The Reason Why Fast N' Loud Was Cancelled

Some TV shows wear their hearts on their sleeves and tell the viewer exactly what they can expect right from the off. All the information you need is right there in the title. The Discovery Channel's "Fast N' Loud" was a perfect example of this. The formula was a simple one: The proud petrolheads of Dallas' Gas Monkey Garage toured the nation in search of some glorious classic cars in need of some TLC, then serviced them, tweaked them, celebrated them, and had a phenomenal time putting them through their paces in this beloved car restoration show.

Watching these majestic vehicles being renovated, and seeing exactly how much they sold for when Richard Rawlings and his crew had finished with them, triggered something primal in the brains of auto lovers around the world. In December 2013, as Season 4 was drawing to a close, the show hit 3.176 million viewers in the states alone. Its run would continue until May 2020, when the memorable final episode "Flippin' The Bird," featuring DeMarcus Ware and a majestic retro Firebird, premiered. Granted, it may not always have torn up the ratings, but the long run of "Fast N' Loud" certainly topped several other similar auto shows that have come and gone. Why did it end, seemingly abruptly? Its star wanted, or rather needed, to move on.

Rawlings, as viewers will know, did not present the long-running show by himself. He was joined by Aaron Kaufman, who was one of Gas Monkey Garage's mechanical masterminds during his time with the show. In a March 2017 episode, Kaufman announced to his co-host that he was leaving. In the episode, he had just been away on a break, and as he put it on returning, "my vacation from Gas Monkey is going to be a permanent one."

Speaking to Art of Gears about his decision the month before the fateful episode aired, Kaufman explained that the pressures of television and the need to produce work quickly had just become too much for him. "I wanted to build cars that were [...] big [...] and then TV needed cars that were much smaller," the mechanic said, adding that "there were some growing personal issues and professional differences of opinions" to boot. In a December 2021 interview with Restomod Air, Kaufmann stated, "Richard and I were having difficulty being in the same building together [...] it was his building, it's his show, it's his operation."

Moving to "Shifting Gears With Aaron Kaufman" in 2018, he was then able to create more elaborate, time-consuming builds of his own design, rather than those quicker projects required by the pace of the hit Discovery show. Twelve episodes were released across two seasons. The dream team, then, was no more, and the "Fast N' Loud" format soon proved to be a poor fit for Rawlings too.

MIC reports that, in December 2016, Rawlings wrote on the Gas Monkey Garage blog, "Aaron has been a part of Gas Monkey Garage since day one, and it will be a painstaking process moving forward without his talents." He didn't touch on the disagreements Kaufman spoke of, perhaps out of a desire to, as he put it in the post, "keep the drama away from the cameras."

Speaking on The Joe Rogan Experience #1578, though, Rawlings wasn't afraid to get more than a little candid about the reasons "Fast N' Loud" ended. During the turbulent year of 2020, the former host took some time to reflect on what he wanted to do in the future, and concluded it was time to bring the run to an end. "I've exited Discovery and, uh, I'm a free agent," he said, in the clip shared by PowerfulJRE on YouTube.

Rawlings revealed to Rogan that his Discovery contract was very restrictive. "I signed off on all media," he stated, prior to the beginning of the show, leaving him with little control of his own social media accounts. He even stated that, if he bought an auto and wanted to share a photo, he couldn't without Discovery's permission. Rawlings, like Kaufman, wanted more creative freedom, and the pursuit of that ultimately led to the sad demise of the show. Fans still miss other "Fast N' Loud" icons like Sue. 

As of April 2025, Richard Rawlings remains the owner of Gas Monkey Garage after "Fast N' Loud's" cancellation. In February 2021, the first episode of "Wheels & Deals," in which Rawlings and Gas Monkey procure more vehicles for the garage to work on, was broadcast. An F-100 Flareside from 1970 was the primary focus. Rawlings has featured everything from a 1967 S-Code Mustang to a K5 Blazer, and February 2025's episode was a special case. In it, Rawlings declared that "this has been a heck of a good time in my life, buying and selling cars and motorcycles, and, well, all kinds of good stuff." To expand on this, he announced the creation of Gas Monkey Buys, where owners of vehicles can share details of what they have and the condition it's in and potentially receive a quote and a sale from Gas Monkey. Clearly, Rawlings hasn't changed much since the end of "Fast N' Loud."

Neither, unsurprisingly, has Kaufmann. The iconic Bearded Wonder has not made another "Shifting Gears With Aaron Kaufman" since October 2018, but, the year before, announced his new project, Arclite Fabrication. This shop was dedicated to creating parts for Ford F-100s, "'57 to '79, to be exact," as he explained via lowlifevideo at the time. The shop was originally in Dallas, Texas, with Kaufmann posting a July 2019 update on its Facebook page to explain that it had moved to Grand Prairie. Elsewhere in the auto world, Kaufmann told Restomod Air in December 2021 that his racing experience has been very sporadic, and that "I'm also at a point where I'd really like to [...] put wins and potentially championships on the wall." Perhaps he'll have a true racing career yet.