Watching YouTube a few years ago, I'd watch car Channels such as Seen Through Glass, Shmee150, MrJWW, Supercars of London, MightyCarMods amongst others and as many of us wannabees do, we think "That looks fun, I'd love to have a go" and why shouldn't I? I had the camera equipment, I had some editing software but there was one thing I lacked, confidence. This would be made even worse when in public spaces because holding a camera up and pointing it at my face is a seriously unnatural thing for me to do, being massively introverted and camera shy also really didn't help things.
2016:
I decided to have a go at filming anyway so when I went to Goodwood Festival of Speed in 2016, I picked up my camera and began recording. I didn't speak on camera, I just pointed it at some exhibits and then when the day was done and I was at home, I put some copyright free music on the footage and then uploaded it to YouTube. That video has been lost to time as it wasn't very good and I've also changed editing software so the file is no longer editable as a current form. I might try and make it work from the remaining footage I have for a future "Rewind" type video using a variety of skill and dark magic, though editing and uploading a video from an event that was 5 years ago now doesn't make a whole lot of sense, especially as lots of higher profile people than myself have much better videos of the event. A highlight from the video was I think that at the time, it was the first video to give even a glimpse of what being in the cockpit of an F1 car with the HALO safety device would look like visually as it was being shown off at Festival of Speed 2016 but with a lot of security as it wasn't certified safe to use at that point and it was still in competition with the Aeroscreen (used now in Indycar) to get used in Formula 1. Of course, now it's been on F1 cars for a few years, you have on board views, helmet cams and if you play games such the Official Formula 1 game by Codemasters or Assetto Corsa, you can get an even better idea of what it's like, it's even better in VR on Assetto Corsa on PC.
2018:
I enjoyed filming FOS 2016, it gave me a sense of what it was like to be those YouTube idols I looked up to. It sort of opened the gateway and I wanted to pursue it further. After a dead year of no filming in 2017, In 2018, I decided to be a bit more proactive with the camera and film some events, the Wilton Wake Up breakfast meets being the most prominent along with footage from the Thruxton 50th Anniversary celebrations and once again, Goodwood Festival of Speed though this time was different. This time I appeared and spoke on camera.
I wasn't confident enough to edit and upload the footage of me talking to YouTube though so though these videos were waiting on my Hard Drive, they didn't see the light of day. It was exactly the same for the next year.
2019:
I've often spoken about the Mini on the channel and how it was my favourite car of all time and it was the dream so on and so forth. 2019 was the year that dream came true and in March, I had a Mini of my very own. A blue Mini City 998cc that was completely stock (apart from electronic ignition for convenience). This Mini would go on to be known as Millie the Mini City. Why Millie? I'm not quite sure, I guess it just fitted. As soon as I had Millie sat on the driveway, I knew I wanted to take her to events and so in May, I took her to Dudley for the British Mini Club's Mini Day at Himley Hall, the first all Mini show i'd been to. Whilst in and around the area I also went to Bridgnorth, home of the UK's steepest Funicular Railway, the Wyre Forest and I had a walk along the Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal. On all these occasions, the camera was with me but again, I didn't edit the footage nor upload it online. I still didn't have that confidence yet. Sigh.
2020:
As Ferrari fans say year in, year out, "This is our year!". Well, 2020 very much was for my footage at least. We all know by now 2020 was a crazy year and I lost my job in the craziness as it closed for good.
As the world was going to pot with the words, Lockdown, Furlough and Covid 19 entering everyone's vocabularies along with the phrases, 2 Metres Social Distancing, Hands Face Space as well as clapping on a Thursday night for the NHS. Boredom was setting in and arguably a bit of the big sad. I don't like sitting around doing nothing, I like doing something, anything. I started watching YouTube a lot more frequently, maybe it's because it felt like a way of connecting with other real people in a mad world and maybe some of those people were in a similar situation to me. One channel I watched frequently was Miller Corner and one day, he announced a Virtual Car Meet. The idea being you film your car for two minutes or less and send in the footage, this would then be compiled with other people's footage and uploaded as a roughly 15-20 minute video with Joe Miller doing the interval chat introducing the video and next person with their car. It was a massively successful idea as there ended up being quite a few Virtual Car Meet videos in the end. Upon hearing this announcement for the first meet, I decided i'd have a go at it, why not? Didn't kill me last time I filmed myself. I recorded a video of my rare Renault Mégane Classic for Joe's video, I figured that there would be a few other Minis in the video and I didn't think there'd be a huge amount of interest in a Fiat Panda (boy was I wrong about that one...) so the Mégane was chosen for variety. I sent the footage in and then waited. A few days later, the video went live and there was little old me standing in front of my green saloon, not really sure what to say but giving it a go anyway. It reached the end of the video and Joe said some complimentary things about the car and mentioned to his subscribers to follow my channel, "Pups on Cars".... Wait, hang on. That doesn't sound right...
That was the name I was originally going to go with for the channel, my Goodwood Festival of Speed 2016 video had a cartoon dog icon I'd drawn up one lunch in college and sort of stuck with it for uploading to YouTube to try and maybe bring that back. I decided though a day or two before Miller Corner's video went live to change to something else, something a little more personal that explained what the channel was rather than just "Dog icon because I like dogs" (to be fair, why wouldn't you? Dogs are awesome!). I eventually went with Wulls Wheels. Wulls was my nickname in my friendship circle because there was another Jake in the group so it was just easier to go off of nicknames. I am Scottish born, my last name is Bill, Bill is another way of saying Will or William, William in Scottish can be Wullie hence a shortened version, Wulls. The Renault, Fiat and Mini were and still are Wulls Wheels.
Anyway, Joe mentioned to follow "Pups on Cars" (Which was now Wulls Wheels... Sorry Joe!), he had linked to my channel in the description and as it was just a name change, the link wasn't affected but hindsight tells me it was probably a bit confusing at the time.
Amazingly to me, a few of Miller Corner's Subscribers actually did start subscribing to the channel. I quite liked filming the Mégane for the Virtual Car Meet and I wanted to do more of it so I filmed a video in front of Millie the Mini basically saying Hi and Welcome, here's what you can expect on this channel, or should that be "'Allo everyone and welcome to Wulls Wheels!", I'm not sure why I went with that as an intro, I'm not cockney.
The channel sort of kicked off from there really. My first video was finding a coolant leak on my Mégane using some coolant dye and a UV torch, followed a week later by changing a coolant hose on the Mini, and then there's my most popular video to date. 'Out with the Old, In with the New - Fiat Panda Badge Replacement'. Yes, really. I'm as surprised as you are. It wasn't the greatest video in the world and the audio cut out towards the end as my wireless microphone ran out of battery due to someone forgetting to charge it the night before (oops) but it served as an idea of what the channel was about.
I started Wulls Wheels for a couple of reasons in 2020. It acted as a bit of a diary of modifications, updates and upgrades I made to my Renault Mégane Classic, Fiat Panda 100HP and Rover Mini City but also and I think most importantly to me, it helped keep the blues and boredom at bay that were slowly manifesting their way into my life in Lockdown Britain. I have always loved cars and pretty much anything that is self propelled. I'm also often fascinated by the way videos are produced and edited so the two go together like rama lama lama ka dinga da dinga dong when it comes to YouTube for me at least.
Oh! and remember those videos from 2018 and 19 I did nothing with? They got their own feature in a series I named 'July Rewind'. For one full month, I'd upload a video three days a week. Two of those being previously unaired videos and one being a fresh, brand new out of the box piece of content. Very Nice.
As 2020 went on and we gradually left the sanctity of our homes to go out and mingle, I started going to car shows, there I began doing the Show Reports and a few vehicle walkarounds which I think opened up the channel to new audiences. The walkarounds lead to Reviews and many of them have done massively well on the channel.
2021:
This carried on from where 2020 left off. It has been the biggest year yet for the channel with there being a show somewhere in the UK almost every weekend from May through to October with a few others dotted around in November and December on a less frequent basis.
I've been recognised several times this year at shows, most notably Festival Italia and the Isle of Wight Mini Adventure which was slightly weird to me as someone who's always looked into YouTube rather than outside of it but I love that the community is gradually building.
At times, my social media interactions, especially in 2021 could have been better. I could've been quicker at responding to comments on videos and updating my Twitter, Facebook and Instagram when a new video is live and ready to watch on the channel. Going forwards, I'll have to be on top of it for notifying when these Blog posts go live too!
Nobody's perfect but we don't grow without reflecting on the positives and negatives and seeing how we can better ourselves for the future.
2022 Onwards:
I guess this is goodbye. Not forever. There's so much left to do! No. Just goodbye as Wulls Wheels. It's something I've been mulling over for a while.
Since the lockdowns ended, I have been massively active in going to shows wherever I can and if I haven't been at a show somewhere, likelihood is I've had a review scheduled in or a walkaround and there hasn't been a massive amount of time to focus on the little things I'd like to do to improve the fleet. As an example, I'd like to get the USB and 12V socket working in the Mini again after it stopped working on the Isle of Wight Mini Adventure weekend and I'd like to film the repair because it could potentially make an interesting video and there's a small chance it might help someone with a similar problem. The amount of people who've commented their appreciation of the Panda Badge replacement video staggers me, even now as a still relatively small channel. Filming takes time, filming a job on a car often takes several times longer when you involve camera equipment as you end up moving the tripod then realising "oh wait, this tripod is too big, I'll get the gorillapod, oh, the camera is now too big, get the action camera, change over the microphone to the new camera, is it recording? Is the Microphone on? Oh hang on, not much light here, a torch or ring light is needed" and so on. Sure it might take 5 minutes to do all that but that's 5 minutes more to do a job that would potentially take 2 without cameras involved. I don't make videos because it's easy, I make them because I enjoy it. Wulls Wheels will still stick around on the channel as a segment dedicated and focused on the Mégane, Panda and Mini with their updates, modifications and upgrades as well as any future vehicles that may grace the driveway, potentially as extended fleet members. After all, that's how it began. A channel about Wull's Wheels.
Looking forward too, I have had support from both MG Motor UK and SsangYong GB who have both supplied vehicles for the channel to review.
The channel may be getting a bit of a soft reboot with a few extra faces and a new name.
but at its core, it will always remain the same. This is just another step in life's journey.
I've met some great people in person through the powers of YouTube and Social Media in the last year or so, some well known YouTube figures include; Joseph from Lloyd Vehicle Consulting, Ian from Team Ballylough Classics, Kevin from The Gentlemen's Motor Racing Team, Amber from Driven 247, Ben and Annabel from Planet Auto, James from The Rubbish Mechanic, Mark from Mark on Motoring, Lewis from Mackland's Motors, Josh from Maverick Motors, Christopher from Totally EV, Chris from Retro and Rusty, Richard Macintyre, Nico from Driving with Nico, Alex Toon from Classic Mini Details, Mark Draper of Classic Mini Workshop, Matt from MiniMattTV, Ian Seabrook of HubNut, Miss HubNut and Jonny Smith of The Late Brake Show. I also had an interview online with Daniel from Daniel Drives for his Piston Podcast. I'd like to send out a special thanks to the MG Young Drivers Club for welcoming me and Millie to their stand at the BMC and Leyland Show, even if Millie isn't an MG.... Finally there's Keith and the team at Gilk's Garage Cafe in Kineton, Warwickshire.
If you haven't already, check these people out because if you like the content I make, you'll probably like them all too!
This is just a sample of the people I have met this year are many more I would like to meet in 2022 and beyond!
Thank you to anyone who has followed the channel since it began, liked a video, left a comment, subscribed, followed me on my socials and to all those that have come up and spoken to me at events.
Your support means the world
2021 Has been a huge year for the channel and 2022 is looking to be an even bigger adventure. I'm ready for it. Are you?
Stay Tuned for more #CarBasedContent.
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