It’s me, Mark Stone, and in this episode of the Backseat Driver Podcast, I explore the magnificent alpine passes of Europe with my guest Louis Hendrickx, whose passion for driving and road trips has taken him across some of the continent’s most breathtaking routes.

Louis explains how his fascination with alpine roads began with a chance discovery of a book dedicated to these legendary mountain passes. That moment sparked a journey which has since seen him travel across Europe in his BMW Z4, seeking out the perfect driving road and the unforgettable scenery that comes with it.

We talk about the unique freedom of long-distance driving adventures and the growing car culture that surrounds these trips. From enthusiast gatherings to scenic driving destinations, the conversation celebrates both classic and modern cars enjoying the landscapes they were made for.

This episode reflects on the art of driving in Europe, where the combination of skill, scenery, and great roads creates an experience that continues to draw enthusiasts back year after year.

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Over the years, I developed very strange interests, considered strange by many.

But I used to love driving the Alpine passes of Europe, a passion that was, shall we say, amplified when a great friend of mine, Diane Gill, who worked at my local library, gave me a book.

It had been withdrawn from circulation.

The great mortar, Highways of the Alps by Hugh Merrick.

A vast and dusty tomb that had been withdrawn because nobody took it out anymore, apparently.

And it was something I've been quietly getting on with over the years and ticking them off.

So imagine my surprise when on Instagram, I came across a young man whose page, Lens Autos, an automotive travel guide, was duplicating.

Not duplicating, he was advancing what I have been doing.

And he'd been doing a damn sight better job of it than I have because he's been bringing these unbelievable roads and venues and events to everybody's attention.

Lens Autos, it has 16.1 thousand followers, considerably more than I've got.

And the young lad in question is called Louis Hendrix.

So I delighted to welcome to the backseat driver, Louis Hendricks.

Welcome, Louis.

Hello, Mark.

This is very exciting.

It's my first podcast appearance, so hopefully I'll do very well.

And to be honest with you, I need that book.

When we finished, I shall photograph it and give you the appropriate number.

The guy in question, Hugh Merrick, did the Alps in a Vauxhall Wyvern to give you an idea.

You probably won't have heard of one of those.

No.

And that was when going to the Alps by car was a far more major undertaking than it is today.

But how did this all come about?

Because you're a young lad who drives around in a BMW Z4 and has a passion for Porsches.

Where did this all come from?

It's actually a very good question.

I have always liked the idea, even when I was a bit younger, and obviously I didn't have access to a car or any sort of explorative measures.

I've always loved travel, Europe, the mountains.

The best thing I could ever do is go camping in Wales or something around the mountains there, get my fix somehow.

Yeah.

And then as I got older, as I got to 17, I took my test and did that, and I had to know I had no interest in cars fully enough.

This is.

This is the control or the freedom I was looking for.

So I just naturally have tied two together, really.

I thought, okay, I want to go into mainland Europe because there's these lovely towns and cities and obviously all these amazing roads and the mountains and the views.

How am I going to do it?

And my car just seems like the perfect way of doing it because again, it's all like myself, who was looking for freedom, but also control of that freedom.

Yeah.

You can stop and start when you like.

You're not just flying in somewhere, flying out.

You don't need to rent a car.

When you're there, you've got the car.

You can go to these places that if you were to fly somewhere, just a bit too painful.

But when you've got a car, everything's accessible within reason.

So it just the two interests of mine marry together.

But what I want to do alongside it was because I only started doing this last year, mind like these big road trips.

I've done smaller things previously in the uk, but I really ramped it up last year.

So I got to do my first two European road trips last year and I wanted to document it because I am certain people.

There's people of my age who are also interested.

It's just it didn't seem to be super covered on social media.

So I thought that's my job then.

Yeah.

And in this short period of time, you've got to some fantastic locations and fantastic events.

And we said the major alpine passes.

And I think when you're out there, the one thing I seem to have noticed is a lot of the events, certain events you've come across, it's a bit like one I want to talk about is on the gross glockney, which is the fat Mankai, apparently is the local slam slang term for marmots, which I'll be quite honest, I've driven the gross Glockner on many occasions and never once seen one.

I've never personally seen one.

I've been up there twice now.

I've done the full stretch and I don't know what.

I guess all these loud cars scare them off.

They would probably sort.

If I was a small little furry creature on a mountain.

I'm not sure if I heard some big roaring V8 or GT Ferraris.

I don't know if I'd go towards it.

I'd probably go the other way.

Hey, they'll all be in the borough saying that.

Lottery.

Back again.

Get out.

Sleep.

I bet they hate us somewhat.

The gross Glockner is.

It's been a mountain.

The Europeans don't have hill climbs.

They have mountain climbs.

It's one of the most staggering roads, along with the Stelvio and the Col de Turini you will ever drive.

But the one thing you found up there that I didn't, because it's a while since I've been up there, is, is this mountain hut that's involved, involves the Porsche family.

How did you find out about that?

So naturally, as being 24, I'm on social media a lot and the one thing I'm looking for when I do these road trips is I want to match them with car events because I want to.

I do these on my own and I enjoy doing on my own because I'm very particular.

I like to start, as I said, stop and start what I like.

Yeah.

Nobody else to please, which is a marvelous way to be.

And also when you're in a two seater like me, you're in punching distance of someone else, so you're weight.

And the other thing is, if you're on your own, all the rest of the car can be devoted to luggage.

If you've two people, you have to give 50% up for their luggage and

I'm not willing to do it.

I need all that space.

I need that space for all the souvenirs I'm going to buy.

You're as bad as me.

I have a house littered with them.

I know it's awful, but I love collecting.

But no.

So I was on social media and you just, you trick and fall into these things.

Someone reposts something, someone tags someone, someone takes a picture themselves or makes a video of themselves almost a bit similar to mine.

And what it was is I found the ice race just down in Zell Amse.

So literally by the Gross Gockner.

Most people would start the road of the Gross Glockner from Zell Amse.

Yeah.

And then from there I thought, oh, wow, okay, they've got a.

They've got a different event they do up at the Gross Glockner.

And because just footing in the ice race is very heavily.

Zell Amse as a whole is heavily involved with Porsche designer there.

The air field where the ice race is now held was the famous airfield where Dr.

Ferry Porsche was flown in and out of.

And it has an inexorable link with Porsche to a degree.

You can actually stop at the Porsche family farm as a bed and breakfast if you want.

See, I didn't know this, so I'm going to have to do my research and do that because it feels wrong.

I've been there four times now in the past year and I didn't know that.

So that will be fixed, I'm sure.

But what it was is this hut up at Mankite.

I believe the story goes the hut's been there a while.

The original version of the hut was up there and it was always a bit of a touristy place.

You could go along the route and I believe the old owner used to have a domesticated marmot up there.

Oh, surprise me.

Yeah, he had a pet marmot and I believe they played on that and that's why they called it Fat Mankai.

Yeah, marmot and also funny thing, fat marmot.

Sure.

What they did is so ferdy Porsche, the guy who sty fat or brought back fat because obviously it was an old 90s racing sponsor.

I don't know.

He took the branding of that and because obviously they had very thick ties with Porsche.

Again, the fat sort of branding and the liveries.

And the Porsche museum has plenty of these cars tucked away with all these amazing liveries.

And also Porsche used to test cars up the gross glockner.

So again, it's just layer upon layer

of Porsche just to.

But in the gross glockner is used by.

Still used today by many manufacturers to test their cars.

The gearboxes, the clutches and the brakes.

That's why there's certain times of the day, especially in the summertime, you can't go up, you have to wait.

I know one that closes it off for about six hours is Audi, but it is still very popular testing ground or proving ground.

And it makes sense because I did it and my little Z4 with 150 horsepower, it took a beating up and you could smell the brakes on the way down.

So it is a.

It's a test.

It's a test for a car.

I don't want anyone to be put off.

I won't be able to go and do it because you can do it.

But just know that you're going to test your car and yourself, I think.

Yeah, but.

Yeah, so what he did is he.

They took over this spot, they renovated it and they basically turned it into.

A lot of people in the UK will know caffeine and machine.

The sort of the.

Our sort of version of this car pub culture spot.

Yeah, imagine that.

A little bit tighter but up on the mountains.

So views with staggering, absolutely staggering views.

Yeah, it might.

That just.

Everything's perfect.

The architecture of the hip, the huts, the mountains, the cars, the noise.

They put on very relevant music to my sort of age.

Contemporary Culture.

So for someone of my age and I, there's plenty of people older than me as well.

There's no sort of.

You won't feel an odd one out if you're a bit older though, just because it is the people who are up there with the very smart cars are the older ones, naturally.

Yeah.

I suppose we're the only boy buggers that can afford them these days.

Yep, yep.

So you guys bring the cool stuff to us and then we enjoy making videos and taking pictures.

Yeah.

What do you say to the old guy stood there?

Thanks for bringing it.

Would you go and stand over there so we get your car in but not you?

No, trust me, plenty of times you're asking.

So would you mind just moving slightly to the left?

Yeah, yeah, it happens all the time.

But no, it's a fantastic spot, I really recommend it.

But I noticed watching your videos, I just think driving around in your Z4, you've come across some, like, garages, you've come across like gatherings of cars making their way to somewhere else.

These are just like chance and opportunity, aren't they?

Yeah.

The best thing about these road trips is naturally you have to plan the sort of A, B, C and D. You've got to.

You've got to have a bone structure, this stuff.

Otherwise, unless you've got a free month on your hands, if you've only got a week, you've got to give yourself some structure.

But along the way you can offer yourself up to a bit of mystery and just take the roads the map says to go to and you will just stumble.

As long as you take off.

I always say, let's take off toll roads and take off main roads and motorways.

Get down on those side roads because you'll go through the little villages and as you say, there's this picture I took where it was a T junction and there was an old sort of petrol garage on the other side of it and there was this lovely old school Beetle.

It was on the way to Neuschwanstein Castle in Germany.

And it just was picture perfect.

But it wasn't anything special, but it was picture perfect.

And you did another one, didn't you, where you just bumped into some old guy with a stunning Porsche and was able to get an unexpected story out of that.

I forget, you were at another petrol station, there was a beautiful car there.

Cause one of your other passions is Porsche, though by your own admission, you're too young to own one yet.

That's the one thing.

Porsches pop up all over the place.

Out there, don't they?

Oh, especially, I mean, in Germany, of course, and then in the Alps even more.

Because obviously Porsches, they're not.

Especially nowadays with how popular the scene is and the culture of Porsche is, plenty of people have them.

And I find that when you go to these quite intensely Porsche events, like Fat Mankind, Fat Ice race, these very Porsche heavy events, people bring out the most obscure, amazing things.

Like I got to see what I believe was a logistical RS 61 Porsche race car, one of these original.

Yeah, race cars.

It obviously wasn't based on a 356.

And you look at these cars and just like you will only ever see these cars here.

So if you want to see these very niche cars, some of them might be kit cars, but some of them are absolutely genuine and the owners are there.

If that's what you're craving, you want to talk to these people, it's right here, it's right there, you can just go and do it.

And the other beauty is out there in German, unlike England and the English, who at times are a little bit insular, you tend to find out in Germany they will happily chat to you in English.

So you've no difficulty getting the story out of them, have you?

No, I find what I mean, what we're very lucky as English speakers is my generation, the young generation, they had to learn it in schools and most of them, it was essential that they learn it well.

So you can pretty much speak to anyone younger in very perfect English.

But as it gets a bit older, you find that when it didn't have to learn it in school, maybe you're in a rural area, you may struggle, but even then, most people do know it.

Because no matter where you are in Europe, in the whole concert of Europe, these people are mixed in different countries, they know many languages, they know Italian and French and German, if they're all in this melting part of the Alps.

But they need to know English as well, because let's say they all don't really know each other's languages, they all know English.

So we're so lucky in that way.

That's the one thing I suppose, arrogantly we can say it's classed as the universal language.

But you go to any circuit and nearly everybody at a circuit, no matter where you are in the world or whoever you're speaking to, all speak English, because English is considered the language of motorsport.

Okay, I knew it was the sort of the business language, but no, okay, it makes total sense.

It makes total sense.

Now, the other thing is your travels have taken you farther afield than just the grocer and Austria, haven't they?

Yeah.

Where have I been?

I've been.

So my first road trip, I obviously went through.

All the way through German.

Got a bit of autobahn in there.

I then go into Austria, but then, yes, I go through Switzerland, which is one of my favorite countries.

I want to do a lot more exploring there.

But then Italy as well.

Italy is just Lake Como, Lake Baggiore, all these places that sort of La Dolce Visa.

It's.

It's infectious.

You just want to be there all the time.

Now the one thing is traveling in Austria and Switzerland when you get to the borders, although borders, in theory, in the EU don't exist anymore, you have to buy the appropriate road tax, don't you?

And it varies between Austria and it and Switzerland.

Yeah.

So the way they're doing it now is.

I know.

So Austria is still using the sticker system on your windscreen.

Yeah.

And then places like Italy, I think they opt for more of a pay as you go, so it's more toll road systems.

You'll just pay for the stretch of road you went to.

I know that, obviously.

I know.

Definitely in Switzerland you've got to have certain stickers on your windscreen for being in cities.

We have here, but obviously we do a more digital camera system.

They seem to stay with the windscreen system.

Yeah.

Not being funny, which is far easier because if you're not careful.

I've done it.

Where there's suddenly a sign.

Go on this website and pay your.

Whatever it might be.

The problem is doing 60 miles an hour and somewhere along the lines you've got to try and remember a bleeding website out there.

You pay your money and off you go.

You don't have to plot about on websites anymore, do you?

Yeah, yeah.

I found in France there was a toll road system where it was one of their main veins and you just jump on.

You pay, you.

You pay a bit of money or I think you tag in at least.

I think you take a little paper card and then when you come off, you put it back in and it calculates how much of the road you used and then you pay for that much.

It just.

It works.

I understand.

That's more for like the longer distance context.

Yeah.

For a city.

I understand.

We live in a world now where it's.

We're ecosensitive and we've got to think about it and do it, which is absolutely fine by me.

But it can be awkward.

Like you can forget or maybe Your car was eco friendly, but now, the following year it's not anymore and it cuts you out.

It's a pain.

It's a right pain.

I'm lucky somehow.

My 07 Z4, it's a 2 liter, petrol is no charge anywhere.

Yeah, a more modern diesel is.

You make sense of it.

I can't.

The other thing is, in France you have to bear in mind or you have to be wary of when you come to pay your toll, where you come off the ticket tells them where you pulled on.

The ticket also tells them the distance you've travelled.

The ticket also tells them how long it should have taken you to cover that distance.

If you've covered it in immeasurably less than it says.

Given the fact it knows the maximum speeds you've been able to cover.

If you've done it in far less time, there's a gendarme waiting at the other side who will happily nick you for speeding.

Oh, Joe.

I actually didn't know that, but luckily.

Makes total sense, right?

But yeah, I didn't know that.

Luckily, when I used it, I was.

My road trips always have a funny end.

I maximise all my time in the Alps and then when it's time to come home, it's like a mad dash to the tunnels.

So there was this moment at.

It was like midnight and I was just carving through France.

I was using these toroids, luckily, because of it being midnight and I was just the only one on the roads, I could have gone, oh, I'll blast it.

I thought, you know what, I'm a bit tired, I'll just drive sensibly.

It's difficult with my dash because you've got to.

You can roughly understand the conversion of kilometers per hour, but it's not perfect.

So I just stayed on the safer side.

Yeah.

Luckily I didn't get any speeding fines on these journeys, so clearly I'm doing well.

And so I think that might have saved me from meeting that particular chap at the end of the toll race.

One of the great things about the.

The French toll motorways is near just before the toll booth, you'll verbally get a services, which means you do what I do, you go in and have a cup of coffee.

By the time you've had your cup of coffee, you've brought your time back down.

Because I'll be quite honest, there have been occasions when I was doing various bits and pieces with Porsche where because you don't get.

Or very infrequently do you get a speed cop on A French motorway.

The toll ones.

You are tempted to find out does this911 actually do the speed Porsche claim?

So you do have a go at doing it, but if you have a cup of coffee before you hit the toll booth, it's usually brought your time back down so you can play their system a little bit.

And does it do the towing Porsche claims or is that the one of them I had?

The last one I did it with was the Porsche and I'm trying to think which it's classed as.

The 996, the one with what teardrop headlights that I don't like.

It was a Carrera 4S wide bodied, which was one down on the turbo and it claimed, I forget what it said.

They claimed it to do 175mph and without giving myself away, I drove away happily impressed that the figures seemed to match.

Interesting.

By the way, I ended up having two cups of coffee before the toll booth.

Yeah, I think to, honestly, I think you've given everyone a hack there, but everyone be, be careful, don't, don't get yourselves into any fines.

I've seen people who come home and six months later they've got like a stack of papers and they're in financially ruined store.

Yeah.

And I don't want any part of that.

But at the same time more so let's say on the autobahn of Germany you can, you can see what your car's made of because most cars, if you're like me, you know someone who just has a very modest little roaster, you're not going to do the scary speeds that some of these people in these rat arsed Audi states will do.

These German people, they go nuts.

I've told people when you're on the autobahns, contrary to popular belief, the autobahns not all of them are speed limit free.

A lot of them during the working day have something like a 130, 140, 150 kilometers an hour max on them.

The speed limit can drop after seven at night.

But you do have one of the major autobahns out of Munich and memory serves, it's the A5 that never has a speed limit on it.

And I've gone down there.

Truly ludicrous rates of knots.

And the other thing is, I've always said if you glance in your wing mirror, if you're in the middle lane or the inside lane, because not all autobahns are three lane, mostly two lanes.

If you see a car approaching with main beam on, do not pull out.

That is the Indication that this guy is giving it the beans.

So that's the rule of thumb.

If you see a car on your left hand side main beam, don't pull out because it'll probably hit you if you're not careful.

And what I find the reason they can get up because when you go on our motorway system we're packed full of cars and you think how do these people in Europe go this fast?

Like surely it's just accident every two seconds.

But the major difference is when you're out, especially in the more like big rural stretches of motorway or even side roads, they are considerably emptier.

There's a lot more room on their roadways.

Yeah.

And the other great thing in Europe is even on the two lane motorways the heavies are told you stay in the inside lane so you are not constantly trying to dodge or brake or whatever.

As arctics bounce to and fro from the inside lane to the outside lane.

There is far more stricter controls on commercial vehicles which in my opinion needs applying in the uk.

Yeah, I've had some interesting dances on our motorway systems.

Don't even get started on the condition of them.

It's.

It can be.

Sometimes it can actually just be downright dangerous.

So sometimes I do think we need to adopt the, the European road structure.

I understand around the cities in Europe, I'm sure it's the same, it's very busy but you get to those, you know, rural stretches and it's just, it's enjoyable.

You can actually call it enjoyable.

Yeah.

And the road services are better.

They actually keep the rules indecent Nick.

Yeah, I noticed I believe more so in Switzerland but I'm sure it's anywhere in the Alps or anywhere that, you know, I think most of Europe does care or they put more money into it that there was lots of these black veins on the roads.

I was like what, why are.

There's loads of black veins?

And then I noticed, of course it's because as soon as the road starts to crack, they feel it instantly, they're so on it and it allows for most of the roads during there are still roads that are very bad but on the whole if as long as you're not on a real out of nowhere road, they're very smooth and I drive my car here and because of its age there's a lot of little rattles and you drive it there, it's smooth, it's butter, it's just.

Oh, it's a pleasure.

Erictar.

Now the one thing is you've been to some of the nice events in Italy as well, aren't you?

Yes, of course, yes.

The main one, I suppose the main one that people would know about is the Concorso Delleganza on Lake Como, which now is paired with the Fiori Concorso which they've now created the Como Car Week.

So between Milan and Como, late Como, you're.

It's just a beat celebration of cars.

It's amazing.

If you're into.

Definitely.

If you're into sort of your historic Italian, you're going to have a field day.

But it's everything.

To be honest with you.

I remember I saw Lois Roof with one of the first yellow birds.

He was exhibiting and competing in the concourse in whatever category that lies in.

Yeah.

Probably in the.

More sort of 90s, I think it was.

90s, right.

The yellow bird.

But yeah, it's just fantastic as well.

Again, I love the car events.

I love the cars.

I love seeing them because it's like they turn a place into a sculptural park.

It's like art, these old cars, like artistic items, but also take a wider context.

You're in Lake Como, you're on Lake Como.

The visuals and the beauty, it's fantastic.

It's just complete mankind.

The mountains.

It's like you're getting the complete package with these events.

How much do they cost to get into?

Do you have to pre book tickets?

Can you just walk up and pay coffee Euros up and in you go.

Or is it invitation only?

So with the.

So with Fat mancon, that's completely free, you just got to pay the toll road cost.

So that's pretty cool.

But with the Lake Como events, I know that there's.

They normally go over a weekend.

It's.

The Sunday is a good spur fee.

If you want to go.

Sunday is the one to go because that's the public day.

Yeah.

So unless you're someone who's actually got a car competing, the rest of the days are for them and it's for the.

It's a bit have nots, unfortunately.

But that's the game.

That's the world of cars.

Right.

Yeah.

So that Sunday is for everyone to come in, put some cool clothes on, some classy linen and enjoy it.

And Gosh, it's.

It's sub €50 if I remember.

That's not a great amount of money.

It's very doable.

Yeah.

You can put most of your money into sort of the guessing there, which is what I do.

Yeah.

The fury Concorso is.

It's not a.

It's not a competition like the Concorde.

It is more of an exhibition of last year.

It was.

I believe it was more like they had a lot of F1 car, a lot of, like Italian F1 cars from, like the dawn of it to now.

Yeah, I think this year they're going for the German craftsmanship.

So, you know, it's not always Italian, so it's quite interesting.

That can be a little bit more expensive in my position.

I'm lucky.

I'm going to try and blag my way in via media.

The other thing is I watch some of these events on YouTube.

If you stand on the road, that takes the cars to the actual locations.

The show is as much on the road because all these cars drive there.

The one thing you tend to notice is, apart from the cars that are so rare, they never drive anywhere.

The cars aren't trailered, they're driven.

And if you get there at the right time, not only are you enjoying the stunning scenery, etc.

But these cars, you're driving about gently.

So a lot of people, what they'll do as they.

As the cars drive to, which is that main hotel where everyone sees these cars out before it goes to the public day grounds Villa Erba.

Yeah, they do a bit of a rally.

They go around and they.

What they do is they come from Como town.

So you get this great visual imagery of these lovely cars that blasting their exhaust through and you get that lovely echo through the town and it gives that feeling out.

Those old, like, Melee Melia rally through the town feels where people are just stood by accidentally coming across this.

And it adds a lot, actually.

Yeah.

And the one thing I've always found is in Europe, people know how that.

I go to retromobile and auto and I've been to some of the big German ones.

The Europeans seem to have a completely different attitude to the old cars.

They're far more enthusiastic about them, in my opinion, than the English are.

The general English public aren't as enthusiastic about them as the European public are.

They love these cars, don't they?

I just.

You can probably comment more on that through your experience of seeing our culture versus theirs, because I think you've gone to so much more events than I have in your time, but we get

an old duffer reference.

So.

No, it's no wisdom.

Wise words from a man.

No, it's just I find they seem to be more willing to, as you say, drive them, get them out.

Like at the ice race, you'll see these old lovely cars and they'll Whip them around in the ice, put studded tires on them.

Maybe it's because we're just seeing a wealthier, a wealthier car enthusiast who can afford to put them right.

I'm not sure.

They just seem to be a little bit more hands on.

They're willing to get them out in front of the people.

Yeah, it probably is just a greater enthusiasm as well.

On the whole that weather is a bit more improved than ours or seems a bit more predictable and maybe they can trust that they can get it out and not destroy them and not get them too wet or salty, I don't know.

Past guest Katerina Kivalova.

She was at the ice race in St. Moritz and she's in the fortunate position being able to do it.

But as leader of the Bentley Bells, when she's not blasting around in modern Mercedes Benz and winning 24 hour races, she takes a vintage Bentley to St Moritz, throws a set of spiked tyres on it and howls it round this frozen surface with complete disregard up against modern Bugatti's.

The people who drive these cars at these events are either sadly lacking or they just don't care.

They use the cars for what they're meant to be used for.

Yeah, no, I agree.

The ice is one that I believe is on my list.

Next year I tend to go to the fat ice race just because I guess it's my generation, it's my music.

It's maybe the more cars that I would find cool as you say.

I love Porsche so the tire's perfect.

There's and I also through doing this, going to these events and I've met a lot of people.

I now have like friends that are there so it's really cool to catch up.

But I've been to San Ritz in the summer.

I went in June and September.

I went both times actually to the Myers Max Cafe.

I don't know if you've seen that.

It's a really cool little place.

Yeah.

And it's a lovely place and I can only imagine it's so much cooler with the snow everywhere.

The reason they can do that is because the the ice race in ZMC Austria they used to obviously do it on the ice, but the ice is just too thin now.

Yeah, it still falls.

I was right there in January.

I've seen the ice, it's still very thick but clearly not thick enough to be considered safe or predictable.

Yeah, but because Samuraitz is so much higher up, their ice goes a lot thicker for a lot longer and it's a lot colder up there.

So they can still do it and they can still drive and put these sort of heavier things on the ice, which is.

That's pretty special that we still even have that at all.

So I need to get to that.

When you get to these events, how much does it cost to get into them, if you don't mind me asking?

So with the fat ice race, it is a hundred and something euro.

I believe it was just over €100 because I got the early bird because I knew I wanted to go.

I got.

I get on it very quickly.

Yeah.

And so I get that.

So that obviously will help with the ice.

The ice in summer.

It's.

I'm not sure.

I know that will probably be a lot more expensive because of just what it is, the clientele, the environment.

Naturally things are going to be a little bit more expensive.

Yeah.

I rarely spend more than.

Also imagine with the ice race, that's 100 and something euro.

So naturally, when it comes out your bank account in the uk, it'll be a little bit cheaper, which is nice.

You don't normally spend more than 100 and something.

That's for a real proper event.

When you go to the ones around the uk, you're spending far less.

Right.

I'm trying to think.

Yeah.

I would say Normally they balance 50 to €75.

Seems about right.

Normally.

And what else have you got planned?

Because you, I'm delighted to say, you appear to show no signs of stopping.

In fact, you'll be becoming more and more enthusiastic about this.

Yes.

It's like when you're scared to go on a roller coaster and then you do it and you want to go again and again.

It's.

Before I did any of this, I always wanted to do it.

It's just naturally I had those sort of will my car, I'll handle it, can I afford it, blah, blah, blah.

The hardest part is trusting your car and I didn't trust my car.

Yeah.

And I.

As soon as I drove it from the uk, all the way down Austria through to Samurais, then back with zero faults, nothing went wrong.

I thought, okay.

I believe cars are actually a lot more reliable than you think.

It's a nice middle of.

It's got the reliability, it's got a

bit of old school.

So it's a nice age range.

And as you say.

Yeah.

No, no signs of stopping because there's Just so much more to see this year.

I'm going to bring it back home as well.

I'm looking to do a Lake District trip and try and find all the best bits of the Lake District stuff.

There's some great driving roads on our back.

Oh, there are.

The Lake District has some fantastic roads in it.

The only problem you find with the Lake District, especially in summertime, it's full of people who really shouldn't be driving on those roads.

Yeah, yeah.

No, we tend to go.

I found the sweet spot for road trips is it's May and September, so just before summer starts and summer ends.

Really.

Yeah.

I find it just is a little bit quieter.

But the weather, if you're lucky, is just as good.

And I've been very lucky.

I've always had really good weather.

So I'm looking to also go back up to Scotland to do not maybe the full north coast 500, but maybe make my own spin on it.

Maybe find the things that I'm interested in or if a car enthusiast would be interested in.

And I went before a few years ago in May, and it's just before the midges come out and ask.

That's the other thing with Scotland, it's the midges.

You don't.

You tend not to get it in

Europe with a soft top.

I don't really like the idea of getting the top down and then a big, like, beekeeper's mask.

So May, I think early May was.

Is a good time.

If you're lucky with weather, it's.

It's luck.

Right.

I mean, with all of this stuff, it's luck.

So.

Yeah, so definitely Lake District, Scotland, probably some Wales, because Wales again has some great roads.

You just.

The speed limit problem now, you can't go anything over 30, which kind of zaps the enthusiasm out of it.

But I'm sure there's still fun to be had.

But then the big ticket is.

I'm doing, and I won't say too much, but I'm doing a big Italian adventure, so.

Very nice.

A lot of Italian in car enthusiasm to be had this year.

Now, why a Z4?

Because I'm poor.

Well, you know what, it's.

I bought it.

So the story went, I had about three grand in my pocket.

I had just come off being an apprentice from my day job, so I didn't have a lot of money, but I wanted something.

I had an old Mark 1 MX5 before.

It was really problematic.

Someone paid me a fair sum because I'd done some work to add a lot of work.

To it and I bought the hard top so it was in a better nick than I had it.

So I had this small amount of budget and I just wasn't willing to wait any longer.

I was like what can I get for around this money?

Yeah.

And I found this little Z4.

It had a little issue with it and I thought the rest of it's really good.

I'll take the risk.

Luckily the risk paid off.

I really don't recommend anyone to do that.

It's really not worth it because we'll just end in tears more often than

what was the little.

What was the little issue?

ABS light on the dash.

So it could have been anything.

Luckily in my case it was quite literally they just had to push a little reset bit in and off we went.

It was just whoever.

Yeah.

Crazy.

One of those.

Just lucky, great, we won sort of situation.

Yeah.

So yeah, I got that fixed.

I put a little bit more money into it.

I can't imagine I've spent any more than six grand that I've owned it for three years.

Yeah, I've done quite well.

It's been actually very reliable.

I use it to get me to work and back.

I use it on these road trips.

It's I think 110,000 miles now.

I bought it at 76.

I've done enough with it.

Yeah.

And you know what I was.

It was never the dream and it still isn't the dream.

Naturally.

And like you say you don't like the 996 but the 996 Carrera, I think it's the 4S so it has the sort of the turbo body with the red light on the back, the big sort of red acrylic light.

That's the dream.

Something cool like that.

And the fact that it is all wheel drive actually makes it a far more usable car.

Somebody said to me about Porsches, I said when I do buy a 911, I said I'll go for an all wheel drive.

I said my days of drifting them in our opposite lock around a mountain pass hairpin have long since gone.

But they're just a safe solid car and they're usable.

You can use them every day.

Europeans have 911s and providing it's not one of the ultra rares, use them as an everyday car.

Yeah.

And I think you totally can.

I see people in the UK, I see loads of 911s because they are very usable.

Even the older ones within reason dural.

I'm my days of spinning around in a on A in a two wheel drives, Swiss Pass are definitely right here.

So I, maybe Z4 is perfect for the job right now, but I just found that I grew, I grew into that car a little bit because the look, if you look up an E85 Z4, it's an interesting looking car.

It's a bit marmite, it's a bit of a weird time in the design, but it's actually just a great.

It feels old school, it has, it has minimal inside, it has, still has the physical dash with all the needles you want.

Has that lovely old BM orangey light.

You can fix it on the dashboard.

Yes.

Yeah, it feels a bit old school.

Little physical button, radio, all the buttons rear and physical and you push them.

I've only got the 2 liter again because I couldn't, I couldn't fathom ensuring a higher engine, unfortunately.

But what it does is that classic driver slow car, fast.

You get the revs going up, you get, you get the fiatrics and you don't have to break the speed limit for it.

Yeah, I always call it the Sheikh and Wolfskin.

It looks what it is.

It's actually quite a reliable little four cylinder if you maintain it.

Not well, like any car, as long as you maintain it well.

But it's offered me a lot.

It's offered me a load, like I said to you off air.

If that car decided it was done and it just had a really catastrophic error, I'm going to get someone to, to rip the engine block out and I'm going to turn it into a coffee table because that car got me places that I didn't think I could go.

So it means a lot to me actually.

And it has a gear lever, does it not?

Yes, exactly.

Right, yeah.

Well done, young man.

There's nothing beats a third pedal and a gear lever.

You have to move about.

Yeah, no, I love it.

But Porsche are your thing.

You do get to drive one occasionally, don't you?

I have seen you driving Porsches.

I was lucky.

I was lucky recently.

I got to drive a996 Turbo.

Not very long, not very far, but I did.

And you know what's the most annoying thing about that car?

They, it was perfect.

I fit in it perfectly.

It felt right and it wasn't mine.

So it's, it's definitely affirmed the enthusiasm because as you imagine, I've only been basing it off the way I like the way it looks.

Right.

But yeah, certain colors, the interior choices.

I'm a guy who loves a coupe style.

I have a Convertible And I've actually grown to love the convertible, like lifestyle.

But the 911 to me is like perfect shape of car.

Yeah.

For in my brain right now it's not there.

But maybe that's a good thing.

Maybe growing into one and learning how to drive in a slower car and learning how to drive better.

Yeah.

Especially on these.

On these alpine roads that they can be unforgiving at times.

They're pretty harsh.

So maybe driving something a little bit more tailored back, something that I can really get used to and then when I can eventually graduate to a greater vehicle or if I'm looking maybe when I'm a bit older, some press cars I'll be.

I'll have the right sort of skill set behind it.

Yeah.

Because that's one thing I was going to say driving these alpine passes, I've driven them for pleasure, I've driven them in competition, etc.

There is a definite art and a skill to driving them, isn't there?

Yeah.

It's a case of I find that the reason I've always got away with the car.

I have.

And it would be lovely to have more horsepower.

It's always lovely to have more horsepower and more torque and traction forward drive and all this.

What you find is it's.

You'll never get the car up to speed on these roads.

It's about a small push, harsh braking, tight turn, back on the accelerator, small push, braking, tight turn.

It's technical driving.

It's not a case of panel.

Unless you're at some like the Bernina Gran Turismo which is in Switzerland and they block off the road and it becomes a hill climb.

That's when these cars can test themselves and the drivers can definitely test themselves.

But when it's a public road, there's a person coming the other way, you're risking it.

It's a very high risk.

No reward play.

It's best to just not take it slow but.

But enjoy it.

Understand your car and actually get quite talented with your specific vehicle.

Yeah.

I mean the other thing is you do drive a soft top, which is better still when they're open to the public.

You do, especially in a right hand drive car, spend a lot of your time coming into a hairpin looking over your left shoulder to see if anybody's coming down.

The beauty is if there's nobody coming down, you can cut the corner, which is how you take a lot of these corners.

If it is free, it's.

The better way is to cut the corner.

But you do have to look Way over your shoulder to see what's going on.

Because attacking a corner from the wrong side of the road when it's open to the public maybe isn't advisable if it's busy.

No, it's.

Admittedly, it is.

Actually, it's odd.

It feels jarring, especially in our cars.

If anyone's not driven in Europe, because I know a lot of people, they just haven't decided to.

Maybe they're scared or they just.

It just hasn't come up yet.

You do find that you actually get used to it incredibly quickly, especially in cars that are wrong for the road.

It doesn't take long to get used to them.

So it's not like you'll be driving fretting all the time.

There was this one moment I left the T junction and accidentally went into English mode and has to very quickly go back into European mode because your brain's there.

But on the whole after, especially on these long driving trips, if you choose to do a week long, you become European.

You become a European driver.

It almost becomes odd when you go back into England.

So I've told you, it feels bizarre.

I've always taken a roundabout here the long way after a road trip because you just get so used to how they do it the opposite way around.

Yeah.

But especially on these.

These technical passes, like, I've been on ones not like the gross clocks, anything tighter, sketchier ones.

Yeah.

There's a little bit more brain involved.

That's why it's best to not try and drive fast.

It's take it in, try and do both.

Enjoy it, but also get it right.

And the other thing is, the last thing is watch your brakes, watch your temperatures, because your temperature will rise and your brakes will fade.

Yeah.

Especially going down.

Mine smell horrific.

Yes.

It's not unusual.

It's happened to me more than once.

You hit the brake pedal and the only thing it is the pedal drops to the floor and becomes a second foot rest.

Look, if you're not careful, it can be very dangerous and scary.

So if you haven't done it, absolutely, take it slow.

And the one thing you can only do is take a car you believe can do it and also get some fresh brakes and discs on it and do what you can to improve the guy.

Louie Hendricks, it's been an absolute pleasure chatting to you, a man who is continuing my initial ambition of covering the mountain passes.

I'm getting too old and too beyond it all to do it and I need to go and buy a far better car to go and do it in, but keep up the good work.

Louie Hendrix or Lens Autos.

Follow him on Instagram.

His page is great.

The imagery is sensational.

Get them up to 20 or 30 odd.

Let's get him making some money out of this.

But until then, Louis Hendricks, it's been an absolute pleasure chatting to you on the backseat driver.

Thanks so much.

And Mark, I will continue to let your legacy and we'll keep it going.

Once again, thanks very much, Louis.

Take care.

Bye bye.