My 911 is on Top Gear this week (well, kind of)

[Jack Olsen]

"My car is on Top Gear this week." How often do you get to say that?

Well, if just under half a second of screen time counts, and if you consider that what you're seeing is just a tiny piece of my front horn grille, or turn signal, or thereabouts, on my front end. But it's right there, on the show. So I'll consider Black Beauty pretty freakin' famous now.

Back story: the show contacted me and asked if I could shoot two complete laps of the track with a camera mounted on the left side of the car for one lap and on the right side of the car for another. The one important condition was that the footage couldn't show any of my 911 -- which I was ALMOST able to do. As it happened, you could just make out a little piece of the car in the lower corner.

Hey, I tried.

So... if you watch this week's episode of the show, and you happen to freeze the footage at the 20:17 mark, you'll get a half-second glimpse of a small piece of my 911. It's in the middle of a story about Sabine Schmitz teaching Rory Reid to get a Camaro ZL1 around the circuit in less than a minute forty. It's a fine segment, and I apologize for referring to Mr. Reid as 'some guy' in the video (I don't really watch the show). But there it is, a tiny slice of my old 911 on the BBC's long-running and well-loved car show.

They didn't pay me very much, but the fact that they only used 12 frames of my footage in the final cut means that the price-per-frame was pretty damned high.

Here's the video link.

[Jack Olsen]

I changed the link in the original post. Someone let me know if it works.

[plexiform]

yes the first link works now

[Flojo]

What the fuss.. I don’t get it :shrug:

Maybe make your own video/movie with a friend and drone, especially the corkscrew sequence... you’re in that business, you‘d come up with something awesome!

[SalParadise]

So they used your 911 footage to make it seem like another dude (ie. not you), driving a Camaro (ie. not a 911) down the track? In many ways great for you that you got to do it, shame on them for not showing us your car (I know, it wasn't supposed to be shown). Thanks for sharing. Ah, the delights of Hollywood and their film editing skills.

[Tippy]

I just saw that episode. I'm confused on why you weren't supposed to show your car, but then it was shown?

[Canada Kev]

Congrats, Jack!

But why wouldn't they just put a camera on their own car? I guess this goes to show that one cannot trust or completely believe anything on TV. They're not specifically lying here, but there is definitely a strong suggestion that the footage you're seeing is from Sabine's training session when clearly it isn't. Maybe the world actually is flat. Uhh, I mean a sphere. No, wait... Oh, I'm so confused.

[Dpmulvan]

Top gear jumped the shark!!

[universeman]

They probably shot the scene, wrapped up and left, and then realized they needed track footage?

[Cory M]

Hey Jack,
They were talking about your WSIR instruction video on Adam Carolla's "Carcast" podcast recently. They play some of the audio from it and make a few jokes. It's the episode from 3/23/18 where they talk about his 935 dyno test and a guy from Superformance kit cars visits, if you want to check it out.

[Busta Rib]

Originally Posted by Jack Olsen

So I'll consider Black Beauty pretty freakin' famous now. Here's the video link.

Uh, your car was famous before this video, but congrats on the new exposure.

[LeftCoastErik]

LOL good for you man! Sabine is an animal in all the right ways. Sounds like fun and can't hurt the Provenance of the Black Beauty....'Cause I'm sure you are gonna sell it soon, right? lol

[Jack Olsen]

Thanks. I guess they shot the whole piece and realized once they were back in England that they didn't have any forward facing footage without their car in it. That probably wasn't seen as a mistake, per se, since I imagine they go into shooting these things with every shot planned and all the 'spontaneous' dialogue written out. But before they edited it, someone decided they needed some camera-car footage and they contacted me and asked if I would do some particular camera mounts. The trick (for me) was that it had to be on an open track -- no other cars visible. So at my next track day I had to pay attention to staying just far enough ahead of the rest of the run group to make it appear as though the track was empty.

They contacted me a second time during the editing process because they wanted some additional shots -- but then almost immediately canceled that request since they had an edit they were happy with.

I look at it and think they could have easily done it without my 12 frames (one second of footage has 24 or 30 frames to it), but it's nice to see it used -- and kind of funny to think my tiny piece of 'camera car footage' has been seen by millions of viewers.

[Coastr]

Ok i get it now. They shot a piece with the Camaro, got back to the uk and deciddd they needed more track footage. So you strapped a camera to the car facing forwards, outran the pack to have clear track in front and sent them the footage, complete with a 911 front corner easter egg in it.

Well that’s pretty cool I think

[adias]

Nice!

[matthewb0051]

When I watched the episode I kept thinking that Jack could beat the Camaro and Rory's time. So I was waiting for the video to split to Jack driving. Then they could say that a 40 y/o Porsche beats the new GM car.

They do get a little too excited about American muscle...

Cool story

[Craig_D]

That shadow is indistinguishable! 911 right headlight bump. WOOT WOOT!

[Canada Kev]

Originally Posted by matthewb0051

When I watched the episode I kept thinking that Jack could beat the Camaro and Rory's time. So I was waiting for the video to split to Jack driving. Then they could say that a 40 y/o Porsche beats the new GM car.

They do get a little too excited about American muscle...

Cool story

Yeah, isn't Mr. Olsen 2:26 or :27 there? And they were running 1:43? Please...

[adias]

Originally Posted by Canada Kev

Yeah, isn't Mr. Olsen 2:26 or :27 there? And they were running 1:43? Please...

Actually 1:36 when Sabine drove.

[Jack Olsen]

Originally Posted by Cory M

Hey Jack,
They were talking about your WSIR instruction video on Adam Carolla's "Carcast" podcast recently. They play some of the audio from it and make a few jokes. It's the episode from 3/23/18 where they talk about his 935 dyno test and a guy from Superformance kit cars visits, if you want to check it out.

Thanks! I would have never known about it.

It's my second dose of minor-league fame for the week -- being lightly mocked by Adam Carolla and company on his CarCast podcast.

"Find that guy."

Here it is:

https://youtu.be/a2Su4vF00y0