The Grand Tour Hosts Talk Favorite Cars of 2016 and DriveTribe with GQ
DRIVETRIBE was just launched to the public this Monday by Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond, and James May. The trio has been busy promoting it with magazine interviews, news show appearances, and even a live stream Q&A session on Facebook.
The new social media site which Clarkson described as “YouPorn for cars” and “Facebook for car enthusiasts” is simple to use and sign up for. You only need to have a Facebook account (Twitter is coming soon), then you join the website with said account and then search and join the “tribes” that pertain to your particular automotive interests.
GQ’s Josh Lee recently interviewed Clarkson, Hammond, and May to get down to the bottom of what DRIVETRIBE is all about, what the weirdest tribes he has found are, the future of the site, and of course, cars.
What’s the aim of DriveTribe?
RH: The whole idea of this is to really pull out to the nth degree everything that makes a petrol head a petrol head, whether they love old rusty trucks or photographs of supercars spotted in the street. This platform should pull all these people together in a way that a television programme never can.
JM: This is something for everybody. It can be a place where you go if you don’t like cars. What’s to say that you can’t have a “I hate cars” tribe? It’s also for people who are just into one tiny aspect of cars like turbo history. And if your ideas are good they rise, and if they’re a bit crap they sink.
What are the strangest tribes that you’ve found?
RH: Dogs in cars. I was very dismissive of it first, but it has mass followers.
JM: S***ty car mods. I like that one.
Do you know where DriveTribe will go?
RH: I don’t know what’s going to happen to a degree. There will be tribes that will erupt that we’ll never have thought of. And that’s the point of it. Cars are changing and so is the way we communicate about them.
JC: I would really like it to become an automatic place for anyone that wants to say anything or do anything around cars, or for those that are bored on a train or on an aero plane and need something to do. Also we can start to look at selling cars online because dealerships have got a 1924 mentality – they put balloons outside their store every time a new car is released. So selling through the internet seems to be a very good idea. There are a million areas that we can go to.
JM: I can easily see food tribes, fashion tribes, various sports tribes, art tribes – I mean everything can go into this. There’s going to be a burger vans of Britain tribe, and if it doesn’t happen then I’m going to do it.
What’s been your favourite car of 2016?
JC: The Alfa Romeo Julia Quadrifoglio because I’m an Alfa nut.
JM: The new Honda NSX. I was driving a Ferrari over the weekend, and it still gives me a massive buzz – but I’m still thinking “why can’t it be more like a Honda?”
It’s great to hear the boys talking about cars. I think I can safely say that is where they really shine and where a lot of us grew to love them while watching Top Gear. For the full interview, check out the article on GQ here, and for more on the boys, The Grand Tour, and everything else Top Gear stay tuned to Grand Tour Nation.
Source: GQ UK
