One 12 months in the past, Matt Sager didn’t know what to anticipate.
Lost Car Rescue was about to make its TV debut, and its host wasn’t certain how issues would go.
The collection proved widespread, although, and it returned for its second season this week. As like final 12 months, Sager will lead his crew in the hunt for deserted autos in distant places.
“Throughout the season, the crew travel across the country searching for various unique finds,” reads a Lost Car Rescue press launch, “including a car allegedly owned by America’s most famous mobster, Al Capone, and an iconic 20th-century vehicle from the oil boom.”
For Season 2, Sager says the primary 12 months was a great street map for what to anticipate.
“We just had to go capture it and go on this journey,” Sager stated in an interview with Global News. “It was way more relaxing. We didn’t have to worry about teaching or bringing somebody up to speed because our whole team stayed the same.
“Most of our (camera people) were the same, our producers were the same. And it really helped because everybody knew what the look was and what our team liked. And now we can just be ourselves.”
With followers lauding Season 1, Sager admits he didn’t understand his 10-year dream would show to be so widespread.
“The first season, for a guy who’s never been on TV, I was worried about cameras, I was worried about the sheer distances of where we were, breakdowns … the plane component … and then the fact you have a camera,” stated Sager.
“So I was really surprised at how smooth it went. There was not a breakdown, not a single issue with the plane. It was almost hard to show any uphill battle because everything went so well.”
Like most automotive followers, Sager watched different automobile exhibits on TV, such because the extremely widespread Power Block.
Only in contrast to these exhibits, Sager’s thought concerned really rescuing previous and deserted autos from sluggish, rusting deaths.
“I took my time filming a reel, or pitch, and that took me a couple of years to do it because I didn’t know anything about how to do it,” stated Sager, who hails from Vancouver Island.
The idea, although, was bought by History TV, “after which it landed on COVID-19, which pushed it again a 12 months. And then we had been fortunate sufficient to get out within the second 12 months of COVID and get Season 1 within the bag.
“So, yeah, it took a while, but I’ve been hunting (for abandoned vehicles) for 10 years and it’s been in the works for at least seven (years).”
He continued, saying “the true goal was to do something that TV hasn’t seen before. Film it in a different way; use IMAX cameras that capture it with warmer lenses. Have the cameras follow us instead of being there before.
“Take the ‘cheapness’ out of the show and put more authenticity in it in as far as making it feel like you’re in the co-pilot’s seat, or you’re in the right seat of the recovery truck with us.”
Sager famous that he loves constructing previous vehicles, and that his household builds a pair yearly for the love of it.
“And I’d love to show everybody a different series that’s just building old cars,” he stated. “But there isn’t sufficient time to indicate that journey, to indicate the story, to indicate the hunt, in only one hour of TV.
“So we pick what we’re most passionate about, which is the hunt. And we focus on the hunt because not too many people, especially in Canada, have ever done that hunt like this or used the tools the same way.”
Being on TV, although, does have its value: Being seen by folks wherever you go.
“Everybody has a different idea of what being famous is,” stated Sager. “I’m far from famous … but when someone who’s a stranger recognizes you in most buildings you go into, it’s really weird.
“And then people give you that look: Are you that guy? I can see the look, and then I say ‘Hey, it’s Matt.’ And then they go, ‘It is you!’”
Asked for a number of the highlights of Season 2, Sager smiled, saying there are various.
“This season, we go to Ontario. I did a rowing competition in high school in Ontario, in St. Catharines, and that’s the only time I’ve ever gone to Ontario,” stated Sager, whose crew is predicated in western Canada.
“I’ve never been in Fort Frances or the Rainy River district. We have no idea what we’re getting into when we go there.”
He additionally stated “Season 2 isn’t anything like Season 1. It’s buckle up, here we go. It’s different because we’re all comfortable now; we understand TV, we understand all that stuff around us.
“So it’s not distracting us and it allows us to think bigger. It’s all about taking risks and we hunt down some crazy storylines, like nipping at the ankles of Al Capone and where he was in Canada and the vehicles he drove and trying to get close to that.
“We’re literally jumping off cliffs to recover vehicles at the bottom of ravines, trapped by landslides. The list goes on.”
The collection could be watched on the History Channel and on StackTV.
