Taken from JRE #1982 w/John Hennessy:
https://open.spotify.com/episode/7LAHk8UOD0nTOIUfQwyarM?si=c3466b20893c416a

The Joe Rogan experience I used to think that when I would watch Top Gear watch the yeah Stig sure roll around the track.

Yeah, so Top Gear tests on a old runway Southwest of London in it's called Dunsfold So they said they ran it so they have their own but they do I've been there before I was actually I brought Steven Tyler over there like 10 years ago to be interviewed by Jeremy Clarkson and those guys.

So he was a client, we built a Venom GT for him, and so we're hanging out, and I got to see him go out and do his little Celebrity lap around the truck, you know If you're ever over there and you want to do a celebrity the star and the reasonably priced car I connect you with those guys.

Yeah, it's fun And so I think they're but now you got Chris Harris and you got the you know Clarkson and Hammond and May They moved on to Amazon, but

Yeah, I was I was in London a couple weeks ago and I saw Richard Hammond and,

And so Clarkson started, Clarkson's kind of a wild bombastic guy.

And I think that's really kind of taken off.

But I think they still do a season a year.

And good entertainment, good proper car stuff.

Well, I know a little bit about that I was so I was so we had a we had a Velos Raptor Raptor truck that we were up in Canada with these guys.

So this has been back in 20 into 2014 and So like I'm working with the producers and they're like, when you're around the talent, don't talk to them, don't spend time around them.

I'm like, I'm around famous people more than these guys.

I mean, I don't care that they're a big deal so anyway, so these pretty the producers kind of being a dick and so we show up with these guys, and then we're like provide the vehicle and Then and they're gonna go cross-country through Canada through the mountains and all this crazy shit And and then they're gonna go up on a mountain they're gonna rescue Richard Hammond who's at the top of the mountain, he's got 1 of these Breitling watches where you pull out the little cord and it tells the satellite that you're stranded, so gives your coordinates to get rescued.

Anyway, so now the producers are saying, well, you know, you can't go up on the mountain while they're filming.

I'm like, okay, but listen to this, I'm gonna go watch football, it's the playoffs, I'm gonna go watch football, and if something breaks and you need us to help you, we're not coming.

They're like, oh, then they change their tune, like, okay, we'll come with this.

Well, that producer, I won't say his name, but that producer that was being a massive dick and maybe he was just doing his job Like 2 weeks later.

They're somewhere else in there in England and Jeremy You know Jeremy's gets a little bit of a temper and these guys work long hours And maybe they hadn't eaten and the producer guy was fucking with him Jeremy fucking whacked the guy and I'm like I wanted to fucking punch that guy a couple times too.

But I can't do that and I don't want to get arrested in Canada anyway.

You know, I'm sure that's all water under the bridge.

But Jeremy, so Jeremy, Richard Hammond and James May were all very tight I've spent time around them and then the other guy that's behind the scenes but just so talented his name is Andy Willman he was the producer when they were on BBC, now he's the producer, but when Steven Tyler was being interviewed, you'll like this from your comedy part of your brain, when Steven was being interviewed by Jeremy, I noticed that the interview went on for like twice as long as it probably should have.

And I get claustrophobic, so I don't like being in tight crowds So I'm kind of hanging towards the back of the crowd that they're filming all this live and they aired it later But they're filming in front of a live audience And here this this guy that looks like he's a homeless dude wearing a t-shirt Look like he hadn't showered in about a week.

He's standing there making notes And I realized I was Andy woman the producer the show and so what Jeremy's doing he's asked He's telling all these jokes and asking these questions and Andy is using the live audience as his focus group.

Oh, they laughed at this Oh, I don't I don't think this is as funny and that's how they edit it before that before it goes gets transmitted to the rest of the UK in the

I thought that is so clever that is so smart you know and I don't know if that you know comedians or entertainers kind of but you know you would think to some degree you want to improve your crap, but he's got a quick turnaround time, so like he's got another show he's got to do the following week, so he's just like, Jeremy's doing all this stuff, and sometimes they laugh and sometimes they wouldn't, but this guy was definitely paying attention.

I mean they pretended the car ran out of batteries

no car didn't so they had like they're pushing the car And you know they I think they had a lawsuit about that

They probably did but that goes back like we were talking earlier Like it just seems like

Well, they wanted to create an entertaining storyline.

The entertaining storyline- They'll throw your ass under the bus in a heartbeat.

Oh, Tesla attempted to sue the BBC for libel in March of 2011.

The courts ruled in favor of the BBC, saying that no viewer of the show would be likely to reasonably compare the Roasters' performance on the show with its performance in the real world.

The British court sides with British corporation that's owned by the British government against American company oops

Yeah, because the idea that watching this thing break down wouldn't influence you to not get 1 Yeah, these people are testing it and it breaks down that

We should just say what happened while we're saying it.

Because their car didn't really break down.

just to sort of make a point about what could happen with electric cars, but it's a fake point.

It was a manufactured deal, to your point.

So the more controversial- Well, they definitely did that.

1 time when Jeremy was driving this truck And they were like what would happen if we ran into a brick wall?

You know going to the hospital and getting you know broken ribs and whatever else, just shoot the video of this guy.

Yeah, they got a video camera, they got a GoPro inside, And he, it does, I mean.

These guys were the masters of jumping the shark season after season after season.

You heard about the deal when they went to Argentina?

Let me see the, let's go 1 step at a time.

Let me see the truck slamming into the wall before we get to Argentina.

No, Each guy had to do it, and they're all wearing their safety equipment.

I mean, just run as fast as you can into that wood wall over there, and it's gonna fucking hurt, you know?

think you could, legitimately, you could die.

Yeah, look at this He's going pretty good

so do you think these guys give a fuck about hurting Elon and his company?

Just to try is so They want views Like he has teeth

he's lucky it is a neck yeah, I guess next got to be fucked up from that

Yeah, we did a thing with them a grand tour in Detroit about 5 years ago, and you know maybe he's got a good chiropractor.

That seems like it could cause permanent damage and so they would do stuff like that.

Well that even happened recently Another 1 another 1 of their guys and they're in the current crew.

I forget his name maybe Pato O'Rourke but anyway he he had a bad car crash they canceled the whole season.

Yeah and again nobody really knows the details they're not showing anything but I hear it was pretty painful.

When you watch that image he reaches for his neck like immediately and you see how his head violent snap

Yeah, I don't know how it doesn't break break your neck So just like stuff like that like when we were in Canada with the with the crew or hanging out with the crew And like the so they went down to Canada when our not Canada they went Argentina Excuse me the gummy bears kicking in I suppose They're in Argentina and so 1 of the cars they made they rode on the car, they're doing this cross-country thing, they're kind of poking fun at the Argentinians when they lost the Falcon War back in the 80s to the Brits and in the story was that these guys were getting chased out of the country like people were gonna like looking for them if they found him they were gonna frickin you know beat their ass pretty hard or worse and so I'm talking to the crew and You know the the presenters were able to get to Buenos Aires and were able to get out of the country But the crew is still there and people are like they're calling the embassy.

They're like hey, you know What can we do the fucking locals are trying to get us?

And so I guess the present this is again This is from hearing from the crew when we were in Canada with our velociraptor is that You know the presenters got out The crew were stuck fearing for their lives Like hiding out in places trying to make it to the airport to get home and then so when the whole shit hit the fan The the presenters in England felt bad for him So he bought them all first-class tickets or business class for him from Argentina back to the UK But then the question becomes kind of given the pattern of wanting to further jump the shark and look I'm a I'm a if I climb a mountain I want to I want to climb the next mountain so I get that to some Degree, but did these guys actually like try to stir up the locals By putting shit on their car to fuck with them Well, yeah just for notoriety.

yeah I don't know if they knew it was gonna go as far but man they but it's kind of a shitty deal where they skated out there and their crew was literally afraid they were gonna get fucking beat to death.

And I'm hearing this from the crew, and this auto had gone down like 30 days before.

Yeah, yeah, it's kind of interesting, but you know.


Speaker 0: The Joe Rogan experience I used to think that when I would watch Top Gear watch the yeah Stig sure roll around the track. Yeah, they have their own track.

Speaker 1: Well. Yeah, so Top Gear tests on a old runway Southwest of London in it's called Dunsfold So they said they ran it so they have their own but they do I've been there before I was actually I brought Steven Tyler over there like 10 years ago to be interviewed by Jeremy Clarkson and those guys. So he was a client, we built a Venom GT for him, and so we're hanging out, and I got to see him go out and do his little Celebrity lap around the truck, you know If you're ever over there and you want to do a celebrity the star and the reasonably priced car I connect you with those guys. Yeah, it's fun And so I think they're but now you got Chris Harris and you got the you know Clarkson and Hammond and May They moved on to Amazon, but

Speaker 0: are they still doing it?

Speaker 1: Yeah, I was I was in London a couple weeks ago and I saw Richard Hammond and,

Speaker 0: What's the Amazon show called again?

Speaker 1: The Grand Tour.

Speaker 0: Right.

Speaker 1: The Grand Tour. And so Clarkson started, Clarkson's kind of a wild bombastic guy. He started a show about farming. He's got a farm out in the country. And I think that's really kind of taken off.

So I think that's his new gig. But I think they still do a season a year. And good entertainment, good proper car stuff. He's

Speaker 0: a fun dude. Yeah. What did he, punch a producer? They pulled the show?

Speaker 1: Well, I know a little bit about that I was so I was so we had a we had a Velos Raptor Raptor truck that we were up in Canada with these guys. So this has been back in 20 into 2014 and So like I'm working with the producers and they're like, when you're around the talent, don't talk to them, don't spend time around them. I'm like, I'm around famous people more than these guys. These guys are a lot more famous. I mean, I don't care that they're a big deal so anyway, so these pretty the producers kind of being a dick and so we show up with these guys, and then we're like provide the vehicle and Then and they're gonna go cross-country through Canada through the mountains and all this crazy shit And and then they're gonna go up on a mountain they're gonna rescue Richard Hammond who's at the top of the mountain, he's got 1 of these Breitling watches where you pull out the little cord and it tells the satellite that you're stranded, so gives your coordinates to get rescued.

Anyway, so now the producers are saying, well, you know, you can't go up on the mountain while they're filming. I'm like, okay, but listen to this, I'm gonna go watch football, it's the playoffs, I'm gonna go watch football, and if something breaks and you need us to help you, we're not coming. They're like, oh, then they change their tune, like, okay, we'll come with this. And finally, it all turns out fine. Well, that producer, I won't say his name, but that producer that was being a massive dick and maybe he was just doing his job Like 2 weeks later.

They're somewhere else in there in England and Jeremy You know Jeremy's gets a little bit of a temper and these guys work long hours And maybe they hadn't eaten and the producer guy was fucking with him Jeremy fucking whacked the guy and I'm like I wanted to fucking punch that guy a couple times too. But I can't do that and I don't want to get arrested in Canada anyway.

Speaker 0: Yeah, so they canceled the show. Yeah. And didn't Jeremy and him make up? But there was still like...

Speaker 1: You know, I'm sure that's all water under the bridge. But Jeremy, so Jeremy, Richard Hammond and James May were all very tight I've spent time around them and then the other guy that's behind the scenes but just so talented his name is Andy Willman he was the producer when they were on BBC, now he's the producer, but when Steven Tyler was being interviewed, you'll like this from your comedy part of your brain, when Steven was being interviewed by Jeremy, I noticed that the interview went on for like twice as long as it probably should have. And I get claustrophobic, so I don't like being in tight crowds So I'm kind of hanging towards the back of the crowd that they're filming all this live and they aired it later But they're filming in front of a live audience And here this this guy that looks like he's a homeless dude wearing a t-shirt Look like he hadn't showered in about a week. He's standing there making notes And I realized I was Andy woman the producer the show and so what Jeremy's doing he's asked He's telling all these jokes and asking these questions and Andy is using the live audience as his focus group.

Oh, they laughed at this Oh, I don't I don't think this is as funny and that's how they edit it before that before it goes gets transmitted to the rest of the UK in the

Speaker 0: world interest

Speaker 1: I thought that is so clever that is so smart you know and I don't know if that you know comedians or entertainers kind of but you know you would think to some degree you want to improve your crap, but he's got a quick turnaround time, so like he's got another show he's got to do the following week, so he's just like, Jeremy's doing all this stuff, and sometimes they laugh and sometimes they wouldn't, but this guy was definitely paying attention.

Speaker 0: That show, Top Gear did Tesla dirty. You know that stuff.

Speaker 1: Yeah, they did. They did Tesla dirty. They did all kinds of crooked shit,

Speaker 0: but they did Tesla. I mean they pretended the car ran out of batteries

Speaker 1: Oh, yeah,

Speaker 0: no car didn't so they had like they're pushing the car And you know they I think they had a lawsuit about that

Speaker 1: They probably did but that goes back like we were talking earlier Like it just seems like

Speaker 0: That was dirty.

Speaker 1: It seems like everybody has an agenda. So what was the agenda behind that? Was that just the-

Speaker 0: Well, they wanted to create an entertaining storyline.

Speaker 1: The entertaining storyline- They'll throw your ass under the bus in a heartbeat.

Speaker 0: That was what it is. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, Tesla attempted to sue the BBC for libel in March of 2011. The courts ruled in favor of the BBC, saying that no viewer of the show would be likely to reasonably compare the Roasters' performance on the show with its performance in the real world.

That doesn't make any sense.

Speaker 1: Yeah, no, they got, they got, well,

Speaker 0: They got railroaded.

Speaker 1: The British court sides with British corporation that's owned by the British government against American company oops

Speaker 0: Yeah, because the idea that watching this thing break down wouldn't influence you to not get 1 Yeah, these people are testing it and it breaks down that

Speaker 1: look those guys good or bad

Speaker 0: We should just say what happened while we're saying it. Yeah. Because their car didn't really break down.

Speaker 1: Right. They

Speaker 0: faked it. No, they faked it. They faked it. And they

Speaker 1: did it

Speaker 0: just to sort of make a point about what could happen with electric cars, but it's a fake point.

Speaker 1: It was a manufactured deal, to your point. But they just want eyeballs. So the more controversial- Well, they definitely did that. Right. 1 time when Jeremy was driving this truck And they were like what would happen if we ran into a brick wall?

You know going to the hospital and getting you know broken ribs and whatever else, just shoot the video of this guy. So they'll do anything. They weren't, they weren't.

Speaker 0: Who ran into a brick wall?

Speaker 1: Jeremy Clarkson.

Speaker 0: He did?

Speaker 1: Yeah, it's on YouTube.

Speaker 0: And he went to the hospital?

Speaker 1: Yeah, they got a video camera, they got a GoPro inside, And he, it does, I mean.

Speaker 0: He went to the hospital?

Speaker 1: Yeah, he went to the hospital from that. And then

Speaker 0: they. Why would you do that?

Speaker 1: They did, and they, because. As if he died. Retention, dude. These guys were the masters of jumping the shark season after season after season. You heard about the deal when they went to Argentina?

Speaker 0: What deal? Let me see the, let's go 1 step at a time. Let me see the truck slamming into the wall before we get to Argentina. Because I just can't believe that they

Speaker 1: would just drive up. Clarkson, Top Gear, crash.

Speaker 0: Full acceleration?

Speaker 1: Truck crash. No, Each guy had to do it, and they're all wearing their safety equipment. It might have been 20 miles an hour. I mean, just run as fast as you can into that wood wall over there, and it's gonna fucking hurt, you know? So.

Yeah, I would

Speaker 0: think you could, legitimately, you could die.

Speaker 1: Oh yeah. Oh, it's 1

Speaker 0: of these trucks? Yeah. Oh boy.

Speaker 1: Yeah, look at this He's going pretty good

Speaker 0: Bro, he's going very fast That is so

Speaker 1: so do you think these guys give a fuck about hurting Elon and his company? Just to try is so They want views Like he has teeth

Speaker 0: he's lucky it is a neck yeah, I guess next got to be fucked up from that

Speaker 1: Yeah, we did a thing with them a grand tour in Detroit about 5 years ago, and you know maybe he's got a good chiropractor. He looks like he's healed up. But man that that's pretty gnarly

Speaker 0: That seems like it could cause permanent damage and so they would do stuff like that.

Speaker 1: Well that even happened recently Another 1 another 1 of their guys and they're in the current crew. I forget his name maybe Pato O'Rourke but anyway he he had a bad car crash they canceled the whole season. Really? The rest of the season. Yeah and again nobody really knows the details they're not showing anything but I hear it was pretty painful.

Yeah. So.

Speaker 0: When you watch that image he reaches for his neck like immediately and you see how his head violent snap

Speaker 1: Yeah, I don't know how it doesn't break break your neck So just like stuff like that like when we were in Canada with the with the crew or hanging out with the crew And like the so they went down to Canada when our not Canada they went Argentina Excuse me the gummy bears kicking in I suppose They're in Argentina and so 1 of the cars they made they rode on the car, they're doing this cross-country thing, they're kind of poking fun at the Argentinians when they lost the Falcon War back in the 80s to the Brits and in the story was that these guys were getting chased out of the country like people were gonna like looking for them if they found him they were gonna frickin you know beat their ass pretty hard or worse and so I'm talking to the crew and You know the the presenters were able to get to Buenos Aires and were able to get out of the country But the crew is still there and people are like they're calling the embassy. They're like hey, you know What can we do the fucking locals are trying to get us?

And so I guess the present this is again This is from hearing from the crew when we were in Canada with our velociraptor is that You know the presenters got out The crew were stuck fearing for their lives Like hiding out in places trying to make it to the airport to get home and then so when the whole shit hit the fan The the presenters in England felt bad for him So he bought them all first-class tickets or business class for him from Argentina back to the UK But then the question becomes kind of given the pattern of wanting to further jump the shark and look I'm a I'm a if I climb a mountain I want to I want to climb the next mountain so I get that to some Degree, but did these guys actually like try to stir up the locals By putting shit on their car to fuck with them Well, yeah just for notoriety. And so I mean like I mean,

Speaker 0: yeah, yeah,

Speaker 1: I would think so. I mean Yeah,

Speaker 0: you're trying to be nice,

Speaker 1: yeah I don't know if they knew it was gonna go as far but man they but it's kind of a shitty deal where they skated out there and their crew was literally afraid they were gonna get fucking beat to death.

Speaker 0: Imagine if they did.

Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah. And I'm hearing this from the crew, and this auto had gone down like 30 days before. Jesus Christ. Yeah, yeah, it's kind of interesting, but you know.

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Car-Builder John Hennessy on Working with Top Gear and The Grand Tour