Podcast

Freeman, Thanks so much for the informative and intimate portrait of your incredibly productive and fascinating career in design. I am astounded by the depth of your experience and the sincerity of your passion for design. Congratulations on your latest venture. I can't wait to see the first fruits of this new endeavor. Fred

 

Thanks for that, Freeman. Great interview. I am about a third of the way through it so far and shall watch the rest later.

I was very interested by what you said about the 964 and 993. I have had my 964 for almost 18 years now and shall probably keep it until I can no longer drive. I never wanted a 993, because to me it just didn't have enough of the 901 about it - it looked as though an elephant had sat on the front end! The 964 was for me the ideal compromise between old and new, and it still is.

 

It never ceases to amaze me the incredibly diverse and talented people we have in this group. Freeman of course does set the bar pretty high for the rest of us

 

I have seen the rest of the video now, Freeman, and can only stand in awe of your many achievements!

I knew you had had a hand in the 964 and that the new Beetle was down to you, but I did not know that you were responsible for the TT - to my mind, one of the outstanding designs of its era (in comparison to which its successors have been very disappointing). The freshness and originality of the TT were out of this world at a time when Audi styling was, to say the least, bland, and it was quite unlike anything that Audi had done before. I particularly loved the way it somehow conjured up images in my mind of the Auto Union grand prix cars of the 1930s.

I bought a TT when they put the V6 in it, mainly because I so admired the way it looked, inside and out (and I still do, every time I see one on the road). The driving experience was a bit disappointing, mainly because of the DSG box, which IMO wasn't nearly as good as all the contemporary write-ups suggested, but also because of the effect on the steering of the AWD (in fairness, it had to compete with my 964 C2, which I was using as my DD at the time - the TT was ostensibly my wife's car - so I was always making unfair comparisons). But from the aesthetic point of view, it was a true masterpiece - congratulations!

Here are some shots of mine, just by way of a reminder:

Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

Coming from you, Freeman, that is praise indeed!

May we have some photos of your car collection - perhaps in the "companion for your Dino thread"?

 

Thank you Freeman I just finished watching the entire 90 minutes a fascinating career so glad i was able to see this...you helped me greatly in getting my Dino a few years ago a great interview ...

 

Freeman, Great interview. As another air force brat that lived in Germany ( Ramstein Air base and the village of Siegelbach) from 1970-74, I developed a liking for European cars over their north american counterparts built at that time. Fred W.

 

Freeman, I can relate. The Persuaders got me hooked on the Dino. Crap program, I just watched it to get a glimpse of the car!!

 

How could you?!!! I watched every episode at the time and thought it was wonderful! With the benefit of hindsight, maybe I was not so discerning in my teens!

A friend of mine used to own this one, but I don't know what became of the Dino.

Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

I think we was easily pleased in those days!

 

I have just found one of the Persuaders episodes on Youtube and watched about 20 minutes of it to remind myself. Yes, you are right Tony - complete rubbish!!

 

The show was decidedly cornball (maybe that's where Roger Moore learned to play a snarky 007), but like many of you fellow Dino owners, my prime motivation for watching was to see Tony Curtis' Dino. The fact that it was shot in the south of France didn't hurt, however. Fred

 

Some of (quite a lot actually) the filming was carried out in London, I remember seeing the two cars on a trailer being taken to the film set one day, you could get quite close to them. Apparently TC was very approachable unlike RM.

 

My mother who was born a Curtis would invariably comment that Tony wasn't a "real" Curtis. She should have been flattered. Fred

 

Great interview, great stories about your life and work. Love to hear more !!

 

It was an absolute hit in Denmark. All families were gathered around the television every Saturday evening to watch a new episode of this fantastic thrilling series. Remember some countries, like Denmark, only had one state driven TV channel back then and fast cars, fist fights and lovely ladies were not an everyday occurrence. Looking at it today I feel embarrassed, absolutely waste of time!

Best regards Peter