Classic cars forum & vehicle restoration.

Ray White · Joined: 02 Dec 2014 Posts: 7075 Location: Derby

For some reason that I can't quite fathom, I quite like this programme. I am simply in awe of the Greenhouse 's skills and enjoy a good old chuckle at Hammond's self inflicted faux pas. As a long time business owner it amazes me how "The smallest Cog" has survived for this long with him at the helm.!

Proprietor Richard Hammond hasn't really got a clue...but I did feel quite sorry for him when the M.O.D. dropped the (metaphorical) bombshell that they wanted their Rolls Royce finished three weeks earlier than they had agreed!

We have become jaded with the TV producers including an element of false jeopardy in their classic car restoration programmes ...but in this case, I think the heat really was on!!

Anyone else enjoy the show?

Rootes75 · Posted: Thu Jan 30, 2025 10:15 am Post subject:

I do watch it but I must say still am not keen on everything being so 'set up', some of the features with Richard are just purely theatrical.

But, the work they do I think is brilliant and I do like variation.

These programmes where only top end cars are restored and sold at silly prices doesn't engage me. This sort of programme along with Car SOS do.
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Rick · Site Admin Joined: 27 Apr 2005 Posts: 22778 Location: UK

I find it an interesting watch although take some of it with a large pinch of salt. I had a chat for a few minutes with RH last year at Oulton when they were testing the MGB GT, he came across as a very down-to-earth type of fella.

RJ
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Ray White · Joined: 02 Dec 2014 Posts: 7075 Location: Derby

Rick · Site Admin Joined: 27 Apr 2005 Posts: 22778 Location: UK

Rootes75 · Posted: Fri Jan 31, 2025 11:53 am Post subject:

He does come across as very down to earth and approachable.
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Various Rootes Vehicles.

Crashbox · Joined: 30 Apr 2021 Posts: 148

Interesting chat about him driving one of his 1960s Opels to the south of France last year. The second link is about the actual car and what needed to be done to get it ready for the road trip.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wFCHcnS6_lY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mrIcbOHohhs
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Ray White · Joined: 02 Dec 2014 Posts: 7075 Location: Derby

Ray White · Joined: 02 Dec 2014 Posts: 7075 Location: Derby

Having just watched the episode where the magnificent Rolls Royce is finally handed back to the M.O.D., I was almost moved to tears. This was no false jeopardy where the work is ostensibly completed "just in time"; this was a real down to the wire effort by the Smallest Cog team. The programme showed how there are still people who will go the extra mile for their Country. WELL DONE LADS!

I like to think that Field Marshal Montgomery would have approved. Very Happy

DPP · Joined: 24 Feb 2013 Posts: 47 Location: Manchester

I tend to like this sort of programme but after a while I could not stand the way a scenario was engineered just to make an episode.

Im sure Hammond is a nice guy but puts on being inept for the cameras, the trouble is most people want to see lots of drama when they watch a show like this whereas Im probably in the few who want to see the real work with lots of technical aspects.
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ukdave2002 · Joined: 23 Nov 2007 Posts: 4231 Location: South Cheshire

Its interesting meeting TV folk in real life, a few years ago I was at an event where Mike Brewer and Ed China were present and my opinion of them flipped from what I perceived from their TV persona's.

Mike Brewer was down to earth, getting stuck in, helping unloading a van and get a stand set up, would chat with anyone, Ed China was so up himself, making demands on everyone, and certainly wouldn't engage with lowly general public!

Ray White · Joined: 02 Dec 2014 Posts: 7075 Location: Derby

I was interested in seeing Neil Greenhouse anneal a door panel taken from the Rolls. That takes real skill. In less expert hands it would all go pear shaped.

In another episode I was impressed by the mechanic's cheap solution to a Porsche 944 heavy steering by simply putting a bigger pulley on the power steering. That's my kind of fix.!

Towards the end of the latest episode (on Quest) Hammond was left with the feeling that he was, in effect, surplus to requirements!

MikeEdwards · Joined: 25 May 2011 Posts: 2701 Location: South Cheshire

Ray White · Joined: 02 Dec 2014 Posts: 7075 Location: Derby

I think this programme is different from the usual offerings. The idea of 'The Smallest Cog' was something Hammond had envisaged rather than being a figment of a TV executive's imagination.

How much the television company are paying to be involved is not ever mentioned.

From what we are told, the business has been going for three years but not yet made a profit despite having plenty of work.

Vintage Fly Guy · Joined: 27 Jun 2024 Posts: 170

As Derek Mathewson says, you don't make money from restoring classic cars. The spin-off series, 'Bangers and Cash, Restoring Classics', shows this only too well.

Labour costs and the overheads from running a sufficiently equipped commercial repair premises (with all the business rates, heating and power costs, H&S and employment regulations, book-keeping and accountancy requirements, etc. that entails) are the profit killer.

The moment labour costs are added, and all those hours of work tick by, then unless it's an exceptionally valuable car that will actually sell for premium price, rather than just sit there month after month with an unrealistic price on the windscreen (or worse still, the letters POA, which I've always interpreted as 'mug wanted'!), then you'd probably lose less money by feeding ten pound notes into a shredder!