Watching Nick Ponting’s debut on automobile adventure show Lovecars: On the Road, you might be surprised to discover that he has had no formal presenting training at all. Such is his easy, charismatic style on the Amazon Prime series, which launched in February this year, it is difficult to believe that the only experience he had of being in front of camera prior to that was via a handful of videos on his YouTube channel.
Nick’s love of motorsport began when he started on the karting circuit aged nine. After gaining his licence when he was 14, he moved on to racing cars, including Formula BMWs and Fords, only stopping when it became too expensive to pursue. At 18, he began working as an estate agent and now runs his own successful conveyancing firm, but his enthusiasm for cars never left him.
In 2012, at the age of 21, Nick broke the UK electric land speed record, reaching 151mph in Nemesis, a modified Lotus Exige owned by the founder of electric energy company Ecotricity, Dale Vince.
“It was at a time when you couldn’t really buy a decent electric car,” he says. “Vince wanted to demonstrate that you could have one that looked cool and went fast, so he built one. He didn’t have a licence to race it himself, so he asked me if I wanted to. Of course I did!”
Several years later, Nick approached lightweight sports car manufacturers Caterham Cars, founded in Caterham in 1973, suggesting he reviewed one of their cars.
“It just started with an idea. I watched Top Gear and Grand Tour and thought ‘I’d love to have a go at that’, so I decided to see if I could do it myself.
Every manufacturer has a range of press cars which programmes like Top Gear, and magazines such as Autocar, use for their reviews. I contacted Caterham, never expecting to hear back from them, as I hadn’t had any filming experience, but they liked my idea of a video review and agreed to lend me the Caterham 360R. My brother knew Elliott and suggested I contact him to help me make the video, and it went from there.”
Elliott is Elliott Withers, a director whom Nick collaborated with on a further five car review videos for his YouTube channel, and who is now also one of the directors on On the Road.
A natural on screen, Nick’s confident presentation, along with Elliott’s engaging direction went down well with Caterham Cars, who asked him if he’d like to review the Caterham 420R as well. He then sent both videos to Porsche, who loved them: over the next couple of years he and Elliott created three reviews for the company, including one of Nick’s dream car, the 911. The final review on his channel features an Aston Martin DB11.
Nick and Elliott’s efforts were soon spotted by Paul Woodman, founder of specialist automotive-focused media and production company Lovecars.
“Paul got in touch through social media,” says Nick. “He said he really liked how our videos were put together, and invited us to film for Lovecars’ YouTube channel, which has got 249,000 subscribers. One thing led to another and before we knew it we were sitting round a table planning series two of On the Road!”
Formed in 2011, Lovecars’ mission is ‘to create the most entertaining, unique and engaging automotive content’, which it does on YouTube and its social media pages, as well as through Lovecars: On the Road. Series one broadcast on ITV in 2020, before moving to Prime in 2024. Hosted by Paul and British motorsport legend Tiff Needell, it features regular presenters Ben Collins (better known as the Stig from Top Gear) and racing driver Vicky Piria, and, from series two, Nick.
“My favourite moment was probably filming with Ben, with me in the Lamborghini Urus and him driving a Bentley Bentayga. We went out on the road, as well as the race track, which was great.
I also drove an electric Renault in Marbella, and taking the Ford Ranger Raptor offroad in Barcelona, up and down some huge inclines, was brilliant. In episode three there’s a Caterham Cars feature with Paul, who has been involved with them for a while. I wasn’t in that one, but the sequence shows just how much fun the Caterhams are to drive.”
As for the future? Well, April 2024 is going to be a busy month for Nick. Not only is he running the marathon in aid of Sue Ryder, but series three of Lovecars: On the Road also goes into production. He is looking forward to seeing the team’s new ideas come to life:
“We may not have the same sort of budget as Top Gear, but we will be featuring as many cars as we can, and going to as many countries as possible: we’ve got a lot of cool things planned!”
Both series of Lovecars: On the Road are available on Amazon Prime now.
