Motor City Masters (2014– ) User Reviews

Reasonable entertainment...

[jaredd · 7/10 · 18 July 2014]

Like most guys, I'm an over the top car nut. I have stacks of Super Chevy and Car Craft from decades gone by. I watched every American Hot Rod episode and never missed the newest Top Gear or RoadKill. I drool over the classic and modern muscle at car shows. So I think I have some credentials with regard to reviewing this show.

Let me start by stating that Brooke is basically the best thing this show has going for it. Talk about design perfection, proportions, body lines and flashy paint jobs and you basically have Brooke on the brain the entire episode! OK, with that out of the way, this show absolutely has plenty of flaws but still can entertain and educate the viewer. I honestly do learn some things each episode. Not very much from a technical standpoint, but plenty from a design view. For example, I found myself somewhat surprised how graphics and paint can affect the look of a car, regardless of what body panel lines may be underneath. I own a couple Audis and SAABs which I feel have unique body lines that work well without fancy paint, so perhaps this show has expanded my viewpoint somewhat.

With regard to specific contestants on the show, I have to admit that Darby is catching my attention. Sure, she's female and attractive, but that isn't the reason, especially with Brooke around. No, Darby is actually a talented designer and even at this stage I can state that she deserves the win. Of course being on a team, it is possible she will get stomped on in a future episode, but that would be a shame. Hopefully having lead two teams to victory already will protect her somewhat.

To Wong Foo, Thank for Everything Chevy

[sketchyracing · 1/10 · 10 July 2014]

From the network that brought you such shows as, "Lizard Lick Towing," and "Conspiracy Theory With Jesse Ventura," comes a series that attempts to combine a car design competition, with a fashion, and a reality show. The result of this fusion fiasco, is a program that is rife with emotional outbursts and childish conflict, but which contains very little emphasis on the cars, the design process, or the work required to accomplish the concepts. Instead, the show chooses to spend the majority of its time covering feuds between artistic prima donna's, and judges who appear in ridiculous hats and outfits, and then assert their authority to decide what looks good. I have a feeling, the only reason this competition was 'centered' around cars, was simply because the series scored sponsorship from Chevy. A better tittle for the show would be "Project Runway, Chevy edition."

Jean Jennings

[vegass-67-135294 · 3/10 · 30 July 2014]

Being a writer differs from being able to understand design. Jean Jennings has proved that.

She is a buffoon, not only by her comments, but especially by her hats. The hats should have been a give-away as to her mentality. She contradicts herself in her comments. She has given the show a bad rating, for sure.

As for the show's name, yes, Los Angeles isn't the center of the automotive industry. L.A. is just a logical location to produce the show. Remember, it's TV and L.A. is the Motorcity of TV production.

Just like any other reality show, this one's no exception, it produces drama among the contestants. That's what draws the audience besides the actual unique designs that contestants create.

To the producers: Reign in Jean Jennings. Sit her down and tell her not to be so absurd and tone down her selection of hats! She's bringing down the credibility of the show.

This show lacks style...starting with the judges...

[jbohemier61 · 3/10 · 9 July 2014]

Disappointment is about the only way to describe this show. Starting with Jenn Jennings and her flamboyant hats. She's hardly someone that I would call an expert in car design, and the simple fact that she was an editor for Automobile Magazine doesn't carry any weight with me to qualify her as such. But the truck redesign to turn Silverado's into beach trucks was the final straw. For some unknown reason, she came out with this god awful idea that the trucks needed to have a paneling design element added to the sides. Jenn, why didn't you also demand vinyl roofs for the tops to match the grossly outdated fake wood we used to adorn the sides of our rolling boats with? So two trucks roll out, one green with a funky skeleton painted in blue attached to the sides which was described as a new take on paneling. Sorry guys, but calling something paneling doesn't make it so. The other truck comes out yellow with gray effects on it, plus a small section of paneling below the rear window on each side. The paneling was put there for no other reason that it had to be a design element on the truck. But it looked horrible, as I'm sure the whole truck would've had they actually followed Jennings requirement to put paneling on the truck to begin with. What did work though, was the surf board rack placed on the back with paneling going down both sides of the bed's cover. Also, the front of the truck looked great, with the front bumper raised into the bottom section of the Silverado's grill. So, after the judges pick the green truck as the winner (yeah, the one with no paneling at all), Jenn Jennings tells the designers of the yellow truck that they lost because they didn't put the paneling on the sides of the truck. EXCUSE ME???? Jenn, if you take those funky hats off for a second, your brain may have received enough air to realize that you just slammed a team for not putting enough paneling on the side of a truck, yet had voted the truck with zero paneling on it as the winner. Which is it Jenn? No wonder Automobile Magazine improved drastically after your departure. GM, next time, please pick qualified judges for your show, because Jenn Jennings just doesn't cut it.