Yeh he has fallen down with this .A parts thrower now imho .Bit closed minded .Webbers are easy to tune , hold there tune and are the heart and sole of a 3x8 .Simple as a wheel barrow tech . I wish he had embraced them and sang there praises.
The is an example of when the wrong kind of mechanic gets involved with cars he has no idea or feeling for. Wants to do everything on the cheap, has no regard for originality and has no experience with Ferrari. The result…. a car destined to be stripped for the parts bins and shelves of Ricambi.
Knowing that car's history, I have no problem with originality... if you watched Car Trek, that ship sailed a long time ago. Probably not worth it financially to try and get it back to its original state. I like that he always wanted one, got it on the cheap, and just wants to enjoy it. For him, that means trying to modernize it... and he wouldn't be the first person to do that, nor the last. I follow it because I want to see what he does, and also he's not like a lot of these youtubers who are complete stuckup dbags.
I'm not qualified enough to say what level of mechanic he is... I'm just talking about his personality vs others out there, and enjoying watching his channel. Lou Trotter isn't the most showy person either, but I enjoy watching him work on his 308 too.
I cant say I'm a lover of the long beard... I don't get it... but I think he is generally ok. It seems he works on a lot of supercars- from Hoovies Garage... he's the only one that I like... I think the 308 in question has just led a really rough life... and he's going about making it a driver and as close to stock as he can - that makes sense. a full rebuilt resto on the car wouldoutpacee its value... I think he was US Army mechanic trained - so As mechanics go - i think he has a good basic foundation.
Hes a real fat dude, and God, how is ever going to fit in this car ? Hes a slob at best. Give the car to Newman and let him take care of it, and then he can sell it to a proper owner. Big G
Over the years youtube has morphed into a giant social media platform and while it did appear to have promise for awhile it is increasingly becoming over saturated or, you might even say "polluted" with just too much stuff. There's a lot of noise and junk to sift through to find the good stuff but don't get me wrong, there is good stuff. I'm a bit miffed with what seems like a plethora of 308 channels but I'm beginning to think that it's only because I own one and so the algorithm that watches me simply steers those to me. I recently bought an electric Dewalt chainsaw and now I'm inundated with chainsaw videos. As for "Car Wizard" that's a self aggrandizing title just asking for cynicism but hey, he's got fans, subscribers and likes and that's pretty much exactly what it's about. If you read youtube comments much you'll find that they are generally fan-boy centric and any critics get piled on pretty brutally by the adoring mob. This certainly has an ego-boost effect on the maker. And so it goes until the fanbase grows tired of a guy who is desperately trying to film everything he does every waking hour while also doing everything with one hand because the iPhone is occupying the other... Well, you can see where this is going to end up. But the other side is that everybody knows Scott Manley
I agree on the swamp Youtube has become... but there are a few gems out there: Harry's Garage - excellent - the kind of stuff i want to watch Ian Tyrrells channel - very good, lots of vintage stuff but comprehensive Ratarossa - he's pretty good... lots of ads, etc. but I like the work.. not so much all the collaborations with the other guys ....
These two are the absolute best. I also love Jay Leno's Garage and Audrain Museum Network. Of course, I also enjoy Car Wizard; I think he's actually a decent mechanic. Not sure I like the direction he went with the 308, but it's just different than what I'd do, not necessarily worse.
I was watching an episode of Car Issues tonight and saw another 308 in the wizards shop this one looked brown but not quite marrone brown, only got a partial look at it.
The negativity and personal attacks surprise me from this forum. YouTube is made up of a bunch of regular folk who work really hard pursuing a dream. Not too much unlike many 308 owners buying an entry level exotic chasing a dream. Sent from my iPhone using FerrariChat
I really enjoy the work that Retropower do on their YT channel. Kidston has some great TV quality material. Sent from my iPhone using FerrariChat
He's not my cup of tea, personal or otherwise that's my opinion. If you want to look at a real expert mechanic that knows what he's doing with incredible insight watch Tyrrells Classic Workshop. That's entertainment.
You obviously have no idea why he's called "Car Wizard" It's not really a: "self aggrandizing title" as you state, because he didn't name himself: "Car Wizard" - Tyler Hoover of "Hoovies Garage" called him "The Car Wizard", and it basically stuck. He called David Long: "The Car Wizard", because, having taken cars to other shops who failed to fix the cars, David Long managed to fix them. (In the same vein, Tyler Hoovie named another car mechanic mate of his, Jonny Karaj, " The Car Ninja", because of the car repairs that he carries out, and now Jonny uses "Car Ninja" for his Youtube channel) The 308 GTB in question was deliberately bought by Freddie Tavarish (another of Tyler Hoover's friends), as a rough, running wreck for their series: "Car Trek" (this is Tyler Hoover, Freddie Tavarish and Ed Bolian making their own Top Gear/The Grand Tour inspired car adventure programme) , and had multiple bodged and botched repairs carried out on it, prior to Freddie buying it. As they journeyed across America, the car received more bodges and dubious repairs, just to keep it running. By the end of the "Car Trek" show, the car was really only suitable as a parts car - It started as a trashed car, and slowly got worse. "The Car Wizard" bought the wreck, and has rebuilt it into a usable 308 GTB once more. He has not gone for a restoration, and he has not worried about originality, because the car simply isn't worth it. Added to that, all of the changes he has made to the car, are reversible - It could be refitted with the Webber carbs if he wanted to. It should also be noted that one of the mechanics who works for "The Car Wizard", is (allegedly), an ex-Ferrari technician, so he does have someone in his garage who knows Ferrari's. It's so funny to read on here about how people need to be some sort of Ferrari specialist, or have some special understanding of Ferrari's to work on them - That's just nonsense, especially in the case of Ferrari's of the 308's vintage. Ferrari's "dirty little secret" on pre 430 cars is: They utilise quite basic car engineering! They're not really that complicated (for European mechanics at least). Yes they sound complicated, with twin overhead camshafts per bank, a flat-plane crank, 4 valves per cylinder on later cars, fuel injection, etc., etc., but the reality is, it's all quite basic really - That's why so many on here are able to work on their own cars, even guys (and girls) who aren't trained mechanics. My friend runs his own car restoration company, and he's dealt with Porsche's, Aston Martin's, Jaguars, Alfa Romeo's, 60's Ford Mustang's, 1930's Fords, Morgan's, Mercedes', BMW's, FIAT's, and many others. When I bought my 328 GTS, it was in need of some recommissioning work, and knowing the exceptionally high standard that my friend works to, I entrusted my car to his workshop. It was the first Ferrari he had dealt with, and once in the workshop, he was surprised by how basic the actually engineering was (he was also amazed how Ferrari just screw the interiors in, rather than using hidden clips and brackets, as BMW or Mercedes do) He said that, unlike most manufacturers, Ferrari's are just designed and built in the simplest way possible, and having done some jobs on both my previous 348, and my current 328, I totally agree - The engineering is surprisingly basic. So talk of how "The Car Wizard" shouldn't be allowed any where near a Ferrari really is nonsense! - Especially a car of the 308's vintage!
you tube is filled with tons of useless, dying for attention , degenerates , its that simple, are you ****ing kidding me ? ! Good grief Charlie Brown
Well said Gino. It's only one step away from Instagram that's filled full of self promoting, fame hungry, good for nothing social influences. Even the better YouTubers are guilty of it. Find one that doesn't ask you to subscribe and like their page a hundred times over !! Not sure what Youtube Gohigh54 is watching but it's not the regular version.
