Jethro Bovingdon is not a household name here in the states. For one, he's English and primarily known for his work as a motoring journalist with stints at Evo, Drive Tribe, and Motor Trend under his belt. He's also very much a car guy and track day enthusiast taking a homebrew BMW on the 24 Hours of Nurburgring. His current rides include a Porsche 996 and a Citroen DS. But he's about to get much more familiar to you and I as a new host, reviewer, and presenter on the "Top Gear America" reboot along with American actors Dax Sheppard and Rob Corddry. Let's take a look at Jethro.

A Little Bit About Jethro

While he's primarily known as an automotive journalist, Jethro's love of cars runs deep. According to Bovingdon, "I like driving all sorts of cars. I'm not super into awful cars, but if it's awful cars doing fun stuff, I can live with it." And while he likes doing work on cars himself, his mechanic father is always at the ready to offer advice or a wrench. But it's racing that gets him really motivated. He tried to break the 8 minute mark at Nurburgring, for example, in a BMW E36 M3 GT. "The first attempt, I think, did 8:16 ... And then every time I went back after that I broke. But it was great. I mean, it had a roll cage, fully stripped ... On one of the runs, it got stuck in fourth gear on the 'Ring. So I had to drive it back from the Nürburbring to my home in Northamptonshire in fourth gear. So that was fun."

Jethro's Rides

Besides the BMW, he also owns a Porsche 996 and a 1972 Citroen DS. The Citroen has a great story attached to it - "I bought mine in Greece ... picked up my dad and two brothers at the airport. They flew into Brindisi, and then we did, like, a three-day road trip home ... [covering] like 1,500 miles in a car that probably hadn't done 1,500 miles in, like, 20 years. And nothing broke. Literally nothing broke."

What's Next

What's next for Jethro is the debut of "Top Gear America" which kicks off in the Spring of 2020. As for what cars Jethro wishes he owned that includes a Porsche 997 GT3 RS 4.0, Ferrari 458 Speciale, and Ford GT, 2005. I'm sure he'll get around to that soon! Buckle up.

Source: Motor Trend