McLaren Life banner

Best Automobile Reviewers

4K views 24 replies 12 participants last post by  jkheit 
#1 · (Edited)
I'd like to get all of our folks take on who are the best car reviewers out there, as most, IMO, are total crud.

I can think of two major criteria in determining, "best" but perhaps you have others. The two are:

(1) driving skill (S) with the range of 0-10:
0 being avg american driver; 5 being a decent driver that is amateurish but has some good track sense and feels cars well; to 10 reaching a stig'iness or F1 schumacher/senna level of skill.

(2) objectiveness (O). 0 being a complete cowardly biased schill. 5 being decently objective although some of the drivers own biases clearly will cloud some judgements. 10 being saintly and robotically detached objectivism.

So I'll start things with my vote for Chris Harris that Ill rate as S-7, and O-7.

Curious what others' favorites are?


UPDATE: Votes so far:
Chris Harris: S7O7, S8O7, S7O8
Raymond Baxter
Henry Catchpole: S7O8
Jason Plato
Richard Meaden
 
See less See more
#3 ·
At the Moment I agree,CH gets it across S.7,0.8 ,it helps that he is British of course :)
Steve Sutcliff is not bad,but he did do a U turn after the first 12c review he did,which is unforgivable :p ie,he started mirroring other guys reviews on emotion,maybe he felt left out !!
 
#4 · (Edited)
Raymond Baxter.

His enthusiasm for the E type the day it was launched was infectious. He never needed to drive a car to know it's characteristics . Very clever bloke.

That day of its release Raymond Baxter did a black and white filmed report for the national news.......he was so enthusiastic and the car so beautiful I was hooked. I later purchased the Matchbox version after saving my spending money for four weeks.

On launch , iirc, in 1960 the Roadster cost £2067 , the same cost as an average house, so that makes the 12C a bargain. In 1960 an Aston cost over £4000.

On its release Enzo Ferrari called it "The most beautiful car ever made".
 
#6 ·
Never realised that Andy.

I do remember that BMC Mini's would blow their head gaskets passing Leicester which was 100 miles from London at full speed.......about 70 or 80 mph.
 
#21 · (Edited)
Great idea for a thread, jk.

Harris all the way, as he is the only one that attempts to provide real insight in his reviews. After watching his reviews - except for the ones that exist for gratuitous drifting only, like the 458 spider one - I always feel as if I know how the car would be to drive. In contrast, I recently watched a Jethro Bovingdon review of the 458, Scud and 458S and was baffled how he could create a 15 minute video whereby the viewer learns almost nothing about three of the best cars on the planet. The format is stolen, anyway, from when Monkey did the 3 generations of Audi RS4s a while back, but look how much better Monkey does it and how much you learn about each car.



Beyond reviewing cars, some of the recent videos Harris has done for DRIVE channel have been truly excellent videos and may even classify as historic/documentary type pieces in the long run. I'm thinking of the mille miglia video and especially the Goodwood Revival race in the Lister - one of the best car videos of all time, surely.



I'll give Catchpole an honourable mention, as he remains the sole reason to browse evo mag at the local bookstore. The rest collectively make up an industry that should be put out of its misery, like a lame horse.
 
#25 · (Edited)
I liked Richard Meaden's review of the 918. His statements around 11:37 of the review were insightful. We are in a new era, and we need to change to enjoy the new abilities of these great machines.

"we are leaving the things that we know and we have to embrace things are different. We can celebrate the old, and with a car like this, we can celebrate something new."



I wish this insight was equally applied to the 12C as it deserves to be.

The reason may go down to this quote at 13:08

"a little bit of all of us would like to think that we can make a difference to how a car goes, often, not for the better, but still there's satisfaction to that. But this car gives you satisfaction in other ways. You just, you marvel at what it can do."

Ego. Particularly for these wonks that are auto journalists. They can't really drive worth a shit, but they can drive better than the average american crap driver, and they need the car to fit into that very narrow band. That it requires more skill than the totally inept average driver, but not so much skill that you'd actually have to be a good driver, but just enough to stroke their ego. And that's the kind of review we get, based on that world view.

Anyway, that's why I find Richard Meaden refreshing, and he gets a vote. If I get enough names, I think it will be worth doing a poll to see who's on top.
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top