I confess. I ushered Lieberman into existence by re-writing his prose for TTAC. And by re-writing I mean there were articles were there wasn’t a single sentence left unmodified. Not one. Guys I was desperate for content.
And then something bizarre happened. Johnny wrote a perfect article. Seriously. I forget the car but he used the phrase “like a tornado eating an hurricane.” Or some such nonsense. It really was good.
And then it was back to the Gallactica, metaphorically speaking. I lost track of Johnny, until I saw him review a car on YouTube.
I can’t imagine a piece of automotive “journalism” more antithetical to the TTAC ethos. There are entire French bakeries who couldn’t begin to match that puff piece. It made me sad.
As for JL’s lack of humility or self-awareness or anything approaching shame, same as it ever was.
But I’ll give him this much: Mr. Lieberman understood from the beginning that being successful in the field meant jettisoning all ethical considerations. He has proven that talent plays second fiddle to obsequiousness in a world where he who pays the piper calls the tune.
0-Jonny wrote two articles for Motor Trend; one is the main review, and the other is the explanation for running into the T1 runoff. He is VERY proud of being the only American invited to drive the car, but he conveys in one (or both, can’t recall offhand) articles that he begged his way into the invitation. Supercar Blondie’s VMAX occurred as a passenger in the track only version of the car (which shares only the V12 and the headlights with the road car).
1-Jonny also “created” a video memorializing his time with the car. I watched all English language videos that hit YouTube when the embargo broke. His was dreadfully poor (and only 6 minutes long). Jonny didn’t fit into the Aston branded fire suits that the manufacturer brought along, so they let him perform his assessments in a t shirt. During his video, he can barely breathe at times as he coasts around the track while sweating profusely. MT’s crack video department relied heavily on the B roll footage that Aston provided the reviewers - presumably footage of Darren Turner hammering the car.
2-For a time, Aston relied heavily on “influencer” marketing, particularly the UK crowd (Shmee150, Mr. JWW, etc.). This launch appeared to stray from that formula, likely due to the car’s extreme nature. It is probably the least road worthy ultra high performance car since the Jaguar XJR 15.
3-I can recommend the Hagerty, Chris Harris, and CarWow videos (in that order). The BEST discussion of the car comes in an episode of the Top Gear Magazine podcast - it includes a conversation between Chris Harris and Ollie Marriage (another TG staffer) on the flight back to the UK from the launch event. They go in depth beyond what’s captured in the video and also compare the car to the Mercedes AMG One.
4-Henry Catchpole’s invitation was likely not predicated on his recent Hagerty affiliation, but rather on his own reputation; he just happens to make videos for Hagerty these days (since the demise of CNET’s Carfection channel).
5-Jonny confessed during a recent appearance on The Smoking Tire podcast that he had an unexpected $20K tax bill stemming from “sponsorship” for his Pikes Peak effort - whoops!
This tracks for "influencers" in lots of spaces. I know firearms pretty well. Every year at the SHOT show there is a media day at the range where various bloggers, writers, and social media personalities can come and shoot the various firearms and try out accessories companies hope to sell. I know several folks who work for various companies and it's always one of the worst experiences they have in the business. Imagine literally hundreds of Johnny Liebermans, every bit as vapid, entitled, and incompetent but now they're being handed lethal weapons that they proceed to handle with the sophistication and skill you'd expect of a particularly dim chimpanzee.
It's not just that they can't shoot, they can't even handle the weapons safely. Muzzle discipline sometimes has to be enforced by literally grabbing the gun and redirecting its aim. Corrections on safety go about as well as telling Johnny he maybe needs some training. "I'VE BEEN AROUND GUNS ALL MY LIFE! I'M A SAFE SHOOTER!!" like the person who is trying to keep them from endangering another human being's life is being the asshole for correcting the matter instead of the guy pointing a lethal weapon at another human being without cause being the fucking douche in the situation.
It's not that they're incapable of shame most of the time...they're simply incapable of processing any sort of ego dystonic feedback from any perspective, no matter how learned or well-intentioned it might be. I've learned that there are people who have no inner monologue...no voice in their head that represents their own consciousness with which they wrestle on a regular basis.
What boggles my mind is that there is some sort of rich car nerd scene in LA that gladly accepts JL as a member; he’s a regular on the podcast with the zillionaire Seinfeld writer and a lawyer and apparently Seinfeld himself, and rubs elbows with Leno and Farrah, amongst others. The only conclusion I can come up with is that all of these men are as equally enthusiastic about quaffing their own farts as Jonny is. I don’t have any idea because I don’t consume any of their droll content, except Farah’s podcast to which I hate-listen on my commute when Rogan’s guests are boring.
I did laugh my ass off when Jonny informed Farah that somehow through accounting ineptitude he had to pay 5-figs of tax on his sponsorship revenue for his Slow Cayman Goes Up Big Hill boondoggle.
I don't give a flying fuck about JL. That's all I'll say about that.
But, I am saddened by what passes for Aston Martin nowadays. They were once purveyors of lousy but character filled cars. Bad cars but great experiences. They did nothing better then anyone else, but they were special. Now, they still do nothing better then anyone else, and they aren't special anymore. Aston hasn't produced a car in the last 20 years that wasn't been comprehensively, at dramatically lower prices, beaten by the Corvette of the day.
I once suggested to the Aston Martin Owners Club that Aston should dump everything they were doing and buy the IP and tooling for the C7 instead. Even though I'm sure they'd build it worse, and have better paint, great smelling leather and poorer reliability then what the boys and girls at Bowling Green produce, it would be far and away better then anything Aston could produce on their own. Oddly, that suggestion didn't go over too well.
Every corner of every occupation has someone like Lieberman in it, who everyone knows to be totally incompetent, but who survives by being good at the political game and fulfilling a need. Truth be told, he's the right writer for the audience. Buyers of today's supercars are mostly vapid people who are buying for image, and Lieberman is pretty good at telling them what image each car portrays.
At some point in the last decade car enthusiasm stopped being a social thing for me. It divided itself into a few specific cliques and I didn't really like any of them or feel like my tastes were on their wavelength. Now it's a personal thing I do for myself, and I really couldn't give a crap that the big-single-turbo bros think a brown 3er is ugly or that Tucker's marks think enjoying my EV says something about my T level.
Jack, the fact that you were willing to subject yourself to the ravings of the Motor Trend social media comment sections in order to bring us this story is why I'll always be a subscriber.
I refuse to believe that deep down, Lieberman et al don't realize how bad they are, how poorly they're respected, and how little their chosen career "matters" to anyone else's life. Hell, I struggle with self-doubt in a career 10x as valuable to the public. To believe they are ignorant of those feelings would shake my faith in human nature too deeply to contemplate.
Every once in a while you run into someone who may not have the most talent, but they understand the GAME. They know how to make it pay. They know how to make it pay in ways that the rest of us never even thought about.
Lieberman annoys me to no end. In his own mind he is never wrong, yet never has anything substantive to say as a retort. He just says things like “what the fuck bill” or some stupid emoji implying he can’t be bothered to engage with the hoi polloi in his comments section. His complete meltdowns he experiences whilst trying to argue against some downsides to EV’s are at least entertaining from and outside perspective.
i don't know jack about auto-journalism but i do know a thing or two about quincy. q is a good arranger but he is a great hustler. everything that comes out of his mouth is part of a hustle and i don't believe a word of it. what he lacks is taste. everything including his michael jackson tracks are overdone. as to the fabs, it's true that their main talent was was composition but it was far from their only talent. yes, ringo doesn't write and he sings like a frog but he can actually play the drums. perfect rhythm and interesting tasteful fills without the bombast of solos.
He’s like a chef that can’t make a grilled cheese sandwich.
Seriously, wouldn’t the average person at least try to get better at their craft in their chosen field? It’s ridiculous that he gets to give opinions about a product he doesn’t understand.
I should probably apologize for digesting entire and well written articles to only respond with quip; but I’m quite glad to not be the only person detested by ‘Supercarblondie’...looking like some tarted up alien. To quote the kids, it’s pretty “cringe”.
I confess. I ushered Lieberman into existence by re-writing his prose for TTAC. And by re-writing I mean there were articles were there wasn’t a single sentence left unmodified. Not one. Guys I was desperate for content.
And then something bizarre happened. Johnny wrote a perfect article. Seriously. I forget the car but he used the phrase “like a tornado eating an hurricane.” Or some such nonsense. It really was good.
And then it was back to the Gallactica, metaphorically speaking. I lost track of Johnny, until I saw him review a car on YouTube.
I can’t imagine a piece of automotive “journalism” more antithetical to the TTAC ethos. There are entire French bakeries who couldn’t begin to match that puff piece. It made me sad.
As for JL’s lack of humility or self-awareness or anything approaching shame, same as it ever was.
But I’ll give him this much: Mr. Lieberman understood from the beginning that being successful in the field meant jettisoning all ethical considerations. He has proven that talent plays second fiddle to obsequiousness in a world where he who pays the piper calls the tune.
A few things:
0-Jonny wrote two articles for Motor Trend; one is the main review, and the other is the explanation for running into the T1 runoff. He is VERY proud of being the only American invited to drive the car, but he conveys in one (or both, can’t recall offhand) articles that he begged his way into the invitation. Supercar Blondie’s VMAX occurred as a passenger in the track only version of the car (which shares only the V12 and the headlights with the road car).
1-Jonny also “created” a video memorializing his time with the car. I watched all English language videos that hit YouTube when the embargo broke. His was dreadfully poor (and only 6 minutes long). Jonny didn’t fit into the Aston branded fire suits that the manufacturer brought along, so they let him perform his assessments in a t shirt. During his video, he can barely breathe at times as he coasts around the track while sweating profusely. MT’s crack video department relied heavily on the B roll footage that Aston provided the reviewers - presumably footage of Darren Turner hammering the car.
2-For a time, Aston relied heavily on “influencer” marketing, particularly the UK crowd (Shmee150, Mr. JWW, etc.). This launch appeared to stray from that formula, likely due to the car’s extreme nature. It is probably the least road worthy ultra high performance car since the Jaguar XJR 15.
3-I can recommend the Hagerty, Chris Harris, and CarWow videos (in that order). The BEST discussion of the car comes in an episode of the Top Gear Magazine podcast - it includes a conversation between Chris Harris and Ollie Marriage (another TG staffer) on the flight back to the UK from the launch event. They go in depth beyond what’s captured in the video and also compare the car to the Mercedes AMG One.
4-Henry Catchpole’s invitation was likely not predicated on his recent Hagerty affiliation, but rather on his own reputation; he just happens to make videos for Hagerty these days (since the demise of CNET’s Carfection channel).
5-Jonny confessed during a recent appearance on The Smoking Tire podcast that he had an unexpected $20K tax bill stemming from “sponsorship” for his Pikes Peak effort - whoops!
This tracks for "influencers" in lots of spaces. I know firearms pretty well. Every year at the SHOT show there is a media day at the range where various bloggers, writers, and social media personalities can come and shoot the various firearms and try out accessories companies hope to sell. I know several folks who work for various companies and it's always one of the worst experiences they have in the business. Imagine literally hundreds of Johnny Liebermans, every bit as vapid, entitled, and incompetent but now they're being handed lethal weapons that they proceed to handle with the sophistication and skill you'd expect of a particularly dim chimpanzee.
It's not just that they can't shoot, they can't even handle the weapons safely. Muzzle discipline sometimes has to be enforced by literally grabbing the gun and redirecting its aim. Corrections on safety go about as well as telling Johnny he maybe needs some training. "I'VE BEEN AROUND GUNS ALL MY LIFE! I'M A SAFE SHOOTER!!" like the person who is trying to keep them from endangering another human being's life is being the asshole for correcting the matter instead of the guy pointing a lethal weapon at another human being without cause being the fucking douche in the situation.
It's not that they're incapable of shame most of the time...they're simply incapable of processing any sort of ego dystonic feedback from any perspective, no matter how learned or well-intentioned it might be. I've learned that there are people who have no inner monologue...no voice in their head that represents their own consciousness with which they wrestle on a regular basis.
I imagine it's like that, only dialed up to 11.
What boggles my mind is that there is some sort of rich car nerd scene in LA that gladly accepts JL as a member; he’s a regular on the podcast with the zillionaire Seinfeld writer and a lawyer and apparently Seinfeld himself, and rubs elbows with Leno and Farrah, amongst others. The only conclusion I can come up with is that all of these men are as equally enthusiastic about quaffing their own farts as Jonny is. I don’t have any idea because I don’t consume any of their droll content, except Farah’s podcast to which I hate-listen on my commute when Rogan’s guests are boring.
I did laugh my ass off when Jonny informed Farah that somehow through accounting ineptitude he had to pay 5-figs of tax on his sponsorship revenue for his Slow Cayman Goes Up Big Hill boondoggle.
I don't give a flying fuck about JL. That's all I'll say about that.
But, I am saddened by what passes for Aston Martin nowadays. They were once purveyors of lousy but character filled cars. Bad cars but great experiences. They did nothing better then anyone else, but they were special. Now, they still do nothing better then anyone else, and they aren't special anymore. Aston hasn't produced a car in the last 20 years that wasn't been comprehensively, at dramatically lower prices, beaten by the Corvette of the day.
I once suggested to the Aston Martin Owners Club that Aston should dump everything they were doing and buy the IP and tooling for the C7 instead. Even though I'm sure they'd build it worse, and have better paint, great smelling leather and poorer reliability then what the boys and girls at Bowling Green produce, it would be far and away better then anything Aston could produce on their own. Oddly, that suggestion didn't go over too well.
I absolutely cannot read any car reviews, magazines, etc. anymore. Was it better when I thought the Matrix was real?
When I read Lieberman’s stuff I just can’t help wondering what made him go into *writing*, of all things, and think he could actually do it.
Every corner of every occupation has someone like Lieberman in it, who everyone knows to be totally incompetent, but who survives by being good at the political game and fulfilling a need. Truth be told, he's the right writer for the audience. Buyers of today's supercars are mostly vapid people who are buying for image, and Lieberman is pretty good at telling them what image each car portrays.
At some point in the last decade car enthusiasm stopped being a social thing for me. It divided itself into a few specific cliques and I didn't really like any of them or feel like my tastes were on their wavelength. Now it's a personal thing I do for myself, and I really couldn't give a crap that the big-single-turbo bros think a brown 3er is ugly or that Tucker's marks think enjoying my EV says something about my T level.
Motor Trend exists?? Next you'll be telling me they still print Car and Driver.
Jack, the fact that you were willing to subject yourself to the ravings of the Motor Trend social media comment sections in order to bring us this story is why I'll always be a subscriber.
I refuse to believe that deep down, Lieberman et al don't realize how bad they are, how poorly they're respected, and how little their chosen career "matters" to anyone else's life. Hell, I struggle with self-doubt in a career 10x as valuable to the public. To believe they are ignorant of those feelings would shake my faith in human nature too deeply to contemplate.
Every once in a while you run into someone who may not have the most talent, but they understand the GAME. They know how to make it pay. They know how to make it pay in ways that the rest of us never even thought about.
Lieberman annoys me to no end. In his own mind he is never wrong, yet never has anything substantive to say as a retort. He just says things like “what the fuck bill” or some stupid emoji implying he can’t be bothered to engage with the hoi polloi in his comments section. His complete meltdowns he experiences whilst trying to argue against some downsides to EV’s are at least entertaining from and outside perspective.
i don't know jack about auto-journalism but i do know a thing or two about quincy. q is a good arranger but he is a great hustler. everything that comes out of his mouth is part of a hustle and i don't believe a word of it. what he lacks is taste. everything including his michael jackson tracks are overdone. as to the fabs, it's true that their main talent was was composition but it was far from their only talent. yes, ringo doesn't write and he sings like a frog but he can actually play the drums. perfect rhythm and interesting tasteful fills without the bombast of solos.
He’s like a chef that can’t make a grilled cheese sandwich.
Seriously, wouldn’t the average person at least try to get better at their craft in their chosen field? It’s ridiculous that he gets to give opinions about a product he doesn’t understand.
I should probably apologize for digesting entire and well written articles to only respond with quip; but I’m quite glad to not be the only person detested by ‘Supercarblondie’...looking like some tarted up alien. To quote the kids, it’s pretty “cringe”.
Hm ;
I read the hyperlinked article .
What does Mr. Lieberman "manufacture" ? .
I'd be askeert to touch much less drive any vehicle that expen$ive .
Maybe he writes for the dufus' who understand they're never ever going to be anywhere near this stuff in person .
-Nate