Car Masters: Rust to Riches is a series that follows the exploits of the Gotham Garage crew - which premiered on Netflix in 2018. The garage is situated in Temecula, California. Gotham Garage repairs and restores all kinds of cars, inspiring millions of viewers to try and fix their own vehicles. The show has also built a solid following for Gotham Garage - which has over half a million followers on Instagram.
Updated September 2023: The Car Masters: Rust to Riches is going on its fifth season when this post was updated. As such, we've updated it to reflect what is currently happening, while adding more hidden details the Gotham Garage crew wouldn't necessarily want us to know.
The level of creativity the crew put into every project is not something you get to see very often with car shows. With the fifth season on the horizon, Car Masters: Rust to Riches continues to keep fans pinned to their seats without them knowing how much really goes on behind the scenes. Without further ado, here's what you might not know about the Gotham Garage crew.
13 They Charge A Handsome Sum For Restorations
The Car Masters: Rust to Riches basically follows the activities of the Gotham Garage crew members as they search for low-cost cars and attempt to fix them up and turn them into what you never thought was possible. These almost useless vehicles are gotten for roughly $500 to $1,000. According to Towle on the official trailer of the show, after restoring these vehicles, the shop then puts them up for sale and sometimes charge as much as six figures for these vehicles that were beaters a while ago.
12 Mark Towle's Legal Battles
Like most reality TV-based shows, Car Masters does not escape the inevitable lawsuit. Interestingly, the head of the show has had his fair share of legal battles - much of which is not common public knowledge. The biggest lawsuit with the show involved the various Batmobile replicas which Towle and company built. After putting them up for sale, Warner Bros. chimed in and sued Towle for copyright infringement as the company owns the rights to the vehicle and any of its kind.
Towle claimed the inspiration for the Batmobiles he built came from a 'useful article' and declared that copyrighting the Batmobile would set a negative precident within the motoring industry, essentially making it impossible for enthusiasts to build their own. Sadly, the judge ruled in Warner Bros' favor. It is not currently known if there was any sort of financial compensation paid to Warner Bros, or if the vehicle was seized.
11 Constance Nunes' Seductive Promotional Posters
While Constance Nunes sometimes gets her hands dirty by working on some restorations, the producers of the show did not hesitate to leverage her other skill set—modeling—to promote the show. The bikini-clad Nunes was featured on several promotional posters of the TV show. However, just at the brink of distribution, the producers retracted the materials for being "too sexualizing." This is understandable given the fact that the show aims at attracting a wide spectrum of viewers.
10 Gotham Garage’s Main Mechanic Is An Actor
There’s been a lot of debate about how real Car Masters is, and the fact that Shawn Pilot is actually an actor has fueled the speculations further on. On-screen, Pilot is just a guy who repairs and builds vehicles to the admiration of the audience. However, what you might not know is, Pilot has been in the entertainment scene since 1999 when he was featured in the movie Three Kings. After that, he disappeared from the movie world and re-emerged in 2011 starring in the auto reality TV show Inside West Coast Customs.
9 A Crew Member Owns A Custom Shop
Perhaps, one of the reasons why Car Masters has witnessed so much growth in just a few years is because most of the crew members are not new to the entertainment or automotive industry. Tony Quinones is one such crew member. Quinones only works part-time for Gotham Garage because he also has his personal business known as TQ Customs to run. His custom shop specializes in building classic cars, trucks, and hot rods. Judging by the works on the TQ Customs' website, it seems the business is doing pretty well.
8 Some Scenes Are Staged
Anyone who has seen a number of reality TV shows would probably take what they see with a grain of salt. While some TV shows are scripted from start to finish, not every scene in Car Masters: Rust to Riches seems to be staged. For instance, in season 2, a crew member damaged a car they were working on, and the scene shows Towle being visibly upset as he moves toward the accident scene. While we can't say for certain whether Car Masters is staged, we know for sure that Gotham Garage is actually a real business.
7 The Show Has Received Some Harsh Criticisms
Although millions of people view each episode of Car Masters: Rust to Riches, not everyone is exactly a big fan of it. A reviewer on IMDb points out that the show is for those who know little to nothing about cars. The critics claim that the show focuses very little on the actual building, while the acting is completely unbelievable. Some critics even claim the "great" reviews of the show are actually fake owing to the fact that many just make vague statements about the show.
6 Mark Towle's Personal Life
Unlike many celebrities that everything about them is in the public domain, Mark Towle leads a rather private life. In fact, he has never publicly talked about his relationship status or if he has kids. Although on Gotham Garage's Instagram account, there are several photos of Towle and one particular woman, he has never hinted whether she's his significant other. Although the TV show follows a lengthy dialogue by the cast, things never get to a personal level with Towle. It's unclear whether this is a strict rule by the producers or if Mark Towle just likes to keep his personal life out of the public domain.
5 Constance Nunes Is Affiliated With Other Brands
When you don't find Constance Nunes posing for the cameras or restoring a vehicle, she's working with other brands she's affiliated with. Nunes has featured as a model for the Grand Prix of Long Beach, VP Racing Fuels, Feral Cosmetics, and Rockstar Energy Drinks. As a barrier and stereotype breaker, Constance's bio on her website reveals that she's representing women as a feminine force in a male-dominated industry.
4 Mark Towle's Builds Have Been Featured In Movies
When you go through the Gotham Garage's website, you will agree that the projects are simply too good to just be stored in a collector's garage. That's why it shouldn't come as a shock that Towle's creations have been rented by movie producers to showcase them to the world. Notably, Towle's builds can be spotted in movies like the Gearz and Kamen Rider Dragon Knight. As a fiction lover, Mark has also built replicas of popular cars featured on TV shows like the Speed Racer and Mach 5.
3 Negotiation Process Doesn't Look Real And The Prices Seem Inflated
Negotiation is an integral part of most transactions, and since the show involves giving classic cars modern makeovers, there's surely the need to buy the classic cars that the Gotham Garage crew will work on. However, the negotiation process doesn't always look real. Not only does the haggling process look scripted, as it often follows the same plot, but we also don't believe that the prices slammed on the finished projects are the true worth of the job done. Several viewers also share this view and are quite vocal about it.
2 Constance Nunes' Is Pretty Well-Off
Constance Nunes is quite a popular character within the Gotham Garage crew and thanks to this, she has accumulated quite the net worth. Granted, she didn't just make her estimated $2 million from solely working on Car Masters, but also from the multitude of promotional campaigns and various other income sources. The aforementioned poster photos are also quite popular among a certain crowd, so there will always be a healthy income for her - even if she decides to leave the show.
1 Mark Towle And His Famous Cap
In all the Car Masters episodes, the lead character - Mark Towle - is seen wearing a cap. There is not a single instance on screen where he isn't wearing it and that reason behind it is still unknown. It could be that he simply decided that it was his on-screen 'look' and that it separates his show personality from his regular one, or it could be due to the speculation that he is hiding his baldness. Whether this is true or not, we will likely never find out.
Car Masters: Rust To Riches returns to the streaming service for its 5th season on the 24th of July, 2024.