A Shared Love of Motorsport: Jonny Shears × HERO-ERA

If you asked your child self what it wants to be when it grows up, I daresay there would be answers like fireman, racing driver, pilot or astronaut. I can’t imagine any self-respecting five-year-old declaring that they want to be in insurance, and even as an adult I suspect the stereotype of the average insurance professional is a tightly suited bean counter, with more interest in spreadsheets than the real world. In fact, for most of us, insurance is merely a quote delivered by a Meerkat, or a voice on a phone, looking to find every reason under the sun not to help when they’re needed.

Well, Jonny Shears is just such an insurance professional, but he’s a little different to what you might have in your mind’s eye, indeed he’s more likely to be wearing a pair of greasy overalls than pin stripe. He might have a suit, I’ve no idea, but he does have a racing car, and an Alfa, and encyclopaedic levels of knowledge on almost anything classic car related. He’s also not particularly risk adverse, with his hobbies including BMX riding and throwing cars around racetracks. Jonny works as a Producer for Lockton Performance, HERO’s insurance partner, but his path to his position there is as unorthodox as his resemblance to most people’s stereotype of that world.

You see Jonny is an archetypal petrol-head, and that was probably always going to be the case, having been surrounded by cars and racing since he was born. Both of his grandfathers were involved; indeed, his maternal grandfather ran the OSCA Zagato team at the ’62 Le Mans. Quite the story to pull out at a dinner party, and with his father being a Morgan man, there was no escaping classic cars when he was growing up. Indeed, he tells me that family holidays were often based around road trips, with family friends along as well, friends that were made when his dad got talking to another expectant parent whilst waiting for the birth of Jonnys sister, who also just happened to be a Morgan enthusiast, it seems the stars were aligned.

There were other forms of wheel-based mayhem growing up too, like motorcross and BMX’ing, but things got more interesting when Jonny and friend Hugo pooled their student loans whilst at university to buy a 1965 Austin Healey Sprite and build a racing car. “It was one of those ideas that got out of hand, Hugo and I were looking at another car and we both sort of decided we could do a better job and the next thing we had combined our loans and bought the Healey.” It was something of a steep learning curve, but one Jonny embraced, as he and Hugo set about learning the skills they needed to give life to their plans, and all in the days before YouTube was as established as it is now.

This pattern of self-education has repeated throughout Jonnys endeavours, which goes some way to explaining his vast knowledge of so many automotive topics. His dad would describe his enthusiasm for getting stuck into things as ‘gallopingitis’, which I suppose would be defined as taking an idea and running with it, which may be how I’ve ended up stood in his garage on a wet November day, propped against a Myford lathe that Jonny restored, whilst talking about Chinese diesel heaters for campervans, amongst other car and engineering based topics.

But how did his professional journey begin? A mechanical engineering degree perhaps? Or something business related? Not exactly, in fact Jonny completed a degree in photography and whilst he was published in BMX magazines during his studies, cars were always the target, and Jonny landed a job post grad as a photographer with Silverstone Auctions when it was in its infancy. Very much a cottage industry at that point, it wasn’t long before he was getting involved in other areas of the company and photography was soon usurped with other duties, before he eventually became head of valuations. After a few years though there was a yearning for challenges new, and a job at Pendine Historic Cars beckoned. Through his years at Pendine, he was involved in sales, acquisition and management of restorations, galvanising his already broad depth of knowledge and worked on and with some real dream machinery, including the preservation restoration on chassis 26 E-Type that was presented at Pebble Beach, and also overseeing the restoration of the Hansgen Jaguar, that won an award at Salon Prive, and then a week later raced at Goodwood.

Jonny is full of stories like this, all told with enthusiasm for the subject, rather than as a brag, and it seems each working day is fuelled by his effervescent passion for classic cars, I daresay with the lines between work and pleasure becoming blurred. Away from work, Jonny was racing, rallying and restoring, with his car collection including his beloved Alfa Romeo GT Junior, which he rallies and a Fiat Panda that was a present from wife Kat, as well as the Healey, that he continues to race with his friend Hugo. As with all classics, the three are in a constant merry go round of being driven and being worked on, with a new engine currently nearing the final stages of completion for the Sprite, extensive welding taking place on the Fiat and a new paint job planned for the Alfa. The trouble is, Jonny is the sort of person that can’t help but get involved in a project, or do a rush job of anything, that is to say, if he’s going to do a job, he will take it the nth degree – hence the welding on the Panda becoming a full strip down and repair job. The list of cars he has worked on, driven and competed in is vast though, extending well beyond the walls of his garage.

He also has a burning desire to complete as much of the work himself as he can, or if he can’t, then at least spend time with the specialist who is doing the work to learn as much about the process as he can. I’m intrigued to know how this now feeds into his new life at Lockton, and if working in insurance places any sort of restrictions on his hands on style. The short answer to this, is not really. If anything, his knowledge not just of the intricacies of model variations of any given marque, but also of the work that goes into restoring and maintaining these machines gives him a unique insight into what these cars mean to their owners and, therefore, what they need from their insurance. “We have such a variety of owners, people who own one car and those that have collections. Some people want to drive them, and some don’t, but it’s so important that all our customers are confident that their policy will support them and enable them to do whatever it is they desire with their cars.” It almost sounds like a corporate answer, except I can see that to Jonny it’s really important that these cars are being driven if that’s what people want to do. He’s clearly tuned into what makes us all tick, as he is one of us. If you want to insure your pristine collection, no problem, but if you want to go racing or rallying in your classic, that can be sorted as well.

I must confess, a conversation about insurance isn’t something I’ve ever wanted to have, but for Jonny the subject is just another rabbit hole to go down, and I must admit there is far more to it than I’d ever considered. His passion for cars shines through in every aspect, and I suddenly find myself wondering whether I should be considering my own policies. “All of these cars are different, no two are the same” he says, “and it’s great being able to help owners get proper valuations based on their car and its unique properties, and, get them a policy that means they can enjoy their car worry free.” Well, if anyone is placed to do that, it’s a man that not only has anorak levels of knowledge but also is an enthusiast himself, and this seems to fit the Lockton ethos to a tee.

But what’s next for Jonny? “Well, the Alfa needs a new coat of paint. I think I’m going to have to get a specialist to do that though, there’s so much involved in a decent paint job. Mind you, I’d quite like to find someone I can sit alongside and learn from, and actually, I’d like to do the prep, strip the old paint, do any repairs and get it ready, I think I could do that. But then, yeah, someone who knows what they’re doing. Although, I would love to have a hand in it somewhere, so, well, let’s see.”

Gallopingitis you say? I’ll have me some of that, please.