Gearbox : Morgan +8 Speedster Road Test

Chris Lucas, with a little help from Matthew Harris, takes the  newest and one of the rarest parts of the Morgan Motor Company range out for a trial in it's home town of Malvern in Worcestershire. Morgan have been making cars here for 100 years, and to celebrate, they've created the Plus 8 Speedster, a £70,000 open topped British sportscar with a BMW V8 heart

Introducing Gearbox - Team Overdrive's take on the world of Road cars. We'll be bringing more road tests of all sorts of cars to this youtube channel in the very near future, so do subscribe to find out the latest.

Wales Rally GB Boss Andrew Coe talks to Overdrive

Wales Rally GB, the British round of the World Rally Championship moved from South to North Wales last year. Chief Executive Andrew Coe talks to Rosemary John about the event's plans for 2014, and beyond.

Land Rover Defender Challenge at Autosport International

If you think Land Rover Defender, you probably don't think rally car! Off Road racing experts Bowler Motorsport see it differently and have taken Solihull's finest and given it it's very own Rally Challenge. With a raft of technical innovations including an anti-flop gearstick, the Defender is sure to pack a punch on the rally stage. Rosemary John meets up with Jon Chester from Bowler to find out more.

Overdrive : Re-Launching in January 2014

It's been a bit quiet around here lately - too quiet. That could be a line from a film.

Things have not been idle in Overdrive towers however. We've been hard at work with a documentary on the amazing and inspiring Kartforce and throwing all our efforts into next year. We've already started to refresh our social media outputs with Twitter, Facebook and now Google+ pages, and our videos are coming out on our Youtube channel

Coming in January 2014

Chris with the Caterham 7 160

• Coverage from the Autosport International Show - this year with more action from the Live Action Arena and Autosolo
• Gearbox - Our look at Road Cars starting with the road car highlights from Autosport and a road test in the new Caterham 7 160 (which our presenter Chris loved!)
• Our first event - We're going Ice Karting! Watch this space for how to get involved in a very different karting experience
• A fresh new look - Still red and black, but the website will be getting a brand new look in January

Further ahead, we've got more news with our bi-weekly news bulletins which will be kicking off with the racing season in March and presented by Holly Rust. They'll include news and results from club and national motorsports, looking beyond the circuits and onto the rally stages, Autotests and all manner of clubman motorsports. There will also be more from Gearbox and we're working on 2014's features.

Until January then, we'll leave you with some highlights of the 2013 Autosport International Show.

Autosport International 2013 on Overdrive-uk.com

Autosport International 2013 is set to be just as popular as last year's show

It's that time of year again - our annual trip to Birmingham's glittering National Exhibition Centre for the now traditional kick off to the new motorsport year. As usual, we'll be taking our cameras along to bring you the best video features from the world of British Club and National motorsports. Whilst our regular presenter Rosemary John takes some time off due to injury, Chris Lucas takes over the reins and the microphone and will be catching up with some familiar faces and new innovations alike.

Highlights this year will include

• Ariel's new Atom Cup car and championship
• Karting action from the Johnny Herbert Celebrity Karting Challenge featuring Kart Force and Ben Collins
• BARC and BRSCC's plans for the new season
• Highlights from the Live Action Arena
• And some familiar faces from years gone by.

To keep up with our latest videos, keep watching this website - you may like to google+ or bookmark it - follow us on Twitter and Like us on Facebook. You can also subscribe to our Youtube Channel, or just hit the link marked Overdrive-TV up there on the top.

This is Overdrive!

Here are our videos from the 2013 show so far

Autosport International 2013 means Business

The British Motorsport Industry gathers to do business at Autosport International

With its health highlighted by new economic data compiled by the Motorsport Industry Association (MIA), the British motor racing community will again come together for Europe’s largest dedicated motorsport trade show, Autosport International at Birmingham’s NEC on 10-13 January 2013.

Released on Friday, the MIA’s 2011/2012 Motorsport Business Survey shows sales growth and increases in output, employment and research and development (R&D) investment within the sector.

It’s in contrast to a broader survey of manufacturing in the UK conducted by business lobbying organisation CBI, which reported muted expectations. The UK motorsport industry is a key contributor to the British economy, generating £6 billion in global sales annually, with the centrally-located Motorsport Valley home to over 3,500 companies and 40,000 jobs.

 Nearly 60 per cent of motorsport companies participating in the Motorsport Business Survey reported an increase in sales over the preceding financial year. Over ten per cent of those companies reported a rise of more than 50 per cent, despite the harsh economic climate. A sign of the growth and vitality of the sector, 56 per cent of companies reported increasing headcounts during the 2011/2012 financial year, while 17 per cent of motorsport engineering companies invested over 30 per cent of their turnover on R&D, well above the UK manufacturing average.

 The local industry’s biggest showcase and networking opportunity, over 700 companies exhibited at Autosport International 2012, with more than £800 million in business generated. With the 2012 trade audience of 28,500 including 5,100 decision makers from outside the UK, it also represents a major opportunity to network with international firms. Four-fifths of British motorsport businesses now export, with 22 per cent reporting more than half of their turnover generated by international sales.

 “Our report, the only one of its kind, shows that the world-beating UK motorsport industry is in rude health, with great future prospects,” said Chris Aylett, MIA Chief Executive. “We’re seeing a growing appreciation, across the globe, of our pre-eminence in the field of high performance engineering, and for the quick-turnaround solutions demanded by the worldwide motorsport industry.”

“The British motorsport community has proven to be incredibly resilient, as proven by the latest MIA data, and it remains a major player in the UK economy,” commented Autosport International Show Director Ian France. “We’re proud of the role Autosport International plays in that, bringing together trade leaders from across the UK and around the world. With over £800 million worth of business completed at the 2012 show, it’s another reminder of the strength of the industry.”

To be held on 10-13 January, Autosport International completes International Motorsport Business Week; an initiative to bring together the major players in the industry through a series of conferences, events and networking opportunities. With the opening two days dedicated to trade visitors, Autosport International tickets are available from £26, with discounts for group bookings. To register call +44 (0)845 218 6012, or visit www.autosportinternational.com

Watch our highlights of Autosport International 2012

MSA British Autotest championship : Round 1 highlights

Well, this is a bit embarrassing... it appears we've got some problems with Youtube and as a result the video we were going to show you isn't working. Watch this space and it'll be fixed. Honest.

Take a look behind the scenes

Seen our highlights programme from Autosport international yet? No? Well here it is again


Now, lots of people have been wondering what goes into making a programme like this, so here's a special view of the first 5 minutes. Watch closely and you can see the feeds from both cameras, where all the cuts are made, why we show alternative footage occasionally, and even if you're very sharp eyed, colour correction in progress...


Some facts, figures and answers to frequency asked questions.

• It takes a road crew of 4, and a post production crew of 2 an average of 14 days to complete a programme - All of whom have other jobs!
• The programme is funded by the crew themselves... We do, however, want to find some sponsors!
• Overdrive is shot simultaneously on two identical Sony HD Tapeless camcorders usually operated by Kevin McMullin (Director and Producer) and Hywel Jones - Typically one camera is mounted on a tripod, and the other is on a shoulder mount.
• Despite being made of carbon fibre, the tripods are some of the heaviest pieces of equipment carried with a combined weight of 20kg - the cameras weigh a mere 6kg (approx) each in comparison.
• 2 cars are needed to move the kit and crew from Overdrive's South Wales home to Birmingham's N.E.C. - It cost £32 in car parking charges alone. A larger support vehicle is being considered for when we actually get some sponsors!
• All the music in Overdrive is original, and is composed especially for the programme by Ulrich Wehner - however so Ulrich has an idea of timing and style a temporary music track is used, in this case, music by Moby and Status Quo. During production Ulrich doubles as the sound recordist.
• There are 5 different versions of the Overdrive theme. 3 of them are identical apart from their length, 1 omits the bed, and one is only 9 seconds long.
• None of the music - bar the action sequence - has a title per se : The theme in this case is called R.S.T TITLES 52 SECOND VERSION. The Action Sequence music is called "Overdriven". R.S.T. stands for "Race Sport Track" which was a working title for an early version of Overdrive (which didn't work)
• The slow motion shots in the action sequence are filmed like that rather than having the effect applied in post production. They are filmed at 50 Frames Per Second and played back at 25 FPS to give the slow motion effect.
• This programme is edited using Final Cut on a Mac - Specifically Final Cut Express 4- but it depends who is actually doing the editing. Kevin prefers Final Cut, and Iwan, the other editor, prefers Avid on a PC.
• For you technical types out there, Overdrive is filmed at 25 frames per second (or in other words, PAL) at a resolution of 1920x1080 using a progressive scan. This means that there are 45025 individual frames (or pictures) in the programme...
• Three microphones are used - Rosemary's handheld microphone and two short shotgun type microphones, one of which is a Rode NTG-1 mounted on a boom. The Boom extends to a length of 4 metres (13 Feet)
• The shotgun microphones are often seen in their furry coats - nicknamed "Dougal" by the crew after a certain shaggy dog. (Although they are more correctly referred to as a "Dead Cat"). For some reason, most people seem to want to stroke them...
• Each camcorder has a total of 128GB of memory (4x32GB cards) allowing for 6 hours of footage in total - however "only" 4 hours were filmed.
• It took 2 weeks to research and write the questions - And most of that was Rosemary's own work.
• 14 Cue cards were used to get all the questions for all the interviews. 3 of them were signed by famous drivers afterwards. Rosemary prefers to use cards or memory rather than an autocue. Which is just as well, as we don't have one.
• John Surtees was delighted to find out that we were from Wales, and Rosemary in particular from Pontypridd. It turns out he won his first race in Aberdare Park.
• The "Voice" is attached to David Malins, who you can see on screen for the first time here. David rarely travels to the location and records his lines after the edit has been completed
• There is a script, otherwise we wouldn't know how to start, end or link sections to each other... it's not always strictly adhered to.
• The interview subject's answers are also on the script to give an estimate for timing. Fairly obviously, we take the answer that they give rather than the one that's on the script!
• The Caterham and Ginetta interviews were added into the plan when we realised that both companies had developments from last year. The crew had approximately 2 minutes to prepare for each one.
• We did not prepare at all for being asked to interview a bear...
• More than 2000 people have watched the Caterham interview. We think that this could be down to the presence of the F1 car!
• The finished programme is 10.01GB in size, and took 3 days to upload. We really need a better internet connection!
• At the start you'll see Rosemary raise her hand into the air - this is to sync both cameras together afterwards. Look closer and you'll see that her cue card is blank!
• The start, finish, and interview with Ali Rushforth all take place on the Pirelli Stand.
• Ian Cook's interview took place after the show had closed on Saturday.
• It took 4 takes to film the interview with Alex Brundle on the Radical Stand... mostly due to people walking though the shot - Watch out for the "background jumper" during the Time Attack feature too.
• The font used in the Overdrive logo is the same one used by Porsche - although ours is italic. Sharp eyes will note a difference between the logo font on the video and that on the website - The website font is Bank Gothic, which has replaced "Porsche" to give a cleaner look. Future videos will use this variation.
• Loudly begging us to film your car is a sure fire way of ensuring that we won't.
• The Overdrive crew can conduct interviews in English, Welsh, German, Herefordian and to a certain extent French. To date, only English has been used.

I hope you find this brief look behind the scenes interesting; anything else you want to know? Please feel free to ask on the comments box below, or drop us an e-mail via the contact us page. Or follow us on Facebook and Twitter... Look forward to hearing your questions!

Looking for our videos?

The overdrive TV page which holds our programmes is currently unavailable due to maintainance, it'll re-appear shortly. In the meantime, you can still watch our programmes on Youtube at www.youtube.com/overdrivemotorsport - Thanks for your support!

Autosport International 2012 : Highlights

At last! Here's our 30 minute long round up of the best of Autosport International 2012! Enjoy...

Autosport International 2012 : Classic Sports Car Club

Continuing our videos from Autosport International 2012, here's Geoff Edwards from the Classic Sports Car Club talking to us about their series of races

Autosport International 2012 : 750 Motor Club

Viv Ayres from top organising club, the 750 Motor Club tells us their plans for 2012 and beyond

Autosport International 2012 : Radical Sportscars

We went to find out about Radical Sports Cars plans for 2012 and to see their SR3 sports car ... In the process we met Alex Brundle who spoke to us not only about the cars, but also about his season and plans for the future

Autosport International 2012 : Ginetta

Following up from last year, we find that Ginetta now have a body on their chassis that we saw last year. We also discover that they now have a rather quietly spoken mascot...

Autosport International 2012 : Pop Bang Colour

Continuing our series of interviews from Autosport International 2012, Rosemary meets artist Ian Cook - the man behind Pop Bang Colour - who uses some facinating car related techniques to paint his pictures.

Overdrive at Autosport International 2012 : Caterham Cars

It's that time again folks. We went off to the Autosport International Show at Birmingham's glittering NEC earlier this month, and we have been as usual finding out what's been going on in British Motorsport - We'll kick off our show coverage with a catch up with someone we met at last year's show. It's Andy Noble from Caterham Cars, talking about the new "greener" SP300R, New race series, Karting and F1


We're trying out some shorter videos - and we'll have a longer highlight's programme coming out soon! Please let us know what you think!