‘Lewis Hamilton, the founder of BYD and me, a lot can happen in 30 years’

Thirty years ago, almost to the day, a trio of motor-mad males committed themselves to three very different car-related causes.

Back then, Lewis Hamilton was 10, a karting cadet, but big, brave and smart enough to persuade McLaren boss Ron Dennis to recruit him. Lew then morphed into the most successful F1 pilot ever. Enough said. 

At the same time, Wang Chuanfu, a young chemist/researcher who was tragically orphaned as a child, had even bigger, braver, smarter ideas as he founded and launched BYD, a company that just announced monster revenues of $107 billion (£83bn) in 2024. Miraculously, Wang has elevated the outfit into the third best-selling brand on the planet. How long before it overtakes Toyota and Volkswagen?

I happily assumed the role of chief columnist on Auto Express in early 1995. Now, some 1,530 weeks and 1,530 issues later, I’m still here, somewhat amazed that I haven’t missed a single week during that 30-year stretch.  

OK, I admit that my automotive aspirations back then were tame compared with those of Lewis and Wang. But this was, and still is, the gig that allows me to comment freely on what manufacturing companies are officially or unofficially up to; the best and worst cars they build; their wanted and unwanted technologies and trends; the changing face of motor shows; the good and bad folk of the car world… and much, much more.

I’ve attended hundreds of car launches and other events in scores of different countries on five continents. And, determined not to break my uninterrupted run, I’ve had to pen a few pieces in the unlikeliest locations. Scariest by far was a Moscow detention centre where I was banged up for the night due to what the Russians [not me] described as “visa irregularities”. Most surreal was a sleepless 24 hours in a one-moose ‘town’ called Eagle Plains (in Canada's perma-frosted northern Yukon), which boasts a population of eight people. Noisy heavy-duty engines in trucks parked outside my motel room ran all night to prevent the sub-zero Arctic temperatures from freezing the diesel.

The glamour (yeah, right) of international travel continued in the sat-nav-free deserts of Outer Mongolia. And while driving the gruelling Paris-Beijing Rally, being halted and stranded in my bruised and battered car at the remote Kazakhstan/China border, waiting days for China’s DVLA to swap my German number plates for local ones, was almost as bad as that detention centre. On a brighter note, I thank the custodians of Ernest Hemingway’s home in Cuba for letting me use it as my office for one very special day. Thanks, too, to the tiny independent island of the Naminara Republic, which keeps a safe distance between guests like me and the unpredictable North Koreans up the road.

So, for how much longer will I be writing motoring-related columns from all corners of Planet Car? Not for another 30 years, that’s for sure. But as long as Lewis keeps driving and Wang keeps running BYD, I’ll keep scribbling for Auto Express. Like I said, the three of us are committed to our chosen car-related causes.

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