Want your car on TV or in a Magazine?

Behind the Scenes on TV; how do you get your car on TV?

You love cars, you think yours is one of the best and you want to see it in a magazine or on TV, right? If you love your car you have that dream. When I was in high school I would sketch hot rods, customs and Detroit Dream Cars instead of listening to the Spanish teacher. I always dreamed of owning the cover car on Hot Rod and enjoying all the glory that went with it. I also nearly flunked out of Spanish!

When I got older and actually had a dollar to spend on a car I realized how difficult and expensive that dream would likely be. However, I still worked on my cars, took pictures and sent them to magazines hoping to see my car show up some day in one of the Bibles of our hobby. Nothing happened. Then one day it all changed.

Yesterday we just finished shooting a Flashback episode for Muscle Car TV. It is the fourth one I have been involved with! We have also managed to be featured in 4 different magazine features and some other TV shows as well. What’s it like? How do you get your car on TV or in a magazine? I can only tell you what we did and it may or may not work for everyone.

First of all let me tell you about the shoot. The guys from RTM Productions who shoot Muscle Car, Andrew, Moe and Rocky were all terrific. There was never a time in the day that wasn’t fun. And I do mean the day; a full eight hours of filming the car and doing the interview will end up being 3 to 4 minutes on the screen! Some shows and some magazines will take a very short time to shoot your car and others will take hours. Some will want you to drive the car for action shots and others will take a hand full of shoots in an hour and be done. Some will mount cameras on your car (be careful with this one, damage can occur) while others will want fancy backdrops and studio lighting. I have never had two photo/filming shoots go the same but I enjoyed them all.

There is always the stranger who comes up and wants to know what movie you are shooting and asks if anyone famous is in it. I tried telling one guy I was Chip Foose and we were doing an Overhaulin filming. He went blank and walked away. I guess he didn’t see the Muscle Car license plate on the car.

Ok, a photo shoot for a magazine or a TV show is fun but how do you get to that point? Watch TV and read magazines. What do you see and what do you want to see? I know this will tick some of you off but your everyday tri-five Chevy, your Corvette or your Mustang probably just isn’t ever going to make it. To make it with one of these cars means you have to have the best of the best and there is a huge pool of cars to choose from.  I love all these cars and have owned more than one of each, but they, excuse the phrase, are as common as birds in the spring. I have had more than one editor of a magazine say “How many times can I photograph another Mustang (or insert your car here)?” In other words your car must stand out from the crowd and provide a high level of interest to the reader/viewer.

If you are Chip Foose or other well known designer/builder or just have a big wad of cash you can build a car, take it to the major shows, win some prestigious awards and you can be in a magazine. If you are like me, this approach won’t work. I am not a Foose and I don’t have a wad of cash.

What’s the answer for us? Look for something different that you can be passionate about. When I read a magazine or watch TV I want to see something I have never seen before or something really rare and unusual. I want to learn something and I want to be entertained.

My wife and I did not start out to find cars to be in magazines or on TV. We went out looking for rare cars that were not mainstream. We wanted something we could really get into that was affordable and you didn’t see 14 more just like it when you went to a car show.

We both love NASCAR, we both like history and we are both cheap. Our criteria brought us to the Aero cars of 1969, the special built cars for NASCAR Super Speedways. These cars primarily consist of the 1969 Dodge Daytona, 1970 Plymouth Superbird, 1969 Ford Talladega and Mercury Cyclone Spoiler II. Now, unless you have been sleeping under a tree for the past 15 years you already know where the prices of the Mopars have gone, through the roof! The Blue Oval cars are much rarer and only a small fraction of the price of a Mopar or Bow Tie car.

Consider this, there are 10 to 15 Daytonas and Superbirds still on the road for every Talladega or Spoiler II; in 1969 the Talladega won the NASCAR Championship with David Pearson at the wheel and 69 is the only year Richard Petty drove a Ford in NASCAR and he finished second in the points; third and fourth in points were also Blue Ovals.

So if the Fords are rarer, did better in the NASCAR standings and are cheaper why aren’t collectors jumping on them? Is it just because they don’t have a huge wing on the back or even more exaggerated nose? Katrina once owned a 69 Daytona before we got married and she prefers the Talladega for the way it drives. For all these reasons we went for the 69 Ford and Mercs.

We either found very good original cars or did quality driver restorations and we drive the cars. We take them to cruises at the Sonic and trailer them to specialty shows in the region. The result, they get seen by editors and producers looking for something different. These people don’t want clones and they don’t want to do the same make and brand of car every month. I don’t care how nice 24 restored Camaros are; sooner or later you want to see something else.

I remember reading one author stating that if the 1970 Camaro was a Ferrari and there were only a few hundred produced it would be the most sought after Ferrari ever built. His point was over abundance produces boredom no matter how beautiful. I soon began to look at cars a little differently and realized how accurate his statement was.

In summary, if you want to get recognized; build a car unlike everyone else’s; drive it; take it to shows where producers and editors will be; but most of all just have fun with it and enjoy what you have. A feature in a magazine or a shot on TV is great but it is only 15 minutes of fame but enjoying your car can be a lifetime experience.

My dream? I have never had a car on the cover of a magazine. We have to always have a dream.

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