Home Podcasts The Car Nerd with Jason Hassett
The Car Nerd with Jason Hassett

The Car Nerd with Jason Hassett

Hassett Studios 68 Episodes Aug 20, 2026

A podcast dedicated to all things automotive, hosted by Jason Hassett. It explores classic cars, modern engineering, racing, Formula 1, and electric vehicles. The show has evolved over time, originally launching as 'The Grand Prick' and later 'Wheel Sports' before becoming 'The Car Nerd'. Episodes dive into the past, present, and future of the automotive world.

Episodes

Lancia 037: How Lancia Beat Audi With a Slower Car
Lancia 037: How Lancia Beat Audi With a Slower Car Aug 20, 2026 00:28:02 Group B Playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLlRHygh59386nA5Cost2pUW4p3OkNMlK7In January 1983, high in the mountains above Monte Carlo, men working for Lancia went out onto frozen rally stages in the middle of the night.They were spreading agricultural salt across the ice.Not because they were cheating.Because nobody had thought to write a rule saying they couldn't.Lancia was prepa
Noble M12: The £45,000 Car That Humiliated Porsche
Noble M12: The £45,000 Car That Humiliated Porsche Aug 18, 2026 00:31:38 In the summer of 2000, evo magazine strapped timing equipment to a British sports car almost nobody had heard of.It hit 60 mph in 4.1 seconds and 100 mph in 10.2—beating the Porsche 911 GT3, evo’s reigning Car of the Year.The Porsche cost £76,500.The Noble M12 cost £45,000.And its rear lights came from a Ford Mondeo.The M12 was built by Lee Noble, a self-taught engineer with no degree, almost no a
Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution: How 22-Years of Failure Built an Icon
Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution: How 22-Years of Failure Built an Icon Aug 13, 2026 00:30:14 In 1974, a four-door Japanese family saloon entered the most destructive rally on Earth.The East African Safari Rally covered roughly six thousand kilometres of flooded public roads, volcanic dust, mud, rocks and mechanical punishment. Porsche led—until its suspension collapsed. The car that came through to win was a Mitsubishi Lancer driven by Kenyan mechanic’s son Joginder Singh.It was Mitsubish
Alfa Romeo 166: The Most Miserable Car Ever Built
Alfa Romeo 166: The Most Miserable Car Ever Built Aug 11, 2026 00:32:51 In 2009, Glass’s Guide examined more than six thousand three-year-old cars in Britain to find which had lost their owners the most money.Second, third and fourth place were all Rovers—a brand that no longer existed.But the worst depreciating car wasn’t a Rover.It was the Alfa Romeo 166.An Italian executive saloon with double-wishbone suspension, one of the greatest V6 engines ever put into a road
Smart Car: The Most Expensive Mercedes Ever Made
Smart Car: The Most Expensive Mercedes Ever Made Aug 4, 2026 00:24:52 In 1993, the man who saved the Swiss watch industry decided to reinvent the car. Nicolas Hayek imagined a cheap, colourful electric runabout that people could personalise like a Swatch—small enough for two passengers, city streets, and, in his words, “two cases of beer.”Volkswagen dismissed it as an elephant’s roller skate. Mercedes-Benz agreed to build it.The result was one of the cleverest, stra
Ford RS200: The Fastest Failure in Racing History
Ford RS200: The Fastest Failure in Racing History Jul 30, 2026 00:24:20 Group B Playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLlRHygh59386nA5Cost2pUW4p3OkNMlK7In the Ford RS200, the engine sits behind the driver—but the gearbox sits ahead of him, down by his knees. Power travels the entire length of the car to the front, then turns around and comes back again.Ford built it this way to create the most perfectly balanced rally car possible. It spent more than £10 mil
Reliant Robin: The Car Built to Dodge the Taxman
Reliant Robin: The Car Built to Dodge the Taxman Jul 28, 2026 00:30:39 In 1972, a Grand Prix engineer who tuned Formula One cars for Graham Hill and Jackie Stewart sat down to design a cheap runabout for people who couldn't afford a real car. The result? A lightweight, three-wheeled fibreglass hatchback with an all-aluminium engine that saved its parent company and gave working-class Britain affordable independence.Yet decades later, this clever piece of engineer
1992 Suburu Impreza: The Car that Saved Suburu
1992 Suburu Impreza: The Car that Saved Suburu Jul 23, 2026 00:27:35 In 1993, Subaru was on the brink of collapse, burdened by crashing sales and oddball engineering. But out of this desperation emerged a compact, turbocharged blue-and-yellow icon that would permanently rewrite the rules of modern rallying. With a flat-four boxer engine and symmetrical all-wheel drive, the Impreza transformed Subaru from a struggling Japanese automaker into a World Rally Championsh
Austin Montego: The Masterpiece that Killed the British Car Industry
Austin Montego: The Masterpiece that Killed the British Car Industry Jul 21, 2026 00:34:12 The Austin Montego didn't just challenge the survival of British Leyland; it stood as a fascinating, flawed monument to the desperate final years of Britain’s state-owned automotive giant. In the mid-1980s, the World Rally Championship wasn't the only high-stakes automotive battlefield; the UK fleet market was a ruthless warzone dominated by Ford's Sierra and Vauxhall's Cavalier. W
Lancia Delta S4: The Car that Ended Group B
Lancia Delta S4: The Car that Ended Group B Jul 16, 2026 00:29:17 Group B Playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLlRHygh59386nA5Cost2pUW4p3OkNMlK7The Lancia Delta S4 didn't just challenge the visual and physical limits of rallying; it shattered them with a violent, twin-charged Italian swagger that completely rewrote the rules of motorsport. In the mid-1980s, the World Rally Championship was dominated by Audi's pioneering quattro system and Peu
Ferrari F40: The Last Car Enzo Ferrari Ever Approved
Ferrari F40: The Last Car Enzo Ferrari Ever Approved Jul 14, 2026 00:28:16 In the late 1980s, Ferrari faced a crisis of identity. Porsche had just unleashed the 959—a computer-controlled, four-wheel-drive technological marvel that snatched the title of the fastest production car on Earth. Witnessing this digital revolution from Maranello, an aging Enzo Ferrari grew desperate to take the crown back before he died. Rejecting the wrong future of electronic driving aids, he
Ferrari 288GTO: The Greatest Ferrari that Never Raced
Ferrari 288GTO: The Greatest Ferrari that Never Raced Jul 9, 2026 00:25:13 In 1984, the fastest road car on the planet emerged from Maranello wearing a badge Ferrari hadn’t touched in twenty years: GTO. This wasn't a cynical marketing exercise; it was a no-compromise machine engineered to dominate a radical new racing class. It qualified, it was built, and then—it never turned a wheel in anger. The category it was made for was banned overnight, leaving an incredibly

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