Richard Aucock is a motoring journalist and editor at editorial agency Motoring Research and Chairman-elect of the Guild of Motoring Writers, the world’s largest motoring journalist association.
He has been involved in motoring communications since Year 10 at school in 1993.
He has been a working motoring journalist since 1998, when he joined the Guild after winning the prestigious Sir William Lyons award for aspiring young writers.
He joined Motoring Research full time three years later and has been there ever since, working up from Staff Writer to Managing Editor.
A brief bio
Richard’s first words were printed when he was 15, in the Italian Car Club’s Auto Italia magazine. He drove a Fiat Cinquetento at the club’s annual show in an autotest. He won. He hasn’t looked back.
His first road test car was a Fiat too, a borrowed Bravo from the local dealer. He wrote this while at College in Stourbridge, writing for the local newspaper about Stourbridge BTCC driver Matt Neal at the same time.
Matt helped Richard win the Sir William Lyons award too, by agreeing to an interview with the nervous 18 year old. This was half of Richard’s entry: the other half was a feature piece, which he wrote on super cars. Two years earlier, he’d written about a journey in the future, which won him he \guild’s IMCO Motoring Writer of the Future prize. All pieces are available for review.
Richard continued his efforts to become a motoring journalist while at the \university of Birmingham, where he studied Mechanical Engineering. When he wasn’t, he was reporting for Club Autosport, or writing for Truck & Van Mart, or typing features for Jaguar Monthly.
Such freelance work, via a well-timed note on the Guild website, saw him begin to write for Motoring Research Ltd. His first project was on the MSN Cars site. He joined as a full-time staffer soon after and has been there full-time ever since, working on the MSN Cars project throughout.
As an editorial agency, Motoring Research has other clients too. Richard manages some of these, contribute to the others, which is why no two hours are the same, never mind days.
The Guild of Motoring Writers
The Guild gave Richard his break into motoring journalism. He now wants to repay this. He will serve as Chairman after Guild elections in May, and has strong aims and targets for the professional organisation that gave him his big break.
Richard’s work at the Guild complements his full-time role at Motoring Research. With a growing family too, he’s not short of things to keep him busy.
And, fuelled by coffee, he is loving every second of it.
