In addition to Homologation Specials and more members-only film series that will be announced in the coming weeks, Petrolicious Members will be treated to a tour around the world in Master Mechanics as we visit big names like Eagle (the UK’s premiere E-Type restorers and re-creators who’ve been in the game since the 1980s) and Medcalf (the preeminent pre-war Bentley restoration shop in the UK).
Alongside these major players, we’ve also visited smaller and more dimly-lit operations, ducked into private garages socked behind suburban residential properties, and in the process covered everything from Corvette to Land Rover, Italian Isos to classic British Astons. The cars that enter, live in, and eventually emerge anew from these shops and garages and compounds are viable candidates for their own features, but with this series the focus is set on the human element.
Cars are unfeeling, unthinking objects. We adore them, obsess over them, and talk to them in our garage when we think we’re alone, but in literal terms they are just bundles of metals and plastics and textiles that have been combined in a certain way. These amalgamations of parts bring us immense happiness when all components are working as they should, and seemingly endless but worth-it frustrations when they aren’t, but whether we’re talking original creation or umpteenth restoration, the life of a car is in the hands of human beings.
The great Gandinis and Scagliones and Murrays of the world will give form and purpose to flat sheets of bare aluminum and uncured weaves of carbon fiber, but an automobile’s genesis is only the beginning of its story. Between restoration workshops nestled in the foothills of Alpine territory, SoCal moto garages that smell of Pacific spray and sanded fiberglass, to brick-lined bays in old British bomber bases, our new Master Mechanics series puts people first: not the original creators, but the ones who rebuild, restore, and reimagine the machines that are typically the center of our attention.
These aren’t your local oil change guys, but a select group of passionate men and women who have dedicated their being to their craft. Hand-formed, hand-sanded, hand-built, with all the scars and grease-lined palms to show for it, these are Master Mechanics.
We’ve always been drawn to the personal stories and anecdotes and devotions of the owners of the cars that we film, and Master Mechanics aims to explore the a similar but unique space—not the relationship between an enthusiast and his car, but the one that exists between a craftsman and his life’s work. From veteran mechanics like moto-man Yoshi Kosaka, to the new crop of young enthusiasts who are learning and honing their abilities to properly tune a twin-spark setup on a GTA instead of posting Aventador pics on Instagram, these are the stories of the people who make our vintage motoring indulgences possible.
Content from the first season Master Mechanics, Homologation Specials, and more to-be-announced series will begin arriving in April. We can’t wait to show you more.
