Successful Jeopardy Contestant Austin Rogers Proves Petrolheads Can Be Quirky and Intelligent...

If you watch any Jeopardy, the only entertaining game show left nowadays, you would know that Austin Rogers, a new york bartender hipster looking guy recently went on a winning streak and did so with style. What’s not being publicized is how Austin happens to be somewhat of a Petrolhead. This first came to my attention in an early episode, where he explains to Alex Trebek how his imported London taxi cab is right hand drive and stick shift. Trebek commented that it must be difficult to get used to, but Austin shrugged this off saying “you get used to it.” He also made a comment about how it was a ‘78 Austin and how he was also a ‘78 Austin.

Twitter Investigation...

So naturally this made me curious as to just how into cars Austin is. At first I didn’t have much luck, I couldn’t find the original clip online or any of his social media accounts. Flash forward a few days, desperate for literally anything to write a blog about, I return to the topic. That’s when I discovered Austin’s Twitter, which yielded yet more evidence. First off, one of his posts references the former Top Gear trio (now Grand Tour) and a picture of a sign outside his bar with a message related to Top Gear. Unfortunately, a picture of him with his fine ride remained elusive. Then I checked who he was following. The first person who came up was Mike Spinelli, founder of Jalopnik and Drive host. Yahtzee! Wait…..I mean bingo, whatever, same difference. Then I found out he follows several of the Jalopnik writers (hey Jalopnik, or anybody else, we need a review of his london taxi), and he also follows Matt Farah, Chris Harris, Doug Demuro, and BTCC Champion Jason Plato. Also, his twitter banner includes a hilarious illustration captioned as a “snail driving an Audi Quattro Coupe”. One last note about his twitter is that I discovered that though he leans left, he followed many politicians and news sources from both political sides in order to stay informed, which was nice to see.

Then I found his Instagram and Facebook

So I found his Instagram from a Twitter post, and I was hopeful I would find a picture of him with his car. The search for this picture turned up dry again, but I did find some pics he took from the Peterson Auto Museum. Just as on Twitter he follows Jalopnik, but that was it without checking every single person he’s following (not that I’m not a complete cyber-stalker, but because I was too lazy). His Twitter also linked to a Facebook, this time more personal, not what I was looking for. I did however find from his likes that he “likes” Drivetribe, Jalopnik, The Stig, James May, Alfa Romeo, Peugeot, and 24 Hours of Lemons (please join the Jalopnik team, that would be cool). There’s also a balance, this time slightly more odd yet again of political pages from both sides. From his Instagram I learned he likes to troll the republican pages, or at least used to to, so that makes sense. Still better than being in a complete echo chamber I say. Another thing worthy of note was also also that at one point I just got to a long list of pages he liked which were all about cupcakes, then hamburgers, then sandwiches, and then finally some various pages below.

What Does This Mean?

To me, Austin Roger’s appreciation of automobiles says something very important: that not all car people have to be brainless adrenaline junkies, even though there is nothing inherently wrong with that sect of the culture. Many “intellectuals” want to demonize vehicles and promote a narrative that love of gasoline vehicles is only for people who are unintelligent, obnoxious, not interested in art, science, history, the world, etc, and hate the environment. These stereotypes of car people are unfounded, as in reality anybody can be a car person, and there’s a car for almost every type of person (unless you prefer motorcycles, trains, or planes). People who like cars are of vastly differing race, religion, political affiliation, age, gender, nationality, income, intellect, and personality. Austin is simply a quirky guy, who’s quite intelligent and happens to be interested in automotive stuff on the side (you don’t drive an imported London taxi if you don’t have at least some interest in automobiles), but he’s also politically active, into culinary arts (he is a professional bar tender), and a soccer fan (he’s an Arsenal fan, just like our very own Ethan Smale).

"Loyal servant of Ba'al. Or Jesus. Whichever one has a cooler car."-Austin Tyler Rogers Facebook Bio

Epilogue: I think I may have found his Taxi listed for sale

I’m not 100% sure, but I believe I have found Austin’s 78 Austin on a website called classiccardb.com and it matches a more in depth description from an online resume belonging to Austin. Austin’s resume states he drove the Taxi as a “HSBC Brand Awareness ambassador” and the vehicle was apparently purchased from HSBC. There’s a high chance this is in fact Austin’s Austin. Everything else matches up to, its the right year, it’s manual transmission, right hand drive, and listed for sale in Long Island, New York. If you are interested in the car regardless of whether Austin owns it, there’s a link below, it’s listed up for just 4,000 USD! #blogpost #austinrogers