Naked Ant Anstead

That post title should get me a few clicks from potential female readers.

And my digital recording device seems to think his current Discovery channel series involves nudity:

A bit of quick Internet research shows that the working title for Ant Anstead, Born Mechanic was Ant Anstead, The Naked Mechanic.

As it is, there has been no nudity so far and I watched episode 5 this morning.

The premise of the show is that he is doing up classic cars to fund the restoration of a very old farmhouse for his parents.  He has the help of an old friend called Darren who seems to be giving his time free of charge.  Ant also "calls in favours" from many "friends" for both car jobs and house jobs.

I wonder if these people may appear briefly on Discovery's payroll?

Not that it really matters - it's what we thespians call "artistic license."

Like in episode 1 when Ant tells us he is scared of heights then in episode 2 he appears very comfortable on the roof of the farmhouse.

Episode 1 was particularly enjoyable though because they were doing a Triumph Dolomite Sprint - it's ALWAYS a Sprint, they never do a 1500HL like I used to have but never mind, the Sprint is a fabulous car.

Darren reminds me of someone.

It may be that I have seen so many car shows over the years that he has turned up on one if them.  Although I did also think that he looked a bit like an older version of former Stig, Ben Collins:

Then I spotted Darren's surname at the end of the show - Collins!

Maybe a cousin or something or maybe a complete coincidence.

But back to the show - I think the format is forcing Ant to sell his cars at auction with no reserve which seems somewhat unfair.  He lost a fortune on a Jaguar XJS and made just £200 (not including auction fees which were probably more than £200) on a mint (and therefore extremely rare) one-owner Alfasud.  And when I say "mint", I don't mean it had a hole in it - check out the auction listing.

A similar fate befell an original condition (and also extremely rare) MGC with just 5000 genuine miles on the odometer on the programme I watched just before Born Mechanic - that programme being Bangers And Cash, Restoring Classics.  The team spent over £30,000 on getting the car ready for auction and it sold for just £22,500.  Like the Alfa, it seemed almost criminal to let it go for that price but at least that show is about a car auction site so there is justifiable jeopardy there.

So, does this show mean that Ant has followed Mike Brewer back to the UK?

Nope, but his girlfriend is currently filming the next Bridget Jones film over here so that worked out quite well.

They obviously got their diaries aligned.

Three Weeks Worth of News

I didn't post anything last week so here's something that tickled my fancy last week, something that tickled my fancy this week and something that will  tickle my fancy next week.

From last week, it's my favourite American car site Car+Driver with this story about Ford hoping to be able to get their vehicles to repossess themselves when the payments are not forthcoming.

From this week, it's my favourite Australian car site with this story of a couple of men old enough to know better, one Dutch and one Belgian who appear to have hired a couple of Ferraris in Italy that they clearly didn't have the skills to drive at speed.  This is a very spectacular video and they will be picking bits of debris from that swimming pool for years to come:

From next week, I give you the new series of Wheeler Dealers.  It looks like they are doing a Triumph Dolomite Sprint - well, they were never going to do a 1500HL like I used to own - but a Sprint is good too.  The Facebook Trail is here.  Surely they can't be serious?  Well they are.  And don't call me Shirley.

Picketing

I was minded to do a Post on Thursday because two different things piqued my interest:

One was this Car+Driver article about the latest of many many many special edition Minis - this one being the 1499GT

The other was the return of Bangers & Cash to TV for a new series

But which to do?

The new Mini is an homage to the old Mini 1275GT although it is really just the stripe along the bottom that they have in common:

I prefer the old one:

But it was while looking for a picture of a black example to match the new car, that I found this picture:

It's a Wood & Pickett version of the 1275GT - Wood & Pickett being coachbuilders/car converters.  The latest evidence of their existence that I can find is this article from 2011.  I suspect that they are no more but would be happy to be corrected.

That picture reminded me of a BBC Archives Facebook Post that a friend of mine once stuck onto my timeline with Lesley Judd driving around the Blue Peter studio in one marveling at its luxury vinyl roof. Click here if you are a Facebook user who wants to see her.

Now Wood & Pickett converted several different cars, specialising in Minis and other BLMC/British Leyland/Austin-Rover vehicles including my first car - the Triumph Dolomite- this is their version:

Not sure about their paint choice though - and neither was Derek Mathewson, boss of Mathewson's Auctions when he sold it in this week's series 3 episode 1 of Bangers & Cash.  He also sold a barely used Triumph Toledo.  I always watch Bangers & Cash - I'm waiting to see if Wayne Carini turns up stood at the back of the room one week and I think I'm in love with Sarah Crabtree but it was these these two Triumphs that made me want to publish this week.

So, both stories neatly linked.  My work here is done.

Glowing

My first car was vomit yellow:

That's not actually it by the way.  Mine was three years younger than that one but still had the dodgy bonnet.  It was a Triumph Dolomite just like that one - British Leyland called the colour Sandglow.

 

Here is a picture of me reflected in the not-so-dodgy bonnet of my current car.  Jaguar call the colour "Jaguar Racing Green.":

However, as you can see from the photo, it's looking a little Sandglow-ish.

 

BBC Scotland have explained why.

 

The sand has come over North Africa.  Making work for the British car washes.  Sometimes accused of employing illegal immigrants in slavery conditions.

 

I'll leave it to the Mail Readers to put 2 and 2 together and make 5.

Edd's Gone!!!

And I don't mean Edd The Duck.    

No, I mean the only other "Ed" who spells his name with two D's - Edd China:

I was going to do a posting today about Sunday's Top Gear - I had a couple of ideas and was definitely going to mention my favourite quote of the show:

"The Suspects are Joey from Friends and a bald guy in a bad suit."

or maybe I was going to complain about them dissing the Dolomite Sprint...

...which led into Rory Reid driving the most famous car on TV (if you watch car shows) - a Mark I Golf GTi carrying Reg. number A651FEJ:

Here's Jeremy with it:

 

and here it is on Car SOS:

This may well be it again but I'm not going to find the episode in the second series of Wheeler Dealers - Trading Up to find out:

It's not appeared on For The Love of Cars yet though.

And here we arrive at the big news story of today:

Discovery today announced established automotive expert Ant Anstead is the new co-host and master mechanic on the global hit series WHEELER DEALERS. After 13 seasons, longtime co-host and lead mechanic Edd China has decided to leave the series to pursue other projects. WHEELER DEALERS will continue for a season 14 later this year with current co-host Mike Brewer who will now be joined by Anstead. Ant Anstead is the former host of the Channel 4 series “For The Love Of Cars”

Wow!

Or I could have gone with...

"Opel cleared of diesel emissions cheating by French authorities"

...an Autocar story today which comes just after it was announced that Opel was to become part of the PSA Group which is part-owned by the French authorities.

No - the Edd news is much bigger.  A bit like him.

Her Name is Rio...

...and she's based on a Triumph Dolomite Sprint.

It's a Panther Rio.  I've never seen one in the flesh before - but it was one of the first cars I saw at The Manchester Classic Car Show.

 

Although I didn't see any actual Dolomites.  There were plenty of other Triumphs there though including TR6s, TR7s, my favourite Stags and even an Acclaim.

There were also plenty of excited dads like me wandering about telling their bored children why various cars were very interesting or had been owned by their ancestors.

As well as a car based on one of my former cars, there was also a green Jag estate a bit like I drive now - only much classier:

Having said that, I did spot this:

Now that may be in much better nick than my own car, and a few years younger, but it would imply that my car is a classic.

It isn't.

I suppose that this Porsche 914 is a classic - but it is clearly the Boxster's grandfather and I dislike it for the same reason that I dislike the Boxster - you can't tell if it's going forwards or backwards.

 There were a few cars I'd never heard of before  - like the Rochdale Olympic:

The Rochdale owners club had two and a half of them on display:

 Then there was this Berkeley:

I had to look them up on Wikipedia.  If what it says is correct, they seemed to have a large model-range considering they only lasted from 1956 to 1960 when they went bankrupt.  This model, which looked a bit lonely and ignored, looks like a Berkeley Foursome - 20 were produced and it had a tiny 492cc engine.

They did have some modern cars too.  It was difficult getting near the Tesla:

It was near the Tesla that I was handed my "goodie bag" which turned out to contain an issue (No 348) of Classic Car Buyer - and nothing else.  I shouldn't complain because it retails for £2.50 and the carrier bag will be worth 10p too.

Not too sure about this Mini Hatchback.

It's very clever and all that but the proportions looked all wrong.

Never mind, this makes everything good again:

Check out more pictures here.

Take Your Classic Car to Work Day.

I like Chris Evans.

Not in a sexual way, of course.

I'm also quite jealous of him.

He is the same age as me (give or take 6 months) and has a successful broadcasting career and considerably more cars than me - even if you take into account my Scalextric collection.

He also has the power, through presenting Britain's most popular breakfast show, of declaring days as being "National Whatever Day".

As one of his listeners, I have been following with much interest and anticipation, the announcement and run-up to today - his "National Classic Car Day".

MSN announced it here but most of the media hasn't covered it.

Maybe that is why I haven't seen many classic cars during my 22 mile commute to work this morning and back home this evening.

This morning, I spotted a 1980's Daimler (the one with the rectangular headlamps).  This may or may not have been taking part in National Classic Car Day.

This evening, I spotted a 1980's Porsche 911.  This may or may not have been taking part in National Classic Car Day.

This lunchtime, whilst strolling back from the local Spar with the beef barm I had just purchased, I spotted a yellow Triumph Dolomite.  This may or may not have been taking part in National Classic Car Day but it excited me anyway (not in a sexual way) as all Triumphs always do.

So, overall, I don't think there has been a big take-up - at least where I've been on the England-Wales border today.

However, there are several nice pictures on Chris' Facebook page including this Dyane being modelled by Chris' Radio 2 colleague Alex Lester:

...and of course this Triumph Dolomite: 

So now I'm excited again.

 

But not sexually.

 

Well.  Maybe just a bit.

Would you sell your Granny?

Somebody is.

And if I had £5K spare and some space and some time to travel down to East Anglia (as opposed to Ford Anglia - there's one of them for sale too) I would certainly be interested in making a purchase.

After all, she is beautiful:

It's the rarer 3-door coupe style as well.

 

So what alerted me to this sale?

 

This did.

 

It is a story from the BBC about a 1961 Triumph Herald up for sale with just 20 miles on the clock.  It is believed that the "one careful lady owner" never actually drove it. 

Sounds a bit like the story of the Merc I found in Swansea.

 

It goes under the hammer on Saturday together with the car you can just see behind it.

 

The car in the picture behind it interests me because my first car was identical to it.

 

OK, it had a different registration number and was three years younger but it was a Triumph Dolmite 1500HL in Vomit Yellow (aka Sandglow).

 

It must be in excellent condition because it is estimated to go for between £14K and £16K - although they've clearly got the colour wrong in the listing (brown) and the mileage too (69 - maybe they meant 69000)

 

I don't think they are too clever when it comes to the listings.  They have the mileage for the Herald that is making the headlines down as being 3750 (next to a photo of the speedo that shows 20).

 

3750 is still unbelievably low for a 50-year-old car and probably belongs to a second Herald the auctioneers are selling that they have listed as having 20 miles.

 

I would love to have a wander around this auctioneers site - the actual, physical site, not the website, although that is pretty interesting too.

 

For example, they have a 1988 Rover 213 - why on Earth would that be a classic?

 

Well, to answer my own question (and I bet you thought it was rhetorical) it only has 3101 miles on the clock and is expected to fetch £3K.

 

They also have Granny's successor for sale: 

Oh dear.  Maybe not.

Is The Jaguar an Endangered Species?

Well, it doesn't appear in the list of 20 most endangered.

The BBC and The Telegraph both pointed me at the Honest John site today where this story can be found.

I must admit that I got a bit distracted by the adverts to the right...

where two different men seem to own the same wallet with the same picture of the same car.

But I digress.

The story looks at the survival rates of mass-produced British cars particularly from the '60s, '70s and '80s.

The car that seems to be faring the worst is the Austin Allegro...

...with 642,340 built and 291 remaining in the UK, for a total of 0.0453% left.

The BBC report concentrates on the 1980s and is particularly worried about survival rates of cars from that decade.  It is quite scathing about the Scrappage Scheme of a few years back and, speaking as someone who didn't get to take advantage of it, I wholeheartedly agree.

This got me thinking about the car I owned from that decade, my 1980 Triumph Dolomite 1500HL in vomit yellow.  The Honest John site lets you look up just about any car right up to modern ones so I checked out The Dolomite and found some nice charts and, basically some good news:

In December 2007, there were 2,373 registered

By December 2011, 2,159 of those were left

On average, 53 were lost each year, or 2.3%

At that rate, it will take 29 years until half of those left today are lost

I guess that once a car reaches a certain age, people will look after them.

I then got distracted by Top 20: Fastest disappearing cars from UK roads.  This list contains a few non-surprises like Daewoos and Fiats, one fairly surprising entry - the Vauxhall Cavalier and car I actually don't remember - the Sao Penza.

In case you're wondering, Sao Penza. Population in 2007: 13, population in 2011: 3, for 23.08% of '07 cars remaining.

I'll alert David Attenborough.

Yellow Peril

Last weekend, the lovely Susanna Reid on BBC Breakfast Time mentioned a survey that stated that yellow cars had most problems when bought second-hand. I found that slightly interesting but have had to wait all week to find any further mention anywhere else of that survey. It was the Telegraph who eventually came up with this article. It claims that "14 per cent have some kind of defect such as covered-up repairs, 'clocked' mileage or inadequate paperwork"

My first car was sort of yellow. British Leyland called the colour "Sandglow" but I called it "Vomit Yellow" - it was a Dolomite very much like this one...I didn't have any such problems with it - but then again it was my father's before it was mine.

I still don't see car colour affecting used-cars that much except - this survey was a global survey, so maybe it's been skewed by a load of used examples of these things getting onto the market...