Mathieu Fiquet, a mechanic from Biville-sur-Mer (Seine-Maritime), is one of the competitors in the new season of Top Mécanic broadcast on RMC in September 2024.
Mathieu Fiquet has had his hands in the engine since he was 14 years old. At 44, the mechanic works at Rosacar with his partner Alexandra Carpentier , in the industrial zone at the entrance to Biville-sur-Mer, this delegated commune of Petit-Caux (Seine-Maritime).
This year, the enthusiast decided to take on a new challenge: participating in a television show where he will showcase his expertise.
In the new season of Top Mechanics
It’s done. The general public and mechanics enthusiasts will soon be able to find Mathieu Fiquet on their small screen and more precisely on RMC Découverte. He starred in Top Mécanic, a show whose season 4 has just started this Monday, September 9, 2024.
“I applied two years ago. The production kept myCV.” Mathieu Fiquet, mechanic
The principle is simple: each week, two competitors or two pairs of competitors are given a wreck, a car that has, for example, been in an accident. They have five days to get it back on the road. Five days so that it can be tested and rated by a car-loving personality.
And these five days are retraced in five episodes spread over a week. With at the end of this week, a winner.
Filming in one of the biggest junkyards in France
To embark on this adventure, Mathieu Fiquet “applied two years ago. But at the time, the casting was over. The production kept my CV and called me back in 2023.”
He then joined the filming site last spring. “Everything takes place in the Caréco scrapyard in Saint-Witz near Paris,” he explains. It is one of the largest scrapyards in France, located in Val-d’Oise.
It was there that he discovered the car he was going to have to restore under a tarpaulin. And this under the watchful eye of the expert mechanic Olivier de Stefano. “He is responsible for supervising what we do, asking questions…”, explains the Caux-Marin.
A remarkable experience
But to leave more suspense to the viewers, Mathieu Fiquet does not give the model of the car on which he had to work. Knowing that in this fourth season, the “wrecks in a state of clinical death” are very varied according to the production: “Renault Clio 3, Peugeot 308, Citroën C4 Picasso, Mini Cooper, as well as prestige cars like the Jaguar XK RS and the Ford Mustang GT”.
After five days, the goal “is for it to be almost saleable,” smiles the mechanic. A mechanic who enjoyed the experience. The most complicated thing was not the mechanical challenge, but rather the filming.
Behind the scenes of a shoot
“Behind the screen, you don’t realize how a shoot is going. You have to redo the takes several times, which takes time. But in the end, you only have five days to get the car ready. You can see time flying by while you’re asked to screw and unscrew a bolt ten times,” he smiles.
But he enjoyed discovering the behind-the-scenes footage and also being able to chat with Olivier de Stefano: “He seems severe when you see him on television, but he’s really super nice”
You’ll have to wait a few days to finally see Mathieu Fiquet on the RMC Découverte show and, above all, to find out if he succeeded in his challenge. But don’t rush to your TV. This week, there are duos competing. “I think I’ll be on in the next few weeks, but I don’t know when,” notes the mechanic.
When the time comes, he will undoubtedly be in front of his small screen with his partner and his son Angel Braban. A son to whom he also passed on his passion for cars, he who works in vehicle cleaning and soon in bodywork.
Source: www.actu.fr
