Hot Rod Garage – Lucky and Alex

I wasn't sure of the show's future after Tony left but if the latest episode is any indication it could become my favorite show on MotorTrend. I'm a fan of Tony Angelo and have enjoyed his new YouTube shows but he had a reputation of destroying things. Alex Taylor is the real deal. No victim complex or the tired girl power posture. She did a white board of an automatic transmission and explained the modifications to the valve body and the addition of the trans brake. Once the car (Bone Marrow Camaro) was back together they were off to the dragstrip for test and tune. She walked the audience through a methodical process of dialing things in before doing a ~10:30 pass.

The show reminded me of what I enjoyed about reading Hot Rod magazine but in show form. If you have seen the episode I'm curious what you think. If you haven't seen it I recommend watching it. If you don't have the Streaming service you may have to wait for the weekend before it airs.

Maybe she’s the next Jessie Combs

I've always liked Tony too. No nonsense or bs image insecurities. I learned to be okay with lucky's "I'm bored" personality. I have not seen one with Alex, but i'll definitely be checking it out

Hopefully she won't be trying to set any land speed records. I seen the commercial for it but haven't seen it yet either.

It's been a pretty likable show, in spite of frequent hackery, but I guess time constraints and the "everyman" approach dictate some of that.
Sounds like she'll bring a fresh outlook to the show; I haven't seen it yet.
Lucky's got a lot of West Coast style wisecracks, which I'm used to and mostly find humorous.
This could be an interesting mix.

Oh, it’s a new person to the show? I just though Tony shaved and that’s why I didn’t recognize him. 😜

Looking forward to see how the new show goes. 👍🏼

I liked the show...Lucky is a great guy, I enjoy his jokes and the fact that he's upfront about not being a show host. I've seen Alex off & on a bunch of other YouTube channels from following Cleetus & a bunch of drag & drive stuff. I think she's going to be a fun co-host. She's funny and seems to actually know what she's doing and talking about.

Faster with Finnegan is another great show.

More like F'ed up by Finnegan

I liked Lucky better then Tony but haven't watched the show since I gave up motor trend on demand.

I haven't seen the show but I have been Around Alex and her Dad on drag week since she started in 2013. They are genuinely nice people and hardcore car folks. Her dad is an amazing fabricator, some of the stuff he makes is unreal. He can paint, he can fabricate, he can build engines, he can do carbon fiber or fiberglass, its wild. If 1/3 of his talent has rubbed off on her she brings a ton to the table.

I find Alex very knowledgeable and you can tell it is not scripted and she really does know what she is talking about. Her and Lucky seem to work well together. Besides she is not bad on the eyes either.

And I thought I was the only one who thought this way.

Yeah, I like Finnegan, but I can't get into his show. Too much hacky nonsense, and the 2 co-hosts are intolerable.

It does get old watching their stuff break even more than roadkill junk but I think most of that is due to time and budget constraints, they seem to be trying to build these things in 2-3 days on shoestring budgets. The new lawn mower racing episode is hilarious

I never got into the faster show but do watch finnegans garage.

She no doubt knows what she is doing, and brings in a lot of tech knowledge to the racing part. Look how much she figured out the Bonemaro, in a short time. I just hope the entire show isn't about LS projects now.

Well it's still "Hot Rod Garage"....Tony was/is into Mopars....Not sure if Lucky or this Alex girl is...we will have to wait and see if it is mostly GM stuff or will they do other brands too?

No I am pretty sure Lucky is not a Mopar guy. I really liked the '68 (I think it was a '68) Fury wagon they built a big block stroker for.

Seems to me Lucky's mostly a GM guy, especially Chevys.
Alex has Dodge money behind her now it seems, so maybe that will factor into future projects/episodes.
I don't have a problem either way; the laws of physics don't recognize brand names.
Bear in mind that Chevys out-number Mopars by a huge number, so everything - parts costs, relatability, market size, programming, etc - is biased in that direction.
Sure, I'd like more Mopar content - if it's factually correct and useful - but we're a minority audience.

Any one that has anything to with road kill is hackery trained!

I always found Tony to be kind of arrogant - Lucky seems like a humble, talented guy I'd like to have a beer with. Alex Taylor brings skill and experience and obviously isn't afraid to get dirty. Chemistry with Lucky seemed good for a 1st episode and I wont cry over Tony's departure.

However, same network, different topic - the new show with Courtney Hansen is simply garbage! If you took every trite, made up BS Car Show drama moment from an entire season of Gas Monkey Garage added in a big helping of Overhauling sympathy plays (but skipped out on Chip Foose Talent) it still wouldn't be as bad as this crap! If Courtney Hansen was still good looking it could have been worthwhile to watch on Mute but despite being a former fashion/fitness model she looks like a sad, middle aged divorcee trying to entice guys a decade younger at Thursday Night Karaoke night down at the VFW.

Holy cow you just painted a very ugly picture!!! As soon as I read Gas Monkey Garage especially

She seems pretty sharp

I almost said something about Courtney's new show for comparison. I wished she would have stayed a brunette. Her show is what I don't like about most of the shows on MT.

I think Feiburger keeps Hot Rod Garage at arms length. Lucky is an LS man but I think they will maintain a balance of makes.

Courtney was so hot when she was on Overhaulin'

If he didn’t break stuff, he wouldn’t have anything to put on the show.

Seen a commercial for new show she has and she is still hot! Cristy Lee dropped off the radar but has a new home show. I think she should stick with cars.
https://cristylee.tv/steal-this-house-hgtv/

I think Courtney is still looking awesome, but I'm old. But that still wasn't enough to get past the first 2 minutes of the "let's give a free car to those po' underprivileged folks" show.


Alex did great on the first episode with Lucky, she seemed very natural, even though I'm sure the show was mostly scripted.

Regarding Tony, when he saved the day had drag week 2019 by rebuilding the G-Force transmission in the pits then bench pressing it back into Blasphemi, I gained a lot of respect for him. He's the real deal.

Now my 7 day free trial is over, I'll have to wait for the $1 per month MTOD Christmas deal to see the next episode.

be careful of the $1.00 per month deal, especially if using a credit card.
my one buddy did, then had to dispute the normal charge for MTOD they put on his credit card.

I'll wait till they air them on regular TV like they did with Motor Mithbusters. Wonder if they will bring that back?

I signed up for MTOD during one of their specials and never had a problem. Then I got screwed because they offered me a great renewal price but I cancelled it because Hagerty was giving a years subscription for free and ever since ever time I try to use their promotions it says not available for Canada

The latest episode with the Pinto Wagon was downright awsome. As he said at the end, it was the one episode where they actually DID go faster!



I watch both of his channels regularly.

For all the deadline pressure he must be under, he still seems to be genuinely enjoying himself.

i was one of the nay sayers with alex on the show because i liked tony, but... alex is the real deal for sure. the tuning and transbrake stuff i was impressed with on the first episode. she tuned the camaro to low 10's pretty quickly. 7/10's improvement with not much effort.

It was good in the beginning but the premise of "find random old car, fix it and drive it home" went by the wayside. Roadworthy Rescues with Derek Bieri (sp) has taken his interesting-but-overly-long Youtube videos and condensed them into a show format that resembles the old Roadkill. His shtick might get old fast for me though....most do...but he's entertaining right now. My $.02

Yeah I saw the mustang episode of that. The recycled phrases from his youtube channel will get old fast but he's more interesting to watch then some of the others.
I'm getting a bit tired of all those rescue shows they've been way over done. It's interesting to see what they find tho.

Ah, Roadworthy...I find myself laughing out loud watching it, but some of the hackery - like Roadkill - makes me cringe.
The Dodge truck ignition repair was bizarre, though.
His euphemisms are wearing a bit thin, but he's playing the hick card, and I want to repeat a couple for a few people I know when we're wrenching.
I wouldn't spin an engine over without pre-oiling & fresh oil after 20-some years of sitting, but they seem to survive it...at least briefly...

That's where the i-talian tune up comes in.

I understand what you are referring to but I don't understand why he calls it that. Any insight?

Back in the day, an "Italian tune-up" meant driving at high RPM for a good long time.
I'd say anyone using that term for a cold start-up is misusing the term, but they do use some terminology differently in the Southeast...
I'm still laughing at "spark hoses" for spark plug wires, and some of his other terminology, so no worries.

Notice the Roadkill Challenger in the background at the RR shop ? Methinks there's a tie-in of some sort.

Sparkalators, water whirler, ice cube juice...
I saw in one of his YT vids it mentioned he purchased the Vanishing Paint Challenger from them. Derek was however on the first Hoopty Challenge hosted by Freiburger. Oddly enough, one of his early vids had him saying something to the effect of ,"I'm by myself here. I don't have a film crew like Roadkill" but Roadkill was bleeped out so it was R*bleep*ill.

I think they bought the Vanishing Paint Challenger from Freiburger or Ducich or MT, whomever it was that owned it.

The VP Challenger makes an appearance on one of his latest videos where he fixes that blue camaro for one of his boys. They take the challenger and camaro out near the end.

He over does his act on the Motortrend show I think but I still enjoy it just not as much as the YouTube. Pretty smart feller already making lots of money off of YouTube then getting to do the same thing with someone else's money who then pays him more money.

He uses the name for dumping in the tune up in a can stuff but your meaning is more what we always saw it as too.

Yeah, I learned it in the late '70s from an Italian guy who worked on Ferraris & Lamborghinis...

Agreed. The show seems forced, his youtube channel seems more genuine and off the cuff. They can certainly be time consuming to watch though, he has no problems uploading feature length films. lol

someone should show up here and film me trying to accomplish anything..............
it would probably be a great hit - showing what old guys fumble around attempting to get things done in a "timely" [usually measured in days instead of minutes. ] manor.............

Longer video = more ads. 10 min video gets 3, so most drag them out to at least 10 mins. With the ones over an hour I truly think they hope you just walk away while its playing so all the ads fully play (they dont get paid when you skip them)

EDIT: None of what I wrote here was constructive so I've deleted it.