Quick Take
- Narration: Chris Harris narrates his own memoir, and this is precisely the right choice, his voice has the same sideways humor and technical enthusiasm as his on-screen presence, and the intimacy of first-person delivery adds considerably to the book’s appeal.
- Themes: Automotive passion and identity, resilience in the face of professional setbacks, the journalism industry and its changing landscape
- Mood: Energetic and self-deprecating, like a long drive with excellent company
- Verdict: A petrol-soaked life story told with genuine wit and unexpected emotional honesty by the person best placed to tell it.
I’ll be honest: I came to Variable Valve Timings as someone who is not, by any measure, a car person. I know what a Nürburgring is. I have opinions about the decline of the manual gearbox. But Chris Harris, the man Penguin Audio describes as setting a Guinness World Record for the longest drift in an electric car, is not exactly my natural audience. And yet I was completely absorbed within the first thirty minutes, because Harris turns out to be something rarer than a great automotive journalist: he is a genuinely good writer about the experience of being shaped by an obsession.
Released in November 2023 and clocking in at five hours and forty-three minutes, the memoir covers Harris’s life from a Scalextric track in Somerset to the Nürburgring 24 Hour, with a great deal of sideways driving and career turbulence in between. The book is narrated by Harris himself, which turns out to be one of the better authorial narration choices in recent memory.
Our Take on Variable Valve Timings
The title is a technical term, variable valve timing is an engine technology that adjusts intake and exhaust valve operation to optimize performance across different conditions, but it works beautifully as a metaphor for what Harris is describing: a life calibrated and recalibrated in response to circumstance, never running at a single fixed setting. The memoir covers his formation as a car-obsessed child in Somerset, his entry into automotive journalism, the professional setbacks that punctuated his career, and the gradual accumulation of experiences that made him the figure he is now.
What reviewers here consistently note, and what I found most surprising, is that the book’s dominant theme is not actually cars. It’s resilience. One review describes Harris’s life as defined by “a stream of setbacks” and calls his spirit and attitude a lesson for anyone. The car content is the vehicle (sorry) for a story about what it takes to keep going when things go wrong, and Harris tells that story with enough self-awareness to avoid the triumphalism that can make memoirs from successful people feel airless and self-congratulatory. He’s funny about his failures in a way that reads as genuine rather than performed.
Why Listen to Variable Valve Timings
Harris narrating his own work is the correct choice and not just for the obvious reasons. He reads with a rhythmic confidence that mirrors the way he speaks on camera, the enthusiasm is real, the technical knowledge is worn lightly, and the humor is dry without being arch. Crucially, he knows where his own jokes are and delivers them with the timing of someone who has spent years in front of an audience. One reviewer described the book as feeling like Harris telling you the story firsthand. That’s exactly right. The audio format closes a distance that print would leave open.
The book is also just the right length at under six hours. Automotive memoirs can overindulge in technical detail or race-day reconstruction; Harris is disciplined about what he includes and moves through his material at a pace that respects the listener’s time. The insider stories from the car business, the publishing relationships, the television dynamics, the strange economics of automotive journalism, are among the book’s most entertaining passages, and they work especially well in audio because Harris’s tone of barely contained exasperation is clearer in his voice than it would be on the page.
What to Watch For in Variable Valve Timings
This is squarely an enthusiast’s memoir. Non-car people can absolutely enjoy it, I did, but the pleasure for that audience is Harris himself rather than the content of what he’s discussing. When the book goes deep into specific cars, specific circuits, or specific motorsport dynamics, non-enthusiasts will get less from those passages than dedicated petrolheads will. The reviewer who called Harris “the greatest car journalist of our generation” was writing for an audience that knows what that means, and the memoir is pitched primarily at that audience. Casual listeners will find plenty to hold them, but the density of automotive reference increases as the book progresses.
It’s also worth noting that the memoir covers Harris’s life up to the present but is not exhaustive. One reviewer described it as a “surprisingly personal recap of an interesting life with much more left to come”, the book is honest about its own incompleteness and doesn’t pretend to be a career retrospective when it’s really more of a mid-career reflection.
Who Should Listen to Variable Valve Timings
Anyone who watches Harris’s Top Gear appearances or his YouTube work and has wondered what lies beneath the performance persona will get exactly what they came for. Car enthusiasts who want insider journalism and race-day detail will find this richly satisfying. Non-car listeners who are drawn to memoirs about professional obsession and career resilience will find more to hold them than the genre packaging might suggest. Skip it if you’re looking for a conventional autobiography with comprehensive coverage of a full life, this is a selective, subjective, and highly personal account that prioritizes voice over completeness.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does Chris Harris narrating his own memoir add to or detract from the listening experience?
Strongly adds to it. Harris has the cadence and comedic timing of someone accustomed to performing for audiences, and his delivery of his own material, particularly the self-deprecating observations and industry anecdotes, carries a warmth and authenticity that a professional narrator would struggle to replicate. Reviewers consistently note that it reads as if he’s telling you the story in person.
Is Variable Valve Timings accessible to listeners who are not already automotive enthusiasts?
Largely yes, with the caveat that the book’s pleasure for non-enthusiasts is primarily Harris as a personality and raconteur rather than the specific automotive content. When the text goes deep into circuit specifics or car technical detail, general listeners will get less from those sections. The memoir structure and the resilience theme give non-enthusiasts a thread to follow throughout.
Does the book cover Harris’s television work, including Top Gear, in any detail?
The synopsis focuses on his automotive journalism career and life story rather than specifically on the television work, though his professional trajectory, from print journalism to his broader media presence, is part of the narrative. Readers specifically hoping for behind-the-scenes television detail should temper expectations; reviewers describe it as more personal than professional in focus.
How does Variable Valve Timings compare to other automotive memoirs in terms of depth and insight?
Reviewers describe it as delivering more emotional and personal depth than the genre typically delivers. One specifically called out that the dominant theme is resilience rather than cars. For pure technical and racing coverage, specialist automotive books will go deeper. For insight into what it actually feels like to build a life around an automotive obsession, this sits toward the top of the genre.
