Quote:
Originally Posted by Red-86
Since we don’t get the stripped out base spec cars here, I’ll never know what they are like. But anyway, clearly it wasn’t the car for your needs and preferences.
He’s a funny one. I like Harris’s segments, and I think his old /Drive and Chris Harris on Cars videos were amazingly shot at a time when the average YT car videos, even from the big channels, were amateurish trash. We can thank his amazing camera guy Neil Carey for much of that.
But Harris has some odd and strong opinions. He bags both the MX-5 and 370Z, two of the best budget sports cars available for the hoi polloi. As you say, he doesn’t care for the incredibly capable CTR, nor for the new Supra. It’s very hard for him to give praise to any affordable sports cars I think. 20 odd years of driving Porsches, Ferraris, Lambos, McLarens etc may have left him a little jaded. He seems to seek a very particular driving experience and connection with a car, and forms very strong opinions based on that alone, with little or no reference to affordability, reliability, comfort, daily drivability etc. When you are a famous car reviewer who gets sent exotic cars to drive all the time, and when you benchmark for a daily sports car is a 911 GT3 Touring, all the other regular car ownership considerations don’t really matter as much as ‘how fun is it to drift at 10/10ths’.  |
The cinematography for that channel was definitely beyond it's time on YouTube. I still go back to some of his old videos from time to time, one of my favourites being the 918/P1/FLF hour long video.
The MX5 is a funny car no doubt, stock i don't think I could really be happy with it as the body roll is immense despite what it is capable of stock. When you start modding the MX5 though, that's where I would then be considering one, the MX5 for me has a strong chance of being a second car down the road, depending on what the used market looks like... a car I don't have to worry about crashing into the track wall so I can keep pushing hard.
The CTR and Supra are also funny. Obviously I like the CTR as I own one, but it definitely does feel like a bigger car than any other Civic generation I've driven. That aside, the numerous praise for the car isn't misplaced, so I would definitely agree he has become jaded over the years.
The Supra, I actually don't like. It feels odd to me, the tail end, which I think there is actually something on it that pro drivers have been even complaining about.. it felt off. I had the opportunity to drive it on track with almost no traffic for a few laps, and had this strange sensation from the rear end making me feel less confident in it, kind of bouncy or airy rear end. But alas, I didn't get to push it as much as I wanted to, I was with an instructor and I think once he realized the pace I was approaching he said to let off as we are not here to set lap times
!
Anyway, I will definitely agree he's gotten a bit of an unreasonable taste at times, but he's probably the best we have right now, other than some of the more unknown pro drivers out there that also happen to have a YouTube channel, Misha comes to mind. (He's still pretty well known though, I just don't think on the western side of the world)