Me and My Car: AJ and Curtis Pritchard

AJ and Curtis Pritchard are heading to this summer’s CarFest where they’ll be talking all things four-wheels at the family-focused event which takes place on August 23-25 in Laverstoke Park Farm in Hampshire.

They’ll also be helping to raise money for Sporting Bears, an organisation which helps support children’s charities through rides in dream cars with a variety of familiar faces in the passenger seat. So far, it has raised over £864,000 for UK children’s charities.

Here, the PA news agency chats to the pair about their lives in cars.

What was your first car?

Curtis: Our first car was a Vauxhall Corsa 1.2. We called it the Pritchard’s car because Mum and Dad had a dance school – Pritchard’s Dance Fitness Academy – and they had it plastered all over the side of it. One thing I did do was spend money on tinted windows, but apart from that Mum and Dad would never really let us kit out a car or something.

AJ: You’ve got to tint the windows.

What do you currently drive?

Curtis: I’ve got a Mercedes GLC350d. It’s a 2017 plate and is the most comfortable ride ever – I’m going to keep that thing until it dies on me. I love it to bits.AJ: I actually don’t have a car currently!

What would your dream car be?

Curtis: The Bentley Continental GT Speed is one of my dream cars. The Aston Martin DBX707 – as an SUV – is well in my three-car garage, alongside the Ferrari 296 GTB and maybe a Lamborghini Revuelto.AJ: I do like McLaren. So maybe a 765LT Spider, I like the kind of aero look. I feel like they’ve perfected that car in the way it looks and drives. But then I’d also like a classic and as a Mercedes person I’d say the 300 SL Gullwing. Just every single angle of that is perfect.

What do you listen to when you’re in the car?

Curtis: It depends on the journey. We do a lot of podcasts, so if I’m going to record a podcast that day, I’ll usually be listening to a lot of podcasts. I’ll listen to a lot of money talk. If it ain’t that, it’s music – easy fifties and easy sixties. You know, the Everly Brothers and all that sort of thing.AJ: We used to travel in the car for 40 to 50,000 miles in a year. And sometimes when we were dancing up and down the country, for me, I always liked to have silence. Sometimes I just put my noise-cancelling headphones on and it allows me to focus. When I’m in the car I do some of my best thinking. It’s something I’ve taught myself from the age of 12 – just be in a car, focus on what I need to focus on and get it done.

What annoys you most about other drivers?

Curtis: Sunday drivers. The people who are never in a rush and even in a 20mph zone they’ll go 10mph slower.

AJ: Mainly ‘brakers’. When they brake when there’s nothing around. If you just watch, people are just tapping their brakes when there’s nobody in front of you, or if there’s a corner about a mile ahead.

Curtis: That causes something called ghost traffic! When people brake ahead for no reason, what it does is cause an effect which gets bigger, bigger, bigger, bigger.

Did you pass your driving test first time?

Curtis: Yes.

AJ: Yes.

Do you consider yourself a good driver?

Curtis: Yes.

AJ: Yes.

Do you wash your own car?

Curtis: So… no I don’t. There’s a place across the road which washes cars and I just take it there. If I was in the countryside and I had an outside tap, then I’d probably wash it myself now and then.

AJ: But what’s ‘now and then’, Curtis? What time period is that? Every six months?!

Curtis: You’re pushing it there, AJ.

What would be a dream road trip?

Curtis: Andorra. I’d start driving from the Lake District, come through Cheshire, down to the port and then through European countries straight to Andorra because it has some beautiful roads. The windy roads, the view and the way you get there is phenomenal. Maybe some driving and a bit of skiing too. I think I’d take the Ferrari 296 GTB for that one.

AJ: I want to do the North Coast 500 in Scotland. That drive as a nice little road trip over a couple of days – nice and chill.