Gez Medinger
Journalist
Most six-year-olds of a nerdy inclination memorise dinosaur names or song lyrics. Not this one. In the mid-1980s, Gez sneaked up to the attic to rifle through his dad’s discarded car magazines, memorising the top speeds of every new car on sale. Least cool party trick ever: he can still recall most of them.
A masters in Engineering was intended to steer Gez into automotive design, but a phobia of second order differential equations instead sent him headlong into a career telling stories; as a film and documentary maker he’s travelled all over the world chasing fast cars doing mad things.
Highlights have included hunting Rambo Lambos in Thailand (turns out filling stations are the best place to find an LM002), top secret trips to Weissach to get senses forcibly recalibrated by GT product test drivers, and a year in Detroit embedded with the Ford engineering and comms teams as they developed the Blue Oval’s first all-electric vehicle.
His current car collection includes such follies as a DeLorean and an early S1 Elise, as well as a last of the line Evora for good measure. And because none of those can tow a pair of old Ducatis up to Donington Park, there’s a Volvo estate too.
First car:
A Volvo 360GLS, a hand me down I was rather pleased with, given its rear-wheel drive nature and thumping 2-litre engine
Dream car:
Can I have three? Walter Wolf Countach #3 in dark blue. Ferrari 512BB in the black/red two tone. Vector W8 in black. Turns out certain dramatic shapes really do imprint on your brain in childhood
Fondest driving memory:
All night drives down to the Alps on deserted wintry autoroutes, flat out in old Audi estates. On one particular occasion I found myself in an impromptu convoy with a Ferrari 412 being driven as God intended. Turns out they look rather better at full chat
"There is a capricious kind of alchemy in the creation of an automobile. When it goes right, it can create jaw-dropping expressions of engineering brilliance. And when it goes wrong, it can create the cars I really love. 'Imperfection is beauty, madness is genius and it’s better to be absolutely ridiculous than absolutely boring.' – Marilyn Monroe, proving she had exactly the same taste in cars I do"
