Driven by speed, powered by Samsung
Posted on Apr 24, 2025 by Admin
Capturing retro rides is a perfect job for the rugged Samsung Portable SSD T9
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A lifelong obsession with restoring and tuning up vintage American motorbikes and cars, along with the explosion of TV series about these vehicles, has led to a new passion project for London-based director Geoff Wright. He’s busy making a pilot show that explains what it’s like to source, restore and modify American vehicles, despite being thousands of miles away in Blighty. For this he’s employing the high-speed Samsung Portable SSD T9.
“Popular shows like Gas Monkey Garage’s Fast N’ Loud and Count’s Kustom’s Counting Cars are based in the US and focus on American machines,” says Wright. “While UK shows like Salvage Hunters: Classic Cars or Car SOS mainly feature British or European vehicles.
“But what I’m working on is showing classic old American iron and hot rods on the UK scene, breaking down all the difficulties of distance and regular travel to find the bits and pieces needed.”
If you thought that all Wright would be bothered about was the originality of old metal, you’d be wrong, as in many ways he’s as high tech as it comes. Modern motors inside retro-mod cars are an area he loves, as well as finding the latest and greatest equipment for his shoots.
With lots of international travel, hours spent riding motorbikes across the UK and US looking for parts and working around heavy metal machinery, his kit has to be rugged and up to the job. Like the vehicles he covets, he ensures his equipment is made to last and not just to be disposable consumer items.
“I spent lots of time researching – not just the vehicles, but the equipment to film them. So when it came to choosing portable drives, I knew I wanted the very best, that would be big enough to store the footage, rugged, compact and fast enough to keep up with me,” he says. “It had to be Samsung, and the Samsung Portable SSD T9 is the best you can get.”
For the majority of his work, his latest camera of choice is a heavyweight 12K cinema cam armed with cine prime lenses. It shoots 12K Raw footage, but best of all it can output to a portable drive, as long as it’s big and fast enough to keep up. That’s where the Samsung Portable SSD T9 ticks all the boxes. “The T9 stores up to 4TB, and we mount it to the side of the camera using a clamp, making sure the cable doesn’t come out mid-shoot,” he says. “If you’ve travelled across the Atlantic, found your subjects – which always seem to be somewhere out in rural Montana – the last thing you want is to risk losing your precious footage.”
The Samsung Portable SSD T9 has the latest USB 3.2 Gen 2×2 interface and a choice of two cables, one to connect to a USB-C or Thunderbolt drive and a second for legacy USB-A devices. Using the high-quality USB-C cable included to link it to the camera, footage is stored quickly thanks to 2000Mbps transfer speeds, without having to wait for the portable drive to catch up. With Samsung increasing the buffer size of its TurboWrite technology up to 180GB, this ensures maximum performance for a longer amount of time when doing long takes, transferring large files or encoding video.
“The beauty of recording the footage to the Samsung Portable SSD T9 is that it’s fast enough to plug into a laptop, and you can edit the footage right away after a day of shooting,” says Wright.
The crew often put this gear to the ultimate test; riding or driving through scorching-hot deserts, snowy mountains or by the ocean. The super-tough Samsung Portable SSD T9 can withstand a three-metre drop, thanks to its rubberised skin, and temperatures as low as -40ºC and high as 85ºC. In use, the T9 maintains temperatures below 60ºC at all times in controlled testing for heat management and safety, complying with IEC 62368-1 standard.
Heat management is essential for a drive, because getting too hot can cause performance slowdown and numerous issues. The Samsung Portable SSD T9 has the muscle to tackle the toughest jobs, with low power consumption and a build that uses thermal materials, including silicon and aluminium, to keep things cool. With a stylish, non-slip coating, it’s very compact, weighing just 122g; an important factor in keeping kit as light as possible for travelling. Inside, however, the portable drive isn’t light on features, as it comes pre-installed with Samsung Magician software that offers features such as performance benchmarking, security functions, firmware updates and a health status check in real time.
There are tools to aid data migration, PSSD software and a card authentication tool, supporting Windows, Mac and Android. It’s compatible with lots of devices, including PCs, mobile phones, TVs, game consoles and cameras, thanks to having a dedicated PCB design rather than an off-the-shelf M.2 SSD.
Hardware and firmware developed exclusively for the Samsung Portable SSD T9 makes power usage low – 0.67W at idle and up to 7.3W when connected by USB-C. This means battery life can be extended by over 30 minutes, useful for working with a laptop on location.
“Not having to worry about my equipment means that I’m free to focus on the cars and bikes, getting the best out of the interesting characters that own them,” says Wright. “The Samsung Portable SSD T9 is a vital part of my kit.”
Plus-size micro SD card delivers
When travelling miles on motorcycles or vintage cars through incredible scenery, Geoff Wright uses a small, handheld DJI gimbal with its own camera that shoots 4K. This is often mounted to the vehicle. “We’re always ready to record those moments that can’t be repeated,” he says. “But that means leaving the camera running for hours on long journeys to capture that special moment.”
For that, what’s needed is a micro SD card big enough to store lots of footage without issues; the Samsung PRO Plus is the ideal choice. With read speed of 180MB/s and write speed 130MB/s, it’s an ideal partner for action cameras or vlogging gimbals, as it’s V30-rated for 4K capture. “It’s fit and forget!” says Wright. “And it’s fun to look back through the footage on the laptop after a long day travelling. The card also comes with an SD adapter, so footage can be downloaded to the Samsung Portable SSD T9 and the PRO Plus micro SD reused the following day.”
Discover more at samsung.com/uk/memory-storage/all-memory-storage
This article appears in the April 2025 issue of Definition
