American Hot Rod (2004–2007)

Stars:

Mike Curtis, Boyd Coddington, Mike Rowe

Cast

Series cast summary:
Mike Curtis	...	Himself (29 episodes, 2004-2005)
Boyd Coddington	...	Himself (26 episodes, 2004-2005)
Mike Rowe	...	Announcer (11 episodes, 2004)

Storyline

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Plot Keywords:

color in title | motor

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Genres:

Documentary | Sport

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Details

Official Sites:

Discovery Channel

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

23 January 2004 (USA)

Also Known As:

Amerikanika aftoshedia ohimata

Company Credits

Production Co:

Pilgrim Films & Television

Technical Specs

Runtime:

60 min

Color:

Color

Did You Know?

Quotes

Roy: I wanna get this thing done, I don't wanna f..ck around!!

User Reviews

This show ruins Boyd Coddingtons name and reputation!

American Hot Rod is/should be a TV series that is intended to show how to make a quality Hot Rod (or other type of car). This includes everything from the start (the design) to the finished car, and the drama between the employees.

The positive is that we get to see some skilled employees doing their work, and see how cars like this is made (at this scale). But, unfortunately, there is a massive negative overtone over the whole show. I guess much of what I react on, is created to get more action or make it funny.

This is what I react on or get out of the show:

1. Bullying employees (or other people).

2. Exploiting employees (massive overtime and pressure).

3. Not building quality cars (cuttting corners).

4. Running a business badly (lack of control and logistics).

5. Boyd loosing a hard earned reputation.

6. Destroying/chopping original classic cars.

1. Employees is bullied (or shouted at) all the time, and sometimes to the extent that they have to leave or get aggressive. Had this happened in Norway, it would be highly illegal. Roy, an employee, was also made fun of all the time. He died, and still "funny" comments was made of him. No respect, what so ever! Bullying like fat jokes, stupid jokes and deliberately trying to make someone angry, is NOT what I call fun.

2. Setting a time limit for a car (in almost every episode) that is almost impossible to reach, and pressures the employees to work overtime and weekends all the time, is not humane. And extremely stupid if you like to keep your employees and have a good atmosphere at the working place.

3. Because of the short time limits, corners was cut all the time, making the quality of the car suffer. Yes, the cars looked fine outside, but underneath it was mediocre.

4. How to not run a business. Not having the control of the build or making sure of that the parts arrive before the build, created delays and frustration.

5. If Boyd Coddington had a good reputation in making quality cars, it's gone now. Quite simply said! Almost every build in this series show how little focus it was on making the best car possible. The employees commented on this all the time. If I wanted a HotRod, I would never have bought a car with his name on it.

6. And this brakes my, and many others, heart, he destroys/chops good original classics. They have then, for ever, lost their value. I can understand it if it was a original classic that was so bad that it couldn't be restored, but here they destroyed good ones. Another reason to not respect Boyd.

Many of the employees quit because of reasons I have mentioned.

I know that Boyd Coddington has died, but I still stand by what I say. I wish he could have lived and tried to restore his reputation in future episodes of the series, and showed that he (and Dwayne) could treat people good and make high quality cars.

I have followed the series because I like cars and mechanics, but many times at each episode, I strongly react on different elements (mentioned before).

Therefore, I only give it 3/10