sort of locked up as we were going around this corner. The rear end just sort of stepped out. And by that point, both myself and the driver were just passengers. And I guess when, whenever you have sort of a scary experience, a lot of people will say that things happen in slow motion. And it was certainly true for this, that this accident that was going to happen so I could see the power pole and I could see we were sliding towards it.

And we, you know, we had, I'd say maybe five seconds or so you saw it and you thought, We're going to crash here! So I sort of move towards the centre of the car and it's an old RX7. It hadn't, didn't have a safety cell, didn't have any ABS brakes, didn't have any airbags. And so I tried to move my body towards the centre of the car knowing that we were going to hit this pole. And we did.

And we hit the pole, my nose hit the dashboard, and instantly it felt pretty sore. And the first thing I think I saw, the engine stopped straight away. It just cut out. And the first thing I said was, We've got to get out of here. Maybe that's being a young Australian thing, not wanting to get into any trouble because we've just knocked down a power pole. Some powerlines have come down.

The car wouldn't restart. And I couldn't get out because my door had been, my door had been sort of banged shut, I guess with the impact of the power pole. My nose was obviously hurting quite considerably. Anyway, I guess as luck would have it, some people came out of the house and saw what had happened. And then some guy that I wish I'd known from Geelong College was driving past in in a Toyota Land Cruiser.

And I vaguely recognised this guy from college. We'd we'd seen each other one once or twice. He vaguely recognised me and could see the predicament we were in and offered us a tow and removed the car from the pole. We pushed the car to the side of the road and we're able to survey the damage. I have some pictures on my computer that I might be able to send to you later on, the slightly grainy from one of the first camera phones. But give us an idea of the force involved.

I guess I was pretty lucky because if if that had happened and if the pole had been slightly further forward, thaT could have been my head that it hit the pole. Whereas I guess it hit the pillar of the car where there was the most strength. You don't need a big hit to the head to kill you, or to cause any damage. We're going particularly fast.

But I'd just say the car was twitchy. The power delivery was kind of, you know, spiky and it all happened so quickly. Yeah, you've really got to be very careful. My nose, as it turns out, was broken. My mum, I should point out, did not like the guy before he'd been involved in the crash. She wasn't a huge fan of the owner of this car. Anyway, I came home and I sort of mentioned to my dad what had happened and said, Please don't tell Mum.

And he didn't to his credit, but my nose was hurting. And I tried to go through a couple of days and it was not good. So I've mentioned mentioned that my nose was sore and I eventually fessed up to what had happened. And, you know, you can understand when any parents angry. We've all been there. You've done something where the parents are not happy.

And I got taken to the doctor and they did the X-ray scans and so on. And that sort of revealed that my nose had been broken and that it was shattered. But I'd left it. By this point, it had been about two weeks since you get the results from the scans, you know, you followed up with consultations and so on, and they'd said, Well, look, by this point, the nose had already started to heal. If you want to, if you want to fix it up, the nose has to be broken. you need a nose job. And when I looked at it, they're like, it's really not that bad.

You've got a better one than me. I've been for exactly the same thing, but with jujitsu, and getting a knee to the face.

Yeah.

Just left it too long and so.

Yeah, yeah. So I just sort of like well you know what, it's not. A cool story, but in hindsight, look, it's an interesting story, and it certainly taught me a lot of valuable lessons, I guess.

What do you think it taught you? And was it a turning point for your life, especially being behind the wheel of a powerful car, or a passenger in a powerful car?

Yeah, you know, if you want to go and behave like that, there's a track you can't be involved in, like a motor sports club if you want to go and drift the skid days. I've done one of those before. They're fun. They're in a perfectly safe, controlled environment. If you're in a powerful car, there's just if you've got friends, that's OK. But just take it easy and relax. You know, you're going to get there in the end. And yeah, maybe spend a little bit more on a nice wide set of sticky rubber that, you know, doesn't that that's not going to let go. You know, I guess these days we're lucky as well. We've got modern engine management systems and turbochargers. So these days we could have a nice, responsive car. So you're not going to have that kind of like lightning that really sudden power band where it just sort of kicks in all of a sudden. So that can be somewhat eliminated with cars these days. So I'd like to think that an accident like that, it it is preventable.

So are you glad you went through that experience or if you could go back, would you say, James, don't get in the car?

No, to an extent, yeah. I'm glad that I went through that experience because I've learnt a valuable lesson from that. And I would certainly recommend to younger people, you know, perhaps don't get in that car if it's a really, really, really, really fast one. Or if you're getting into a car with someone who is perhaps not the most responsible behind the wheel. But I'd say it was a good experience for me. I think I learnt a lot and I don't mind being called Captain Slow. That's quite a ride.

You get there in the end, slow and steady wins the race.

Yeah, sometimes it's just nice to cruise and relax, put on some music or something. Yeah.

So I guess changing gears a little bit, pun intended. What's the difference between car culture in Australia and car culture elsewhere, whether it's whether it's America, Britain or Japan or Europe, whatever it is. Do we have a unique car culture here in Australia?

I'd certainly say we do. We perhaps had a stronger car culture when Holden and Ford were producing, you know, locally delivered built cars. But since those two factories have closed down, perhaps the car culture, they will still exist. But it's just going through a transitional phase. I don't think it'll be as strong anymore because Holden and Ford, there was that rivalry.

I was going to get to that. I wanted to ask you, where does that come from? I don't know that much about it, but I would love to know how it evolved. If you know much about it and can shed light on that.

I know a little bit. Perhaps I'm not as ingrained into that kind of culture as some people because I'm primarily I prefer my Japanese cars. But your parents, when they were growing up, they generally had the choice of they had the choice of either a Holden or Ford, you know, fleet cars, that kind of thing. And I guess you were born and you grew up with loyalty or allegiance to one brand or the other. I'm sure people can relate to that. And..

Almost like football teams. Soccer team.

Exactly. Yeah. People know what allegiances are like. And that's that's what Holden and Ford were like. You had you had an allegiance to that. And that was..

That was weird because that happened to me. But it it wasn't sort of by choice. I started working in a pizza shop and as luck had it, the I think one of the guys there had a Holden and the rest of the guys then decided to get Holden's. And therefore, I felt this kind of pressure to fit in. I want to impress.

Yes.

You know, I guess, yeah, it mainly just fit in and impress. And so I ended up getting a Holden.

Yeah.

And that's how it sort of manifested.

Yeah. And I can totally relate to that. I was also Holden. My parents had several, they had a vehicle Commodore, they had the VT and that was jus,t that was what you did. That was your allegiance. But some people it was for Fords.

Yeah.

And I remember when my parents were looking at getting another car, they had the Commodore and they ended up getting this Camry and traders I wanted to I wanted to keep the the Commodore for myself and they could roll around in the Camry. But I guess they had other ideas and they gave me the Camry just to tease me. And look, you know, hindsight is probably a small thing because, you know, I got to experience the Japanese car, and car with little a little less power. And that's, I guess, what sort of turned me away, or turned my my interest away from Holden's to the more, the Japanese kind of cars.

So where do you think that comes from? Because there is a massive following of just Japanese style. Because you would have your followings of European cars, maybe American cars, but there seems to be, especially with younger people,

The JDM..

.. Obsession with Japanese cars. Why is that?

They're well built. They're much more, I guess, technologically advanced than, say, some of the Australian the Australian offerings. And they're just were different. The imported cars, they were just sort of seen as somewhat rarer. And a lot of them as well were turbo charged.

So I guess with the Australian cars, unless you had like a big a really big V8, you didn't have a huge amount of options for getting more power out of them. Whereas with these little Japanese cars, I call them little, you could whack a bleed valve on the turbo charge or an electronic boost controller and exhaust and maybe a bigger intercooler. You can increase the power heaps.

And it's just, it's just so easy with any turbo car, you know, you just bleed off some of the air from that turbocharger and run more boost. And it just, they love it. And that's why I think that's why that's my perception as to why Japanese car culture has just really sort of taken off in Australia. Because if you can run more boost, make a lot more power cheaply and easily. I guess the other good thing about turbo cars is that, well, when they're on them, when you're on the throttle, you use a lot of fuel. But when you're not, they're not so bad. That is, if you haven't fitted massive fuel injectors and aftermarket management systems. But for the most part, when you're not on the boost, they're pretty good on the fuel. So. Yeah, well, they're better on the fuel if they're in good condition is a more efficient..

More fuel efficient?

Although I guess say my brothers have R33 Skyline that, he was an exception to that. That car would only get 250 kilometres to a tank. Perhaps there was something wrong with the oxygen sensor, but it drank the fuel like up.

Far out.

Good fun to drive though.

All right guys. So that was the first part of a two part series for this interview. The next part will come out in the next couple of weeks and it will be covering how to go about purchasing a car in Australia. So we'll give you tips about what to look for under the bonnet, the kinds of forms that you'll need, how much you're probably going to have to pay, what kinds of cars to go after all that good stuff. So keep an eye out for that. If you're in Australia or thinking of coming to Australia and purchasing a car.

Remember, guys, if you want to support the podcast, you can do so via my Patreon page. It helps me do what I do and continue to teach you Australian English. So I really appreciate everyone who signed up to be a patron so far. And if you want to study this interview in depth, you can sign up to be a student in the Aussie English Classroom where you can jump into the interviews in depth section and study all the previous interviews that have been on the podcast in depth. Anyway, guys, thanks for joining me today. I hope you have a killer week and I'll catch you soon! Catch ya!