Roary the Racing Car

Podcast Episode: 0242
Can a kids show be good enough for the F1 Channel?

      ​What if a children's show could ignite a lifelong love for racing and teamwork? Meet "Rory the Racing Car," a vibrant series that brings the thrill of the racetrack to young viewers with its colorful animation and engaging stories. Join us as we reminisce about how Rory and his friends transformed our family evenings, with legendary narrators like Sir Sterling Moss and Sam Hornish Jr. adding a touch of authenticity and excitement to the mix.

       Well, I found this show just by accident when my son was little, just scrolling through YouTube one day on my phone and I found it. I'm like, oh, okay, we'll check this out, watch this video. And it's just like whoa, this is eye-opening. It has everything I love about vehicles all in one place, and it's a kid's show and the episodes are short. Another show that's this short didn't appear until we got Bluey, but like 10 to 15 minutes per episode.
 
     Your attention span won't be wandering off for a long tv series, especially when you're really young and you can pay attention to these great things with vibrant colors, cool names and a racing car. I didn't realize it, but I was introduced to this show through a book. My son had gotten around the time he was two. We found it at a thrift store, made noise, there's a little button on it you could push and it's a horn that was honking. You push it and it went beep, beep and the little car that was a star of this show was in the book. My son loved the book. I used to read it, but I never realized this was a TV series. I thought it was just a book. But when I Only, lasting from 2007 to 2010, with 104 episodes. Roary the Racing Car came into my life as he is, as a racing car, essentially as an F2 racing car. Roary became a part of my life and when my daughter was younger, it was one of her favorite shows to watch. Today, Roary may be over and done with and it's a show that came out before both of my children were ever born, but it's played such a big role in our hearts with all the vehicles it introduced you to. The automotive world is alive and well in this cartoon more than any other one around. So today, AutoLooks is going to be taking a look at one of our most favorite kid shows of all time Roary the racing car.
 
      Welcome back to the AutoLooks podcast. I am your host, as always, the doctor to the automotive industry, Mr. Everett Jay, coming to you from our host website at AutoLooks.net. If you haven't been there, stop by, check it out. Read some of the reviews, check out some of the ratings. Go to the Corporate Links website page. Big or small, we have them all car companies from around the globe, all on one place, the AutoLooks.net website. While also there, check out the podcast tab and find pictures of everything we talk about in this podcast episode. You may be listening to it and streaming it on one site, but when you get home, pop open your laptop, turn on your computer hell, even when you're at work. Take a look at some of the great images that we supply you to show you all the things that we're talking about. And hell, you can even read an entire script of this episode, all available on the AutoLooks.net website. The AutoLooks podcast is brought to you by Ecomm Entertainment Group and distributed by PodBean.com. If you'd like to get in touch with us, send us an email over email at AutoLooks.net. 

​      So back in may of 2007, this little race car joined the world. We were first introduced to this little race car through a famous voice that most of us knew, sir sterling moss. Yes, the famous F1 driver, Mr. Sterling Moss or in this case, Sir Sterling Moss, narrated the backdrop of the story for us, so we would understand the show we were about to watch, and right at the end, he would say where the show was taking place at a famous racetrack known as Silverhatch, essentially a merger of two famous British racetracks Silverstone and Brands Hatch. It's kind of funny because there's lots of racing that happens there In the United States, we had Sam Hornish Jr of IndyCar fame as the narrator and, for a very select few episodes, Mr. Lewis Hamilton or I'm going to say it right, sir Lewis Hamilton even narrated a bit of it and also Sir Jackie Stewart. So, some very famous British race car drivers were the narrators behind this amazing show that centers around a bunch of racing cars at a racetrack.
 
      Now, if you've never seen Roary the Racing Car, even if you're not into cars, it's a show that you need to watch. Like I said, it's literally centered around a racetrack and racing's all part of it and cars are part of it, but there's also stories that make the actual show interesting to watch. Now new characters are eventually joined into the second season to try and boost the viewership. Unfortunately, it wasn't enough to save the show. That and being on British television, you're lucky if you can make it past two to three seasons of a show. It's funny, but they never really last that long. If you're a person like me and you've seen show Mrs. brown's boys, I'm sorry that show could have gone on for like another two seasons. It had tons of content. It was super hilarious. I've watched the entire series twice and I laugh at it every single time, just like Roary the racing car.
 
      Now Roary is a small, tiny little formula ford racing car. Number one is his number. He's essentially a young race car driver who's eager to learn the most about racing so he one day can be a champion. Essentially, he's a young Lewis Hamilton entering the racing world where he wants to be a champion. Years down the road he'll be a champion. He'll win it seven times and have one of them essentially stripped from him. But Roary the little red racing car with white stripes essentially a Formula Ford racing car, no spoiler on the back. This thing is cool. It's essentially modeled after the cars of the 80s and early 90s, similar to what you would have found Ayrton Senna racing in, and if you've watched the series Senna on Netflix, you'll even see cars that look like Roary on the television series. It's amazing.
 
      Now Roary lives at Silverhatch and he has a group of friends all comprising of different forms of racing. There's a Formula One car, a rally car, a NASCAR, a drifter and occasionally a few others will be thrown in. But his friends make up some of the biggest racing circuits in the world. Like we said, drifting is big up some of the biggest racing circuits in the world. Like we said, drifting is big in Japan, NASCAR is huge in the States, rally is big everywhere and F1, well, everybody knows F1. And every single one of them has a name. But they all live in this world. They're talking cars, they can speak to each other, they use parts of the cars to have hands, they have their eyes, so they can actually be able to do stuff and communicate and do things. It's like the Cars world, just made for little children. Well, and kids at heart, because, trust me, I love the show and I ain't no kid. Trust me, I was a kid year, decades ago, not anymore. Well, there they have people that run the track, actual people who work at the track. That would be their site. 

​     Mechanic and steward of Silver Hatch is Big Chris. Now, big Chris kind of reminds me of our actual steward and head mechanic at my local racetrack that my son and I go to. We've become kind of good friends with the person that runs that racetrack Subway Kartways, if you ever want to check it out. We're part of the actual circuit and we've produced some great race car drivers from there. But Big Chris kind of reminds me of our head honcho over at our racetrack. Now there really isn't a Marsha. Now Marsha isn't, I wouldn't say, big Chris's love interest, but it's the female interest of the show. She's another steward but she does more for safety aspects on the racetrack. She keeps all the cars safe and usually alerts everybody about the racetrack, like any major issues that have happened on the racetrack where Big Chris fixes a car in the garage, lives close by and stands in the tower.
 
      He's the announcer, the general steward. He waves the checkered flag and tells them to go, go, go. That's always one of the greatest things is when they take off. He's so energetic. Watching Big Chris is kind of like watching a soccer game in Central America. He has so much energy and is so involved in racing, just like the owner and General Stewart of our racetrack, my hometown.
 
       Next to this we have Mr. Antonio or Tony Carburetor. He's the owner of Silver Hatch. Funny thing is they kind of do a play on greasy Italian. You can get mad at me for saying that or anything else, but watch the show and trust me, tony Carburetor is essentially a stereotype of an owner of a racetrack. He's this greasy, laid-back guy that only shows up when a big event is happening or he wants to find out what the heck is happening with all of his money. What's going into this? Next to that, his mom shows up, Mrs. Carburetor, and they get there by flying in on none other than Helly the Helicopter. It's kind of funny to watch Mr. Carburetor's mom just appear from a helicopter. In the helicopter, like everything in this universe of Roary the racing car can all talk, every piece of machinery, as long as it's got a motor and it runs. It's there Outside of the racetrack, we have Farmer Jeffrey or Jeff Green kind of funny who has his own pickup truck, fb. 

​     FB is a second-generation Ford F-Series pickup truck. It's green and is the Farmer Green's main vehicle. It's got to get around right. Next to this, we have some other people that show up. There's PC Pete, big Christine, Copter Keith Graham and Grame Murray Walker.
 
     Added to the lineup later on is Flash, who's literally brought in between the end of the second and third seasons, mole man who works with him, and Dinky is another female aspect of the show. Flash and Moleman are always getting up to no good. You have to have that one person that creates a little bit of you know, humor into the TV series when all kids need something that's going to keep them entertained and also give them something else to watch Other than the whole show being centered around racing cars. Flash and Moleman were added to the series to give something more. They needed to create that more kids show aspect because they realized after the first season that the show can't just be about Roary and his friends. They have to have something else. You need some form of humor.
 
      Now Big Chris is already in there, big Chris dropping his tools or going through some stuff, waking up late. Like we said, big Chris lives right next to the racetrack. He lives in an old trailer or on the other side of the pond, a caravan who's named Rusty. It's a small, tiny little trailer. It's the home of Big Chris. He home with Big Chris. He lives close and you go into it and it's all like race car memorabilia. It's got tools, it's got old cups. It's everything you've come to expect for somebody who lives and works at the racetrack. Essentially, big Chris showcases to us that you would come to expect at any racetrack that you go to. There's always somebody there that works on everything, keeps everybody running, is so dedicated to the racetrack that it's their life, whether it be the owner or just a lead mechanic. It's their life and that's what they love to do. Big Chris is that and he emphasizes every single part of it. Like I said, our racetrack that my son races at we have somebody who reminds me of big Chris and I guarantee if I went down south and went to some of the other ones in Hamilton or Flamborough or outside of Peterborough, I'd find people there that are just like Big Chris as well. Same with an owner like Mr. Carburetor or a steward like Marsha. There are people like that all over the place.
 
      PC Pete is the policeman. He tries to keep everything under control. Now, the funniest thing with PC Pete, when he shows up. He shows up in his car. PC Pete, his funny little car, is Nick. Nick always wanted to be a race car and the funniest thing about Nick, he's a Lamborghini Gallardo, essentially made as a police car. So, he's showcasing the police aspect of Lamborghini supercars that they've made in Italy. PC Pete shows up in a Lamborghini. 

​      Now we all get it why Nick wants to go out and play on the racetrack. He's got to abide by the law and live to all those rules, but he wants to go out and have fun because he knows deep down inside, he's a race car at heart. He's got the power; he's got the technology and he's got the design to make it so he can race around that track and keep up to Roary and all of his friends. He's got to be there, Roary the racing car, but Ferrari the racing car. But unfortunately, Nick never gets that chance because PC Pete is so buttoned down with his police duties, he will not let Nick ever get involved with anything that's against the rules. And racing outside of the track or even sometimes on the track, if you're not built for that purpose is not playing by the rules.
 
      Now, we all know about people like this right Now. The funniest thing with Big Chris is when Big Chris has to go around and there's an accident on the racetrack. He hops into his own vehicle and goes out and saves the day. He has his own pickup truck called Pludger. The Pludger is actually based off of a Mitsubishi Triton tow truck. It is used as the emergency vehicle at the racetrack. But when you see it, you look at it and like that looks familiar. I think I know where that vehicle's from. Well, now you know it's a Mitsubishi Triton, which midsize pickup trucks in the European marketplace are huge business and Mitsubishi is one of the bigger players in that field and Mitsubishi has pushed themselves onto a lot of these racetracks as well as emergency or safety vehicles. So why not just give the job to Mitsubishi and its Triton as being the emergency vehicle?
 
      On Silverhatch? Now Silverhatch, like we said in the name, comes from both racetracks, okay, but Silverhatch also takes a lot of its inspiration from both of the tracks it plays off of. There's a lot of aspects from Silverstone on that racetrack and it gives us the ability to really see the amazing work that goes into designing and running some of these racetracks. Now, Silverhatch is a huge track and when you watch the races when Roary and all of his half the episode of them just trying to get around this racetrack which is funny because Silverhatch should actually have a closer name to being Nürburgring, but since it comes from Great Britain, you have to have a British racetrack name in it. So technically, silver has to be the first part of the name, because Silverstone is one of the most famous British race car tracks of all time and they still race formula one there to this day. That's one of the first f1 tracks that Mr. Sir Lewis Hamilton got to try out. 

     Now, with all these different cars in the series. Like we said, RB's an old Ford F-Series. Nick is a Lamborghini. They also have some other vehicles that get around and some that don't even talk. Like rusty, the old trailer the big Chris lives in doesn't talk at all. It's not living along with Zippy, a Vespa scooter. It does not speak at all, like nearly every other vehicle speaks, but they don't. It's not like Hellie. Heli comes down and could say he's bringing Mrs. carburetor into visit. She wants to see the big race and wants to see Roary against his friends now. Now, like we said in the beginning, Roary's got a whole bunch of different friends and his friends are there to make the race more fun. Like we said, there's a Formula One car, a rally car, a NASCAR and a drift car. There are a couple other race cars that appear during the series, but none of them are in every single one.
 
     Next to Roary, his good friend and essentially, essentially first love interest, because he is a little bit younger, is Cici, the rally car. Now, she's easy to find because she's pink and she's number three, which is kind of funny because her number is higher up than the formula one car. So, Cici is essentially Roary's love interest and best friend. She's very accident prone due to the corners on silver hatch. She's a rally car. She's not good. Well, she is good at corners, but she's good at corners in the dirt, not on asphalt which they're racing on. The coolest thing with cc is cc is actually a hybrid racing car, so she's actually ahead of the game because at this point in time, you got to remember the show came out in 2007 and ran until late 2010. There were no hybrid rally cars back then. Now we all get it. There's some sort of hybridization to racing cars for a long time because of the fuel cell stacks in them, but she's actually a dedicated hybrid with a battery service. When she cruises up at slow speeds, you barely even hear her. She's essentially a Prius rally car, so you're going to hand it to Roary.
 
      Being a Formula Ford and falling in love with a Prius, he's looking out for the environment and his future livelihood in this racing circuit. Now, naturally because it's his love interest and it's got to be the female accomplice. She's pink with white stripes and, like we said, she's a rally car and a little accident prone because of all the corners on the track. She's used to jumping over hills and taking the dirt by storm not pavement but it's all part of the good fun that is the race at Silverhatch. 

​      Now Roary good friend, somebody he looks up to, but somebody he also is constantly racing against all the time is Maxi. Maxi is a former Formula One race car. He's won a championship, so he thinks he's better than everyone else. He's on top. He's the F1. He thinks he's better than everyone else. He's on top. He's the f1 car. He's better than a formula ford. He's better than a rally car. He's better than a NASCAR. He's on top of the world. And since he has a championship, he's better than everyone else in the world because he won the championship of the racing series, of racing series, which makes him a hot-tempered formula one race car. He's always eager to beat Roary at any of the races and when he does win, he loves to show off. He makes it very apparent that he won the race and he shoves it in everyone else's face. But also, being with you know, hot tempered. He's also arrogant and it shows people that there are people like that at the racetrack.
 
      Roary came in as the youngster wanting to learn and wanting to be good. He is good, but he still wants to learn more because he figures, even if I'm winning all the races, I am the best at this racetrack. I'm never the best in the world. Even if I get named the best in the world, there'll always be somebody who can come up and teach you something else. Maxi is the other side of it. He's arrogant, hot-tempered and thinks they're the best and doesn't think anyone else can teach him.
 
      Sound kind of familiar. Sound a lot like a few Formula One drivers you may have heard of. Yeah, there's been a few Formula One drivers in history that, once they've won the championship, they think they're better than everyone else and they get this arrogance to them that they're better than everyone else and they get this arrogance to them that they're better. Yeah, looking at you arrogant F1 drivers Not all of you, just the ones that are a little arrogant to people. I see this even in IndyCar too. There are a few drivers. When I go to get autographs when I'm at the Honda Indy in Toronto, I try and avoid them because it's like, yeah, they're not going to make time for anyone and it shows they used to be champions and now they're not winning as many races and they think they're still better than everyone else. But it's like, yeah, you were good, you know, 10 years ago. 

       After Maxi comes the American brute Painted blue and white with a little bit of red to indicate that he's an American race car. It's red, white and blue. Right America Comes, TinTop. TinTop comes from the NASCAR series. The funny thing is just like CiCi, he's accident prone. But he's not accident prone because he needs to learn a lot about the track and is not used to driving on dirt tracks. No, TinTop is accident prone because, Silverhatch, you have to turn right on, when we all know that NASCAR vehicles are more likely to have to turn constantly left Ooh, left turn, left turn, ooh. What's that some inspiration from Turbo another great children's movie?
 
        I came into contact with TinTop's base driver back in the 90s when he was pretty close to the peak of his career, a Mr. Lake Speed. I'm not joking, that's his name. Lake Speed Got a last name Speed. It's like, well, you got to go into racing, right, but lake speed had number 88. That's the reason why I chose that stock car, because 88 is my favorite number, but the colors on it were blue and white with a bit of red, just like tin top. Lake speed also had an issue when they had to turn right on racetrack. So, when he was on Walkins Glen they always ran into issues because they had to turn right, unlike the fast Super Ovals, because they're just turning left all the time but trying to turn right, that's a different story, just like TinTop being a NASCAR.
 
        Now the last of Roary's friends is one of the great ones that you would find. Funny thing is he actually uses the front splitter as his hands to pick up stuff and help Big Chris out a lot. He's nice, he's humble, he knows, he's fast and can take corners better than anyone else at the track. But even though he can take corners better than everyone else, he never shows that he is better, and that's Drifter.
 
        Drifter is famous for drifting, essentially based off of Orange Toyota Supra, which we all remember. Fast and the Furious bam, it's got to be Orange, got to be a Supra. We can go drifting, even though in that movie they didn't drift, they drifted in the third movie. But Drifter is always humble. He's nice, he's serene, he's great, help. He's always picking up tools and helping Big Chris out. Anytime they got issues he goes up and tries to calm Roary down. Even when Roary wins the race, he's the first one to say good job, Roary. He was rooting for the whole time, like how humble is that? Where a lot of kids will watch the show and see that Roary inspires to be the best.
 
       Drifter also showcases that you can be the best friend even when your friend is winning. We don't need to be an arrogant, bad person like Maxi. We need to focus on being more like Roary and Drifter and even Cici hell. Even TinTop can take into consideration some of his downfalls. It makes the whole show fit together in a great story for children. 

​      But throughout the stories you have to add in all kinds of other things. You can't just have them going around the racetrack every single episode. No, they have to add in other things. Eventually they added in a second love interest to Roary, who was Breeze. Now Breeze was a Myers-Manks dune buggy. Remember that buggy that was made in the United States based off of Volkswagen Beetle platform? The Myers-Manks Go back and watch any movie from the 1970s and they got one of those dune buggies in them. I don't know how many James Bond movies I've seen dune buggies in too, but it's always a Myers-Manks.
 
     Breeze shows up as a second love interest Doesn't want to race but likes to have fun and likes to show Roary a good time outside of the racetrack environment. But to get there you can't always go and have fun out in the bush, because Breeze can go out in the bush, Roary can't. And when Roary goes places he needs someone like Loda he's a lorry, a race car transporter to bring Roary from place to place. Now he does go from place to place and eventually meets up with some other race cars during the show. He meets both James and Conrad. James is an Aston Martin DB5 convertible. It's essentially Mamma Mia's car. You know, Mamma Mia Carburetor, it's her car, it's how she gets around it. Mamma Mia, Carburetor, it's her car, it's how she gets around. It's a classic, it's cool, it's British, but it also likes to go fast.
 
     Unlike Nick, Conrad brings the Australian racing appeal to Silverhatch when they show up Based off of a Ford Falcon V8 supercar, essentially from team Vodafone. Remember Vodafone was a big cell phone deal back in the day, back in the early days, right from Great Britain as well. They used to be on a Mercedes race car. It was Vodafone and BlackBerry on the side of them during the tech days of the early 2000s. Conrad kind of gives a name and appeal over the Australian race car industry to Silverhatch, slowly working their way in near the last season of the show.
 
     Conrad could have become another friend to Roary but unfortunately the show was cut too short and we lost all of that aspect. Before we can get Conrad into there, before we can get Grand Touring Cars or Le Mans racers, there were a lot of other racing series that they could have thrown in there. British Touring Car would have been one. It would have been good. But being British, Conrad showed the British appeal. As I always say, they should have done another rally car and they could have done the Canadian rally car for another British empire Off-road buggy race and you could have run the Indian aspect. There were so many avenues that Roary could have gone to but unfortunately, after 104 seasons and a dying viewership, Roary the racing car was put out to pasture. 

       The show never really ended. It really should have ended on a good note, like Roary being invited to race in the Formula One series. But essentially Roary just ended on a standard race car note he wins and that's it. So, what happened to everyone? What happened to Big Chris or Marsha or Tony Carburetor in the end? We don't know.
 
      It's a kid's show. We don't ask those questions about kid shows. You got to remember. I watched Paw Patrol back in the day and there were so many questions I had for that show, like why would they do that? Why is the bridge not tall enough? Why are they waiting for the beaver to cross the road? Can't they just move the beaver out of the way? Like it's a kid's show you don't ask? Those questions eventually showed up. We didn't ask the question about why they just eventually appeared living on the racetrack. We just thought they were always there and they brought humor to the show.
 
      Roary isn't just about a racing car and a racetrack. It's about a family essentially Family of racing cars. They're all friends and they're all vying for that top spot of winning every day's race. Everybody wants to win but they all want to put in the effort to make sure that they have fun in a good time. It likes to put a good note to things. It likes to show you what can happen if you allow all that winning and arrogance to go to your head with Maxi. But you can just be humble like Drifter.
 
      Every aspect of the automotive racing world has some sort of part in Roary the Racing Car. It shows track life in its full extent. There are a lot of things in the show that showed my son a lot of things that he eventually learned when he started go-kart racing a few years back, and even he was one of the ones that said that the owner of our racetrack reminds him of Big Chris. Hell, they even have a trailer that they hang out at the track. Like Big Chris and he kind of looks like him. That's the funny thing. But in all it was just a good show.
 
        Roary was a great automotive show and for myself, I consider it the best automotive show for children, especially if they like racing. Roary shows the entire race car industry and get you involved. The episodes aren't super long and drawn out to make you start questioning them. They're fun, they're good, they're humorous and they got every aspect that you would ask for in a race car series when Paw Patrol shows us the automotive industry in all of its context, with more of solving crime and saving the day. Roary is all about winning the day, being good friends and learning how to respect each other. That's why Roary the Racing Car is one of my favorite kid shows of all time. Sure, it will never knock down Inspector Gadget or the Simpsons, but when it comes to a short episode kid show for the entry-level child, Roary the Racing Car will always be there for me and it's a show that I hope will stay online and allow us to see it for years to come. It's actually a show that I wish the Formula One channel would add to it, because if you want to get your kids into F1, Roary could be that catalyst to get them there, all from a little red racing car that just wants to learn and have a good time. 

​       So, if you ever watched an episode of Roary the Racing Car, what do you think of the show? Tell us in the comments below. Send the comments to your friends, your family, your well-wishers, co-workers. Send the episode out, tell them all about it, get them to write a comment and tell us their favorite part about Roary the Racing Car. Do we miss any of the stuff that you remember from the show that we didn't talk about? Like you know, kind of like it gives you the vibe of Bob the Builder, but in a race, car setting it's just too cool.
 
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      Go to AutoLooks.net and stop by, read some of the reviews, check out some of the ratings. Go to the Corporate Links website page or even the help pages. Go to the help ones to find out terminology for the automotive world. And if you're there with your kids, stop by and read some of our kids' books. We have a few of them. We never made a ton of them, but we made a few of them to help your kids learn about the industry that we all love, all available on the AutoLooks.net website. The AutoLooks podcast is brought to you by Ecomm Entertainment Group or distributed by PodBean.com. If you'd like to get in touch with us, send us an email over at email at AutoLooks.net. So, from myself, Everett Jay, the AutoLooks.net website, PodBean.com and Ecomm Entertainment Group, strap yourself in for this one fun ride through your childhood with Roary the Racing Car. You. 

Everett J.
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