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Wheels & Deals with Sam Grange-Bailey
Welcome to Wheels & Deals, where we preserve the stories that shaped classic car culture.
Join Sam Grange-Bailey, The Old Car Lady, as she takes you back to the ’60s, ’70s, ’80s and early ’90s, when car dealers were true characters, every motor had personality, and relationships meant everything.
This podcast exists so that we don’t forget how wonderful this time was, so that these memories are preserved, these characters are remembered, and this remarkable period in automotive history continues to live on.
So tune in, buckle up, and let’s make sure these stories never fade away.
Wheels & Deals with Sam Grange-Bailey
Dealer's Wives | Horse Thieves, Smugglers & My Mum
This week on Wheels & Deals, I’m joined by a very special guest Pat Grange - My Mum! She was the woman behind the man, the dealer's wife who saw it all. From a respectable job in a bank to being told she was dating a "horse thief," her life was turned upside down by the charismatic car dealer Ian Grange.
We drive back to the hilarious and sometimes hair-raising stories of their life together. We talk about the glamour of driving Facel Vegas and the grit of having to clean 40 cars on a Saturday morning. From disastrous first dates in leaky Corvettes to crashing a Bentley Continental on Christmas Eve, my mum shares what it was really like to be married to the motor trade. It was a world of mink coats and midnight deliveries, where cash flow was king and you never knew what the next day would bring.
Pitstops:
- From banking to Bentley Continentals: Mum’s journey into the motor trade.
- The infamous Christmas Eve incident involving a Bentley, a brand-new garage door, and half a bottle of whiskey.
- The art of the deal: How a crashed Bentley was legally transformed into a Rolls-Royce Cloud III Continental Chinese Eye.
- The reality behind the glamour: Juggling cash flow, raising kids, and driving across the country to make mortgage payments.
- A dealer's wife's duties: The endless cycle of cleaning cars with T-Cut, doing the books, and being on call 24/7.
- Star-studded Christmas parties with Matt Monro, Bernard Manning, and scandalous strippers.
- Celebrity cars and dodgy deals: Stories of Rod Stewart’s Lamborghini Miura, King Hussein of Jordan’s bulletproof Lincoln, and questionable bodywork repairs.
A Nod to:
- Frank Dale & Stepsons
- Red Line Autos (Cheadle)
- The Piccadilly Hotel & The Midland Hotel (Manchester)
If we've mentioned you but missed you here, drop me a line at grangebaileys@gmail.com
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