“DRIVEN” Premieres on Discovery Channel
Published on Mon, Mar 30, 2020
By: Glenn Oyoung
Galpin Auto Sports’s Beau Boeckman, custom car builder Dave Shuten, and “Mad Mike” Martin team up to resurrect legendary cars in Discovery’s latest car culture series.
If you’re a fan of Fords, you know Galpin Ford. Galpin had other top-ranked dealerships including Aston Martin, Mazda, and Volkswagen to name a few — but enthusiasts know they are the place for Mustangs, GT40’s, Raptors and the like. For 29 years and counting Galpin has topped the charts in Ford’s sold.
But moving stock sheet metal is not the only thing Galpin is good at. From the very beginning, racing and modifying have been at the core of Galpin’s identity. Galpin Auto Sports (GAS) may have made it into the mainstream conscious with the 5th and 6th seasons of MTV’s “Pimp My Ride,” but believe it or not GAS has been building serious race and show cars from 1946 well before the Xzibit voiceovers or Instagram was invented.
Tonight Discovery debuts “DRIVEN,” a series where Galpin President and COO Beau Boeckman and respected car builder Dave Shuten, and “Mad Mike” Martin team up to resurrect historically significant cars from the junk heap. Their first project will get your attention: the one-of-a-kind DeTomaso Pantera that Carroll Shelby modified for a secret project with Lee Iacocca that ultimately would plant the seeds for the Viper.
Watching the preview, you get a sense that DRIVEN has the formula to stay on the airwaves if it can deliver the coolest cars and execute clean builds. Boeckman is the visionary who gets that car culture is ingrained in American — and he didn’t say it but I will, SoCal — society. Shuten, the virtuoso at Galpin Speed Shop is the guy with the talent and skills to breathe fresh life into the cars. “Mad Mike” Martin, an entertainment veteran at this point, handles the unique upholstery and will no doubt be asked to provide the requisite comic relief.
What about the cars? Thanks to my very good friend who is a client of Galpin Speed Shop, I’ve seen Shuten’s work first-hand at my Carcadia meet. He’s the real deal. This isn’t bang it out and it’ll look good enough on TV. This is I live and breath cars and I won’t give yours back until it’s perfect.
Given the current COVID-19 crisis, we all are consuming copious amounts of content. I, for one, am happy to take my mind off things and root for the DRIVEN crew to save automotive history.
DRIVEN premieres tonight (Monday, March 30, 2020 at 9 p.m. PST) on Discovery.
