The popular car vlogger shares his secrets behind creating his own YouTube channel
His immersive driving videos, especially of his 911 GT3 and 718 Cayman GT4, attract hundreds of thousands of views. So, who better to tell us about the best places to enjoy the thrills of driving and what it takes to be an automotive YouTuber than Cars With Luke?
It’s a magical late autumn afternoon on the Susten Pass in Switzerland’s beautiful Bernese Alps and one man is having the time of his life enjoying its endless curves and hairpins. YouTuber Cars With Luke has just picked up his dream car – a Porsche 911 GT3 (type 992) – and is taking it for an emotional first drive.“I’m almost shaking,” he says to the cockpit-mounted camera focused on him. “No… I am shaking. This is wild!”YouTuber and Porsche fan, Cars With Luke, and his “dream” car – his 911 GT3Porsche passion by Cars With LukeLuke has picked up a huge following on his YouTube and Instagram channels, where fans are drawn in by his passion and considered respect for fast cars of all types – and especially his love for Porsche. There’s a simplicity to Luke’s films that is highly seductive. A man with a car on a great road, bringing you along on his Porsche road trip.And yet originally it was Switzerland’s ski slopes, rather than its roads and mountain passes, that first attracted Luke to this beautiful country. His story is one with a splash of serendipity and plenty of determination. After a succession of unfulfilling jobs back home, Luke moved to Switzerland ten years ago to be a snowboarding instructor. He spent three winter seasons doing that, falling in love with his new home and particularly its mountains and roads.“At the time YouTube was really starting to become a thing,” says Luke. “I used to watch all these car YouTubers and think ‘why aren’t they taking out these amazing cars to beautiful roads and locations rather than just driving them around cities like London’? I didn’t find them very interesting and it frustrated me.”Luke moved to Switzerland for its mountains – first its ski slopes, but these days it’s all about its magnificent roadsHow to start a YouTube channelLike many a young, car-obsessed person, Luke grew up watching iconic British TV show, Top Gear – “my bible”, as he describes it. It would inspire him to do sportscar videos, his way. Although, at first, there was a fundamental problem. Luke didn’t have any cars to drive, no money nor contacts either. So necessity kicked in. Luke got himself a job delivering vehicles for a rental company specialising in high-end cars. The money wasn’t great, but he would ask his boss if he could leave an hour earlier before each delivery, using that time to take photos and film of the cars.“I was very insecure and didn’t want to talk to the camera,” says Luke of his early efforts, having sold what he called his pride and joy – his mountain bike – in order to fund his first proper camera. “That was a heart-breaking day,” he adds.But it would prove to be a pivotal one. Luke decided that if he was really going to do this for a living, he wanted to be the best. And that meant professional-level production values, great editing skills and a focusing on things like the film’s colour grading.Luke drives sportscars of all types for his YouTube channel, but his series about his 718 Cayman GT4 has been one of the most popular“I wanted to trigger those emotions you get when watching a movie. I wanted my films to be viewed as a beautiful thing,” explains Luke, adding that one of his toughest tasks back then was overcoming his shyness in order to get hold of cars to drive.“It feels surreal to have my own 911 GT3 in my garage today because when I started no one wanted to give me a car,” says Luke. “I had to fight for everything, learn to hustle. I’d go up to people in Zurich with cool cars, knock on their windows and ask to film them. And they’d nearly always say no. It wasn’t in my character to do it, but I was prepared to go through these embarrassing moments rather than be in a dead-end job forever. Nowadays, people virtually throw their cars at me because they want to see them on my channel. But when you’re no one, nobody cares.”A couple of years into his filmmaking journey, Luke met some car owners in Zurich, including one with a 991 GT3 RS, who allowed him to drive it up the San Bernadino pass to film a POV-style video. At the time, he only had around 2000 YouTube subscribers. Within a month, the film had over a million views. He hasn’t looked back since.Luke at the wheel of his GT3: “I speak to subscribers and a lot of them say ‘I went and bought a GT3 because of your videos’”Cars With Luke’s favourite roadsThere are lots of ingredients to the success that Luke is achieving today. Hard work and high values are a given – then there’s the roads and the cars themselves. Within an hour or two of his home are some of the best driving roads in Europe.“It’s difficult to say what my favourite road is,” he says. “It’s like music. I listen to music based on my moods. I choose the road I want to drive depending on how I want to feel. But if someone wanted the best driving day ever, I’d say do a loop of the Susten Pass, the Furka Pass, then the Grimsel Pass – essentially, they’re all in a circle. The Furka Pass is the famous one from the James Bond movie [Goldfinger]. The Susten is one I often film on and it’s just breathtaking – it’s got waterfalls, tunnels and spectacular views. The Grimsel is totally different, with lots of grey rock. It has a whole different kind of feel, with a lake right at the top.”How to make a car YouTube film, Cars With Luke stylePerhaps the thing that stands out most in Luke’s films is how he’s able to relay that singular feeling that a great car gives you – and to other people.“I love it that a lot of the time they make other people smile,” says Luke of the cars he drives. “You’re driving this ball of happiness that helps you meet people. They come out and talk to you and that wouldn’t happen in a normal car. A car like my GT3 brings so much connection. Doing meet-ups are the best thing. It’s just positivity and happy people.”Milking the attention: Luke’s YouTube car videos have amassed nearly 300,000 subscribers and over 130,000 Instagram followers“A lot of people tell me that they watch my videos before they go to sleep as it relaxes them,” Luke adds. For all the power on display, there’s certainly a serenity about his work. As well as his calm POV commentary style, Luke uses ambient sounds a lot too – wind rushing by, birds chattering and, of course, the car itself. Luke says his aim is to make people feel like they’re in the car with him.“When I started, I thought you had to be ‘in your face’ to be a successful YouTuber,” he says. “I thought nobody would watch me as I’m boring. I still think I am but, in the end, being calm has turned into a positive. When someone watches a video of mine, they’re escaping for those 10 minutes. You’re up there in the mountains with me and everything’s fine again.”
When I’m driving, I have a clear head. I don’t want to call it a form of meditation, because that would be wrong, but it’s kind of therapeutic. I can’t think of anywhere else that I’d rather be than on a mountain pass with my GT3
An epic drive in a Porsche 911 GT3“When I’m driving, I have a clear head,” he continues. “You’re in the moment – which is quite hard for any of us to do these days. I don’t want to call it a form of meditation, because that would be wrong, but it’s kind of therapeutic. I can’t think of anywhere else that I’d rather be than on a mountain pass with my GT3.”Ah, the 911 GT3. Check his YouTube channel and you will see plenty of great Porsche content, including an epic drive in a bright yellow 918 Spyder, and lots featuring Luke’s redoubtable 718 Cayman GT4. But when his 911 GT3 arrived at the end of 2022, Luke had fulfilled a dream.“I’ve wanted a GT3 since the early days of my YouTube channel,” he says. “A GT3 was one of the first cars I filmed back when I was absolutely terrible. Until I got to drive one up a mountain pass, I couldn’t understand why people got so excited about them. But when I did, that was that. I now can’t think of a better car to drive on a mountain pass.”Luke’s happy place – and for his 911 GT3 too – is the iconic Susten Pass, hanging out with other car fans after a blast up the Swiss mountainThe feedback on that 911 GT3 First Drive video is now over 1,000 comments and counting. “I got all teary eyed… I love your videos, so cinematic and full of emotion,” says a fan. “You’re such an inspiration,” adds one poster. “I don’t think I’ve ever been this happy for someone I’ve never met,” says another. They are vivid proof of how Luke and his films connects with people.For great Porsche road trips, try the ROADS by Porsche appNext, Luke could be heading further afield for his films. Spain – relatively untouched by car YouTubers, he says – is a likely destination, as is Italy, a country whose passion for food, life and cars Luke shares. He mentions ROADS by Porsche, a free app that’s home to a burgeoning online community for those that love road trips.“I love how it’s real tips from local people who know the roads and the area,” he says. “I get asked every week about tips on where to drive in Switzerland and where to stop. You can Google it, but you just get answers for tourists. Nothing beats asking locals. The ROADS by Porsche app is essential when I drive somewhere else. It’s amazing that there’s a platform where you can connect with local drivers you can really trust, sharing these almost secret routes. Rather than wasting your time searching for roads, using the app means you can just go straight out there and drive.”And, as we’ve discovered, there’s no one who enjoys heading out and driving more than Luke.Watch CarsWithLuke’s emotional first drive in his new Porsche 911 GT3 here
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