Monster Garage

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Monster Garage (2002–2006) was a popular television show for the Discovery Channel. It is hosted by Jesse G. James. The show is an hour in length and was conceived and produced (along with Jesse) by reality automotive show mastermind, Thom Beers. The show aired the series finale on June 12, 2006.[link] Jesse G. James, the host of the show, did not participate for reasons unknown.

Contents

1 Premise of the Show
2 The Rules
3 The Host
4 The Monsters
5 Failed Monsters
6 UK Version
7 See also
8 External links

Premise of the Show

A team of five people with mechanical, fabricating, or modifying expertise builds a "monster machine." A usually stock vehicle is turned into something else (e.g a PT Cruiser / Wood Chipper), a race car (e.g a Lincoln Continental / Open Road Racer), or a custom car (e.g a Ford Model A ratrod).

The Rules

According to the show, the rules are as follows:

When complete, the monster must appear to be stock.
The team has $3000 (later raised to $5000) for parts.
The team has seven days to complete the monster.
*The first day is for designing
*the next five are for building
*and the seventh day is for the test of the monster.

In practice, as the series has progressed, some liberties have been taken with the first two rules, at times becoming punchlines. In one episode, when a Chevrolet El Camino was turned into a Figure 8 race car, James discarded plans for a spoiler on the vehicle, sarcastically citing the first rule.

Starting with season 4, winning team also donates toolkit for a high school of choice.

The Host

Host Jesse G. James is the great-great-grandson of the cousin of the legendary wild west outlaw, Jesse James. He has both mechanical and metal fabricating expertise, and is the founder, owner, and head bike builder for his custom chopper shop, West Coast Choppers. Jesse says he likes monsters that go fast and do something. He prefers hard working build crew members. His favorite monster vehicles to date are the Ford Ambulance Wheel-stander and the Chevrolet Blazer Pikes Peak hill climber. One of Jessie's ambitions throughout the run of the show is to build a monster that will top 200 mph. So far, he has not succeeded.

The Monsters

Over 60 "monsterized" vehicles have come out of the Monster Garage including a special two-part, two team face-off build. For more information on the monsters, go to http://dsc.discovery.com/fansites/monstergarage/episode/episode.html

Failed Monsters

With rules as strict as they are in the Monster Garage, there is a 1 in 10 monster build failure rate. When a team fails to complete a vehicle in time, it is destroyed by host Jesse James.

Failed Monsters and their Ultimate Demise

Cadillac Hearse/GraveDigger — First failure on Monster Garage. The build team spent more time goofing off than building the car. In one scene, the original Batmobile appeared at the shop, and Jesse quipped "working" when asked what he was doing. The non-functional GraveDigger was then sent to Terminal Island to meet its fate in a Scrapper. At the suggestion of the Scrap Machine's owner, the Hearse came to an explosive end with a propane tank in the back. In GraveDigger II, the team spoofed the demise of their first project by having the car they arrived at Terminal Island in meet the same fate as the first hearse.

Mazda RX-7/Doom Buggy — Unsatisfied with how the Sandrail performed, Jesse decided to send the car packing via a Mini-Gun send-off. [Video]

Scion xB/Rock'em, Sock'em Robots — In this two episode Special, Jesse handpicked a team of the best Monster Garage participants (so far) while the Producers picked a "mis-fit" team of quirky and somewhat anti-social participants to build (the xA) out of two new Scions, Rock'em Sock'em Robots. The winning team would win a "special edition" set of Mac Tools while the other team would see their creation turned into scrap. Jesse's handpicked team managed to secure the Scion xA, which had a lower profile than the Scion xB. In a bit of ingenuity (or as claimed to be "cheating"), Jesse's team welded on their head to the body, while the other team complied with the rules. Allegations of cheating were met with deaf ears, and some of the losing team stormed off the arena. Jesse eventually gave toolsets to the remaining team members that didn't leave.

De Lorean DMC-12 Hovercraft — In an early attempt to shave time off the build, the team removed the outer bodywork of a Delorean and put it on a donor Personal Hovercraft. Quite angry about this decision (even though he himself declared early on that he didn't like the project), Jesse fired one of the team members after a snide comment. Working again with a "new" Delorean donor, the team tried unsuccessfully to make the monster hover but ultimately ran out of time. The car was eventually towed to a naval base where an amphibious APC made short work of it.

Mazda Miata Jetski — Some fans have noted that the reason why this build failed was the engine might have contributed to the air intake being flooded due to the heavy weight in the nose area. Nevertheless, three members of the build team opted to send the Miata to the scrapheap with a dynamite explosion.

Dirt Track Camaro — For the second time in MG history, this build had an All-Girl build team (the first was the Black Widow Demolition Derby Car, which was heavily gutted moments before a demolition derby). However, a plague of miscommunication and personal differences sent this Camaro to a steel smelter and eventual recycling into rebar.

Peel Trident Micro Car — With a team comprised of mostly dwarves, the team attempted to put a Hayabusa engine into a tiny Peel Car. Some fans felt that the team was compromised due to their small stature, but Jesse coldly stated that he gave no team any exceptions; they were all equal. Other fans feel the project was simply too ambitious for builders of any size. After they failed, Jesse, sporting some of his personal gun collection, took out the Peel with a .50 cal sniper rifle.

UK Version

A UK version of the show was aired in 2004 by Channel 4. The team always included a Hell's Angel known as "Cookie". There was a budget of £3,000. Only 3 days were used for the build. Cars often looked radically different to the production models. Challeges included a converting a Toyota into a lawnmower, a Lotus into a hovercraft, and an Ice Cream van into a riot truck. In one episode, the team sold the internal fittings of the car that was to be transformed (A Rolls Royce) to raise funds to convert it into a muck spreader.

External links

[Official fan site]
http://dsc.discovery.com/fansites/monstergarage/monstergarage.html
http://monstergarageoutlaws.com/home.shtml

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