Racing champ, Jason Plato stars in popular short film with super fan

In ‘ Cars That Made The 90s - Season 1‘, with over 310k views on YouTube, Plato spoke about the start of his career in the 90s and what stands out about that decade for him.

“The 90s is arguably the coolest period ever,” he began.

“Looking at the 90s, it was the birth of some new sectors in the market and cars were different then, you know, each brand had a very different feel and look.”

“Cars became cool then.”

As a champion with multiple titles, Jason’s career has come a long way since the beginning.

“I first got involved in racing cars in 89 - I went to a really famous racing school in France called The Windfield Elf,” he told Influx’s audience.

“Up to the point I was there, in like 89, they had 27 former students go on to become F1 drivers - Prost, Arnoux, some bloke called Damon Hill, Jack Laffite, Patrick Tambay, and the list goes on.”

“And I guess that was kind of the era when I really got into road cars.”

Continuing, he said; “I was facing the wrong way quite a few times on the highway so, that era of cars - you know, Golf GTI, all the hot hatches came alive - the 90s was a good time.”

“Some of the safety regulations in terms of where the seat could be and all the stuff you need in seats now like pretension and belts and all that crap - the 90s car, when you sat in it like I would sit a race car, so in other words, I was under the steering wheel, I’m in the car.”

He would reminisce further, discussing his love of driving off the race track in his youth.

“The driving experience of the 90s was amazing,” he explained.

“There wasn’t the amount of cars on the road - I grew up in the northeast, Newcastle-Upon-Tyne and five miles outside of Newcastle, you were properly out in the countryside - the roads were amazing and consequently, you know, you could enjoy your car.”

“It's the joy driving, you know, learning how to down change correctly, learning how to change gear smoothly - it’s part of the experience of driving a car.”

“The best days of motoring, sadly, are behind us in terms of roads and infrastructure.”

“I mean, all the roads now are knackered, aren’t they?” he added.

“I just recently did the North Coast 500, I did that last year, and, my god, that’s like going back to the 90s cause the roads are amazing.”

Plato’s touring career is celebrated amongst the motoring community, and he would also discuss what he thought was unique about British touring and its fans.

“People get passionate about the brand that they happen to own,” he said.

“That's what worked with touring cars - the racing was frenetic, there was a lot of action, a little bit of agro going on - not bumper cars, but there’s definitely some unavoidable contact and people want to see that.”

“Also, the fans had access to us, we weren’t locked in a cage like in NF1.”

He joked about his old rivalry with a fellow motoring legend.

“The fans throughout the years most definitely get behind the brands - it’s a bit footballerish, a bit, in that some of them are feral, but good feral.”

“I’ve walked in loads of times of the years, where I’ve walked past the Matt Neal fans, clearly off their heads because, what are they doing there at eight o’clock in the morning set up already, you know what I mean? And been hurled abuse, but good abuse.”

“Matt gets hurled abuse by my fans - and they’re still like that today.”

“They’ve got a real, knowledgeable, passionate crowd.”

On the theme of dedicated fans, during the video, Jason would be shown a clip from a previous Influx video which featured a Renault Laguna owner who had a sticker of his name on his car.

“Please tell me he doesn’t drive around with that - that wasn’t done for that day? He does drive round with all that branding on the car? And my name on in the rear?”

“I’ve got to meet this bloke, he’s off his rocker isn’t he?”

He would finish up by saying; “Without a doubt they (90s cars) should be kept on the road. It makes me smile. I love seeing cars from that era.”

“If I do see one, it will just immediately catapult me back to what was going on, back in those days.”