Car SOS, and supplying full suspension for a car with a worldwide audience!
CAR SOS, Our International TV debut!
Car SOS, if you’re not familiar with the program, is a popular classic-car restoration programme here in the UK, produced by National Geographic. They take very much loved and cherished (but often very very broken) cars from people who are unable to fix them themselves, and give them a complete overhaul. The owners of these cars are often people who are very deserving of such a fantastic opportunity, but are kept completely unaware of the complete rebuild… right until the finished car is revealed in front of them.
The ‘nominee’ is put forwards by friends or family, and the process a very secretive deal right up until the last moment!
It’s a fantastic format and a very very well produced show, made by a very talented bunch and fronted by presenters Tim Shaw and Fuzz Townshend. It shows on Free to air channel E4 after the initial premier on NatGeo, and then slowly makes its way around the world!
Back in 2020, we had the opportunity of a lifetime, and we’re offered a ‘spot’ in the build process of an up and coming Car SOS vehicle.
I got a surprise call one morning from the very Lee Southerton of Volksmagic, and he shared with me some details of the then-mysterious car.
Me and Lee hit it off instantly, and we confirmed we’d be on board with the project and ready to lend our help when needed.
VolksMagic were rebuilding the car at their Birmingham HQ, and a friend of mine had very kindly put our name forwards as a potential source for a show-stopping suspension setup, which would have real world function along with the obvious visual impact!
Over the next few weeks, we supplied and fitted one of our complete EvaResto Premium Suspension kits, and Airlift Performance 3P management. Hanging around and working with the team at Volksmagic, and Car SOS was one of the absolute highlights of my career. Hopefully this isn’t just peaking too early - was one of my thoughts at the time ;).
Over the course of a few months, the car was taken from an absolute rotten mess, to show stopper, built to an unbelievable (especially given the time frame!) standard.
When I say rotten mess… you’re probably thinking what I thought when I heard about it for the first time! It’s an old beetle, of course it’s rotten! But really, this one was bad, and had been subject to years of very poor work and bodge over bodge…
We had to keep the car and the whole deal very very secret, as any word out in public could have easily made it back to the owner of the chosen car! The car is a 1969 Vw Beetle, with a Wizard Roadster conversion.
This conversion was very popular in the late 80’s and through the 90’s, and took a then cheap and cheerful beetle, and transformed it into a cool 2-seat roadster.
The car in focus belongs to Cornwall resident Andreas Christopheros. Andreas had a hand in organising some of the early Run To The Sun events down in Newquay, so by default is engrained in Classic/Aircooled Vw Culture in the UK.
The Episode (Season 9 Episode 3) premiered on the 1st April 2021, on NatGeo UK.
If you search about online, you can find many clips and bits of this brilliant episode.
We featured quite heavily, and there’s even a scene where I talk to Fuzz on camera!
If you see this though, please understand that I’ve potentially never been quite so scared in all my life, all rigged up with a microphone and with cameras pointed at me and Fuzz, it was a bit of a crazy experience. Especially considering I had almost zero prep or script or anything like that!!
Be sure to search it out though if you can, it’s an absolutely fantastic watch from beginning to end.
Here is a link from YouTube that shows a shortened down version of the show. Some very good bits missed! But still worth a watch.
Enough from me now, enjoy some pictures of some of the process, and the final product!
Thanks for reading!
Max