S10 Ep9: Simon Gregson – Owning a Renault 5 Turbo at 18, lit the fire for my love of performance cars!

In the final episode of this series of Fuelling Around, Jason and Dave are joined by actor Simon Gregson who's played Steve McDonald in Coronation Street for the last 35 years! When he's not been out on the cobbles or propping up the bar in the Rovers Return, Simon has clearly been busy buying and selling cars, as he's certainly had plenty of stock over the last 3 decades! From a Renault 5 Turbo to a Ferrari 328, Simon's had them all and his car collection shows no sign of slowing down, as is apparent, as he walks the lads through his varied and eclectic garage!

He's the ultimate rock 'n' roll frontman, but Justin Hawkins from The Darkness also possesses a penchant for performance cars, and like his catsuits, he likes them to be exotic and flamboyant! This is a brilliant episode as Jason and Dave take a walk down Justin's memory lane of motors, and talk about his future days on track, now that he's passed his ARDS racing licence!

He's without doubt one of the biggest stars of YouTube, and has built a following of galactic proportions! Colin Furze is an engineer, an adventurer and a real life inspector gadget! He's built a secret bunker in his garden and an underground tunnel that links said bunker to his house, plus there's also a subterranean garage that will house his prized Delorean! Oh and he's a bit of a petrolhead as well, although Colin's approach to cars is like his approach to most things in life, ever so slightly unconventional! This is a brilliant episode and one to certainly watch, like and share, while not worrying too much about the lack of a traditional risk assessment!

He was brought up in his father's prestigious luxury car garage, but Tom Hartley Jnr had plans to create the ultimate car dealership trading the world's most exquisite classic and performance cars, and that's exactly what he's done from his base in the midlands! When you've sold individual rarities for more than £60m each and have your eyes set on several trillion pounds worth of future business deals, then this is clearly no ordinary garage, as Tom explains to Jason and Dave in this jaw dropping episode!

This week Jason introduces Dave to his old mate Dario Franchitti. Jason and Dario raced together when they were much younger, before Dario moved to the states to become a big name in Indy Car. He won the championship four times and the infamous Indy 500 three times, and despite some terrifying crashes, is still around to tell the tales. These days his life is a much more sedate one, and his success has afforded him a fantasy garage of automotive exotica, which he's happy to give the lads a tour of, 'provided it doesn't make me sound like a dick' he says, which of course it most certainly doesn't!

This week, Jason and Dave meet one of the brightest young stars in motorsports broadcasting, Sky and BBC Radio 5 Live commentator Harry Benjamin! Harry's been obsessed with F1 since he was a young boy, and to now be a significant part of the travelling world wide team, rubbing shoulders with the biggest names in the game is quite simply a dream come true, as he explains in this brilliantly entertaining chat!

On this week's episode, we meet YouTube and Instagram star Michal Fidowicz, whose online channel 'Candy Showroom' is gaining him a lot of attention. With a sense of style and a taste in clothes and cars that pre-dates his late 20s age bracket, Michal is making his own car content to a very high level. A sucker for old BMWs, Michal has already owned many motors and photographed significantly more, and his dream now is to ditch the day job and do this full time, as he explains to Jason and Dave.

Abbie Eaton is without doubt one of the most talented young racing drivers this country has ever produced, and her glittering collection of silverware is testament to her talents. In addition to the trophy cabinet, Abbie was selected to be the test driver on 'The Grand Tour' so has lived the dream of every car fan, and has the stories from those infamous trips to prove it! Ably assisted by her cat Elvis, this is a brilliant chat about a racing career that goes from strength to strength, even though Abbie has certainly had her fair share of hurdles to overcome along the way!

'Fuelling Around' is back for a tenth series, with Jason and Dave welcoming along another all star line up of notable petrolheads! First up, it's the smoothest of the smooth, DJ Trevor Nelson, who as well as knowing a thing or two about music as the host of Radio 2's prestigious afternoon show, is also a bit of a secret car nut! His early days of motoring were reassuringly humble like the rest of us, but these days, he has something a little bit special on his drive at home, and he's delighted to have the opportunity to talk about it properly! 

The final episode of the series sees Jason and Dave sit down with a man who rarely sits down, comedian Russell Kane! Russell is currently half way through an epic UK tour that has already seen him play about 60 dates this year, with the same scheduled for next year, and that doesn't take into account the podcasts, the interviews and the corporate gigs that he has to try and juggle as well! Away from that though and when he does have some time to himself, cars are a passion, and in particular 1980's modern classics! He loves old Fords and the motors of his Essex upbringing that rolled off the line at Dagenham, just down the road from his mum and dad's house, but has treated himself to a 1986 vintage BMW 5 series which is his pride and joy, and something he's only too happy to talk about!