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.

Home Brew

 Wheeler Dealers is coming home!

But wait, that's not Ant Anstead.

No, that's Marc Priestley aka "Elvis" - the British based mechanic who worked with Mike on Wheeler Dealers - Dream Car.

Which I never watched.

The full announcement is here on YouTube:

Elvis is taking over from Ant and the three of them appear in that video talking about what will be the series-after-next.

I look forward to it being British again and I have every confidence that Elvis will make a fine third incarnation of the WD Mechanic - a Jon Pertwee to Ant's Patrick Troughton if you will.

One other thing I took from the video was a throw-away comment from Ant about his wives.

So I looked them up on Wikipedia.

His first wife, according to Wiki, is famous for being Ant Anstead's ex-wife.

His second wife, however, who is also Ant Anstead's ex-wife, seems to be a TV Presenter.

One person who gets virtually zero mention, however, is Edd - still the original and best and I bet a lot of the show's fans' first choice to resume the role.  It was stated that Ant will be calling in from time to time so I think we really need a "Three Mechanics" episode at some point - if Doctor Who can do it, then there's no reason why Wheeler Dealers can't.

Sounds Like Brewer's Telling Porkies

Well he is a used car salesman. 

I am a big fan of Wheeler Dealers - both the Edd era and the Ant era.

So I follow them on Facebook.

So I was somewhat perplexed to see this posting today:

Now Mike Brewer is obviously a car guy.

I am also a car guy.  I must be, I spend time writing a car blog that only 7 people read. And, speaking as a car guy, I am pretty confident in saying that things car guys find the opposite of interesting include:

• SUVs that farmers wouldn't be interested in
• Chinese Budget motors
• Bog-Standard Electric Cars

So I am incredibly sceptical when Mike Brewer says,

"MG has launched two new models, expanding the range to include an all-new EV and a plug-in hybrid variant of the HS SUV. Having seen the MG Motor UK ZS EV at the NEC last year, I can't wait to have a test drive in this. What do you think?"

I think MG must be paying you an awful lot of money to post that - it makes you less credible than Dominic Cummings.

The comments mostly though pick up on the fact that these cars look like a VW parked next to a Mazda.  All cross-overs look the same anyway but here I have got onto Paint and produced a VW parked next to a Mazda:

They've got a point.

Itchycoo Car Park

Want to see an ant in a car?

or maybe two?

Unfortunately, this story relates to a whole colony of ants.

 

Also, unfortunately, I have to link to Fox News.  The story does appear to be true though despite this.

 

The infestation happened at Charlotte Douglas International Airport after the car had been left in the parking lot there for three days.

 

Meanwhile, another bug has also been making news on the Fox site.

 

This one's allegedly up for $1 Million:

Now I wouldn't mind having a colony of those to sell.

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.

Restoring the Faith

We seem to have a plethora of car make-over/restoration shows on UK telly at the moment.

We have series 2 of Channel 5's Classic Car Rescue on a Monday night.  We have ongoing Wheeler Dealers on Discovery.  Quest are repeating Chop Shop, London Garage on a Thursday and we have a new entry from Channel 4 on a Sunday namely, For The Love of Cars:

This features Philip Glenister and "internationally renowned car designer" Ant Anstead restoring classic British cars.  I put that bit in quotes because that is how Channel 4 describe him - I'd never heard of him before and he does seem to be an extremely competent mechanic/car restorer - not too sure about the relevance of his design qualifications though.

 

Ant gets on with the actual restoration work while Phil becomes DCI Gene Hunt with ever-varying amounts of stubble and goes out to have adventures and meet people and groups with stories to tell of whichever vehicle is up for restoration that week.

 

Week one saw the Escort Mexico in the picture above - the best bit was the look on the face of a Liverpool Police Officer who used to drive one in the '70s.  They were interviewing him for the series in a back alley somewhere on Merseyside and he suddenly heard the siren approaching of one of the cars in the fleet he used to use.  He got to drive it again and meet up with a '70s car-thief too.

 

Week two was the Series I Land-Rover where Phil got to meet a Landie enthusiast who you wouldn't want to meet down the pub and another who you definitely would - they even named the restored Landie after him.

 

Next week it's the Triumph Stag - really looking forward to see what they do with my favourite classic.

 

Classic Car Rescue, which I did a bit about Series 1 on, has changed a little bit.  There are still the silly, contrived, badly-acted arguments but I think there is a little more actual car restoration being shown.  The final valuation now comes in via "classic car expert" Paul O'Neill.  I put that in quotes because Paul O'Neill is an ex-Touring Car Driver who does the Twitter bits during the BTCC Coverage and is the brother of a Spice Girl.  I'm a big fan of Paul (him being a Scouser helps) but I've never heard him described as a "classic car expert" before.

 

Bernie Fineman's previous show, Chop Shop, London Garage is probably the nearest to what I think of as the original and best show like these, American Hot-Rod which I posted about back in 2011.  These two shows are more make-over than restoration but enthralling viewing to me.

 

According to wiki though, American Hot-Rod wasn't the first - Wheeler Dealers is older - and still going strong.  I love Wheeler Dealers but it's quite rare that I get to watch it because it is on Pay-TV - this is surely a prime show for Quest to take on?

 

Anyway, I hope as many of these shows continue as possible for many years into the future when one day they will be restoring Nissan Jukes and Citroen DS3s.