James is CAR magazine’s Head of Automotive Video and specialises in presenting, producing, scripting and planning all of the video content you’ll see on CAR’s YouTube channel.
Graduating from University of Southampton with an English degree, James was determined to work in the automotive world and – during his studies – held jobs at prestige car dealerships in Southampton. It was here he got to drive a broad range of cars and learn what buyers really want when shopping for a new vehicle.
Joining Bauer Media in 2016, James initially spent much of his time writing reviews for Parkers.co.uk but quickly became involved with their YouTube channel and, in 2019, took on the role of Head of Automotive Video for both Parkers and CAR.
Since then, he’s gone on to lead a talented team and grow the automotive video department into an award-winning centre of excellence, culminating in a coveted Newspress gong for Best Automotive Video in 2022 – this being given for James’ Porsche 911 GT3 film on the CAR magazine channel.In his spare time, James can often be found at a race circuit peddling a variety of different cars in UK championships as well as providing on-track tuition for red letter days. This experience on track has given him some incredible opportunities over the last few years, including driving Porsche’s 1998 Le Mans-winning GT1, Honda’s 2019 race-winning BTCC Civic Type R and the gorgeous 1954 Alfa Romeo 1900 Sport Spider.
What does James think of the future of fun cars as we move towards an EV future? ‘No doubt about it, there’s some huge hurdles to overcome to ensure we still have cars that are fun to drive. Weight, sound and engagement being the three most obvious ones. But we’re also seeing some signs of life with the brilliant (and genuinely enjoyable) Hyundai Ioniq 5 N, plus don’t count synthetic fuels out of the equation just yet. I think there’s going to be some serious progress on that front in the next few years.’
You can follow James’ exploits in cars on his X and Instagram accounts – and read his latest articles on CAR’s website in the list below.