Can The Car Show Smoke Top Gear America? First, Speed Must Give It A Green Light.

Adam Carolla, Dan Neil, Matt Farah, John Sally

Top Gear UK’s acceleration marks of success are burned deep into the global, car-loving psyche with little car-centric competition to surpass decades worth of staggering popularity–including the American version of the show.

This may all change if cable channel, SPEED, commits to the tentatively titled, The Car Show, featuring: ex-KROQ funnyman, Adam Carolla; Pulitzer Prize winning auto writer, Dan Neil; ex-NBA basketball player and host on The Best Damn Sports Show Period, John Salley; and the infamous Matt Farah of The Smoking Tire fame.

Our in-house car guru, Lightning, got to talk to Matt Farah about the status of The Car Show, how the metaphorical wheels were set into motion and what it’s like to wax humorous on a literal set of wheels, albeit attached to a hunk of steel.

Matt Farah

Founding The Smoking Tire in 2009 as a response to the internet success of Garage419, Matt Farah and his crew are just regular dudes that live, eat, and dream cars. While there are a lot of automotive aficionados out there, Farah struck proverbial oil with his video commentary on everything with four wheels. Farah described The Smoking Tire to Lightning:

“TheSmokingTire.com is a website that I started with my friend and although there is writing and editorials on it, it’s based mostly on videos. Ten minute videos. Not just a car review. Usually there’s something else to it. Something fun.. “ We don't have to listen to anybody. It's the internet.
” We don’t have to listen to anybody. It’s the internet. We can say whatever we want. There’s no FCC to deal with.”

“We have a very dedicated fan base. We really love our fans. It’s been amazing because we’ve been able to do The Smoking Tire our own way with our own rules and here we are. People have seen it and want us to do television right now.”

Part of the reason Farah was offered a television hosting gig was through a regular Smoking Tire viewer and Los Angeles car collector, David Houston.

David Houston / Barney's Beanery

 

“It’s an interesting story. A guy named David Houston who is the owner of the Barney’s Beanery chain of restaurants here in LA, he was a fan of my internet show. He’s a really good guy and a little bit of a car collector.”

“He had a Ford GT that he thought I might enjoy really testing on the show. He said, ‘You know, feel free to use my car for the day.’ So we did and made an episode on ‘The Smoking Tire’ about it. He took that episode and I guess he really liked the way it came out.”

“He showed it to Neil Mandt, who’s a Hollywood producer… Neil saw it, liked my work, and said ‘I’d like you to come in and have a chat.’ “ We're looking for something that is not building cars.
” Head of Programming, Speed So I went and talked to him. It was a nice little talk, but nothing special. And then literally like three days later, George who is the head of programming for SPEED also had a meeting with Neil and said, ‘We’re looking for a new car show. We’re looking for something that is not building cars. Neil showed George the video and said, ‘Yeah, let’s get that guy on the show.’”

“They went to Adam Carolla and said, ‘You’d be great to be the main host.’ He’s got a great name, everybody knows he’s into cars, he’s got his talkcast that he’s been doing and so they said, ‘Let’s have Matt and Adam kind of work together.’ Then they brought in Dan Neil and John Salley later.”

Not only is the show hosted by a diverse array of personalities and talent, Farah said that when they finally filmed the pilot in-house, none of them had ever been on stage together–much to the audience’s surprise.

“We had to take the producer’s words that they felt the chemistry would work. I can’t control anybody else but I figured if I showed up and did my job right that I could at least contribute more than my fair share of knowledge and humor to it. I can’t tell you what the content of the pilot is specifically but “ People in the audience who were there watching couldn't believe that we'd never worked together before because it just flowed.
” people in the audience who were there watching couldn’t believe that we’d never worked together before because it just flowed.”

“I was personally very impressed at how well it flowed together, especially considering there is no script with the exception of a couple little intros…It’s just ‘Let’s put these guys together and see what happens.’”

Adam Carolla, Matt Farah / Adamcarolla.com

“It’s clear that Adam is the guide of the show. He introduces most of the topics and sort of kicks it out to us…He’s got a lot of experience doing that sort of thing  and I’m happy that he’s there to do it. From my own personal experience with my internet show, I’ve never written a script in my life. I’ve never written anything. I just think up a few topics and I just go out there and do it. Not to really toot my horn, I’m one of a very small group of people out there that can sit down and do a ten minute car review without writing down anything.”

This ability to freestyle and work off-script is very different from the American and less popular version of Top Gear. Farah said that he thinks the guys who host Top Gear USA are incredibly funny as individuals and even collectively when they are not scripted, but that adhering to too much structure has been the main downfall of Top Gear USA.

Top Gear (c) The History Channel

 

“It’s not that we all sat around thinking US ‘Top Gear’ sucks. I’ve attended a taping of ‘Top Gear’ and I know all the hosts…I really like those guys…When I was at the taping, between takes, the hosts would be joking around with the audience and the audience would be laughing and then they’d say action and it got very stiff.”

“I talked to the producers about that and I said ‘You know, guys, these hosts are way funnier when you let them go off script a little bit and let them do their own thing.’ And they said, ‘Yeah, I know, but it’s the first season and if we let them go off script they’d be all over the place.’”

Learning from the mistakes of Top Gear USA, Farah explained that his producers, his co-hosts, and himself are going a different, more improvisational route with the show in hopes that their natural humor shines through.

“The producers of our show, as well as myself, Adam, Dan, and John–we completely disagree with that. “ We think you can make a great car show if you choose the right people and let them do their own thing.
” We think you can make a great car show if you choose the right people and let them do their own thing. You don’t need a script if you got the kind of people on it that don’t need to be scripted.”

Of course, there are practical reasons why a major television station would require their off-the-cuff, sometimes politically incorrect hosts to follow a specific tone–advertising dollars. In a world where the media explicitly caters to corporations that fund their endeavors, especially in the multi-billion dollar automotive field, how does Farah plan to retain his integrity as a no bullshit car guy? Farah responded:

“I understand that the audience wants honesty and the audience is used to 17 years of ‘Top Gear’ BBC honesty…All I can tell you is that the producer’s of the show and the SPEED executives involved have said, ‘Be yourself. Say what you want. We’re not going to censor you If you’re going to trash a car, fine, but have a reason.’”

“I can say what I want, but the general standard with automotive journalism is, if someone’s advertising in your magazine or someone’s paying for something that you’re doing and you don’t like their product, you just have to give a good reason why. And I would do that anyway. If I don’t like a car, I’ll tell you, but I will tell you why I don’t like it. I’ll give a real reason.”

“ At the end of the day, automotive journalism is still someone's opinion.
” “I’m more than happy to say if a car has problems and I explain what those problems are. At the end of the day, automotive journalism is still someone’s opinion.”

“Is my opinion more valuable than anyone else’s? Maybe, because there’s a camera on me…I work with Ford a lot. I happen to love their products. But I also own a Corvette which I’ve owned for 12 years. So I have one Ford and one Chevy in my driveway right now. I have repeatedly trashed the new Camaro. And everyone says, ‘Oh, you’re biased. You’re a Ford fanboy.’”

“No, I’m not, because the only car I’ve owned for 12 years is my Corvette which I love. I like good cars regardless of who makes them.”

In a corporate-controlled world, Farah’s attitude is refreshing, to say the least. It is just up to SPEED to green light what could become the true US version of Top Gear; a show that pays homage to the ingenious of Top Gear UK, but from what Farah describes as a “uniquely American perspective.”

“SPEED has not purchased the series yet. I can tell you that there were several executives from SPEED that were at the pilot taping and from what I gather they were very pleased with our work. Like the audience, they said that you’d never know that the four of us were on a stage together for the first time. It really did kind of click.”

“From my perspective and the other hosts’ perspectives, we’re all optimistic. Keeping our fingers crossed. Something could happen and it could all go to hell tomorrow, but at the end of the taping we all felt confident that SPEED is going to order a series of this show.”

“As for the pilot itself, I’m not sure if or when the pilot will air. There’s certainly some great stuff in there; it’s not perfect. I don’t think anyone expected perfection the first time…The one thing that can’t be fixed if it’s broken is ‘Is this the right talent for the show?’ I’m confident that everyone that’s worked on the show so far as well as the audience feels like the talent is right, the chemistry is right, right off the bat, and if we can tweak a few other things when we go to series then we’re going to have a hell of a show on our hands.”

“We’re going to do things that haven’t been tried before to make a ‘Top Gear’-quality show. I’m not saying copy ‘Top Gear,’ because we don’t want to copy Top Gear, but make a show that’s on that level, but from a uniquely American perspective.”

If The Car Show does get picked up, Farah said that it will be the kind of car show that will change how people watch car shows and in a way, appreciate cars. Simply the humor will appeal to broad audiences, even those not normally inclined to watch a car show.

“ If you're not that into cars, you still have four funny guys on stage.
” “We’re looking for prime time show that will appeal to everybody. Not just about Nascar and not just fans of building hot rods or auctions. It’s gotta be a real show for real people…This show is kind of like one of those sports shows but it’s based on cars and if you’re not that into cars, you still have four funny guys on stage.”

“My girlfriend was in the audience for the taping, she knows nothing about cars, and she was laughing her ass off. So that’s what we want. We want the guy who loves cars to able to sit down and watch this show with his girlfriend…A car show for everybody.”