Carl Cox – bike-loving superstar DJ
‘Seeing Dunlop on the Ducati would’ve been a mind-blower’
He makes his money with music – then spends it on racing
World famous Brit DJ legend loves his motorcycles just as much as his music
Carl Cox is the Valentino Rossi of dance music. A superstar DJ in every sense, he’s best known for blasting out techno at the planet’s biggest clubs and festivals. But away from the beats, he’s also a bike nut, collector and boss of a racing team, in the shape of Carl Cox Motorsport. You’ll see his stickers on bikes belonging to racing royalty including Michael Dunlop, Peter Hickman and Conor Cummins. What started with an FS1-E in his teens has blossomed into a full-on passion and he now owns over 100 bikes, spread between his homes in the UK and Australia: Honda RC30, RC45, RC213V-S, Ducati Desmosedici RR and 916 Senna, Kawasaki H2, MV Agusta F4 Tamburini and F3 Serie Oro… the list goes on. He’s also involved with a bike shop in Melbourne (TT Motorcycles), the Bruce McLaren Motorsport Park in New Zealand and the Inline Four Cafe at Phillip Island, where MotoGP and WSB stars go after a hard day on track.
He swapped bikes for a record box while he forged his DJ and music producing career, but he rediscovered his two-wheel mojo in the late noughties and was back on bikes, touring around Australia, Tasmania, New Zealand and Europe. He also began to help other riders live their racing dreams: “I started supporting a sidecar team in New Zealand in 2012. It was great helping them run at the front,” he says. But it was a visit to the Island Classic festival at Phillip Island where Carl shifted his attention to solos. “I was watching the old bikes going around and even got on track for a parade lap,” he explains, “but I thought it would cool to have a race bike going around there. A year after that on one of my Destination Ibiza bike trips, I had a conversation MCN’s Michael Neeves and he agreed to come and race with us in 2015. “An ex-race 7/11 (a Suzuki
‘It was great helping them run at the front’
GSX-R750 Slingshot chassis with an 1100 engine – ed) was the first bike I bought under the Carl Cox Motorsport banner. It gave us lots of problems through practice and qualifying, but we managed a third place in that first year and a win the next. Neevesy’s been with us ever since as the team has expanded over the years with his brother Ben, Dean Oughtred, Davo Johnson and John Reynolds. We still have that Suzuki, as well as a race-prepped Katana, XR69, a Yamaha EXUP, Bimota YB8 and Honda CR750.”
Away from the Island Classic,
Carl’s racing ambitions expanded: “It grew quite quickly. We got involved with Tim Reeves, Michael Dunlop and Jay Lawrence at the TT, the P&H Motorcycles Ducati Cup team, and Toby Summers racing 600s in New Zealand.”
A petrolhead to the core, he’s just as mad about four wheels, owning a brace of American V8 muscle cars (he sponsors Aussie V8 supercar driver Cameron Waters) and is also officially the world’s fastest DJ when he jumps in his drag car. “When I started Carl Cox Motorsport in 2013, my first car was a small block Windsor 302 Mk1 Capri with 2200-plus horsepower on full boost. It ran a 1/4 mile in 6.9 seconds at 206mph. I’ve now got a 1967 Shelby GT500 Mustang Fastback, called Eleanor, capable of a 5.4 second quarter at 272mph – two big black lines and smoke everywhere!” This was set to be Carl Cox Motorsport’s biggest year, until the world came to a standstill courtesy of Covid-19. He says: “We would have been supporting former Aussie Moto3 champ Tom Bramich in World Superbike 300 for the second year, Kiwis Damon Rees and Shane Richardson in British Superstock 1000, Dave Molyneux and Mark Wilkes on the sidecars, Padgett’s and of course Michael Dunlop, who was going to be riding the Ducati. That would’ve been a mind-blower.”