Gas Monkey vs. Street Outlaws - Mega Race

Admit it. Some of you watched it.

So, I'll admit first. It was ridiculous, overhyped, and likely 100% staged. But, it's hot nasty speed and some legit car stuff. Where else can you watch an LS swapped E36 build on TV? But I'm left with a question.

1) Do you think ANY of the racing is actually real? Ignore all the build up drama. When the cars are staged, and the tree goes green... what amazed me was that on both passes, the "street outlaw" guy left the lights better than the pro NHRA guy.

So, do you think the outcome itself was staged? Or did he actually get outdriven?

Secondly, Aaron Kaufman is a riot. Ignoring the scripting, made for tv BS, his build details made it interesting for me. I was surprised to see a company like Vorshlag featured on the show, and it was neat to see more of a "garage build" effort and things not going flawlessly.

I mean seeing this on a major TV network is just plain cool.

flamesuit on.

I watched. It was all the Gas Monkey Garage I could stand. The Street Outlaw guys, while stupid at times, are legit racers. I have no doubt that when they strap in, it's 100% real, results and all. Everything else is the smoke cloud.

I watched. And agree that the overhype was hard to deal with- should have been over at 10.

I'm not sure what bug the street outlaw guy had up his butt- it was totally unrealistic to think richard was going to drive the car. Ever. Never on the show has he gotten his hands dirty- unless it was to take a part to someone else or buy a dirty car. So that expectation was BS.

And they totally knew the original driver left.

But, it also appeared that the feelings were real- so they were genuinely trying to win. But richard's guys made the mistake that the outlaw guys did not- too much power and the consequence of it.

As for Aaron- that part was cool. I felt bad how gamed he was on the drag strip and tug of war. Given how it ended, though, I would not be stunned if the farm truck guys helped him tune the car so they can do this again sometime. Their Camaro was hilarious.

The funny thing for me to watch- I normally don't watch either show. Sometimes SO. But never the other one anymore.

For those who don't follow, anyone have a link?

I watch all the Street Outlaws stuff, but man I can't stand Ass Monkey. The race was way overhyped. I guarantee you that once the lights drop, the racing is 100% real. The numbers on the slips don't lie. Don't forget that Chief is a licensed NHRA Pro Mod driver, there's no doubt he can tree other racers. I enjoyed watching him decimate the pro team car.

The other race was way better! Both teams built very very cool cars that both performed really well. I'd love to see more of Aaron on his own. Loved that he jumped in to help fix the Farmbird. Loved the autocross!!

Now that Aaron has left Gas Monkey Garage, I wonder if he will have his own show or if it's probably more likely he'll go the Youtube route.

Run_Away wrote: For those who don't follow, anyone have a link?

It just aired on Discovery, so it will not be online for a while, maybe.

How much money do shows like these generate? And how much of it goes to the "characters"?

You have to admit though, the Camaro was a lot faster on the AutoX course then you would expect. Helped a lot by the fact that they appear to have bought a left / right turny race car as the base.

I think the racing was real. I suspect the Gas Monkey pro team got a bit intimidated (embarrassed) loosing the first round and didn't bother to notice the bump in the left lane that was noted (you see the car react very heavily to it in the last race).

It also seems like, with the pretty open rules (similar to how the street guys run), the turbo seems to be the way to go. None of the street guys run super chargers, and even the nitrous guys have moved over to turbos. I am sure the SC gives great power off the line, but they have more power then the tires can handle anyway.

If you have the Discovery Go app or whatever, shows are generally available the day after airing.

I watched up through the end of the season of Gas Monkey and haven't caught up with the rest of it yet. I can only take so much of these shows without a break. Plus Discovery puts a ton of ads in them on the app which makes it significantly more of a chore to watch.

Lack of tuning/testing on GMG's part made them lose. That combo should have easily outran Big Chief by yards at the stripe. A methanol burning screw blower "pro mod" can go 3.7's in the 1/8 on 315/60 "drag radials", as a performance metric. They made a mistake in changing pistons on their assembled engine. Typically, you see 12-13:1 compression on those type of motors. They already have to run 2 or 3:1 afr at full boost, you are not going to knock/detonate it, period. The fuel mass is just too large for it to detonate, you will hydrolock before it detonates.

I watched it today on Youtube sans commercials. I was amazed at how fast that firebird was on the autocross track. That BMW should have kicked its butt and it didn't. There had to be more money spent building that BMW than what was budgeted in the rules. AK and the dragon lady were the only reason for watching that stupid show. I'd much rather watch an hour long show from inside AK's garage or the dragon lady doing upholstery work than listen to Richard's signature whoops and hollers. Who wants to bet that show and his shop are belly up in under 5 years. I see a repeat of orange county choppers.

Run_Away wrote: For those who don't follow, anyone have a link?

The dragstrip, without all the Ass Monkey BS

So back to the original question: Do you think the racing itself is real?

Gimp wrote: I have no doubt that when they strap in, it's 100% real, results and all.

alfadriver wrote: it also appeared that the feelings were real- so they were genuinely trying to win. But richard's guys made the mistake that the outlaw guys did not- too much power and the consequence of it.

Javelin wrote: I guarantee you that once the lights drop, the racing is 100% real. The numbers on the slips don't lie. Don't forget that Chief is a licensed NHRA Pro Mod driver, there's no doubt he can tree other racers. I enjoyed watching him decimate the pro team car.

aircooled wrote: I think the racing was real.

Ranger50 wrote: Lack of tuning/testing on GMG's part made them lose. That combo should have easily outran Big Chief by yards at the stripe. A methanol burning screw blower "pro mod" can go 3.7's in the 1/8 on 315/60 "drag radials", as a performance metric. They made a mistake in changing pistons on their assembled engine.

It looks like we have a consensus. The race itself was legit.

Big Chief lost a lot of my respect from all of his whining and crying. Everyone who knows who Richard Rawlings is, knows he doesn't build or race cars. Its in the opening sequence of his show for Pete's sake! He is throwing money and Aaron is holding a wrench! Had he been a man about it and brushed off the big-dollar build and the pro driver and so on, he would have looked so much cooler when he won. And if he lost, he would have had a pretty solid reason that anyone could respect.

As it was however, he just came off as whiney and bitchy... a big crybaby. They talk about being the fastest anywhere, so why worry so much?

Farm Truck and Azn built a hell of a car, amazed that it came so close to the BMVette. Yes, the other two contests were stacked in their favor, but letting him keep the car was a class act. The show should feature them more, crybabies less.

Should I be embarrassed I have no idea what you guys are talking about?

In reply to stroker:

Probably for the best.
Automotive 'reality' teevee.

I enjoyed it. Whether it's theater or not is irrelevant. Not a big fan of gas monkey though. Watching farm truck drive the autocross one handed kind of drove me nuts.

The drag race was awfully close on the first pass, and reaction time decided that. Then it was more head games for the second race.

My opinion is the races are/were real. Everything in between is a bit of theater and creative editing.

This makes me glad I killed my cable.

I dunno, I kinda agree with Big Chief. GMG brought in a bunch of ringers to help build the car, then drive it. Neither were really a part of the GMG crew. Richard driving the car wasn't going to happen, but a real, full time employee of GMG should've.

I'm kinda curious why Aaron had to cut a hole in the hood of the M3 to fit the LS1, I've seen plenty of LS swapped E36's and there's plenty of space without having to cut a hole in the hood...

docwyte wrote: I dunno, I kinda agree with Big Chief. GMG brought in a bunch of ringers to help build the car, then drive it. Neither were really a part of the GMG crew. Richard driving the car wasn't going to happen, but a real, full time employee of GMG should've. I'm kinda curious why Aaron had to cut a hole in the hood of the M3 to fit the LS1, I've seen plenty of LS swapped E36's and there's plenty of space without having to cut a hole in the hood...

I'm guessing he had a truck intake on it.

From the pictures it appears it's a holly hi rise intake.

Finally watched this. The fake Big Chief vs Richard Rawlings garbage was almost unbearable to watch, and whomever wrote the script needs to work on their continuity.

I thought the farm truck etc part was OK (the racing seemed real but not sure about the results) but overall this seemed like a big waste of time.