Firth Gear, filming your E55?

[gaz_l]

I hope the seat doesn't stick when it's all the way forward then..

Cheers,

Gaz

 

[Deleted member 6183]

I hope the seat doesn't stick when it's all the way forward then..

Cheers,

Gaz

Had to read that twice.

 

[Nat]

Just confirmed, Vikki Butler-Henderson will be driving the car.

In that case, it's an even bigger "no chance" than before.

 

[flowrider]

No idea who is presenting.
Knowing my luck it will be Quentin Wilson and he'll try and sell me a warranty

I heard they had contracted Richard Hammond for a celebrity driver track slot!

 

[Londonscottish]

I'd do it. I once let Performance car do a review of one of my C43's over at the Ace (albeit a static feature/interview/photo shoot).

I had a lot of fun. Got to meet Dan Trent the journo. Heard him describe the banzai laps he'd done round the Ring in a 5.5 211 E500. And chewed the breeze with hsome fellah from an indie who'd come along in mental SLK 55 with a massive Kleemann supercharger bolted on.

Petrolhead's day out.

 

[french]

There ya go Am...your gonna have Vikki squirming & squealing all over your seat...hope the wife isn't the jealous type lol
have a great day mate, I'm not to far from Haynes what day is it...Hmmm wouldn't mind giving Vikki to nice cuppa & good bread roll.

 

[AMGeed]

There ya go Am...your gonna have Vikki squirming & squealing all over your seat...hope the wife isn't the jealous type lol
have a great day mate, I'm not to far from Haynes what day is it...Hmmm wouldn't mind giving Vikki to nice cuppa & good bread roll.

It's tomorrow morning. 8am on parade. Come on down

The assistant producer called today to confirm everything. Apparently its a drive on the local roads with my car, an M5 and an RS6 to compare each model. The programme recommences in Sept, possibly on Discovery.

 

[st13phil]

It's tomorrow morning. 8am on parade. Come on down

Hope you have a great day, Rog. And don't forget to get a few piccies

 

[AMGeed]

^Will do Phil, and thanks.

 

[MancMike]

No sniffing the seat afterwards.

Seriously though, this is very exciting. I’d be over the moon if it was my car they were interested in.

They said they’re going to look after it of course but I guess there’ll be at least a quick kick down or two to show off the performance and noise of the cars, has that been discussed?

 

[AMGeed]

[QUOTE="MancMike, post: 2623087, member: 98419"

They said they’re going to look after it of course but I guess there’ll be at least a quick kick down or two to show off the performance and noise of the cars, has that been discussed?[/QUOTE]

To quote the email from the producer, " a few acceleration shots are anticipated but the car will be driven respectfully."

I don't mind that, a few WOT drive pasts should give me an idea what it sounds like. Just didn't want tyre screeching drifting which I made clear. (Unless they want to buy me a new set of tyres)
Also I'm interested to see how a stock E55 compares to the M5 and RS6. I fancy they will both have the beating of mine on acceleration.

 

[clk320x]

No sniffing the seat afterwards.

 

[rockits]

I can see both sides to this but I'm a little with SPX on this. I let my 4200 be part of a Modern Classics day of clever money cars & ended up with very mixed feelings.

It was supposed to be a big group shoot @ Santa Pod originally. I thought well I've never been to Santa Pod so a day off but a good day out. When it got to a day before it suddenly changed to no group shoot & not at Santa Pod.

Ended up being me in the 4200 & a guy who had driven from up norf with a Lexus ISF to Baldocm Services where we all met...well 4 of us! No coffee or tea on arrival. No organisation on day format or route. Spent most of the day chatting to guy from up norf & Nathan from MC & Dean Smith the photographer.

Lunch was a ropey sandwich, packet of crisps & a Mars bar from Baldock Services bought that morning. Got a tank of petrol paid for after several weeks of t1tting around. Loads of waiting around, I did plenty of the driving in motion & drive by shots.

Nice feature in mag but little upside in reality. I charge me out at 600-800 a day so a day off is expensive. Should & could have been a much better experience with a little more organisation, care & a lite bit of reasonable hospitality.

Reality seems to be there isn't much budget for this kind of stuff & up to mag staff to beg steal & borrow to make features happen. Poor really.

I got a call a few weeks later as they wanted to use my 4200 for a Manchester NEC car show to put on the stand. I asked how much would I get which was nothing. Also they wanted to drive it to Manchester not on covered transport. Bearing in mind my 4200 is a 2007 14k miler garage queen I politely declined. When I said it wasn't worth my time or risk to car being damaged she offered me 2 free tickets to the show in Manchester for that weekend at short notice not covering my travel costs. Bearing in mind I live just outside Potters Bar down south & couldn't go anyway there was no benefit of value at all.

If I did these things it would be so much better than the way it is often done now.

Sorry for the downer but hopefully it will be a better experience than mine. Go for it....it is only a car & you only live once.

Would I do it again....possibly...but with very different demands & conditions.....confirmed in writing & well in advanced!

 

[clk320x]

Bearing in mind my 4200 is a 2007 14k miler garage queen

I can confirm this! I only got to see the bottom of the wheel

 

[brucemillar]

I was asked and agreed to have my 300te 4-matic. Used in a 6 page article for Mercedes Enthusiast Magazine. This was after they spotted the car at Benz On The Green. I agreed and the day was shot at the London Golf Club in Kent, near my home.

Everything was as agreed in advance including them allowing me to make some editorial changes to the content. All the driving was done by me (I was happy and offered to let them drive).

I was given all the pictures of the day in advance and the opportunity to choose my favourites (I declined that as these guys know their stuff and I do not)

I was delighted with the day and the company. The article was great and really well received amongst the readers.

I was offered expenses including fuel and food.

Kyle (the Editor) was just great. Friendly and knowledgeable he wrote and changed stuff at my request to produce what I wanted included. I had no reason to request and removals.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[gaz_l]

I saw that issue of ME Bruce. A nice article and some very nice photography.

My experience was a little different; back in the day I used to own a Fiat Panda (one of the ones designed by Giugiaro, using only a ruler). I was a member of a Panda forum at the time, we used to meet up as you do and it was fun. Classic Panda owners are characters, shall we say. A great lot.

When the Panda 100HP was launched and 5th Gear wanted to do a spot on it, they approached the Panda forum and asked if anyone was interested in bringing their car along for "comparison". The meeting place was to be Ace Cafe, just off the A406. Anyway, a bunch of us said yes, the date was booked and people came from far and wide - Scotland, Cornwall and Northern Ireland, for example. As I said, Panda owners are nutters in the nicest sense. My 70 odd mile journey paled in comparison.

So, we met up early as requested on a freezing cold morning (it was February IIRC) and basically spent the whole day hanging around. The producer or whoever was in charge made us move our cars around several times to get the "best shot" around the 100HP, and that was that. We did get to meet VBH & Tiff, briefly it has to be said before they buggered off inside to the warm. Tom Ford (the big hairy one) also turned up and he was quite happy to stand around outside with all us lot talking cars. A genuinely funny guy, and a true petrolhead.

Eventually the filming started and us lot, the great unwashed, were shooed out of the way. VBH and Tom Ford were presenting the piece, it was interesting to see the difference between them. Vicky was learning lines before every take, whereas Tom just stood there until "Action!" and basically went straight into his spiel. Don't know if he was better at learning scripts or just a natural ad-libber, but he was very good in front of the camera.

After much fannying around we were told it was a wrap and we could sod off. Off we went to our respective destinations and eagerly awaited the episode to be screened! When it did, disappointment was the order of the day. They had re-shot the intro to the piece, this time in a deserted Ace Cafe car park apart from the 100HP. No mention of any of us, and the only screen time I got was my car being a green blur behind Vicky's shoulder on one of the bits filmed inside the cafe for that episode (about 10 seconds, my lame to fame..).

So that was my experience. None of us got paid, AFAIK, I didn't get told I could have free coffee in the Ace Cafe until after I'd paid for it, and all in all it was a bit of a waste of a day. Would I do it again? Nah. Did it put me off Fiat Pandas? Nah. In fact, when I eventually sold mine, I bought a 100HP as its replacement..

Cheers,

Gaz.

 

[rockits]

Good to hear some good experiences. I guess it shows that this kind of thing can be extremely variable. Best to confirm as much as possible in advanced to give a best indication of what to expect.

 

[Deleted member 37751]

Good luck today Rog, hope you have fun!

 

[AMGeed]

Just got home from a really pleasant day out. First to arrive at 7 30am, I took a few shots at a practically deserted Haynes Motor Museum before anyone else arrived.




A couple of the production staff arrived and introduced themselves and we went into the hospitality suite inside for teas/coffee and biscuits to await the M5 driver who was running a little late. Both he, his Siberian wife and the owners of the RS6 were real nice people, chatty and obviously pleased with their choice of car.

The cars were driven onto the atificial grass outside the main entrance and were jockeyed around until the producer was happy. Vikki turned up in a filthy Ford SUV at 9am, said hello to everyone and it was almost time to start filming. Very impressed she just took her script, read it through for a minute or two and remembered it all.





Eat your heart out. She scrubs up well. Actually, a really smiley, lovely friendly woman. I allowed her to be in my photo


The BMW was first off and Jim the owner told Vikki he wanted to see 9mpg and traction control switched off. I had a feeling, along with Nick the RS6 owner, this would be her pick of the three although to be fair to the TV company, I won't say which one it actually is.
The M5 was out for around 30 mins and in the meantime the RS6 was being photographed very closely whilst mine was being prepped with camera's, go pro's and microphones.

Just some final last touches to mine before the off.


Again, about 30 mins of driving with a couple of slowish drive by's and mine was ready to go back on the grass for a close up inspection.

The RS6 with a rear Go-Pro waiting to leave.


Final shots of the car(s) before Vikki did her closing bit. This took us to 1 30pm and lunchtime.



A nice hot lunch was served along with drinks and a quick chat with the TV crew closed the day for us. We all filled in an expenses form and will be reimbursed our fuel. I'm happy with that.
They are continuing this afternoon with 3 small cheap cars, a Skoda VRS, A Renault 182 Cup and a Mini Cooper S. The guy with the VRS drove for 4hrs from Sheffield so he has a long day.
I really enjoyed the day and look forward to seeing it screened. The first episode goes out 6th Sept on Quest/Discovery but its unknown which of the 4 episodes this scene will be in.
4.5 hrs of filming for 6 mins of actual programme!
Oh, I still have the footage taken from my dashcam to view later. That should be fun

 

[Deleted member 37751]

Being stood next to those two cars makes the W211 look even more stunning...