The Grey NATO – 174 – It's Henry Catchpole!
Published on Thu, 16 Dec 2021 06:00:20 -0500
Synopsis
The podcast episode begins with Jason and James discussing the end of 2021 and looking forward to the new year. They talk about movies they've recently watched, including Sorcerer and The Rescue. James shares his excitement for an upcoming review of the Doxa 600T watch. They mention the successful launch of their Substack's Porter straps and express gratitude for the support from listeners.
The main segment is an interview with automotive journalist Henry Catchpole. They discuss Henry's background, his approach to automotive journalism, and his passion for driving and rallying. Henry also talks about his love for watches, including the Omega Speedmaster and Bremont brands.
In the final notes, James recommends a video of an Abarth 2000 sport prototype being driven, while Jason suggests listening to Frederick Forsyth's short story "The Shepherd" read by Al Maitland. James also highlights Fleet Foxes' live performance "A Very Lonely Solstice."
Links
Transcript
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| Jason | Hello and welcome to another episode of The Grey Nado, a loose discussion of travel, diving, driving, gear, and most certainly watches. This is episode 174. It's proudly brought to you by the newly formed TGN supporter crew, and we thank you all so much for your continued support. James, this is our last episode of 2021. |
| James | Yeah, it sure is. And we're finishing the year with sort of an absolute bang as this episode features a chat with none other than a frequent TGN mention and a wonder of the automotive journalism world, Henry Catchpole. You know, it kind of goes without saying, but this has kind of been a long time coming, especially kind of two big fans of what Henry does like you and myself, Jason. |
| Jason | Yeah. I mean, I think it was probably within the first 10 episodes that you probably included a Henry video in a Final Notes. At least I know it was in the first year and we've traded links back and forth to a lot of his work. And it's, uh, it was a privilege to find out that, that he actually is a listener of TGN. Uh, so, uh, we know he's listening to this one for sure, but, uh, you'd mentioned a while back that he was on a flight or a drive somewhere and he, and he had TGN on the, on the speakers and I was like, wow, that's, that's awesome. So, um, we invited him on and here we go. |
| James | And yeah, so as far as the end of the year, this will be our last episode for 2021. We'll be back, uh, you know, rested likely a few pounds heavier for an episode on January 6th. That'll be a brand new episode. I hope everyone's pumped for it. I think it's going to be a great year for the show. Um, we certainly kind of have, uh, have all our ducks in order to, uh, to kind of get some interesting guests and, and good topics going. And I think, uh, I think it's going to be a good year for sports watches too. I have faith. So hopefully that all works out, but, uh, Yeah, if you're if you're feeling like you're missing a show or whatever, go back and listen to an old episode or or, you know, maybe dig around some of the final notes and fill your fill your time that way. But we certainly in advance of the end of the show, we wish everyone as you know, happy holidays, assuming you've got some time off and and then however you decide to celebrate. We hope it's a we hope it's a good time for sure. Jason, in a more, you know, sort of specific run, what have you been up to lately? You know, we've got a bunch to talk about because of the Q&A episode. |
| Jason | Yeah, true. I know it's been a while. Gosh, you know, I'm looking out the window now we've got, it's melted down a bit, but we, we got about a foot of snow last Friday. Um, and, and you know, I had a couple of comments. I've, you know, I went crazy posting photos on Instagram of, of all the fun I've been having in the snow, shoveling and snowshoeing and whatnot. But, uh, you know, people I guess are split into two camps. Somebody said, Oh, move to Texas. Uh, you won't have to deal with the snow. And I'm like, no way. I love this. I mean, to me, this is, You know, if it's going to be cold and dark, uh, I want heaps of snow. I just think it's so exciting. And that first big drop is so great. So, um, I've been getting out as much as I can. It's been pretty warm and nice blue sky with, with this beautiful, brilliant white snow everywhere. So it's lovely. It's been fun and it's, it came at the perfect time. You know, it feels like, it feels like the holidays. It feels like the end of the year and a proper winter. You guys don't have any yet, right? Or you did have some a couple of weeks ago. |
| James | We had a good dumping a few weeks back. I mean, not a foot, but several inches. But now it's warmed up. I even think today it's significantly over freezing. So we'll see what the actual... I mean, the truth is that the lake gives us some weird stuff. We're so close to Lake Ontario. It makes some storms way worse, but it can kind of pad the temperature otherwise. I like snow a bit. I don't like shoveling it so much. And what Ontario does that I'm sure Minnesota is exactly the same, but you know, the thing where there's been snow for a few weeks and it's just slush and it's kind of brown and ugly. Like if we're talking about a field or the woods, snow's awesome for sure. If I'm talking about a drive I have to make and get somewhere on time without, without, you know, being too scared about the pace I can carry or whatever and, or trudging to the grocery store to grab, you know, a carton of milk or whatever in, in when it's windy and really slushy, they can kind of keep all that as far as I'm concerned. You know, I, I think I, I, I do really like seasons and I think you kind of have a choice of either live somewhere like Southern California or whatever, um, where you, you kind of only get one, maybe one and a half seasons, you know, in Vancouver was nice as long as you didn't mind most of the season being rainy. Uh, just the temperature would change, but everything else was kind of the same. Yeah. And, and I, I definitely miss that outlook on winter. You'd see snow for a week, maybe this year, maybe they won't see any at all. Who knows. But around here, the, the gnarly stuff, just like I assume in Minneapolis is like January, February. |
| Response sounds | Yeah. |
| James | That's when it's like too cold to, to want to do anything except, except go outside and really know that you're going to be able to get your heart rate up, like shoveling snow or cross country skiing or hiking or whatever. But the idea of doing something casual when it's negative 20, Everything is an effort. |
| Jason | Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Layers upon layers of clothing. |
| James | Yeah. It takes, it takes five minutes just to get ready to go outside. |
| Jason | Well, you know, Ghoshani was able to get away. Um, we had a pretty bitterly cold week last week and then she went on a trip to, uh, to the East coast, uh, down, uh, Island off the coast of Georgia with a good friend of hers last week. And so I was, I was a bachelor for the week and, you know, sort of just rattled around the house, uh, you know, grumpy and drinking too much whiskey and tinkering on the Defender. Um, But I did manage to, uh, to watch a movie that came up in our last film club. I know you watched it recently as well. And that is Sorcerer. That was one that you're recommended. You know, I kind of figured this is, this is like a bachelor week movie. It's perfect. You know, it's Roy Scheider. It's kind of grim. It's, it's kind of an adventure-y kind of movie and boy, did it deliver. I mean, what a, what a superb movie. You know, I don't want to, summarize the movie or go into too much detail. Cause we talked about it a lot during the film club. So you should go back and listen to that. If you, if you're not familiar with this movie, but Roy Scheider's great classic seventies film to me, it just felt so, I don't know, realistic. It felt like the first half of the movie was like documentary. I mean, it just, it was just, um, I don't know. I loved it. It was, it was superb. It really lived up to Tim's, uh, Tim's praise. And I was just so glad to see it and it kind of got me through the week. Yeah. |
| James | Yeah, it's on my list for rewatch over the holidays for sure. I just I thought it was incredible and there's something very specific about and this is I think my favorite thing about movies. Maybe it's my favorite thing about things in general is specificity. It's why I like heat so much is why I like Michael Mann movies like he's just he's a detail like insane person and and with Friedkin it there's such a specificity to the way that he makes a movie whether it's a sorcerer which is now my favorite of his or or the Exorcist or the French Connection like they, they have this, um, almost oppressive realism to them, but it's so stylized at the same time. Yeah. Yeah. The, the scene where they're building the trucks. Yeah. Yeah. Right. Which is almost just like a, in, in a different movie, it would be like a montage with, you know, uh, the mash theme playing over the background or something like that. But this feels so like ominous and kind of heavy, but, but also like functional, like this is, they had to put these trucks together in the middle of the night with like old pieces of equipment that were lying around. They had needed two running trucks. Yeah. If you haven't seen sorcerer, go, go out of your way, go out of your way to see it. Yeah. Um, it's, it's not, I wouldn't say it's especially scary. It's tense. It's super tense, but I wouldn't call it like scary. It's not a horror movie. It's not the exorcist. And then, you know, there's, there's, there's some really fun stuff. Once you've watched it to go back and read about how they filmed it and, and what the actors were actually doing versus how they might do that movie today in a much safer way. |
| Response sounds | Yeah. |
| James | it really is a remarkable thing. So I'm glad you saw it. Uh, you know, it has one of my favorite like final images. Yeah. If you, and not one I'm going to give away either, but there's a few movies that have these incredible final images for me. Like it'll be a, a long frame towards the end of the movie, you know, no country does this, there will be blood has a really incredible sort of scene that you could almost take a photo of and hang on your wall. If it wasn't incredibly grim, which it would be. Yeah. And I think they do this really well in this movie too. There's, there's, it's just burned into my memory. So yeah, definitely a two big votes for a sorcerer. Fantastic. Yeah. You know, the other one that I watched and then I watched it again the next night because my eldest daughter, my wife and I watched it to make sure that there wasn't anything too adult, bad language, like really bad language or anything like that. But we watched the rescue and this, so this is, um, This is Jimmy and Elizabeth's, uh, new movie, uh, you know, same, same people that brought us free solo basically. I think it's the best documentary I've ever watched. Yeah. I'm like, it's jaw, it's jaw dropping. |
| Jason | Yeah. Yeah. I, we watched it too. Um, the week before Ghoshani left, right. In fact, it was the first night it was available on streaming on Nat Geo and it was, uh, yeah, blew me away too. I mean, just, just tremendous. Um, yeah, I mean, there's such great filmmakers and then, and then I was, you know, I was so familiar with the story and a lot of the players in it, but, but to see it kind of end to end with all of that actual footage, um, that they got and combed through was, was just incredible. So good. |
| James | Yeah. And I think it's, it's nice because if you want to show, if you've got kids and you want to show them something that's like right on the edge of a performance sport, I think this is a little bit more, this feels so much more dangerous than showing them 14 peaks. Yeah. Right. Yeah. Yeah. There's so much, this movie is just fraught with danger and concern and risks and groups of people that don't really know how to deal with each other. Yeah. Militaries, governments, you know, private contractors, hobby scuba divers that are, you know, the, the Michael Jordans of their entire sport, but it's not really a sport because it's that dangerous. It's this weird like pseudo passion vocation almost. I couldn't recommend this enough. It's on Disney Plus or Nat Geo. I got a Disney Plus subscription just to watch this. And goodness sakes, it's amazing. |
| Jason | And while you're there, if you're going to get that subscription, you might as well watch Becoming Cousteau as well, which is tremendous. |
| James | I saved that to my list. We got an email from a listener. I apologize. I didn't pull your name in advance. I forgot. But we got an email from a listener saying it was pretty good, worth a watch. So that's certainly on the list. And my kids might enjoy that one too. it might not have the same pace or weight of, uh, of the rescue, uh, really yet. Uh, yeah. Incredible work by that team. And, uh, always exciting to see that movie finally come to life. You know, it's my understanding that, uh, again, we're speaking of the rescue here. It's my understanding that they were mostly done the movie. I could have this quite a little bit off, but it's my understanding. They were mostly done the film and we're screening it. And then somebody from a military body, like the Thai military body, uh, decided, that they were doing the job well, and then they provided them with like a hundred or 200 hours of more tape. Oh, wow. So they kind of had to go back to the, uh, back to the drawing board. That, that might just be wives tale. I genuinely don't know. Um, but that, that's what I had heard and read, uh, when I was kind of getting hyped to see the movie in the first place. Yeah. |
| Jason | Yeah. Yeah. It was, it was amazing. It's up there with, you know, I've got this like loosely, you know, kind of short 10, 10 movie list of, of great, kind of documentaries that I watch over and over again. And that's, that's definitely on it up where they're with, uh, like last breath and touching the void and some stuff. Yeah. Yeah. Blue water, white death. |
| James | Yup. Yup. Yeah. Really good stuff. It's another, another one I need to rewatch this, uh, this break. It'll be, uh, it's a good one. Yeah. There's also something about, uh, like a, a, a vintage documentary and it could be alone in the wilderness. It could be a blue water, white death, uh, that just kind of suits like a Saturday morning. |
| Unknown | Mm. |
| James | Yeah. It has this kind of like, it's not that they're sleepy, but they're typically just paced a little bit less intensely than a modern doc would be. Right. And, uh, but to, to the point you made it on, uh, you know, a couple of shows ago, this has been an incredible little run for like TGN style documentaries with the rescue with 14 peaks and with the Alpinist. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I would be very surprised at this point if, if they didn't win an Oscar for the rescue and, and I hope that that could just kind of continue this pace of us seeing movies of this caliber. of people being rewarded for it. Because, you know, making a movie is always going to be a financial consideration. |
| Response sounds | Yeah. |
| James | And hopefully the lid can kind of be blown off of this concept and we get a bunch more of these in the next few years. It'd be incredible. You know, hopefully we don't have scenarios like what happened to that soccer team in the caves. Right. Preferably that never happens again to anyone. But it did end up in a pretty fantastic story. Yeah. |
| Jason | Yeah. Yeah. Amazing. And, and it was, uh, it was, it was a timely kind of film to come out. We were, we were just talking about cave diving with, uh, with Becky shot, uh, I think, you know, a couple episodes ago and, um, she knew a few of the folks from, from the movie and, um, yeah, I mean, it's a pretty small community, I guess, uh, extreme cave diving. |
| James | So, yeah. Any kind of new watch stuff than the last little while? |
| Jason | Uh, it was funny. You should mention that. Um, I, uh, I did pick up a new watch and this was a almost an impulse buy of a by-product of bachelor week yet again, you know, sort of bored around the house, kind of surfing the web, chatting with local friends. There's a, there's a guy locally, David, who started up a business selling pre-owned watches. He used to work for one of the big retailers here in town that, that changed hands and he kind of went off on his own. And I visited his website every now and then, and I came across this, uh, watch that it's kind of a grail of mine that I didn't realize was a grail. I have a real, uh, love for regatta, uh, timers on watches. And I used to own an old Aqua star, which I sold basically because I like, uh, I like lumen water resistance more and more these days on my watches. And so, um, that wasn't cutting it in that respect. And he had a Seamaster racing. So this is a, an Omega from, early to mid 2000s around between 2006-2010 time frame and I had a few watches that I wasn't wearing and he took them in on trade and we were kind of working on a deal and he said you know it kind of came to an even trade and I walked away with this beautiful watch on bracelet it's a chunk I mean it's 44 millimeters by like 16 tall But, uh, you know, I'm used to that with a lot of the watches I wear, but it's just, it's just a beautiful watch. It's a, yeah, it's a really cool, obviously a dive chronograph, 300 meter water resistant with. Uh, 12 hour chronograph function, but then it has, um, it has the regatta countdown function. So it's got the little five apertures in the dial that switch from blue to red and then back to black as, uh, as each minute passes to count down to the start of a sailing race. And to me, it's just, I mean, I've kind of worn it nonstop since I got it and I'm just thrilled with it. I'm a big lover of the Seamaster family in general. |
| James | That's a great generation too. Yeah, it is. That's from the same era as the 2254 and the 2234, the GMTs that I still have my eye on. Yeah. And they have this kind of a little bit of weirdness to them, but they don't lack any of the slickness that you would want from an Omega. Right, right. Yeah. Just a cool era for sure. Yeah. |
| Jason | So I'm thrilled with that. It kind of dropped out of blue sky here and yeah, I love it. Yeah, that's what's new on my wrist. And I guess that kind of previews the wrist check, which we'll get to in a little bit here. But what about you? Anything new on the watch side? |
| James | Nothing in terms of in-hand. You know, I want to give a shout out to the guys from the OT podcast, Felix and Andy. They did a collaboration with Ann Ordain, the Model 2 OT Pink and Model 2 OT White. And they sent an email the day it launched to me just saying like, Hey, just a heads up and they're proud of it. And I think they should be both really cool looking watches. And then I went today to grab the links and they're both sold out. So I mean, congratulations guys. That's incredible. Well done. Not the easiest season to sell out a watch. I mean, it makes sense to sell a watch this time of year, but you're really close to Christmas at this point. And yeah, both good looking watches from a brand that really seems to be firing on all cylinders these days. Yeah. And ordained. So really cool stuff there. And then literally just before we started recording, I got an email back from my friends at Doxa and they're going to send a 600T, possibly two. So if you're waiting on a review, I'm going to do my very best to make that early January. It depends on what happens with some podcast timing and that, but I think it should be possible. So that one I'm really excited about. Just, you know, stay tuned to Instagram. Even I'll put a photo up when they actually arrive, assuming it is in this year and not next. But yeah, I think that's probably, probably the bulk of it. You know, the other thing to bring up with it being the last episode of the year is, is our Substax's Porter launch has just gone so much better than we expected. And we said this on the last episode, and then we were kind of a game surprise. We got this big wave on the heels of the last episode. If you're keen on supporting the show, and this isn't like a pressure tactic, we're just going to mention it every show and in kind of a light way. If you happen to be keen on supporting the show, we still have 20 and 22 millimeter straps. We actually have to order more 20s. You guys have been so, uh, so dialed in on it. It's amazing. The bundles are available and they're still shipping very quickly. Thanks to Jason's daily effort. He must be making some good friends at FedEx these days. I better get a crispy waiting for you. Yeah. So, uh, you know, we've got, uh, basically I'm going to call it three levels. The level you're on currently, if you're not a supporter, that doesn't have to change. We're so thrilled that you're listening. Uh, we appreciate it every time. Uh, maybe leave a comment, sign up for sub stack and say, hi, tell a friend that'd be rad. If you want to support the show directly, you have kind of two options. It's $5 a month, which will include starting next year, a fifth episode a month, which will be the Q and a, this is also going to help. So we don't have the weird delay. Like we just had to catch up on kind of two weeks of stuff. because we don't do chit chat on Q and A episodes, we'd kind of devote all that time to the calls. So that should also help with that issue. But if you want five episodes, including the Q and A and the ability to send in Q and A questions and get a reply from Jason and I, that's $5 a month, or you can go to $100 a year, which includes everything you get in the $5 a month one, along with your choice of a 20 or 22 millimeter UTA gray NATO with a signed TGM buckle. and a big logo sticker decal as you please. So those are shipping daily and probably will until pretty close to the holiday. I would assume you've got the better part of another week before we shut down and pick it up again when the rest period is over. So if you're interested, you can sign up on Substack and then you'll get an email from Jason and I with a link to pick your size and give us your address and send it to us. And of course, if you have absolutely any issues, we're both, you know, very qualified customer service professionals at this point. So just send us an email at thegraynadoatgmail.com. We respond immediately to these issues. These aren't ones that we sit and wait until like a lot of times I batch reply to the nice messages and the shares of links and movies and things like that. I do get to those, but I check it hourly. And if there's anything in there, we'll get it sorted out as soon as possible. let us know if you'd like to be a supporter. And, uh, if not, regardless on either side of that fence, we just really appreciate everyone listening this year. It's been an incredible year for the show and I hope for, uh, for those listening and we kind of, you definitely couldn't do it without all you. So thank you very much, uh, from the bottom of my heart. And I'm sure Jason's as well. |
| Jason | Yeah, definitely. Um, you know, we're, we're both so appreciative and, and it's been fun to see where all the orders are coming in from. I mean, we've had, uh, everywhere from gosh, Russia and Singapore and, uh, I got one from Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan the other day. Um, fantastic. Yeah. All over Japan. And, uh, yeah, so, so the supporter kits are going all over the place. And, uh, as James mentioned, we're, we're running quite low on the, on the 20 millimeter straps. Uh, we do have another batch on order. I'm not sure when those will come, but if you do place an order after we've kind of gone through our current run, there might be a bit of a delay until we get more in stock and then we'll crank up the shipments at that point. But, uh, Never fear, we'll, we'll get you your supporter kit no matter when you sign up. But, uh, again, we, we, we thank you for, for making this last month of the year. Just so rewarding for us. |
| James | Yeah, no, it's been great. How about a risk check and then we can get into our chat with Henry. |
| Jason | Yeah, let's do it. So I'm, I'm wearing, uh, the, the Seamaster racing. I just discussed, I had a different watch on when we actually did the, uh, the chat with Henry. So I think I might've mentioned it while we were talking to him, but today I've got this, uh, this lovely Omega on and I'm thrilled with it. |
| James | What about you? I'm wearing, as I like to do in early December, this is a watch that makes me think of early December, I'm wearing my Halios C4th Roldorf LE. It was a gift from Jason at Halios and Jason at Roldorf, two good pals, for when I left Vancouver back several years ago in early December. And yeah, it's something that I always like to wear this time of year. I currently have it on a black mesh, which is kind of perfect. Oh, wow. I really like the combo. It's still kind of toolish, but it really completes... If you have the black... For me, I've never been a huge fan of the black watches. Sometimes they're amazing, sometimes they're fine. I like a few of them, but it's never been my main taste in a watch. And to have it on the bracelet really kind of completes the feel, especially with that combo kind of British racing green and cream tuxedo dial. I love this watch. Yeah. It would be one of those ones I have no interest in ever getting rid of. Last year we auctioned off a Halleas that I love and miss quite a bit for a great cause. And this is one that I now pick up to kind of fill that one, the pastels role. Yeah. |
| Jason | And it has that sort of evergreen look to it. That's kind of very fitting for this time of year as well. For sure. Yeah. All right, well, I say it's time to jump into the main event here, our chat with Henry Catchpole. |
| James | Yeah, we're going to jump right into the recording. But if you don't know who Henry Catchpole is, he's one of our favorite automotive journalists. He's a video presence on Carfection, which used to be called Xcar. If you've been around the game long enough, he came up via Evo, a fantastic UK based automotive publication, one of my favorites. And he also does some work with the intercooler. Uh, which is a really fantastic sort of paid app about car, all about car journalism. And they have a great podcast as well. If you don't know the intercooler, check the show notes, they're rad. Henry's an absolute gem. We can't thank him enough for being on the show. And if you want to follow him, if you want to see some of our favorite stuff that he's done, it'll all be in the show notes. Uh, so notes.thegrenado.com and otherwise just sit back and, uh, let's welcome Henry to the show. All right, Henry, it's a real treat to be able to say this, but welcome to the show, man. This is fun. I'm pumped for this. |
| Henry Catchpole | Thank you very much. Yeah, I'm delighted to be on the show. It's a show I've listened to a lot. You've accompanied me on many journeys across various continents. So it's lovely to be on the show. |
| James | That's great. Well, yeah, it feels like this is a long time coming. We've been talking about your work, whether it be with Evo or Drivetribe or Carfection and before that Xcar. I've been a longtime fan of the channel. Really great stuff. I think it's easy to say that for Jason, you're one of our favorite automotive personalities. And it's because you kind of bring a flavor that's different than everyone else's. So much of the speed, especially when you get to video, is kind of the same tonality to it. And it's not always accessible. And when it is accessible, it's kind of maybe... What's the right word, Jason? Too boisterous? |
| Jason | Yes, I would. |
| James | I would say, you know, like I might be a much bigger fan of old Top Gear than than Jason, because I think that some of the yelling was maybe too much for Jason. And we like your approach. You know, last night in getting ready for this, I rewatched your 9-11 Carrera 4 GTS. You compared it to War and Peace, the text on the back of the car, which I thought was great. And that tone is lovely. You know, you're talking about the fall and all of this. And. You know, I think it's an interesting thing how far car journalism, car media, I guess is an easier term for it, has come in the last few years. I'm thrilled to say that we now have some solid Canadian representation with guys like The Straight Pipes and Throttle House. But I think it's undeniable to say that the core of this media seems to come from the UK personality or has since the dawn of YouTube. I remember the first Top Gear I saw was the Murcielago versus the Evo 9, I guess, at the time. And that was one of the first times I really connected with YouTube. What do you think it is about the Brit personality and kind of the taste for the automotive? |
| Henry Catchpole | It's difficult, isn't it? I suppose we're lucky because we sit sort of geographically, I suppose, somewhere in the middle and we tend to get everything. And we have obviously a great car culture here. As you mentioned there, the rise of YouTube is something I still find I find it bizarre that I'm on YouTube and doing this job because I feel like I must have been one of the last people to get into motoring journalism purely to write. Because my dream was to join Evo magazine as, well, staff writer was sort of the lowest rung on that ladder. So that's what I was shooting for. And yeah, when I started there and the dream came true, it was just the magazine. It was all about writing for that. There was a website somewhere. but I don't think we really did a great deal with it at the time. This certainly wasn't YouTube. The idea of appearing on camera, it was anathema because there was, as you say, Top Gear, which obviously I watched and I love watching Tiff and all of them driving the cars, but that was something completely different. There was no connection between the two. It took quite a while before it started encroaching on the magazine Life. And I resisted it, certainly initially, because like most people, you guys know, the first time you hear your own voice even, let alone see yourself on the screen, it's pretty uncomfortable. And somebody made the point the other day that I think the reason I've only been able to continue doing it is because you get used to editing yourself and sort of almost seeing yourself as a completely different person on screen. And you get used to the sound of your own voice, so I think now I know what I sound like, so it doesn't feel weird as such, editing. And I just assume I'm still speaking to my mother, and that's it. There's nobody else out there, it's fine. Her and a couple of people, sort of loyal fans, and that's it. |
| James | I'm glad that you have a mom contingent as well. I think our core audience is made up of our brothers as well. Yeah. Uh, you know, I'm, I'm curious, you had mentioned the dream being to get to Evo and from, from my perspective, you know, growing up in Canada, we had road and track, we had car and driver. These are the stuff that, you know, the first magazines I bought, uh, and, and was given as, as a very young kid, right. As I was learning to read and Evo became this kind of like halo thing where the, the photography was distinctive and the, the graphic design was like, you could call, you could see Evo from across a grocery store. on the stand if you were lucky to be at a grocery store that had it. And I think that's a fascinating place to start. Like, was that really your first start in sharing your perspective about cars or did you have to build up to get to Evo? |
| Henry Catchpole | So, I mean, I'd always loved cars from the year that my parents loved cars. They met through the MG Car Club. Oh, really? Back in the day and stuff like that. So, I was brought up around cars. I went to the Goodwood Festival of Speed, I think, sort of very early on. I think it was the second year of that running. But we used to go down to Goodwood before the circuit was ever sort of revamped and all that sort of thing. So I had a love of cars. I didn't sort of, I wasn't pushing a cart at the age of three or anything like that, so I was never going to become a racing driver. But I would say I remember watching Top Gear, watching Formula One and rallying and stuff like that. And I used to collect model Ferraris actually, that was quite a sort of, I still have them all in a box up in the loft. Dug them out the other day. So yeah, I had this sort of background in loving cars but the idea of actually doing it for a job, I couldn't work out how that would ever become a thing. I suppose I thought I'd go off and become a lawyer or something like that or whatever you do for a proper job. But I remember being at school and the first issue of Evo coming out and my best friend at school, Bruce, he bought a copy of it in and I pinched it and had a read of it and it just spoke to me in a way that Um, I think sort of like, you know, I had issues of Top Gear and Car Magazine and stuff like that. But, but Evo, as you say, it was something different. It was something about the design and, and definitely the writing that just that, that spoke to me. That was, I thought this is, this is absolutely what I want to do. |
| James | And in your modern context, are you, do you operate mostly as a freelancer where you, you have the ability to still do stuff with Evo? You obviously do a lot with Carfection. |
| Henry Catchpole | Yeah. So most of my time is taken up with Carfection, apart from purely because it just takes so long doing. video so I kind of when I went freelance I decided that it had to be my main focus you can't sort of half do that so but I'm very lucky I still write the back page for Evo every month and then I write sort of you know features here and there and I'm still really involved with it. The reason I sort of live where I do in the UK is still because it was where Evo you know was based so I'm not that far away from the offices and stuff so I still speaks them lots and get invited along on Car of the Year, which is still the best test of the year. |
| James | It's always fun to watch and read whatever I can find for Car of the Year, for sure. It's always a treat. And Evo has such an incredible staff and kind of basis in their creation, the people who kind of brought it to bear. Along your path, the path to Evo and then into, say, X-Car, Carfection, et cetera, did you have any heroes or kind of core mentors that kind of brought you along? And because it's not a job that's very transparent. I can even, even just like the watch writing thing is not a job that's transparent. Someone has to kind of ingratiate themselves and bring you into the fold and explain some of the background. |
| Henry Catchpole | So I think, so the way I sort of got into the job was a lot of, I suppose, luck, perseverance and that sort of thing. I remember entering, there used to be, so the Daily Telegraph over here, ran a, it was a newspaper, ran a young motoring writers competition so I entered that and I think probably because only 10 people entered it they sort of gave us all a highly commended and then I rinsed that for all it was worth basically when writing to people trying to get work experience. And I also used to, coming back to the Goodwood Festival of Speed, which is a big car festival to people that don't know, in a stately home in the south of England. At quite a young age I worked out that they had the supercar run that went up and all these supercars were going up and there was a passenger seat that was empty in most of them. Some of them had a passenger, some of them didn't. So I thought, well, why can't I be a passenger in some of those supercars? So I wasn't a particularly precocious child, I wasn't that bold, but for some reason around cars I made it my mission. So first year I tried to do it and the chap goes, oh yeah, fine, absolutely. Have you got a helmet? No, I didn't have a helmet. Next year I came back, my father used to have um, ride a Honda Cub. So I borrowed his crash helmet, which is much too big for me, really. And, um, so I had the helmet and Chad said, great, excellent. Have you signed on? No. Following year, came back, managed to sign on, get in the driver's club, had a helmet, everything like that. And, uh, I went up the hill with, uh, Jen Marsh and Marcos. And from there on, it sort of carried on. And I got, um, various bits of work experience generally, because you ended up in a car with somebody quite often interesting. Um, and you had, you know, them to yourself for about sort of a couple of hours. And I met Harry Metcalf that way. I just happened to manage to convince him to let me sit in a 911 Turbo at the time. Met him, wrote to him afterwards, managed to get work experience. He actually ignored me the first time. So it took a year to do that, but they caved in and gave me a week's work experience. And I did the same at Autocar as well, the year after. So that sort of was the foot in the door, I suppose. |
| James | That's lovely. Yeah. I guess that makes sense. That's typically how it works. You find a crack in the seam. and you just keep kind of pushing at it. I've had the chance to meet Harry a couple of times, a lovely guy, exactly what you'd expect from the videos and his background in cars and stuff like that. We crossed paths at Coil a few years back and he gave me a good lesson on some old Lamborghini in a color that apparently it wasn't supposed to be. He's a wealth of knowledge, a real treat for sure. Covering things like supercars, and this was my experience in my brief tenure in the car world, is you typically have to cover the cars that people want to read about or watch you drive supercars, luxury vehicles, things like that. And that's a lot of fun, but it's not always what you might put in your own driveway if you had the chance. Covering things like the supercars, the really high-performance stuff, do you ever feel need to have something like that in your driveway or is that it's covered by the loner cars and you've got something else in in kind of the personal garage? |
| Henry Catchpole | I think it's it's strange how it changes over the years because you will sort of grow up dreaming of whatever it is that sort of is out there and then the more you get to drive the pickier you get because you realize the things that you really value in a car. And it doesn't mean you can't review cars that you wouldn't necessarily want in your garage at all. Obviously, you know, you can be, you know, this, you can be completely objective about a car and I can give a car five stars without ever thinking I'd want to own it because I understand why they've done it and why it's good and all those sorts of things. But yeah, I think having driven a lot of stuff, particularly the sort of the really quick stuff, I don't generally long to own. I always thought when there was the hybrid hypercars, that trinity of LaFerrari P1 and 918, and I always thought they're amazing things and you respect the technology in them, and of course they're a huge thrill to drive. But actually, given the choice, I'd have had the ones that were about a fifth of the price underneath them. So you'd have the 458 Speciale instead of the LaFerrari, or you'd have 911 GT3, RS instead of 918 and so on and so forth. So yeah, that's sort of, for me, is the sort of, I suppose, the upper ceiling. And yeah, I mean, day-to-day I drive around in a Renault Clio 182, which is, yeah. |
| James | And then you have that lovely Escort rally car as well. Is that up and running these days? |
| Henry Catchpole | No, no it's still in various pieces all over the place and I think if I didn't do the job I did that I do, I think I'd have more impetus to get it up and running. But one of these days it will, I mean it's become a long-standing joke these days but it is at the moment the head is off being done, the body is somewhere else and at some point everything will come back together and it will be wonderful and I shall go and go sideways in the forest again. |
| James | Do you have a deep preference between tarmac, gravel, dirt? Do you have an absolute favorite? If I said, look, you're independently wealthy now, you get to drive wherever you want, whatever you want, would it be rally most of the time or do you like the variety? |
| Henry Catchpole | It would definitely be rally. Rallying is my absolute passion. I was lucky enough to do a few races when I was first at Evo. I wasn't particularly good. I don't think I have that discipline to set sort of metronomic lap times and really nibble away at the final little bit of time. It might be different now. I like the idea of endurance racing. But yeah, I could set a quick enough lap time for road testing. That was fine. But there was something about rallying that just, yeah, it's such an adventure as well. You're spending the whole day out somewhere in the forest and there is nothing quite as thrilling as driving properly to pace notes. I loved it on the closed road rallies, which are really pretty rare these days. Things like Isle of Man or the Jim Clark up in the Scottish Borders. And just have the co-driver next to you say that the next corner is six right and you're approaching it. And it looks for all the world as though you're going to have to slow down to second gear or something like that. But you know that your pace notes are right and you just keep the throttle buried and turn in. And then the road opens up in front of you and it is just the biggest thrill. It's on a tiny little road that normally you'd be going down at sort of, you know, 20 miles an hour or whatever. So, yeah, it's just, that is, there's nothing quite like rallying for me. |
| James | Yeah, I've never had the experience of doing the pace notes, obviously. I think that would be well beyond any skill set I could hope for in this life. But I have had a chance to do some snow rally stuff on, you know, like Porsche Experience courses, things like that. They do a pretty crazy one in Quebec. not too far from me all things considered and I did get to do that and it really is a wild thing once you find some comfort so you're not worrying about the front end grips especially in a car like a 911 and you can start to really find some playfulness and you're not you don't you're not fully concerned about hitting either side as much as you might be normally. |
| Henry Catchpole | Exactly and that's the thing I think people say sort of you know you're not worried about the sort of you know falling off the cliff over there or running into the forest and that and you just you get to that point where you're not, if you're thinking like that, then it's pointless. You're just not thinking about that sort of thing. You're at one with the car, as I say, or hopefully anyway, not always. Sometimes you're just ridiculously scared. I certainly was. |
| James | So with Dirt being your favorite, I'm curious, you know, looking back, I can't say that I've probably watched all the videos you've put online, but I've definitely watched a good portion of them. And I'm curious if there's a favorite genre, a slice within the slice of Henry Catchpole videos. With DriveTribe, you used to do the, like, best driving roads videos. And there was a great one, the one last pass in the Audi R8 Spyder, which was Hawken-yach, I think, if I'm saying that correctly. My pronunciation of everything is always a problem. But that video I've watched several times because it has such a, it's this specific thing and it has this personal quality to it. And I think that video kind of captured that really well. Do you have one of these genres that kind of stands out or like a slice? |
| Henry Catchpole | Yeah so I think you've highlighted the ones that certainly I enjoy doing most I think over time because as you say it's the car and the place that's when it gets really special and so we did a few of them over the years and I suppose Sam Riley who I work with at Evo and in fact I work with again on that 9-11 GTS film that's just gone up that you mentioned and it's still nice working together with a kind of I've been doing it so long now. But we did the Porsche Boxster GTS on Mallorca. That was another good one. And that was, again, sort of bringing these roads to people that they might not have known about. And Aston Martin up in Scotland, those sort of ones. So yes, the great driving roads and you find finding the right car for the right road and bringing it all together. That's immensely satisfying. And yeah, the one you mentioned, actually, the one last pass. That was with Sam and the ID R8 Spider and there was a certain amount of, the way that film turned out wasn't necessarily how we had expected because we had one of the best days filming I think ever. There were no other cars there, it was just me and Sam and it was the time when drones didn't fold up ridiculously small so he had the drone on his lap and we drove all the way out there and had a great day's filming just, you know, perfect skies, lovely weather, the pass was open. It was just, this is fantastic. And at the end of the first day he got his camera nicked, which was not great. It was sort of, or somebody picked it up, somebody saw it at the side of the road. It wasn't entirely kind of, anyway, we lost pretty much all the footage and we carried on filming. It was, you know, police and all sorts of things. So the only thing we could do was, we still had the drone. So that, hence why there is an awful lot of drone footage in there and why Why I don't, I think I deliver one line to camera. We eventually got the footage back, um, thankfully. Um, but I only deliver one line to camera in that because we couldn't do any of that because we were going to do it on the second day and then we hadn't had the facility to do it. So the whole thing I was like, right, it's fine. We can do the whole thing. We'll be in voiceover. I'll write it all afterwards. That'll be fine. So that's, that's the reason that film is the way it is. |
| James | Yeah. It has that internal quality, uh, that, that you get from the, from the voiceover for sure. |
| Jason | Yeah. So I've got a long and sordid history of, of interesting cars, but currently I've got two old Land Rovers. I've got a series three and a defender. And, um, so I'm kind of in that world these days. And it was with great interest that I watched your review of the latest defender in Namibia, which looked like quite the adventure itself. Um, and you know, in the Land Rover community, there's lines have been drawn, you know, people, the old school guys, me included are kind of, you know, we sort shake our heads at the, at the new Defender. Um, and I think you were, I don't know if it was diplomatic or, or, you know, tactful or whatever in your discussion or comparison of the two. And you've had a chance to look at the new Ineos Grenadier as well. I'm curious, like what's your take on not just the Defender, but kind of the move forward in increasing technology and cars versus something like your old Escort Rally car, you know, even moving from petrol or diesel vehicles into EV, like, are you feeling a sense of loss or like things are getting too soft as we're moving forward? |
| Henry Catchpole | Is it less fun? Yes, I mean is the short answer. There's a reason that I think we've seen the rise of the resto mods as it were, so these cars that are updated things. People like Singer and Alphaholics doing fantastic cars that have that interaction and I mean you get it. It's kind of the same with watches isn't it? There's a fascination with the mechanical, if it was just all about telling the time then there are things that do it incredibly well but don't give us the feels as it were. I think with Defender it's interesting, I was certainly sceptical as well. There's an interesting thing with that in terms of it took them so long to replace the old Defender. I mean I think there was something like seven attempts to actually replace it over the years and then finally they got it out with this one and you sort of always have to imagine that it had been incremental and then it wouldn't have been such a shock to have come to the new one. I think I likened it to Frank Stephenson when he designed the new Mini, went back and actually designed the interim cars between the original and this one and imagined how it would have progressed up to that point. would have been less of a shock and I don't think there would have been so much kickback against it to that extent. But yes, fundamentally cars are easier to drive today, they're not as interactive, they cocoon us more and that's a lot of the time not as fun really. When you're looking at the thrill of driving, the engines are turbocharged but not in the incredibly exciting way that an F40, say, is turbocharged, where you've got huge amounts of boost coming in quite suddenly. They're much more linear, but they've lost some of the sound of a naturally aspirated engine. Manual gearboxes, which I love, they're going by the wayside now. |
| James | Yeah, I've got some manual gearbox questions in our notes here for you. |
| Henry Catchpole | So yeah, and then there's electric cars, which is a whole other thing. And I think we're all trying to get our heads around Um, quite how they're going to fit into, um, life and, and, and we're going to get enthusiastic about them. I hope we can do, but, um, it's looking a bit, a little bit bleak at the moment, um, from that, from a purely enjoyable driving aspect. |
| Jason | I think, you know, going back to James's kind of first point about, you know, he was kind of joking about my tastes in, uh, in automotive content and how, um, I, I guess I'm, I'm picky because, and the reason I like your, your work is, um, And it happens in the watch world as well to a lesser degree, but there's this sense of you're, you're reading or consuming content about a vehicle of some sort, but so often it becomes about the person reviewing. And, and you know, you could say that about anything, just talk radio or anything like this, but I prefer when, when there's a balance, you know, you want the person's input and opinion and their personal take on it, but really you're watching it because you want to learn more about the vehicle. And I think you do that really well, but then. There's also this, this world we live in where you're provided a press trip to Namibia to review the new defender or someplace with a vehicle. And, um, there's a line you have to walk between, you know, being outright critical of something you really don't like at all versus, um, you know, towing the line a little bit more. Um, do you find that difficult? Is that kind of similar in the automotive world? I haven't done much in that space. |
| Henry Catchpole | So this is something I think is certainly cropped up a lot over sort of recent years. I'm very much of the opinion that I am still a journalist and therefore I can be critical of cars. I think there's a danger on YouTube audiences generally, they don't like a critical review because a lot of people are tuning in because they've seen that car and they like it and you have to be careful not to let your own subjective likes and dislikes override a review. I'm quite careful to sort of, and it's not fair to tarnish one particular car. If you don't like a whole genre of things, well that's fine, but don't bring it to bear purely on one car because that's not fair either. That's a different sort of subject. Fine, have a go at everything in general if you like, but don't bring it into one particular review. If you don't like big luxury SUVs, don't just choose the Bentley Bentayga one to rail against. If I don't like something, if something's not right, I'm going to have to say it because I have to keep my journalistic integrity there. That's the way it is. If a manufacturer doesn't like it, well, I suppose that's something I'll have to deal with down the line, but equally if people respect it. Generally, I've found if you're, if I'm criticizing something, the manufacturer knows it. You know, I've spoken to engineers about things, you know, you criticize the ride on something, they, they know about it and you talk to them about it and there's a, you know, generally a reason for it. So, um, what's the point in, um, you know, beating about the bush if it's, it's there, it's there. And you have to say as you find. Luckily, there aren't actually that many bad cars today in terms of sort of, I suppose is the other thing. We're not, we're not looking at cars that are, dangerous to drive anymore. And I'm lucky because I drive mostly the cars at the top end of the market. So you're then kind of splitting hairs really. I mean, the latest Ferrari, it might be different. It might not be exactly what you want, but it's still, it's not difficult to get excited about it and be enthusiastic. So I'm lucky to that extent. |
| Jason | I think that's so, you know, James and I have to deal with on the watch side. I mean, it's like there really aren't any, horrible luxury watches. We might not like it aesthetically, but I mean, they're all keeping time well and they're made to such a high standard. So it's, and, and on our side, we, we aren't even having to look at a product that we're viewing, um, for, you know, how well it's going to protect your kids in a crash or, or, you know, what you're doing to the environment or things like that. So we were a little luckier on that side than maybe you are with a vehicle. |
| James | But, uh, I also found like, like you said, Henry, if, if you're, if your feedback is accurate, typically the brands are already aware of the shortcoming in a vehicle. And, and, and, and it's like, you know, maybe the PR person, the person who's going to take it the most personally, because they're kind of an intermediary between the money and the outcome of the vehicle. But the engineers they'll know if they made the ride, like if you say this rides a little busy over the road, that's a pretty innocuous comment. It could be accurate. The engineers are aware of it because they were told it had to have a good Nuremberg ring time or whatever. In the watch industry, if I said the equivalent of the watch is kind of busy over the road, I could get a phone call from the CEO of that company as though it's going to change their mind. People take things so personally. Yeah. Uh, this isn't necessarily the venue to tell some of those stories, at least not. Will these people still hold their positions? You know what I mean? Um, but yeah, you can, I've said very, um, simple things, things about like my, literally my subjective opinion and it's labeled as such. And it'll be like, well, they won't, they're not interested in talking to you at Baselworld this year because of something you said a year ago, one sentence in an otherwise glowing review from a year ago. You go, all right, fine. I see how this works. Okay, fine. Uh, it's, it's a, it's a weird space, but I did find some, and I think maybe the car industry has, has the industry side of the car world has put up with criticism for a lot longer than the watch world has. And I think that, In how insulated the watch thing is, the position of any CEO is that they make the best product in the entire world, and there's no accounting for taste. And I don't think that's necessarily the way the car world operates. I think they've had to deal with taking blows occasionally and understanding that, especially when you get into high-performance vehicles, top-spec models, they typically are a niche avenue of the You know, if you think of a Golf R versus a base Golf, that's a pretty different vehicle in terms of even a normal person could probably, like someone who doesn't care that much about cars, could go from one to the other and go like, this one kind of hits bumps differently, or this one, you know, oh, it's much faster, like, like the easy stuff. And I think it's a little bit different when there's, there's fewer like hairs to, or like lines to draw when like one watch versus another, it largely does come down to aesthetics. |
| Henry Catchpole | Yeah. I think, I think what you were saying before as well about the, um, sort of, you know, the UK market and UK media and, you know, we stand on the shoulders of the sort of, you know, the doyens of the industries and the sort of, you think back to Car Magazine in the 80s and 90s who, you know, put a lemon on the front cover and were, you know, they were not afraid to call out a car and, you know, the likes of, you know, Jeremy Clarkson who, you know, I always remember the view of, I think it was the Vauxhall Vectra where he sort of, you know, pilloried it on national television just saying this car is so dull I literally don't know what I'm going to say for the next eight minutes or whatever. So as you say there is this tradition whereby the car media is not afraid to be critical and I think Evo I always admired their rigour in terms of testing cars and I aspired to that and I was very lucky because I served an apprenticeship there and I didn't want to drive the supercars before I knew I could actually do a proper job of reviewing them so it sort of took a few years before I could actually do that. And I think, um, yeah, there's, as you say, it's changed slightly in recent years because of the influences coming in and things like that, that the lines have got blurred, but I think we have to stick to our guns really. |
| James | I think the other thing that weighs into it in some way, and I'm interested to see what you think of, of what's happening, cause it's happening in the watch space too, is cars have just gotten so expensive. Yes. The lid is absolutely blown off of what, what you could imagine the ceiling to be. You know, even in the last two, three years, this, this concept of like, uh, whether it's something like, um, like, uh, the Aston Victor, a one of one car, which is I think 4 million pounds. And, and look, this is an aside, but it's an aside that I want to make. I've drove the DBS on the same roads that you did in, in and around Austria. And the only thing that car needed was a stick. And they said they couldn't make one for that motor. uh, due to the torque curve or something. And then of course the Victor has more power from a naturally aspirated engine. So I guess the torque comes on in a different manner, but has a stick. So that's one footnote I'd like to put out there to Aston. I'm not saying they have to only make the DBS with a stick, but that car would have been something else with one. |
| Henry Catchpole | Yes. Yeah, it would be. I think it's, as you say, there's the trouble with the, um, uh, matching that twin turbo V12 up to a, um, a manual gearbox as opposed to the, uh, Victor's naturally aspirated engine, which is probably slightly easier on a transmission. One would assume. It would be nice if there were more manuals. |
| James | I also think they're underrating that car in a McLaren-esque fashion. It felt like a lot more than 715 or whatever they say that motor puts out. There's a hundred directions we could go with the car thing, but I am curious just to finish the final point on how expensive cars have gotten and the auto journalism thing. Is there a side of it that you wish more people understood? Whether it's the difficulty of making a video, be it stolen cameras or the fact that... I'm blown away when you say that you made a video like that, Hawk & Yawk one, with just the two of you. Because my experience with video production is there's so many people involved with it that you end up having, whether in some scenarios where I'm behind the camera, you're in charge of one camera, or in a scenario where I'm the host, that's kind of all you do. It sounds like the way you guys kind of balance it allows for a lot more flexibility and kind of personality in the output. |
| Henry Catchpole | Yes. I think the, I mean, I've always been, um, been very lucky who I've worked with and we've, we've kind of guarded that flexibility that you mentioned. So it generally is just me and, um, and, uh, and a cameraman. Um, and it's a lovely way to work because you can be very, um, you can adapt very quickly. You can, I tend not to script things before I go on a film, so I might have an idea. So I suppose the start of the GTS thing with Autumn, that sort of thing, I'll have an idea beforehand. The ending to it came up on the shoot, just thought that would be really good to do it that way. |
| James | Oh, the day-night thing at the end? |
| Henry Catchpole | Yes, exactly. That looks so cool. Yeah, that bit. Yeah, I never certainly write scripts about the car before I've driven it because, well, I'm not going to pre-judge the car. You can have an idea about the car, but then if you go there with too many preconceived ideas about a car, then you can actually miss out the big thing that makes it tick, as it were. So yeah, it would be lovely, I think if somebody said, you've got unlimited budget to go and do all the things. I'd still want to do it with a small crew, try and keep that flexibility in there, but just you just give yourself more time to do things. That's all. And we're lucky as well, because over the years, since I started doing this, you look back 10 years or whatever, and the ability we now have to capture incredible footage with pretty attainable gear really. You can make an amazing film just with your phone but the drone shots we can get with a tiny thing that we can take anywhere is amazing. It used to be the preserve of high-end television with helicopter shots and stuff like that and now we can do that and it's wonderful having that ability to think of creative shots and knowing that you can achieve an awful lot with relatively little in television terms, I suppose. |
| Jason | Looking at your most recent one with the Porsche, that sort of autumn theme. Do you, I mean, these are, these are short feature films and you're quoting, you know, sometimes romantic poets and you're waxing philosophical about the change of seasons and things like this. And even though you can't write the review before you drive the car, do you go into a shoot like that with kind of a shot list or, or a sense of like, let's do something around autumn because the colors are nice or, you know, I'm going to wear my bobble hat and whatever. And so we'll talk a little bit about that. Yeah. Um, you know, do you, do you put that kind of thing together roughly before you set off or does the, does the, does the mood strike you as you arrive and kind of sit in the car? Um, cause they're, they always feel so well put together, but you're so prolific, um, with these videos and it's like, how do you put this stuff so creatively every time? |
| Henry Catchpole | I'll try and go into something with an idea it's a lot of the time around location so I knew that car I was getting the Porsche was going to be yellow and you just this time of year driving around thinking colors have been amazing this year so it would be nice to do something with that and then it just you know ticks along in the old noggin and you try and think of ways to bring it in and then you talk to the videographer and obviously that's where it's crucial that I have a relationship with them and they understand what I'm getting at and, oh no, it's Catchpole again and his crazy ideas. But yeah, I like the feeling that people come out of the video having, I want them to have learnt something. They've got to have enjoyed it, but also learnt something. So I love adding the sort of the history bits in or a sort of easy way to do that. But equally, and you can, you can usually find a tenuous link somewhere and people tend not to mind if you can just link it up even slightly, then it's, you know, um, the autumn thing. I mean, it's, it's incredibly tenuous, isn't it really? It's, it's the color and it's the idea of a shot feeling good, but it's, it's enough. |
| Jason | But I think it demonstrates that you're coming, you come to it from a writing background. I mean, I think there's something very literary about creating, you know, a short film basically with, you know, a theme in mind rather than just here's the car. You know, I think that's the difference between, um, that's what I like about the work you do. Um, as opposed to a lot of other automotive journalism where it's just strictly get in, turn the key. How does this thing drive? It's there's, there's this, it's wrapped in something. And I think as a writer myself, someone who studied English literature in college, you know, it's just, I enjoy that. It's the same way I watch a feature films as well, you know, for those themes and metaphors and things. |
| Henry Catchpole | Yeah. I think it's, um, one of those things I always say that actually, you know, magazine background is a very good background for video or it certainly seems that way to me because I always loved the photography side of magazines. I had dreams of being able to be a sort of, I suppose, writer and photographer until you realize that it's just, as you know James, it's very difficult to do that and drive a car at the same time, so something had to give and there are much more talented photographers than me. But the idea of creating a feature for a magazine where you want the words and the photos to all work together and I love working with the photographers on that as you're off somewhere and you know I'd you know again suggest shots because I thought well that could work and then you know I'd write about it and this is the feature of the car and you want to see the car behaving like this in a corner or whatever it is so you end up with something where the words and the pictures are working together and then it's the sort of you know it's a relatively sort of short hop, skip and a jump to actually being video. And we wanted, when we started out doing the video, I always wanted the videos to represent what was in Evo magazine. So to that extent, I thought I looked at the sort of the, you look at the skiing videos or some of the mountain biking videos and stuff like that. And I couldn't understand why there didn't seem to be anyone doing too much of that at the time, other than Top Gear. I thought, well, there must be a way of of doing that. So that's, that's, I suppose, the approach I, I had. And, um, yeah, more time that I wasn't on camera, the better, as far as I was concerned. So the car is the star. |
| Jason | Yeah. You know, you, you just mentioned mountain biking and certainly most of our listeners will know you from the car world, but you know, I've, I've, I've seen that you're, you're some, you're obviously an avid cyclist and you've done some, some, uh, bicycle riding as well. Are you still active in that space? And obviously you're still. You're still a cyclist. I still see the occasional photo on Instagram of you on a bike. I'm curious about that side of your life, you know, briefly we'll, we'll, we'll weigh heavily on the car and the car stuff and this, uh, podcast, but, um, you've had some amazing, uh, bike experiences too. I mean, I think I saw you, you've ridden up a Mont Ventoux. Are you still riding about bikes? |
| Henry Catchpole | Uh, yeah, hopefully I sort of haven't done too much recently just because of, um, well, uh, the dreaded COVID, but, um, it's, it's been great when it sort of came about. I suppose I was doing a bit of sort of bike reviewing. I'd sort of done various, I used to do duathlons because I swim like a bowling ball, so running and cycling was all I could do. I couldn't manage the full triathlon. But when Dennis Publishing, who owned Evo, I'd sort of been saying for ages that we should start up a cycling magazine, and the editor came to me and said, well, you know what you do with cars and those sort of those journeys and stuff like that, that's what we want to do. this so you know given you cycle could you go and go and do some so I did the first ever one of those for cyclist magazine and then yeah they they kept going doing that and then more recently when I turned freelance we started a series on classic climbs which was was great so it would be me and a photographer we'd bung a bike in the back of a car and um, seven lots of, seven or eight lots of kit. And then we'd disappear off to the Pyrenees or the Alps or the Dolomites or something like that for, um, we'd drive out one day and then you generally have five days of, of cycling and then drive back on, um, the sixth or seventh day. And it's a very weird way to cycle because you just start cold at the bottom of a big mountain climb and then climb up it, bung the bike in the back of the car again and then head off to the next one. So usually getting a pizza along the way or something like that, so. Uh, yeah, it's a bizarre way of doing it, but fantastic way of, of ticking off a lot of, a lot of climbs. And I loved, loved doing that. |
| Jason | You need to merge your worlds and put a roof rack on something exotic and, uh, start taking bikes on your, on your car. |
| Henry Catchpole | I have got a picture somewhere of me, me sliding a McLaren with a, with a bicycle on the roof. Um, it's, um, it's not my McLaren, not my bicycle. So, you know, I would hate to have to slide a McLaren that I own. It's been nice how the things have overlapped at times as well. So I've definitely, I've used roads that I've cycled to then, um, you know, test, take cars there and, and vice versa as well. I did, uh, I did, I cycled Lands End John Groats many years ago. Um, not long after I started. um, road cycling and then repeated the journey. Um, not again, not using motorways because obviously you can't do that on a bike. So yeah, lands into John O'Groats without motorways and a Nissan GTR, um, a few, few years after that. |
| James | Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. It is, it is a really fascinating world. And I think the, the other overlap in, and it works for us really well, obviously, but the other overlap between people who are really fascinated in the mechanicals of a, of a bike or, or the, you know, the mechanicals of a car is also watches. And we'd be remiss to go this entire show and not chit chat a bit about watches because, you know, if you watch a YouTube car video or a top gear or whatever, you can always spot some watches, but you can't ever tell, you know, it's a lot of Rolex. It's a lot of stuff. That's a little bit more on the generic side. Uh, but with you, you know, we see some specificity in what's on your wrist and because you drive on, uh, what would be for you the correct side of the car, not so much for, for myself, more so for Jason with his vehicles, you get a chance to actually see the watch occasionally, uh, kind of prominently featured in the shot, whereas for me it would be against the door. What's your kind of scope on watches and that sort of thing? Is it a point of appreciation or just kind of a sideline? |
| Henry Catchpole | Well, firstly, actually, it's always when I'm driving a left-hand drive car for me, so on the wrong side, because I always wear my watch on the right. And I always have them. I had it backwards in my mind. Yeah, it's one of those things. Yeah, I know. Um, so yeah, occasionally people will accuse me of, of putting a watch on the wrong wrist and I have to say, no, no, you go back and watch. I've never, never ever worn my watch on them on the left hand wrist. |
| James | But, um, I'm with, are you left-handed or you just prefer it on that wrist? |
| Henry Catchpole | No, I'm right-handed. I just, just prefer it on, on right hand. So I don't know why I've always, always done it since a young age. So it's just, just feels right for, for some reason. |
| Jason | Well, we can remember your, some of your early videos. I mean, we've, we've been referring to your videos since by five years back on TGN. And I remember some of the earliest ones that James would say, Oh, check out Henry's latest thing. And Oh yeah, he's got a Speedmaster on. Yeah. You used to be a big Omega Speedmaster guy. And then, and then of late it's been, it's been largely, uh, your, your Bremont, which makes us happy. That's, that's really cool too. But, uh, yeah, absolutely. Yeah. To James's question is that, is it been a long time interest of yours watches? |
| Henry Catchpole | Yes. I've always, um, I suppose taking interest in, in watches and, um, It's not something, I suppose I've actually got into it even more recently, partly through listening to your podcast. I've sort of wanted to know more about what's on my wrist. I remember the Speedmaster really came about because I remember going through Nice Airport, and you used to do that an awful lot because you tend to, it seems to be, it was Portugal for a while and Portimao, lots of launches through there, but for a long while it was Nice and the sort of going to the roads above there for car launches. And there's not really anything to do in Nice airport once you've gone through security other than there is a reasonable sized watch shop. So it would always be a case of prowling around that and looking at whatever's in there. And I remember, just remember seeing a Speedmaster for the first time and thinking that is absolutely, I didn't know anything really about it, but I knew that it was a beautiful looking watch. And of course, then you go down the whole rabbit hole of understanding it more and more and more. So yeah, it's my absolute pride and joy having that. And then got to know the guys over at Bremont, Giles and Nick English. And so yeah, I always, again, always loved the U2-51 jet, which is quite different actually to a lot of their other watches. Very much so, yeah. There's something about it that just appealed. And yeah, I've actually... There's a watch which has never appeared in any videos, partly because it doesn't actually work at the moment, but it'll come to me because it's my grandfather's watch. I sadly never met him because he died when my mother was 16, but he was a tenant farmer and this sort of story of how he got the watch as it was given to him, but it was something that I did a sort of bit of research on a few years ago. It's a lovely watch in its own right. I love the look of it, but it's a Vacheron Constantin and it's 1943 chronograph. It's a 4072 chronograph. So yeah, it's a lovely thing. So one of these days we need to get it properly Properly restored, but I don't want to lose any of the pattern in it. So we need to kind of work out a way of doing that. |
| James | Yeah, we can definitely make that connection happen with Vacheron. That's no sweat at all if you're keen. And we can also make sure that you've got a proper gray NATO for the U2. We can get one of those. |
| Henry Catchpole | Piece of cake, we're pros at that. You might've noticed that I always wear, I've always loved a NATO strap. It's all I ever wear. Yeah, there's something about it. |
| James | We tend to notice those things for sure. So anything else kind of on the radar for the watch thing or the Speedy? And I think I've seen you wear, do I have this wrong, a red G-Shock as well? |
| Henry Catchpole | Yeah, it's not actually a G-Shock really, it's just a sort of a more basic Casio. |
| James | Is it like a G-Lid or Casio? |
| Henry Catchpole | Yeah, you wore that for ages until the strap eventually broke, it was very noticeable in videos. It was given to me by my mother-in-law one Christmas and I like red, hence collecting the Ferraris originally, so wore that and yeah there are all sorts of things I sort of I would like I suppose and sort of have an interest in. The original Porsche design chronograph from the Orpheanus I think is lovely, yeah which with a PVD coating, I think there's obviously something around black watches which I really really like, and some of the, I always liked the Tagawa Monza, sort of that just slightly smaller, slightly different, which, yeah. |
| James | And a cool connection back to Ferrari too in the 70s. |
| Henry Catchpole | Yeah, yeah exactly. So yeah, neat stuff. Yeah, and then some of the, I suppose the Speedmaster, I still love the racing versions of the Speedmaster Professional with the sort of the slightly colored chapter rings and things like that I think are super cool. I like the idea of watches that whilst I'm not a pilot I do love flying and hence the sort of appeal of some of the Brainwarp watches and I like the driving side of watches. I like dive watches but as I said before water's not really my friend so I don't have a great deal of sort of... shorter wearing on the shower it's not really a great deal of used to me to some extent, but yeah. |
| Jason | Oh, that's great. I mean, it does seem very fitting for some reason to see both the Bremont and the Speedmaster on your wrist in those videos. |
| Henry Catchpole | I like the look of the Bremont face as well, because it's kind of very reminiscent of the old dials you see on the sort of, you know, 50s, 60s sports cars. And yeah, there's just something very simple about it, but attractive. So yes, there we go. |
| James | Well, look, Henry, I, uh, I don't want to keep you for too long. I know that it's a, it's a school, you know, kids coming home from school time of day, uh, where you are. Uh, I've got about 50, 60 other questions that we'll leave for, uh, maybe a further, uh, chat at some point. Uh, I can't thank you enough for Jason. I can't thank you enough. This is a, this has been lovely. Thank you so much for coming on the show. And besides your Instagram, anywhere that you'd like to point people to Carfections? We'll have everything in the notes, so nobody has to try and memorize anything, but anywhere that you'd love people to interface with your work? |
| Henry Catchpole | Yeah, I suppose Carfection is obviously where the videos are. I'm doing a lot of... I write for Evo, as you say, and The Intercooler, which is a relatively new app, but I write for them on a weekly basis. I'm thoroughly enjoying doing a bit more writing, which is is is nice. So yeah, that's that's worth worth checking out as well as say all the Instagrams where I mostly do any social media and I'm just at Henry Catchpole. So it's nice and easy. |
| Jason | Perfect. Well, thanks so much, Henry. |
| Henry Catchpole | No, thank you. It's been thoroughly enjoyable to have a chat. So thank you. |
| Jason | All right. Well, that was, uh, that was such a great chat with Henry and, and felt like such a fitting way to kind of close out what's been a really big year for TGN and, uh, kind of takes us back to our roots. I mean, Henry was, Henry was mentioned. And as I mentioned, the earliest episodes of, of TGN way back when. And, and so to finally get him on the show just kind of feels like we're closing the circle here. And I think it kicks us off for, for, I think what'll be another amazing year next year. |
| James | I agree. Yeah, absolutely. Thank you so much, Henry. Uh, I hope everyone listening really enjoyed that you should definitely find Henry on Instagram, send him a message and say, thank you. Uh, you know, there was a very busy time that we line this up and he still made time for it. So show him a thank you, uh, tag him in a post, something like that. So we appreciate it. And of course, Henry, we appreciate you. And we look forward to having you on some, sometime again in the future. We got, like I said, I got so many more questions. I'm literally have to scroll past them all as I should go down to final notes in our show plan. |
| Jason | Well, since, uh, since it was a talk about, uh, largely about automotive video, um, why don't you go first with your final note? It seems fitting. |
| James | Yeah. So I actually have two. I just, uh, so I'll start with the one that's in the notes and then I'll finish with a mention of something that is actually now a year old. The first one is a video. Uh, it's, it's just, it's, it's five minutes of watching someone drive a car really hard. And I don't, maybe this doesn't apply to most people for me, like this, this could almost be like all I want. you know, when Petrolicious was kind of really at their rise, they used to end the video with like about a minute or so of somebody really just, just hustling a car on a nice piece of road. And there's something really special when you see how, just how engaging, especially if you're like a, an automotive content nerd to the level that I am, I try and see as much that I, as I can about it. And so little of it is just car and driver. Yeah. I mean, obviously there's a magazine called car and driver. Um, but so little of it's just the car and the driver without talking about it, without trying to provide some additional context or teach someone. And, and some of these ones that are, that are from, you know, clips of rally car driving. I love that kind of stuff. And then this came through my feed. I actually don't remember how I found it. Um, it might've been on, uh, it might've been bring a trailer, might've published this as like a, you should watch this. It's an, a Bart, a 2000 sport prototypo being driven by Max, uh, Cameli. And like, I like this because this was published in 2010. And the title literally includes dot avi at the end. This is pre YouTube, nobody ever did this to like, get a whole lot of views got 140,000 views. So fair play from a channel, a name that I'm not going to destroy on here, but I'll put the I'll put the link in the show notes. And it's just, it's just a guy running this car at the absolute ragged edge. I love this kind of stuff. I just adore it. Yeah. Um, and, and, and it feels even more special when we're talking about fifties and sixties race cars. Yeah. You know, one of my favorites was the Petrolicious where they had the two 50 GTO and, and they're on a, what looks like kind of a, a, well, it's a West coast mountain sort of road, but big, a big road for a big car, like a GTO. And it's, it's the sound between the gear shifts. It's the, the, the carburetors, the it's, it's all of it. It's, um, It's some wonderful stuff. I know. I know. I've included that in a show notes in the past. And I think this is like five minutes where it's almost like meditative to watch because you're seeing so much happening at once, but the end result is so smooth and functional. And, uh, I love it. Yeah. I've, I've rambled enough. Uh, check out the Abarth 2000 sport prototype driven by Max Comelli. It'll be in the show notes. |
| Jason | Yeah, that was a good one. I enjoyed that. Yeah. |
| James | It kind of reminds me. |
| Jason | There was another one too, of that guy driving a Ferrari through the streets of Paris. I think it was shot back in the sixties or the seventies. I don't know if it was, Legit or not, I think there was some discussion that maybe it was, uh, part of the parts of it were faked or something, but for rendezvous, maybe that's what it was. |
| James | Yeah. Yeah. Run rendezvous a whole different, we can talk about rendezvous at length. Huh? Run if it was wonderful. And then Simon Kitson remade a version of it last year. Huh? Uh, and I think rendezvous it, the soundtrack is from a Ferrari. The, the camera car is something else entirely. And then it's kind of layered over. Okay. Wonderful time. I do love a good driving video. And yeah, Rendezvous is a good one. I'll include that in the show notes too, just in case someone hasn't seen it. Definitely some rad stuff. Yeah. What have you got for us? A classic pick, it looks like. |
| Jason | Yeah, so mine is kind of an annual end of year recommendation. It's something I listen to every year, at least once, right around Christmastime. It's a reading of Frederick Forsyth's short story called The Shepherd, as read by the Canadian radio personality Fireside Al Maitland of the CBC. And, uh, it's, it's a end of year tradition, uh, both on the CBC and, and now for me, and we've mentioned it before, but this year I have a new link that's actually directly from CBC's website. I think the, the YouTube link that, um, we used to, uh, we used to post isn't quite as friendly for, for just listening. Um, but it's just, it's a wonderful holiday story that isn't really about the holidays, but it's kind of holiday spirit like, and it also, it's, it's quite TGN. There's, there's a few watch references in it. Um, that I won't give away, uh, you know, Foresight doesn't mention that the brand of watch, but I think. Uh, you could probably guess what it is based on the era and who's actually wearing it, but it's, it's a story about, uh, a young RAF pilot. Who's trying to fly home to, from an airbase in Germany in the 1950s to, to back to England to get home in time for Christmas. And he runs into a little bit of trouble and, uh, it's, it's just a, it's just a delightful story. And I think it's made even better by. Al Maitland's reading. I think he, he lives up to his, uh, his nickname, fireside Al. I think, you know, listening to this, uh, in front of a crackling fire, kind of on a Bluetooth speaker or something, you just sort of sink into it and, uh, and listen to him read this. It's, uh, it's just a wonderful kind of holiday Christmas time. Uh, listen, so check it out. It's, uh, it's Forsyth's The Shepherd as read by Al Maitland on the CBC. And we'll throw that link in the, in the show notes for you to enjoy. An annual pick. |
| James | Yeah. Someday we'll record a story and continue. We just need the right story. Right. You can read it. I'll produce it. Yeah. Well, it can be the, you know, the shepherd too, or something like that. |
| Jason | You should write it. Yeah, I will do that for next year. |
| James | We'll go from there. I'll commit to that. Short story. I like it. All right. My third one is a pretty easy one. And if you follow me on Instagram, you already know what I'm going to talk about. A year ago on the winter solstice, Fleet Foxes and their front man, Robin Pecknall, released, you had to pay for it at the time, but released a live performance recorded in a cathedral in Brooklyn called A Very Lonely Solstice. Now, a year later, again on The Solstice, he released it free on YouTube. You can find it on Spotify. You can find it on Tidal if you just want the audio. But the video is on YouTube. And I think it's just simply one of the best live performances I've ever come across. Some of my favorite Fleet Foxes songs, certainly not all of them, that would be a much longer show. And it is just Robyn for the most part. He is a choir at one point. And it's really in my mind, it's going to be the kind of one of these persistent things where someone managed to make something during COVID that was still like beautiful because of it, not in spite of it. Yeah. So the choir's all separated. They're wearing masks. They all have their own microphone. And then a lot of his songs, he's up in the, I don't think you would call it a balcony in a cathedral. He's up at the top. Choir loft. Right. He's up in a loft next to where the organ pipes are. And it's just him and the way that they've recorded it is so specific. It's so beautiful. You can hear all the room tone. Oh, yeah. And on a decent set of headphones. I mean, even on AirPods, it sounds incredible. And then if you've got a decent set of speakers at home and you're not going to bother anyone, crank it, because there's something wonderful about an echo. If it's if it's in support of what's happening, if it's about space rather than reflection, if that makes sense. You know, I wouldn't want an echo on my voice in in the Grenada. But if you if you listen to this, I think you'll know what I mean. There's there's a sort of almost celestial feeling to the recording. And I absolutely love it. So that's a very lonely solstice by the Fleet Foxes. It's on their YouTube, it's in the show notes, and I highly recommend it. And if you check it out, they don't do this kind of thing very often. I would love to see it become more common. So, you know, maybe give it a like or drop a comment, tell a friend, get the word out. Fleet Fox is a big band, of course, like to a certain kind of age range and taste. But I think there's something here that almost anyone could sit and enjoy for sure. |
| Jason | I caught the kind of the beginning of it when you posted it on Instagram. I'd forgotten that you, you talked about this last year and I actually neglected to listen to it. So I've, I've got it bookmarked. I'm definitely going to check that out either before or after, uh, after I listened to the shepherd. Fantastic. |
| James | Yeah. Fitting stuff for this time of year. That's a good, a good double header for a very chill night. Yeah. Yeah. As always, thank you so much for listening. It's been quite a year. Subscribe to the show notes via notes.thegrenado.com or check the feed for more details and links. You can follow us on Instagram. That's at Jason Heaton and at Jay Stacey. And you can follow the show at the Graynado. If you're enjoying the show, please subscribe and review wherever you find your podcast and consider supporting the show via thegraynado.com. Music throughout is Siesta by Jazzar via the free music archive. |
| Jason | And we leave you with this quote from Sir Sterling Moss, who said, to achieve anything in this game, you must be prepared to dabble in the boundary of disaster. |