Jonny Smith
Presenter
Behind the hectic hair and serious sideburns is a 30-year old motoring journalist with over a decade’s experience. Originally a Somerset lad, Jonny puts his motoring obsession down to his father who could never afford a new car. Weekends were spent clambering through rural scrap yards looking for parts to keep his old man’s Hillman Avenger 1600 Super estate alive.
Jonny’s first job was working for a custom and vintage Volkswagen magazine (aircooled VWs are his first love) in Cheshire where he worked up to editorship in three years. He then migrated to Emap publishing in London and then Peterborough where he worked as an award winning Features Editor on tuning magazines Revs and Max Power. A stint publishing literature for car manufacturers, Watches of Switzerland, British Super Bike, British Touring Car and World Superbike saw Jonny involved with everything from driving the first ever Range Rover with its designer Spen King, to driving a Saab convertible on a frozen lake in the Arctic Circle.
When not filming for Fifth Gear Jonny continues to feature write for international magazines, papers and websites including the Sunday Times, Car, Motor, Pistonheads.com, Zoo, Classic American and Max Power.
Jonny’s garage is as busy as a taxi rank. In one corner languishes his first car which he refuses to part with – a 1967 Volkswagen Beetle 1500 deluxe. It will one day be restored, but not before his four-years-and-counting 1964 Chevrolet Impala SS lowrider project is finished. Until recently his daily driven cars were a Jaguar XF diesel and a multi-coloured Mercedes W123 200T (bought for a penny from a chicken farmer). The latter has now been laid to rest and has been replaced by a Volvo 340 2-door found abandoned at his local railway station and a primrose yellow 1982 Merc 230TE that used to be the Sultan of Oman’s. Jonny’s pride and joy is a manual transmission 1968 Dodge Charger (complete with bullet holes in the boot) and an Austin Allegro street sleeper that’s got a 2.7 V6 under the hideous Antique Gold coloured bonnet. When his cars fail to work he nicks his wife’s Nissan Cube or Figaro. To date Jonny has owned over 60 vehicles and once sold a ‘50s bubble car to Michael Barrymore.
