How we work, part one: above is a shot taken at what looks like a million miles an hour, for an upcoming car versus bike story.
And below is how it was actually taken: with photographer Luc Lacey secured in the rear of a Vauxhall while I (in the Audi) and tester Neil Winn (on the Ducati) hold station behind the car as steadily as possible. The speed is less than 20mph.
If you’re interested in these things, Luc says the shutter speed is 1/15th, the aperture was around F/11, he’s used a polarising filter and in post-processing pretty much all he’s done is boosted the contrast.
How we work, part two: one or two car makers have declined to support awards ceremonies, reckoning they’re not all equal in fairness and, most crucially, transparency. And, perhaps, because they don’t win enough.
This magazine supports and helps organise Car of the Year, the biggest award in Europe. What I want to reassure you of is the transparency: no entry fee is asked, nobody has to pay to use the winner’s logo and manufacturers stroll into the awards ceremony for nothing – there are no tables at a prizegiving to buy at several grand a pop.
What do we ask? There’s some testing, obviously, for which we ask if they’ll supply cars. COTY’s seven organising magazines run – and pay for – an annual test day in France, where shortlisted car makers give some journalists a lift to and from the station. Here, British jurors also organise our own test day on the roads near Silverstone, which kindly lends us some space in the cafe.
Car makers are welcome to decline any of these opportunities, and it makes no difference – they’re still in the reckoning if they’ve launched an eligible car and enough of the 60 jurors have tested it. Ideally we’d test shortlisted cars back-to-back, but if we can’t, it’s no barrier.
I haven’t always agreed with COTY’s winner, but that’s democracy. What I like is that votes aren’t in until the Friday before the Geneva motor show, and the announcement is made in the show halls on the Monday.
The seven organising magazines take it in turns to do the counting, and nobody but those three or four people who do the sums, plus COTY’s president and secretary, know the results before it’s announced, so there’s genuine tension. How each juror voted, and their explanation for it, is available on the caroftheyear.org website afterwards. It ain’t perfect, but we’re working on that, and certainly, I have no qualms with the process.
How we work, part three: I read in a column that Mercedes should feel “embarrassed” it didn’t get a mention at a particular car awards ceremony the other day. I dunno. Perhaps Daimler’s execs are staring red-faced at their shoes. Or maybe they’re consoling themselves by reading their just-published annual report, in which it’s noted that in 2017 its annual sales were up 8% and it made a profit of £9.4 billion.
How we work, part four: Roy Lanchester, respected journalist and role model for so many of us in our formative years in this gig, has a book out: How To Be A Motoring Journalist, published by Sniff Petrol. It’s a good yarn. Seek it out to help keep Roy in Malbec.
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