The Speed Racer Story and the Real Mach 5 - Stacey David's Gearz S4 E3

[Music] now you're watching gears [Music] [Applause] [Music] now you're watching gears brought to you by lmc truck restore maintain customize you know one of the unique things about real life is that sometimes it's hard to know what is real i mean there's a lot of things out there that people think are real but they're really not like martians bigfoot [Music] and an honest politician people have got to know whether or not their president's a crook well i'm not a crook the automotive world is the same way there's real cars and then there's make-believe fantasy cars and while everybody would like to own a car like the graffiti coupe or the general lead [Music] the smokey and the bandit trans am they don't hold a candle to the pure fantasy cars like the batmobile or mad max's v8 interceptor [Music] but even as popular as the batmobile is there's another car out there that's even more influential than this a car that practically every kid boy or girl dreamed of driving when they were growing up and why wouldn't they it was a special car capable of doing incredible things like driving up and down mountains and jumping over rivers and catching the bad guys and it was fast man it was the fastest car on the planet so fast that it was named after its speed the mach 5. and it was driven by a guy named speed speed racer of course the mach 5 wasn't real i mean how could it be no car could actually do all that stuff could it but what if it was real i mean what if you could actually touch it feel it and drive it oh man that'd be awesome but only if you knew the story of speed racer now most people think the beginning of speed racer was when it hit the airwaves around 1967 and immediately captured the hearts of america with its cool cars and great characters but that wasn't the beginning the real beginning was a couple of years earlier in japan [Applause] [Music] around 1965 a young producer named tatsuo yoshida created a comic series called mock go go go and it was about a young race car driver that had the fastest and the coolest car in the world it was called the mach 5. the question is what influenced mr yoshida to write this kind of story i mean japan wasn't exactly the mecca of high performance racing in cars back in the mid 60s so where did he see this kind of stuff simple american movies the speed racer dna is easily recognizable in the famous racing movies of the 60s that featured the rough and tumble world of road racing and drivers like steve mcqueen james garner and elvis presley [Music] when it came to the mach 5 the blueprint for this amazing car can be traced right to certain concept cars and the incredible sports cars that were tearing up race tracks all over the world when all of these ingredients were mixed together the fabulous mach 5 was born a car like no other [Music] the following year tatsuo yoshida and his production company turned the comic strip into a cartoon series called mock go go go they made 52 episodes and then they canned it and the story could have ended right there fortunately translucks picked up the adaptation rights and found peter fernandez and this is where speed racer was born some editors called me and they said we have this series coming in uh and we wonder if you'd be interested in it the only directions being americanize it i could do anything name the characters write the dialogue whatever i wanted but i had to follow the plot of course so peter took the japanese cartoon wrote the stories created the characters and basically created the cartoon that we all came to know and love and now you know why the characters spoke so quickly and had these big long run-on sentences that sometimes didn't seem to make too much sense and why their mouths never seemed to match what they were saying they were trying to match the japanese animation how bad speed's following the monster car to find out more about it well i hope he's not because it's too dangerous the army failed miserably so who knows what it might do to him just who are you anyway and what are you doing with a car that looks like the mach 5. there were only four of us in the cast three guys and one gal i didn't hold the casting auditions i just knew who i wanted jack curtis who was pops and all the announcer voices and inspector detector green ore did all the female voices what kind of story is that i never met you before huh jack rhymes played sparky and chimp jim and a lot of the villains i've done him since we were kids i gave myself the best parts speed and racerx but i was right for them you what are you doing here speed practicing you must not be in the race i will be and i can beat you i'll prove it thanks for saving our lives masked racer of course the real star of the series was the mach 5 because it was loaded with all kinds of cool gadgets like you would see on the batmobile or a james bond car and for some reason the saws the jumps the robotic bird these all seem possible to the kids that we're watching the car is equipped with everything anybody can imagine so you had the characters you had the stories you had the car you even had that crazy theme song kept going round and round in your head yeah you had all the ingredients of a hit kids cartoon but that was over 40 years ago and kids are still singing that song people are still talking about the show and i am standing here with a real mach 5. now how is that possible more importantly what am i going to do with this car oh you'll find out [Music] when the cartoon speed racer hit the airwaves in 1967 it became a massive hit but because it touched a nerve with young gear heads and car nuts across the nation it never died like most cartoons do instead it continued to grow and cross generational lines as the original viewers grew up and had kids of their own that also watched speed racer it was about a family with a overbearing father a nice mother you know a very cool mother and uh older brother who ran away from home a small brother who was a brat and of course a monkey and the coolest car on the earth yeah a mach 5. why should really go but how do you get a 20 year old cartoon in front of a new younger audience simple you think outside the box you put speed racer on mtv in 92. wow right the time uh the beavis and butthead came out so a speed racer at seven beavis and butthead at 7 30. speed has survived the race at danger pass but ahead lies even more excitement and danger so with popularity growing in new cartoons and movies in the works the decision was made to build a real mach 5 that could go out and represent speed racer of course building a real mach 5 is not the easiest thing in the world but they did it here it is we've got it and we're going to show it to you the shape of the mach 5 is unmistakable with its long nose with three distinct points sleek chiseled fenders swept back windshield and the vertical fins on the back [Music] also unmistakable are all the switches on the dash and the steering wheel that allow this car to do some amazing things like powerful jacks to raise the car to be worked on or jump obstacles during a race special grip tires for traction on slick roads driving up mountains or across sand retracting rotary saws that extend from the nose allowing you to drive in the woods and clear any obstacles out of your way there's a bulletproof deflector cover that seals the cockpit and allows the mach 5 to go underwater now while underwater there's an oxygen supply that allows the passengers to breathe and a periscope that allows you to see above water and relays the picture to the tv screen in the dash up front there's special lights under the nose that allow you to see greater distances and with better clarity than ordinary headlights and of course a homing robot to take pictures send recorded messages or whatever now just in case you're thinking that some of these things are just cartoon fantasy and not on the real car think again there's a reason why they call it the real mach 5. of course the heart of the mach 5 is the engine there's been a lot of speculation over the years about what is under the hood of this thing and i'll tell you why words cannot describe the cool factor what you're about to see check it out [Music] and the only way to channel that much horsepower is to run it through traction multipliers that they got from nasa to keep you from blowing the rear tires away when you stump on the gas that is why they call it the mach 5. [Music] now nobody is supposed to drive the mach 5 except of course speed racing but we worked out a little deal with the caretaker of mach 5 so we could run it through the paces oh [Laughter] [Music] hey welcome back to gears and our look at this speed racer phenomenon and our exclusive test drive of the real mach 5. now we were given the opportunity to drive the mod 5 by a special agreement with the caretakers [Music] and of course we promised not to scratch it driving around the race track and the mach 5 is an amazing experience and the more you press down on the pedal and the faster you go the more the lines begin to blur between reality and fantasy is this a real car on a real racetrack or is this some kind of cartoon [Music] so [Music] [Music] [Music] you can't [Music] [Music] oh [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] ah [Music] that was weird action yeah coming and there it is the one and only real mach 5. and the best part is you can experience this car yourself because it travels all over the country to shows and events you just won't be able to drive it now if you want to know where it's going to be just go to realmock5.com and check out the schedule you know one of the biggest questions that people have asked about speed racer over the years is who is he now that you've seen the history of speed racer and you've seen the real mach 5 in action i can reveal this one last secret to you speed racer is and always has been you [Music] now quick tip brought to you by e3 spark plugs born to burn the most frustrating things that can happen when you're working on your project is you drop something down into a tight dark little area here and you can't get your hand in there to get the part back now there are some tools on the market that are magnetic that are supposed to help you with this but that doesn't do you much good when the parts are plastic or they're not metallic so what do you do a get pissed off and walk away b kick the dog develop a new vocabulary and walk away or c grab some women's lingerie of course the answer is c grab some women's lingerie more specifically some pantyhose or some nylon stockings now what you do is take your shop vac slide it into the pantyhose and then stick the shop back down into the tight area the suction will pick up the part the pantyhose will keep it from going into the vacuum cleaner problem solved now of course you can pick up a shopvac at any hardware store the nylon stockings you're on your own for that [Music] heart's brought to you by cherrybomb disturbing the piece since 1968. you know there was a time when having a battery charger in your garage was an option but not anymore man not with all the multiple vehicles we've got and lawn mowers and tractors and motorcycles and all that other junk you almost have to have a battery charger to keep all those batteries charged up but do you need something this big and bulky not anymore take a look these are the c-tec battery chargers and as you can see they are a lot smaller than what's sitting over there on the floor now the way these work is that if your battery is low and needs to be charged they'll charge it up and then they'll automatically switch over to a maintenance charge so it stays charged up you don't have to unplug it you don't even have to take the battery out of the vehicle they won't overcharge the battery and they won't hurt your expensive electronics now take a look at this you see they've got different settings for a motorcycle battery a car battery cold weather even an optima style battery like this which most battery chargers can't charge so if you are tired of going out in the garage turning a key and nothing happening you can solve that problem with a ctek battery charger you know without a doubt one of the most visual parts of your vehicle's interior is the shifter because it's right there in the middle and you're always grabbing gears the problem is the shift knobs they're boring and you haven't had a whole lot of cool options in the past but that changed when the speed dog gear shift knobs came out take a look at these things now you have your standard solid colors for those of you that are very conservative then you have the see-through translucent colors then you have these pearlized type knobs that kind of look like a bowling ball those are really cool then you can get them customized with flames they even have them with a von hot rod style pinstripe now for those of you that want your shift pattern in the knob you can get any of the knobs with a shift pattern and for those of you that are running a line lock or nitrous you can get any of the knobs with a 12-volt switch so if you are tired of grabbing hold of something like this and you want to upgrade your interior a little bit without spending a lot of money the speed dog shift knobs is one of the best deals that you can really wrap your fingers around if you ask any gear head what's the biggest pain in the butt in their shop the answer will always be moving cars around especially project vehicles that don't run or are big and heavy like this old ford here now the solution's always been to stick a jack underneath it jack it up stick dollies under the tire so you can roll it around well summit racing decided that was too much work and they came out with the go jack which combines the jack and the dolly into one compact little package here's how they work just open up the go jack and slide it around the tire and flip the lock then pump the lever the go jack lifts the tire up off the ground and supports the weight of the vehicle on the dolly wheels all at the same time the best part is now you've got a way to roll a big old heavy car forward backwards even sideways which allows you to make more room in your shop for even more junk which of course is every gearhead's dream and the summit go jacks is what makes this possible [Music] what are you working on brought to you by miller electric the leading manufacturer of arc welding and cutting equipment for your business or home shop today's what are you working on comes from jason sobbing from chester virginia and jason always liked speed racer so he wanted a sports car so he got this an 87 fiero and the first thing he did was pull the engine out and stick in a v8 not this v8 this v8 a 355 that's kicking out 440 horsepower yeah and you can see how tight it fits in that car but if that wasn't enough jason stuck in a 250 shot of nitrous here's a shot of jason hooking up that nitrous system as you can see he's not really happy about it yeah we've all been there before but that's not all he did he also did the suspension the brakes the shocks so the thing would handle here's a shot of the interior that he put in then of course he finished it off with custom paint and bodywork this is a prime example of a guy that wanted a particular car couldn't find it went out and built his own and you know that thing is fast so jason to help you with your next project we are going to give you one of these miller welding jackets to keep the fire off of your body and some mig gloves to keep the fire off of your hands now for the rest of you guys if you want to get your vehicle featured on the show you think you got something you want us to see send it in to stacydavid.com we'll see if we can get it on the air now that does it for today we're going to give jason a little speed racer car to go with this stuff the rest of you guys we'll see you next week [Music] you

Channel: Official Stacey David

Views: 301,436

Keywords: staceydavid, GearZ, Hot Rods, Trucks, mavtv, revntv, motortrend, stacey david

Id: dbXmzG8saLs

Length: 22min 31sec (1351 seconds)

Published: Fri Jul 01 2022