WHEELER DEALERS’ NEW TV RESTOS REVEALED
The 16th series of Wheeler Dealers is now underway, with a variety of established and modern classics gracing Mike and Ant’s workshop in Los Angeles.
The theme of the British sports car gets a thorough workout this time around, as the first episode’s Datsun Fairlady 2000 attests; rare for a Japanese car, it keeps breaking down.
The Fairlady’s predecessors were MGB contemporaries – and the Abingdon car’s influence carried on well into the Noughties, when episode four’s patient, a Mazda MX-5 (‘NB’) is brought in. Wheeler Dealers’ co-host, Ant Anstead is also working on other high-profile outings for this particular MX-5 outside of the programme itself.
Other highlights include a restoration on 5 October of the much-loved Triumph TR7, a car released exclusively in the US a year earlier than it debuted in the UK with the express aim of stealing the hearts and minds of America’s MG buyers.
Mike Brewer told Classic Car Weekly:
‘I wanted to choose an eclectic mix of cars that would test both our skills to the maximum. The Jeep CJ-7 ended up as a full nut and bolt restoration. We also wanted to get some cars from the Eighties and Nineties in this series and I’ve always wanted to get a Nissan 300ZX [Z32] on Wheeler Dealers; it had a lot of aftermarket parts on it when we bought it so we took it back to stock.’