DriveTribe - online car community from Clarkson/May/Hamond

[ajprice]

Sixpackpert said:

Carlososos said:

Is the you tube channel going too? Some of the stuff on there was terrible but a couple were ok.

No, Hammond is keeping that going apparently. New video yesterday explaining what would be on it. Hammond driving the dragster again being one of the things.

From the "Tell you what, Mike, you can do this one, mate." and the Coming Soon clip at the end it looks like Mike the Scottish guy might be driving it. Hammond sat in it again for the video.

[sxmwht]

Never understood this, didn't know there was a website but the YT content was really poor - it wasn't funny and it was like it had been written by children

[waynecyclist]

ajprice said:

Sixpackpert said:

Carlososos said:

Is the you tube channel going too? Some of the stuff on there was terrible but a couple were ok.

No, Hammond is keeping that going apparently. New video yesterday explaining what would be on it. Hammond driving the dragster again being one of the things.

From the "Tell you what, Mike, you can do this one, mate." and the Coming Soon clip at the end it looks like Mike the Scottish guy might be driving it. Hammond sat in it again for the video.

I cannot see Hammond ever driving that again, it is not the greatest You tube channel.

[grudas]

The website was meh from the start and I registered(using facebook as required) and used it once and never got back online again.

the youtube channel is meh too, some good videos but a lot of tosh. I watch I'd say 1/10 videos sadly.

I do like Hammond and I hope he makes it more personal but I feel with his other commitments he won't be doing much of that.

I also can't quite understand where all the millions went? I feel like some web devs/agency milked the cow while it was there and now it's gone.

for that amount of money you could host and build a serious platform, this wasn't it.

[Pedal_Loud]

If you have content a quick way to preserve is to use:

https://archive.ph/

[vaud]

carl_w said:

Blaming its demise on the chip shortage is desperate though.

"For many months we’ve been facing significant industry challenges, which unfortunately aren’t going anywhere. The protracted global shortage of computer chips has caused a number of challenges for the automotive industry, and led to severe reductions in marketing budgets across the industry. This has made for an incredibly difficult operating environment for businesses like ours which are dependent on advertising."

It's partly true; auto manufacturers have paired back advertising as I understand it, so it probably does put a hole in their business plan.

[suffolk009]

I thought it had already died a slow death, some years ago. The computer chip thing is total BS.

[malaccamax]

vaud said:

carl_w said:

Blaming its demise on the chip shortage is desperate though.

"For many months we’ve been facing significant industry challenges, which unfortunately aren’t going anywhere. The protracted global shortage of computer chips has caused a number of challenges for the automotive industry, and led to severe reductions in marketing budgets across the industry. This has made for an incredibly difficult operating environment for businesses like ours which are dependent on advertising."

It's partly true; auto manufacturers have paired back advertising as I understand it, so it probably does put a hole in their business plan.

New cars don't need really advertising to sell at the moment, their makers can sell all they can build, which is far fewer than in the good times. Sadly that impacts publications dependent on their advertising, which considering the money the (majority of) car companies are making at the moment, is pretty short sighted.

[vaud]

suffolk009 said:

I thought it had already died a slow death, some years ago. The computer chip thing is total BS.

A hole in their advertising revenue is plausibly the final nail in the coffin though.

The shortage of chips is having all sorts of ramifications in many sectors.

[Chubbyross]

Fortunately, when we have Carfection on YT Drive Tribe won’t really be missed, especially when the videos go the same way as the forum.

[DonkeyApple]

suffolk009 said:

I thought it had already died a slow death, some years ago. The computer chip thing is total BS.

Mind you, marketing receipts must have slumped on the back of it and simply speeded up the inevitable demise. Investors will keep throwing cash in if they can see light at the end of the tunnel but a sudden fall in ad rev was probably the final nail.

If you look at PH's news issues you can get a feel for who's pulled their marketing spend and who is still willing to pay something.

[entropy]

Never 'got it' to begin with. It was like a bunch of hipsters wanting to re-invent PH.

Mind you I remember subscribing to the YT channel when the likes of Jethro Bovingdon featured. It quickly went downhill and unsubscribed soon after. I've certainly never even bothered to watch a DT vid that was on my recommended YT algorithm in the past couple of years at least.

[RoverP6B]

I did think it was doomed from the start.

I quite like some of the YouTube content Mike Fernie produces, but the man is really not terribly clever, he got his old Mondeo ST200 restored at no cost to himself, and what's the first thing he does to its newly rebuilt engine? Starts ragging the crap out of it, banging it off the limiter. The future videos featuring the car never materialised, and one of the mechanics involved confirmed in the comments that the engine had let go (two broken pistons IIRC) and that all concerned were extremely pissed off. If he trashes that Connaught V10 he's getting installed in his MX-5...

[Megaflow]

RoverP6B said:

I did think it was doomed from the start.

I quite like some of the YouTube content Mike Fernie produces, but the man is really not terribly clever, he got his old Mondeo ST200 restored at no cost to himself, and what's the first thing he does to its newly rebuilt engine? Starts ragging the crap out of it, banging it off the limiter. The future videos featuring the car never materialised, and one of the mechanics involved confirmed in the comments that the engine had let go (two broken pistons IIRC) and that all concerned were extremely pissed off. If he trashes that Connaught V10 he's getting installed in his MX-5...

That is disappointing to here, the guys that did the work made a fantastic job of it. Like you Mike presents some good stuff, then he follows it up with complete ste.

[AndyWoodall]

I never used the website and the tribes thing, I only knew about that platform because of the YouTube videos and the quality of those was patchy in the extreme so I never really committed to watching them regularly. I had no idea Jethro was involved in the early days.

My proper entry point was the podcast, as I’m partial to a good car podcast, but I think I listened to two or three and the two presenters were so awful I unsubscribed pretty quickly, it was a waste of listening time and amazingly dull considering all they had to cover was the weekly car news.

I caught on a comment on another podcast (Smith and Sniff or The Intercooler I forget which) that they had a really swanky HQ in the beginning and spunked a load of cash that way.