Somehow...one episode needs to feature the Probe 16 :)

Do you have appropriate hats for both of you on a night cruise?

Done!

Subscribed. 795 to go!

Ha - the Probe is currently in the garage with the engine (again) sitting next to it. I've had so much trouble with that car, that I decided to work on others to get those "little victories" under my belt. As soon as I get back to Los Angeles, I will tackle it!

732 remaining to go!

-Wayne

That was a very tricky moment - carefully balancing talking to the founder / inventor. I guess there's something for everyone! I think they said that they had sold 30,000 of them, which I find suspect?

-Wayne

I'm in

Maybe you misheard and it was "30".

Depending upon the price (if it's low enough) I could see selling them. I could see the kids that mod their cars with lots of aesthetic, "go slow" mods (stickers, LEDs, stuff that's straight out of anime) installing them. I could see some folks with things like a Prius or Leaf getting them. THere are also folks that spend a LOT of money modding Teslas, maybe they'd have them. Still, 30,000 sounds like a lot.

I'm not surprised, but I just checked and you now have almost 1500 subscribers.

I have subscribed, so I will off this suggestion: Literally anyone, (or any two people) can make a channel and chat/argue about cars. You have a unique fleet at your disposal, play to your strengths. Use the cars to draw views, then keep them there with good content.

YouTube is essentially a wide-open market, with almost no barriers to entry: it's perfect competition, everyone's on equal footing. Differentiate yourself. And be patient.

Tom Scott signed off YouTube yesterday, his final (for now) video might be instructive.

Thanks for subscribing! Your post is very interesting to me as it asks an existential question regarding this endeavor. I have a full can of coffee in front of me, so here goes.

Firstly, our channel has three distinct advantages that others don't. I've got Sandy, who is pretty funny (in comparison to myself, whom I classify as "mildly amusing". Secondly, I do have a large collection of cars (content) that can provide at least a hundred videos of content without me even leaving my office. Maybe 200 if we dive deep on some things like the 959 and the 962. Thirdly, having sold Pelican in recent years, I have quite an extensive budget to push this ahead. This is a hobby project for me, and I have no grand illusions on making it financially successful, but the fact of the matter is that I don't need to. My only goal is to make it cover it's bills (that in itself may be a lofty goal - I have no idea quite yet).

Sandy and I got together seven years ago when we filmed some stuff at SEMA for Pelican. It never really got the push at Pelican, and the company was sold shortly thereafter. For some of this footage, I actually had to track down the USB external hard drive that was sitting on a shelf gathering dust and plugged it in hoping it would still work (it did). That's some of the footage that we have from the SEMA show in 2015, and it's still pretty good (both Sandy and I look a bit thinner back then and we both have more hair than now!).

When I reached out to Sandy a few months ago, I said, "I'm kind of bored, I can't find any project that is a) interesting, b) seems to add value, and c) isn't all about making money. Let's do this." We both agreed that it would have to be "very low stress" and "very low pressure", and we really wouldn't give a hoot about schedules, or content - we would just do what we think was pretty useful and good and just put it out there. Not exactly a foreign concept for me - this type of attitude is what I used when I wrote my books (I fought with my publisher quite a few times on "doing it right" versus "saving page counts" or other nonsense like that). Bottomline - success or failure, it doesn't really matter to us.

Having said that, that statement is probably not entirely true. Due to my personality, it's difficult to do anything half-assed (except for maybe taking out the trash or cleaning the garage. Well maybe not cleaning the garage). When Sandy and I got together and shot the first few episodes of the show, at the end of the day I said, "well, that sucked, this is totally not going to work at all." It was also more difficult than I anticipated.

But then something odd happened. Two weeks went by and my editor sent us the first four episodes - the 959, the Perana, the Alfa (not released yet), and the Mercedes. They were much better than I anticipated. But my opinion means nothing of course - everyone thinks they are funny. So I sent it to some people, and they actually liked it. And these were some people who think everything is crap - I value those people's thoughts more! The cranks are the ones that you want to listen to (sometimes). Your cousin who is a licensed therapist might not tell you the truth.

The final "hmm" moment came when my two teenage boys said they liked it and they thought it was funny. They take *every* opportunity to knock me down a peg when they get a chance and I don't blame them - I cast a large shadow of accomplishments that I'm sure they feel pressure to measure up to sometimes (probably often). They are not shy about pointing out when I do something that sucks or when I'm not dressed well, or when I lose at Catan or at online Chess to a twelve-year old in Croatia. They take joy in that. I suck it up (95% of the time).

Wow, this is a long ramble. The point is that Sandy and I have no goals and are just doing it for fun. But like working on your 911, I don't like to do things half-assed and in order to do that, we need to make sure we do it semi-well. So, we hired a videographer and editor and are spending some money on promotion. Not a ton, but enough to kickstart the project. We'll see where it goes from here.

You mentioning Tom Scott's video was a very good recommendation. What he described in the video is the *exact* opposite of what we're looking for with this. We just want to have fun, enjoy ourselves, and see where it goes! If we never make a dime from this, then that's fine (kindof like the concept with the books where the overall pay came out to be about 10 cents an hour!).

Anyways, thanks everyone for your support, I really appreciate it.

-Wayne

I'll lay odds most end up in a man cave. What could be more funny than firing up the margarita blender and standing on the gas?

That might be true. I think the setup was $1,000.

So, silly as it is, it's something that I would have to do if I owned / bought a Tesla. I would probably use the "future noise" or design my own fart noise, a la Elon...

-Wayne

subbed.

about 3 minutes into the 959
episode,
cant help being reminded of when
Jeremy Clarkson and Richard Hammond
had a 959 argument.

Thank you for the additional detail. YouTube is an odd place, success/failure/viewer numbers are impossible to predict, no one person can state with any certainty that a video will succeed or fail, the hive mind is on control of your fate. (This episode of WWW gives a good summary of how difficult it is to predict YT success from 19:43 forward: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PZVlBwhGohs&ab_channel=WatchWesWork )

I still think that there are thousands of 'duos' that can review tools, drive around, and be generally entertaining. There are only a couple that can access the vehicles you can access. (see Harry's Garage, or Tyrell's Classic Workshop). But it's not about numbers for you (as of now anyway, I suspect that internally and longer term you want this to grow/work).

I wish you the best of luck, you have time and money that most of can only dream of.

That's genius! Maybe in the bathroom to use instead of a courtesy flush (I've never understood that myself).

Yowza! $1k. But then it does seem fairly advanced for that sort of thing. And the fact that I'm assuming it reads the TPS from OBDII/CANBUS to modulate the "RPM".

Before all of that..register it an entertainment company...and make the expenses deductible?
1). That would be good for company expenses and a travel hobby where you don't get much TY subscriber income and want to save money doing what you love

2). But perhaps too complicated when accountants and tv agents slate the channel to replace Top Gear on prime time. That could definitely happen. You've got the history and know-how. And the bling to prove it. Whether the general public takes interest is undetermined. The spotlight can also be harsh.

3). IDK. Probably bad advice here. Not a CPA. Structure it so you will win either way while having fun. You can chip in for my valuable consulting services after yer second Emmy.


On a random tangent:

Entertainment-wise...the Top Gear formula threw spaghetti at the wall to see what stuck.
It had the dominant chad. The recluse. The funny sidekick. The celebrities. The celebrities driving cars. The big big very fast cars. Trashing those big cars and talking about it. Having an expert driving them. Tours and getting into scripted trouble in foreign lands like the Jackass crew in Estonia.
Something for everyone.
It's all been done.
And many people eventually got tired of that formula.


You have no obligation to follow any formula.
-What people might be attracted to most is your combined drive and spirit. The love of _x_. Whatever that is. Finding out new things to experience. Solving problems. The cars are a valued distraction. Or make it all about the cars and tech specs.

-There are YT computer repair guys who dive into hardware issues and afterwards the computer illiterate idiot viewer feels like they could hack the IRS database next. It's having a super smart and powerful best friend on the screen. Like The View, or any Newscaster talking head panel, or the original Sportscaster circle jerk. The viewer is now part of something bigger.

-But keep the personal info separate. Edit it out. Watch those sticky notes with passwords taped to the monitor. Don't mention relationships or family or schedules etc.

Hmm, I haven't seen this guy before. He said he liked to do good editing and toss in some humor in there - I didn't really see that much there. In addition, his energy (maybe only at that point in the video) is really low. Seems like a nice guy, but I had to put him on 1.75X to make it through that section? YouTube is a fickle crowd - that's why we're trying to keep the videos short, compact, and high energy with a fair amount of banter. One thing I've noticed is that it's very difficult to do this by yourself - you need someone to bounce stuff off of. The best example of this that I can think of are the Pansino sisters (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCjwmbv6NE4mOh8Z8VhPUx1Q) - very high energy, not a lot of BS, fun, easy-to-look at, and all around entertaining. I'm not even a cooking guy, and I find myself watching along when my daughter is watching them. If we can create something 1/2 as good as they have done, then I would consider that a success?

thx,

Wayne

Thx, that's pretty much it - low expectations and not much really going on. We'll see what happens. Don't want to get swept up into any BS - I know that can be common.

thx

Wayne

Today's PPOT hiatus gave me time to think. And ponder.

My ideas will sound like Jeremy Clarkson knockoff. They are not, but they will sound as such so I dont recommend them, but, it was what I genuinely thought.

1st. As a cold open, you treat your collegue to a romantic dinner in a dark candlelit room. While discussing cool car themes, you present him with a wrapped gift of a porsche 959 steering wheel. Not just any 959 steering wheel, a converted 944 steering wheel from the same era, that you personally covered in crappy white leather, and affixed a 959 sticker to the horn area. This would allude to the white dress shoes Ed gave Clark in vacation. "Gee Clarke, I know how much you liked them...."

2nd. Your collegue would respond by buying a telsa exhaust horn and attach it to the lift that ups and downs the Adams 12 car. When you do the inevitable video on that car, every time it goes up and down the lift, it gets cool tesla sounds.

3rd. I would do a special on how much debri it really would take to puncture a front mounted oil cooler on any car. Exactly how much crap COULD you throw at it before it gets punctured? The video did get me wondering....

All these ideas would seem top gear knockoffs, yet, they aren't They would be what I would want to do (despite) formula/clarkson/etc. I would do them very low key.

Even a yellow sticker on the 959 or two. Never mentioned. Very subtle, very background. Only subscribers would get it.

If an "over-testosteroned" import could (with a lot of stickers and some bad bodywork) take the 959 on a straight line special, that would be a fun effacing video to watch.

Again, this is all overdone top gear stuff, and it sort of makes me sad, because it would be fun (for me) to watch, not because it's top gear corny, it's just how I think.

Putting silliness aside, please get some videos out on the race cars and other exotics. Go bother Jay Leno and interview him :)

(Better yet, put Jay in the overblown import that can take the 959) :)

Cool channel btw....
R