FastLaneDaily on youtube has become one of the great unpolished diamonds for cars enthousiasts on the web. (they are also on fastlanedaily.com, and on youtubish sites like Streetfrie.net aimed at car nuts, petrol heads, well you get the picture.

fastlaneDaily, or FLD for the fans, is maybe a bit of a raw and acquired taste. When you first watch the show, a typical reaction is WTF. But then most viewers get it. It is great entertainment, politically incorrect, often over the top and awkward. But that's the charm of such an unpretentious show. FLD wraps up some good info in a couple of minutes and always with a twist. And most importantly they interact with the viewers, they try new things.

Then, over the holidays and new year, some business changes took place. FLD moved locations and for 2 weeks they angered their viewers by replacing the loved and hated Derek D by a voice-over clip which used the same manufacturer car teasers as all the other boring voice-over car shows.

And people voted the new format down. There wasn't a FLD new format which got more than 2 stars on youtube, most viewers just gave one star, some said they give more, but just as an encouragement to return to the previous ways - to get less than 2 stars by by thousands of regular viewers is a punishment. That is not a statistical blip but a clear message. The new format just didn't work, whether it was intended to be permanent or just a filler until things have settled down after the business and location changes - it doesn't matter. The guys behind the show now learned, if you want to produce another format, please do so, create a new show, but don't change the great interactive, lively format of FLD.

Yes, you can become better pros, improve things, try new stuff, but don't turn into a show like all the others... especially when your format is becoming the source of inspiration for a few others: Oncars.com which is ok, maybe a bit too slick, and drivingsports which is presented by 2 guys who seem to work with less funding than FLD, therefore they might lack producers/directors, but they improving. The FLD format is reasonably cheap to produce, you can set your tone, engage viewers and make infotainment which all combined has a great commercial potential. TopGear is great, the industry stardom is overshadowing everything else on normal TV. But therefore TopGear leaves a lot of room for different shows. And nobody could ever make a daily or weekly TG. Only bottom up interaction shows like FLD and it's off-springs have a chance to really make a splash.

So FLD, you (have) become the benchmark for a daily format, your siblings and off-springs make the hot even spicier. Let TopGear provide a few highlights per year we all can talk about. That's a good future, best of luck. And thank you for bringing back Derek D, I really didn't know that I would miss this guy so much - until those 2 weeks :-)