Fred Sirieix loves the smell of sweat – and when he smells it on his boxing gloves, it motivates him for a day of intense exercise at the gym.

However, his horrified fiancée, Fruitcake, is not amused – and even though he has just made her dinner, she banishes him to the garage until he takes them off. Even though it “puts him in the mood” to work out, it’s definitely a passion killer for her.

He lamented: “She comes into the house, she opens the door and she says, ‘It smells. It smells!’ I’m here, I’ve made dinner and I’m waiting for him and everything like that.

“‘(I say) Hi baby, how are you?’ and the first thing she says is, ‘What does it smell like, Fred?'” He added that her nose is “very, very, very delicate,” which leads to a “super pronounced” sense of smell.

He admitted: “She can sense things from a distance. It’s pretty amazing, actually.” As she gags, Fred says his boxing gloves, which he regularly uses for training sessions with his son at the gym, are the scent of heaven to him.

“You get all this sweat that gets captured inside the glove and I smell it, and I love that smell,” he explained.

Fred revealed all in an exclusive interview with Express.co.uk, which saw him explain how he teamed up with Auto Trader to discover the country’s favorite scents for their car interiors.

While there’s sometimes nothing better for the proud owners of a new car than the distinctive smell it gives off, it’s important to strike the right balance – and Fred discovered that the British are a nation with breathtaking “offbeat” preferences.

Unusual scents favored by some include nail polish, macadam, tennis balls, gasoline and even TCP antiseptic lotion, which left Fred totally perplexed.

Other eyebrow-raising favorites include chlorine and wet dog – but, fortunately for the majority, these were not detected in any of the distinctive scent profiles Fred created for each car brand.

For example, owners of a new Renault are likely to experience a whiff of “cool mountain breeze, enhanced by warmer tones of aromatic embers (and) complemented by soft textures of sandalwood and pine needles clean”.

Landrover fans are more likely to encounter “rich leather and cedar” as well as “the fresh scent of rain-soaked wood and a hint of country wildflowers.”

Mercedes Benz offers the scent of “suede with deep nuances of hazelnut and vanilla”, enhanced by “the subtle sweetness of lavender and a whisper of freshly cut hay”.

Then there’s Vauxhall, with its “nostalgic blend of licorice and smoked tobacco leaf”, plus notes of “eucalyptus and the soothing scent of beeswax”.

Fred reflects: “Some people may not like to admit that they like unusual scents. But taste is subjective and one person’s rose may be another’s seaweed – we don’t like to judge. If people get their joy from the aroma of a brand new car, who are we to say they’re wrong? »

Fred Sirieix is ​​teaming up with Auto Trader – the UK’s largest automotive platform for new and used cars – to create bespoke scent profiles for major car brands, with the smell of new cars considered to be the ‘one of the British’s favorite unusual smells.