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Young writers

At The Intercooler, it’s important to us that we do what we can to encourage the next generation of automotive writers. We recognise that none of our established contributors would have got to where they are today without plenty of help along the way.

We regularly publish articles from young or aspiring writers – and in 2021 we ran our Young Writer Competition for the first time. Our young writers are paid a fair fee for their work and will get to see their writing published alongside that of the most highly regarded car journalists working today.

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Stories by Young writers

How to replace Top Gear

Our young writer’s manifesto for a new generation of car fans. Daniel Forster on how to keep people of his age interested in cars

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The Human Machine Interface

When was the HMI’s golden age, wonders our young writer? It’s not now, for sure. Daniel Forster on how it got good and why it’s not any more

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My first V8

Brought up on turbo fours, what would our new young writer make of a 1960s V8? Daniel Forster reports from behind an enormous wheel

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Stories by Young writers

Ford’s F1 comeback

When Ford returns to F1 for the 2026 season, it will do so while standing on the shoulders of giants. Hamir Thapar recalls the moment it all began

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Paddle up

Ferrari was first to put paddles in both Formula 1 and road cars. Our young writer Hamir Thapar investigates a little known tale of Scuderia history

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The end of Group B

The 1986 World Rally Championship was marred by tragedy and, says Hamir Thapar, its consequences would change the sport forever

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The 400 club

How a renegade Le Mans prototype helped create the 407km/h Bugatti Veyron, settling a decades-old score in the process. By Hamir Thapar

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The original muscle car

The Pontiac GTO may have created North America’s most coveted class of car, but it didn’t live long enough to reap the rewards, says Hamir Thapar

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Last chance saloon

Whatever you made of the outcome of the 2021 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, surely no one would deny it was the most exciting finale of F1’s turbo-hybrid era...

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The original GT-R

To call the Nissan Skyline GT-R a ‘motoring icon’ would be a considerable understatement. A technological tour de force if ever there were one, it has lit the automotive touch...

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Problem child

You’re perched on the pit wall at Spa-Francorchamps, neck craned to the left, peering down at the famed Bus Stop chicane. The faintest chirp of tyre squeal can be heard for a moment...

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Champ or chump?

Interlagos, November 25th, 2012. As the pack exits turn four, our man is facing the wrong way. Three corners ago he was champion elect: now nothing less than a Herculean...

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Solberg versus the Welsh forests

As the penultimate stage loomed before him, the champion’s title aspirations appeared to be on life support. Victory last time out in Japan may have provided some much-needed respite...

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Stories by Young writers

The story of the 2CV

From its obsession with the single-spoke steering wheel to the production of the C3 Pluriel – which was simultaneously a hatchback and a pick-up truck – defying convention...

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Too little, too late

In 1967, Ford of Europe’s Essex-based competition department struck gold when it transplanted the Lotus Cortina’s twin-cam engine into a stiffened Escort chassis...

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The Japanese Jaguar

Does one particular car come to mind when you consider the intersection of Japanese ingenuity and Britain’s storied automotive industry? Perhaps the McLaren MP4/4...

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Zero to hero

Minoru Hayashi had a dream. Afflicted with what he called 'a serious car-building illness’, he wanted to establish a new Japanese car company. In 1965, aged just 19...

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Stories by Young writers

Teenage kicks

Buying a new car as an 18-year-old. Does this call for a trip to the local Vauxhall dealer? A used car supermarket, perhaps? Well, for me, it was a dash over the English Channel...

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My classic car education

Back in 2010, when I was a giddy young enthusiast starting high school, I'd pass by a small used car dealership on my way. It was always worth peeking through the gates...

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