Discussion
For a while I watched videos by Ratarossa – an ordinary bloke in an ordinary house only a few miles from me – who fixes up old Ferraris. It was entertaining up to a point but the pace was dreadfully slow with the videos becoming too long and boring to watch. Youtube’s algorithm put Mat Armstrong’s videos into my feed and with so many supercars appearing – Porsche, McLaren, Ferrari, Lambo – it was worth a punt. His videos are like Ratarossa’s x20 in pretty much every respect. He is hugely entertaining and the adventures he gets up to with the cars are astounding. He and his Dad are not afraid to tackle jobs that would terrify most of us and while he makes plenty of mistakes he gets there in the end. I have a massive amount of admiration for his enthusiasm, what he does and his achievements. No whinging, whining or victimhood on this channel, he just gets stuck in and carries on with it. Well worth watching at least one of the videos. My only gripe is that videos on a particular car can get drawn out over several months and I’d prefer a bit more continuity.
timrud said:
Sure he said the tip of a spark plug came off?
He used the "wrong" fuel in the US which caused some serious detonation and melted a hole into the side of the cylinder alongside smashing up the valves, piston and spark in that cylinder.He'd used US 91 octane fuel which is an equivalent to UK 95 RON fuel yet the car had been remapped to only run at full throttle on UK 99 RON fuel, hence all the issues when he went drag racing on 91 octane fuel. He mentioned it in one of the later RS6 rebuild videos.
southerndriver said:
For a while I watched videos by Ratarossa – an ordinary bloke in an ordinary house only a few miles from me – who fixes up old Ferraris. It was entertaining up to a point but the pace was dreadfully slow with the videos becoming too long and boring to watch.
I used to subscribe but like you say his videos are quite slow and laborious. The final straw was an episode that was obviously sponsored by Temu (or some other site filled with Chinese rubbish); I appreciate that people have to monetise their content but not by eulogising dodgy Chinese electrical goods.tim0409 said:
southerndriver said:
For a while I watched videos by Ratarossa – an ordinary bloke in an ordinary house only a few miles from me – who fixes up old Ferraris. It was entertaining up to a point but the pace was dreadfully slow with the videos becoming too long and boring to watch.
I used to subscribe but like you say his videos are quite slow and laborious. The final straw was an episode that was obviously sponsored by Temu (or some other site filled with Chinese rubbish); I appreciate that people have to monetise their content but not by eulogising dodgy Chinese electrical goods.Having watched Matt's draw last night, I can understand why some think he's sold 60K tickets.
They make 60K tickets available and a ticket number is generated randomly up to 60,000.
When they do the draw, a random number is generated again, often picking a number which hasn't sold so they then keep picking until one which has sold comes up.
Gambling like this does nothing for me nor did the car but it's been great to see how he's maximising his publicity and earning a good living whilst having fun.
They make 60K tickets available and a ticket number is generated randomly up to 60,000.
When they do the draw, a random number is generated again, often picking a number which hasn't sold so they then keep picking until one which has sold comes up.
Gambling like this does nothing for me nor did the car but it's been great to see how he's maximising his publicity and earning a good living whilst having fun.
Yeah I watched it too and having seen them scroll through the list I'd say he sold somewhere between 40-50k. Still not to be sniffed at but there was £6k cash on top of the car given away and then you've got all the costs for transactions and web hosting etc... He'll still make more than the car was worth but I'm not convinced that's the main reason for him doing it....
I find it fascinating how he seems to have made such a success through multiple streams which support each other.
Individually, they are not insignificant but together, they add up to be quite impressive.
His YouTube gained him followers which means he has success selling merchandise. The same thing promotes the raffles and attracts big name support and sponsorship. Keeping in mind he originally was trying to showcase his BMX capabilities.
His following means he can release a crap video about going to Dubai and people will still be hungry for the next one.
He can sink money into projects which in themselves can lose money.
Contrast his content to say Harry's Garage which is probably the most interesting petrol head content anywhere currently yet Matt is probably making more money than HM out of his YT related activities.
Individually, they are not insignificant but together, they add up to be quite impressive.
His YouTube gained him followers which means he has success selling merchandise. The same thing promotes the raffles and attracts big name support and sponsorship. Keeping in mind he originally was trying to showcase his BMX capabilities.
His following means he can release a crap video about going to Dubai and people will still be hungry for the next one.
He can sink money into projects which in themselves can lose money.
Contrast his content to say Harry's Garage which is probably the most interesting petrol head content anywhere currently yet Matt is probably making more money than HM out of his YT related activities.
tim0409 said:
southerndriver said:
For a while I watched videos by Ratarossa – an ordinary bloke in an ordinary house only a few miles from me – who fixes up old Ferraris. It was entertaining up to a point but the pace was dreadfully slow with the videos becoming too long and boring to watch.
I used to subscribe but like you say his videos are quite slow and laborious. The final straw was an episode that was obviously sponsored by Temu (or some other site filled with Chinese rubbish); I appreciate that people have to monetise their content but not by eulogising dodgy Chinese electrical goods.bobbo89 said:
Yeah I watched it too and having seen them scroll through the list I'd say he sold somewhere between 40-50k. Still not to be sniffed at but there was £6k cash on top of the car given away and then you've got all the costs for transactions and web hosting etc... He'll still make more than the car was worth but I'm not convinced that's the main reason for him doing it....
I suspect the raffle is a good way to move the car on with no comeback if anything goes wrong.I looked at entering but the only payment method was with a QR code and as my phone is useless with those I gave up.
Pistom said:
Contrast his content to say Harry's Garage which is probably the most interesting petrol head content anywhere currently yet Matt is probably making more money than HM out of his YT related activities.
More interesting to you and I, agreed, but suspect we are a slightly different demographic from Mat's target audience, and it's probably Mat's who are more likely to be on YouTube all the time.MrBen.911 said:
Pistom said:
Contrast his content to say Harry's Garage which is probably the most interesting petrol head content anywhere currently yet Matt is probably making more money than HM out of his YT related activities.
More interesting to you and I, agreed, but suspect we are a slightly different demographic from Mat's target audience, and it's probably Mat's who are more likely to be on YouTube all the time.Pistom said:
Having watched Matt's draw last night, I can understand why some think he's sold 60K tickets.
They make 60K tickets available and a ticket number is generated randomly up to 60,000.
When they do the draw, a random number is generated again, often picking a number which hasn't sold so they then keep picking until one which has sold comes up.
Gambling like this does nothing for me nor did the car but it's been great to see how he's maximising his publicity and earning a good living whilst having fun.
Presumably he has a gambling licence in order to sell tickets before the "event" and sales in excess of £25k?They make 60K tickets available and a ticket number is generated randomly up to 60,000.
When they do the draw, a random number is generated again, often picking a number which hasn't sold so they then keep picking until one which has sold comes up.
Gambling like this does nothing for me nor did the car but it's been great to see how he's maximising his publicity and earning a good living whilst having fun.
TEKNOPUG said:
Presumably he has a gambling licence in order to sell tickets before the "event" and sales in excess of £25k?
That's an interesting point. Most of what he does and by this the quality of his website, his approach to drawing the numbers etc, has a very amateur feel to it so I wouldn't be surprised if he gets caught out by something like that.Having said that, he seems to have a few hangers on who seem to know what their doing who will hopefully keep him within legality.
I recognise his success but still remain uncomfortable about some things he's doing such as promoting gambling to those who are likely to get sucked in.
bobbo89 said:
Yeah I watched it too and having seen them scroll through the list I'd say he sold somewhere between 40-50k. Still not to be sniffed at but there was £6k cash on top of the car given away and then you've got all the costs for transactions and web hosting etc... He'll still make more than the car was worth but I'm not convinced that's the main reason for him doing it....
You can see the line numbers on the spreadsheet and can see line 39,430 against number 55,076 so that’s a minimum of 39430 entrants at £10 each so minimum £394,300 value of tickets sold against total prize value of, what, £35k?His missus owns the giveaway company btw.
foxsasha said:
You can see the line numbers on the spreadsheet and can see line 39,430 against number 55,076 so that’s a minimum of 39430 entrants at £10 each so minimum £394,300 value of tickets sold against total prize value of, what, £35k?
His missus owns the giveaway company btw.
Lol, yeah I've sHis missus owns the giveaway company btw.
t out with my maths there haven't I 
He doesn’t need a license. The raffles are run by ‘High Speed Competitions’ and because they offer a free entry route by post, and require the answering of a question to enter would appear to fall under the ‘free draw and prize competition definitions’…
https://www.highspeedcomps.com/legal/competition-t...
https://www.gamblingcommission.gov.uk/public-and-p...
As an aside, it’s quite interesting reading the Companies House entries for the various companies he’s involved with. It’s quite a web of companies via his girlfriend (wife?) and Barry Burrell of Mallory Performance.
https://www.highspeedcomps.com/legal/competition-t...
https://www.gamblingcommission.gov.uk/public-and-p...
As an aside, it’s quite interesting reading the Companies House entries for the various companies he’s involved with. It’s quite a web of companies via his girlfriend (wife?) and Barry Burrell of Mallory Performance.
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