Road To Success with Benedict Fowler Dec 8, 2025

Mike Fernie: Working For Clarkson, Hammond & May, Drivetribe Breakup & Leaving

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Car

Morgan Plus

The Morgan Plus 4 is a charming sports car from Britain that has been made since the 1950s. It's special because it has a wooden frame and looks old-fashioned, but it drives really well.

Car

Morgan Plus Six

The Morgan Plus Six is a stylish sports car made by a British company called Morgan. It's known for being lightweight and having a powerful engine, making it fun to drive.

Car

Morgan Aero

The Morgan Aero 8 is a sporty car from the UK that looks different from most cars. It's made to be light and fast, with a classic style that many people find appealing.

Car

Bentley

Bentley is a brand that makes very fancy and expensive cars. They are known for being powerful and having luxurious features inside.

Car

Jaguar Xjr

The Jaguar XJR is a fast and luxurious car from Jaguar. It's known for being powerful and sporty while still offering comfort and style.

Car

Ferrari LaFerrari

The LaFerrari is a very fast and expensive car made by Ferrari. It's special because it uses both a traditional engine and electric power to go really fast and save fuel.

Car

Ford Mustang

The Mustang is a well-known sports car made by Ford. It's famous for being powerful and stylish, and many people love to drive it.

Car

Chevrolet Corvette

The Corvette is a fast sports car made by Chevrolet. It's known for its sleek design and powerful engine.

Car

Bugatti Veyron

The Bugatti Veyron is a super-fast car that was made to be one of the best in the world. It’s famous for being very powerful and luxurious, making it a dream car for many enthusiasts.

Term

engine

An engine is what makes a car go. It takes fuel and turns it into energy to move the car forward.

Concept

Formula One

Formula One is a type of car racing where very fast cars compete on special tracks. It's known for exciting races and high-tech vehicles.

Term

V8

A V8 engine has eight cylinders arranged in a V shape. This design allows the engine to produce a lot of power and gives it a characteristic rumbling sound, making it common in many cars and trucks.

Term

V10

A V10 engine has ten cylinders arranged in a V shape. This design helps the engine produce a lot of power and creates a unique sound, making it popular in sports cars and racing.

Car

Land Rover Ingenium

The Land Rover Ingenium is a type of engine made by Land Rover that focuses on being light and efficient. It's used in their cars to help them perform well while saving fuel.

Term

crankshaft

The crankshaft is a part of the engine that turns the up-and-down motion of the pistons into spinning motion to make the car move.

Term

piston

A piston is a part of an engine that moves up and down. It helps create power by pushing on other parts of the engine when fuel burns.

Term

Conrod

A conrod is a part that connects the piston to the crankshaft in an engine. It helps transfer the power from the piston to make the engine turn.

Term

spark plug

A spark plug is a small part in the engine that creates a spark to ignite the fuel and air mixture, helping the engine to run.

Car

Cadillac V16

The Cadillac V16 is a very old luxury car that has a huge 16-cylinder engine, made in the 1930s. It's famous for being powerful and is often talked about because of how impressive it was back then.

Car

Mclaren F1S

The McLaren F1 is a famous supercar from the 1990s that has a very powerful engine. It's known for being one of the best cars ever made.

Term

V12

A V12 is a type of engine that has twelve cylinders, which helps it produce a lot of power and run very smoothly. It's often used in fast and expensive cars.

Car

Ferrari A12

The Ferrari A12 is a super-fast sports car made by Ferrari. It has a really powerful engine and is designed to be very aerodynamic, which helps it go fast and handle well.

Car

Ferrari 488 Pista

The Ferrari 488 Pista is a fast sports car with a powerful engine designed for racing and high-speed driving.

Term

twin-turbo V8

A twin-turbo V8 engine is a type of engine that has two turbochargers, which help it produce more power and run more efficiently.

Term

turbocharging

Turbocharging is a way to make an engine more powerful by using exhaust gases to push more air into it, which helps it burn more fuel and go faster.

Car

Jaguar Xk

The Jaguar XK is a stylish sports car that has been around since the late 1940s. It's known for being luxurious and fun to drive, making it a classic choice for car enthusiasts.

Car

Acura NSX

The Acura NSX is a high-performance sports car that has a powerful engine and is designed for speed and handling. It's well-known among car enthusiasts for its engineering and design.

Car

Aston Martin DB9

The Aston Martin DB9 is a fancy sports car known for its beautiful design and strong engine. Many people dream of owning one because it's a symbol of luxury.

Car

Aston Martin V12

The Aston Martin V12 is a type of luxury sports car that has a powerful 12-cylinder engine. It's known for being fast and stylish, but it might not handle well in tough conditions like deep water.

Car

Dodge Journey

The Dodge Journey is a family-friendly SUV that was made from 2008 to 2020. It's known for having a lot of space inside and being a good choice for people who need a practical car.

Car

Subaru Impreza

The Subaru Impreza is a small car that can handle different types of weather and roads well. It's popular for its sporty feel and is often used in racing.

Term

Le Mans

Le Mans is a famous car race that lasts for 24 hours. Cars race around a track, and it's known for being very challenging for both drivers and vehicles.

Car

Porsche Carrera

The Porsche Carrera RS is a famous sports car that was made in the 1970s. It's known for being very light and fast, and many people love it because it was built for racing.

Car

Porsche LMP 2000

The Porsche LMP 2000 is a special race car built for long-distance racing events. It's designed to be very fast and handle well on race tracks.

Car

The Porsche 918 Spyder is a super-fast car that uses both a regular engine and electric power to go really fast while being more efficient. It was made in 2013 and is known for having a lot of power and being a special hybrid car.

Car

Gordon T50S

The Gordon Murray T.50 is a new super-fast car designed by a famous car engineer. It focuses on being lightweight and fun to drive, with a powerful engine that makes it really exciting.

Car

Audi R8

The Audi R8 is a cool sports car that started being made in 2006. It's known for its great looks and fast performance, making it a favorite for people who love driving.

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Was the decision to leave DriveTribe?

Start in your own channel. Was that the biggest decision of your life?

Ooh, that's a good question.

21 million pound was put into the DriveTrip platform.

Do you know who 21 million that was?

Uh, Jeremy, we filmed with him, I think, four times in the entirety of the DriveTrip channel.

My first video with Jeremy was when Lisa actually threw me the keys to his Alfa Romeo.

He was not okay.

Richard, he kind of bought OverdriveTribe in 2022.

The evening that you put live, the video that matters most to you.

The first one was very much set at live, closed laptop.

Have you really left or will you still be around?

You don't know how things are going to fully unfold. It was scary.

And what was Hammond's reaction when you actually told him, true and honest?

It was actually...

Mike, you are back in the van for a second appearance and a lot has changed between then and now.

But so in your own words, how would you describe yourself now versus the last time you came on?

Well, I'm still called Mike Fair name.

I'm still doing car videos, but I now have my own channel.

So I am now definitively a car YouTuber who started off in his own channel.

I used to work at DriveTribe, but now I'm doing my own thing.

Was the decision to leave DriveTribe, the one that's amassed over half a million views in your explanation video,

start in your own channel?

Was that the biggest decision of your life?

I think so.

Obviously, you don't know how things are going to fully unfold down the line.

But yes, I imagine I will look back in five years time and think, yeah, that was pretty huge.

It was scary.

It took a long time to actually get to that point because my head was so in just being ahead of video at DriveTribe.

But I think taking the plunge were now sort of four weeks since.

And yes, it's definitely been the call.

Because I rewatched the video of you and Hammond going over his vehicle from the Grand Tourist Buick.

Yeah.

Stunning green, looked awesome.

And you were all over the engine in that video as you have been in the videos on your channel recently that you've launched.

But do you remember the first video you ever did with Hammond?

Yes.

I remember first meeting him.

It was in the Chiswick office.

The Grand Tour had an office in Chiswick and DriveTribe moved to be literally like across the road from them.

So I remember James May was on the DriveTribe channel quite a lot.

And I think Richard and Jeremy sort of saw that and thought, well, if he's doing it, maybe we should start doing it too.

So he came and Richard came into the office and did some like selfie phone stuff initially.

And there's actually a picture of me sitting, watching it happen.

My first video with Richard on camera was we did a video where we wanted to film with all three of them in the one day.

But you're dreaming for a day in pocket.

Tackle all three in one day.

So yeah, we started with Richard and then went Jeremy and then went James.

We managed it doing the sort of road trip between the three of them.

And it was quite unfortunate.

A bit of a baptism of fire because my first interaction with Richard a few days before his garage had flooded.

He had a barn with a whole load of his car collection in it and there was a big flood like flash floods from one of the farmer's fields.

It was something like the farmer had plowed the field a different way to the way he'd done it years past,

which meant all the water just channeled straight down.

And he had numerous cars that were a couple of feet in water and it wrote off a bunch of them.

The main one he was really upset about he had a Morgan plus six that the drive tribe audience had helped customise.

He like let them speck it.

So it was this really like poignant car for him and I think he drove it twice and then it got completely written off by the flood water.

So I'm turning up, you know, saying, Hey Richard, how's it going?

Great to have you on the channel.

And he's, you know, obviously not the happiest bunny because he's just lost.

I think he lost six cars in that flood.

There was a lot of bikes in there as well, right?

Yes.

I think there's some bike casualties too.

And the insurance company just completely wrote them off.

There was no thoughts of rebuilding them because the water damage was just too bad.

So I'm sitting there, you know, trying to get along with my childhood hero and he's clearly like not the happiest guy.

So to be fair, you can watch that video back and he's he's perfectly professional.

And, you know, we got what we needed and stuff, but it was quite stressful for me because I was like, Oh God, like, why did I have to be today?

We're turning up on his doorstep.

It's quite a poignant way into that world because everything that I hear from talking to everybody that works in TV or doing their dream on video,

or maybe you've worked with their heroes, maybe it's Matt or Freddie or yourself or whoever or the auto Alex guys,

nothing's ever as you envisage it to be, not in a like negative way, not even in a pro way,

but however that experience goes, it's never usually what people actually think of that experience.

And is that the same to be said for your time at Drive Tribe?

Yeah, I think so.

Like with the trio, like that was the first of Richard.

The first with Jeremy was when it was Lisa actually threw me the keys to his Alfa Romeo and said go for a spin in it.

Turns out she hadn't ran that past Jeremy and he was absolutely, he was not okay.

But although I had the Drive Tribe merch on and everything, I was someone was driving about in his beloved Alfa Romeo and he cut that shoot short very quickly.

But you know, again, there's pictures of me interacting with him.

You can like see the body language even in this like still pictures.

I had to convince him, oh, you know, we're just wanting to film this video and he allowed us to film with it statically.

So we did like a walk around of the car, but that that shoot was not a great start either.

So but again, these are positions.

That's nothing on Jeremy or Richard.

It's just like maybe we went just too far with our ideas in that moment.

We should have had like a bit of a softer start with it.

And they're two of the most loved people in motoring history, probably two of the most loved people in motoring history.

Does that show you for real to be a really successful car guy camera facing?

You have to be that level of nuts towards cars.

Like even even Jeremy with owning loads of stuff and driving those have to be like, you're not driving my beloved Alpha.

Do you think that's when it kind of sets in just how much these guys love their stuff?

I've never thought of it that way.

But yeah, I guess that showed in that moment how much of a car guy he is.

And Richard is just I would say he's the most car guy out of the three of them.

He is still wanted.

He's still in auction sites looking on websites for new cars to buy.

So that was something great about my relationship with him.

I would put up him a Morgan Aero 8 or you know, the different cars that I thought he would like Bentley,

two door Bentley's and stuff.

And we'd sit there and matter away about, oh, is this one worth the money?

Is it not?

So it was quite nice having him.

Although, yeah, Richard was this massive part of my childhood.

It was quite cool having him as like just like a car friend on WhatsApp,

which is it seems surreal to say.

But yeah, that's the situation we got into after a few years.

It was it was awesome.

But that there to so many people would be the dream, even, you know, text,

few minutes, interaction, anything.

I've seen him and when he's walked through a car show with thousands of people just glued behind him going in one way.

And it must be so difficult to still be a car guy enjoying the things around you in those situations.

But for you to be able to be interacting with our childhood motor and history heroes.

And when we were growing up in that way, so many people watching this could think about what that must feel like to be able to do that.

So many people would have watched Dave, which was a channel that you mentioned that you watched or your reruns on.

Steve and Yanny, who I had on in the van who I recorded with last was proud of the fact that his show aired on Dave

because it was the same as where all the top gear reruns were.

But over time, does that just become the norm very quickly?

It's it's sad because like just naturally, yes, that's exactly what happens.

I think that you spent more time I spent more time with different members of the trio at different points and drive tribes.

So it was James May to start with.

So the first time you walk into that room and you hear that voice, you're like, oh, my God, like that human is emitting James May's voice.

Oh, my God, that's hidden.

So it starts off with that.

But yeah, after, you know, I've had a few months of filming with them.

Naturally, it just becomes James and it just becomes Richard, which I definitely tried to check myself throughout my time at drive.

I've been like, wait a minute, you're about to turn up with a Greg steak bake to hand over to Richard Hammons to start off the day's shoot.

Like that is absolutely unbelievable.

But naturally, and that so that became the case with Richard because when he bought he kind of bought Overdrive Tribe in 2022 from then on.

And he was just the boss and you get more and more used to it when you then slot into a day of filming with Jeremy or with James.

It kind of renews it kind of resets in your brain.

You're like, oh, my God, that's Jeremy Clarkson.

That's James May.

So yeah, it naturally becomes that way.

But as I say throughout the years, I tried to just tap back into that 14 year old watching Dave being like, just step back a minute.

This is nuts.

This is absolutely mental.

You're popping to the shops in Richard Hammons passenger seat.

Like this is this is ridiculous.

And I think that the coolest video that I can think back to because it is almost like we were 17 again.

I wrote it with Richard up to buy a car for him.

So it's like when you were buying your first Corsa and you and your mate at 17 years old would hop in get McDonald's and then head off to go and buy by the car.

We went up and actually were pure swallows Jaguar.

It was his Jaguar XJR that he owned back in the day on the top gear in the top gear days.

It came back up for sale and we went up and got it.

So it was really cool like us going together in the car, him buying it and then us convoing back to the smallest cog.

That was just like prime sort of myself and Richard relationship.

That was that's one of my standout moments with him.

Now, obviously Richard is going to be the closest to you because you spent the most time with him.

He did the most videos with him and he's an integral part of drive tribe from the beginning.

But especially as you just mentioned when he bought it in 2022.

It's give some context to the audience because obviously you're so involved.

You kind of see how it all happened in the story of drive tribe and you've covered it a little bit.

But I don't think people fully understand like, well, James and Richard are there a bit and I thought it was James,

Richard and James's kind of media car thing and then two of them aren't really there anymore.

And it's just kind of happening.

You just give us a rundown of like, what was drive tribe and like, what is drive tribe?

Yeah. So quick whistle stop history tour.

Essentially 2016 they were in the, they just started the grand tour and that was on telly so to speak.

And someone came to them and pitched them a sort of internet version of that.

And it was going to be a social media platform for cars.

So it was literally talked about as like the Facebook for cars to Instagram for cars, which never works.

But that spot was pitched at the time and they went for it.

So the, the four main people in it were Clarkson, Hampton, May and Willman.

Willman was also a shareholder.

Yes. So that kicked off and everyone will remember those adverts coming out in the trailers and they never really gave anything away.

It looked cool and it was Jeremy saying, this is drive tribe, but they still didn't give much away.

So it was essentially democratizing car journalism.

You could, you could have a platform where you could write articles about cars, reviews, engineering dives, this and the other and publish it.

And if the article did well enough on the drive tribe platform, it would be reposted on their Facebook page on their Instagram to get lots of views.

So I mean, what's great is technically that worked because there are people that are professional car journalists today who were users of drive tribe.

There's a couple of auto car, a few auto express, and this is just in the UK.

There's probably people internationally as well.

That also flipped the other way where press offices didn't really understand what this drive thing was either.

So I've heard a rumor.

I'm not sure if this is correct.

Might just be a myth, but Ferrari apparently lent a drive tribe user, not someone that was employed at drive tribe.

A LaFerrari, because that was bang at the time, right?

That era was right then.

2016 was when that was on the press fleet ready to go.

And I think, again, this might be a myth, but I remember it circulated around the office that basically Ferrari had never spoke to us again because they got duped essentially.

And that was almost every press office were getting these emails saying, I write for a drive tribe.

Some clever car enthusiast.

So I'm never going to be able to afford one of those.

I work for a drive tribe.

I work for drive tribe.

These are my articles.

Can you lend me a LaFerrari?

100%.

And this was right at the start.

So they were like, oh, yeah, a drive tribe.

The car sounded amazing.

Okay, great.

When can you come?

We've got, you know, apparently.

And I think that's the big hitter, but there will have been other press offices that will have lent people cars because they basically thought they could get away with it.

Now, we sorted that out and clamped down on it.

But, you know, we always had a bit of a sketchy.

This is right at the beginning.

Fine.

Now, we always had a bit of a sketchy relationship with press offices because there had been a few of these situations at the same time, though.

I guess, again, it shows that it worked because like you can get more democratized than that, you know, so it was actually quite a cool project.

But the whole thing was, it was like there's 15 billion cars in the world.

All we need is a very small percentage of that and you've got a flourishing platform.

But being having a car and being into your car is a very different prospect.

So actually the percentage of that 15 billion who would actually want to have another social media platform specifically for car stuff was absolutely tiny.

That's a really good point there because I had this moment when we were driving our US podcast fan.

Down the 405 in LA, really famous.

Anyway, I've been in films.

I think that was it Serial Killer or someone drove down it.

It was really naughty.

Anyway, it's a big famous thing.

There's cars everywhere.

There's like eight lanes and a guy comes past in like a battered Mustang that would never go through an MOT.

And then a Corvette went by and then like an AMG went by and I'm just there like, there are so many car people in the world.

But we're so different because that AMG guy might just have bought that because it looks nice.

But that Mustang guy knows how to fix that car.

I can tell.

So I get what you're saying, but there's so many car people, but actually niching it down is the hardest bit.

And that's what essentially led to the first sort of downfall, which was I think the number reported.

I remember hating seeing it at the time, but I think the number reported was 21 million pounds was put into the drive trade platform.

Because I mean, well, that's how London startups work.

That's like that shouldn't be a surprise for like London startup culture.

And it's all about spending money.

You know, the articles we talk about profitability and it's like, well, that's literally not the point.

These startups exist to put a shed load of cash into something to make a $100 million idea.

So I'm horsing through 21 million and you know, some of the conversations that happened in the office.

Do you know who's 21 million that was?

Uh, I do.

I know.

Private individuals.

Yes.

Oh, wow.

Well, some of it, I'm sure there were there were then rounds of investment.

Yes, as it got on.

But yeah, the initial, I don't know what the initial pot was, but still pretty damn decent percentage of that was the initial chunk.

Um, so drive tribe essentially tried to be this social media platform for car users.

And at the end of November, 2021, it was decided that it hadn't worked.

That experiment hadn't worked.

But thankfully my little part of the business alongside my colleague, Lucy Brown, was the YouTube channel.

So the YouTube channel actually went through a few iterations itself.

It was Henry Catchpool, Jethro Bovington, Vicky Parrot, uh, drive tribe.

When it first launched, just picked the best of the bunch from other places and just brought them all in house.

So, you know, Jethro and Henry from evil magazine, the evil channels, one of the best of the time.

So they got the channel to 200,000 subscribers, but then startup being startup, the video team one week just got completely cleared out.

And the company moved elsewhere because again, that's just what happens.

You have to be unbelievably versatile in that environment.

Otherwise, next week, that's that.

So this channel was sitting dormant and then I came in alongside Lucy and we picked it back up.

And I think we were just south of 2 million by the time drive tribe was going to be going under.

Um, that was with James and Jeremy and Richard and myself.

That's a thing to pick out there as you just said that even though Henry Catchpool is one of my favorite motorists ever because he's just mad.

I think he's magical with the way you can talk about cars without having to get super duper crazy ADHD excited.

And yet you still are hooked on what he does.

I'd love to have him on.

I've spoke to him and I'm sure it's going to happen.

But people still didn't expect to see Henry Catchpool on that channel, right?

They surely came for Clarkson, Hammond and May.

Yeah, exactly.

And what again, it was this weird thing drive trip from the start.

I think there was just so much money floating about and so many ideas that nothing really got shut down.

Everything could just happen.

I remember the conversation.

I'm not going to say the exact number, but I remember the head of content at drive tribe when I first came in.

He had a number, a six figure number that he had to spend monthly on content.

And if he didn't spend it, it was gone.

Again, just that startup culture of like, we've got this pot of cash.

There's no point in it sitting there, burn it, do stuff with it, which is just it can be insane.

But it also leads to quite a vicious cycle of, okay, we're doing this.

Okay, we're shutting that down.

Okay, we're doing this.

Because again, it's just about finding that £100 million idea from year 21.

And what could have been out of those 21, that £100 million idea?

Did they miss something?

Oh, it's tough to say.

The drive trip platform itself was amazing.

It was like the coding that went into that.

It was a whole team of coders that just made this amazing, built this amazing platform.

Some of the stuff you could do with it, all the different intricacies of it.

So maybe there would have been a way to sort of democratize it even further.

But fundamentally, there's been a few places, car throttle being the sort of original,

one of this in my mind, that turned up and tried to take on the big boys.

They always have the strap line, the Facebook for cars, the YouTube for cars, the Instagram for cars.

I don't think anyone in may possibly any vertical has really come along and just managed to like,

sidestep the big boys, the, you know, the big Google based, Meta, whatever platforms.

It just doesn't seem to work.

So maybe just fundamentally from 2016, that was always just going to be the case.

It was always just going to be a decent amount, but not this like absolutely viral platform,

like the other ones.

So yeah, thankfully, when DriveTrip was going to go under, Richard then stepped up

because he looked at the spreadsheet and there was this one green line amongst all the red.

Jeremy and James Care?

I think, I don't think they were...

I just don't want to jump over that line of DriveTrip was going to go under at one point.

Well yeah, because I think what they saw was, maybe all they saw was the red.

And maybe just the Richard's mind is just worked slightly differently

and he could basically cancel all that out and see, right a minute, what is that?

I'm surprised potentially James didn't want to get more because like, Jeremy, we filmed with him

I think four times in entirety of the DriveTrip channel.

Paul James was like one of the main guys right to the start.

So I'm maybe slightly more surprised he didn't want to go maybe alongside Richard

but then he's now gone on and started his own thing with his gin and his channel

which, you know, clearly that was a great call by itself.

But yeah, I was not involved in that conversation.

That was very much sea level, all that stuff happening.

But yeah, Richard put to them, guys, like I will keep the DriveTrip name going

so that it's not put out there that the whole thing is completely liquidated.

I'll keep the name and the brand running, but all I want is this bit.

You can cut the rest out, I just want the social channels, YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter.

Can I have that?

And you know, they negotiated and all that got sorted out

and suddenly Richard was the sole boss.

And I think that start of 2022 and 2022 as a year was just so great

because it was just, it was a, the team was stripped right down.

There was only three of us when there used to be 54, I think was the total number.

There was only three of us and Richard and that just made us super tight on slack

morning, afternoon and night, just making it happen.

And we then built up DriveTrip from there, the YouTube channel being the main.

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Now we specialize in a lot of automotive clients, but we cover everything really.

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So was one of the hardest things that maybe was part of its downfall,

the fact that you couldn't get Jeremy as well as James on those original content and videos

as much as people were expecting to see them,

leading to a little bit of sadness from the audience,

like thinking it was maybe going to be something that it wasn't in their eyes.

But then when you reignited it in 2022 with the full force of kind of Richard,

because he has always been able to be in the videos, right?

Because the biggest thing you always battle time with the presenters.

Yeah, I think if Jeremy and James had been more involved nearer the end,

would that have like saved right?

But I don't think so because fundamentally,

it's to me a bit of a mistake to hang the entire business off the likes of Jeremy

when he's going to have his own ventures himself.

So unless he was super engaged, which he was at times,

but in general, like the lesser of the other two definitely,

his mind's always going to be elsewhere.

You know, I imagine he would come along to board meetings and stuff,

but fundamentally, I think he, and rightfully so,

kind of expected to like be able to launch it,

but then there was this massive team to get it all up and going.

Could the branding at the start,

maybe have been a bit less Clarkson Hammond and May

to make that transition a bit easier, potentially,

but again, London startup,

it's how quickly can you get the numbers from this to this?

So did you ever expect to be on camera with those guys when you first entered?

Absolutely, no chance.

I was just a car journalist.

I was a writer, started at Carthroato,

Alex gave me my sort of big break with an internship there.

And so I was writing technical engineering articles on Drive Tribe.

So I could email people saying, I work for Drive.

I was a proper employee there.

And we'd manage some of the stuff on the platform as well from users.

But yeah, I was just a lowly writer that we would go on,

you know, when I started going on press launches and stuff,

that was absolutely insane as it is for every journalist,

your first press launch and going abroad with car brands and stuff.

That's always like really cool boxes to tick.

But yeah, just my career basically followed the increase in commercial video

when brands were thinking, okay, we could spend this on television

or this thing called YouTube's actually really got going.

Can we pay to have a segment of that person's video?

Well, I think we were one of the first UK car channels to have today's video

is sponsored by X.

There's a couple more around us,

but I remember having conversations with YouTubers at the time

and they would say, oh no, the audience will absolutely hate it.

I will never do that.

My ad revenues high enough, I'm getting enough views.

I wouldn't stoop that low.

I remember some big people that have definitely sat here before said to me,

like, oh no, I wouldn't touch that sponsorship stuff.

That's that my audience will just hate it.

My channel will plummet.

And I would say within about a year of that, they were very much following suit.

So I'm not going to say we were the first,

but we're one of the first in the UK car scene to start doing proper sponsorships.

And that meant we were kind of ahead of the game

and could grow the channel where we got it to.

On your Why I Left Drive Tribe video,

the comments are largely so supportive,

so go for it, Mike.

Every creator that you could possibly imagine has commented on it.

The bastard has amounted over 100,000 subscribers in basically two videos,

which took me about two years.

Can we have a live update?

124,000 this morning.

Okay, I'm 110.

122, it's something like that.

So he's coming for me.

However, the last time I spoke to you,

you spoke about how difficult it was to get to the point

where you were even loved on the Drive Tribe channel a little bit

because you get people that just were like, where's Richard?

All I want to see is Richard.

So could you have imagined at that moment

hearing the things that I just said

about your kind of launch video, I suppose?

Yeah, that has been nuts.

And yeah, as you say, some of the people

like within the YouTube community

that have commented on there,

I would just never have thought they would dive in.

Henry Catchpole being one of them.

I was like, oh my God, he's watched this video.

This is freaking amazing.

But yes, that was definitely the hardest thing I had to work on

from the start of my video career to where I am now

is making sure my content was interesting enough

and engaging enough that some of the audience

would purely be there for the trio.

And like totally understandable

when you've got names that big.

But if I could just capture that percentage of the audience

to watch some of my stuff,

it would allow Drive Tribe to be able to create more content

and get more brands into content.

Because fundamentally, like some brands simply couldn't afford

to be featured in the videos with the trio.

So I was kind of there to create that platform,

that lower platform of content for those brands to integrate into.

It's like the LaFerrari concept.

My goal was, you know, my lower bar was 300,000 views.

So I was like, if I can get 300,000 and above,

that's a tick in the box.

I've achieved something there.

That video was clearly a solid idea, a solid title,

solid thumbnail, and people watched it.

Anything under that, that was kind of like, ah, okay,

people, this wasn't a great idea and it's not Clarkson Hammond May.

Therefore, that's why it's done 110,000 or whatever.

But what started to tick in my brain,

I would say about a year ago,

was there was numerous videos that weren't a Richard Hammond

or specifically Drive Tribe or specifically Top Gear trio based.

There was thumbnails, titles, and video ideas

that were very much sort of the Mike Ferney template.

And there was no other kind of influences from outside that.

So that got my mind thinking, these could live elsewhere.

Like there's nothing, the second it's like blah, blah, blah,

with Richard Hammond, of course, that's very much Drive Tribe centric.

But, you know, some videos, like I daily drove a Veyron for a day

to get to Sainsbury's and Halfords and a garden centre

and this, that and the other.

That title, that thumbnail, the relationship with the man with the Veyron

for a longer, great place, was kind of all me.

So I was sitting there just thinking, okay,

like if I did take the plunge,

which I had numerous people nattering in my ear about, including yourself,

you know, there were potential ideas out there that could stand alone

and could be just under a kind of Mike Ferney brand,

which is kind of what's happened now.

And that's the goal going forward.

Just make the ideas cool and engaging enough that me and my face

and the thumbnail gets people clicking.

Well, speaking of that, I actually never asked,

I didn't want to ask what your first video was going to be after you put the wire left,

Drive Tribe on.

So I actually quite like the shock almost of like, what's it going to be like?

I anticipate, could it be this, could it be that?

But of course, it was something that you're most passionate about

and gets you extremely excitable, which is engines.

Why are you that crazy and excitable about a block of metal with some fire in it?

Well, the thing is cars are great,

but like fundamentally the heart of the car, the main emotional piece of it is the engine.

So although it might seem like I'm niching right down to one component of the car,

in actual fact, it's 90% of the car,

then the rest of the, there is the 10% the suspension, the chassis, the sun, the other,

then just kind of almost attaches to it.

So I've always been, I think because we grew up in the greatest year of Formula One,

the V10s and the V8s,

the fact that F1 adverts still use the engine notes from those days

to dub over the newer cars says it all.

We would switch on the telly and watch Schumacher, Colfar, Baracello

going down the track with these screaming V10 engines.

I think that just naturally got into my head like what a car could sound like

and I then just got interested in how it goes about sounding like that.

What's happening that has that scream going on as the after effect of it?

So I think fundamentally, whenever I researched cars back in the day,

like the Jag V8s, Carrera GTs V10,

I always wanted to know what was going on,

what it looked like, why it looked like that,

and that's just kind of continued on to where I am today.

So yeah, I will happily, happily strip down any engine.

You could give me a, well I'm about to soon,

a Land Rover Ingenium Lump and I will happily strip it down and figure out right

why are these things catastrophically failing and it'll be the tiniest little thing.

That's what blows my mind about them.

It can be the tiniest bearing where the tolerance is out

by like a thaw or two, like tiny tolerances

and the whole engine can just be a complete disaster and warranty is going through the roof

and it blows my mind the distance between a complete disaster of an engine

and one of the all time great engines.

It's so finely tuned, but building an engine you kind of learn

how if you torque it just slightly wrong

or you don't fit a gasket quite right,

your engine could be kaput, literally the second you start it up.

So I think they're fascinating things and there's a whole load of them up

in the scrap yard up the back there, but I film around constantly.

So it's almost, I think that's definitely what's authentic to me.

I find any engine, if you then strip it down to its component pieces, incredibly exciting.

We filmed last week with a go-kart engine, like a sick top level go-kart engine.

Fundamentally, it's one piston, one crankshaft, well, of course,

the one, I'm trying to say one Conrod and one spark plug.

And yet this thing was just absolutely fascinating.

So from a single cylinder car engine all the way to Bugatti's new V16,

I just think they're awesome.

So what is the best engine?

Oh, that.

If I give you like an Ultima or something to go and stick whatever you want in it.

Oh, that's a good question.

It's tough to...

I've never experienced one, but it's tough to move away from the McLaren F1's V12.

That's 6.1.

But I would think I'd put Porsche's V10 to RGT.

I think that has to be a top of you.

V10s are my favorite.

There's just something about them and I quite like the fact they're not used a lot

as well that makes them kind of unicorn-ish.

And I didn't enjoy my first V12 experience.

I really didn't like it.

Is that a Lambo?

No, it was an A12.

Okay.

And linking back to DriveTribe.

It's actually one of the only things I've recently spoke to Izzy about

was because she got to drive a dream car, which was an A12.

And we'd actually spoke about it before because I said,

I actually found mine to be a really big let down.

I hope it's not.

I hope she's not for you.

She didn't like it at all.

But I have still told her to go and get in a four at eight Pista,

which you'd think wouldn't be as amazing as a V12.

But I get excited about the fact that there were some engines

when I thought they were going to go useless like twin-turbo V8s from Ferrari.

Twin-turbo AMG engine.

I think it's a very good engine.

Yeah, that's a beast.

That they did it so well, the turbocharging thing.

And there's some people that just did it not so well.

So I can get on board by why you find them so fascinating.

But is there years of content to be made on them?

Absolutely.

Like literally, I mean, how long have sick engines been around for?

I would say basically from the late 1940s,

like the Jaguar XK engine all the way up to now,

you've got 80 years worth of engine technology

that has just progressed and progressed and progressed.

I did a shout-out on my first video

being like, if you've got an interesting engine in a hedge,

give me a shout and let me know what it was.

And I've got one.

I'm hoping this will happen.

Hopefully this doesn't scarper it.

But someone's got an NSX V6 sitting

completely covered in crap and dust and leaves

and this, that, and the other in the bottom of their garden

and they want me to strip it down

and then they want to supercharge it, upgrade it.

So imagine that full story of...

But to answer your question, that's an engine from the 90s,

which is, I imagine, going to get a decent amount of clicks

and because it's just the right story

and the journey of that engine

will hopefully end up with something pretty,

the transition being pretty damn awesome.

How many options will there be for that kind of content?

Even out of the back here, there's engines sitting about

that are really cool.

People get, because I can't lie,

I've been looking at a childhood dream car at the moment,

which is that's the Martin DB9 and I'd love to tick it off.

Love it.

And there is one for £15,000 is the cheapest one on the market

and it says that it has the dreaded V12 tick

on the engine, which I don't know what that means at all.

My first 50-50, is it top-end tick or bottom-end?

Top-end tick, you're all good.

Bottom-end tick, full rebuild, stress.

I think it's probably that, judging by the way that the advert is written.

It sounds like a potential video.

It could be a potential video.

The thing with the DB9 is they're air and take.

It's inside the left-hand fee latch

and that's obviously in the UK where all the puddles are.

So a lot of people, that could potentially be what's happened there,

they slightly hydrolock their engines.

I know that's a weird couple of words to put together,

but they go through a puddle and if enough water

goes right up into that fee latch, it sucks it in and can

bugger one of the cylinders.

It's funny you say that and this conversation has gone massively off your story.

No, this is great.

But everybody needs to go and check out a channel

that me and my other half have been loving watching

just before we're going to sleep,

which is Tom Sunderland and he just films

the cars going through Rufford Ford before it was closed.

And he also goes on this piece of road and where it is,

but it floods from the sea and it just

blows my mind that people think that they can get through these things.

There's no voiceovers, it's just filming people's reactions

like getting out with their kid under their arm and wife screaming.

But then you see the perfect thing to do it beautifully

because they get that bow wave going and they just surf it.

They're in a focus, but they just know what to do.

They just set that base, you see the wave going out in front of them

and then they just dance away.

A V12 Aston would be possibly one of the worst cars

to take through Rufford Ford because it even takes way down in the fee latch.

Well, you must go and check those videos out.

Tom's going to be absolutely loving this.

Who are these people coming to check out the channel?

Well, you're ashamed that they shut it down, Raging.

But launch your own channel, which you did this year,

with all this excitement, all this knowledge and everyone telling you to do it.

We talk about how much of a big thing it was to do it.

What was the final nail in the coffin for you

that made you realise or tell you that was the right thing to do?

To be honest, my mindset went from not really thinking of it at all

to just a few interactions and then a few just thinking sessions

in the shower and in my kitchen and then it suddenly just accelerated really quickly.

I'll get to the day that actually I was like, cool, I'm doing this

because you were involved in it.

But yeah, I think the auto Alex guys,

Alex gave me my break to get into car journalism

and we've kept in touch ever since.

When he launched his channel, I made sure from a drive-tri perspective

we did a few collabs together and that was really awesome.

So I've always built a relationship with those guys

and I'm not sure when was the first time they really talked about it

but they have always been in my ear about when are you leaving the drive-tri.

In fact, I've done podcasts with them where there's definitely need to be minutes of footage cut out

because they're just absolutely machine gunning me with leaving drive-tri stuff.

But I always used to bat it off because I was so into it.

I mean, me and the team, we built this channel to where it was nearly three million now

and I was just so engrossed in it.

I absolutely loved my job. Richard is the big boss

and we were creating awesome content, working with big brands

which means we can make bigger videos than a lot of other people as well.

It was just, it was great. I absolutely loved it.

But yeah, I think they were just that, you know, my mind started ticking.

As I'm getting older, I'm turning 32 soon

and as I say that I'd be doing certain videos and thinking,

okay, like this is great doing it for drive-tri because I've got a team behind me and everything

but I could take these and do it myself.

When they're getting like half million views plus

and then you know the financials behind all of that with sponsors added on

it suddenly starts to taut up and I was on a very good salary at DriveTribe

and so that was probably one of the scariest things was kind of letting go of that

and seeing how things went.

But yeah, I would say numerous other people in the YouTube scene

were sort of starting to get in my ear about it

because they'd done it themselves and they'd done incredibly well.

Like Alex has been the perfect template to,

I was actually on the phone this morning telling him this,

like I can almost track his journey and I was saying to him,

I've actually learned some of the lessons that he had to go through this time round.

So having those as a template, the TDC guys, all the gear, the donut guys,

some of the Hoonigan guys, it's all there.

Like when I was scripting my leaving video,

I literally just went through them all and thought, right, what did they all do?

So I had Vin on, you know, Vin on the truck.

Yes, absolutely.

I had Vin on and he had a very similar-ish leaving video to you.

I remember just like why he left Hoonigan basically.

It was about 26 minutes long, similar kind of length, you think.

But the audience, which is why we do these podcasts,

why I love to talk to people, think, well, hang on a second,

you were literally making videos with Richard Hammond,

something that is as important as the Harrow Turf at Twickenham.

You know, like-

Murray Field.

And you get the chance to kind of go out and do that

and then you step away from that to kind of go off into the unknown and do X, Y and Z.

But it's been going well so far?

Absolutely.

I've had people say similar things.

They said, you know, they thought I was going to be a drive tribe lifer.

Oh, I was never going to leave.

But yeah, as I say, things accelerated really, really quickly.

And it was actually Wheeler Dealers Live.

That day was the day I sat in my kitchen after it and said,

I'm actually, I'm going to do this.

I'm going to go myself because it was a great event.

Mike put on a great event.

And basically all of UK car YouTube and others,

Freddie was there too, was there.

And it was almost like a sort of AGM of UK car YouTube.

So it was great chatting away to everyone.

And I think that was the most intense I've had with everyone saying,

oh, so when are you going to do your own thing?

And even Freddie, who had only talked to him maybe twice in my life,

he was just like, oh, well, of course you should leave.

Like, why haven't you left yet?

And he was throwing financials at me and everything.

And I'd be chatting to someone.

I think I was chatting to Alex.

And then I'm pretty sure you rocked up and were like,

oh, are you trying about leaving DriveTribe?

It was just like, it was as if I had something got around that day

that there was even the slightest hope that that thing might happen.

And I took on board what everyone said.

And I kind of got home and my mum and dad were in my kitchen.

And I very quickly was just like, do you know what?

I think this is actually the show.

I think I need to do this.

So then that ball started rolling and we are where we are today.

But I think looking at the stats, I wanted 100,000 subscribers by January.

And I got there in like three weeks.

So like completely blowing my mind,

the transition of subscribers over and I couldn't have asked.

Because that was your biggest fear when I was talking to it.

It was, are the people going to come with me or not?

At that point, we probably had like 2.8 mil.

And it's like, right, what percentage of people are going to move over?

So I always had in my mind views wise,

my sort of audience within DriveTribe is about 250k on average.

So that was the number in my head of like, well, okay,

not all of them are going to completely subscribe because YouTube these days.

It's so algorithmic that you don't really need to subscribe to people anymore.

You can just let the algorithm keep sharing it to you because it's so good doing that now.

So yeah, that was always the question that no one could really answer

because you could look at Alex's growth,

but he was the Richard Hammond of Carthrottle.

He was the guy that the vast majority of the audience were there for.

So he was telling me about his stats and my Alex, it's not, it's not relevant.

It's I'm not you.

I would align much more with the likes of Ethan and Jack from All the Gear.

So I'd be interested to chat to them and see if they'd allow me to look at their growth stats for All the Gear.

Because to me, that'd be a much more relevant comparison.

But of what I really liked is views wise.

Obviously the leaving video is that big hitter that is a great way to launch a channel.

But what I've loved is then the views for video two, three and four that have gone out

that they've blown away what I thought my average would be.

So if that if the videos that where they're sitting now that is normal, I'm absolutely buzzing.

I'm like I couldn't have asked for a better start.

And what was Hammond's reaction when you actually told him true and honest?

It was actually it was actually a really great interaction.

So we were shooting a video at Landau.

We were doing my MG versus his MG.

Guess who came up with the idea.

And it was it was the lunch break and I'd said to him in the morning,

do you mind if I grab you for a chat?

And I think when any boss hears that, they're like, oh God, what's this?

So I could he was a bit like, but he took that on board.

So he actually said, oh, you know, at lunch, he was like, oh, did you want a word?

So you obviously kept kept that in his mind and wanted to have the chat.

And I was like, great.

That's awesome.

So we went away and I took my told him what I was going to do.

And he was initially sad, like it upset about like why I was doing what I was just like,

it almost felt like a bit confused and a bit down.

But very quickly, once I'd started explaining it, it just went super positive.

And he was like, right, let's do this correctly.

Because I think he's maybe had some awareness of some of the other YouTube breakups in the last year or two,

which have been like really messy and not handled great.

And he said, let's make this super positive for both you and Drive Tribe.

Let's be really friendly about it.

We'll make sure we talk about it on camera.

We'll do a proper leaving video and just do it right.

And I think that's what's really nice is I've had plenty of comments both on Drive Tribe and on mine

about how we've almost kind of like set a new standard for someone leaving a big channel.

Because like me and Richard, the Buick video we were talking about,

that's the final Drive Tribe video.

I finished that grand tour car project for him and it was kind of the hand over at the end.

And we just sat there on his car and just chatted it all through.

I couldn't have asked for a better leaving as well.

See, though, almost with the confusion of what was Drive Tribe when it first launched to so many people,

you're then going off and doing work with them.

I saw you at the Classic Voter Show with Richard.

Yes.

You were doing this, that and the other.

So it's like, have you really left or will you still be around?

No, no.

I've been told that I'll more than welcome back when you need another hand for a road trip

or if I fit into a specific video.

And I will happily cameo back on the channel.

I'm very friendly with the team there and hopefully there's some ideas that come up.

But yeah, we're immediately friendly.

I was presenting the NEC Classic Car Show alongside Brewer

and Drive Tribe were there and Richard was a guest on stage.

So yeah, I think it was like the day after or two days after my video went live.

I'm straight back on stage with them and very friendly.

Is he sad to see you go?

I think so, yeah.

It's been really cool working with Izzy from the start

because we've all seen her start as like that very entry level petrolhead

and that's what she wanted to do.

She wanted to get into cars but like have no ears and graces from the start.

It's just be like, okay, I don't know anything but this seems really cool.

Let's go for it.

So starting with the sort of pickup video that we did with her and Richard in the TRX.

It's been cool kind of exploring content with her and following her journey.

Some of the stuff she's doing now with Quadrant and Drive Tribe and other brands out there,

things are just absolutely kicked off for her.

So it's going to be really interesting to see how her and Richard now take Drive Tribe content,

what they now do with it, whether it becomes more father and daughter

or whether they go and do their own things.

It's going to be quite weird as an audience member now to see how it all goes.

But I've always said, if I wasn't working at Drive Tribe, I would be a subscriber

which I always thought was kind of worked in my favor because it meant

if I thought something was kind of interesting, the audience probably would too.

So yeah, it'll be really cool to see where they go.

And maybe I don't know whether I'm going to add another presenter on or whether,

in my opinion, Drive Tribe is naturally streamlined a bit now.

So it's now like the Hammons in my opinion.

They should just stick with the two of them for the bit and see how that goes.

But who knows, they might look to get with her presenter on there.

So all my loyal listeners listening on Spotify, Apple and other streaming platforms,

I urge you to do me a quick favor that you might not know that you could do.

You can actually follow if you're listening on Spotify, the Road to Success podcast

and also rate it with how you feel these conversations have been, how they may have helped you

or if you're just enjoying the one that you're listening to today.

It really will help us if we're able to grow our streaming platforms

beyond hundreds of thousands of monthly listeners.

Thank you so much for listening to this episode of the podcast

and I really hope to bring you some more inspirational guests soon.

When you talk about great YouTube channels,

often there's really great people behind the scenes

that don't necessarily get the media attention

and the understanding from a wider audience

of actually how they're involved in someone's favorite channel

and the way of making it tick.

And you can see this across everything like Matt Jones with Matt Armstrong,

Rory with the Auto Alex team.

There's so many people helping power channels out there

from content ideas, creativity, streamlining, everything perspective.

And you mentioned someone at the start that I've never been fortunate enough to meet,

but Lucy Brown, you said you worked with us.

Now Lucy's made a few of her own videos

but obviously has very been involved with a lot of behind the scenes stuff and James's.

And the reason I mention her is because I actually watched one of Lucy's vlogs

before I went into Jay Leno's garage.

Because it was very real life and I was so desperate to get in to do an interview with Jay Leno

and the only people in my sphere that I could have found that have done similar things

would have been James and Lucy.

So James May and Lucy and what they're doing over on that channel,

are you going to have any crossover with them anymore?

That's why you say that.

So as I said in my leaving video,

I'm doing some sort of content consultancy for other sort of YouTube friends

that I've made pals with over the years.

So I've kind of got three main clients right now,

which is James Jinn, James May's channel, Ben Collins, our major friend,

and then the guys here at Swallows, they're wanting to get a YouTube channel up and running.

So alongside my own stuff, I'm doing...

Fucked.

He's taken on too much thinking the videos weren't going to do as well as they did.

That's what he's saying.

That's what I'm saying. Alongside my stuff, I'm working very hard to do bits with those guys as well.

So it's been awesome. Literally day one, I was straight in, Lucy got in touch and was like,

right, come help us, video ideas, titles, thumbnails.

That's basically the main thing.

Like YouTube theory is kind of what I'm bringing to the table with those channels.

And I've got a ridiculous list of other people that have gotten touch since the video went out

because they got straight in before anyone even knew what was happening.

So yeah, that's my big debate right now.

How do I handle my own stuff as well as these clients?

Why are they all launching Jen?

Yeah, who was the figure?

Who was the super profitable or was it just a passion project?

I like you with the engine.

One of the things James does is he tests other influencers and other celebrities drinks.

And my God, it's so easy because so many of them do it.

You can have a completely fresh lineup of drinks, every single video that we do

because they're always coming out like Ricky Gervais is doing this, that and the other.

And Jeremy's got about five different Jyn's whiskeys.

Is that a Richard's now with his whisky and Jyn?

Yeah, it's just gone nuts.

I think maybe Hoxton, maybe within the trio, Hoxton really kicked things off and showed what was possible.

So James went down the Jyn route.

Actually, I don't know what came first, James Jyn or Hoxton?

I'm not 100% sure on that.

But now obviously Richard's joined the gang with his Jyn and Whisky

and apparently that's absolutely blowing the barn doors off as well.

So yeah, it's clearly a very profitable thing to do.

James has done really well to establish himself in America.

That's why he's over there quite a bit, which is why I help with coming up with video ideas for American content trips.

But yeah, it's all kicking off.

If you're coming up with those ideas, you obviously sit down and plan your own content, 10 trips and videos and ideas.

What is the dream Mike Verney video to make now?

From someone that's had the opportunity and filmed with some of the greatest motoring presenters in history.

Why can you go from there?

What's amazing is I've made some of them.

So like my favourite video ever I think on DriveTribe was taking Richard's Grand Tour Subaru Impressa to my favourite place in the world, which is the Isle of Arran.

It's kind of like Scotland's Isle of Man. It's got like a lap around the island and the roads are fantastic.

But I think the dream piece of content I'd love to make is, and it's kind of connected to an earlier answer,

everyone says the Porsche Carrera GT or its engine came from a Le Mans racer and then before that it was an F1 engine.

Porsche recently have restored that Le Mans car, it's called the LMP 2000.

So it would have come out in 2000 and been their Le Mans car, but financially the KN came along quite soon and sorted things out,

but at that time financially they couldn't do it.

That's been mothballed for ages, but last year they got it back out, restored it, got it back running.

So like that car with a 5.4, it might be less than that, naturally aspirated V10 is now running.

If I could do a back-to-back twin test at Visac with a Carrera GT with the new fresh tyres on it and the LMP 2000 and talk about,

I love an engine story and the Carrera GT, as I say people over the years have always said,

oh yeah that's got an F1 engine in it, but to actually be like okay cool and here it is and dive into the engineering behind that

and maybe even go the step further back to F1 so that the Le Mans car is like in the middle bit,

we could then go that step further back to the F1 car and get that all lined up and talk to the engineers, that would be insane.

I am talking to Porsche about it, but it's going to be tough because just wheeling out a Le Mans car and giving it a go.

You need to align with PR strategy a lot of the time.

So for example, if there's a good wood vessel speed anniversary that makes sense for them to get that out,

that's the perfect time, but instead of waiting for it to come here, you ask them right,

when are you starting to get that car ready for good wood and they'll say oh well two months before and I'm like great,

get me out to Visac when the engineers are doing the first shake down of that car because that's the meaty stuff.

You're trying to make it as easy as possible.

Yeah exactly, align with their calendar and as long as you've got a friendly PR person,

you're good to go, which thankfully I do at Porsche.

So maybe, I'll give it a few years because you just need those stars to align a bit,

but I've put the note in and we'll see what happens.

Another one, another cool engine story is the Jaguar CX-75, so that was the hypercar that never made it.

There was always one kicking around scramble at this stuff.

That's right, the green one.

So that car, that was a hybrid supercar, 900 horsepower, two years before P1 LaFerrari 918.

So Jaguar way ahead of the game and like their power figure up there with those guys.

The engine in that, it's only a four cylinder, but it's twin-charged so it's got a supercharger

and a turbocharger attached to it.

And it was built by Cosworth and then Williams put the car together.

So an amazing combination, Jaguar, Cosworth, Williams put all together.

That engine, it was so good and what it did, 500 horsepower four cylinder, it was so good

that engines are designed these days, not from the bottom up but from the top down.

So it's the combustion system, I'm getting very nerdy here.

I'm following.

So back in the day when the Ford DFV in the 60s, 70s, Formula One cars, that was designed from the bottom up

because it was how much horsepower do we want?

Okay, we want 600 horsepower.

Okay, well let's make the crank strong enough for that and then let's make the column rod strong enough for that

and then the pistons and you build it up from the bottom up.

In modern times, because of emissions and fuel efficiency being a super important thing,

you start with the chemistry within your combustion chamber.

So the cylinder and the piston interaction with the head, that's what you start with.

You make that nice and powerful, nice and efficient and then build the engine around that chemistry.

The chemistry within that Jaguar CX-75 engine was so good, it was so powerful but so fuel efficient

that Cosworth just put that side trip but put it in the back cover and waited for a car company to come along

called Aston Martin.

The Aston Martin Valkyrie's V12 and therefore also because you can kind of trace the technology,

the Gordon Murray T50's V12, that combustion system is based off of that 2010 Jag 4-cylinder

that never made it.

They made this thing go but Jaguar never made the car but there was about, I think, eight engines made.

It was so good that when Aston Martin came along and said we want the Valkyrie V12,

these are the specs we want, Cosworth went, we've got a thing for that and went in the back.

I've done a video on DriveTribe where there's literally, this is the Valkyrie Mule engine

and it's a four-cylinder Jag engine with one of the cylinders blanked off.

It's only a three-pot and then they multiply that by four to make a V12.

But are anybody going to keep putting engines in cars long-term?

What do you think?

You talk about Porsche, you can talk about synthetic fuel and that could be the thing,

a bit like that monster, that saves everybody, saves the car.

Do you think that's going to happen?

Sorry, do I think they're going to stop putting engines in cars?

Do you think it's just going to all go electric or do you think that synthetic will come along inside the game?

No, I think in 20 years' time there'll be a massive smorgasbord of powertrain.

So for the people that need electric for their lifestyle, they will be electric.

People who need hydrogen will have hydrogen and then petrol and diesel and hybrids will also exist.

I think that they will not get to a point where they completely rip up what we've already got

and I'm actually doing a video in the new year with horse powertrains.

Out of nowhere, Renault have just built a massive engine building plant,

which you think is the opposite way to how everything's going,

but to me that is a massive indicator of where things are going,

that a company as high as Renault have built this mega factory that you think,

oh for batteries, nope, they're building brand new internal combustion engines.

That to me as a huge indicator what Porsche have said they're backtracking, Bentley backtracking.

Ironically, the people that are super, not even knee deep, neck deep is Jaguar.

That's the one that I think, oh god, you've gone that step further than the other OEMs,

Maserati as well, right behind them too.

But no, I think engines have a long, long life ahead of them.

What exactly it looks like, couldn't say, but you can take Porsche as a nice template and they know what they're doing.

See, Jag's one of those stories we're obviously here today at the coolest Jaguar I've ever seen.

Come visit Swallows.

And we mentioned some truly epic cars like the CX-75 and all these things that are awesome

and I actually grew up the first ever sports car I ever went in was a light blue Jaguar XK8.

Lovely.

And remember that, like it was...

Have you heard what Ben's bought?

Yes.

Can we talk about that?

No, he wasn't allowed to talk about it on it.

My god.

We'll leak it.

Ben Collins has bought something very...

He has bought something extremely cool.

But you want to buy into a brand when you buy a car.

Are people going to have to buy into the old Jaguar and accept what's happened with it and just live with the nostalgia?

Because I was convinced Jaguar were going to pull off the greatest marketing stunt genuinely in history.

I love the car.

I think it looks cool, but I was convinced that Jag were going to do all of this stuff for a week,

make everybody furious and then release an advert where a Jag comes in and just eats everybody

and suddenly like there's blacks and blues and all the original colors come back

and it's like that was the best thing ever.

It never happened.

Yeah, it's going to be a tough one.

Apparently the car is really good.

I've heard for springs that the car is actually mega.

And I would say now that it's settled a bit, I'd say I'm interacting with more people that think it looks great

than people that think, oh god, it looks like an air conditioning unit.

Yeah, Dyson for cars.

Maybe I'm in a specific world where everyone kind of wants Jag to survive.

But who knows?

There could be engineering within that car that means they can put a 5-liter supercharged V8 in it.

Who knows?

I just hope the car comes out looking the way it vaguely does.

I know it'll never look exactly like it, but the best thing they can do is have that thing come out

and for it to be seen round Monaco or round Knightsbridge looking 95% as the concept does.

I don't want to skip over that we spoke about great teams and we spoke about Lucy,

then we went off on a completely different direction rather than how he managed to do it.

What are you doing?

Because you can go down the route on YouTube where you stay on your own to yourself being a YouTuber.

I think Beard Meats Food did this for years brilliantly on his own, but even he had to bring it.

And I think still think he could do it on his own, but even he, one of my favourite YouTubers,

brought in a team with Josh and the guys that go and film for him.

Because I think sometimes YouTube can be a very lonely space if you do it on your own.

Do you have plans to assemble a great team around you?

Well, as I said earlier, I've very much kept tabs on the people that have left bigger channels

and I've tried to note down the lessons that they've learned.

When they've come and sat on podcasts exactly like this and you ask, you know,

what mistakes have you made, I'm sitting there with a notepad jotting them all down

and that's been a really, really helpful, great resource.

And the biggest next one seems to be always they didn't hire quick enough.

That seems to be the next lesson they learned.

The first one is like, oh, have a bit more realism about how quickly the channel is going to blow up.

Because I think Alex said he wanted 10,000 in a year and I think he had 400 in two weeks or something, like just crazy.

So yeah, the next thing I'm trying to stay super self-aware about is when's the time to hire someone

and what do they do? Is it a full-time videographer, full-time editor?

Is it a full-time commercial person? I'm yet to suss that out.

I've got a great team right now, which is all freelance

and they're very good with their time towards my projects and stuff.

But yeah, the next step will be that scarier one of hiring.

Was there ever a chat with Alex to go and be part of what we call the Auto Alex multiverse?

No, no, none of that. And if it had come along, I probably would have said no anyway.

But no, they were just very, very encouraging and still are.

As I say, I had a phone call with them this morning and it was really great.

And food and fuel is tomorrow, so it'd be great to see them again.

But yeah, to be honest, the Auto Alex Empire is going to be, still now, is a super interesting case study.

People will genuinely, I think, write dissertations about how he's gone about his thing

and where it goes from that I think is going to be a really interesting next 12, 24 months with that team.

See how it moves.

Can you take us into the evening that you put live the video that matters most to you after your first few uploads?

Was it the first one or was it the one afterwards?

Was it your second video or your first that meant the most to you?

The first one was very much set at live, closed laptop.

And I went and painted some Warhammer, if I'm honest.

That's what allows me to just like zoom out. I was just like put that live.

And I remember I think I refreshed my YouTube studio once just to see that the graph was going up.

And I was like, right, OK, away.

And I went and sat and painted my little horseman.

But then, you know, I start getting WhatsApps to and I'm like, right, I need to go check now.

So I top open so I'm back up and going and it's great.

The second video, yes, I was actually with Ben Collins.

I was leaving a shoot with him at Dunsfold as that video went live.

And that's a weird one because well, both videos to be fair, you've got no idea what kind of traction they're going to get.

So you refresh it and I'm also used to drive tribe numbers.

I refresh it after 10 minutes and it's got like 1.5 K views.

And I'm like, if I'm in my drive tribe shoes, that's awful.

But is that actually completely OK?

And I start to try to like extrapolate the numbers in my head being like, what's that going to be after 24 hours?

And I'm like, oh, wait a minute. Yeah, I think I think that's OK.

You start to like overthink it quite a bit.

So I know the scariest one was definitely the first upload.

But I guess you kind of know because of the templates that are out there, you kind of know it's that kind of title.

That kind of thumbnail is always going to get traction.

I think one of the main things I did from the start was making sure it was my face front and centre.

Because that was always a thing with drive tribe.

Like put my face big in a thumbnail.

That kind of immediately gave the people that were just there for the trio stuff permission to very much not click that video.

Well, now it's like, no, no, put my face front and centre nice and big, nice and smiley.

And that's quite a relief that the audience that have subscribed, especially the subscribers are there now for me.

Because I think when you watch any video, ourselves included, especially if it's in the first like few minutes or hours of the upload,

very much the creator is sat behind that going, right?

What's going on? What are the comments?

Very much they're there. They're there with you on the sofa.

I recommend they take up Warhammer.

Watching the video.

However, does YouTube and the way it works and the algorithm, is that as interesting to you as an engine?

I've definitely had to engage in it a lot more over the last two to three years.

Just because of how demanding YouTube is now as a game.

And to be honest, I've learned so much from a YouTube strategist that we brought in as a freelancer at Drive Tribe called Callum McIntyre.

You come across him.

Yeah.

Velocity.

It's his company.

I've learned so much from him.

It's stuff that was like there, but like the way he would talk through it and transfer all that data on screen to actual actionable points was fascinating.

So to be honest, the route I'm going down with my channel now, it's based so much on the consultancy I'm doing.

It's kind of based on the bedrock of what he kind of brought to the game.

What was your question?

Do you find it as interesting?

Oh, as engines.

Is it as complex as engines?

It's way more complex.

That's the thing I struggle with in my...

I'm not naturally super analytical.

As I say, I've had to become it and I'm definitely...

I would like to say I kind of know what I'm talking about and I can go to a certain level.

But some of these YouTube strategies out there, including Callum, can then just go like 10 steps further.

I can analyse people's videos and I can be like, right, I understand why that did well.

Why that title was good and why that thumbnail worked with that title.

But then taking a few steps further is something I'm trying to learn more about.

Did you mention that a dream car that you'd love to own whilst looking out at a pond,

I think you said it's me before we started recording, was an Audi R8.

Yes, a Gem 1 V8 manual in the silver, that dark silver that was on when it was first on talk gear.

Jeremy.

Do you think we will see you buy that car in the next 12 months on your channel?

Oh, God.

I would absolutely love if that was the case.

I was on AutoTrader two nights ago and there's an Audi R8 manual V8 in that colour for 32 grand.

Which is like...

I don't know.

I think it would have to be a bit of a rash call for me to kind of take that money out of the business

and just go and send it on that.

But I always said when I was 14, I said if I could open my curtains and there's an Audi R8 Gem 1 sitting on the drive,

that for me as a teenager was like, you've made it.

Well done.

So if that can be the case, I would absolutely love it.

But who knows?

Well, it sounds like me, Alex, Freddie and all the boys are going to have to bully you now.

That's what we should stop.

Now you've left drive trying to be good at your own channel.

The next thing we'll do, you'll be stood at Wheel of Deal alive next year

and there'll probably be one that I reckon will make it that there's one inside that tent to be able to bid on

because I remember we were bullying you just outside the door.

Yeah, it's funny.

So next year we'll be there bullying you to make sure you buy your dream car.

I think that'll be roughly the brilliant time to have you back on when you hit that moment

because what a journey it's been for you and it's a proper story of road to success.

Thank you.

To go from watching the dream program like so many people listening

to being able to make videos with the guys to learn how to do that in front of camera

and then take that on your own.

I don't think there's a greater example of road to success.

Thank you.

Thank you for coming on once again and hopefully we can have an hour in the future.

Absolutely.

All right, here we come.

About this episode

Mike Fernie shares his journey from working with automotive legends Clarkson, Hammond, and May at DriveTribe to launching his own YouTube channel. He discusses the challenges and excitement of leaving a stable job to pursue his passion independently, the dynamics of working with iconic figures, and the lessons learned from the ups and downs of the automotive media landscape. Fernie also reflects on memorable experiences with the trio, the evolution of DriveTribe, and his vision for future content, including a dream project involving Porsche's legendary engines.

Conrod crank shaft engine Formula One Le Mans piston spark plug turbocharging twin turbo V8 V10

Original notes

Check out Tweak: https://www.tweakuk.com/What happens when you walk away from working with Richard Hammond, filming with DriveTribe, and being part of one of the most iconic automotive media teams in the world?You get Mike Fernie — and today, he reveals everything.In this unfiltered deep dive, Mike breaks down his journey from a 14-year-old Top Gear fan to building a channel poised to become one of YouTube’s next big automotive success stories. From the inside story of DriveTribe’s rise, to emotional moments with Hammond, to the scary leap into going solo, this conversation is packed with insights, stories, and hard-earned lessons every creator and car enthusiast needs to hear.Don’t forget to subscribe to our channel for more exciting content about your favourite shows and celebrities. Hit the bell icon to stay updated on all our latest episodes👍 Like, Comment, and Share this episode. Join our discussion in the comments sectionCheck out Tweak: https://www.tweakuk.com/🔗 Follow Us:Instagram: @Roadtosuccessofficialpodcast@benedictfowler

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