Jonny Smith | |
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Born | |
Occupations | |
Television | Fifth Gear |
The Late Brake Show | |
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Website | https://thelatebrakeshow.com/ |
YouTube information | |
Channel | |
Subscribers | 683 thousand [1] (December 2024) |
Total views | 138 million [1] (December 2024) |
Jonathan Charles Smith (born 24 February 1979) is a British motoring journalist and television presenter. He was one of the presenters on Channel 5 motoring programme Fifth Gear and has since presented Mud, Sweat & Gears for BBC America and Motorheads for BBC Worldwide.
Smith first worked for a custom and vintage VW magazine, becoming the editor after three years. He went on to work for magazine publisher EMAP, where he wrote features for magazines such as Max Power , Car magazine, Revs and Classic Cars.
Smith appeared on Sky One's Movies' Greatest Cars in 2005, where he was noticed by North One Television, producers of Fifth Gear , and subsequently asked to attend a screen test. [2] Smith hosted his own engineering-based documentary television series, Industrial Junkie . [3] In March 2014, he began filming a series with Tom Ford called Mud, Sweat & Gears : this was broadcast on BBC America during February and March 2015.
Smith was a presenter of the web TV and podcast show Fully Charged until January 2020. [4] [5] He now creates videos for his YouTube channel, The Late Brake Show, which he describes as "a broad church of automotive appreciation", [6] and presents the Smith and Sniff podcast with Richard Porter. [7] [8]
Despite no longer having a televisual career, Smith remains a motoring journalist, enjoying classic and custom cars as a hobby. Having owned over 130 cars, he built a classic electric hot rod called 'Jonny's Flux Capacitor' [9] which for a time claimed to be the world's quickest street legal EV. His other cars include a '68 Dodge Charger, a modified, re-engined, Honda VTEC powered Austin Allegro, a 1964 Chevrolet Impala SS, a Chevrolet Volt plug-in hybrid and a 1967 Volkswagen Beetle (his first car, owned since he took his driving test at 17). [10] [11]
Timothy Richard "Tiff" Needell is a British racing driver and television presenter. He is a presenter of Lovecars, and formerly served as co-presenter of Top Gear and Fifth Gear.
James Daniel May is an English television presenter and journalist. He is best known as a co-presenter, alongside Jeremy Clarkson and Richard Hammond, of the motoring programme Top Gear from 2003 until 2015 and the television series The Grand Tour for Amazon Prime Video from 2016 to 2024. He also served as a director of the production company W. Chump & Sons.
Jason Andrew Dawe is an English journalist and television presenter. Brought up in Cornwall, Dawe worked at car dealerships and as a motoring industry trainer; he had been a long-time columnist of the motoring section of The Sunday Times. He also presented the first series of the rebooted Top Gear on BBC Two alongside Jeremy Clarkson and Richard Hammond before being replaced by James May from the next series of the show onwards.
Quentin Willson is an English television presenter and producer, motoring journalist, author and former car dealer. He was a presenter of the motoring programmes Britain's Worst Driver, Fifth Gear, and the original incarnation of Top Gear.
Fifth Gear is a British motoring television magazine series which has been broadcast since 2002. Originally shown on Channel 5 from 2002 to 2011, it began as a continuation of the original version of the BBC show Top Gear, which ran from 1977 until being cancelled in 2001. It moved to the Discovery Channel in 2012, then in 2015 to History; since 2018 it has been broadcast on Quest. The show is currently presented by Vicki Butler-Henderson and Jason Plato, with Rory Reid, Grace Webb and Jimmy de Ville featuring in some episodes. Its former presenters include Quentin Willson, Adrian Simpson, Jonny Smith, former racing driver Tiff Needell and Car SOS host Tim Shaw.
Timothy Jason Plato is a British racing driver who last competed in the British Touring Car Championship (BTCC) for BTC Racing. He has twice been BTCC Champion, in 2001 for Vauxhall and 2010 for Silverline Chevrolet. He has finished in the top 3 in the Championship 12 times and holds the record for the most overall race wins in the BTCC. He has also served as a presenter on the motoring television series Fifth Gear since 2004.
The Enfield 8000 is a two-seater battery-electric city car, introduced in 1973 and developed in the United Kingdom by Isle of Wight company Enfield Automotive, owned by Greek millionaire Giannis Goulandris. The car was designed by a group of Greek and British engineers headed by Constantine Adraktas with John Ackroyd as project designer, who later went on to the Thrust 2 project. The prototypes and initial production were built at the Somerton Works in Northwood, near Cowes.
Driven is a motoring television programme launched by Channel 4 in 1998 as a rival to the successful and long-running BBC series Top Gear. It last aired new episodes in 2002.
Top Gear is a British motoring magazine programme created by the BBC that aired on BBC Two between 22 April 1977 and 17 December 2001. The programme focused on a range of motoring topics, the most common being car reviews, road safety and consumer advice. Originally presented by Angela Rippon and Tom Coyne, the show saw a range of different presenters and reporters front the programme's half-hourly slots, including Noel Edmonds, Jeremy Clarkson, Tiff Needell, William Woollard and Quentin Willson. The programme proved popular during the late 80s and early 90s, and launched a number of spin-offs, including its own magazine entitled Top Gear Magazine.
Tom Ford is a British motoring journalist and television presenter. He was the co-host of Five motoring television series Fifth Gear from 2002 until 2009. In 2017, he began presenting Top Gear America for BBC America.
Edward John China is an English television presenter, mechanic, motor specialist and inventor, best known as being presenter and mechanic on Discovery Channel's television show Wheeler Dealers. He has also appeared on Top Gear, Auto Trader, Scrapheap Challenge and Fifth Gear.
Top Gear Australia is an Australian motoring reality television series, based on the British BBC series Top Gear. The programme first premiered on SBS One on 29 September 2008. A second season was ordered following the high ratings for the premiere episode and positive comments from advertisers, and the second season began broadcasting from 11 May 2009. After acquiring the rights to broadcast the UK version in 2009, the Nine Network started airing their own version of Top Gear Australia in September 2010. Top Gear Australia returned for a fourth season in 2011. The show was cancelled on 28 April 2012 due to declining ratings. An eight part series returned in 2024 on Paramount+ with new hosts.
Series 15 of Top Gear, a British motoring magazine and factual television programme, was broadcast in the United Kingdom on BBC Two and BBC HD during 2010, consisting of six episodes that were aired between 27 June and 1 August; the new series was promoted with a special trailer that made use of a clip published on YouTube. This series saw the replacement of the Chevrolet Lacetti by the Kia Cee'd as the Reasonably Priced Car.
Fully Charged is a YouTube channel, podcast, website, and live event focusing on electric vehicles and renewable energy founded by writer, broadcaster and actor Robert Llewellyn. Llewellyn would later become Joint CEO of Fully Charged with Dan Caesar and Caesar also presents many of the episodes of the show. They are both joined by many regular presenters along with guest presenters from many different countries. The channel has covered a wide range of topics around electric vehicles including electric cars, electric bikes, electric aircraft, and electric vehicle charging infrastructure. Fully Charged also covers a wide range of renewable energy topics including solar power, wind power, UK energy policy, cycling infrastructure, air pollution and air pollution monitoring.
Series 16 of Top Gear, a British motoring magazine and factual television programme, was broadcast in the United Kingdom on BBC Two during 2011, consisting of six episodes that were aired between 23 January and 27 February. Following the previous series, the BBC discontinued their involvement with Ben Collins on the programme, after he breached an agreement in his contract that forbid him disclosing his role as "The Stig" with the publication of his autobiography, The Man in the White Suit, in August 2010. His departure led to his replacement by a new driver by the beginning of the first episode.
Victoria Jemma Butler-Henderson is a British racing driver, former presenter of Top Gear and current presenter of Fifth Gear.
Mud, Sweat & Gears is a reality television series that premiered on 26 January 2015 on BBC America in the U.S. and BBC Brit internationally. The hosts, Tom Ford and Jonny Smith, and two teams of two car enthusiasts have a day to perform car stunts in California.
Top Gear is a British automotive magazine and currently inactive motoring-themed entertainment television programme. It is a revival devised by Jeremy Clarkson and Andy Wilman of the 1977–2001 show of the same name for the BBC, and premiered on 20 October 2002. The programme focuses on the examination and reviewing of motor vehicles, primarily cars, though this was expanded upon after the broadcast of its earlier series to incorporate films featuring motoring-based challenges, special races, timed laps of notable cars, and celebrity timed laps on a course specially-designed for the relaunched programme. The programme drew acclaim for its visual and presentation style since its launch, which focused on being generally entertaining to viewers, as well as criticism over the controversial nature of its content. The show was also praised for its occasionally controversial humour and lore existing in not just the automotive community but in the form of internet memes and jokes. The programme was aired on BBC Two until it was moved to BBC One for its twenty-ninth series in 2020.
Rory Reid is an English television presenter and journalist. He specialises in motoring and technology and is known for hosting Top Gear, Extra Gear, Gadget Geeks and several web series. Since 2019 he has served as Director of YouTube content at Auto Trader, where he also presents on the channel. Since 2021 he presents Fifth Gear Recharged on Discovery+ and Quest. He has been editor-in-chief for the website Recombu and has worked on BBC Radio 5 Live's Saturday Edition as a technology journalist.
Magalie Debellis is an artist and industrial designer who works for General Motors as the design director of Corvette, Performance, Cars, and Crossovers exteriors at Chevrolet; previously, as the manager of Cadillac Advanced Design, she led the teams responsible for the styling of the Cadillac Lyriq and Celestiq.