CheltGirl Posted 20 March Report Posted 20 March Well, the heavily guarded secret is out now! This has been one of the most exciting secrets I have had to keep for months . I first had a phone call from Toyota GB Press officer (David whom a number of us know ) last July 2024 while I was on holiday. He knew I had a Gen 5 CS and asked if I could help source another suitable one to feature on a TV programme. Then the Producer got into contact and was very excited himself, as they had been scratching their heads in bemusement I think! I spent several months giving them photos and details of various club members' and other contacts' cars. It was a work in progress and the goal posts changed several times. At first they thought a white car, then maybe a teal. They had hoped to show a Gen 6 rally car too, as they wanted to talk about the whole rallying heritage. Apologies if you are reading this and it didn't work out with your particular car. I will jump to the really great piece of news - the team were thrilled with one particular members' car, and it didn't take much arm twisting from me to get him to say yes . I realise that not everyone would want their car featured for everyone to see, but this car is one that those of us who do the twice yearly N Wales Gen 5 Rally Drive know well. All I will say at this point is that it is red..... I will let the member take up the story and add to all of this. The renovation car is Teal (not turquoise as some people call it!). I had been invited to the filming, but was gutted when unable to go because of other commitments. The filming dates and places also changed, so it became a little complicated. I gave them Nicky Grist as a brilliant person to film with his rally car, but the dates didn't work out for Nicky either. So I did suggest that they came to the Bont Rally some of us Gen 5 CS owners were doing with Nicky at his invitation (see the topic in meetings). I had hoped they could film Nicky's car in action, plus the club member's car - but they didn't have a film crew available for that date. They did, however, go to Nicky's workshop later to film an interview with him to add to the programme. As thermoacc has indicated in Gen 5 forum, the finished programme airs for the first time tonight!! It will be on National Geographic, Season 13, Episode 2 Thurs 20th March 8pm Then on Friday 21st March at 5pm Read the credits - I asked for Celica Club UK to be credited I believe you can watch National Geographic through Sky and Virgin. The same programme will go out on Channel 4 later in the year, then on Disney Plus - I don't have the dates for this yet. Sadly, I cannot get National Geographic!!! The producer has given me a Facebook advert link to share too https://www.facebook.com/share/v/1HRKZFyT8F/?mibextid=wwXIfr 3
Old Red Celica Posted 20 March Report Posted 20 March Ironically, even though I have Sky, we don't subscribe to the right channels to see it when it shows tonight. 1
Sherv Posted 20 March Report Posted 20 March (edited) got Nat Geo,looks like i'll be able to watch tonight as wont leave for work til 9:20,result.I have a series link set up anyway I'm on Virgin,it depends on the package you have on there as well.Great work done Sheila,love a bit of cloak and dagger Edited 20 March by Sherv 1
Xanadu Posted 20 March Report Posted 20 March Is there a sob story attached to the car? I thought is was usually friends or family contacting the show makers, not the other way around.
Sherv Posted 20 March Report Posted 20 March 2 minutes ago, Xanadu said: Is there a sob story attached to the car? Usually a good reason why the car hasn't been done. Been a couple where the owner didnt survive long enough to see their car completed,which is sad.
CheltGirl Posted 20 March Author Report Posted 20 March 1 hour ago, Xanadu said: Is there a sob story attached to the car? I thought is was usually friends or family contacting the show makers, not the other way around. Just to clarify - the producers always take on a worthy cause, as mentioned by Sherv. They already had the car and deserving owner, but when they started to look into it all - realised that there weren't many Carlos Sainz cars out there and that so many parts are no longer made! That is why they went to Toyota GB and then to me as a CS owner in Management within CCUK. Several parts for a CS are not the same as a standard Gen 5 GT4. Plus they didn't know where to find a decent road-going Carlos Sainz to show as the car to aim for, and take their initial drive in. Plus our member also got to drive his own car for them to film. As you would expect, not all the footage could be used at the end of the day, for which they were very apologetic. Some of it they will be using in various advertising shorts.
Sherv Posted 20 March Report Posted 20 March Yeah,was a shame was only a fleeting shot,I kind of assumed they would do the usual and take a trip in the 'feature' car as normal.Still I suppose Tim wasn't too bothered getting a ride with Mr Grist though
Stewpot Posted 20 March Report Posted 20 March Evening all, they did do that feature and there was very a interesting story related with Juha K’s title in 1993 associated with it. It was filmed on a forest stage near Pickering last summer. Unfortunately it was cut due to time constraints (I only found out a few days ago), the show itself is only 44 minutes long. When we met the team, Tim Shaw was keen to learn more about homologation, that’s why they filmed with Nicky Grist. And I assume that’s why they retained his clip over ours (I would have done the same). If you watched it, you will have noticed them dwelling on the struts, they knew they could have used coil overs but wanted to show that you can get oem ones refurbished. They are correct regards CS struts as well, they are different part numbers to standard GT4. I visited the garage a couple of times and they did do an excellent job, without a doubt it will be one of the best most original CSs out there (we’ll not mention the JDM interior lol!) they only had it in for 6 weeks from memory. I even had one of the mechanics on FaceTime helping them put the wiring loom back in the engine bay amongst other things (quite surreal) Thanks for contacting me Sheila, it was an interesting day and I was hesitant, it took a couple of phone calls from a producer to convince me to take part. I notice Tim Shaw gets a bit of a bashing on social media, the pair of them are real gents and petrol heads, he doesn’t deserve it, it’s just TV. Last point of interest, the car wasn’t started until about 6pm the day before the reveal where it had to be transported c100miles. I had plenty of texts and a couple of phone calls on that day, in the end one of our other members guided them as to what the issue was and it was genuinely sorted in the nick of time. Does anybody know if the owner is a CCUK member? I’ll post some photos tomorrow. 5
CheltGirl Posted 20 March Author Report Posted 20 March Thanks Stewpot! You should have started that first paragraph with " It's me!!!! " I know you sent me some of the great shots last summer, but I will leave it to you to post some of them tomorrow. If it hadn't worked out with them getting down to Nicky's business when they did - they would have had more time to include more footage of your car. I think that everyone should realise that to do these shows is very time intensive, with lots of problems along the way. It really does come up to the wire before the final reveal. I have just asked the Director about a couple of points. They also tend to be shooting two episodes with two different cars at the same time. The Director needed a good example of an old Wolsley Hornet 1934 era - and I had a good contact for that which came up trumps, apparently!!
77 Liftback Posted 20 March Report Posted 20 March The teal car is on the front of this weeks Classic Car Weekly magazine , with a one page feature on the car/this episode inside the mag It came out yesterday and should still be in the shops until next Tues 1 2
CheltGirl Posted 20 March Author Report Posted 20 March We are all hoping that raising the profile of the CS will work wonders for the value at long last! 2
Sherv Posted 21 March Report Posted 21 March 12 hours ago, 77 Liftback said: The teal car is on the front of this weeks Classic Car Weekly magazine , with a one page feature on the car/this episode inside the mag It came out yesterday and should still be in the shops until next Tues I read that pretty regularly,Fuzz is a regular contributor so I'm going to grab a copy. 2
CheltGirl Posted 21 March Author Report Posted 21 March We managed to buy a copy from our local newsagent this afternoon. 3
Xanadu Posted 22 March Report Posted 22 March On 20/03/2025 at 17:26, CheltGirl said: Read the credits - I asked for Celica Club UK to be credited 3 1
CheltGirl Posted 22 March Author Report Posted 22 March Ah, brilliant! Thank you for posting the screenshot I had a lovely message from the producer last night to thank me again - it's nice to be appreciated! 1
Stewpot Posted 24 March Report Posted 24 March The cut scene has been posted on FB and YouTube today 3
CheltGirl Posted 24 March Author Report Posted 24 March Thank you for posting - I was just about to do the same as they sent me the links earlier today, as promised, but I have only just had time to check them out! It's a great piece of footage - such a shame that they had to cut it out of the programme due to lack of time! I know the producer was pretty disappointed too, as they all loved it. Tim and Fuzz really enjoyed driving your car
Recommended Posts