Original subtitles

It's alive!

It's the Steve Andrews!

Oh, yeah.

He's basically Richard, like a big McCarney set.

Victory will be getting signatures on my life. Me to move up for them. That's

all I'm going to do.

Oh, God.

I'm going to kill the car.

After four rollercoaster years in the classic car restoration business, that

worked. I'm going to claim my thought on everything.

It seems I've finally cracked it. Happy customer.

That's a good feeling.

We've dragged out the art department.

You've got to get your asses over here damn quick. Into the 21st century.

Our reach on that day was 317 ,000 people.

And as brand ambassador, if you happen to have a car in the UK, I'm leading the

charge. This is brilliant.

At least, that's what I thought.

If you've over -promised, you can't under -deliver.

Until my mum arrived.

They won't listen to me. They'll listen to me.

And it turns out that, once again, I'm in deep trouble.

I'm going to have to do something. I'm going to have to do something big.

Oh, my God!

Big day today.

I know, I've said that before, but this one really is because the company is

getting bigger. Two new starters today joining us.

Matt on mechanics and John on bodywork.

And that's significant.

I've been told a million times by a million different people that I've got

grow the team for this business to survive.

I've got to spend more money to make enough money to cover the overheads. And

this is the start of it.

It finally feels like maybe we're getting serious at last.

Right, time to inspect the newbies.

Chaps, good to see you finally here. I know you're settling in. Matt, you're

starting on the condor, yeah? Yeah, I believe so, yeah. Okay, and John, you're

kicking on with that Lotus. That's right, I'll get the joy out of that,

Anthony's showing you the ropes and where everything is.

Like most of the cats.

I'm on it to have you. His favourite tool. Thank you.

All right, shall we crack on now?

Let's see.

So, yeah, John, you'll be spare me for your time in the spray booth. It's mine,

yeah. Matt, mechanical over there for you.

This here, they're dead then on the cameras.

All right.

Don't ask how I know.

But it is, all right? Just remember, H is watching, so don't stand where you

are, basically. Right. And it stops there, OK?

Right. All right? I won't tell no -one if you don't.

Next stop, toilets.

There's no, obviously, cameras in there, so that is a resting area as well, if

you want to.

But keep that as clean as possible, cos Eileen, yeah, Richard's mum, checks on

us all the time. So if I was you, yeah, I'd probably go before you come in in

the morning.

So, any questions from that wall front?

No, you seem to be back on, mate, yeah? Yeah.

Work

can

start properly today on the Condor.

The one -of -a -kind racing GT car prototype that I went to look at a while

was built back in the 60s.

by Brian Winfield, who was the legendary Ford engineer stroke designer.

The car is now owned by his daughter, Kate.

We couldn't start on the mechanical work before because we needed the skills in

the workshop. We have now with Matt.

The bodywork and paint and stuff are done.

The mechanical work is going to be next level.

First job probably will be getting a new engine fitted into it for the first

time, which is going to be a challenge.

What they need is me to inspire, lead, generally irritate. And I'm going to go

and do that now.

So, gentlemen, this is it. The condor has landed. Yeah.

How are we feeling?

Yeah, we're just going through it now, going through the aftermath.

There's only one ever been made, and it's our job to get it back up, running

together.

Matt, we did promise when we had that initial conversation, mate, you join us,

you get to work on unusual stuff.

What's more unusual than the one -off?

I assume there's a comprehensive workshop manual. Yeah, yeah, yeah. No,

nothing. There is literally nothing.

And actually, this is going to be quite the challenge. Are you always this calm

within your job? Because we don't know you yet. Pretty much, yeah. Stay calm.

Right. Do each little task at a time. Yeah, it's not the way we operate, Matt.

Oh, is it not? No.

We like a massive panic, run around, just doing anything, then don't do

for a bit, and then panic because the deadline's coming at you. You've only

to basically do what probably has never been done before.

Oh, OK. So that's OK, isn't it? I mean, essentially it comes down to engine's

got to go in, be hooked up.

It may or may not have been in before, we're not sure.

Okay. It's got to be finished.

It's got to be turned into a car.

Right. Good luck.

That's clear.

Oh, my God.

We're clear. Oh, we're clear.

He's all right.

The car has nothing left now.

I'm just reading up on the...

condor to be honest i've never heard of it i've heard of brian wingfield he's a

bit of a legend in british motorsport it seems like it was a bit of a labor of

love for him but it never quite got finished so we've been tasked to finish

work of probably one of the best designers in british motorsport history

pressure i don't think i've ever worked on a one -off car before at all i worked

on a few that probably should have been made once and then binned off but not

one like this and there's literally two pages of information on it on the on the

internet it's going to be a lot of thinking on our feet putting our heads

together see if we can get it finished hopefully we can

that

in there It's actually quite a rare car, Lotus Europa.

They didn't make many.

That's even more rare because it's the last one ever made.

The client commissioned us to conduct a complete restoration of it about a year

ago. And every week we thought, right, have we got anybody who can get on the

Lotus? No, we can't. So now from today, having John in there on the body of it

is just, that's...

what I should have done all along. There's no increase in the overheads of

building. It's the same building, but with more work and more money being

generated in it. I'm finally getting it.

This feels good.

For a long time, I've actually wanted to work here.

The quality of the cars, to be here at the smallest cog doing them, especially

for Richard, is just sort of once in a lifetime.

My dream job, really.

Can't quite believe that we're doing this car. I'm really looking forward to

getting the paint on it, especially with it being silver.

um because there really wasn't very many done in that color there's not many

people that really enjoy working on fiberglass but i like the challenge

so

it wasn't that long ago that well i was influenced by hadrian like an idiot and

allowed him to persuade me to buy a stanley steam car That's like the 105

-old steam -powered car.

And then we set about getting it going, and who knew? Trying to get a 105 -year

-old, basically mobile pressure cooker working is a bit complicated.

H, it's on fire.

Yeah, that is slightly flash, that is. Don't leave me here!

Yeah, I mean, there was fire, but we did eventually get it going.

But then since then...

Because Hadrian's been so kindly helping me out with the workshop itself, time

has been a bit short for him to work on the steam car. But now we've got the new

recruits in, he's got a bit more time to get back to it, which is good, because

I don't want it to stall and be another languishing project.

So I want it to work. We're going to get there.

Right.

H has told me the first thing we've got to get sorted is the car's boiler, and

today is mission critical because the inspector's coming in.

Hello, H.

Hi, mate. How's it going? Very well, and you? Yeah, good.

Come to have a look at the Stanley, haven't we? Yeah.

Here's the patient.

Pulled the top and bottom off it so you can have a good look at it, Al, and get

the old thickness tester on. Yeah.

We've had a lot of leaks.

on the valves, you know?

And I think it's a combination of the fact that the damn things have dried out

and... Been stood a long time. Yeah, been stood a long time, yeah.

I've been looking forward to this day, and now I'm dreading it.

Well, it is a bit of a worrier. Yeah, this is the vet. Come to tell me if my

pet had it. That's exactly what it is. Don't say that!

Alan. Hello.

Hello, mate. Hello. Right, so what happens now? Well, we're going to have a

at the thickness on the top of the plate. This is ultrasonic testing.

Okay. So we're just going to test.

Just in a couple of places to see what the thickness of the top plate is, and

then we'll have a look at the bottom one.

That's the boiler in there?

That's the boiler, wire -wound boiler. And what you're doing is checking... I'm

just checking the thickness of the plate.

So it's not going to explode? Yeah, exactly. Are you the man who stops it

exploding? Well, I won't stop it exploding, but we'll have a look at it.

he's going to do now is he's going to tell you actually what the condition of

the boiler is, yeah? We're 5 .3 on the top, but that would originally have been

6mm, so it's down a bit on that. Where's it gone?

It's just worn away.

Corrosion. Is it pregnant?

We're down to three mil on the bottom.

On the bottom of the boiler.

Oh, well. I think... I think that's it, really. We can't do much else with that

at the moment.

Wait, what?

Yeah, the end of that boiler.

The end of its life.

It happens.

Sadly.

Why am I so teary? It looks sad.

Well, I can't, really, because it's just one of those things, isn't it?

That's one of my... I know it is, I know, but... I know.

It's a shame, really.

You made me buy a lemon.

No, I mean, there was the potential there that you'd have to have a boiler.

did have that caveat, so... Yeah, but I didn't listen to that bit.

Love steam cars.

It's a brilliant idea, this.

Anything else you want me to buy?

It's a consumable item. Let's buy a chocolate teapot.

A chocolate...

Well, that's it. That's it. We can't do much else. But I'll get us some prices

for the boiler.

Thank you. Yeah. Then you know where you are.

Oh, I know where I am. H, you owe me a pint.

You do.

I thought that was coming. I'm going now.

All right. Thank you.

I think he took that quite well. I think he did. I think he was very happy about

that. Yeah.

For all my bleating to H, I'm not turning my back on this really lovable

I'm determined to get it back on the road.

That's good. So what I've done is commit myself to a steam car with a broken

boiler.

You have to be an expert to work out what's the most important thing in the

steam car. It's the bit that makes steam the boiler. And once again, I'm in on

the car, I've spent money on the car, and I've got to spend more money to get

working. Hello!

Does that remind you of anything?

We've got a bit of an issue here. It seems our original engine mount isn't

to match up with our engine mount hole.

Well, I'll go into the engine then and see if I can actually get some made up

it quick so it doesn't hold us up.

Awesome. Thanks, mate.

Working with Matt now, actually working alongside him, he makes a hell of a

difference. He's got a bit more experience than me, so I can feed off

The one thing I've been missing since Dad left is that communication of not

being scared to ask somebody.

And that's coming back now.

Has progressed with the mystery machine.

Matt, are you regretting working here yet?

Just saying.

It's different.

You're just in time, I think. We're ready to put that back in. Right. So you

actually drive the crane if you want. I'll drive the crane and hopefully not

destroy it.

Forward as you are, I think, at the moment. And we're aiming for the centre

much as possible.

Okay, I'm releasing.

Turn me down.

Can we get the clutch just under that?

Okay. Okay.

That's probably it.

Happy? Yeah. Come on, girl.

You're going to have to turn the engine over.

Thank you very much.

Okay, if I hold a bit of pressure on.

This is effectively a heart transplant.

It's a fiddly business.

Oh, she's going now. She's going.

There she goes. She's going.

Moment of truth.

And then we can lower the jack down.

If you're ready, you're lowering slowly now.

Okay, mine's died. Oh, yes, that's in.

There you go.

That is now part of the car.

There you go.

There you go. That's a significant moment.

That's a nice feeling.

I mean, I'm not going to get carried away, but it's in.

Well done, chaps.

Big progress. Yeah.

I must admit, I did feel rather bad about Richard's steam car boiler.

And I do think there is a good way round it that's not going to cost the earth

and take months and months and months and months.

We're going to reuse the actual outer tube of the existing boiler and just

machine off the ends and then put new ends in and then re -tube that. So

technically that's a repair.

While H tries to resurrect the boiler, the rest of the car has been sent down

Somerset to a specialist in vintage leather.

I'm really hoping the original 105 -year -old seats can be saved.

This whole steam car experience, I'm loving it, because it's opening up all

these specialised skills and crafts, and I'm desperately keen to preserve the

original leather wherever I can, rather than replace it.

Hello?

Richard. Richard. Hello. Thanks for letting me come along for a nose -about.

intrigued. And there it is. It is?

so how are we getting on uh right we'll go have a look at the cushions first

right i'll follow you uh paula the machinist hello paul the

machinist i'm richard sorry don't interrupt oh mate this is exactly what i

thought it would be yeah smells of leather as well yeah is that that is off

yours wow uh you see these are split so i've managed to patch a couple of them

trying to keep as much of the original leather as possible which is the whole

point and then we're going to replace this panel here

Because unfortunately, the rips are too close to the seam.

That's where that came from.

With a piping around the edge.

I've got a hide of leather here, which is new leather, but it looks old.

Okay.

That's for the piping.

Is that for the piping? Yep.

Let me just make sure we've got it long enough.

This is to glue the piping cord inside the leather.

Basically giving a little pull on the leather as you go along.

Piping to there.

Now we've got that done, it goes over to the sewing machine.

Paula, you're up.

Sewing department is now busy.

Yeah. See what it's like.

Look at that.

That's fantastic.

That's really, really amazing to see.

I'm deeply impressed. Paula, thank you.

Have you been doing this a while?

About 45 years, I think.

No, stick with it. I reckon you'll get the hang of it.

You really have saved that.

It is an unbelievably good match.

Can I go see the rest of the leather in the car?

Yep.

So we've given it a feed.

Yeah.

It's softened it a little.

It has brought it back to life. It was sort of dead.

Absolutely, yeah, like cardboard.

So I'll have a few more coats before it comes back to you.

But at the end of the job, we will have a 100 -year -old car with largely...

In fact, almost entirely, 100 -year -old leather interior.

It's still there, just the odd repair.

Right, thank you so much for letting me see what you do and see the progress,

and I'll leave you to your good work.

Brilliant. Thank you. Thank you.

Good for Richard to come down to see that there are places that this trade

goes on. I've been doing this now for 27 years.

Learned from my grandfather, you've got to put a bit of love, a bit of care, a

bit of effort.

into the job to get it looking how it was done when the steam car was brand

105 years ago i love that there's somebody doing something exactly the way

was done 100 years ago and that's the only way to save those seats it needs

somebody who knew well who knows how they were built in the first place to do

again

that's

doing its job and the electric thing moves

But it's not.

I'm locking the door.

So you're saying you're locked out of the office?

Again, yeah.

Do you want this?

No.

Well, have you lost the key?

No, it's the digital lock. It just stopped working.

Haven't you already broken into the door once already when you first set the

lock on? Yeah, I first don't want to break into it. Would you like me to

Cough?

Yay! Anyway.

Well, there's nothing like being thrown in at the deep end for my first repaint

at the cog. I've got a beautiful Lotus Europa.

Unfortunately for me, it's made out of fibreglass, which is much harder to work

on, because when the materials are laminated, it tends to trap air

which creates air pockets.

So it makes pinholes, basically.

So obviously you need to make sure that they're all filled.

So obviously when you paint over the top of them, it'll look horrendous.

I basically spent a whole day just going over each individual panel to make sure

that I hadn't missed anything.

Especially with this being my first job, obviously I've got big boots to fill.

So hopefully everything will run nice and smoothly for me. The job will turn

lovely. The customer will be really happy.

And we'll refuse to do one again.

Right, here we go.

How are you, mate? Is he all right?

How's your first re -spray?

Spot on, mate. Enjoyed it. What's your opinion working with fibreglass?

Treat it the same as metal, but obviously there's a lot more work that

into getting the reshaping and all that, as you know.

Yeah. Most painters don't like working with it. So what's your real opinion?

It's crap, to be honest with you.

You don't want me to get another one? No, not for at least six months anyway.

I haven't given him the easiest job in the world for his first respray, but it

looks like he's done a cracking job. This job.

Clearly means a lot to him. I think we got the right member of staff there. You

know, we want someone with passion, they're keen, and they will go that

mile for the customer, and that's what we need.

This is some of the paperwork associated with the condo, that unique one -off

car downstairs that...

We're hoping to build up and finish for Mark and Kate. They're coming in today.

Well, that's the afternoon to come in because I'm worried we're burning

their budget.

Her father built it.

Brian, it's in his memory.

And if we can finish the Condor, Kate wants to fulfil her father's ambition

take it to classic car race events.

So I think we need to have a properly grown -up conversation about why it's

burning through money. And that's simple, really. It's unique.

everything takes time behind the ranger yeah what this one here no no no that's

a friend hello hello welcome

nice to see you how are you how are you doing good yeah how are you we did in

remote harfordshire yeah hello richard your car is lurking around here

This is quite a critical conversation now because we've reached a point where

there are going to be decisions needing to be made. So we figured, come in and

let's talk it through.

Yeah, do you want to see the sort of things that we've rectified so far? A

of them are to do with how big it is and how small the space is. Yeah.

So positioning, for one, is that you've got hardly any clearance here.

If you move it this way a bit, it's too close to that.

Radiator, if you look where the outlet is on the bottom, it's right in line

where that steering column bracket is.

So we're going to have to step around and then come up. Either that or we move

the position on the radiator.

But Brian, when he was alive and still reasonably compus mentis, he went

a hell of a lot of this, how he wanted the car finished. I think he half had in

mind that him and I would do it together, but obviously... That didn't

Sam. Yeah, the dementia set in and that wasn't to be, but it would be lovely to

hear it run. Yeah, might as well.

It's been, well, 40 -odd years since it has run.

Right.

40 years and she's running again. It runs.

And it makes the right noise. It does.

Oh, really emotional. I love that noise anyway, that big V power.

I grew up hearing that engine.

That's an engine that's unique to this car.

Really important and, yeah, really emotional, really emotional.

And I saw Mark well up and it was like, oh, don't, I'm going to go.

I know Brian, you know, Kate's dad, father -in -law, would have been pleased

with what's been done and the standard it's been done to.

as well brought a lump to my throat hearing it run just where we are at the

moment so like with the fuel lines and stuff if you pop the doors they're not

sent down yeah you can see where the time's gone you suddenly get to engine

and fitting it suddenly you end up yeah there's a lot of hours yeah yeah the

work to do so the alarming result is we are fast burning through your budget and

that's why we want to talk now and say hang on a minute with something like

it's so hard

Because we've never done one before, because nobody else has ever done one

before. They've got some decisions to make about how do they preserve the

in it, all of the memory of the man who built it, but not break themselves doing

it. But nor do they end up going down a cul -de -sac where they haven't done

enough, spent enough, and then they've spoiled it.

Tricky, complicated.

If I'm honest, no shock.

It's expensive, time is money. We're realistic.

So we're going to have to dig a bit deeper and let the guys carry on and

it. Not an easy job.

Somewhat painfully early start this morning, but for a good reason.

As the final thing I have to do to gain enough signatures on my race life to

qualify to race at Silverstone, which is what I've been working at, I have to do

a day's marshalling at a vintage sports car club.

And there's one today at Prescott.

So I'm not racing, but I'm going racing to wave flags around. And I don't

actually know. It would be quite interesting to find out what marshals

To make it a bit more fun, I've persuaded my mate Les to come along and

And I'm being very self -sufficient because I'm making lunch.

Cheese sandwich.

Now, is Les a mustard man or a pickle man?

I'm going to play pickle. Oh, they're too fancy.

They're like mustard.

What a creation.

Is that for marshalling?

Yeah. Thank you.

A pound?

You keep animals in a pound?

Yeah. Well, you're going to be in there.

All day today.

Right.

Name's Hammond. Do we put these on over our clothes?

Where do I go and put these on? Go in there.

Les has come down very kindly to help me out. He absolutely loves Prescott and

all the cars here. I have a feeling Zog's going to turn up later today as

I think he'll want to laugh at me and my orange overalls having to work when

he's having a nice, fun day off.

That's the theme of the day. I have to do stuff in an official capacity to get

the signature on my licence, and they don't.

Hello, boss.

Nice to see you.

I'm Paul Hickman. I'm the post chief today.

Richard and Les, you're very welcome.

The main thing is, eyes open all the time, looking that way down the track,

apart from the red flag man who's looking that way.

So when something happens, we get out there, we deal with it.

Today's event is a vintage hill climb.

It might look like a bit of Sunday fun, but these cars, some over 100 years old,

are very much racing up the famous Prescott Hill.

It can be dangerous, and so it's the job of marshals to help keep drivers and

public safe.

Here come,

here come.

First customer.

Right, Austin 7, all set. Mr. Patrick Teague, give me it. There it is. There

go. Oh, yes.

Jack, please.

Now, if number 230 has dropped those boils, I think you should have said

Sorry. We noticed the particularly masterful way in which the red flag was

deployed. I have control of the situation.

And I can keep it up as long as I need to. Really?

That's good for you.

Yeah.

Do we need to check the fluid? Okay.

Yeah, absolutely.

Do something.

Is this recent?

No,

you're not supposed to. They said don't do it with your fingers. Did they? Yeah.

Why? Well, because it's acid or something. Well done. That was good.

That was only done really to get you out there.

The exercise was welcome.

You're bursting out of your overalls.

I know.

Do you want me to zip them back up again and force myself back in?

God, it's like living with a wife. It's like somebody zipping a hippo into a

snake costume.

Thank you very much. Enjoy the rest of your day. Thank you.

Turtle pit.

This is a particularly fine event.

Richard has to do the mastering to get the points on his license so he can

bigger, more manly cars than he's been driving so far. And I think he's full on

today.

So I would imagine he's probably quite a scratchy little fluff cat by now.

I was in a state of total alertness to cars dropping fluids on track. You were,

actually. Hey, hello, you've found us.

Are you allowed in?

Leading marshals, I hear. Are you allowed in the marshals' pub? You've

waving flags and all sorts of grown -up stuff.

Come join us. Yes, we've done it.

I did check with our post chief, who's an ex -police officer.

And we do have authority.

Oh, a bit of authority.

You love that, though, don't you? Oh, no, I've never had any.

There was a point being... Oi, chaps. We can get you back on post.

El Capitan.

Yep. Right, I'll come with you, boss.

We'll wave at you with a glass in hand.

No, please don't.

Have a nice afternoon, King.

All the best.

Pimms it is.

While Zog and Les swan off to Gawbert Vintage Cars, my next job is to help the

marshals on the start line.

Young Richard.

Hi, Jeff. Richard, nice to see you. I'm now your newbie.

This is all a bit more technical.

Concentrate, Hammond.

The idea is we want three blue lights.

There's a yellow warning light will come on if he goes too far. She'll drop it

back.

There. That's perfect. Right. And so then it sits on the chop. Right. So our

job, get hold of the wheel and literally wheel it to the line. What signals him

to stop?

Green light.

Right.

So that's now held on the chop.

So. Look at that.

It's just a work of art. And the steering components, they've bent those

They've machined them first, forged them afterwards.

I absolutely love Fraser Nash's. What a beautiful thing.

Well, obviously, you understand these things a little bit better than I do.

Beautiful. What model is that?

I think it's a Riley 9 engine with a supercharger.

Saw your little video online the other day. It came your car ready, so good

luck, mister.

Let's follow you on Facebook.

Poor bastards, you get out more often. I can't. I can't get out. Right.

So, tell me when to stock it in.

Right, so... Riggle it a

bit. Get it in now.

Get it in now.

Yeah, stand down marshals. Team, well done. Thank you very much for welcoming

me. Right, I'm going to get this done.

This, I believe, is the final signature I need.

Done? Congratulations.

Thank you very much indeed.

Thank you all for your help. Appreciate that. I enjoyed it.

I got rather carried away with the idea of collecting the signatures, and now

I've realised, great, I can go and race at Silverstone in a really big race. Oh,

God.

Did you have a nice time looking at the cars? We had an amazing time. I just

came along for the beer, and we've had a lovely wander around the paddock. Well,

why don't we go and discuss this?

over a cooling glass of something lovely now. Which way do we go? Up that way.

Up that way, right. OK, chaps.

Once more, onto the breach.

The amount of people that come up to Les, and his knowledge, I have to say...

knows nothing else, only about old cars. Old cars and sheep.

Yes.

Hadrian's been hard at it. A new steam boiler would cost north of 10k, so I'm

crossing my fingers he can work his magic.

So this is the inside of the boiler. You can see we've machined out the top and

bottom. We've been busy making new plates for this, so we've lasered them

machined all the holes.

So now we've got it that the plates are tacked in and we're just about ready to

weld the ends back in the boiler. And it's not just a normal weld because it's

pressure vessel. So therefore we've brought in a specialist who only does

And today is the moment of truth.

This guy that's coming.

He's like a superhero welder, is he? Well, yeah, he's probably the most coded

welder in the shire. And that's good.

Yeah, that's very good, yeah.

Does he have, like, a title?

Hello, Richard. Hello, AD.

Hello, you're Adrian.

Adrian. Hi, how are you doing? I'm fine, thank you. You'll certainly be able to

reach the high welds, won't you? That won't be a problem for you.

Yeah, that helps a lot. So are you ready for this today?

Yes. I prepare all of the whole week.

Are you nervous?

A bit.

Really? Yeah, always.

So there's many ways how you can literally fail.

Yeah. And you have to take a lot of precautions.

You have to focus on that. You have to be precise. So you're not going to know

the result until it's going to be finished and tested.

So, you've got everything you need.

Yes. I won't be in the way. I will stand off and let you do it. That's fine. So

carry on. You're not going to offer any advice?

On this occasion, no.

I think he knows more about welding than even I do.

Go and step in there. Will all the other guys salute him when he walks in?

I'm not bringing it up too much when I say this is mission critical, because

everything he's doing over there right now is about making sure that my steam

car doesn't explode.

Literally, because that is the heart of the thing, that pressure vessel. If that

goes, it's a bad day.

And then I'm buying a new boiler, which is going to delay it by months and cost

a fortune.

Hi, Adrian.

I'm scared to ask, how's it going? How's it gone?

We're nearly there. We just have to bring those two ends to meet together.

We've done more than 99 % of the circumference. Just be careful, it's

hot. Are you happy with it?

More likely, yes.

We got fairly good penetration.

Were you anxious when you did it?

It's always stressful.

Right. Well done.

Thank you. That is a lifesaver. That is the difference between that car working

ever again and not.

Thank you, Adrian. I'll leave it to finish it up. Right, H, we need to do as

well.

Let's crack on.

That's good, that, isn't it? I mean, that is the difference between success

failure. Yeah.

Where are we on costs with that?

Well, Richard, you can't put a price on happiness.

Yeah, but somebody's going to, aren't they?

Now, H, didn't you say you'd be ready for the end of summer?

Ah, yes.

But I didn't say which summer, did I?

To honour her father's intentions for the Condor, the owner Kate wants it to

appear on racetracks like Goodwood and Le Mans.

That means it'll have to be engineered to modern standards.

The problem is the car was designed in the 1960s, and I'm really worried about

how much more work that will involve.

I need some specialist advice.

Fortunately, I know just the person.

Okay. Are we ready to ship it off?

Yeah. Up the M6 to Rick then, eh?

That's the thing. Rick has learned, hasn't he?

If you're not sure, get a second opinion.

That's it.

Rick is the racing man.

Dodge the drip.

Handbrake off.

Let's go.

Ciao.

It does

make sense for it to go to Rick.

We're not experts on race cars, so we're not really sure of how long it's going

to take and the costs involved.

So Rick's the man for this.

Rick has been building race cars, especially Fords, for over 30 years.

I've asked for a detailed condition report.

In here we've got what is left of a wiring loom.

This is just a fire waiting to happen. All these changing.

That steering column is a rusty tube with a rusty column with some welds

it. And you wouldn't do it that way nowadays. You can't have steering

failing. The other bit I think needs attention is the bump steer on it and

geometry and this front wishbone.

And what I mean by that is the wheels are going over bumps.

Instead of them tracking evenly when they go like that, as they go over

they need to go up and down together.

They tend to go like that as they go up and down over bumps.

So that needs fixing.

Everything needs doing. The brake system, the fuel system, the suspension,

geometry.

To be honest, there's not anything in this car that doesn't need doing, but it

is what it is and it deserves doing properly.

It's their decision, but it's going to be a big one.

How are you?

I'm all right, how are you?

Yeah, OK.

You know I'm calling about the Condor, which you've got. Have you had the

to have a look at it?

Yes, we have.

What are the big headline issues with it, the ones that are going to take the

time to swallow the budget? For me, bits missing, just make a fuel tank, just do

a fuel system.

I've kind of seen it all before. It was kind of done as a concept car, but then

never quite finished off.

And I'm sure he drove it, but, like...

It wouldn't be safe to drive it nowadays.

So it kind of needs just a bit of love and re -engineering.

It's going to take time.

It just takes ages.

Brutally, is their 18 grand going to get anywhere near it?

No, no. I kind of got down around 30 grand plus

parts, and I bet there's 18 to 20 grand of the parts.

Yeah. I kind of feared that was going to be the case.

It needs some love.

Okay, I'm going to have to have a word with nothing.

Okay. Okay.

Cheers, Rick. Take care, mate. Take care, mate. Bye -bye.

That's not a big surprise, and I totally take Rick's word for that.

And he was saying it there, and I did hear it. Hang on a minute.

He's seen it all before. Because, of course, race cars, run -offs, they've

built once.

Somebody's built this race car.

They're nearly always unique.

And it would be dishonest, disloyal remiss of me.

to carry on with that car, telling them there was a chance in hell I was ever

going to do it for their budget.

And if Rick can't, nobody can.

It's a real shame not to be able to finish the Condor. He's actually got

attached to it, spending pretty much eight hours a day.

toiling away trying to find parts or solutions to stuff.

It was great to play just a small part in getting it finished, and hopefully

that does happen sometime in the near future.

But nothing stopped in the workshop. Moving on now, I'm working on the Lotus

Europa, which the lads have already started, so I'd better crack on.

Jamie, I'm sure you, like me, are immensely relieved to see that Europa

in paint at last long last but more importantly that was john's first proper

for us yeah so come on then maestro what do you think it looks pretty good to be

honest i think he was a bit nervous you're not going to overdo it why are

painting them i'm asking one painter to say something nice they never do that

yeah it turned out well really yeah yeah happy with that yeah so with him having

done the paint that's great it's now handed over to matt yeah also a new boy

we get on superb Really? Yeah, absolutely brilliant.

And the good thing about Matt as well, if he hasn't worked on somewhere, he

around the internet, he gets booked, and he knows exactly what to do. The two

lads we've got can wish for anyone better. They don't stop.

It's a bit like a workshop.

It's a proper workshop now.

Blimey!

It's doing good.

Let's not get carried away because I've done that before.

Yeah! It's all working! All the wheels have come off and I'm ruined.

So let's just hope. They do all seem happy.

Have I come to the right work?

I'm scared.

I'm going to be killed under the world's smallest car.

To get it on the road?

Good God.

Is that just to get it road legal? Yes.

What the fuck was that? Oh,

we're broken.

I don't want you to look at that.

You're really nervous, aren't you? I am quite scared.