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Fast & Loud baby!

So, after work and you want to chill out with your meal and there is nothing much on the main TV channels so you tend to channel surf the niche ones and for me that means watching those re-sale shows like Storage Hunters or Pawn Stars or classic car restoration ones like Casing Classic Cars or Fantom Works. I have seen them all and when a new channel arrived on our cable platform, D-Max, car fix up show ‘Fast and Loud’ was the next cab off the rank to enjoy.

Like all of these shows they are heavily edited as far as buying and restoring cars goes and insist on having contrived ‘comedy moments to keep you entertained.  But they are real businesses with real customers having to make real money and so they have enough credibility to enjoy.

Fast & Loud is slightly different in its ego boss Richard Rawlings is building a brand through the show and so crosses that fourth wall in a way other shows don’t. The likes of Chasing Classic Cars and Fantom Works are pure car shows where as shows like Sin City and Kounts Customs have more swagger and flash, Fast & Loud very much in the latter category with celebrities and loud graphics.

The key to these shows success is the restoration of the cool cars, especially the 1960s American muscle cars.  Fast & Loud do hot rods so basically restore big powerful engine cars or put big powerful engines in cars. The other tropes of this type of show are they always have whacky mechanics that goof around between creating incredible machines and always a hot girl in the office.  The producers want you to like the guys and girls so you tune in next week and watch the commercials.

I like Fast & Loud as you learn little DIY tips for your car but you also enjoy seeing the cool cars bought back to life and each person’s roll in that, the bow on the present being the sale of the car to the eventual punter. It’s unclear if the punter actually pay that amount but they appear to but small details. Some of the scenes are recreated in pursuit of good TV and we must not forget the stars of the show are paid well to perform and so there is that show off element to them.

So if you love cars and how to look after and restore them then these shows are great fun. You don’t have to believe everything in them but just enjoy them for what they are. As Fast & Loud has just arrived on my TV I have all of the old shows to enjoy alongside the current new series running on D-Max. If you live in the UK its channel 63 and the show is on at at 8:pm every night.

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What do you think?

12 Points

Written by Phillip Ellis

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