YouTube classic car series a labour of love

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Bruce Hitchen is a car guy through and through. Who else would buy a 2001 Corvette convertible, join the BC Corvette Club, become vice-president and drive his car on a group tour from Vancouver to Bowling Green, Kentucky where Corvettes are built?

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Since last August, Bruce has been populating his YouTube channel with stories about people who love their collector cars. His video production expertise came from 19 years at Telus in the video production department. That included producing a weekly newscast streamed directly to 19,000 employees across Canada. In 2006, Bruce started his own corporate video and multimedia production company and built an inventory of pro video gear.

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As success came, he knew what he really wanted: utilize his skills to produce videos on his own car restorations, and tell stories about the people he met through his growing connections in the collector car world.

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He had purchased a low mileage 1990 Porsche 928 because it was the car he wanted when he was young, and it was the star car in the Tom Cruise film Risky Business. The Porsche ended up needing a lot of work and, as the restoration work progressed, Bruce used his video production experience to do a 10-part series on the resurrection of the front-engined Porsche.

“Doing that series was one of the things that made me want to launch a full-time YouTube channel,” he recalls. “When I started the restoration work on the 928, I thought, ‘this may be interesting to people,’ so I decided to document it in a video series.”

When the series caught the interest of enthusiasts and COVID lockdowns began, he used the extra time to launch a YouTube channel combining his video expertise with his passion for cars. The series on the Porsche restoration details what he likes about the car, its unique features, how it starred in the movie and how the restoration work progressed. Over the past eight months, he has produced 35 videos on different collector car-related subjects. His goal is to post a new episode every Friday.

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Two videos have been about car collector Kim Trowbridge, his neighbour in the Village of Anmore. Kim’s collection of classic Jaguar sports cars was the first. A second video featured Kim’s Mercedes 380SL sports car. The rest of Kim’s eclectic collection may be subject matter for a third episode.

Although Center Lane is not a ‘how-to’ channel, one video shows how professional detailers put classics into show condition. Another video features the ceramic coating of paint finishes.

Pat and Susie Lauro have been featured for having the 1958 Pontiac Parisienne convertible her late uncle bought new completely restored. Vintage Corvette owner Dan Ward has been featured twice: Once at Christmas as he drove around Vancouver spreading cheer in his red 1959 Corvette, and more recently at the unveiling of the red 1956 Thunderbird which had always been his late mother’s dream car.

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When Bruce saw the modernization of a 1959 Willys station wagon being completed at Jellybean Autocrafters in Langley, he knew nothing about those cars. So, his video includes the history of Willys cars and development of the famous wartime Jeep the company designed. Another segment traces the checkered history of Corvair cars, focusing on a 1966 model owned by a friend.

Bruce also did a segment on a couple he met through the Porsche club. They have seven Porsche sportscars.

Now Bruce is compiling a series on a 1967 Mustang that came to him when the owner, who had inherited the car upon his father’s untimely passing, decided to sell it. Bruce will restore the car and wants the owner to have the chance to see and drive the car once it is finished.

“It’s a touching story and the restoration and videos will be dedicated to the father’s memory,” he says.

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“I’m finding I don’t have to work so hard to find the stories. People are recognizing me and suggesting stories,” he says. “After all, they get a pro video on their cars and it doesn’t cost anything.”

Surprisingly, more than half his audience of 850 subscribers is in the U.S. Only 20 per cent of his YouTube channel viewers are from Canada, with the rest from the UK, Germany and Australia. Although his channel doesn’t generate any revenue, there have been spinoffs as Bruce has landed some work doing videos on car-oriented businesses. And, as the channel grows, there is potential for ad revenue.

“I am really doing it as a hobby and to fulfill my desire to be more engaged in the car community,” he says.

The subject matter is what I find interesting.

He branded his YouTube channel Center Lane as a metaphor for what its purpose is. “It’s not focused on one particular area. The subject matter is what I find interesting. I hope others will find it interesting as well.”

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Normally, it takes a year to reach 1,000 subscribers of a YouTube channel. He is close to that in just eight months. His goal is 10,000 subscribers and, ultimately, he hopes to someday pass 100,000 subscribers.

“I’m going to keep dong it as long as I enjoy it,” he says. “I’m finding it more interesting because I’m meeting more people and getting more connected to the car community as a result.”

To see for yourself, visit www.centerlane.net – youtube.com/centerlane

Alyn Edwards is a classic car enthusiast and partner in Peak Communicators, a Vancouver-based public relations company. aedwards@peakco.com