Ant Anstead: ‘Creating Frank’s vision was hard’

The Cosworth was the car I had a poster of on my bedroom wall as a kid, so to be handed it as my first ever project for Wheeler Dealers was a gift. But the gift had problems, including a nasty oil leak from the rear of the engine.

However, the Cosworth was designed around a rally car and therefore had to be built so that it was easy for the crew to change the engine and make fast fixes. In fact, to remove the engine was actually no big deal because of Ford’s innovative design; it was easy to undo the bolts and lift the shell of the car, leaving the engine and gearbox behind in one go. This showcases the amount of engineering genius in the engine as well as the design as it makes changing the plugs, oil and filter so easy to do – hence you won’t see those basic jobs done in the show. What you will see however, is the moment that changed the whole project. My good friend and renowned car designer, Frank Stephenson, visited the workshop to give me some advice, as he designed the Cosworth for Ford. He revealed that he had designed the car with a third wing – a game-changing scenario that made this episode ten minutes longer than any other episode in the show’s history. As soon as he told me about the wing, I had to make it and what follows – the fabrication, a production mould and a wind tunnel – may look pretty simple enough on screen, but to actually create Frank’s vision was amazingly hard, but extremely rewarding.