Long forgotten British TV motoring shows

[madjules]

Riley Blue said:

Sounds like 'Driving Ambition':

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h-axSo3HN4I&li...

Look's like the one, cheers........

[Norfolkandchance]

What was the one where drivers from different motorsport disciplines competed against each other in various events? I think they were one-off programmes shown around Christmas time but there was more than one year. I seem to remember someone (Barry Sheene?) driving an Audi Coupe onto a "ferry" but basically just showing off and making a huge amount of tyre smoke which seemed cool to an 8 year old me.

[Simes205]

Are 'Kick start' and 'junior kick start' allowed on this list?

[Johnspex]

Does anyone remember the driving competition between the army and the London car/driving club? It was on Grandstand once a year. It was all off-road and against the clock. It must have been early sixties.

[OldGermanHeaps]

Not all that old but the project m1-11 documentary on the development of the elise was good.

[33q]

Rallycross......Saturday afternoons......late sixties I'd guess

Loved it.

[Shaw Tarse]

Simes205 said:

Are 'Kick start' and 'junior kick start' allowed on this list?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OJjBMYXgvB0

[JBT]

Norfolkandchance said:

What was the one where drivers from different motorsport disciplines competed against each other in various events? I think they were one-off programmes shown around Christmas time but there was more than one year. I seem to remember someone (Barry Sheene?) driving an Audi Coupe onto a "ferry" but basically just showing off and making a huge amount of tyre smoke which seemed cool to an 8 year old me.

That was 'Driving Force'. Usually presented by Mike Smith and/or Murray Walker. I was also well impressed by Barry Sheene filling the front wheel wells with tyre smoke, at probably the same age as you! I remember Tony Pond and Stefan Johansson were on one episode. Last time I looked there were a couple of clips on Youtube of one of the shows. A little bit like 'Run the Gauntlet', which I played the ZX Spectrum game of to death as a kid.

[Carfield]

lowdrag said:

"The car's the star" I remember only too well. Arrive at shoot at 2pm, arrive home at 6am and the car is shown for about 3 minutes!

The episode of 'The car's the star' about the Citroen DS is worth a look, if you have a weakness for motoring eccentrics - Alan Clark and LJKS in the same program: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1AjmLmG16Nw

[Norfolkandchance]

JBT said:

That was 'Driving Force'. Usually presented by Mike Smith and/or Murray Walker. I was also well impressed by Barry Sheene filling the front wheel wells with tyre smoke, at probably the same age as you! I remember Tony Pond and Stefan Johansson were on one episode. Last time I looked there were a couple of clips on Youtube of one of the shows. A little bit like 'Run the Gauntlet', which I played the ZX Spectrum game of to death as a kid.

Then that's confirmed- it was cool.

[Jukebag]

Just a curious observation regarding that E-Type in Driving Ambition. To me the headlights look odd, as if the lamps aren't set further in enough (in other words they appear to stick out abit more than usual), and the surrounds look like they've been modified to fit round the lamps to look like closed headlights. Looks like they fitted series 1 chrome surrounds on a series 1.5 car. Maybe it's just the angle/lighting that makes it look odd.

[Loose_Cannon]

jamesatcandsc said:

Couldn't remember it either so took the liberty of asking Chris Goffey.
He said: "The programme was called “The Motor Show” - one of the earliest shows on the then new Channel Four, and one of the first sponsored shows in television history! AC Delco stumped up some cash, and we travelled around the country doing stories in an AC Delco emblazoned Winnebago. One of the story lines was a redoubtable 100 year old lady in Wiltshire who took me for a drive in her AC Cobra. We only got one series. "

YES! YES! YES! At last someone info about this, I've even tried asking in these hallowed web pages about that particular memory and drawn a rare blank.

The old lady was a former Brooklands girl I think, she could barely talk yet wonbled up and down her private drive in a black Cobra 289. "It does make a lovely noise, doesn't it?" she asked the presenter rhetorically. Quite an entertaining programme it was, it would be great if even that one segement could be unearthed.

[Loose_Cannon]

Back in 1982-ish when regional ITV really did do one-region programmes we in the "Tyne Tees" region were treated to something presumably from "down south" which I believe was called "Wheels". There was a lengthy segment on Giugiaro Design and his prototypes. It focussed on the Medusa so that would have been about 1981. I had it taped and played it for years but sadly it was on Video 2000

Oh yes another late 80s TV show, boosted by the then booming classic car scene, was "Auto Erotic". Highlights included Peter Steven discussing the design of a lime green Miura, Chris Lackner discussing his engineless Grifo, and posh old Alexander Fyshe transporting his Maseratis (he also had a Grifo later on). It may be on tape at home somewhere, must get it digitised.

[Simes205]

Carfield said:

lowdrag said:

"The car's the star" I remember only too well. Arrive at shoot at 2pm, arrive home at 6am and the car is shown for about 3 minutes!

The episode of 'The car's the star' about the Citroen DS is worth a look, if you have a weakness for motoring eccentrics - Alan Clark and LJKS in the same program: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1AjmLmG16Nw

Yep, he's driving around in his wife's ds Chapron convertible.
Read his car diaries they are great.

[Jukebag]

The Citroen DS episode of The Car's the Star was a good one too. I'm currently going through some 180 plus tapes trying to find the episode on the Lotus 7. So far I have:
Fiat 500
Citroen DS
Citroen 2CV
VW Golf gti (why I have that one on tape I don't know, certainly not a classic in my eyes and should never be)
Ford Capri (another overrated "classic")
E-Type Jag
Austin Healey
MGB
Ford Mustang
Austin Mini
Triumph Herald
MK 2 Jag

I also came across a series aired in the early 90s on Channel 4 titled "Classic Cars", which centeted around the early 90s classic car boom.

[droopsnoot]

Jukebag said:

How many programmes have there been with the title "The Motor Show?".

And the trouble with searching for this kind of stuff is that it's so generic it's difficult to get Google to ignore anything more recent, so you end up scrolling through pages of irrelevant junk. Though that's more of a dig at Google than anything, as I find it harder and harder to limit results to anything meaningful.

Lots of names I recognise here, and lovely to see a link to the full series of "Driving Ambition". I remember watching that when it was first shown, and many years later actually speaking to the chap who owned the racing Firenza shown in the series. Still has it, I think.

[Jukebag]

Came across another car related programme (Channel 4 I think) called Ride On, presented by Muriel Gray. According to the net, it ran from 1994-1996.

[13m]

Jukebag said:

Came across another car related programme (Channel 4 I think) called Ride On, presented by Muriel Gray. According to the net, it ran from 1994-1996.

Ride on Muriel Gray?

No thank you.

[Big Rumbly]

Jukebag said:

Regarding the Granada Tonight short series Mad About Cars, in one episode the presenters travel in a Frogeye Sprite to Keswick to visit a motor museum of film/TV cars. The museum closed years ago. Geoff somebody his name was, can't recall surname, but apparently he used to do his own motors up, including a kit car and was a quite enthusiastic person. No idea if he's still around. Granada Tonight used to do a number of stories around classic motors (which I have on tape), one was of a chap who built his own kit car with a Scimitar Essex V6 engine in it, then it shows him on a large airfield racing in it with an Austin Healey 3000.

Someone told me they remembered watching a series on Channel 4 in the early 1980s in which former Top Gear presenter Chris Goffey re-builds an MGA, as well as other classic cars. No idea what this was called as I don't remember it myself, and nothing comes up about this particular series on Chris Goffey's IMDB page. Can anyone who is old enough shed any light on this programme?.

Edited by Jukebag on Friday 2nd December 17:03

I remember this show very well, it had a guest driver every week drawn from the public. I got to drive (on episode 7 I think) The William Towns Aston Martin Lagonda, great experience. The president of my car club at the time, also landed a guest drive slot and got a D Type Jaguar.
I remember about 20 friends just passing my house on the sunday afternoon just before it was about to be aired on CH 4.

[Kitchski]

Jukebag said:

The Citroen DS episode of The Car's the Star was a good one too. I'm currently going through some 180 plus tapes trying to find the episode on the Lotus 7. So far I have:
Fiat 500
Citroen DS
Citroen 2CV
VW Golf gti (why I have that one on tape I don't know, certainly not a classic in my eyes and should never be)
Ford Capri (another overrated "classic")
E-Type Jag
Austin Healey
MGB
Ford Mustang
Austin Mini
Triumph Herald
MK 2 Jag

I also came across a series aired in the early 90s on Channel 4 titled "Classic Cars", which centeted around the early 90s classic car boom.

There are loads on Youtube. The Hillman Imp one's quite good.