It’s always with anxious anticipation that my wife and I await the next season of Netflix’s Car Masters: Rust to Riches, with its Temecula, California based crew of Tony, Constance, Caveman, and Shawn, headed up by its fearless leader Mark Towle.
As you know by now Season 4 left us with a bit of a “that’s it?” cliffhanger moment and introduced us to Nick Smith, “one of the country’s premiere high-end car brokers” and his fabrication crew of Brian and Jake looking to come together “to elevate the Gotham Garage brand.” – whatever that (still) means.
If for some reason you’re new to the show and trying to get caught up, here’s a shortcut to jumpstart you into Season 5, or just a great reminder of all the things you might have forgotten over the last couple of years.
Let’s get after it…
Jumping back into the fray, it’s demolition derby night at the Perris Auto Speedway on Episode 1 of Season 5! After what we might call an “off-site team building exercise” it’s business as usual for the Gotham team. The first car on the docket is a 2013 Dodge HEMI Charger that they pick up for $22k for “new generation collector” Tony Nino who can be found on social media sporting cars like Ford GTs, Lamborghinis and the like. Hold up… “You have cars like THAT! What do you want with a 10 year old Charger?”
The goal in this first build is to not only “test the skills” of Brian and Jake to see if they are up to Mark’s standards, but turn it into a 1969 Charger Daytona Superbird homage with a $135k payout. Nick continues to push the team about how these customs need to be turned out with precision but also very quickly, to which my wife blurted out “excuse me, but… you can’t be big volume and boutique” and that sentiment is something that unfortunately lingers throughout the rest of Season 5.
Stellantis & Co.
The Charger build wasn’t without its own complications and issues. Number one being they decided to convert the original Mercedes E-class > Chrysler 300 based Charger from a 4-door to a 2-door by removing the B-pillar, shifting it back 14-inches and extending the doors. Part way through the build process, there were concerns about the rigidity of the chassis. A couple of “duh-doy” and colorful expletive’s from my wife later, we noted some serious continuity issues in the filming for the first time on the show. Pay close attention to the door panels during the various testing sessions. One minute they are there, the next they are gone, and so on. All we can say is, careful editing room tricks can provide unnecessary drama.
While the Charger is being completed, the team also picks up a ’68 Plymouth Barracuda with a built 360 V8 for $15k, and begins to devise their famed “Upgrade & Trade” Plan.
For those unfamiliar with “Black 3.0,” it’s touted as “the blackest-black ever created.” The paint lays with a flat finish (think charcoal briquette) that absorbs an advertised 95% of visible light. It’s scientifically intriguing, but seeing the final product you might also consider it an acquired taste.
At this point, we’re starting to realize a couple of new trends. There’s lots of focus on MOPAR and in some ways Stellantis (the parent company of Dodge, Ferrari, etc) in this season, which led us to wonder if they were subliminally sponsoring the show now. The second trend is that the OG Gotham Team would stick to an “Upgrade & Trade” path while Nick’s team was sequestered to the second shop working on the high-end customs. Doesn’t feel like the team is coming together, and it’s obvious there is a difference in management style. But for now, we’ll chock it up to growing pains.
Is there a doctor (of electrical engineering) in the house?
As you can imagine, the drag race went as expected with the help of the “go-baby-go” button affixed to the Barracuda. This opened the door for the team to customize a Tesla Model S for a customer who was interested in doing what people might consider “the unspeakable:” converting it from an EV to a 383-stroker V8. The customer claims that, “this is the best of both worlds” and we’re thinking, if they *can* pull this off, you might be able to have your cake AND eat it, too.
Under immense pressure from “the customer” who wanted this Tesla conversion to be completed in 3 weeks or less, and due to extremely complicated electrical issues that Tony was faced with trying to get everything to work together, they missed their window and the Ferrari 458 deal fell apart.
“Do you remember when the Fast & Furious went into space?” my wife asked, I couldn’t help but chuckle at that one. And she’s right, the entirety of this build – which carries over the better part of two and a half episodes – seems very staged, farfetched, and over produced. We found ourselves asking, “Is there even really a buyer?” The mission became to sell the Tesla for $90k instead of trading it. Ok. Fine. But who is going to buy it?
“Hot Rod-Inspired Furniture” – Are we IKEA now?
Like every season of Car Masters, it’s never one build at a time, usually two and sometimes three simultaneously. This allows the producers to overlay as much of the months and months of work as they can into eight, 45-minute episodes. This also means we spent nearly the entirety of Episode 3 working on “Hot Rod-Inspired Furniture” for one of Nick’s clients looking to outfit his “man cave” with some custom kit. We expected this gentlemen’s bar to be something off the pages of Garage Style Magazine, but in fact is was quite empty and plain and in desperate need of some talking pieces in the room.
As we mentioned earlier, there was a heavy Stellantis presence this season, and therefore what did the team *find* for the custom couch? Why none other than a ’60s Plymouth rear-end! Coincidence? Hmm.
As complicated as it was to convert the Coke machine into a modern sized beer machine and as uncomfortable as the couch looks to sit in, the team did a stellar job. The new furniture looked great in the customer’s home. We also noted that there are more “confessionals” with clients than any prior season. It provides some immediate and direct feedback from the customer rather than someone from the crew saying “yea, they were super happy with that build… right?”
Here I come to save the day!
Shawn is apparently over his head and *surprisingly* can’t find anyone to buy the converted Tesla. Nick steps in to help Shawn and save the day. How much of this is real, and how much is the show trying to prove either of their value going forward, is yet to be determined. Their roles seem redundant.
Four episodes in and the Tesla has become this season’s albatross, lurking on the back burner until they find “the right buyer.” That moment allegedly comes and it’s the typical Shawn high/low price-is-right action. “125k! … 65k! … We can come down to 90k … How about 78? .. . let’s settle on 78.5!” – because the extra $500 really makes all the difference, right? #thepriceisWRONGbob. This ends in us calling shenanigans as the deal falls apart and Shawn is suddenly up against a wall and the plan is back to trading for the Tesla! whomp-whomp.
Is this end of the Gotham Spider webs?
The Tesla deal did end in a trade, “Jimbo” a collector with random tastes negotiated with the team to unload five cars and an additional $35k in cash for the V8 Tesla. Tony calls a “come to Jesus meeting” which ends in a punny “dollars make sense” way.
He urges the team to pursue a bike build, which as we’ve seen in previous seasons are exceptional and can be very lucrative. They pick up a $5k Harley Dyna and create a Black/Brown “Super Villian Bike” for $41.5k (bringing in a tidy $25k profit). At this point the bike is one of the best builds of the season, hands down.
During the bike build, we also got a “meeting with mom,” where Caveman’s mother Saundra stops by the shop for a “spot of tea” with fellow Brit Nick. She’s always a delight, and we enjoy it whenever she can drop in and check on her son during the season, while bringing the team some “biscuits and lemonade.”
The Fun Builds
Let’s not forget that the Tesla was sold, but also came with five vehicles. This included a 1960’s VW Bus body, a ’35 Ford, a pontoon boat, a square body pick-up and a Yanko S/C labeled Chevelle.
Like every Car Masters season there’s always a set of over the top “where’d they come up with that idea”-style build. In this case, Nick comes up with a M29 Weasel personnel carrier “mini-tank” rat-rod combination (above) that an off-road motorsports park owner is willing to pay $55k to have commissioned (making $23.5k in profit).
Constance ran a tight $10k budget on the square-body while Tony ran the restomod. Gabby Downing, a pro-drifter who pilots a prepared Corvette C5, ends up with the square-body at $32.5k. #spoileralert We’ve reached out to Gabby, and she’s agreed to come on Break/Fix podcast to tell her story and talk about the truck. So stay tuned to the show for more details on that.
Next comes the Hippie Party boat. Of the vehicles sold as part of this lot, this is the one where it really grates on us how one-dimensional Shawn’s selling style is. I was able to hit the number dead-on at 42K-and-$500 before the handshake. (sigh).
The Chevelle is the pay day car, clocking in at $60k. The plan is to use that money as a down payment on a Ferrari. “Now we’re going to *BUY* a Ferrari?” my wife said. Yep, you heard them right. But not just *ANY* Ferrari.
The Little Green Monster
Earlier in the season, we were teased with the possibility of an upgrade and trade for a $200k pay day with a Ferrari 458 build that falls through. Since then, Nick has been working his network to try and find another Ferrari. The next 3 episodes are focused mainly on the Ferrari and its transformation. There is so much involved in this build, that we actually got together with well-known Ferrari broker, and Break/Fix co-host William Ross from the Exotic Car Marketplace to discuss this car on his show: The Ferrari Marketplace Podcast. Rather than writing it all out, tune into the episode below.
If you didn’t take the time to digest all that, here’s some pictures to lead your imagination, feed your questions, and get you thinking: Would you buy this green 360?
Spoiler Alert! – Season 6 and Beyond…
The 360 does sell, leaving us asking, “What’s next for Gotham Garage?”
The reactions above really capture our feelings about how Season 5 ended. But before the season closes out, there’s one more meeting between the trio of Mark, Shawn and Nick.
They find themselves at a high-end exotics dealership with Nick presenting a “next level opportunity:” a package deal for a Ferrari 612 Scaglietti *AND* a 458 Italia to be “customized” (with no confirmed clients) at the bargain combo price of $290k.
That’s a huge investment for anyone. Even with a Hollywood budget to gamble on these cars, it’s a bit much. The reluctance coming from Mark and Shawn seems genuine, and we begin to see some of Nick’s selling style emerge as he continues to play hardball with them on this deal. “This is the game you wanted to play… If you don’t dare, you don’t win.” #rollcredits.
If you read our previous reviews (or listened to the audio version), you’ll know that we are die-hard fans of this show, its crew, and the work they’ve accomplished. We are a Car Masters #rideordie Family. Our review might come off rather hard to the casual passerby, but it’s not without merit. As we’ve said before, Season 1 (and Season 2) were so good, they are the standard at which everything is compared.
So where does that leave us? We’re hoping for a Season 6. We’re hoping Season 6 doesn’t take another year to get posted to Netflix. My wife commented that she would also be interested in “seeing a spin-off with just Tony, Caveman & Constance” and I tend to agree.
Unless Mark, Shawn and Nick can find a groove that brings the show back to where it was, the alternative is a modern version of Danny Kokers’ “Counting Cars,” where they’ll mod just about anything. We hope for more from this team.
I can’t wait to see what they chose to do did they take the deal when’s the new season