Are these Vloggers just a scam? SOL or Shmee etc? (Vol. 3)

[AlexNJ89]

johnwilliams77 said:

Yeah, that's truly riveting, edge of seat stuff.

I enjoyed it and so did the 689,000 other people who watched

[Beefmeister]

Interesting that Stradman always blurs his speedo and talks of ‘keeping it under 55’, then we have Streetspeed717 filming himself hitting 160 on public roads



Bit different in the US though regarding traffic laws.

[jayemm89]

I've seen many US YouTubers quite blatantly speeding, and not even attempting to cover it up. I think their laws work differently.

Having tried to film over there myself, the biggest issue is the absolutely ridiculous speed limits. I've driven plenty of fantastic mountain roads which here would be NSL, and they were 35mph. Even driving gently you're easily do double the limit and it just feels wrong

[bluemason]

johnwilliams77 said:

Yeah, that's truly riveting, edge of seat stuff.

Absolute chaos!

[johnwilliams77]

bluemason said:

Absolute chaos!

600,000 people must be right !

[BlackR8]

Beefmeister said:

jayemm89 said:

Going from a Lotus Exige, which he seemingly couldn't sell, to buying two supercars in a month. Seb's having a good time.

The choice of the second one is pretty unexpected too.

I’ve no idea where the sudden ability to splurge £200k on two cars has come from, I didn’t ask. But I’m glad he did - both the manual R8 and a Capristo equipped Scud are very interesting and very cool cars.

He has got his head screwed on, not only are they amazing cars they are in my opinion still undervalued. At a time when the supercar market is going into a tough period I think he has picked two absolute gems..a V10 plus manual and a Scud.

[egor110]

Anyone watch the tr hamza vids ?

Mainly vw but added a civic now.

[Truckosaurus]

jayemm89 said:

...I think their laws work differently...

It seems that the cops put more effort into catching speeders but the punishments aren't as severe and 'getting a ticket' is just the cost of doing business over there.

Also, it seems you can challenge them in court and normally the cops can't be arsed to attend so they drop the case.

[jayemm89]

One thing I did learn is that in certain national parks it is considered a federal, not state matter. What that means is that you just get a fixed penalty fine of something like 100 dollars, no points

[Beefmeister]

jayemm89 said:

One thing I did learn is that in certain national parks it is considered a federal, not state matter. What that means is that you just get a fixed penalty fine of something like 100 dollars, no points

Yep, plenty of ways around it

It's a good job though, with people like Streetspeed717 filming his speedo as above, and I recently saw a Vehicle Virgins video where Parker was driving his freshly tuned 600LT - in car shots, but you could see the roads through the windows and he was hitting the top end of 4th gear on very public, very populated normal town roads. Yikes.

[Ari]

CoolHands said:

t’s all still pretty knobby though, isn’t it. Some rich a-level kid picking up a ferrari? It’s mildly interesting to see around the car, but why these people have so many subscribers and views, I don’t know.

Inspirational, innit.

[North West Tom]

Beefmeister said:

Looks like Formula E are getting desperate. Every man and his dog out at the race in Saudi, they’ve even paid for ‘Lord’ Aleem to go!

Not knocking the guys who are there, I’d go if I was invited out to Saudi Arabia business class for the weekend! (Well, not this weekend as I’ve moved house).

But for FE to invite Aleem along, christ they’re really desperate for coverage.

Edited by Beefmeister on Saturday 23 November 18:31

They need to realise that they are hiring influencers, not actors. The fake interest is so obvious. Do they still do that studio show with a bunch of random Youtube personalities that have no interest in the automotive world? That was cringeworthy.

[Truckosaurus]

The Saudi Government has also paid to put on the 'Saudi SEMA' last week and paid several influencers etc to attend. Several of the Motor Trend hosts were there (female hosts in noticably modest clothing).

Extra Bonus Points to Matthew Farrah for turning down his invite and calling out those who attended as stooges for despots.

[kiethton]

SOL's 599 video made me look that car up, sounded amazing but I'm not sure if my neighbours would like that level of anti-socialness.

Also while the video was better versus recent efforts some things I did take a bit of an exception to e.g. at £165k could own for a year and get your money back.....before considering the dealer margins/trade costs, with similar (non-GTO kitted examples) trading at <£90k and the wider issues in the used supercar market I'd highly doubt that...

[Shmee]

Truckosaurus said:

The Saudi Government has also paid to put on the 'Saudi SEMA' last week and paid several influencers etc to attend. Several of the Motor Trend hosts were there (female hosts in noticably modest clothing).

Extra Bonus Points to Matthew Farrah for turning down his invite and calling out those who attended as stooges for despots.

It was an event that mixed SEMA, Goodwood Festival of Speed, Pebble Beach and the Geneva Motorshow all into one 6-day activity, and honestly I have to say for a first round it's fairly remarkable what an event they managed to put on - no doubt however at great cost.

For Saudi Arabia it is part of a big shift to increase tourism and other areas of their economy and reduce the dependency on oil over time under what they call "Vision 2030". It was very heavy on the influencer front because people were invited through all sorts of different means; via the organisers, local dealerships, friends, manufacturers etc - very similarly to the big motorshows and FOS for example.

To be honest it was quite extraordinary how many people they got into attendance; Richard Rawlings and the Gas Monkey Garage team, Ryan and the West Coast Customs team, Koenigsegg, Pagani, Aston Martin, Apollo, Brabus, Silverstone Auctions, the Ferrari XX Programme demonstrations, Terry Grant stunts and that's just naming a few.

The fact Matt Farah "chose" not to attend what has immediately become one of the greatest events in the automotive calendar suggests another agenda to me; perhaps his personal schedule, perhaps a limited budget, who knows. I anticipated a level of discussion around such an event being held in Saudi Arabia but have been impressed by the general response and feedback; ultimately they put on a show worthy of the attention it has been given and I already look forward to next year.

[easytiger123]

Shmee said:

The fact Matt Farah "chose" not to attend what has immediately become one of the greatest events in the automotive calendar suggests another agenda to me; perhaps his personal schedule, perhaps a limited budget, who knows. I anticipated a level of discussion around such an event being held in Saudi Arabia but have been impressed by the general response and feedback; ultimately they put on a show worthy of the attention it has been given and I already look forward to next year.

Or perhaps we should just take him at face value and accept that he's not prepared to shill for a deeply unpleasant regime?

[Shmee]

easytiger123 said:

Or perhaps we should just take him at face value and accept that he's not prepared to shill for a deeply unpleasant regime?

I'm not here for politics, there are other forums and threads for that.

[whoami]

easytiger123 said:

Shmee said:

The fact Matt Farah "chose" not to attend what has immediately become one of the greatest events in the automotive calendar suggests another agenda to me; perhaps his personal schedule, perhaps a limited budget, who knows. I anticipated a level of discussion around such an event being held in Saudi Arabia but have been impressed by the general response and feedback; ultimately they put on a show worthy of the attention it has been given and I already look forward to next year.

Or perhaps we should just take him at face value and accept that he's not prepared to shill for a deeply unpleasant regime?

Quite.

[Truckosaurus]

Shmee said:

I'm not here for politics...

But it was a political event, you said yourself its aim is to promote the country (and therefore its ruling family) which has only opened itself within the last month to visa-free travel from western nations.

As for Farah not having the funds to go, I'd suggest he's one of the few 'influencers' that has DGAF money and can speak his mind without worry for his 'career'.

[TheAngryDog]

Slightly on/off topic, but I would hate to be a new car youtuber starting up now. It is so saturated that new channels seem to struggle for subscribers unless they offer something very unique. Not worth the hassle, especially with the lack of money from AdSense etc.