judges | 2011
- Ged Bulmer
- Paul Gover
- Neil Dowling
- Craig Duff
- Mark Hinchliffe
- Stuart Martin
- Karla Pincott
- Paul Pottinger
- Graham Smith
- James Stanford
Click on a judge to learn more about them?
The judges for this year's Car of the Year awards are motoring editors and senior writers drawn from Sydney's The Daily Telegraph, Melbourne's Herald-Sun, Brisbane's Courier-Mail, Adelaide's Advertiser, Perth's Sunday Times and Carsguide.com.au. They have been poring (and quarrelling) over this year's new releases to ultimately decide the Carsguide Car of the Year.
These are their stories...
Ged Bulmer
Carsguide's most recent addition has spent the past 20 years road testing and writing about everything from Ladas to Lamborghinis.
As editor of Wheels magazine for most of the last decade Bulmer oversaw one of the country's most respected new car awards; experience he now brings to the team at Carsguide.
With a wealth of experience on titles as diverse as Motor, 4Wheeler and Overlander, he brings deep automotive industry knowledge - and an even deeper coffee cup - to Carsguide's Car of the Year.
Paul Gover
After 30 years on the motoring beat, Paul Gover has seen and done it all. Usually more than just once.
But cars and the motor industry are still his driving passion.
Gover has raced and rallied in Australia and overseas, rides motorcycles for fun, and gets just as much of a challenge from assessing a $13,990 Hyundai as a $1.4 million Rolls-Royce.
He knows people make a big commitment when they go car shopping, and he believes they should be able to rely on the best-informed advice from the motoring media.
But he also thinks motoring should be fun - something he remembers every time he turns the key on his rusty old 1986 Subaru Brumby ute.
Neil Dowling
Apparently Neil Dowling's first word was "car" and his first driving experience at age three was behind the slender steel-spoked steering wheel of a Rugby.
Nothing has improved except possibly the value of the long-lost Rugby. He can't believe it was 31 years ago he first stated writing about cars and that his dumbfounded neighbour - "you say they PAY you to drive cars?" - was stunned with the Subaru Brumby in his driveway. It was a state-of-the-art cross-over vehicle of 1977 that still produces requests to Subaru today.
He studied and reported on finance and business and the reason he gave up that side of journalism, can be summarised in one word: Porsche.
Craig Duff
If it's got wheels, it's worth driving - or riding as the case may be. Having tested everything from tractors to turbocharged drag bikes, Craig Duff's main concern is whether a vehicle is 'fit for purpose'. Whether that applies to him is debatable.
Mark Hinchliffe
Women's stockings, a bottle of water and some coat hanger wire were the first tools of the trade for Mark Hinchliffe, motoring editor of The Courier-Mail in Brisbane for the past six years.
These were essential items for any motoring venture in his first car, a 1957 Morris Major Elite with the only modification being a Capilano honey cap replacing the fuel cap which had a habit of falling off.
Since then there have been many more cars, even more motorcycles, far too many crashes and a couple of classic races in Mark's 30-odd year motoring and journalist careers.
Stuart Martin
Tearing around his grandfather's apple orchard and delivering pizzas in the Adelaide Hills has proved to be a worthwhile training ground after all.
Adelaide native Stuart Martin has owned everything from a 1974 Jeep ragtop to an early Celica - complete with vinyl roof - that soldiered on through a frantic "30 minutes or die" pizza delivery career.
Passionate about anything with wheels and an engine, Martin is young enough to cope with hybrid technology and old enough to remember carburettors; he's happy behind the wheel - of anything from a Suzuki Swift to an M3 - and preferably with a bit of opposite lock on.
Karla Pincott
Her first glimpse of a Merc 450 SLC parked outside her school rendered Karla Pincott speechless in the 70s.
She's never stopped wanting to own one, but in the meantime has consoled herself with a range of temperamental machinery, starting with a BSA Bantam as an early introduction to the idea that vehicles can often have personality or reliability - but rarely both.
In several years of motoring journalism, most recently as Carsguide's online editor, no assemblage of machinery - new or old - has ever disproved that theory.
Paul Pottinger
Formerly of The Sydney Morning Herald and The Weekend Australian Magazine, Paul Pottinger's moment of epiphany came when a colleague on The Sunday Telegraph said 'you like writing and you like cars. Why don't you write about cars?' That was seven years ago. He's yet to hear a better idea.
Graham Smith
Graham Smith is Carsguide's resident problem solver. With decades in the industry, there's little he doesn't know about the nuts and bolts of cars. And all the other parts as well.
James Stanford
James Stanford is not just Carsguide's working (vehicle) class hero, but a keen rally driver with enough skill to have finished on the podium for an international ice race - and driven a Mercedes-Benz van in Classic Adelaide.
