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Director Erich Joiner had a problem: camera cars were too slow. At least, too slow for his liking.
“I always got frustrated when Honda would ask me to shoot something,” he recalls. “I remember shooting with Mario Andretti at Fontana, and typically you'd get out there in the camera car with an arm, and the highest speed that those cars can go around a track like that is somewhere between 80 and 90 (mph).
“And I have used those for car commercials, for traditional car commercials, where you have a scene down a residential street, or something like that. I've worked with those for years, and it's sort of the right tool for the right job – it has an arm on and it you can move the camera dolly around the front of the car, and come around to the side. It’s a stabilized head-on, so it's very smooth as it wraps around the car.
“I got frustrated using that because I'd shot a lot of IndyCar promos, NASCAR promos, stuff for Coca Cola, Home Depot with Tony Stewart, years and years of stuff like this. And we’d go to Charlotte, or Fontana, even a road course. And I was always limited by that speed. And I have to tell you, when the audience sees it on national TV as a commercial, probably two-thirds the audience was fine with it. But for me, growing up racing, it was just heartbreaking to see a NASCAR or IndyCar go around the track at 80.”
Some problems call for extreme solutions, and in this case, Joiner decided to tackle the ‘slow camera car’ problem by coming up with a fast one – as in, LMP1 fast.
“So I ended up purchasing a an LMP1 Le Mans car that was retired,” he continues. “And we converted it into a camera car. So I had this LMP2 car that's capable of 235 mph.
“I remember the first thing… and I can't remember it was for NASCAR promos, or it could have been for Coca Cola, which had a group of NASCAR drivers that they sponsored. We went out to Charlotte and we unloaded this LMP1 car with cameras on it. And I remember Dale Earnhardt Jr, and I think Tony Stewart, they came over and looked.
“I'd worked with them from other years before. And they like, ‘Oh my god, Erich, what's going on here?’ Because typically for promos and stuff, they sort of bring out not their best NASCAR, and it's on old tires. And I remember Junior went back and told his crew chief, ‘Hey, we need new, new tires. The camera car is gonna smoke us.'
“So you over the years, I did a lot of work with that car. I remember… I wish I had it recorded. I remember, in my helmet comms going around Fontana with Mario Andretti. It was a commercial for Honda, and it was about the two-seater Honda IndyCar, where this kid won a ride or got a ride, and he shows up in his Honda, and we're going around the track there, and it was this beautiful afternoon light, and there's sort of lens flare coming, in and I remember Mario, even in the two-seater, saying, ‘Erich, can you slow down my camera car?’
“Which made me so happy, because you even the brief few seconds that that's on the screen, every time you cut to it, I felt like my racer friends and the people that I admire and try to do work for really looked at that and said, ‘Oh my gosh, the car's moving. Yeah, you're actually going fast. It's not fake.’”
On this episode of The Creative Drive, we sit down with Erich Joiner, acclaimed commercial director, race car driver, car collector, and founder of Goodboybob Coffee for an incredible conversation that bridges motorsports, Hollywood, and creativity.
Erich shares the untold behind-the-scenes story of working on the new Formula 1 movie with Brad Pitt, Lewis Hamilton and director Joseph Kosinski (Top Gun: Maverick). From building and driving an LMP1 Le Mans car converted into a camera car to filming during real Formula 1 and IMSA races at Silverstone and Daytona, Erich reveals how they captured the most realistic racing footage ever put on screen, and what it was like working under tight FIA windows with hundreds of thousands of fans watching.
We also dive into his creative journey, from directing iconic car commercials to turning his love of coffee into an award-winning global brand.
If you’re passionate about filmmaking, motorsports, or the creative process behind big ideas, this episode is a must-listen.

erich joiner
lmp1
formula 1
imsa
mario andretti
dale earnhardt jr.
coca cola
goodboybob coffee
brad pitt
joseph kosinski
The Creative Drive
NASCAR
IndyCar
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Taro Koki is the host of RACER's The Creative Drive podcast and veteran automotive content creator with over 20 years of experience. He co-founded Best Motoring International and Hot Version International and launched GTChannel, a pioneering network of automotive digital creators collaborating with legendary tuners and drivers to inspire enthusiasts worldwide. Taro has also served as an on-camera pit reporter for the American Le Mans Series, Formula Drift and NISMO TV.
Read Taro Koki's articles
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