Charlie Cox
Charlie Cox has combined his two passions of broadcasting and motor racing and is currently presenter and commentator for Moto GP on the BBC.
Born in Sydney in 1960, Charlie started his broadcast journalism career as a cadet at 2GB. He worked as a newsreader at 2WS and 2UE before returning to 2GB as News Director in the mid 1980s. He was appointed National News Director for the Macquarie Network and Program Director for 2GB, before taking on the role as General Manager in 1989. During this time, Charlie started his love affair with racing cars.
He moved to London in 1990 to head London?s LBC radio station and race cars.
Receiving the Newcomer of the Year award in the 1991 Porsche Cup, Charlie went on to win three British titles and ran his own team in the British Touring Car Championships before a spectacular crash nearly ended his life in 1995.
It was during his recovery that BBC trialled him as a touring car co-commentator and he was eventually offered the role of full time motoring co-commentator in 1997.
Returning to racing cars in 1996, Charlie continued to juggle racing and his commentating commitments with the BBC until 2001 when he retired from racing.
Charlie was integral in setting up the broadcast division of the Daily Mail Group and is today a director of six different media companies in the UK and Australia.
He names the 1966 XP Falcon Futura as his first car and says there is not one ultimate car, that ?you need a portfolio to cover all the eventualities.? These days he drives a Porsche GT2, a Mercedes S500, a Ducati Superbike and a Harley Davidson.
A word from the producers, ?Charlie Cox made the cut because of his international experience, he's a proven survivor of spectacular crashes (in case, God forbid, we have to have one) and he has a great supply of one-liners when he's commentating Moto GPs around the world. Like this, when he talked about Superbike Racer James Toseland at the Assen GP : "He's got such bad luck that if he fell into a bucket of boobs, he'd still come up sucking his thumb.?
http://news.sbs.com.au/worldnewsaustralia/charlie_cox__top_gear_australia_host_547978
Warren Brown
With a great talent and passion for drawing as a child, Warren pursed his love and is today, after 26 years in the business, an award winning cartoonist for The Daily Telegraph.
A great entertainer and story teller by nature, Warren has written a number of books, is a regular motoring columnist for The Daily Telegraph and hosts his own radio program on the ABC.
He?s an adventurer, with a passion for history and motoring. In 2005 he came up with the idea to retrace the epic1907 car race from Peking to Paris, using 100 year-old, original vehicles ? and the journey featured in a major television series. In 2009, he hopes to embark on his next epic journey ? retracing the journey of famous Australian explorer, Francis Birtles, in an original 1925 Bean car, from London to Melbourne for SBS Television.
The Bean car is part of Warren?s small collection of historic vehicles which also includes two 1920s fire engines, a WWII jeep and an armoured vehicle.
For the past three years he has been the Department of Veterans Affairs? overnight host for over 10,000 people in Gallipoli for ANZAC Day and has walked the Kokoda Trail.
Warren is a former member of the Army Infantry and Air Force Reserve as a cadet, plays the five string banjo and ukulele and dreams of being James Bond.
His first car was a Peugeot 504 TI and his ultimate car is the Aston Martin, to keep in with his fantasy of becoming 007.
Top Gear Australia Executive Producer, Peter Abbott, says: ?Warren Brown's on the team because we needed someone who can drive trucks, fire engines and old cars from one side of the world to the other. He's someone who knows how to set a magneto - and he's keen to see if he can get a shark to eat a car while he indulges his strange desire to be wrapped in sausages, while dressed in a rubber suit. More of that in the show!?
http://news.sbs.com.au/worldnewsaustralia/warren_brown__top_gear_australia_host_547979
Steve Pizzati
Steve is an advanced driving instructor and race driver for Porsche Australia and is part of the International Audi driver training team. He is a freelance motoring journalist and stunt driver for photography.
Asked to describe himself, Steve says that ?Eat + sleep + incessant travel + seriously cool driving = my life, but I?m currently trying to remove the first three parts of the equation.?
Born in Melbourne to Sicilian parents in 1974, it was not until the age of four that Steve learnt to speak English.
In 1985 Steve fell in love with fast cars, fast machines, after watching Ayrton Senna race in the Australian Grand Prix.
Steve joined the Airforce cadets, dreaming of a life flying jets for a living. Making it to the final round, Steve was knocked back due to his poor eyesight, so he turned his attention to driving fast cars. Steve made a living zipping around the city delivering hot pizza in record time while he studying Engineering and Science at university.
A self confessed science geek, Steve always has on hand his subscription science magazines, featuring his favourite topic of Astronomy, and is proud to talk about his watch collection.
Steve balances his nerdy activities with a keen interest in the outdoors, cycling and rock climbing and names Australian cycling hero, Cadel Evans, as a good friend.
His first car was a ?very cool? 1971 Mk1 Cortina GT and names his ultimate car is the Viper green 911 GT3RS for the right blend of bling and brawn.
Top Gear Australia Executive Producer, Peter Abbott says: ?Steve Pizzatti looks great in Lycra - which will appeal to certain parts of our audience - and he's such a great driver, we're convinced The Stig must have mated with Steve's grandmother in Sicily and he's inherited the genes. He's got a Pythonesque sense of humour and he's young and energetic enough to keep the other Top Gear Australia cast focussed on the present, not the past. His catchcry - "could we have that in colour please??
http://news.sbs.com.au/worldnewsaustralia/steve_pizzati__top_gear_australia_host_547980