Car Masters Season 3 – Cash is King!

There are a very few shows anymore that can be off-the-air for a year or more and still get me revved up to dive back into a full season and binge immediately. Car Masters is definitely in my Top-5 RUSToration shows; and because of COVID I’d admittedly given up on it ever coming back and I was pleasantly surprised when it popped on my Netflix homepage with the red New Episodes banner.

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Unlike other shows of this genre, Car Masters is rare in that it’s a show that I can share my review time with my wife without much complaint. She approves of the petrol-head lifestyle but isn’t always engaged at the same nerdy level the rest of us are, especially me. I credit her willingness to watch to the cast/chemistry of the Gotham Garage team, which we’ve talked about in our two previous reviews (see also: Car Masters Season 1, Season 2, +Season 4).

Out of the gate, you could tell that the team was trying to change the formula of the show; wanting to focus on “high-end customers and custom builds” (aka “Cash Builds”); And as my wife quickly pointed out after two failed attempts, “I like the fact that they’re not covering up these bad projects; no excuses, they cut their losses and move on” – within those first couple episodes it definitely cements the fact that Gotham Garage isn’t like other teams; straightforward no-nonsense and much of that is because of owner Mark Towle and his vision of what custom cars should be.

Falling back on “what worked” in previous seasons, the team pursued more “Upgrade and Trade” projects where creativity wouldn’t be stifled or as Mark puts it “I hate lists” – referring specifically to an El Camino #restomod project Shawn setup – where he was asked to build a car “from a catalog” rather than using his artistic talents. After an unbearable amount of scope creep; the project was turned away without too much drama, incomplete.

As the team got back into their groove modding cars and building up to their “6 figure pay day” many of the builds (see slide show below) featured repetitive choices in parts. One of them in particular my wife commented “are they going to use that cartoonish stack again?” – referring to the stacked intake + “roots blower” (supercharger) & cowl that you’d see on many #oldskool dragsters.

I have to agree with her, it’s cool for certain builds… but after seeing it 3 times, it does seem a bit too HotWheels-like.

A big difference from previous seasons of Car Masters was the change in focus with respect to who was conducting the narrative. Generally it would bounce between Mark and Shawn with “Office-like” asides where they explain what’s happening and what’s next with the project. In this season, Constance, Tony and Caveman were included in the monologues – and with two shops to work out of – were given creative control over their own projects; with some direction from Mark, of course!

The quality of the builds from Gotham Garage is always top-notch; but in the 8 episode season there were 2 builds that were truly compelling. Those are the “Fire Bike”  (above) which Tony built for his uncle; and Caveman’s “Short Bus” build (below). We don’t want to spoil it for you, but they are by far the best and the stories behind them are touching.

Just before Season-3 wraps up, still frustrated by the arguments surrounding “high-end builds” Mark decides he needs to stretch his creative wings and build something truly from his own vision, “a car I’ve been designing for over 20 years” he claims. Almost stubbornly engrossed in the idea that “if you build it … they will come”; this custom build is justified with the rationale that it will really put Gotham “on the map” and people will open their wallets at auction to the tune of $250-300k.

We didn’t take issue with the principle, but more so with the execution. The design itself, as my wife put it “seems dated, and juvenile” – and as a petrol-head, I was disappointed that Mark went to the “C4 Corvette” donor list yet again. He’s used that chassis as the jumping off point for many custom builds. I didn’t mind it with the Speed Racer movie car (as seen at the Peterson Museum) or the Splittin’ Image Hotwheels car from Season-1, and others… but this particular design, which takes some cues from the Bugatti Veyron looks like a mid-engine sports car – albeit exaggerated – it should have been built on a mid-engine platform. A Porsche Boxster perhaps?

Mark specifically sought out a 1993 Corvette (C4) ZR-1, the most expensive and hard to find used C4. For something this risky, I can understand falling back on what you know and it saves time to start with a motor that makes slightly over 400hp. At the cost of $20k+ for the base car, a Boxster still has my vote. All that aside, the build quickly escalates into not just the car, but a paired Hyabusa motorcycle. Ok… Bike + Car = $250k, maybe!

The 600# Gorilla… Halfway through the season, you start to realize that the majority of Car Masters Season-3 was filmed “in the before times” – on the heals of Season-2 well before COVID brought everything to a halt. Finishing the custom C4 supercar build at the start of lockdown forced the team to hold their own virtual auction via Zoom, instead of taking the pair of vehicles to Mecum, Barrett Jackson, or some other live auction that would have been in the late-winter of 2020. With a poor showing and unable to meet the reserve Mark had set out, he decided to conclude the auction without sale. The look on the team members faces when Mark drew his line in the sand, was anything but scripted. As my wife exclaimed “Constance is gonna run over an slap him!; she’s pissed.”

Toward the end of the “Going… Going… Gone” episode the team is faced with some tough decisions about “what’s next” and the Season seems to end abruptly. Looking back its been nearly a year and a half since then, so the question still remains: Will there be another Season of Car Masters? We hope so.