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Home / Whanganui Chronicle

Reality television at car dismantlers yard

By Zaryd Wilson
Whanganui Chronicle·
23 Apr, 2015 06:38 PM2 mins to read

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SHOW TIME: An eight-part documentary about daily life at Horopito Motors will screen on Sky TV's The Box in July. PHOTO/ BEVAN CONLEY HOROPITO2.JPG/ HOROPITO2

SHOW TIME: An eight-part documentary about daily life at Horopito Motors will screen on Sky TV's The Box in July. PHOTO/ BEVAN CONLEY HOROPITO2.JPG/ HOROPITO2

Horopito Motors is returning to New Zealand screens with an eight-part TV series due to run on Sky TV in July.

Production of the documentary, called Smashed Palace, is just about finished.

It looks at daily life of the Fredricksen family who operate the vintage car dismantlers yard, its staff and the thousands of customers.

The yard was made famous by the 1981 film Smash Palace.

Auckland company Workhouse began filming the series at Horopito, just north of Raetihi, last October and finished at Easter.

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Field director Patricia Phelan said the last episode was being cut at the moment.

"It's sort of a series that follows the day to day life of the family that run Horopito Motors," she said.

The show was commissioned by Sky TV and will run on its channel The Box from July.

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Each episode follows a particular story, such as one where owner Colin fulfils his dream of racing a stock car.

"Each week it sort of depends what's happening down there. There's so much happening each day," Phelan said.

"There's a lot of character that comes from people that come through. They live in such a small settlement that nobody's in a hurry to do anything, despite the thousands of orders that come in a day. Horopito time, we call it."

"I guess the original idea was Colin wants to build a museum on site. He's got thousands of cars that he would love to restore and showcase in the museum."

Phelan said the show had been a lot of fun to film.

"It involved a lot of research and obviously to get to know the people there and gain their trust. It was sort of helping to make a few of their projects a possibility I guess."

Mr Fredricksen, who owns the business with his wife Barbara, said the filming was impromptu and off the cuff.

"They tried to get us doing something different each time. It was never a dull moment."

He said the series would be great publicity for the business.

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