Henry Catchpole Reveals The secret competition in car journalism

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by Bart Layton. Read it out. Under 70, not a middle without Farad. Special sneak previous Monday

if we're Friday. McLaren F1 versus T50 Video.

It's T50F1. It's an in the absolute dream. Those cars, that road, you just want to do

the very best. You just ring up your mate at McLaren and say, can I borrow F1 Joy? Henry!

Riding for Evo when I started out, that was my goal. Wow. The thrill of driving, which is

absolutely what I still love about cars. Oh, what a fun car.

Well, I want to just read you some of the quotes you said in that episode, which is,

fireworks in the top end. It's not as fluidly slick. It's a deathly shit of heaven.

Being able to slide and just play with it like puffy.

I had a fairly big crash whilst I was on work experience at AutoCop.

That made me think about driving more. What was that? That was a Mitsubishi Evo 7 Xtreme,

and it was like a brunting talk in the wet. When you fill the front slip, lift it off,

backwards before you know it. Henry, in sport, there are a few standout individuals that just

magically sit that little bit above the rest, whether it be Ronaldo in football, Max Verstappen

in Formula One, Luke Littler in darts. I often think it's the same thing when I watch people

with pure talent doing what it is that they're good at in whatever industry.

That's how I feel when I watch one of your videos. Henry, in your own words, who are you and what do

you do? Personally, thank you. That's very kind of you. I now can't think about a party with

Ronaldo, Luke Littler, and Max Verstappen. That's quite the trio, isn't it? Who am I?

I'm a motoring journalist, I suppose, and I've been doing it for 20-something years now. I mostly

do films for Hagerty on YouTube, but still write as well, so there are various columns for Evo

or other people. I'm a motoring journalist. Occasionally, I'm a cycling journalist as well,

but that's another story. I actually thought I'd read out your Instagram bio.

This is how you'll write yourself from writing it down, which was a tall smiley owner of an

Escort Mart 2 rally car, a Clio 182, and a few bicycles. Scribble words for Evo and EI,

mumble on camera for Hagerty. What would younger Henry think of that bio?

I think he'd be pretty excited. I think he'd think that was done pretty well.

He'd be delighted that I was writing for Evo when I started out. That was

my goal. That was the light bulb moment of when passion for cars,

so lover cars, turned into that, hang on a minute, I could do this for a job.

It was that first issue of Evo when it came out. I read it and it spoke to me in a way that

other car magazines hadn't, and I thought that's what staff writer Evo, that's what I want to be.

The fact that that's on my bio would make young Henry very happy. I think the

video side of it, the fact that I'm talking to camera, I think I'd be pretty shocked about,

to be honest, because that's not something I ever grew up thinking would happen,

because it wasn't, it was Top Gear. That was out there. Obviously, I watched that,

but it was such a different realm. It never occurred to me that I would ever. I know that,

obviously, James Clarkson went from performance car to Top Gear, he made the leap. Obviously,

it was May as well, but it just didn't seem like something that you would do. I wanted to be a

writer and I loved writing. That was really what I wanted to do.

I didn't want to present to camera. Even when the opportunity first came along, it was something

I jumped at the thought, wow, YouTube's here. Yes, I can go and finally stick my face in front of

a camera and mumble at it. It took a bit of, I suppose, it was a certain amount of career

preservation, if you like, when it first came about, because at the time,

everybody was saying magazines were dying. Thankfully, they haven't. We now know that's

not going to happen. The iPad came out, people said, we're going to go to that,

and YouTube was out there. It was a financial crash. Obviously, the sales of magazines went

down as well. When I was too young at that point, my career was just getting going.

I'd written my first Evo card of the year. It's like, yes, this is amazing. I want it to

continue. The video seemed to be something that actually was going to give it more longevity,

so I took a deep breath and found a way to make it work for me, I suppose.

See, the reason I love to get into these stories so much, especially one with a character like

yourself, is because I grew up one of those kids that would wander around where we are

today, outside Pagatee at Bista, just loving the magic of cars. I would open YouTube, and long

before all the car rebuilders had entered the scene, the videos that would pop up would be

Car Fection. I remember one of the early ones, Lamborghini have entered all versus Ferrari F12,

like a versus Aston Martin Vanquish, or the V12. Icote every year looking for car of the year,

and I would think to myself, how can I get close to that? How does that happen? How can you do that

as a job? What has always baffled me about the individuals I meet that end up doing some of

this work? As you mentioned, Top Gear, when I think of a motoring journalist on camera,

the first second of that is shouty, brash, like a loud, room-filling individual that's got

unbelievable confidence to throw that car sideways and just go for it and send it.

And when I've always met you, you're so humble, so reserved, yet you're so utterly

fabulous on camera, and come out of your shell. Where does that bit come from? Was that ever in

you growing up? I think I had a certain confidence around cars for whatever reason.

I knew I could speak publicly to some degree probably, but no, I mean, my parents, for example,

thought it was, they didn't have any confidence in me, but when I said, well, I'm going to be some

video stuff, I'm doing some of this now, and apparently they only told me subsequently that

they said literally to each other, well, how on earth is he going to do that? He hasn't got the

skills for he mumbles and looks down. Is that where that mumbling word came from? Is that how

they would describe you? I don't know. I'm not sure of it. I think I'd probably describe myself

as that, but it's a good word, mumble, isn't it? It's sort of on a matter of fact, and I like

that sort of, I like that word, but it's, you just have to learn. And I discovered that I think

the first thing I ever did was publishing, even at the time, I sent people off on courses because

video was coming out and we all had to go and do this. And I sort of went and did it because I had

to. And so I probably didn't take it if I'm perfectly honest, terribly seriously, which was

probably the best thing I could have done because actually I relaxed and I wasn't trying to do it.

And it's like in sports actually, half the time, it's the goal shot you're not trying to hit that

goes 300 yards down the fairway. It's when you're trying to do it, when you're standing on the first

team, you desperately want to hit the best shot of your life. That's the one that disappears

off into the gardens on the right. I've just started playing songs. It's exactly the same.

There you go. Exactly. Yeah, you've got to hit double top and it's kind of, you can't do it when

in the Friday night, sort of when it doesn't matter. You can do it every time. So I think the

fact that I kind of relaxed into it and just sort of thought, well, I'll kind of be who I am

and kind of not take it that way. That really worked. And suddenly you think, well, actually,

you watch your back and go, well, that's actually sort of all right. I'm not saying it was great

straight off the bat at all. And I was lucky that it started at the very early days of video as well

because, you know, there weren't huge sums of people watching, I hope there weren't. But you could,

I was in a position where I could look at it, critique it, work out what I wasn't doing well.

And you looked at it and think, well, if I don't like what I'm doing, how do I improve that?

And you realize that you can't be, you can't mumble at the camera

for a video in real life, but you can't do it there. So you have to be 150% of yourself.

It just so happens that 150% of myself is still about sort of 25% of, you know,

a normal television presenter, probably, but you do, you realize that you can't turn up

with your head completely all over the place. You can think, I don't care what I look like.

But actually, you realize that if you turn up on camera, looking at a complete mess,

that is what people will concentrate on rather than the car that you're trying to talk about,

and people should be there for. And that's not what you want. So just all these little things

that you kind of, you worked it like anything else, like you, you learn to write better,

you learn to drive better, you want to do it, you work at it, and you try and be the best you

can and watch other people, what are they doing? Well, kind of all that sort of thing. So, yeah.

But in this podcast, I'd love to unpack so many questions about how someone goes from

just sort of wandering into a very kingdom. What am I going to do here to sideways in

Anastomart in Valhalla so confidently and putting together shots and scenes and plans,

because I want to understand how you built all of that up. And then I think that relaxation that

you describe is where the 1% magic is. I think it sits in there because it disarms the audience and

it actually makes them thoroughly relax. And I only think that's strangely because YouTube's

become a tough game, but I only think that's going to get stronger because of AI and things like

that. True English will flourish and come through.

Good luck AI, Trina.

I want to understand, was your like mum, dad, or any part of your family like a writer,

or was that anybody really into English?

So, my father definitely read a lot. Lovely English language he introduced me to,

PG Woodhouse at a pretty young age, I'd say, again through golf, grew up playing

golf with him and my grandfather as well. And the PG Woodhouse short stories, collection

short stories is clicking a cuthbert in the heart of a goof. And the Woodhouse has this

incredible way with language. And I just remember, I obviously idolised my father and so he loved

these books and so I took a real interest in them and appreciated the language.

My godfather used to write these wonderful letters to my father and to me as his godson.

And he's a very funny, very self-deprecating and again, beautifully written. And again,

I could see how much my father appreciated these letters and he would read them to me

before I was too young to kind of probably decipher the handwriting because they were

handwritten at the time. And so I had this appreciation for language and writing.

Didn't make me think I could go and do it necessarily, but it's in there and it's not

that something that's obviously not necessarily taught at school. Or perhaps it needs to come from

somewhere other than school for you to really cotton onto it, if that makes sense. You're going to

enjoy certain things about the texts that you read, but you have to do it. This was from home,

so therefore you want to do it. So I suppose that's where the love of language and writing came

from. And the more I did it, that's probably one of the things that surprised me most as well,

because obviously, yeah, there's not a bit about the bush, I got into this because I love cars and

I watched it on the other side in the round and I liked all the pictures and EVO of people

going sideways. I want to do that. That's the dream. But then the more I wrote, the more you

realise I love the writing side of it as well. I love the scripted side of it and then that evolves

into such a video as well. There's two such odd parts there, which is the part of you aimed for

what you wanted to do and got it, which almost sits completely separate from the guy that just

walked into EVO and not really knowing what to do and was really relaxed if you know what I mean,

figuring it out. Because you got the dream, but in the moment, maybe you didn't realise it was

actually happening? No, I never just wondered into EVO, wondering what was going on. I very much

there was a definite goal there and I entered. There was a daily set of I've had a young

motoring writer's competition. I entered that and I would write stuff in a style that I knew

would appeal to an EVO. I thought would appeal to an EVO reader. It was all geared around

writing that way because that's what I wanted to do. That's really interesting. EVO was the

first place I applied for work experience when I was at university. Didn't get it the first year,

got it the second time I applied for work experience. Then, yes, there was a certain

amount of luck after university that I rocked up with my CV of stuff I'd written and portfolio

work, et cetera, and handed it to them. That was a complete cold call. I got very lucky because

there was a certain amount of change at the time. Dickey had just gone freelance, that's

Richard Meaden. There was a bit of a shuffle around. Jethra had moved up that. There was this

opening there, which I couldn't have known, but that's where you make your own luck. I turned

up. I obviously hadn't irritated them too much in the week that I'd done there before. They said,

well, there's an opportunity here. Come back, do a month of work experience, see how it goes.

There might be a bit more after that. I knew at that point if there was a month,

then there was a job there and it was up to me to make it work. Again, I think I was

calculating enough, but just aware enough as well that what they wanted from me at that point was

not to go out and try and slide a Ferrari around, but equally if you stand up on deadline week and

say, they were on to tea or coffee, yeah, that'd be lovely. You do the proofreading because that's

not necessarily what people want to do. They've written the articles. They don't want to read

their own stuff back, but if you can really apply yourself to it and be the person that they need,

then you make yourself, if not indispensable, and at least not somebody that they want to

get rid of at the first opportunity. It definitely wasn't, I didn't stumble into it.

Now, some viewers may not know this, but this podcast is recorded in the back of a van,

one of two van studios that I have, one based here in the UK and one based in the USA. To get to

our guests, sometimes we have to go on rather large drives, sometimes from England to the

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always have peace of mind and can do diagnostics. This question then will apply to getting into

what your world of cars look like growing up to understand why you were so passionate about them.

How did you know what an EVO reader was?

How did you know who that was?

I suppose, well, I'm not sure I'm writing it in an EVO reader's style.

An EVO style, yeah.

If you say to me, are you going to do that video in a Armstrong style versus a film on EVO?

They're two very different things. Let's hopefully understand what you mean by that.

But what was that EVO style in writing? Because again, my generation is so bad with

just knowing what it is on films. How would you see it?

Yeah, I think so. Obviously, I read various car magazines, so I would have read

auto car and Top Gear and car magazine as it was then, which was slightly different to what

everybody sort of harks back to. That was a little bit before my time. But when EVO came out,

it was a photography as well. I think that was definitely a visual person in the outset.

But it was longer form, generally, with EVO. And it was detailed. It focused on the driving,

the thrill of driving, which is absolutely what I still love about cars as much as it is

that feel of driving. And the way they described that was what I really liked.

It seemed to go that bit deeper and just a real love for the cars, which spoke to me.

Where did that thrill come from being young? What was one of the most first thrills?

First thrills, I suppose. I mean, my parents loved cars. They met through cars. They had MGs.

Both my parents had MGs when they met.

So there's definitely that in my background. Equally, riding a bicycle, the thrill of

going quickly on that. I've always loved the idea and the feel of driving,

and that feel of movement on four wheels, which I've always understood better than

two wheels, very amateur-level bicycles. And I never as confident on a bicycle as in a car.

So yeah, I don't know what it is. It's something clearly in me,

must be sitting in the passenger seat, my father driving quickly or something instead of thinking

this is... But when you see a father driving quickly, I don't think it's long enough that

we can dub him in now. But would he fully slide around about with traction control off in second

gear? It wasn't a traction control at the time. There wasn't that yet.

I think for so many petrolheads, if they've got into cars through their dads or their moms,

then their parent is always going to be a semi-hero for them in their cars. If I think back to

2016, buying a Maserati for the first time with dad his first sports car and one day,

and I'm sure people can relate to this, their parent would get a little wiggle on it. It goes

sideways like an inch. I'd be glad you see that. And you'd always think, wow, dad just slid a car.

Now, the bit I want to understand that so many people would, is how did you go from arriving at

Evo with such a passion for riding in cars to being able to slide a McLaren F1 on a shoot,

like and know how to deal with that and be confident enough, you're not going to smash up 25

million and take an Aston Martin Valhalla and just play him with it like putty, like

what happened? Where's the pivotal moment of being able to do that?

I don't know. I still wouldn't say I'm the best at doing it, but I kind of

there's practice, definitely, kind of which you get a lot of it even. I was very lucky that when

I joined, it was still, I kind of served an apprenticeship, if you like. And I remember

going down to Bedford Auto Drone with Jethro for photographer Kenny P and spending the afternoon

down there with our long-term catering, learning to slide it around corner catering is actually

necessarily the easiest thing to slide and sort of big angles. Yeah, exactly. You sit on the rear

wheels and it kind of feel bigger because of the angle when you're sitting so far from the front

and the point that it's sort of arcing around and stuff. I think I thought about it. It probably

comes across, I think, fairly deeply about stuff to the point where you'll probably assume I'm

daydreaming a lot of the time, but I'm probably thinking about something and kind of analyzed it.

I had a fairly big crash while I was on work experience at AutoCars. That made me think about

driving. What was that? That was a Mitsubishi Evo 7 Xtreme that was a long termer and it was

like a brunting thought in the wet. Somebody else crashed at Brunting Thought that came on here

in the wet and that was there. Early days, I cannot remember who it is. If I can remember,

I'll overlay it here or something because there's somebody else that's been on here that's been

not the only one to do it, I think. What age were you then? I would have been about 20, I

suppose, probably. I'd been at university. I'd done the work experience at Evo the year before

and then worked experience at AutoCars the year after. I remember being terrified picking the

thing up and driving it up the M1 to get to Brunting Thought and kind of delivered it there

safely. It was all fine. Absolutely. I wasn't reckless or anything like that. It definitely

was very respectful, but then I had taken around this place and sliding cars around saying,

where do you learn to do this? And chap saying, well, places like this when you've got spare time

and there's nothing to hit. Famous last words. And driving, I clearly remember most of these

formative things. We had to take the cars from the gatehouse, the entrance across to the staging

post, which is the bottom of the main runway. It was wet and I remember going to the standing water

thinking, be careful and then also thinking, no, you've got this opportunity here. There's nothing

around. There's nothing to hit and there's nothing to turn on. I remember just coming over this

rise, pushing it, thinning the front, go light, lifting off. So it wasn't that I went into it

and just gave it a big, scanty flick and booted the throttle, which would, in hindsight, probably

have been better. It was the wrong way to go about it. It was almost being too cautious.

And you said, when you fill the front, lift it off. Backwards before you know it. And then you're

wet grass and then you're in the trees and then you're trying to start the car. And then you're

looking over and going, oh, there's a massive dent in that side. And I'm glad I wasn't in the

passenger seat. Do you think that's the moment for so many people that have become fabulous for

sliding cars around? Is that they probably had a moment in their early point learning to do it,

where they know they realize they've just got to grab it by the scruff of the neck and boot the

throttle? Because when I remember Chris Harris F12 video, probably, I think it was on Anglesey,

had all the tires stacked up, off we go. And it's like, oh my God, I'd love to be able to do that

one day. That is unbelievable. And it must just be that grab it by the scruff of the neck moment.

I think for some, it is. I definitely don't have the absolute confidence when I first,

some people can just do it and have that absolute

self-belief, I think, as well. I'm almost still quite surprised when I discover I can do it.

But I think rallying helped a lot. That was, that was a massive help because it just,

you know, unfortunately, the fire of competition and all that. And you sort of, you want to be good,

you've got to push yourself. And that was, this is pretty unforgiving on narrow lanes and forests

and stuff, but also a huge amount of fun. So how would you just start rallying like that?

That was, that was again, it was early days and everyone else had done racing. And it was a sort

of, you know, right of passage in a way that you become a motion journalist and you do the car

stuff and you sort of, you learn how to slide a car. But really kind of, you want to prove yourself

as a driver, I think, in some form of competition. And everyone else that had gone through had

generally done the Catering Academy. But from a journalist perspective, that had been already

done, that had been done before. So couldn't do that. And I'd done a couple of races. I'd had

my race license since university. Again, because I thought I want to be a motion journalist.

How do I prove I can drive? Well, I could go and get my race license. It doesn't necessarily

prove you can drive. It doesn't mean slide a car under corner, but it shows willing. At least if

you turn up somewhere, you can show them a piece of an article you've written, a column about

something and it's like, okay, this is good. This would fit in the magazine. Can he drive?

Well, here's my race license. At least it shows something. So I'd have that and I'd done a couple

of races and I enjoyed it. But it hadn't kind of, it hadn't been quite what I was looking for,

but for whatever reason, I don't have that discipline. I probably might more now. But at

the time, I didn't have that sort of ability to just sort of hit a lap time, hit a breaking point,

lap after lap after lap after lap. And I think being jostling in amongst other cars as well,

I wasn't sort of too afraid of making a mistake, I think. And that's something I know is a fault

of mine. I don't like making a mistake. It's probably why I go back to the sliding thing.

I'm not as confident as other people because I would much rather work up to the limit,

knowing that I can do it rather than, you know, I'm too fearful instead of just getting it and

booting it and it all going wrong. Do you think you've had opportunities to drive other cars?

Maybe others haven't because people have seen that in you that you're a little bit more thoughtful?

Maybe. I don't know. You'd have to ask other people that have lent me cars. But I think it's

something you, again, you learn over the years that sort of if you're sitting next to somebody

and maybe you've got the opportunity to drive round a track on a launch and they've put a

driver next to you. They don't know you from Adam. And, you know, you've got five laps in this car,

two sessions or whatever it is. First point for me is not to sort of try and reach that first

corner and throw massive shapes in it. It's to, you probably spend that first lap talking to them,

a, getting to know the car, not driving it flat out because you're going to learn more about the

car in those first few laps from just soaking it all in, seeing what all the control weights are,

all that sort of thing, but also giving them confidence and saying, look, this is fine. We've

got this. I know my way around here. We're going to be fine. So that when you do start pushing it,

they've got the confidence in you and they let you push it further than they might have done

otherwise. Is that how you got up to speed with talking about individual elements of a car?

Because when I first started driving sports cars, you know, completely new to it, it felt like an

entire thing. You know, when I drove a Cayman, it was an entire thing. I wouldn't really be able to

pick out, think, really think about the steering and the brakes and how the suspension was. It was

only until I'd driven lots of stuff and probably after like four or five years where I'd be like,

really like the steering in those McLarens. I prefer a hydraulic rack. Like, I get it. Like,

suddenly, you know, like it, I get it. How long did it take for you from when you started to get

those I get it moments so that in your writing, you could talk so well about the brakes, the engine

at the top end and make those differences? Yeah, I think, again, it comes back to you do a lot of

reading, you read the magazine, you read it with intent and you felt like you were in the car

driving. You soaked it all up from the different writers and different

perspectives and they would all talk about these things. And yes, fine, I hadn't driven the cars

at that point. But then when I first joined, you know, and you're going through this apprenticeship

and you jump into cars for the first time, like Clare, which is sitting outside here, which is

my everyday car. And you jump into Clare 182 for the first time and you go and drive it.

And then you come back and you'll do it's up there already. And you know what it's

meant to be like or what you've you're matching it to what you read.

Or you come back and read the article and get, oh, okay, right. So I get that. Or I'm not guessing

that. Why am I not getting that go back out, drive it again. And just and you build up this

picture over time with all the cars. And it's something I think if I have a

car, so I don't know if it's a talent or not, but I can recall what it's like to drive

different cars, kind of, you know, pretty easy. I'm terrible with names and faces.

You know, walking to room for people and if somebody walks up to me,

it's really not great. But I can remember I can drive down a piece of road that I haven't

something or twig that corner. I've been here before or kind of or you get back into a car

and instantly just you remember how it all feels and it kind of and even without driving,

you can sit there and I can recall what certain cars are like and how they felt.

It's so weird how so many individuals that are passionate about oils and fluids and petrol

feel so comfortable going so quickly. But that's the spot where you feel most at peace.

And it's about feel isn't it is about that sort of and it's about feeling

it is that wonderful point where you feel comfortable with a car.

And and that's sort of that's the point you're trying to get to with the car and feel comfortable

sliding it and then because then you feel absolutely when you know what all the cars are

doing, you know how the steering reacts, you know how the engine reacts, you and it's just

that is the best feeling because then it's the whole manner machine together sort of thing.

That's that is the and it's the feel like like so many things. It's like the feel of a good

golf shop and that's what I find or skiing down a mountain is sort of that is what I find really,

really exciting. I think at the end of the day, it's that that feel and understanding what it's

all all doing. And then yeah, if you're enjoying my conversation today with Ben, please would you

consider hitting the subscribe button to the channel. Thank you. Well, I want to tell you a

little bit about my day yesterday. Excellent because I spent a lot of time writing as I do

being a YouTuber. And I you know, I have to research my guests, I have to write how we're

sometimes going to put trailers together to give to the guys I have to write. If I'm researching

a video that I'm going to do a piece about a certain car my fishery channel videos I have

to write spend so much time writing. And naturally, occasionally, if I want facts or figures or,

you know, give me the drivers that have joined last on the grid in X order, I use AI, I just go on

and use chat and I've always loved English and horrendous at spelling horrendous at spelling.

But I like to think that I'm good with words a little bit. But I spent my day consumed on a

computer writing, writing, get that fact. And then I thought, right, I'm going to so I always do it

as late as possible. I'm going to put some of Henry's episode together. So I started watching

a load of videos ones I'd seen before just because I wanted to pull out some quotes.

I started watching the McLaren F1 versus TV 50 video again. And 40 minutes I was absolutely

captivated again. And I watched that video the way you started it in the cinema,

the way that even the light from the cinema screen was playing so it made it look like

you were in there. And I was soaking up all these details. And it made me realize there's so many

of us when we watch a video, we are just consuming content, we're burning time. So I'm going to watch

that because it's, you know, we're going to watch that guy competitive eat because I'm eating and

I want something on TV. But that video, I something happened like I felt a sense of tension release,

I felt so relaxed watching it. And I thought, my God, this is such a skill. And I want to just

read you some of the quotes and things you said in that episode, which was fireworks at the top end.

It's not as fluidly slick. An up change in this is a devilish sort of heaven.

The main beams actually still need some work to throw light slightly wider on narrow roads,

but they are brighter than a fictional love child of Miss Marport and Sherlock Holmes.

How would those are you coming up with those statements on the spot? How long do you spend

writing them? Take me through that video as a construction masterpiece.

So first of all, need to give huge credit to Glenn Winnell and Aaron. But Glenn, who

I work with on all the Haggerty films I've worked with in my work to make Car Faction as well.

And everyone that I've worked with over the years, Sam Riley, it's such a collaborative process as

it was for me, certainly always at magazines. And I will get back to the videos in a minute, but that

matching of images and words, which I think for me, a film is very much an extension of a magazine.

Once you realize that, oh, hang on, a really good magazine feature should be the case where

that you're talking about something down here and you've got the image of it up here,

and you're adding to the image that you can see there. And it's the same with the film.

I think. And I love that process. I love the images. And that's what excited me about doing

the films. So huge credit to them because they're flickering the lights and stuff. Yeah,

you can have it in your head, but you need somebody that you work with and you go, oh,

can we try and do that? Or they go, why don't we do this? And you go, oh, yeah, that's going to

look great. And it was his idea for the opening. So go find a cinema that will play you something

on the screen and then sit there that has that exact style of seat. I could see me in a video

creator every detail that went into that. It must take hours and hours. Yeah, it takes a lot of

time. I mean, it's a lovely thing to work for Haggerty as well. That's been so nice that we

do have that little bit of extra time. We still produce a lot of films a year and it's not always,

we kind of always spend the extra time doing what we do with that film. And you know that that's

that's a really big film. You want to get it right. It's T-50FY. It's the absolute dream.

And we somehow convinced them to, you know, watch it all together. So you get those cars,

that road, you just want to do the very best job possible because you I wanted it for me

because I have that, you know, I want to watch it. I want to feel like I've done the best job

possible. But also for everybody out there watching is like, this is this is the opportunity.

Let's put it to bed. Let's do the best job we possibly can. And it doesn't come around that

often. So with something like that, you, yeah, you probably do go the extra mile.

Did it start with notepad and pen? Yeah, yeah, definitely kind of a bit of that. But there's

also a bit of and you I'll often write out all the facts about the two cars if we're comparing

or even just the one kind of going to do because I think it's useful to put the the facts out.

So you know, you're getting those right for a start because I want to get everything right.

I've been like making mistakes as I said before. So you start from start from the facts and then

you can build everything up there. And the other thing is that I don't plan too much. Because

I don't tend to script stuff overly before we shoot or before I've driven the cars, you know,

I hadn't driven 250 before I went out there. And so I don't know what that car's like.

Will you start with will you start with like a sequence like I've got the do you have the idea

to open it in the cinema before you have actually shot the film for argument's sake? Like do you

go right? We've got a start. We need to drive T 50 on its own. We need to drive F1 on its own.

We need to have shots of them driving together. We need to have a section to talking about the

facts and figures. We need to have five really beautiful shots. Do you structure it like that

so that you have like a base? No, we know we know that we there are going to be certain shots that

you're going to build a film upwards. You've got your drone shots, you've got your passing shots,

you've got the bolt-ons, we start to come to the car, obviously my pieces to camera in the car,

driving, all that sort of stuff we know we've got to get. So you have location cars, you can get

all that. And you can then the specific shots you need to be thinking about probably whilst

you're out there. So again, if I've said if I've talked about something, make sure you've got a

shot of it, because otherwise that's the film thing was something we want to do. We didn't

know if we'd have the time afterwards to go and get it. So you plan that you can make the film

without it. But then we got a chance to go and do that. And it's again, we used to have the

opportunity when you went on a launch, you would go there, drive the car,

just do the first grasp, then you come back and you'd write the story afterwards. Whereas

when you film and you go out to something like that, if you haven't driven the car before,

you've kind of got to make your mind up pretty quickly about what the car's like. You have to

rely on that bank of information that's somewhere in you to compare it, instinctively compare it

to other cars and what's this doing brilliantly, what it's not doing brilliantly, what stands out

about all these facets. And you don't know that till you've driven the car. So those are the bits

you've got to do there and then. But if I can, we did it with the 849 Testarossa film we did

yesterday as we're talking now. I like being able to just come back and have that bit of thought

about a car, because it's frequently quite hard to really put it into context without

just that little bit of distance. And it was lovely doing that sheep as well, because we had

two and a half days to shoot it. So I could go to sleep, get up the next morning,

get back in the car. And that's always a nice thing because you're comfortable

kind of knowing, but also fresh again and kind of see what stands out.

So talk me through, because obviously it's your world. But to so many people that watch you,

they'd love to understand, do you just ring up your mate at McLaren and say, can I borrow F1

Joyner? I drove it 10 years ago. Can I borrow it again for a shoot? How does that process work?

It varies a lot. So I had certainly pitched T50 and F1 to Gordon Murray Automotive sort of

probably a year before sort of said, can we try and aim for this? I'd love to make it happen.

And it takes a long time. And like you say, it's the trust, it's the relationships you build up

over the years and stuff. They also knew that I wasn't stuff I didn't like about the car.

I was going to talk about this is not just, it's not marketing for them. Obviously, to some extent,

they'll view it as that because it is. But I genuinely went into that not knowing if I was

going to enjoy T50 more than the F1. So it's a risk on their part as well still, which I think

people don't. There's a fine line there, isn't there? Just to jump back, was there you mentioned

your first crash which you obviously remember? Yeah. Do you remember the first time you upset a

brand? Blimey. Which one? I remember, I don't think the Garni were terribly happy with me because I

talked about the Chinquay Zonda, which was one of the five of us. That was the first time they

put in a paddle shift in a Zonda. And I wasn't terribly complimentary about it. The rest of the

car was amazing, kind of had the carbide titanium chassis in it. And it was set up beautifully,

cradle engine, absolutely loved it. Just paddle shift felt kind of like it wasn't.

Yeah, it wasn't a dual clutch, kind of absolutely super smooth kind of thing. I think they weren't

so. And when you've got perfection everywhere else, that stands out, isn't it?

So is it. And I think a genuinely thing, and it's, again, I've got more confident with it

over the years is that as long as you're honest and you're talking objectively about the things

you don't like. So don't be, if I don't like the color of a car, that's subjective. Somebody else

out there might absolutely love the color of that car. I can say I don't like it, but don't

make it the whole thing because that's, you're not being objective there. If a car understeers,

way more than it should do, that's just what it does. So you report that. And

the engineers will know as well. That's the other thing. You're not probably about to tell,

find some departments might not be. You talk to the engineers of engineering, they will know.

They're better drivers than me. They're much better engineers than me. So when you report back,

so, well, this car is doing this. Yeah, you're just being honest about it. They know it.

With your passion, do you ever feel like you've gone to drive some men,

maybe not like the Chinquay, maybe like maybe a new GT3 over the years, something like that,

and been like, you better be good? Like, do you get in that mindset, like you better be good

because you mean a lot to me? Have you ever walked away from those shoots like disappointed sometimes?

Go to McDonald's and get it while you can.

Yeah, I mean, I think we're sort of in interesting times at the moment with cars.

You know, it's not, again, the manufacturers know this, is sort of the, we haven't got the

wonderful. We still have got amazing. And you drive something like a Rivalto,

and you sort of think, hang on a minute, we've kind of, we have got something that's actually

better here. It feels like, you know, it feels like progress. We're not just

treading water. This is actually doing things we haven't been able to do with cars before. It's

giving you everything, and it's got a natural aspirated engine. This is a hybrid, but it's

amazing. It's brilliant. But manufacturers are struggling. It's why we're seeing,

I review lots of RESTO mods at the moment. Yeah, we are in the age of the RESTO mod.

Yeah, absolutely. All the cars going back to all the cars, you know,

but the manufacturers can only do what they can do with legislation.

It's a very tricky, tricky time. How do you approach something? Do you compare it to what's

gone before and say, well, it's not as good as the car that's 10 years ago, but you're playing

to different rules. Does that would be like comparing the new Renault 5, which is electric

to the Renault 5 of old, wouldn't it? Because they are completely different things. Would you

step into that as I'm reviewing an electric car or I'm reviewing Renault 5 to Renault 5?

No, you're definitely reviewing. You're reviewing an electric car, but we did do it with a

RGT, and it's fun to look back and see design cues that they've picked up. And

oh, actually, yeah, there is a bit of that sort of four square feeling in it. It's obviously

totally different. But again, the engineers know that this turbocharged engine here,

yes, it has more power, but it's not as, you know, emotional as the

natural aspirated engine that went before. They're car people too. They get it, but they can only

work with what they're given. And if they're aiming for that goal, then that's what it is.

Going back to some of the quotes in that video, you know, the brighter than a fictional

lumbar child of Miss Marple and Sherlock Holmes. Do you write those the night in between the shoot

between day one and day two? Do you write down front lights and then come off of that with

like different things you could say about them?

Yeah, there's something like that where I've got the time to go and think about it, or

if it's only a one day shoot, you'll sit down and try and have 10 minutes in the car just

thinking through it. And I don't, I can't read a script in a car. I tried that.

I try to remember this, but I think I had big post-it notes sort of there with like

specific lines that I'd written out to say. Just, I can't do that. I can.

So it's got a hit to remember it. I can kind of remember it. If there's a specific line,

I can probably remember that. But what I found is I'll spend too much time. You can always see

the cogs wearing basically. If you look down the camera, you'll see me sort of thinking about that

sentence I'm trying to say rather than just being natural. So I'll have the points that I want to

hit. And obviously I know what I want to say about the car. And there might be a word or nugget

that I want to weave in there, but I can't construct it.

It's like the great filter, isn't it? Because if something's really, really good, you will remember

it. Yeah. So it's like, if it doesn't quite hit, it's like, it doesn't quite get through.

And the first time I was ever captivated by what somebody said on camera, it was Clarkson

talking about one of my top three all-time favorite cars, a 458. And he was going down

the runway. It's like, it's like a bear. Sounds like a burning bear. I'm like, how the hell?

Did you come up with burning bear for that engine? And it was only when I

understood and started speaking to the team Clarkson had around him. I've had a conversation

on here with Richard Porter about his writing, just how much was also given and dropped in

the Clarkson. But do you, everything, call your quotes and statements and things that solve

your writing? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's all. I mean, sometimes I get to talk to

Glennon Hill, sort of say, oh, I thought that was, and yes, Glenn, I'll have that.

Thank you very much. And I'll pinch it off him. But no, no, this, this, it's me. It has to come

from up here somewhere. And it's, you have to remember as well, you're seeing the edited version.

Yeah. There are lines in there where, you know, the, the dark days where I have to sit there

looking at myself, messing up lines or getting it wrong or, oh, come on, Henry, just say something.

You should get really frustrated with yourself.

On one of those dark days, 10, 15 years? No, no, it's still not because I still have to kind

of like, so where it works is it will come back off a, you know, shoot. Glennon will send me all

of my pieces to camera that I've said in the car or outside the car, or if we've done an interview,

he'll send me that as well. And then I'll sit down and I will go through, I will watch myself

in some sort of, and I don't think anybody, unless you're a real sort of pathological narcissist

or something really enjoys watching themselves that much. And I, I know what I sound like,

so it's got easier. I don't have that sort of, whoa, the sort of moment every time I open up the

browser, but it's not for me particularly enjoyable. And just occasionally think, oh,

that was right. I've done, I've done okay there because I know that it's going to work well in,

in the film, but there's definitely times when you're sort of just hoping that

you've said something that sounds right. And you're not going to have to work too hard to cut it up.

To me about, and I bet you've had some fiery debates and, and agreement sessions in bars

on the Evo shoots about this. How frustrating do you find YouTube as the platform that you publish

on? Because I feel it's almost so far away from what you do. Now YouTube is a bit like, it's just,

it's retention, retention, retention, retention, retention. How can you build retention?

And your films should be on Netflix. Like they really should. I think anyone would agree with

that, like that F1 TV, that's a Netflix grade movie. Like, do you find it annoying that you

have to publish on YouTube? I suppose what I find frustrating at times is that, or difficult is that

you are, you're judged by a number. And I'm not saying that, you know, how do you necessarily

judge it by numbers, but, but instinctively everybody does. It's like, that film has done

more views than that film. Therefore, that film is better for his suit. And, and that's,

and I think in the last year or so we've seen YouTube numbers generally

drop down sort of very much across across the board. And that's difficult because then you're

sort of thinking, hang on a minute, why is this not done? You have to, and it takes a couple of

months to reset and realize now everybody's numbers are down. But that's sort of, but

all you can do is put something out there that you're proud of and happy with. And I'm very lucky

that the, you know, by and large, the comments under the films are really nice, which is not the

case. Obviously over a lot of the incident we did a film recently, and it was with the

and Scarbo F1 and the Dan Gurney Eagle and sort of Carl, that's sort of the F1 car from the road,

60s F1 car from road, mad car, one of those films you think, if that doesn't go down well,

I don't know what, what will. And Neil, who owns it, said, we can be quite a nice place, can't

it? Because we've got lots of nice comments and even Dan Gurney's son even commented underneath

the film, which is was lovely. So I draw a lot of kind of, you know, heart from that and I've

got better at ignoring the bad comments, because there'll always be a few, some people that just

they said they've had a bad day and they want to get a hand on Top Gear. No, it's the bit that Tiff

never had. I was speaking to him, they never, I think they were shielded and asked Andy Willman

about this. I said, because, you know, they're such big personalities and big characters,

and if someone's going to upset them, you're going to see it with those three. And Willman said,

if they'd have had a comment section, he thinks it would have broken

a couple of those presenters. So it is a different land that we operate in.

Yeah, very much so. And it's, and again, sort of the magazine, it was, I thought about this in

the past, that you do as a letter's page. But, you know, you've got a long period between writing

the article, magazine getting published, somebody buying it, somebody sitting down writing a letter

or an email, and that coming in, and then it being, and then probably having a team of people,

you know, there in the office who can read it and go, well, yeah, you did get that right. And

you know it, it's kind of at that point, or, or it's praised. It's lovely. So you've kind of,

it's a very different world to kind of hit publish on YouTube. And instantly you've got,

you know, you've got your sales figures, if you like, kind of equivalent in terms of,

you know, how much the views are going up, and you've got all the feedback in the comments.

What was your peak automotive journalism favorite years, especially with the cars,

is what I'm on about? Was it like, I have been lucky enough to buy some of my favorite cars,

and even as someone that likes the modern stuff, you know, as I get a little bit older,

a little bit older, I've now got my 2000, really, it's 2003, but for me, it's 2012 to 2018. That's

the stuff I'd buy, it's 2012 to 2018. Like, were they like the golden years for reviewing cars for

you? I think for reviewing cars, is there a special LA coming out? Yeah, they're still cars,

I saw one the other day, and you just, but there's, but there are still things like 250,

you know, that car. What you saw on camera, it's not, it's not fake. You know, people can always

tell kind of, if I'm really enthusiastic about a car, or perhaps, you know, just enjoying it,

because let's face it, I'm driving a super car, kind of, you know, even if it's not my favorite

one, I'm still learning about it, it's something new, it's fun, I'm not sitting by, I'm incredibly

lucky, but I'm open chest. In that film, you go from the only bit I disagree with,

which is going to upset a lot of people, probably even, is I'm not really a BMW person,

sauce, everybody, but I know you weren't really careful, I'm not. I don't like that engine,

the way it sounds in an F1 when you hear it on film, and then the minute that T50,

you're like, oh, that's an engine, like, that's Cosworth, that's an engine, like,

that was just unbelievable.

Well, weirdly, I was the other way around, so I knew that I loved the McLaren F1

engine, and that, you know, induction note from the re-scooping of it, it's kind of,

I knew I loved that. I'd heard T50 from the outside before, and it's such a different sound,

and it's so, so sort of high pitched, I wasn't sure how I was going to feel about that, and then

in the car, you know, it's absolutely spine tingling in kind of, and when it all comes together,

sort of, is just, just magical, and I had a drive in that car that's not, yeah,

sure lots of people have said to you before that, sort of, a lot of the magic moments happen

off camera, and those drives, you know, it's to and from the hotel or whatever, and sort of,

and I had definitely had one of those, too, in that.

If you had to add to that Instagram bio, the same appallant, McLaren and Gordon Murray were even

kinder, and they said, you know what, at the end of this show, you get to keep one of them,

you get to keep a car, and you can, you can have it, you're not ever allowed to sell it,

but you get to add it to your bio, so it's there become tall smiley owner of an Escort

Mart 2 rally car, a Clio 182, and, oh wow, just just just to have that super car to

bumble on, and would you be taking the T50? I mean, you said, however, my, you know,

tell yourself, looking at, they would want me to have the F1, absolutely, sort of,

no questions asked, but the pure driving pleasure, as I said in the film, the T50 is

perfection. It's just, it's incredible, kind of, it's,

yeah, that drive I had back up the road in Spain in the evening, which I kind of wrote about as

well as just, yeah, absolutely spine tingling, so kind of, I'd be,

I think I'd spend the rest of my life thinking I should have chosen the other one, probably,

for all sorts of reasons, so it's, it is really nice, because obviously, try and get into the

individual, I've still got my questions to ask of, of how you operate to do what you do, but

it's very rare you get the chance to sit with someone that is so passionate and understanding

about vehicles. If you'd have asked yourself five years ago, did you think cars like that

T50 and the Rivalto would live up and exist? You'd probably said, not really, it's all going

downhill, do you think? Are you continuously impressed more than you thought you'd be with where

we are? Yeah, I suppose. Did you all think, on an economy, it was getting more negative?

Yeah, I think there's definitely been an element of it's going away from what we love and your

gearboxes and all that sort of thing, but equally very aware that we've been saying for

ages that the supercar is going to die or this is the sort of, and you do kind of live in the

moment a lot of the time with this job, you're thinking about kind of, yes, you're thinking

about the next film, but you had the chance to sit back and think what's coming 10 years down the

line is perhaps not what, maybe I've done enough of that. Would you ever consider an 849 test

dross or over of Speciale? No, I wouldn't. It's not, but then Speciale is kind of so far up there

for me, it's kind of, and somebody said that in the comments, so you kind of get it.

Vuelta is absolutely mega, that's such a good car though. If we're going to pick

benchmarks, that's current Evo Car of the Year and before that, it's still got this

natural aspirated engine behind it, the way that we're now seeing a lot of the hybrid

supercars, hypercars make the torque vectoring and stuff work and really pulling it all together,

which is something that we kind of, we sort of promised, but then in the early days, it was

sort of, it was there for some reasons, and yes, it was maybe adding traction or

but now we're really seeing the dynamic benefits of it. And again, 849 film, I said that

is sort of the democratization of this performance. So we've got 1035, 36 brake horsepower

in 849, and that's the headline figure and we're seeing that, but actually it's the way that it

gives you access to incredible balance on track and kind of to have that car in the sweet spot.

More easily, more accessibility for more people, that's absolutely extraordinary. So yes, it's

straight line performance, but it's what it does in the corners and we're seeing the benefits of

all that now. And that's again, that's what you see in Revolta. So yes, it's heavier than the

ventador. It's got the hybrid stuff, the event didn't. So you're sort of on paper, you're thinking,

well, this is not good, this is not going in the right direction. Then you drive it and you

realise that what they've managed to achieve with it and make it more accessible in terms of the

way it drives and you can drive that car in a way that you couldn't drive a big Lamborghini before.

That's pretty cool. That's pretty exciting. Do you ever worry when you're driving stuff for the

general public supercar owner? Like, do you ever get out of the cars on the Acottis and think

they're going to kill people? They are. And I say that because a car like the 296 has been quite

responsible recently for quite a lot of big sadly tragic accidents. And I think

is that accessible Ferrari just becoming too much to handle on the roads?

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I don't know because we've got, you know, you

know, I suppose people used to bin scuds and things like that.

Yeah, people have crashed cars.

Since Brunting thought, yeah, it's kind of, yeah, lots of people. I wasn't the only one

to crash a Mitsubishi Evo, but, you know, maybe it's a, maybe we're seeing more of it now because

as ever, social media is now, you know, more prevalent than ever. So there seems to be a

camera literally wherever there is an accident. And, you know, there was a spate of prior 40s

getting crashed not so long ago as well. The cars are safer than ever. And if you leave all the

systems on, the things they can do to keep you out of trouble are extraordinary. So you've

got to make that decision to turn it all off as well towards the person behind the wheel at the

end of that. It's making the decisions. Yes, of course. I mean, we've got all this.

What do you want to say? It's, you know, I don't know. It's kind of, yeah,

cars are incredibly fast, incredibly quick. They're also, tires are better now than they

ever were before. You know, in early 9-11, we'll get you into trouble.

If you turn it all off, you're going to, you're on your own.

Yeah, at a very low speed, kind of, on original rather. I think if anyone was to take away some,

I've definitely taken away how you speak about sort of edging into a car and really understanding

it before you're up to speed to kind of mess it up with a little like that. I think sometimes from

the films, of course, you get the sense of you're in, bang, you know what I mean, sideways, but

this is why I like having these conversations because you build that picture about what it's

actually like for you making, making a film. And you've made so many over the years on Evo,

Car Faction, Haggerty, your career, like how do you, like the actual work, the actual like,

you know, contract side of it behind, how have you moved around over the years? What's your

timeline been and like, what does it look like work for you? Just going back to the

building the picture of the car quickly because I think that's, that's something I worked out.

Again, going back to the early days and you're getting into it and you're not going to drive the

car sideways from the get-go and all that, but you look at, again, the people, you know, one of the

people I really admired in terms of the writing was Peter Tomlin at Evo. He's not up there with

Dickie and Johnny, what am I saying? This is kind of in terms of driving.

But he loved cars and he can describe a car fantastically well. And it made me realise that

actually, again, you don't have to be driving a car absolutely, I want to drive on the door

and I want to be able to describe what it's like absolutely on the limit. But it's just as in,

it's important not to skip the first steps because even if you're the greatest driver,

a lot of the time, you're not going to be driving like that. And a car should be enjoyable at all

speeds. It's what we will, you want to get into that. Or sure it's why they're so good at so much

what they do because when you first get into it and you just drive down the road and you go around

that first round about, you know, at 20 miles an hour, you've got that feedback through the steering,

you've got the, you know, the weighting of the pedals, the way the seat holds you, all those things.

Anybody who loves cars, they're thinking now about those sort of

those moments and that anybody can appreciate that. Even just sitting in the car, sort of, you

know, there are all those things that you love that you remembered when you were a child and you

got somebody said at the petrol station or a car show, do you want to sit in it?

I want to sit in it. And so, yeah, just describing that moment of sitting in the car still means

so much as much, if not more than doing the big sideways stuff. And if you can,

you've got to kind of bring the two together, I think. Our career path was I spent a long time at

magazine to be honest, first, sort of the first, you know, I think it's 12, 12 years I spent at

Evo, sort of, but there was always, I suppose, progress in terms of those the first couple of

years of apprenticeship, and then people moved away to go and do other things. So,

Jethro and Dicky went off and did Drives Republic, which, you know, was an opening then for me,

because there was slack to take up basically and sort of features to be written. And so that

meant I could move up into being road test editor or features editor and sort of, and you find,

again, you look for the things that suit you and the bits of writing that you like doing,

the different sorts of things. So initially, you just want to drive as many cars as possible and

the sort of just review them. And then you realize that actually might be the drive stories that

really excite you sort of as much as the cars. So I sort of definitely

enjoyed doing those things. And that's the sort of the progress that you sort of take

through there. Then there was Drive Tribe, that was the next thing that was sort of

leap I made away from Evo, which I kind of knew at some point would probably have to happen,

because I don't think I ever, I never really saw editor of a magazine in my future kind of.

You're ready to take that next jump. Yeah, so if I wasn't going to kind of try and become

the editor of the magazine, take on more of the administration side of things,

then you've got to find progress elsewhere. Excitement.

Sort of, yeah, just to change. And Drive Tribe seemed, you know, it was a chance to work with,

obviously, Clarkson, Herman and May at the start. So that was exciting. And it was something new.

And it was, again, digital platform. It felt like progress and something a bit different.

And we did some cool films that, you know, it was a step on in terms of

the video making. We had that bit more budget, that bit more time. It was just a...

How close have you ever been to just, just doing Henry Catch poll YouTube channel?

I've obviously thought about it. I don't think, and people have said, oh, you should...

How different would the films be? That's the big thing, I think, for me is that I don't think

I could make the films that I want to make. And I've probably become known for making,

doing it on my own. Because, you know, I have to make a living from this as well. And it's

going to matter, don't have that sort of... Because I'm guessing with almost like a

hackety planet, it'd be like, oh, hang on, we can make this film. It will get revenue back.

It'll probably lose a bit, I'd imagine, on the film, but we're doing it because,

you know, we've got to promote what we do as a company. So there's probably like, well,

there's a recovery and that's the bit that actually costs us at the top.

And then you're able with that bit to create the magic. Is that what you'd lose doing it yourself?

Yeah, I think sort of... The way it is at the moment, I can concentrate on going out and

making the films. And yes, there's other aspects of the logistics side of it and all that sort of

comes into it, sort of in terms of planning it or bringing people up or managing calendars and all

that sort of stuff that I generally don't like doing, but kind of... I don't have to deal with a

financial side of it, essentially. They pay me to make the films and then we give them

the films. And there's enough budget there to go and make the films we want to make.

And there's not that kind of, like you say, direct correlation between

is this film going to bring in that much money from that much expenditure, which we all know

that YouTube is not set up to make money like that. If I was looking at it that way,

I would go off and I'd make drag race films.

I just can't picture you in a Gordon Murray T-50 or McLaren F1 go.

And now it's time to understand Holy Energy, which is powering my drive today,

the McLaren F1. I just can't see that being part of the film. So it would be a difficult thing to do.

Yeah. And I'm not saying I'll never go and do it or sort of wouldn't have my own ship, but

it would have to be very different, I think. I'm not saying it wouldn't be me if I did go and do

something like that or found a way to do it, to have it sit alongside, hang a tea maybe.

And yeah, I thought about it, but I want to make those films in the same way that I

like writing for magazines that will send a photographer off for me and you can come back

and you can spend the time, you can write an indulgent to 3000 words on a group test

with beautiful photos taken by a photographer that's incredibly talented.

It's different to me sitting down and writing a sub-stack. I love the output at the end,

being something I can be proud of and that stands to test time and I just don't think I could do that.

Have you always felt secure doing what you do?

No. No, I don't think so.

You ever wanted to feel more? Is it a difficult thing you do to feel secure?

I think you want to feel secure. I'm not saying, yeah, I think financial security,

everything else, kind of sort of job security, that's all something that certainly as you go

through life and you kind of get told, you start out and you're on 15, you're just pleased to be

inside the velvet ropes and kind of, you don't have the way to the world on your shoulders,

I'm not saying how do you know, but you don't think of anything other than,

I've got my dream job, you pour everything into it and then as you go through life,

obviously, other pressures come along and you realise it's a living as well as your dream job.

So, yeah, obviously, I suppose if that's what you mean by security, I suppose.

It's just difficult, not being your own channel, making the films for other people.

I've obviously seen you move from Evo to DriveTribe to Car Faction to Haggerty.

Was Haggerty a breath of fresh air when it come along? Like, oh,

all these could be the ones to work with. Was it always trying to find the right fit?

I mean, Car Faction naturally came to, it was one of those things, it dovetailed kind of,

that's incredible. I was lucky, again, it dovetailed, Haggerty came along just at the point where

Car Faction was going to end, I think, anyway, where it was, as it turned out.

So, that was great in Haggerty. I obviously knew their output. I think when they initially approached

me, very loyal to places, the last thing I wanted to do was just go buy Car Faction because the

channel was next to me. It's a long career as well, so it makes it sound worse than the boys,

because it's so spread out. I can't believe some of those videos with the F12 and the

Vanquisher, I spoke about 12 years ago. I still get things now where I sort of,

I'll go back to reference something, sort of thinking, oh, I know I was on that shoot,

and then I'll go back and I'll look up and I wonder what sort of Evo said about such and such.

I was like, oh, I wrote that. I thought, oh, we did, yes, I remember that now. I was like, yes,

it was that, yes, we're good, that's fine. I'm not remembering somebody else's, it's my own

version as I'm remembering, so yeah, you have a few more moments like that. But yeah,

I think the security thing would be lovely to have my own channel, I suppose, but I don't know how

that works. Are you a good negotiator? No, I don't think so. I always look in everybody's story

of what they may have tried differently or harder at or focused more on one part of what they do,

and it must be an incredibly hard thing to go to a company and be like, right,

I've got this film where I'm going to get the best super cars in the world,

I'm going to drive them, I'm going to love it, on the best roads in the world and we're going to

make the best film and it's going to cost more than what it brings in, but you should really do it

because it's good for marketing. Is that a really tough thing to do sometimes? Or when you get to

your level, has it become a lot easier? I think it's become, well, it was, there's just been this

sort of progression through, I haven't had to necessarily worry about, like I said before,

how it's monetised, how it's justified, because the magazine I wasn't thinking about,

yeah, I wasn't writing an article to hand it to anybody, either very much wasn't the case of

we're going to write a nice article about this so that you advertise in the magazine next month,

that never happened. And I haven't had to, Car Faction was part of the world's largest tech

website, which was also in turn owned by the world's largest broadcasting corporation,

CBS, VARCOM, CBS. So our budget was a pixel on the end decimal point of somebody's budget

somewhere. They were making big bang theory. We're not. How much we might think sort of...

Well, I think you're in shallowing because of a really good chat, you know?

I don't think, so we were lucky to that extent again there that we kind of, yeah, we had our

budget, but it's, we're not worrying necessarily about how they're monetising all that is going

into a bigger part. Probably made you a better journalist though, because that meant that you

could always focus on the cars more, not have that other stress. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, and I

didn't want to have that other... I wanted to remain a journalist as well, you know, to have that

impartiality to be able to... I don't want to go and drive a car because I've got to say

nice things about it if it's not what... If it's not nice. Is it ever a competitive world

in the sense of, yes, you go away and you look like you have the best time, and I'm sure you do,

with the guys when you get invited on Evo Carlia. God, is that a dream for me to be part of that

test every year one day and have my mark on automotive and be involved in that because, wow.

But also, when you go there and you get to the bar and there's 10 of the guys at the bar and they

might create films for other channels here and there, Jeff, and all the rest of it. And you've

got this idea, like I'm going to put T-50 and F1 together. Do you keep stuff to yourself to make

sure it doesn't get out? Everybody does, yeah, because it would be just... It would be daft to...

Is it ever a race to a film? Do you have a race to a film?

I mean, there would be... I don't know, because you're not...

It's... That's a... He's saying before, you've got... You might have guests that you want to get

on here before anybody else, and you're going to try and make it happen. You've got to realise that

sometimes you might get there first, and it's often the... But there's...

Top Gear is still a mighty force within the industry. They're probably going to get there

before you on some of the big ticket items. They might not. Great. You get there first. But equally,

you've just got to try and do the best job you can. And yeah, it doesn't mean I'm going to go and say

exactly what we're doing, because you don't want somebody else to go out there. We have quite

long lead times off to non-films as well. So there's no point kind of giving something away,

yes, you have to. Was that really sense? I don't know. In the same way that you've got a 1 to 10

on YouTube, when the videos go live and it tells you, oh, that one smashed it. That one's done. Oh,

my God, I'm going to go get in the bath and cry. Do you... Do you have a video that...

Was the F1 versus T50 for you your 1 out of 10 in the videos you've made?

What's the happiest you've been? Because you are a perfectionist. And I see it even with the

shots you mentioned, your team that works. But I noticed when you were hitting the start button

in T50, I could even see your fingerprint, basically. I mean, you're screwed if you ever lose your phone.

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It's certainly the F1 T50 is something I'm very proud of because, as we said,

there are always things you do more, you give yourself more time here or there and you're

always thinking, kind of, oh, we could do this, we could do it. But that felt like, yeah, we've

done the best we can, kind of, with the opportunity that we've got and we went the extra mile.

And the reception it got afterwards, you see if that's a certain amount of validation.

How would you top a T50 in F1? Is that a difficult thing? Because normally, through a career, you're

always aiming, aiming, aiming, aiming. I want to guess, does it get tough when you get to films

like to be like, oh, what hell can we do now? Driven by two favourite gods?

And it's partly sort of, if I'm slightly bemused or confused, but sort of

thought when you said that question, because you are always thinking

about the next one and it's again a sort of quirk of the job is that,

I've been thinking about a film from sometimes months beforehand,

and whether it's just a case of, yeah, invite comes in or you're talking to somebody about,

we're going to be travelling here, can we come and drive this car and you work up to it and then

you film it and then you edit it and then you get all of a sudden it's uploaded.

And the final bit is, it goes live, but you're probably already working obviously on the next,

you know, three or four films. So your mind is already over there and you've kind of,

yeah, you're looking at the next one and you're always trying to think, what can we do better?

And I still drive over here this morning, thinking about, what is the next

leap? How can we make something different? How can you make something that stands out,

kind of, because there are lots of people making such good quality films now and there's a certain

democratisation of the cameras and that's sort of, you obviously still have to have

very skillful people to operate them and that's why I'm lucky I've always, like I said before,

surrounded myself by people that have that ability. But again, we're talking about,

what can we do next? Is there a shot that we can do next that's going to really

make people sit up and take notice sort of from the angle that you're capturing or sort of the

way you're talking about it or what you're going to do? I love the drive stories, you know,

certain films that you get back, one ages ago with a 570 GT, I think it was McLaren,

called Home Run, we took it up to McLaren McLaren's, sort of the seat of McLaren up in Scotland and

that was a film that just kind of, when it came back in and you saw the edit and you're like,

yeah, that's kind of, that makes you feel good and sometimes still you get certain films that you

give you fuel. Yeah, exactly. Driving Group B S1 E2, I love rally cars.

Doing those really makes me very happy and again, giving the chance to drive that and

you know that you're the first person, you put more miles on that car than anyone that started

Stig, real Stig kind of Blomquist sort of in 20 years or whatever and you think, you know,

getting to drive a Group B and again, at the time we went that little bit further, we went and filmed

the PDK box that came with it, we'd thought actually about a year earlier, we'd filmed an

interview with Stig Blomquist sitting in that car, not yet knowing that I was going to get to drive it,

but I made the decision and said, we're going to get this interview, talk to people and I was like,

when I can drive that car, we'll put that interview into that film. So I felt like when it all came

together, that really gave me a lot of satisfaction because you've put that piece of film away,

touched in your pocket, thought when we get to do that, we can bring it together and we can make it

not just me going, I'm having a fantastic time in this car, it feels like a...

Who do you enjoy the films with closely? Because I know you said that you sometimes

struggle to watch them yourself, but you appreciate bits and like, yeah, I like how

nailed that, but are your parents still around to kind of soak up those films?

My mother's still around, yeah, and yeah, I don't know, I don't sort of...

She ever watched them and ping one for you?

Yeah, so yeah, my mother still watches them.

Yeah, absolutely, so which is lovely and kind of my sister watched them as well and

it's sort of, yeah, I think that's a problem, I'm lucky with the audience, obviously, we send

the films off to Matt and Ben for Hagerty and it's always, Ben and I still have that,

that's the first sort of almost moment where you put it out into the

world, you sort of send it off to somebody else and see what they think about it and then they

usually very nice about it, come back and sort of amazing and we get a great light,

well that's really cool, love that line or whatever and that gives you the confidence

then to put it out into the world and kind of think, yeah, you've done a good job with it, but

yeah, I sometimes go back and watch my own films sort of further down the line, so occasionally

go back and pick up an old magazine and read what you wrote and for better or worse and people

come up to me and sort of say, love that particular film that you did and that's wonderful and

sometimes makes me think, can you ask about that? From describing that almost, not shock,

the surprise of your parents when you were younger, what you ended up doing,

but I never expected you to be on camera, have you always handled the people side of it okay

or did you find it a little bit odd or how recognised you must be from some of these

films when they go out and get a million views, etc, like has that been something

as an individual to get quite used to over the years?

Yeah, definitely, it's definitely different, just sitting here doing this podcast is very

strange when you do a podcast for the first time and I don't do many because it's,

you go on and I haven't given it enough thought but you suddenly realize, hang on a

minute, I'm not talking about cars as such, I'm talking about myself or the places behind it,

sort of, yeah, you can sort of hide behind the cars to some extent in a film and you have that

control over it and I get to edit it, I get to see it beforehand and all that sort of stuff, so

and when you go from writing for a magazine to suddenly being on camera, I remember

the difference it made in terms of how many people would walk up to you and recognize you,

it didn't happen really with magazines, it just doesn't because we didn't,

we weren't, yeah, facing how many pictures of ourselves, it was a pretty rare thing.

People can, do you think it's fair to say, I know how much you appreciate writing and how much

you could probably sit at, but the wider audience, the video enables you to connect

with an individual's personality just in that other level which you can out of writing?

Yeah, seeing somebody on the screen makes them instantly so much more recognizable

and you can, you know, when somebody's clocked you or sort of recognized you or whatever and you

get better at it and people generally are very nice and it's a lovely thing, I can't say I'm

particularly uncomfortable with it, but it's made me relatively private anyway, I'm not out there

for sort of, have you ever had that moment where you're like, I can't believe they're watching,

but even though you're level now, I had, personally, I had Jay Leno say that he listened to one of my

podcasts and reached out for me to come and see him when I was there, I was like, what is happening,

like that is insane, like one of the big best interviewers in the world and it like,

absolutely cataclysmically blew my mind, was that similar for you when you were doing your

go-in-into-drive-tribe? Yeah, I mean, it still plays my way when you sort of, you know, there was

a good riddance and Alex Albon was there and there was a reason, and he sort of looked up

and looked around and went, oh, hello Henry, and he's a lovely chap and we had a brief conversation,

but that's, you know, it's an F1 driver, sort of, and you just sort of don't,

you don't, what is that? Yeah, okay, yeah, sort of, how is he sort of

recognised, but it wasn't sort of, so yeah, there's all sorts of...

You're having your coffee afterwards going,

bloody hell, it's amazing who's watching, isn't it? Like, it does make you think, but there's going

to be so many people watching and listening to this conversation today that have understood,

hopefully, a little bit more around everything, the padding, as I call it, around the final

videos, the piece, because I love doing stuff like this, because it's like with

Camisa as well, and it enables you guys to kind of allow the audience to appreciate what goes

into all that work, you know, those sentences, those camera shots, those days, those contracts,

who you're doing it for, where you're doing it, there's so much more to that 40 minutes of film

than meets the eye, and thank you for allowing people to understand that a little bit more today,

so... Okay, all right, have a mumble team up. Henry Gudgebowl, best mumble I've ever had in the

man, thank you so much for coming on Road to Success, and hopefully we'll get to catch him

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Henry Catchpole Reveals The secret competition in car journalism

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