Is Chris Harris an 'a' hole
Discussion
I respect Chris Harris because he can drive and has justifiable and explainable views. We all change our minds, to some extent but to most of us, it doesn't matter as we won't drive 50 cars a year from which to draw a valid conclusion.
So the only question is whether you like a car and whether it suits your lifestyle. I don't know anybody who has enough money to go four wheel drifting their car at every corner or to pay the fines arising from it.
I can't stand influencers as they don't influence anybody I know and I can wander round a car and make my own mind up about the styling and how it drives. In that respect, it's probably holiday car hire cars that have the only influence on me ( usually on why I wouldn't buy one).
So the only question is whether you like a car and whether it suits your lifestyle. I don't know anybody who has enough money to go four wheel drifting their car at every corner or to pay the fines arising from it.
I can't stand influencers as they don't influence anybody I know and I can wander round a car and make my own mind up about the styling and how it drives. In that respect, it's probably holiday car hire cars that have the only influence on me ( usually on why I wouldn't buy one).
Stick Legs said:
As a connoisseur of old car magazines here is my take:
The old school were print only and had a direct line to the manufacturer.
People like John Bolster, stuffy, old school journalists.
Technically proficient and able to pass the information across but pretty dry.
Then in the 1970’s the American magazines came along with a refreshing style which still conveyed the relevant information but some how ‘brought you along for the ride’. Innes Ireland was similar in his columns where he indulges in a Gonzo-style journalism of reporting his 2 weeks chasing the Grand Prix caravan around Europe in a DBS with wife & typewriter in tow.
You have the eccentrics (Setright) and the wannabes who just ape others.
By the late 1980’s the print template is pretty set and TV had followed suit.
Russel Bulgin was the next journalist to push the art form.
His style has influenced every writer & broadcaster since, especially Mr. Jeremy Clarkson who between 1993-1996 underwent quite the transformation.
Easy to deride as a ‘Bulgin from Wish’ what Clarkson actually did was clever, he used the ‘oh-so-knowing-and-irreverent’ stylings that Bulgin employed and added in a open door so those not in the know could join in.
Where Bulgin would use a subtle nod to the Citroën DS Clarkson would describe something as a ‘Hydropenumatic-heffalump’ which the man on the street found funny even if he wasn’t sure what the point was.
It was a huge success.
Shouty talk & funny analogies became de-rigeur and it is entertainment.
Chris Harris has tried to forge his own path, stripping away the silliness and returning to something of the mid-1980’s CAR magazine style of print journalistic cleverness and integrity on screen.
This is him at his strongest.
https://youtu.be/wl9wGfplgdg?si=0oEZtWwTF_IkIR_C
Very much what Bulgin would be doing now.
Unfortunately for Mr.Harris the man on the street likes shouty words & funny analogies.
Chris Harris then dumbed down his own style in exchange for the TopGear gig.
But now that’s gone he is in the same market as every monkey with a Go-Pro.
I’d probably come across as a bit grumpy from time to time if that happened to me.
Coming late to this, but one of the finest most insightful posts I've ever read on PH. I was a huge fan of Bulgin along with Gavin Green in Car. Not so much a Georg Kacher or LJK Setright fan- both were annoyingly dull, predictable and up their own arses.The old school were print only and had a direct line to the manufacturer.
People like John Bolster, stuffy, old school journalists.
Technically proficient and able to pass the information across but pretty dry.
Then in the 1970’s the American magazines came along with a refreshing style which still conveyed the relevant information but some how ‘brought you along for the ride’. Innes Ireland was similar in his columns where he indulges in a Gonzo-style journalism of reporting his 2 weeks chasing the Grand Prix caravan around Europe in a DBS with wife & typewriter in tow.
You have the eccentrics (Setright) and the wannabes who just ape others.
By the late 1980’s the print template is pretty set and TV had followed suit.
Russel Bulgin was the next journalist to push the art form.
His style has influenced every writer & broadcaster since, especially Mr. Jeremy Clarkson who between 1993-1996 underwent quite the transformation.
Easy to deride as a ‘Bulgin from Wish’ what Clarkson actually did was clever, he used the ‘oh-so-knowing-and-irreverent’ stylings that Bulgin employed and added in a open door so those not in the know could join in.
Where Bulgin would use a subtle nod to the Citroën DS Clarkson would describe something as a ‘Hydropenumatic-heffalump’ which the man on the street found funny even if he wasn’t sure what the point was.
It was a huge success.
Shouty talk & funny analogies became de-rigeur and it is entertainment.
Chris Harris has tried to forge his own path, stripping away the silliness and returning to something of the mid-1980’s CAR magazine style of print journalistic cleverness and integrity on screen.
This is him at his strongest.
https://youtu.be/wl9wGfplgdg?si=0oEZtWwTF_IkIR_C
Very much what Bulgin would be doing now.
Unfortunately for Mr.Harris the man on the street likes shouty words & funny analogies.
Chris Harris then dumbed down his own style in exchange for the TopGear gig.
But now that’s gone he is in the same market as every monkey with a Go-Pro.
I’d probably come across as a bit grumpy from time to time if that happened to me.
Clarkson heralded the populist era and to some extent I like how Chris Harris is slightly backtracking from that. He knows his stuff, but it was disappointing to see him (and Singer) in Saudi recently.
It would take a lot of willpower to turn down the opportunity to drive a Singer in such a landscape, but the KSA does not always treat journalists so well.
Is Chris a grumpy ahole? Possibly. A bit of a snob? Sometimes. Is he a bad person? maybe not. Is he worth watching? almost always yes.
A thousand times more watchable than Jay Emm (a 90s Top gear pastiche), Doug de Muro (that voice!) or the countless influencers out there.
Edited by GuigiaroBertone on Tuesday 11th March 11:43
I like most of Chris' stuff (Top Gear drivel aside - Anyone remember the 'Pant-O-Meter' 
) but he seems to have fallen in between 2 stools.
He's far better as an old school car journalist but that role doesn't seem to exist in the same way that it once did.
His Youtube stuff is generally good, especially when it's about something that he's genuinely excited about. Probably my favourite video he's done doesn't even feature any driving - the review of the Oldtimer Collection of 80s and 90s Mercs, BMWs Bentleys and weired Jap stuff he looked at before they were auctioned. I could have watched a 3 hour long vid of him poking about in everyone of those cars.
Now the TG and Collecting Cars gigs have stopped he's back to essentially being a Youtuber but competing against a whole group of younger 'influencers' who've been doing it consistently for years and in a lot of cases doing a pretty good job of it.
Some of the recent 'DIY' reviews have been pretty poor in terms of production quality but still worth a watch.
He really needs to get the budget from a sponsor to do really good quality films like Henry Catchpole does with Hagerty but that's obviously easier said than done.
Podcast is usually entertaining when I'm in the car on my own.
) but he seems to have fallen in between 2 stools.He's far better as an old school car journalist but that role doesn't seem to exist in the same way that it once did.
His Youtube stuff is generally good, especially when it's about something that he's genuinely excited about. Probably my favourite video he's done doesn't even feature any driving - the review of the Oldtimer Collection of 80s and 90s Mercs, BMWs Bentleys and weired Jap stuff he looked at before they were auctioned. I could have watched a 3 hour long vid of him poking about in everyone of those cars.
Now the TG and Collecting Cars gigs have stopped he's back to essentially being a Youtuber but competing against a whole group of younger 'influencers' who've been doing it consistently for years and in a lot of cases doing a pretty good job of it.
Some of the recent 'DIY' reviews have been pretty poor in terms of production quality but still worth a watch.
He really needs to get the budget from a sponsor to do really good quality films like Henry Catchpole does with Hagerty but that's obviously easier said than done.
Podcast is usually entertaining when I'm in the car on my own.
I've drifted away from the podcast. Someone further up said they found it unrelatable and that's probably a fair assessment.
It's not bad but I much preferred it when Harris had people like John McGuiness, Richard Porter etc on and it wasn't just a group of upper class guys discussing which of their Ferraris has the nicest cup holder.
It's not bad but I much preferred it when Harris had people like John McGuiness, Richard Porter etc on and it wasn't just a group of upper class guys discussing which of their Ferraris has the nicest cup holder.
Just catching up on the thread, not been around PH much lately, why is more appropriate for another thread. 
Read my earlier posts page 1 and on and still think they're valid.
All this discussion of various writers and their merits. One thing that I miss that has been lost in the shift from print to video is the pleasure that can be obtained from someone telling an interesting story, maybe a road trip, even George Bishop's focus on the gastronomic side of life, and you followed the tale whilst not realising that you were learning information about the vehicle in a completely different way to the dry road test with tables, statistics etc.
Read my earlier posts page 1 and on and still think they're valid.
All this discussion of various writers and their merits. One thing that I miss that has been lost in the shift from print to video is the pleasure that can be obtained from someone telling an interesting story, maybe a road trip, even George Bishop's focus on the gastronomic side of life, and you followed the tale whilst not realising that you were learning information about the vehicle in a completely different way to the dry road test with tables, statistics etc.
He goes where the money is, it is his living and you have to factor that into every video he puts out, he is in this for money primarily as he lost his job!
I do not rate the man as a journo but as a driver he is fine, I dont watch any car based stuff only motorsport and even then, only action, I have zero interest in peoples opinions about what I am watching, i can create them on my own, I never bought car magazines for the same reason, you are just reading peoples opinions, not yours.
the only journo worth reading was Mark Hales who could drive properly, and a few technical guys and actually in his early days Clarkson who was very funny.
I do not rate the man as a journo but as a driver he is fine, I dont watch any car based stuff only motorsport and even then, only action, I have zero interest in peoples opinions about what I am watching, i can create them on my own, I never bought car magazines for the same reason, you are just reading peoples opinions, not yours.
the only journo worth reading was Mark Hales who could drive properly, and a few technical guys and actually in his early days Clarkson who was very funny.
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