For the love of automobiles

For the love of automobiles

Docklands’ own Brian Tanti is set to star in a major cable network television series, due to air later this year.

Described as the motoring equivalent of Grand Designs, Car Chronicles looks at unique and historical cars, car design and fabrication techniques and follows car restorations.

Filmed throughout Australia and internationally, the show aims to target not only car enthusiasts but also people interested in what Mr Tanti describes as “exotically unfamiliar” crafts, such as those involved in the motor industry.

Mr Tanti is one of four hosts of the show, each who have a different discipline and background but who share a love of automotives.

Mr Tanti is the former director of the Fox Classic Car Collection, has completed countless car restorations and is CEO of the Auto-Horizon Foundation. Clearly, cars are one thing Mr Tanti knows a lot about.

According to Josh Goodswen, partner and company director of Clear Content (the Sydney-based company which produced the series), Mr Tanti’s background and achievements in car design and restoration made him a great candidate for the role, citing his superior knowledge of bespoke vehicles.

As part of the show Mr Tanti travelled to Milan, Italy, where he visited the Ferrari museum, the Moto Guzzi museum, restoration shops and a range of private collections.

According to Mr Tanti, one of the restoration shops he visited restored high-end, rare Ferraris and, at the time, was working on a group of cars worth $40 - $50 million combined. This included one car worth $15 million.

“It was interesting to note that a lot of the techniques and disciplines they use for building cars hadn’t changed since that post-war period,” he said.

“They were still building cars the way they were doing it then, true to their cultural influences in the design and fabrication of the vehicle.”

At a private collection just outside of Modena, Mr Tanti came across a 1936 super-charged Alpha Romeo owned by Mussolini and a car commissioned and owned by Roberto Rossellini.

“It was a bit like the automotive equivalent of the Indiana Jones experience,” Mr Tanti said. “We were opening all of these doors and finding these really rare, valuable old cars.”

Docklands will also be featured in the series, with filming taking place at Mr Tanti’s workshop at the Automotive Centre of Excellence and following the restoration of some of the cars from the Fox Classic Collection.

The initial season is 12-episodes long but it’s hoped the show will be successful enough to prompt a second season.

According to Mr Tanti there are plenty more cars to explore.

“There’s a treasure trove of stories out there in suburbia,” he said.

A date for the series launch is yet to be set but it’s anticipated it will begin airing in April or May on an undisclosed cable television channel.

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