3:22 pm, June 15, 2011
TODAY Car Dealer was treated to a very special tour of the Wheeler Dealer inner sanctum.
Tucked away on a farm in Buckinghamshire, Mike Brewer showed off the cars from the latest series.
Brewer has just got back from six weeks in America where he’s bought a varied collection of metal for Edd China to fix up.
When we arrived for our meeting, Brewer had just handed over this DeLorean to China. I’ve never seen one up close and was shocked at just how small it is.
Those gullwing doors are seriously smart though and the brushed stainless steel body looks awesome up close. I blagged a quick sit in the driver’s seat and was a gutted it was a bit small for me.
Next we got a peak around the studio. China really does do all the work on the cars for the series here, and there were engines, bits of interior and car parts littering the barn.
Inside was a Karmann Ghia, a Beetle-based VW, which was next up to be shot. Brewer had bought it in Idaho.
A Chevrolet sidestep pick up was in the middle of the studio, minus an engine.
After our meeting was over, Brewer showed us around the other lock-ups on the farm. China’s handiwork was evident pretty much everywhere we looked.
In one corner was a bumper car he’d converted to run on an engine. Brewer told us there was more than one on the farm and during quiet spells on set they sometimes raced them around!
My favourite of the lot though was China’s original Fiat 500. He’d spent a lot of time and effort restoring the car and it looked stunning in orange.
China wants to get rid of it and I am seriously considering shelling out. He wants £6,500 for the classic which is pretty tempting. Not sure if I’ll get that past the wife though…
We left just as Brewer and China were getting mic’d up for a long afternoon of filming. We’re planning a very big event with the Wheeler Dealer supremo next year for dealers so watch this space for details of that coming soon.
Those of you lucky enough to get an invite to our Car Dealer Power awards on July 20 can look forward to hearing the details of the big event from the man himself who’ll be there to hand out one of our gongs.
Right, better go and crunch some numbers and try and work out how I can make that Fiat 500 mine.
