Meet Gus and Will from Flipping Bangers

Can you tell us a bit about how you both got into the classic car business?

WILL: Well, it started off at a very early age for me, my father and my grandfather were also interested in cars. So that meant that I kind of slipped into that mould from the age of six… my father took me out one Sunday morning to go and have a look at a car, and it was an Austin Healey Sprite MKII. We bought this car as a father-son project.  

I'm now 52 and I still own that same car, so that's how it started. And basically, you know that’s how its grown, not only has it been a hobby, but I can earn a living from something I enjoy.

GUS: It was exactly the same for me. My grandfather used to own a car repair shop, some of the cars that we deal with are cars that were current then. 

It sort of shuffles along with your age doesn't it. I look at some of the older cars and they feel like current cars to me. They don't feel like classic cars. Although obviously they are classic cars, they don't really feel like it. I bought a motorcycle with my dad when I was 15. It was a project and we put it together and I still have it now, I still ride it all the time! It seems current to me but if I'm if I'm looking at you and saying how old it is, it's 60 years old, which is, I mean it's old, you know but it doesn't seem it to me. It's just a machine! 

Over the years you must've seen countless classics, are there any that hold a close place to your heart? One that you'd love to own yourself?

WILL: I think the ones that I remember the most are the ones that made me bruised and bleeding and giving me the most worry. So no, I don't want to own any of those! It goes both ways, doesn't it? Fantastic, you love it and everything's easy. Or you can have ones that you totally hate because they've just been traumatic and awful. Classic cars are like that. 

GUS: I think it's interesting, with the old Land Rover that I run around in at the moment, which I bought off of Will actually a long time ago. But I've done a lot of work to it but it's a perfect example. So last week I put new belts on it, I put a new manifold on it. It was running really beautifully. I put all new ignition on it last week, running absolutely beautifully. I was driving my son to school and I thought (the fatal thought) wow, this is running great. And as soon as I said that the charge light came on. 

I I think it might be worth noting about some of the some of the cars that we did in in Series 3 because there was a lot. There were some amazing lessons in Series 3 and I think about something like the Rolls-Royce, I would never have wanted to own it. And I know Will did, but It was an amazing journey, it was a real voyage of discovery to understand and to get under the skin of that car was something very special. It was technology pulled in from all around the world, the best technology at the time. It was a wonderful, wonderful experience.  

Would you say the Rolls-Royce was your favourite banger from Season 3 then? 

WILL: That was definitely my favourites. Yes, absolutely. 

GUS: I don't know that it was my favourite. I think that there was a lot of cars in there, the MGF for example cars that I wouldn't even have looked at once upon a time. 

That again was a voyage of discovery because you understand how simple that car was, how simple that car is to fix (I know that cambelt wasn't quite that simple) but it was put together so that it could be fixed easily and I really appreciated that. I loved that in actual fact… As to which was my favourite car, I still probably think the one that gave us the most problems, which was the SLK, without a shadow of a doubt because it was again another journey but it was a technical journey and most of them are engineering journeys. They're spanner journeys. But this was a this was an electronic journey, and it blew our minds to the point where we didn't know what to do.  

Which banger would you say is a family must watch? 

WILL: With the Roles-Royce episode, it’s us having a proper good laugh together…it's like a good 10 minutes into the show before you even see the car for the first time, it’s so much banter. 

GUS: I think it's sweet though, because we're both genuinely invested in everything that we do and I think that comes across when I watch them now. We both have a passion for it and we like each other, so we want to help each other, we want to make it work. I mean, it was a classic case with the Rolls-Royce – Will wanted it, I didn't want it. I didn't see that we'd make any money out of it. I'm not saying I was right, but I wanted it to work for him. I think you watch them back; it shows that we're both interested. It shows that we're both human and I like that. I think you're right the Rolls-Royce episode sort of brings all that together.  

How do you feel about the price increase in classic cars over the last few years, particularly since starting filming? 

GUS: I suppose generally things are going to go up, aren't they? And isn't that just the sort of way of it? Other things come in at the bottom and other things go out at the top and that was the wonderful thing about Series 3. And I suppose if if we do Series 4, it'll be the same. We'll be looking again for those cars that have snuck off the bottom of that classic car list. I know a lot of the cars that we did would be considered classic. 

WILL: There’s one that will never fall off the bottom of the classic car list, and that's a series Land Rover, and we've not done one yet. So let's put one on the list… 

GUS: If you were looking at how prices have gone up, something like a basic Land Rover, which I mean not so much here, but certainly down where Will is West Country way and on the Isle of Wight, you see loads of them don't you, because they are they're a utilitarian vehicle. They are becoming not a utilitarian vehicle because I mean they are becoming so expensive a lot of people aren't going to be running around with muck or sheep in the back. They’re running around towns and being restored and they are worth money now. I think that is a bit of a shame. If you're asking for an opinion on that escalation of price, I would say that's a bit sad because they are a vehicle with a soul and they sort of need to be muddied, don't they? Really, they need to be being used. 

What do you think the fate of classic cars will be like in 50 years?  

WILL: Electric. I mean it's a very difficult question to answer because there's going to be so much. Of course, there's going to be a lot of the same as we're seeing at the moment there's certain amounts, you know, classic car, electrical classic car conversion. I think there's going to be a little bit more than that. I was seeing on the news last night that we're planning on doing away with the internal combustion engine in brand new cars by 2035, which is not that far away, is it?  

GUS: Well, there definitely will be more electric won't there. But if you think of the Land Rover again it would be very easy to put an electric motor in. But also, it would be very easy if they were available off the shelf for hydrogen motor into a Land Rover, it’s just easy to convert, so whatever engine is available you could put in it people would say it's all wrong, you can't have this engine in that car, but for me I don't really care what engines in there.

If you had to do a Europe Road trip in any classic that you’ve worked on throughout the series, what would it be? 

WILL: Well, that big Merc would be quite good, wouldn't it? 

GUS: The Merc from Series 2? 

WILL: Yeah, that would be awesome! You’re cruising along in a car that's built like a tank and there's parts for it available in scrap yards from almost every country you pass through! 

GUS: Yeah, you want to be able to get the parts, don't you? I think the Merc’s a good call actually. I'm just trying to desperately think of anything else that I would rather go in. I mean the 2CV because its so simple maybe and it would probably go on forever. 

WILL: That would be a nice car and it would be kind of fun and funny. When you, when you eventually get to, you know, either back home or the other end of it where you turn around and come back, if it's made it that far, you'd jump out of it and give it a good kiss! 

So I hear you are about to make your social media debut with a rap you’ve made highlighting significant moments from the series, and you’ve set a challenge- 1 million likes?! Tell us a bit more about this! 

GUS: Yeah, that’s a push for series four. I have an Instagram and I probably get 300 messages a week from all around the world where the programmes are on saying how much they love it, how much they love what we're doing! And it's humbling. We've got a flipping banger site and we get a thousand 1000 people a week saying how much they want to see Series 4, so I'm not ashamed to say that [our team] came up with the idea, I think it it's trying to portray what we've got between us, we're friends, we like each other. We love making the television series and we love the cars. Each car's a journey, and it clearly comes through because we get so much feedback – not that we've ever asked for it, but it's lovely and it's charming. So yeah, this came up and we were like, okay lets see what we can do. 

"I think there's certain moments when only a man hug will do!"

Finally, what’s one banger you’d absolutely love to flip?  

GUS: I'd love to do an old Renault 16. They're fabulously unfashionable. But they were so cool! 

WILL: Tell you what would be fun and this is more practical because nowadays I have a farm so some sort of you know classic commercial agricultural vehicle would be quite cool!

Catch Flipping Bangers on BLAZE every Sunday at 9pm! And don't forget you can watch episodes back-to-back this Fathers Day on Freesat channel 162!