For the love of cars, channel 4 8pm- Air cooled content

[Felly Magic]

Car SOS, Tim is also an ex DJ, who's bird once got so pissed off with him, she sold his BMW on egay for a BIN 50p, and he'd spent a shitload on it

[beko1987]

I was only vaguley aware that the mk1 transit was a workhorse too, they could have mentioned it once or twice...

[michael1703]

These programmes bug the shit out of me because I'll have someone turn up at my workshop saying

 

"did you see that programme last night, I'm thinking of getting you to restore my rotten van so I can sell it for £9k and make a massive profit"

 

They look at me like I'm a nutter when I explain that the only person that profits is the auction house

 

That tranny was probably another £40k resto with the amount of hours/staff/materials etc

[Bren]

Im gonna watch it later as its recorded, but expect 20 minutes of vague restoration then 40 minutes of crap.

Must be time to dig out my mark evans downloads...

5 minutes of restoration, the rest crap.

 

Rapidly losing interest in the show.

[lisbon_road]

I liked it.  Sorry, but it is entertainment.  Yes, I'd rather have more on the details of restoration but I accept what I get.  Especially liked the Swedish cars one.  I like car SOS too, Fuzz is fine with me, less sure about his partner sadly.  

 

On Mk1 Transits, I'd have thought the best place to get them would be Malta where at least recently they were still reasonably common.  Better climate too.  

[fred]

5 minutes of restoration, the rest crap.

 

Rapidly losing interest in the show.

It pretty much went into freefall after the Aston prog

[trigger]

 

 

On Mk1 Transits, I'd have thought the best place to get them would be Malta where at least recently they were still reasonably common. Better climate too.

The one they restored on the show was a Maltese one that had been imported over.

[flat4alfa]

Car SOS, Tim is also an ex DJ, who's bird once got so pissed off with him, she sold his Lotus on egay for a BIN 50p, and then bought it back after she'd calmed down

 

EFA  

 

[PiperCub]

Car SOS probably gets music dropped in 'cause Fuzz is a musician. PWEI and Bentley Rhythm Ace, I think?

 

And The Wonderstuff too.

[billyboy406v6]

No longer watch it, crap.

[Timewaster]

On the Facebook cossie fanciers page they claim the cosworth Car Sos did was bodged and got stripped and rebuilt shortly after the show went out.

 

They do spout a lot of horse shit on there though.

[beko1987]

I read about that, the owner kicked up over the different engine, and that the numbers didnt match or something

 

Pardon, im sorry, the engine they put in that cossie looked 1000% better than what was in it when they collected it, some people dont deserve help...

 

Source waa a ford fprum though so no idea of the legitness etc

[UltraWomble]

Better get Gideon to get a wriggle on with his pick up

[Slappy]

Hmm, I may have been dreaming it, but I'm fairly sure I saw a bull nose Mk1 today partially under a tarp in West Sussex.

 

PS, that wasn't Fred in the "owners club" part of the show, was it?

[Vin]

I think that lass with the Hendrix camper is related to the Transit club bloke who told them they're bullnose was rare. He was in a very recent Practical classics with the resto of his early MK1 and the rest of his fleet was in the mag. The Hendrix camper was pictured as part of the collection...

 

 

When they said it was a 1970, I thought it would be a H or J plate...But now Trig mentions it being a Maltese import, it explains that reg plate they had on it...I guess they made black and silver plates up, but used the Maltese reg number (3 letters, 3 numbers)....just to get it mobile...

[mat_the_cat]

that lass with the Hendrix camper

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jq0P0yiO7Oc

[sheffcortinacentre]

no not fred shes shorter with long hair & is a WOMAN.

[quicksilver]

Not been watching this series religiously but I've seen a few episodes and one thing I've noticed is that they veer away from the point a lot more instead of just focusing on the vehicle they're restoring. Tractors and armoured cars are all very nice but don't really have much to do with Transit vans. They didn't explore the history of that Transit at all - never did they actually say it had been imported from Malta or why it was signwritten for Weller hair products - there could have been an interesting story there.

[jonny69]

^ Yeah but that would involve talking to sad-cases like us on the internet and trying to prise some information out of us without giving the game away. Then, if they merely got one word incorrect on the show, we'd dismiss the whole series as rubbish.

[sierraman]

If it was 2.5 hours of watching some bloke replacing the valve guides then nobody would watch it. I suppose the back story is its entertainment value. It does look a bit staged though, especially that Aston, the brake discs weren't even rusty. There's never a point where they are cutting off the sills and they realise its got the structural integrity of a sieve as is how it happens in real life.

[flat4alfa]

The DBS episode was great.  It's gone downhill since then.

 

Since when was a Transit an Alvis Saladin?

[The Reverend Bluejeans]

I won't watch it any more. So there.

 

The first series with the Stag, Mexico etc was really rather good. 

 

This one though is shit, and here's why. TV, like everything else in the UK and civilised world* is dumbed down to appeal to fucking morons.

 

Morons like Scouting for girls, grow wanker beards and watch X Factor. They think Will i Am has genuine talent and that Amanda Holden is sincere. So, music, TV........entertainment if you will, is dumbed down to the lowest common denominator so that as many Morons as possible will lap it up. After so many years, those with 50% or more of the required level of wits to eat, breathe and wipe their arse think it's normal to be treated like a fucking idiot. Glennister knows it a pile of shit, hence the total lack of interest.

 

Sadly, FTLOC has gone this way. The first series clearly didn't hit the required numbers for shareholders to thumb up a new series. 

 

How to we boost ratings?

 

Make TV for idiots.

 

As Dave Gilmour once wrote in a tune, 'Who cares what it's about as long as the kids go?".

[dugong]

^ Yeah but that would involve talking to sad-cases like us on the internet and trying to prise some information out of us without giving the game away. Then, if they merely got one word incorrect on the show, we'd dismiss the whole series as rubbish.

 

Oddly enough, it's almost as if humans produced the series and mistakes crept in because of the fallibility of said meatbags. Same thing happens in publishing. 

That said, I'm not prepared to defend the new series. I held off from watching it because of the bad reviews; unfortunately, most of them turned out to be accurate. 

 

Why the producers have decided to force a magazine format on the whole affair I'm not really sure - although I can hazard a guess. Either they're gunning for the stray Top Gear audience or a new producer has been installed at the helm. From what little work I've done in television, it's not uncommon for a producer \ director to parachute in with dreams of grandeur (warranted or otherwise) and pull a programme or film in a particular director to best fit their 'vision'. A friend at University got perilously close to AD'ing his own series, only for the production team to turn on him on the last minute and reshoot the lot on the say-so of a better known producer \ director. 

 

It hasn't been completely bereft of special moments, mind. The Saab package probably features one of Erik Carlsson's last ever appearances on camera; whether you liked the human interest denoument at the end depends on your outlook on life. 

[RoadworkUK]

 

As Dave Gilmour once wrote in a tune, 'Who cares what it's about as long as the kids go?".

 

Not now, John.

 

We've got to get on.

[Clanger]

It's because these "unscripted reality" shows are all scripted and formula driven.  Whatever your opinion on JC is, at least he makes a point of laughing at the fact that Top Gear has won the award for the best unscripted* show.  (*caution, show may in fact be scripted)

 

You see, we, the couch dwelling, lager guzzling, crisp munching, drooling half wit audience need to have "characters" and stories and such so that we can understand the TV executives vision.

 

The basic formula, as seen on UK and US shows seems to be:

 

Billy Bob and Joe (use relevant presenters) are looking for a super rare (insert car here), but they're on a budget, ho hum.

 

Result! They have found the holy grail of 1976 Skodas, but it's in a bit of a state and the owner wants too much money for it... what will the boys do now - Enter Mike Brewer for some "ace" negosheyashuns, and guess wat?  "owld auht yer 'and, I've jus brought me a Mk 7 Bi turbo, Escort Karman Ghia for a bag of sand..."  Don't forget Richard Rawlins - bought it for a dollar and gonna flip for a cool mil - whooooooo!

 

But when they get it back to the shop... uh oh... there's a problem, it's made of swiss cheese - not too worry we'll just use a different car and pretend it's the same one - job's a good un.  And to make matters worse, Bernie has gone off in a fake norf lundon strop, yelling in cockernee at his mouth breathing Canadian bum chum.  Hmm, what to do now...?  Perhaps some hi-jinks should ensue relieving all the stress and pressure so that everyone can get back to work with a smile on their lips and a song in their heart!  Yay - the day is saved.

 

Then there's the fake disaster - you know, the one where the canadian knuckle dragging poof fake drops the windscreen for the super rare mota they're working on.  That plot theme is such a winner that it was recycled and used in the spin off of Fast and Loud - awesome, just awesome, I never get tired of watching the piss poor acting, "oh dear, whoopsie, I have just tripped and dropped the glass, woe is me."

 

Never fear though, at the end there will be arty soft-filtered shots of a top qwality resto which will sell easily to a contented buyer for a super massive profit for our loveable rogues!  (caution, profit may or may not be fake and no guarantees real or implied are intended).

 

That being said, Fuzz seems like the sort of bloke you could have a pint with dahn at the local - Tim, might respond well to a punch in the bollocks.  Edd China also seems like a decent geezer, as for Bernie and Mario, well I would rather eat a box of spiders than spend any time with that pair.

[dugong]

Top tip for everyone who isn't enjoying FTLOC: DSLR cameras are cheap. Editing software is cheap. Crack on and generate your own content. Make it as niche as you want; it's the internet. 

I can't be bothered. I'm not paid enough; I watch Roadkill instead. 

[The Reverend Bluejeans]

Not now, John.

 

We've got to get on.

 

 

Fuck all that!

[Jerzy Woking]

It's like bands in popular music-how many times have you heard people say "I liked them before they made it big"? Dragging everything down to the lowest common denominator to make a program more popular seems to be the way of television now.

 

As long as Project Binky doesn't go down this path...........

[Coprolalia]

I can't be bothered. I'm not paid enough; I watch Roadkill instead. 

 

Entirely agree, although they've got a little bit over the top now they've started dropping LS6 motors in everything with their funding from dodge.

 

They never made a better episode than when they dumped that 440ci out of an old motor home with the plastic thermoquad carb into the 60s charger (Although sticking nitrous on a scrapyard Barracuda then drag racing it was pretty good).

[Cavcraft]

I like it and I like Wheeler Dealers.