A Toyota Prius is a car that uses both a gas engine and an electric motor. That combination is meant to help it use less fuel than many regular cars. The podcast mentions it because someone rented one to review it.
The Toyota Camry is a regular, everyday sedan. It’s made to be comfortable and practical for daily driving. The podcast mentions it because someone was hiring cars to review them.
The Ford Mustang is a sports car made by Ford. It’s known for being fun to drive and for having a classic, recognizable look. The podcast mentions it because it was featured in a film shoot.
The Renault Twingo is a small car meant for city driving. It’s designed to be easy to park and handle in tight spaces. The podcast lists it as one of the cars that could be tested or reviewed.
The Mercedes-Benz S-Class is a top-level luxury sedan. It’s built to be very comfortable and convenient, often with features like power seats and power windows. The podcast brings it up because someone thought a car they saw was an S-Class because of those electric features.
The Volkswagen Beetle is an iconic air-cooled, rear-engine compact that has been modified and parts-mixed for decades. In this segment, Rory mentions using a Beetle exhaust on his Zastava 45, showing how owners would scavenge parts across models to change sound and character.
The Opel Astra is a compact car meant for normal daily driving. The podcast mentions a specific Astra GTE version, which is a more performance-focused model. It’s brought up because the speaker wanted one.
The Vauxhall Astra GTE is a sportier Astra model. Here they’re talking about different engine versions—an 8-valve and a 16-valve—which changes how the engine breathes and feels.
ABS is a safety system that helps stop you from skidding when you brake hard. Here, the car’s brakes behaved badly when ABS kicked in, so the host had to learn how to brake without relying on it.
Lift-off oversteer is when you let off the gas and the car’s back end starts to swing out. It’s a driving behavior you learn to control, especially when traction changes mid-corner.
The handbrake is the extra brake you normally use to park the car. Here it’s mentioned as a tool the host used while learning how to control the car without ABS working properly.
The BMW E36 is a specific generation of the BMW 3 Series. It’s popular with enthusiasts because it drives in a very engaging way—especially since it’s rear-wheel drive.
The Chevrolet Corvette C3 is a classic Corvette from the late 1960s/early 1970s. Rory is basically saying he wanted that specific generation, but the ones he found were in rough shape.
He also has an older Range Rover that he uses as a daily driver. It’s a luxury SUV, and the “L 320” is a way of referring to that specific version/platform.
A custom body kit is extra exterior parts added to change how the car looks. In this case, the Mustang had a custom front setup, and the crash bent/damaged it.
“Press cars” are cars people in the media get to use for work, like filming and reviewing. Rory is saying that because he’s always working, he doesn’t get much time to enjoy his own cars.
The Audi RS Q8 is a fast, performance-focused SUV from Audi. The host is talking about having one for a while to test it in everyday life, not just for a quick drive.
The Audi RS e-tron GT is an electric car made for high performance. Instead of using gasoline, it runs on electricity from a battery. The podcast mentions it as part of what the speaker has considered owning long term.
“V10” means the engine has 10 cylinders arranged in a V shape. People often like V10 engines because they tend to feel and sound special at higher revs.
“V8” means the engine has eight cylinders in a V shape. It’s a common setup in fast cars, and it can deliver strong power without being as large as some bigger engines.
Launch control is a mode that helps a car get off the line as quickly as possible. It’s designed to keep the wheels from spinning too much while you stomp on the accelerator.
The Toyota Land Cruiser is a tough SUV made for rough roads and off-road driving. It’s built to be reliable and capable when conditions are difficult. The podcast mentions it because they tested a Land Cruiser in South Africa.
The G-Class is a luxury SUV that’s also designed to handle rough terrain. It’s known for its distinctive, boxy shape and for being capable off-road. The podcast mentions it because they tested it while in South Africa.
The G-Wagon is a Mercedes-Benz off-road SUV famous for being tough. Here they’re using it for a big stunt—racing and towing—because it can handle unusual, heavy-duty situations.
An armored personnel carrier is a heavily protected military vehicle used to move people safely. They’re comparing the “bomb bay” to that kind of vehicle to show how big and tough it is.
This is a Bentley grand touring car, and the “GT Speed” is the higher-performance version. The convertible roof makes it more fun to drive with the top down—more sound and more feeling of the surroundings.
That phrase means making the rear of the car slide outward a bit while turning—like the car is rotating more than it’s going straight. It’s something drivers do on purpose only when they have grip and control.
This is a Porsche 911 GT3, which is the more hardcore, performance-focused version of the 911. The idea of a convertible GT3 is a bit of a twist, since most people think of the GT3 as a fixed-roof track car.
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Rory Scotland tomorrow Mustang and I was like let's go they turned me down I remember I did the
audition the screen test and they wrote back and said um basically thanks but no thanks
and I was like just devastated it's top gear for real it's like helicopters flying around
following me as I'm driving um through Scotland it's brilliant I love fifth gear and I wanted to
do fifth gear because um I wanted to be one of the few people including your good self who did both
have you ever met Jeremy Clarkson yes I've got a call from also the trader saying listen we're
going to revamp our youtube channel we love your stuff would you come and talk to us top gear or fifth gear
hello and welcome to fueling around I'm Vicki Butler Henderson and I'm Dave Vitti bringing
you the very best in mototainment every single week fueling around is powered by Adrian Flux as
the UK's largest specialist insurance broker Adrian Flux will tailor a quote to your exact
needs helping save you money on your car your bike or even your home insurance now please don't
forget to press subscribe on youtube so that you never miss an episode or press follow on spotify
or apple or wherever you get your podcasts from now then it is with great pleasure to introduce
you to this week's special guest he is a motoring journalist he has been on top gear and fifth gear
like somebody else in here and but he is the youtube director for auto trader he is Mr Rory
Reed hey guys hello thank you thanks for having me oh listen thank you very much for coming in
it's a pleasure to meet you um as Vicki says you know an extraordinary career thus far um
in many many things that you've done currently youtube director for auto trader and so things
continue to go from strength to strength um would you say though that having been in the top
gear stable and obviously that being a life changing moment professionally yeah that you owe
your big break to Jeremy Clarkson punching a producer 100% as bad as it sounds i think that
was a pivotal moment wasn't it because if he if he hadn't swung that right hook uh or whatever
punch it was i'm not sure yeah um i left off a cut jab i'm not sure it could have been a combo i'm
sure um but you know like would we be in this room today maybe if the universe aligned in
different ways but yeah that was the moment that kind of changed pretty much everything absolutely
yeah it set my life on a on a different trajectory although weirdly all my mates kind of expected
it to happen anyway really literally else you know you know go to work um doing my car videos
and stuff like that and they would all say to me when are you going to be on top gear and i'm i'd
always say when Jeremy Clarkson resigns or dies you know yeah but it turned out that didn't
need to happen yeah absolutely just a stake gate needed to happen yeah yeah she needs to get hungry
yeah yeah what films were you doing before then what was your outlet so um directly before top
gear i was working on a small youtube channel called Recombu um Recombu is a portmanteau
of reed compared by and it started out originally as a mobile phone site and youtube channel
and the owner wanted me to come on board and set up a car's specific kind of offshoot of that so
i was doing Recombu cars which was a you know car youtube channel doing reviews and things like that
before that i was doing car tech at a company called CNET and CNET is this big american corporation
and they um entered the uk market doing consumer tech reviews and i was start i started out doing
like tech reviews at CNET and then one day i was like can i do cars um and they said no and i went
come on it just just one day a week two days a week and they went uh go on and if you can make it work
go ahead so i tried to call up a bunch of car manufacturers saying can you send me a car for
review um and all of them said no yeah so i'm going off with a bit of a tangent no that's good you
need to earn your strikes to get the cars um so i i hired a car Toyota Prius from like
enterprise or something um did a review on it did a video and it went nuts got loads of views
and then i called up every other manufacturer and said um Toyota sent me this car so you've got to
send me stuff now and they all went okay fake it till you make it baby there you go absolutely well
that's the thing you know everybody's got their story because there isn't there isn't one path
to get into anything you know is it and and i think all of us can look back and in whatever
we've done and and say that there was a moment of of fortuity and and luck and meeting the right
people and doing the right thing at the right time it's funny actually though that you say that your
your friends were sort of saying years ago when you're going to be on top gear um and perhaps not
appreciating how difficult and how elite that would be to get there yeah you know i mean because
it's not like just suddenly becoming on tv and and and doing cars you are you're playing for
the top team aren't you we're elite vicki but it is the only ultimate isn't it
you know and and i genuinely feel forever more it will be really i think you know you make a good
point i also think you make your own luck yeah in a lot of ways um i think the one thing that
a lot of people have in common who do maybe go further than other people is that they
take the opportunities that are in front of them so um you can ask permission from someone
and if they say no and you don't say but i'm going to do it anyway yeah figure out a path yeah
then you're not going to progress and take that next step um so whenever anyone asks me how do
i get into this industry i always say just do it like whatever it takes even if it's a really
weird path um or it seems difficult just do something build on it and when your break comes
you'll put the work in yeah ready so that you're able to prove that you you belong there so when
when top gay called i had already put the work yeah for them to say he's got that back catalog
he's got that experience that desire yeah um maybe we should give him a shot and plus the other
thing is as you say is that yes everybody owes their their success to an extent to it to an
element of luck but you've then got to play that moment you know you get that break but then it's
up to you to actually play it in the right way you know because because that's almost where the
journey starts isn't it hundred percent um what was that first day like on top gear and then i'm
going to ask you your first day on fifth gear as well because i'll be mighty different uh first
day on top gear i think there's so many different first days there's um there's the first shoots
that i did there's also even before that the the audition that i did um and then there's the first
studio day as well and they're all really big first yeah so the first the the audition so i sent in
an audition tape but the screen test the first screen test where you rock up to the uh to dunce
fold and they hand you the keys to a car and they say you've got to drive around the track and
deliver some lines yeah and there are cameras already set up in the car cameras all set up
you got cameras track side um and there's no one in the car with you you're on your own um it's all
on you with your nerves yeah your feelings and you set off and you deliver the lines and they
gave me i think they gave me 20 minutes to do to do this thing and i finished all my lines in
probably five minutes and then mr efficiency and then i was like i radioed it i picked up the radio
went i'm done uh what can i can i stay out for a bit longer because i've got more time and they
went okay so i just literally started just messing about just that drifting and stuff like that just
just enjoying the moment yeah and like ad-libbing about what i was feeling and just giving that
that extra little sauce on top of what they expected anyway um and just just like trying to
make the most of the moment so that was a cool day um the next cool day was my first film that i
did which was a Ford Mustang shoot in scotland just you or with other presenters that was just me
that was uh chris evans was meant to do that but he he he cancelled the day before and went i can't
do it for some i think show biz reasons i think it was family reasons to be fair
um and they went rory scotland tomorrow it's Mustang and i was like let's go um and then yeah
off you go and then suddenly it's it's top gear for real it's like helicopters flying around following
me as i'm driving um through scotland it was brilliant and then the first studio date was
probably the most nerve-wracking because you got humans you got like a thousand audience members
you got eyeballs looking at you yeah and they're like who is this guy um what does he know about
cars exactly judging yeah and um and that was that was tough but uh yeah we got through it and
i just tried to enjoy every moment of it it wasn't all like you know flowers and rainbows a lot of
it was tough um especially because the show was under so much scrutiny at the time as well and
everybody wanted you to fail yeah yeah um it was a real moment of change wasn't it you know at the
time when when you came in you know this was taking over from a huge legacy yeah and this was possibly
the biggest change in in in its history but in terms of your own um audition and path um it
wasn't straight away though was it because didn't you didn't you initially get knocked back and then
had to convince them again with a further tape yeah definitely so uh they turned me down i remember
i did the audition the screen test and they um took ages and it was like come on what's what's
happening what's happening and uh sent an email saying have you got any news yet and they wrote
back and said um basically thanks but no thanks and i was like just devastated after getting so far
yeah i think i was down to like the last three people or something
and just that long wait and just that long wait just maybe just just it was devastating
and i um i remember texting my mate i said uh i haven't got it and he went change their minds
and i was like what do you want about and i sort of ignored it and then i thought no he's right
i need to change their minds because if you got that close like what's you know what
could i've done something a bit different yeah it's not like you're miles away from
from whatever they they they feel they want yeah i feel like there's something there
but i just need to convince them yeah that you know i was the right person for it so i wrote back
and i said what was it that you that i didn't do correctly what did you want to see that i haven't
shown and they went it's not that it's just that everyone that we've tested was really good but
you're all you're all really good and we just can't decide on any of you so we decided basically
to go for none of you oh my gosh yeah and i was like that's great information that is because
everyone's thought because what what i realized was everyone did the same test the same screen test
the same studio test um on the track in the studio um but that's all they saw so i've got to give
so um this is the point where i rang up Rolls Royce and i i begged them for a um a ghost
series too and i did this spoken word poetry review of this car uh just to showcase like my
writing yes um because no one had ever done this as far as i was aware like a spoken word poetry
review on a car and just to showcase my creativity in my writing and also presenting as well and just
giving a flavor that they hadn't seen from anyone else um and i sent that to them um and they they
gave me the job the same day i'm gonna say the other thing with that though rory is is um and not
taking anything away from it with the greatest respect but you know not taking anything away
from the writing or what you delivered shot etc but i guess the most important thing in
all of that was it just demonstrated your hunger yeah it demonstrated the fact that you weren't
going to take no for an answer you've got this close i mean i tell you what from a career point
of view who's who's the who's the mate of yours who said convince them otherwise yeah paul paul
monkton because paul monk turn because because paul you know in many ways paul changed your life
didn't he paul did 100 with that with that advice what does paul do for a living uh paul is a tech
journalist he's a writer um so he he's one he's one of the ones who's always saying when you're
um but like really meaning it and expecting it god we're well done you for using your creativity
as well and and not and not listening to no means no yeah um when fifth gear came calling you didn't
say no what was that first day like when you joined the other side i know it's a weird one
isn't it because yeah you they expect they they sort of exist on almost two different ends of
spectrum this is like hugely entertainment-based behemoth that is top gear and then you got fifth
gear which is slightly more kind of sensible than every man yeah and definitely on a with no
helicopters on fifth gear no but it was great no because i i i love fifth gear and i wanted to do
fifth gear because um i wanted to be one of the few people including your good self who did both
because they're just such iconic shows that i just wanted to be a part of both of them and it was
it was a great pleasure working with with you guys and um and ticking that box what was your first
day for fifth gear we did um we did a uh a test at millbrook with i've forgotten what cars it was
now but it was one of those kind of group test things where we all poke around a car and i earned
the nickname or at this i earned this uh perception that i was obsessed with boot sizes because i could
i would memorize the exact literate yeah every single boot um and also obsess about the shapes of
the boot as well here comes the boot guy yeah exactly yeah caron chandoch wouldn't let let that
lie but um it was it was fun it was more relaxed working on definitely relaxed yeah there was i
enjoyed fifth gear more on a human level uh because there was always this this weight of expectation
and pressure yeah from the top gear side um and then going to do fifth gear it just felt like
just a nice crowd to hang out with yeah yeah and i think you get that
impression you know as an audience when you watch it it feels like um it feels quite effortless
and i mean that in the greatest sort of way like the pressure is off and you're just enjoying yourself
and just doing what you do best definitely fueled by passion that's the key yeah i think yeah yeah
and you know when you're given space to just be yourself yeah um and shine on your own terms
i think that that goes a long way on screen yeah um and it comes across and when you've got someone
like vicky uh next to you who is like you're brilliant i love you by the way um it makes it
it makes it easier absolutely well listen why do you think i'm sitting over here you know
wouldn't be doing this on my own i'm having a love loving love fest let's rock
in terms of um you it was three years that you spent at top gear wasn't it yeah 2016 to 19
something like that before you obviously moved to to where you are now was the decision to leave
top gear a difficult one was the auto trader offer too good to turn down or was it indeed
correct on both of those fronts you know was it was it tough to leave um it was tough to leave
in one sense i think you know so what happened to me on top gear was that they had ideas for me
specifically about how i would exist within the top gear universe yeah um and they wanted me to
focus on more electric cars they wanted me to become the the ev kind of guy yeah um and uh i do
like if you don't get me wrong but i it's not really who i am so you didn't want to be labelled
with that yeah yeah you're more of a boot guy i'm yeah exactly can i can i be the
boot leeches guy please um so i was like okay but the the other thing was i was working on this
online series uh for top gear at the same time and i'd put in countless hours of you know producing
this this content um ready ready for it to be released and they would they were just sitting
on it for so long and the the cars that i had tested were kind of going out of production
before it even aired even aired i was like well i'm doing all this work i'm i'm sitting on my
content it's not going out uh and then i got a call from auto trader saying listen we're
gonna revamp our youtube channel we love your stuff would you come and talk to us um and i was
let's talk so they kind of showed me the vision which was basically um you know we'd love for
you to share your vision uh and and tell us what a youtube channel might look like with you at the
helm uh and they were really open and responsive to my ideas and they just said uh if you're ready
to do it let's do it and um so i yeah i said i said buy to buy to the bbc and went to auto
trader and with auto trader now you you can create films and they don't sit on a shelf they i mean
exact opposite yeah exactly tell us what you're filming and the team behind it all
okay so we because auto trader is i think all things to all people in terms of you can buy
anything on the platform you got vans you got bikes you got cars all different types of cars
farm machinery farm machinery definitely um we try to provide uh we don't do farm machinery on
the channel but we try to provide a variety of cars uh that you know everyone's interested in
some way so it'd be anything from a reno twingo one week to an aster martin db12s the next week
yeah and um and we we're kind of lucky that our audience kind of resonates with both ends of
the spectrum so you get success on both sides um see what it looks like for me on a week week by
week basis is i'm normally traveling somewhere abroad uh always on a plane um landing somewhere
where there's a launch happening new car gets revealed they give me the keys i i head off with
my camera crew we do a film and then come back and within 48 hours to six weeks depending on the
length of the embargo um we have a video up on on youtube and it's it's it's kind of rinse and repeat
it's it's pretty relentless on uh on youtube you got to keep feeding the beast um so yeah it gets
it looks glamorous but it's it's not is it vicky we were in Barcelona last week yeah it was it was
lovely but you don't see Barcelona no you just get work through your script get
your script done get your shots done yeah wake up early next morning get on the road get those ups
and buys yeah and then on to the next one and then on to the next one yeah exactly but i mean it pays
dividends though because you know if you don't mind me saying i mean the films look fantastic i mean
they they look like could be on top gear or or something of that and i and i can
you know only say that as the greatest compliment because it's proper premium content yeah that's
the aim really to make it like look and and feel um as if a lot of thought and effort has gone into
it um so that's that's what we aim for and we're lucky that the audience has kind of resonated
with it yeah and and they uh we got we got a lively uh cohort of of watchers nearly 1.8 million
subscribers subscribe if you haven't already or so trade in uk um but yeah no i i really enjoy it
yeah it is honestly i what you and i do is amazing and i can't fault it at all and i feel lucky to
to be you know to do it yeah it's a dream job isn't it really really is a dream job yeah i was
going to ask you as well sort of in terms of well both of you really as sort of former alumni of top
gear without obviously talking about the incident which ultimately led to to the program going off
the air but but how do you feel now in terms of the fact that that institution is no more is that
something that that makes you sad do you want to go for us vicki um i always think that the door is
open for it and i don't think anyone has ever said that it has done and dusted interesting
yes do you do you share that i think it will come back to you one day i think enough uh enough time
needs to pass enough wounds need to heal so this is a rest rather than an end i mean i can't speak
in pattern powerful um and has such weight behind it that i think it almost has to come back in some
shape or form um i agree i mean the magazine has you know kept going and it's got a very strong
online presence as well so yeah it's a huge brand they're not letting it go in terms of the magazine
the youtube channel so yeah i think i think they just need to spend time letting people kind of
forget yes the drama that happened yeah and then and then come back with something strong
i'm curious to see what they will that will look like um because i think the world's changed i'm
not sure if you could have uh clarkson hammered and may come back right now and and do what they
did before in today's world i think times have changed i think whatever it ends up
being in the future if it does come back it's it will be probably quite different i think i think
the world's changed even since the you know the last three i mean never mind clarkson hammered and
may i think the world's changed even since sort of flintoff mcginnis and harris you know in many
ways and as you say you know the world's changed a lot in two years three years five years so when
it does eventually come back what will the audience want we we wait and see they want rory and me that's
what they want there you go you want to sign it there that's an official come and get me
um rory please might take you right back to the very beginning and your earliest petrol related
memories that gave you the passion for cars yeah you know i i i had two passions when i was younger
one was technology uh so i love gadgets um and i love cars as well but my big one when i was sort
of like you know 10 years old or whatever was was tech um i so i used to play a lot of video games
like car video games basically and i used to program my own games and stuff um so that was one
and then and then the cars thing was was difficult because i didn't have that many people around me
who had nice cars that i could accidentally kind of um fuel that passion with it was only when people
like my granddad he had a voxel carton and and i thought it was this was the best thing ever
because it had like electric seats it had electric windows but i thought it was like an s-class or
yeah big beast yeah because it was just like wow and quiet and comfortable um
so i think from my perspective i didn't have anyone kind of spoon feeding me the
passion i had to discover it on my own yeah and um one way i did that was with um max power magazine
things like that and i'd you know my one of my big memories is uh just having loads of photos um
posters on my wall yeah of of uh of supercars um and i always had a a passion for um the Chevy
Corvette because it was always it was all these posters had top trumps on them and uh the Corvette
was the cheapest but still had almost the best naught to sixty so i was like if one day i'm gonna
own one of these and i i remember just yeah spending lots of time buying loads of really
cars hoping that i could buy them sell them and upgrade to something else and work my way to a
Corvette never quite happened but uh and in terms of you know passing your test were you a first
time guy and you know can you remember you know we always say don't know those immortal words you've
passed you know can you remember that moment on the day of your test i can remember
i mean i was driving before that i mean obviously obviously obviously on on private yeah it was
farm tracks yeah exactly um but yeah past my test first time i think i got two minor floors
one was um being too hesitant pulling out of the test center yeah and then i saw him make a note
and i thought oh he thinks i'm being too slow here and then the next one was being too gung-ho
so um yeah no doubt it's cool though somewhere in the middle please mr reed yes yeah past my test
first time quite happy with that where where did you go on your first solo travel to the shops
an errand for mum i can't even remember because it was i feel like i was on the road so much anyway
but um yeah probably to the supermarket or something like that some nonsensical
trips like my mum do you need more cat food no in fact of course you do i'm going do you know one
thing i do remember is um picking up my mate and saying i've passed my test do you want to go for
a drive and we went somewhere private um and i gave him a driving lesson oh geez confidence he
promptly crashed the car right we're still mates and the car the car is fine it was yeah this isn't
mungton again is it no mungton what was the first car that you bought uh it was a hand me down vicky
so the first car i had absolutely was a hand me down it was a forward focus um mark sorry forward
fiesta mark 21 liter um it was green or blue it was kind of one of these washed out
greeny blue colors yeah but mostly rust colored and um that was the thing that got me around mostly
and then uh i moved on to a variety of uh no less rubbish but uh no less charismatic cars either
so my next one was a uh Volkswagen polo sweet um b reg longest state shape oh yeah yeah um
i think that was a mark two um i also had a uh forward escort xr3 or spicy not the xr3 i no
no injection just uh just the um but that was that was i mean what what sort of age are you with an
xr3 then so this is all from like 17 18 19 okay i mean that's a lot of car at that age
you're certainly at the time you know what it was adrian flux ah there you go you know sort out a
sort out a quote for you there you go um had to get that plug in no but it was it was so hard to
get insurance but um there were these kind of you know uh brokers and things like that yeah
could sort you out amazing so yeah xr3 had that for a bit um one of my worst cars but also best
was the yugo zastava 45 oh my gosh the yugo yeah i used to love that car it looked horrible the paint
was terrible it was like a red fading orangey color but i had i i put a i put like an exhaust from
an xr2 on it no from a beetle i put a beetle exhaust on the back of it yeah and it was just so loud
and obnoxious and actually quite quick as well was it four speed or five it was a four speed
but it had a knn air filter on it as well so it was quite chic it was good living the max power dream
yeah then i moved on to two cars that i really wanted one was an eight valve voxel astra uh gte
yeah the eight valve was good but then i what i really wanted was a 16 valve so got the 16 valve
digital dash um uh digital dash everyone with a digital dash thought that they were night
rider didn't yeah you know that was the whole point is effectively i've got a car that is some
some way inspired by kit yes exactly and you know all the now you've got such modern dashes that
they also did you everyone's now like oh i could do with an analog now yeah it's like give me old
school dials yeah um but the 16 valve was brilliant also modified air filter exhaust a lot but um the
problem with it was i bought it off a guy um and he he didn't tell me this at the time but the brakes
were broken like there was something wrong with the brakes which meant that whenever you engage
abs the brakes would instead of just looking and releasing quickly they would just release right
so i discovered this breaking hard as i pulled up towards a junction abs kicked in brakes released
and i went straight across the junction so nasty potential accident um but no one could
ever fix it for me so i have to drive around this problem and i learned how to get really
good on the brakes from that because everyone relies on abs but i i'd never had to rely on abs
yeah because abs meant yeah an accident basically so that that car taught me a lot that's fantastic
i love it a little and a front wheel drive car because most people learn with a rear wheel drive
car about driving dynamics yeah but you navigated your way around a front wheel drive and no brakes
taught me a lot about lift off oversteer as well nice and handbrake yeah yeah before we continue
the car journey because i want to find out what follows that quick bit of mid-show housekeeping
if you haven't already please press subscribe on youtube so they never miss an episode or you
can press the follow button on apple or spotify or wherever you get your podcast from so where do
we go next mr reed after after the 16 valve we go to a variety of car meets like attended by the
max power generation so um cruises so you know rocking up to cruises in the faric lakeside there
you go there you go um they always felt so dangerous at the time these places yeah it was a bit
scary but um no i had fun um being a bit of a hooligan tearing around at these car cruises
but after the gte 16 valve i went to an e36 bmw nice um which was amazing it was really really
nice car um had a lot of fun in that rear wheel drive as well so learned a bit about car dynamics
and things like that um and i spent i spent about four or five years in that car that was really
that was really special um but then it all it kind of i look my my car history is all about
just like really terrible cars and the re and i had multiple of them at the same time so all
these cars i've listed i never really sold them and moved them on i kind of had them all at the
same time accumulated oh i see and the with the logic that when one broke i'd get into
another one and i'd drive that around fair enough while i fixed the other one and then if that broke
i'd jump into the other one so i was just like going from really terrible car to really terrible
car just rotating and i always i always wanted to be the guy that had a car because in college
at the time um that's how you you know you got friends and girls and things like that because
you'd be the guy who'd like to take people on absolutely absolutely it sets you above you
know your contemporaries doesn't it if you've got a car would you like to go on the bus with me to
dinner or can i come pick you up i want to jump in like you go i'll take the bus thanks rory
um what is the the motoring itch that you've still got to scratch i mean i know we we get to
drive so many amazing things but for you personally to to buy and spend money on yeah i spent a long
time looking for the perfect chevy corvette um uh didn't find one see i wanted a c3 which is the um
i think it was like 1969 i can never find one that wasn't completely broken um so that is that is an
itch i think i'd love a corvette of some of some type uh yeah c2 or c3 any corvette really i think
that would be because i because i had the car on my wall yeah i'd love to go kind of full circle
from having a vet on the wall as a kid to um to having one on the drive but it makes such little
sense for us to to have well this with is going to be my next point you know for
for somebody who spends their time flying around the world and driving and reviewing other people's
cars how i mean what is what is in the personal rory reid um sort of car collection
currently currently uh nothing that interesting to be honest with you i i um my my baby was a
forward Mustang five-liter v8 s 550 um which is a brilliant car i had that from is the first car
i drove on on top gear for for a film um and the car i drove in that film was was a yellow coupé um
and i i fell in love with it on the shoot i sort of criticized it a lot on the shoot but i fell in
love with it yeah i want that actually yeah so i went and bought one yeah um and i i kept that car
for probably a good five years and um i sold it recently but um that that was my baby but apart
from that i've got got an old range rover l 320 um that's one of my dailies i've got tesla model y
for the family car um uh bmw x5 ms ad's g le um yeah but nothing nothing yeah that's the thing
when you're when you're doing the job that we do yeah it makes such little sense to actually
you know invest in something that you really love because you never get time to drive it no
and that's the reason why i sold the Mustang because uh it was parked up on my on my drive for
over a year literally yeah i just i just never drove it and i was like someone else
should enjoy this yeah yeah so i sold it and three weeks later i got a facebook message saying
are you the rory reid with the yellow Mustang and i went yeah um and he went my wife bought
your car and crashed it where'd you get your front bumper from because it was all
custom front bulk custom body kit and um there she'd she'd bend it and i was like
or had he bend it and he was just dissing his wife maybe but that hurts so isn't it you know
when when especially when you've looked after something so well yeah and it's been cherished
clearly yeah and then it's gone somewhere and maybe cherished not quite so much that hurts
never crashed and then suddenly yeah but that's the Mustang that you know i a lot of people
they like the appeal of a Mustang because it's powerful a real driving noise and then try driving
one in winter yeah all over the shop yeah but uh yeah no yeah my my car collection is um
is basically press cars these days yeah because that's that's yeah you have to keep driving cars
and keep producing films and you just get no time to actually enjoy yeah enjoy the cars that um
you know that you would curate yourself yeah and i suppose also you know when you are back home
from a trip you know you've just been away to Barcelona driving cars around the hills of there
or wherever you might be in Portugal or Spain or wherever it is i suppose when you do
come home you probably just want something which is a workhorse to go to supermarket in back or
you know go out with the family or something so it's not about getting that adrenaline rush is it
from something kind of like hot to sexy because that's that's what you're doing job wise yeah yeah
and you get that as well you get that from from press cars being sent to you at home yeah um i
haven't mentioned it but i've got an Audi RS Q8 um long term i wish you know you you get these
cars to test on long term basis to figure out and long term for for those that don't know is
is i mean are we talking a few months are we talking a year i mean it can be it's normally
a few months right so you the idea being that you create multiple pieces of content on it and
learn to live with it and find the the flaws and yeah and the the the foibles of this vehicle so
you've got to you keep testing it's never work doesn't stop you don't drive for pleasure
i find i mean it's enjoyable but yeah it's a job always always receiving bits of information
when when we're driving but i every mile i have i take enormous pleasure from it
but but that's good though isn't it the fact that after all of these years i mean this to both of
you the fact that the you know you're not complacent about it and you still clearly love what you do
which is great you know it's not kind of like i'm gonna go and test that this way you know it's
like you genuinely love love what you do it is pretty pretty special um what has been a standout car
for you so on your auto trader shenanigans is there one car that's you know that surprised you
in a good way or bad oh i think i get surprised by a lot of cars but i mean the ones that i that set
set my pulse racing the most probably lamborghini's i don't know how you feel about lamborghini's but
i'm an urus girl are you oh give me an urus yeah i mean i love that i love them all lamborghini's
yeah i'm uh i love ferrari's too yeah i'm a lambo guy through and through so just you know the you
know from the v10 hurricane even now with the v8 um temerario yeah yeah yeah they're so violent and
uh and and the exciting that um they're kind of a go-to favorite of mine the event at all svj is
probably the one that kind of sticks sticks to mine because yeah yeah um whenever i drive that car
it is such uh an intoxicating kind of experience i always try to take passengers
when i when i get a lambo just so they can experience particularly what a launch in a
lambo feels like so i'll just i'll drive around a park up somewhere and i'll go right just strap
in and feel this and then i'll just do launch control and put the look on their face usually of
terror yeah is i just get a kick out of that i do exactly the same because you feel that you don't
get a lamborghini every day of the week so to be able to share it is exactly right i've been down
my road knocked on the door of people who i know have got kids and said look i've got i've got a
lambo would you like to come and sit in it and it's it is a sharing definitely experience yeah it's so
good yeah uh so yeah lambo i love lambos um i think the same thing with electric cars though we
mentioned earlier about not being the ev guy but the the acceleration on those is yeah well
that's funny enough i was just thinking that when you said that in terms of just that sort of like
you know sort of push back in the seat moment yeah definitely because they are ridiculous
aren't they yeah you know so i love like vicky said just sharing the experience of
um of a special car with someone else i'm not i'm not precious about it if i see someone um
even looking at the car at a petrol station i'll just say yeah jump in have a look yeah um let
them take a look at it i'll if i drive past the kid at a bus stop point at the car
remember you'll rev it although i did that once and i revved it and the kid burst into tears
and his mum just said you absolute and you don't have to beep it but she swore at me and i was like
sorry i don't know i thought he wanted it but yeah do you know which car it was can you remember
which car that was a lambo as well that was that was an spj so he's probably scarred for life this
kid oh but i don't know i thought i thought he wanted to hear it yeah mummy mummy the bootleg
to guy just revved his lambo at me um in terms of the day job then rory and and and you know there's
a huge amount of content that you're creating every every month and every year how does that come
about is that something that you know obviously as a youtube director are you sort of mapping out
over the course of the year what what you want to achieve or is it something which is largely driven by
press schedules of manufacturers and release dates and stuff yeah it's a bit of both uh
usually you're dictated to in terms of the availability of cars in terms of the the launch
calendar so bmw are launching this in this month um they'll come and invite us to that launch and it
helps us a lot we find to be um to be active on the launch circuit so we can get early access so
we can show people what the cars are like as soon as we're able to yeah um but in parallel with that
we're also creating our own bespoke shoots so um i think we mentioned earlier we did an aston martin
db12s that's yeah so i watched it the other day it was great yeah that was such a fun car brilliant car
so off the back of that um well actually in in parallel i knew the launch was happening but i
said to them once the launch has happened can i get one back to the uk because i want to put that up
against a um a bentley continental gt or other equivalent rival so you're planning um your
own shoots at the same time as as the manufacturers are planning their their releases so yes it's a
bit of both and it's it takes up a lot of headspace to to kind of keep up with it all but um got a
pretty good team and we uh yeah we get by yeah so all the adventures that you've created what do you
think is your standout one oh we went to south africa uh to test um we did a couple of shoots
in south africa south africa is such a special place uh but it's uh we did a toyota land cruiser
250 prado uh in south africa and me and my one of my co-presenters alex um me and her just drove
through south africa through cape sorry johannesburg um doing off off-roading and uh we went through a
a wildlife reserve and she's driving past lions and tigers and chatting to people and things like
that and testing the car in an environment that was really challenging but also really beautiful
as well we came out with a really like beautiful looking film yeah and it just felt like you know
heartwarming and nice to be able to do that um so that was that was very special uh while we were
in south africa as well we we we tested this we tested the g-wagon against something called an
bomb bay and an bomb bay you've driven an bomb yeah this is ringing about yeah the big military
yes yeah and it's not a brand or a model or that's the model so the company is called paramount
and they build the bomb bay which is like an armored personnel carrier basically so we did the g-wagon
which is a big car against a huge did it make the g-wagon look small oh yeah tiny really tiny um
we'd be like coming up to its sort of wheel arches kind of thing yeah but we did a race g-wagon
versus some bomb bay um and we i i was driving the bomb bay and we had these uh attack dogs in the
back and and and not soldiers but they're like game wardens basically who go around uh discouraging
poachers should be right okay so they're armed they got these attack dogs and they were all in
the back of this in bomb bay like i don't know seven or eight of them and we're just driving around
the uh this this this kind of race course that we'd fashioned that was that was really good mega and
then we towed a plane i called up um lansaria airport in in jo hannisburg and said you got any
planes i could tow and he went all right so they we literally we rocked up to the airport and they
got this wheel this plane out brilliant uh i think it was a 737 or something and then we towed the
plane with the g-wagon and then once that worked we towed the g-wagon and the plane with the in bomb
bay brilliant wow so it was it was just a lot of fun and going back to the point of trying to create
your own bespoke um films that was um that was a real highlight and yeah could we really lucky to
be able to do stuff like that yeah oh i love it i love the fact that as you say you know in that
sort of position not only do you get to present and drive and ride but also you're sort of mapping
out this content which is wonderful you know with no wonder you you're so happy where you are
yeah for sure yeah you know i think with with top gear you you you do you're you are fortunate to
do some really amazing things um but it is very much uh collaborative and not that auto trade
it isn't collaborative but you it's there are so many different layers to go through before
the bbc say yes sign that off um where you're like this is a great idea can we do it you know
to the date's work yeah great let's do it exactly yes uh and it's it's it's easy it's it's not easy
to do but it's easier to to dream up something a bit silly and then go away and say um right we're
going to do it now and we haven't got to wait for the someone to sign off a budget or the or the
health and safety yeah exactly yeah yeah we just go yeah it's safe don't worry about it's all good
well listen talking of something a little bit silly before we get into final question territory
rory we need you to take part in our quickfire round it's called 0 to 60 because you will have
approximately 60 seconds on the clock to answer as many quickfire questions as you possibly can
right we haven't given you any prior notice on this so you just got to relax and use your mind
to to to get as many as you possibly can press us on we will we will top them all up at the end
and hopefully you'll have a grand score which will make you the the envy of your automotive
contemporaries have you got a leaderboard we we we are getting a leaderboard i'll be right at the
bottom no no no i mean you can see you i mean you can see where this is possibly inspired from
i mean with it with a leaderboard and all of our guests ranked on there
where could that have come from anyway so it's called 0 to 60 uh vicky are you ready with your
first question i'm going to uh use the stopwatch here ready yes i think so so rory
if you're ready vicky butler hannison if you're ready your time starts good to go now what did
you want to be when you were little astronaut telly or youtube youtube who would play you in
top gear the movie oh my god uh i was gonna say oh i was gonna say idris elba but probably not
oh i don't know yeah go on then yeah idris what's the best thing about working for auto trader
um oh i have uh trust trust are there any manufacturers that won't lend you any any cars
won't lend me any cars uh no have you ever met jeremy clarkson yes what's your favorite
character in friends uh uh chandler what's your go-to flavor of crisps barbecue top gear or fifth
gear fifth gear name the coolest tv car of all time elinor on a bacon sandwich red sauce or brown
sauce either actually no red red right i'm doing time up on that one okay right so at the end of
that rory reid you scored 12345678910 i'm gonna give you 12
double figures double figures 12 it's a good score so strong so that's uh that's one of one of
there's two a second no wait there's six sorry 60 ignore that edit that out mass is not my
strong point it's definitely not mine so i'm not gonna help you i'm i'm keeping completely quiet
as well completely quiet um now that my lovely it is time for our final question so this is your
dream drive so if you could paint the scenario for us where are you who are you with what are you
listening to but most importantly what are you driving wow again totally unprepared for this question
but dream drive i would probably have to be in something convertible because i think that adds
so much to the character of a car in the sense that if you if you're in a car with a nice sound
you hear it a lot more um with the top down you can also kind of engage with the surroundings
a bit better with a drop top so with that being said i'm going to go with a Bentley Continental GT
speed convertible where would i go i'd probably drive through the Alps actually
in warm conditions yeah but with snow on the ground um look good on the helicopter shot
would yeah yeah uh switchbacks um going through the Alps um maybe kicking the back end a little
bit out occasionally who would i take with me i would take i might take you vicki actually i
don't know yeah i feel like that will be yeah and oh yeah why should we take a crew as well and film
it would it be possible if i took a 911 GT3 convertible i'm gonna stop this now
because i i know exactly what you're both doing right and i refer back to the previous conversation
where you were saying that you were going to audition for top gear if it came back and i know
exactly what you're doing right and we can't have this on this show it writes itself
and then you know what you know in that beautiful moment that just about uh caused clothes on this
episode of fueling around powered by adrian flux as the uk's largest specialist insurance broker
adrian flux will tailor a quote to exact needs and help save you money on your car you buy a car
even your home insurance and a super huge thank you to our special guest this week mr rory reed
thank you rory thank you vicki thank you dave no it's been great thank you very much don't forget
to press subscribe on youtube so that you never miss an episode or you can press the follow button
on apple or spotify or wherever you get your podcast from thank you so much for joining us and we
will see you again next time bye bye
About this episode
Rory Reid talks through how his car-media career took shape—from early influences to getting a screen-test call for Top Gear and later joining Fifth Gear. He describes the pressure of filming, including Scotland driving and the “everybody wanted you to fail” scrutiny, then explains how a creative Rolls-Royce Ghost pitch landed him a job. After Top Gear, he shifted toward EV focus and Auto Trader’s fast-turnaround launch videos, where embargo timing drives the workflow.
