Precision in Rallying: Brantz Timing Equipment with Victoria Coward
In this episode of the Backseat Driver podcast, we explore the intricate world of rally timing equipment with Victoria Coward, Director of Operations at Brantz. Victoria takes us through the fascinating history of In this episode of the Backseat Driver podcast, we explore the intricate world of rally timing equipment with Victoria Coward, Director of Operations at Brantz. Victoria takes us through the fascinating history of Brantz, from its origins in Yorkshire to its evolution under new ownership. She provides insight into the company’s role in rallying and how its precision timing equipment has become an essential tool for competitors. Our discussion highlights the critical role these devices play in navigation and performance, ensuring accuracy in the high-stakes environment of rally racing.
We also address the accessibility and usability of rally timing equipment, often perceived as complex by newcomers. Victoria explains how, with proper understanding and training, these tools can be incredibly effective in enhancing the driving experience. Whether you’re a seasoned rally competitor or just curious about the technology behind the sport, this episode sheds light on the importance of timing systems and their impact on modern rallying.
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Transcript
Anybody who has sat in a rally car, looked in a rally car or given any passing attention to a rally car will automatically have seen that the driver has one piece of equipment, mainly the steering wheel.
Speaker A:The co driver has far more equipment, one of the things he has.
Speaker A:And if you look in the car at the passenger side, you will invariably see one or two black boxes mounted on the dashboard with bright red numbers on them.
Speaker A:This is the rally timing equipment.
Speaker A:Now, those out there who know me will know I tried coal driving and made such a hash of it.
Speaker A:Time and equipment still remains, shall we say, a mystical item to me.
Speaker A:But today I'm sat with Victoria Coward, who is the sales manager for one of the most famous timing equipment companies in the world, Brandts.
Speaker A:Victoria, welcome to the backseat driver.
Speaker B:Thank you very much.
Speaker B:Thank you for inviting me.
Speaker A:What is the history of Brants?
Speaker A:Because we were talking four one ton air.
Speaker A:There used to be another famous brand which more or less went out of existence and Brandts have very, very capably filled the gap.
Speaker A:But where did it all start for Brandts?
Speaker B:It started up in Yorkshire.
Speaker B:A Yorkshireman set up the company in.
Speaker A:Nothing wrong with that.
Speaker B: is Yorkshire station, around: Speaker B:Yeah, he carried that on and made it a very successful brand and came to retire.
Speaker B: I think he retired in about: Speaker B:He wrote and offered to sell us the company and we bought it.
Speaker B:And carried on his good work.
Speaker A:And carried on his good work.
Speaker A:So where was he?
Speaker A:It was originally based in Yorkshire than I concluded it was.
Speaker C:Yes.
Speaker A:And now it's moved to Matlesfield.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:Brought it all down here.
Speaker A:Brought it all down.
Speaker A:So, I mean, how did you come to acquire brands?
Speaker A:I mean, you said he.
Speaker A:He rang up and he.
Speaker A:And do you want to buy this?
Speaker A:Because it wasn't a business you were in, your company was involved in, was it?
Speaker B: ed circuit boards again since: Speaker B: Well, not me personally since: Speaker B:We've made printed circuit boards for everybody.
Speaker B:And this letter just arrived on our doorstep one day that was selling Bramps.
Speaker A:And Typical blunt Yorkshireman.
Speaker A:Do you want to buy this?
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker B:Do you want to buy this?
Speaker B:Yeah, that's it.
Speaker B: cars from his very first car,: Speaker B:And, yeah, all he's owned a couple of Ali Quattros, the early.
Speaker B: Early: Speaker B:So it piqued his interest and he was like, oh, this could be interesting.
Speaker B:I've heard of brands.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker B:So he went up to take a look and thought, yeah, we can fit this in with what we do.
Speaker B:So we've incorporated it into our manufacturing company and went from there.
Speaker B:Really?
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker A:So, I mean, you were saying, like, your stepfather had classic cars.
Speaker A:You would have grown up with these cars around you, then?
Speaker B:To a degree, yes, I did, yeah.
Speaker B:I was always being taken to school in a.
Speaker B:In a different classic car every day, just to see.
Speaker B:Yeah, he.
Speaker B:Yes, he did.
Speaker B:He's.
Speaker B:I think there's still an MG MGB V8 outside in the car park.
Speaker B:Yeah, he's still got his very first mga.
Speaker B:It's in the garage at home.
Speaker B:So, yes, we've always got one.
Speaker B:My very first car was an mgb.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker B:I was formerly my mum's, but they resprayed it for my birthday and gave it me.
Speaker B:So I think I mentioned before that it was.
Speaker B:It made me a very cool kid in school.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker B:Driving to school in that.
Speaker A:So the interesting cars was there and the interesting competition was there.
Speaker A:Or was it just the cars first and then the competition?
Speaker B:It was, yeah, it was just the cars, you know, just grown up around it and.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker B:And then once we kind of took on the Brandt's name, we kind of started looking into.
Speaker B:Looking into the competition.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker A:So do you rally?
Speaker A:I mean, it's got to be the question, somebody who sells rallying equipment, do you actually compete yourself?
Speaker B:Not seriously.
Speaker B:I like to dabble and if I had more time and more money, I would definitely, definitely do more of it.
Speaker B:I've had a.
Speaker B:Had a couple of goes in different events and had a really good time.
Speaker B:Learned some valuable lessons.
Speaker B:Like, always tie your hair back because as soon as you slam the brakes on, you can't see anything because all your hair is in your face.
Speaker B:So.
Speaker A:So what.
Speaker A:What do you compete in when you do compete?
Speaker B:We have.
Speaker B:Because I had a fondness for MGBs, because that was my very first car.
Speaker B:We have an MGB that's kitted out with all the bronze equipment.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker B:Ready and waiting for me to have enough time and enough money to go.
Speaker A:And because you're involved, because, I mean, I always see you, like, at race retro, you're invariably on the hero stand, the historic endurance rally.
Speaker A:Organization.
Speaker A:So, I mean, they are the perfect, shall we say, organisation for brands to be involved with, aren't they?
Speaker B:They are.
Speaker B:And the.
Speaker B:The key thing that they do is training days.
Speaker C:Yes.
Speaker B:Which are really good.
Speaker B:So.
Speaker B:Because they're bringing new people in.
Speaker B:So our job is to make it look less daunting for the navigator because it's often newbies when they arrive and they're like, oh, there's so much going on, I don't know what to do.
Speaker B:But we're there to show our equipment and how easy it is to use and, you know, don't panic.
Speaker B:So making it easy for them so they have a good experience.
Speaker A:I mean, I can remember when I tried coal driving to be told and shouted at by the driver.
Speaker A: iving again back in the early: Speaker A:Don't touch that.
Speaker A:You shouldn't have pressed that.
Speaker A:What are you doing?
Speaker A:And I said, well, I think you better sit this side.
Speaker A:I'll stick to the bit.
Speaker A:I know, the steering wheel.
Speaker A:I mean, at times they can look a bit daunting, can't they?
Speaker B:They can, I think, you know, it's the mass of buttons and they've got so many instructions in front of them.
Speaker A:But, yeah, I was once handed the book to a Bron.
Speaker A:There you are.
Speaker A:It was like War and Peace.
Speaker A:Had he go, you think, am I mean to read all this?
Speaker B:Oh, no, you don't.
Speaker B:You don't need it.
Speaker A:It's honestly toggle switches, like an AIR model instruction pamphlet.
Speaker A:The first thing you do with that is throw it away.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:You don't need it.
Speaker B:It's so simple.
Speaker B:It's so simple to work, so simple to calibrate.
Speaker B:It's.
Speaker B:It's amazing.
Speaker B:But.
Speaker A:But besides these, as a rule, they tend to be like a black crackle finish box with the red LEDs on them.
Speaker A:How exactly do they work and what do they tell you?
Speaker A:Because they'll tell you more than one thing, won't they?
Speaker B:They will.
Speaker B:Predominantly, they will just tell you your distance, your total distance you're traveling and the intermediate distance between sections that you need to travel.
Speaker A:It's a cumulative total as such, and then how far you've traveled.
Speaker A:Because on navigation rallies or all rallies, you know to a degree, how far turn left and how far to go before you turn right.
Speaker A:So that's like the little intermediate.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:So particularly on tulip type instructions, that will always give you.
Speaker B:It'll always give you your cumulative distance and then distance to the next junction, at which point you're shouting at the Driver going, we're going to be turning right any second, turning right.
Speaker B:And then the driver's like, which direction are we get right?
Speaker B:That sort of thing.
Speaker B:So it gives you those instructions all fed from a sensor.
Speaker B:So it's all gathering this information from any type of sensor mounted on your vehicles.
Speaker A:So how does it mount?
Speaker A:Because I always knew, thought that they mounted to either a wheel or the gearbox or the speedo.
Speaker A:I've heard various stories about how these things coupled the car.
Speaker B:There's a variety of different ways and it really depends on your personal preference of fitting as well as the type of car.
Speaker B:So you can fit it on a wheel, so it picks up off the bolts on a brake disc.
Speaker B:So as the wheel turns, it picks up the rotations.
Speaker B:You can fit it on the speedo cable.
Speaker B:So, so as your speedo cable turns, there's a little gripper in there and it sends.
Speaker A:But it's not affected by going faster.
Speaker A:Because I mean, the one thing about a speedo is it goes up and down as you go faster and slower.
Speaker B:It does.
Speaker B:Sometimes it tends to blah, blah, blah.
Speaker B:No, it calculates it all and it knows exactly the distance.
Speaker B:So when you calibrate it at the beginning of any event, you will tell the trip meter the number of revolutions on your speedo.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker B:Correlates to a set distance.
Speaker B:So all it does is count them like the revolutions of that cable, regardless of how fast or how slow you're going.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker B:So it knows exactly what you're doing.
Speaker B:Yeah, the, the wheel sensor is great if you do a lot of wheel spinning because if you fit it to a non driven wheel, drivers tend to like wheel spinning.
Speaker B:Funnily enough, I don't know why.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker A:Rally driver.
Speaker A:So, yeah, I have heard the tale that if it's fit to the wrong wheel, you've actually technically gone nowhere.
Speaker A:But the, the trip meters have counted.
Speaker A:You've done about quarter of a mile with all the wheel spin.
Speaker B:Definitely, definitely heavy right foot when that, when that happens.
Speaker B:But yeah, so we recommend the non driven wheel.
Speaker B:So you don't pick up any extra wheel spin.
Speaker B:But so that's good.
Speaker B:Also you mentioned the gearbox.
Speaker B:Yep.
Speaker B:You can screw them into the gearbox with the speedo cable on the other side.
Speaker B:Yeah, we always recommend a mechanical sensor.
Speaker B:They're the, the best sensors to fit for accuracy.
Speaker B:We, we do GPS sensors as well, which are brilliant for plug and go.
Speaker B:If you just want to sample a bit of rally and you don't want to install it all into your car.
Speaker B:Yeah, just, you know, take a plug and go kit and stick it in your windscreen.
Speaker A:Well, I think I admitted before we went on air and I, I saw your eyes roll.
Speaker A:You can actually get something a little bit similar for the complete imbecile.
Speaker A:That is an app on your phone and to a degree it does work.
Speaker A:But if you need to get technical.
Speaker A:No, it doesn't work.
Speaker B:Yeah, the, the GPS one sensors that we supply are extremely accurate, knowing exactly the distance.
Speaker B:If you've ever tried to look at the GPS location on your phone, sometimes it thinks you're in the middle of a field, sometimes it thinks you're on the road.
Speaker B:It's never quite sure.
Speaker B:Whereas these ones, when I came here.
Speaker A:This morning with the gps, he said, you're here.
Speaker A:I thought, I'm not.
Speaker B:Yes, that, that can be the problem.
Speaker B:So, yeah, we have.
Speaker A:But the beauty of those is you don't need to actually physically attach.
Speaker A:Well, you attach them to the car, the modern ones by like suckers and things like that.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:The proper ones, the big bramps actually are screwed to the car, aren't they?
Speaker B:They are.
Speaker A:You can't really just have them.
Speaker A:You can't really handle these things.
Speaker B:No, no.
Speaker B:The design is that they're a permanent fix for rally cars that are set up as rally cars.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker B:We do do a variety of mounting options.
Speaker B:If you don't want to permanently fix it, you don't have to, you know, if you want to be able to remove it, unplug it, remove it.
Speaker B:Parc vermeil.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker B:You know, not leave it in overnight.
Speaker A:I suppose.
Speaker A:I mean, it's a terrible thing to say, but I suppose they are something that people will look to steal, aren't they?
Speaker A:Because at night time when it's dark, they're all lit up.
Speaker A:You can see these things.
Speaker B:I know, yeah.
Speaker A:They advertise their presence.
Speaker B:Some people do like to steal everything.
Speaker B:I mean, they'd have to find the right audience to sell them to.
Speaker B:You're not going to get very far down your high street.
Speaker B:But so, yeah, they're removable.
Speaker B:So you can take them away for storage and you know, if you put your car in storage over winter, you can just take them out.
Speaker A:So the power, where do they draw their power from?
Speaker B:It's a 12 volt power supply.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker B:So just take the power from the, from the battery.
Speaker A:So it comes from the car's battery.
Speaker B:Just the car's own battery.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker A:How many types of Brandts are there?
Speaker A:Because you look in the.
Speaker A:You'll see the word Brants on these little black boxes, but they don't all look alike.
Speaker A:There's quite a few different ones.
Speaker A:And all the different ones.
Speaker A:What's the difference and why is the difference?
Speaker B:So there's three main categories of Brandt's trip meters.
Speaker B:The first one is the Brants retrotrip, which is the properly historic type of trip meter that's based on the old Halder system, which are mechanical counters.
Speaker B:Clicking along and you can, you can hear the clicks.
Speaker B:Some people say that the clicking is.
Speaker B:Drives them insane, but other people say they can really regulate their speed because they can hear that clicking and they know what speed they're going.
Speaker B:Like hearing it in their head.
Speaker A:I never thought of that.
Speaker A:Nobody's ever said that before.
Speaker A:You can if you.
Speaker A:Yeah, if you're clicking, if you tune.
Speaker B:Into it, you know, clicking gets faster.
Speaker A:You know you're going too fast.
Speaker B:Going too fast.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:You're probably not maintaining your average speed.
Speaker A:Because some of the very early ones weren't LEDs worthy.
Speaker A:They were like.
Speaker A:It's like what you might call the combination lock on a briefcase or a suitcase.
Speaker A:Something like that.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:So they're, they're the old, the retrochip systems with the, the counters that kind of look like old gas meter.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker B:You know those types of rotating numbers and they're really popular in the, in the much older cars.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker B:You know the pre war cars particularly popular.
Speaker B:Or for events that have very strict regulations where you're only allowed mechanical type of trip meters, where you can't fiddle with the numbers, you can't nudge it forwards or nudge it back.
Speaker B:If you, if you've gone wrong, that's it.
Speaker B:You just have to work with it and panic your navigator some more.
Speaker B:So.
Speaker B:So that kind of range, we do a little one and a bigger one.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker B:That's for people that really want stuff to look weird in their car.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:But they're the same thing initially, but the ones just smaller ones just big.
Speaker C:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker A:Funnily enough, you mentioned that I once did one event and I was told by my co driver before we set off the watch you wear.
Speaker A:Yes.
Speaker A:Is it quartz?
Speaker A:Backward?
Speaker A:No, it's mechanical.
Speaker A:Are you all right?
Speaker A:Because the organizer was so strict, no member of the crew could actually wear a quartz watch.
Speaker A:You could wear a mechanical watch, but you couldn't wear a quartz watch.
Speaker A:That's how strict they were.
Speaker A:Because back when that event ran as a international event, quartz watches and such like that weren't in existence.
Speaker B:Wow.
Speaker A:So you had to wear mechanical watches.
Speaker B:Yeah, we, we sell a lot of these retrochip versions into Europe Yeah, it's quite unusual in Europe they seem to have quite free for all events where you're allowed all sorts of equipment.
Speaker B:People have laptops in their cars to help them.
Speaker B:But also they do the much stricter events where you're really only allowed like mechanical.
Speaker B:Non.
Speaker B:Yeah, Fiddle proof trip meters.
Speaker A:So moving, moving on.
Speaker A:Within the range, I conclude you'll produce like the digital ones as such will be cars from like cars like 70s and 80s Group B cars because they used to carry plethora of this equipment.
Speaker A:You looked at the co driver's seat like, look at, look, look at the side of the Equattro that Fabrizio Pons sat in when she was with Michel Bouton and it was just a bank of electronics.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:So that would be our international range.
Speaker B:That is probably our most iconic range.
Speaker B:That is when you're, you look in a.
Speaker B:Look in a car in the cockpit and you see the, the red glow.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker B:That you know, is a Brandt's trip meter.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:Coming out of there.
Speaker B:And that is exactly for that era of cars that's the most famous.
Speaker A:What does it all do?
Speaker B:It's, I mean it's basically still just the trip meter.
Speaker B:It's still telling them the distance, the total distance, the intermediate distance.
Speaker B:And we have the stopwatches that go with it to help people calculate their average speed.
Speaker A:Oh, these are digital stopwatches.
Speaker B:These are digital stopwatches that go alongside the trip meters.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker B:Because obviously at any set distance you need to be there at a set time.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker B:To help you get your average speed.
Speaker B:So the stopwatches that we manufacture, you know, fit perfectly alongside.
Speaker B:They've got the matching digits so it looks like a, a display that is suited for that era.
Speaker A:Most of your customers, I mean will they fit their own or do brands fit them for them or do you supply to companies who can, who know how to fit them?
Speaker A:Because there will be an art and a skill to fitting a brand trip meter, rally meter.
Speaker B:There is, but we generally say that, you know, if you, if you know your car and if you're mechanically minded you can fit them, then they're not that hard to fit.
Speaker B:We tend not to fit them because most people have a preferred garage or they like to look after their cars themselves.
Speaker B:You know, you, you don't want to trust somebody with your classic car, don't you?
Speaker B:So they have a preferred garage.
Speaker B:So we all supply a lot to garages and they will fit them.
Speaker B:It's simply installing the sensor, getting a power supply.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker B:Putting the leads in the right place and mounting it where you want it.
Speaker B:So everybody has a very specific place that they want it.
Speaker B:They want it just right for their rallying experience.
Speaker A:Well, I say, I conclude some cars, you'll have to talk to the owner to a degree, because what they want to fit may not fit the car they want to fit it in.
Speaker A:Because you look at certain cars and the dashboard may not be the right size for what they want to install.
Speaker A:So I conclude you have to discuss with them or can you custom make them if they want them?
Speaker B:We tend to discuss with them what they want and I love that part of the job.
Speaker B:I love the fact that we're a company that's there and you're able to phone up and talk to us and get it exactly what you want.
Speaker B:Because we manufacture here in this building in Macclesfield, we can custom make stuff.
Speaker B:So if people want buttons in a different place or cables in a different place, we can do that if they want.
Speaker B:That's not an issue.
Speaker B:And, yeah, it's great to talk to the customer because it's so much better that they get something exactly how they want it.
Speaker A:And the other thing is, you were saying you do courtesy of Hero, you give lessons to people on how these things work, don't you?
Speaker B:We do, yes.
Speaker B:Yeah, In a variety.
Speaker A:When I used to sit in front of them and I verbally used to press something I shouldn't to press to be told, you zeroed that off.
Speaker A:Why have you done that?
Speaker A:We don't know how far we've gone.
Speaker A:I don't know.
Speaker A:You just said press that.
Speaker A:You give lessons.
Speaker A:And are they as complicated to use as they may at first look, or is that just the big international stuff?
Speaker B:No, they're really not complicated.
Speaker B:And that is mainly the point of the lesson, because they look at them and they're like, oh, I don't know.
Speaker B:There's buttons.
Speaker B:There's buttons.
Speaker B:But you show them.
Speaker A:And what do all the buttons do?
Speaker B:Very simple things.
Speaker B:So the toggle switches, you can freeze the total distance.
Speaker B:So you're mid rally and you need to go to get some petrol.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker B:Or you need the toilet to pull in, freeze the distance so you can carry on the event and unfreeze it when you go back on track.
Speaker B:So you've not lost any distance at all.
Speaker C:Right.
Speaker B:So that's.
Speaker B:Yeah, that's a really simple thing to just be able to do to freeze it.
Speaker B:Yeah, it's got a count up countdown button, which is probably the most crucial button on the whole thing, because when you shoot past your Slot, and you're like, oh, no.
Speaker B:They're like, I think maybe we should have gone right back there.
Speaker A:Because on the big rallies, even 100 yards out is a serious amount of distance out.
Speaker B:It is, yeah.
Speaker B:Especially when the tulips are so accurate.
Speaker B:You know, there's a right.
Speaker B:There's two right turns, and they're 0.01 of a distance apart.
Speaker B:And you know you've got to be spot on.
Speaker B:So that toggle switch on the front, everything's panicking.
Speaker B:You flick the toggle switch, turn around, come back, it will get rid of that extra distance as you.
Speaker A:All right.
Speaker A:So it'll count itself backwards for you.
Speaker B:It'll count itself backwards until you get to the right slot, flick it back up, and away you go, and you're back on track.
Speaker B:Sometimes distances do drift out a little bit.
Speaker B:Drivers like to cut corners.
Speaker B:I don't know why that is, but I tend to do that.
Speaker B:I like to take the racing line when the people that set out the course didn't take the racing line.
Speaker B:So a little stepper knob on it.
Speaker B:So if you get to a T junction, that's a perfect spot, and you notice your total distance is a little bit out, you can just twist a little step knob and tweak the distance and bring it back in line.
Speaker A:All right.
Speaker B:So that, you know, you set off again and everything is spot on, and it's really easily accessible.
Speaker B:Glorious tactile switches.
Speaker B:You know, there's something very satisfying about physical switches these days rather than touch screens.
Speaker B:It just, you know, gives you something to feel like you've actually.
Speaker A:Yeah, because, I mean, that is one thing when you do.
Speaker A:The average car club navigation rally is approximately 150 to 175 miles in distance.
Speaker A:You can tell when you're looking at the road book how accurate when the distance is, how accurate the guy who plotted the route speedo was.
Speaker A:Or you can tell if more than one vehicle was used because they tend not to use things like brands.
Speaker A:They will use the trip meter in the car.
Speaker A:And when you're working on precision distance, it suddenly comes as a surprise or a revelation that trip meters in cars, even though they're digital these days, are not 100% accurate.
Speaker B:No, they're not.
Speaker B:Especially with modern cars.
Speaker B:The sensors that they use in modern cars often don't pick up at a very slow speed.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker B:So if you crawl along, you'll notice that your speedo will just stay on zero.
Speaker A:All right.
Speaker B:So it's not actually.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker B:Counting any distance at all.
Speaker B:So it's a Bit deceiving.
Speaker B:In modern cars, the sensors aren't quite as accurate.
Speaker A:So do you find a lot of rally organizers will use a car with a branch fitted to do this, to make sure.
Speaker B:Yes, they will.
Speaker B:They will generally always have some of our equipment fitted.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker B:Either the.
Speaker B:The Brands International range or the other range that we do, which is a laser 3 range that's generally used more for stage rallying because it has lots more functions in it.
Speaker B:It has a fuel gauge and acceleration measurements, 0 to 30 acceleration and all that.
Speaker B:But it has like a.
Speaker B:It just has increased accuracy and it's a little bit smaller in size.
Speaker A:So why would somebody want to know their acceleration?
Speaker B:I don't know.
Speaker A:I tend to know if I'm accelerating hard or soft by the sheer feel of the car.
Speaker B:Yeah, that's what I would go with.
Speaker B:This feels like I'm accelerating enough.
Speaker B:Oh, no, actually, more.
Speaker B:I want to go faster.
Speaker A:Now, since these are so popular and we were saying, like classic rallying, historic rallying and everything else they are, Bronx has become virtually the thing.
Speaker A:Which of the famous names use them?
Speaker A:Do you know anybody who uses them, who's well known?
Speaker B:We've.
Speaker B:We've been fortunate enough to fit out lots of cars for lots of very important events.
Speaker B:We've.
Speaker B:We've fitted out the whole of the Jaguar Heritage Racing team.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker B:Which were some incredibly impressive cars for the Mele Melee.
Speaker C:Oh, yeah.
Speaker B:And they've.
Speaker B:They've kept them in their vehicles.
Speaker A:All right.
Speaker B:So they always get in celebrities to come and drive their cars.
Speaker C:So.
Speaker B:Like Kate Martin.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker B:Jay Leno, a variety of different people.
Speaker B:I wrote some people down, like Martin Brundle, Bruno Senna, Jody Kidd, James Martin, the chef.
Speaker B:So they've all driven.
Speaker A:Well, at least we can say his privilege worked.
Speaker A:His Maserati did.
Speaker B:Yeah, very true.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:Things that broke down.
Speaker B:So a lot of famous people on that part have driven them.
Speaker B:But closer to home, the, you know, the bangers and Cash, the Mathewsons.
Speaker B:I think it's Dave, he has a branch trip meter in his car and Jack has one.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker B:So, yeah, there's.
Speaker B:There's.
Speaker B:I mean, there's so many people, we don't always know who they.
Speaker B:Who they end up with, but they are the trip meter of choice.
Speaker A:Now, there is.
Speaker A:I won't mention the name, you can if you want, but there is a trip meter out there that doesn't require cables.
Speaker A:It does it all via satellite.
Speaker A:And the beauty of that is there's no wires, apart from the.
Speaker A:What you might call the aerial to the box that's the only wire.
Speaker A:Do you produce anything similar to that and how accurate are that type of trip meter?
Speaker B:Yes, we do a GPS bundle.
Speaker B:So that is really good for people that want to just try out rallying.
Speaker B:So, you know they want to go on a, a scenic tour or something like that.
Speaker B:Yeah, just have a go.
Speaker B:It means you don't have to mechanically fit anything into your vehicle.
Speaker B:You just mount it on the windscreen, put the sensor in the dash and away you go.
Speaker B:It's brilliantly easy.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker B:The GPS systems that we use are much more accurate than say your mobile phone.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker B:So they are very good.
Speaker B:But they will be, they will be subject to the issues that the other ones have.
Speaker B:If you go through a tunnel, it would have to estimate how far you've gone.
Speaker B:So.
Speaker A:Because I know I was saying, one system I use mentions again, the mobile phone app.
Speaker A:There's certain parts of the world, like the Lake District and parts of the Yorkshire Dales where you lose, you lose signal to your phone, which means you suddenly lose your trip meter.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:So the GPS system, it's not just GPS system, it's a GLONASS system.
Speaker B:So like the Russian system, the Chinese system.
Speaker B:So there's an awful lot of satellites that it picks up on.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker A:So it's not looking for a mobile phone master.
Speaker B:No.
Speaker B:So you're gonna have more luck than you would do with your mobile phone, that's for sure.
Speaker B:There will always be some satellites to pick up from.
Speaker B:It's just as the satellites get fewer, then the accuracy decreases, which is where the mechanical sensor comes in.
Speaker B:And you will find that most people will take the GPS system just to try out and move on to mechanical and maybe have the gps.
Speaker A:I suppose the beauty of that is if you can put it on the windscreen and dashboard with suckers you don't need, you can transfer it from car to car.
Speaker B:You can, yeah.
Speaker B:If you've got multiple different vehicles and you just want to have a go in each one, you can just transfer it between them and off you go and have fun.
Speaker B:Quickly and easily, really.
Speaker A:Is there any difference in operating a, a digital satellite powered one compared to a full blown trip meter?
Speaker B:Nope, none at all.
Speaker B:Not with our equipment anyway.
Speaker B:You, there is a standard calibration figure for GPS so that you can just put that in and go.
Speaker A:So it doesn't do it itself.
Speaker A:You've got to set it up, have you?
Speaker B:No, it would come set up like that, however, if you wanted.
Speaker B:Unlike any other GPS system out there that I'm aware of.
Speaker B:Trip meter Wise, you can tune in your GPS calibration.
Speaker B:So at the beginning of events a lot of organizers will provide a measured distance and you can calibrate your GPS trip meter to that distance.
Speaker A:I know, I mean one of the car clubs, I'm a member of the Iltlian District, good old Yorkshire Club.
Speaker A:If you're doing any of their events on your way to the start or the gathering area, you'll be told, look for this lamp post.
Speaker A:Because a particular lamp post will have a sign on it and it'll probably say start a measured mile.
Speaker A:You drive, you potter along and eventually you'll find another lamp post that says end of measured mile.
Speaker A:And that is a perfect mile distance.
Speaker A:So you'll use that.
Speaker A:So I conclude you set your trip meter off, you zero it at the start.
Speaker A:When you get to the end of the mire, what do you do?
Speaker A:Unless it says you've done that.
Speaker A:Exactly.
Speaker A:Mild.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:Can you alter it to and fro?
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:So when you get to that end point, it'll come up with a reading.
Speaker B:And if you're, if this is the first time you calibrate it.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker B:It'll have a three digit reading in the screen.
Speaker B:Simply transfer that three digit reading into the calibration figures and that's it.
Speaker B:Trip me to calibrated regardless of.
Speaker A:So it'll work, It'll work it out itself.
Speaker B:It'll just work it out from that.
Speaker A:And the good old fashioned ones, I conclude you just, you turn a dial to turn it back or turn it forward or advance it, you do something with it so it knows.
Speaker A:So you can tell it that, that.
Speaker A:No, that's the mile.
Speaker B:The, the old mechanical ones are actually still calibrated the same way.
Speaker B:Because ours are.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker B:Because they're electromechanical.
Speaker B:Because they still work off all the same sensors.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker B:They get an electric feed up to a mechanical counter.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker B:So there's still the printed circuit board in there, works it all out.
Speaker C:Right.
Speaker A:So I once got told with some of the very early ones, you like, open the box up and put different counters in them.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:So those ones you have to have different.
Speaker B:You have to have a vast array of cogs to hand in order to.
Speaker A:Like the Enigma machine.
Speaker B:I know, that's what I think of when people describe it to me.
Speaker B:I mean I'm a little bit young to remember those, but yes, it seemed like a complicated process and you needed a lot of cogs.
Speaker B:That's what I get from the stories.
Speaker A:So in many ways then using a branch, it isn't the shall we say shrouded in mist world that a lot of people think it is.
Speaker A:As I said, when I used to get asked to be called driver, you say no, no chance of you getting me near anywhere near one of them things.
Speaker B:No, no, not at all.
Speaker B:Honestly.
Speaker B:Just press the red button, go to the next junction.
Speaker B:Press the red button.
Speaker B:Yeah, that is, that's all you need.
Speaker B:And that's why we love training days.
Speaker B:We last the end of last month we did a training day for the hrcr.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:Again, just showing people how simple it was.
Speaker B:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker A:One question that has to be asked, if you don't mind.
Speaker A:What, what do they cost?
Speaker A:Because I mean this is, this is technical equipment and it don't come cheap.
Speaker B:No, it's varying cost, depends on how much you want to add on.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker B:So we start with the basic equipment which is about 250 pound plus fat.
Speaker B:A trip meter.
Speaker B:Yeah, but there's lots of add ons that you don't always need.
Speaker B:I mean the basic stuff you need a trip meter, a sensor and a 2amp inline fuse.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker B:And that's all you need.
Speaker B:Trip meters, 250, the sensors about 40 and a fuse, whatever price of a fuse.
Speaker B:So that's it, that's all we really need to get going.
Speaker B:But there's, there's lots of add ons after that.
Speaker B:So it does go up and we try and keep costs down.
Speaker B:But we are a UK manufacturing company, we try and support other UK manufacturing companies.
Speaker B:We source as much as we can from the UK and keep people employed here.
Speaker B:So it's tricky keeping costs down.
Speaker B:I'm not sure the government support UK manufacturing that much, but we try and that's our aim.
Speaker B:We make everything fully repairable and you know, keep things going as long as possible.
Speaker A:Now the interesting thing is you mentioned UK manufacturing before we finish Brantz.
Speaker A:How did it get its name?
Speaker B:So the Yorkshireman we spoke of earlier wanted to set up this company and as far as I'm aware he was trying to think of names and during the era when he was setting up Germany were having a big promotion to make everything as good as high quality, standard as they could.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker B:He thought he's going to come up with a name that just sounds a little bit German to make people think that it's going to be really high quality.
Speaker B:And it was.
Speaker B:And to be fair, today it is extremely high quality.
Speaker B:You know, that's the joy of making something in the uk.
Speaker B:You can spec it how you want and ensure the quality and ensure that it's going to last for 30 years.
Speaker B:Not many electronic items you buy now.
Speaker A:Very true.
Speaker B:For 30 years.
Speaker A:German by name, but Yorkshire by origin.
Speaker B:Yes.
Speaker A:Now based in Cheshire.
Speaker A:Macclesfield, to be precise.
Speaker A:Victoria Coward of Brance Rally Meters.
Speaker A:Thanks so much for joining me on the backseat, driver.
Speaker B:No worries.
Speaker B:Thank you again.
