Dyed in the wool petrolhead Tim Shaw and his mechanical maestro buddy Fuzz Townshend are back for another brand new series of everyones favourite car restoration show, Car SOS. The dynamic duo return for the shows incredible 12th series, which sees them and their team restore another stunning list of rare motors.
Tim and Fuzz! It is great to have you both back for the brand new Car SOS Series 12! Fans of the show have a juicy line up of great classic cars to look forward to. Plus the life changing moments for the cars deserving owners, who get a well deserved boost.
Tim – I hope so, I hope so! We are 12 years in now Niall… it is hard to believe it! I remember when we did Car SOS series 10 and then Car SOS series 11. Times flown by! We’ve had some wonderful cars this series but we’ve actually really focused more on peoples stories. Every series we never really know who is going to apply and this year we’ve had some really emotional stories. Fuzz and myself have had plenty of fallout over the level of restoration we go into. I’m always “lets get it back to the owners as quick as possible as time is of the essence”.
Fuzz – Listen I’m always pushed to get as much done as possible because lets face it… why not?! It is a good bar to set… get in there and actually push forward and get as much done. I know we are often working with limited time frames but it doesn’t mean we should rest on our laurels and just stick to getting the engine done and the tyres etc. But Niall we have got to push it all the time.
Speaking of emotional stories in this series of Car SOS, the Ford Popular owned by Andy, what a tough deal he was dealt. A heartbreaking story.
Fuzz – Tell us some of the things that happened to Andy… he’s been through it. Cerebral Palsy is a tough hand to be dealt from birth and then to end up being abandoned by his parents. Luckily he found a great foster home to be brought up in which was great but then… to have to suffer at the hands of horrible horrible bullies, around him and where he and his wife Kim were living. Andy got stabbed because of those types of people. It was absolutely disgusting, there’s no other word for it.
Tim – And it makes you realise what his Ford Popular meant to him. It was a real learning curve for us and you’ll see it in the episode. For Fuzz and me it was very much about the hot rod scene and how welcoming and non judgemental it is. And to realise what this Ford Popular means to them, giving Andy and Kim an open door and beyond it is a group of people with open arms who are welcoming. It gave them something to look forward too and it was like giving them their life back! Fuzz and I actually felt a little bit embarrassed that we didn’t know more about the hot rod scene… we just hadn’t stumbled across it.
Fuzz – Yes if you don’t follow that hobby and part of the classic car community, you just don’t know anything about it. You know I probably wouldn’t buy a hot rod myself but those people were wow something else and you could that that was Andy and Kim’s family. We were the guests and the outsiders and it was Andy and Kim saying “this is our world come on in”, rather than us presenting something to them in a sort of alien setting. They were part of this huge family and it was great to see it. And you know so people will go up to you at a car show and ask you what your car is worth… to me the value of a classic car is not in its material worth if you ask me.
It shows how important the classic car community is… classics are not just objects or assets, they mean so much more. It can create this wonderful sense of community and inclusion.
Tim – And more so with the hot rod scene than any other scene I’ve come across, all these guys there, some pretty burly looking guys with just warm smiles on their faces saying come on over and let me show you round my car. Not the image you’d expect at all.
And who knew Workshop Phil had a tattoo as well!
Fuzz – Ha he’s covered in them… just in places you can’t see!
Tim – Places you wouldn’t want to see!
Speaking of valuable cars, the Alpina E30 belonging to Mazz that you restore in this series… that was a special car… the ultimate BMW and an icon of icons. And Tim when you were driving that car you could see you were doing the mental maths working out how many kidneys you’d need to see to buy one!
Tim – Better than an M3! Oh yeah that was a meet your heroes moment for me. Look when I grew up the E30 was always the one for me. When everyone else was obsessed with the M3 I was more into the Alpina. And when I had my BMW I was collecting the badges and the wheel and all the other bits to make it look like an Alpina. So to be working on a genuine Alpina on the show and then to go out to Germany… that was one of those moments… I can still see the sign and remember looking up and going what the hell! It actually exists, it is not just some mythical factory… they actually exist and make these cars. It was amazing!
The lineup of cars in this series really is superb. One of the real standouts is the Citroen SM. It is the zenith of the incredible line of DS cars. A design and a thought process that has never been repeated since.
Tim – Niall I just love the French designers, when other car designers were just keeping things simple and not doing funky things like with the headlights to make them look round corners… nobody else is doing it. And the French go that’s exactly why we should be doing it! Self entering steering… nobody else is doing it… brilliant there’s an opportunity! We will never see free thinking like that again. I really don’t think it will happen again and I love the French for that.
Fuzz – Thats right. Basically most cars that you could buy in the late 1960s/70s, if they involved any technology whatsoever, you were better off avoiding them. Lots of strings and cables and dodgy functioning electronics and lots of stuff like that. How anybody got to the moon I have no idea! How lucky were they!
Tim – If they did get to the moon!
Fuzz – Ah yes Tim is Mr Conspiracy Theory
Well Tim did actually go full on Area 51 with the Citroen SM, but in fact it was more Quai de Javel… the factory in Paris where they were built.
Tim – Absolutely! I love it! It is the one car I fell in love with across the series that I wouldn’t want to own. I want Fuzz to own one and you to own one Niall so I can come and see.
Fuzz – Yes can you imagine joining any sort of road recovery service and you told them you owned a Citroen SM… thats the one where the screens go blank… “Sorry Sir we don’t cover those particular motor vehicles”.
Tim and Fuzz were talking to Niall Julian
“The new season 12 of Car S.O.S is on National Geographic every Thursday from Thursday 7th at 8pm”
