The year 2018 is shaping up to be a good one for viewers wanting decent car programming on their TV screens and it’s no thanks to Amazon or even the BBC, but free-to-view channel Quest. We previewed Salvage Hunters: Classic Cars recently and another favourite on the same channel is Goblin Works Garage.
The tagline ‘reworking the classics’ says it all: presenters Ant Partridge, Helen Stanley and Jimmy de Ville pick old cars they find inter-esting and proceed to modify them in their own inimitable style. Think lowered Series 2 Land Rover, Zetec-powered Mk2 Escort and 5-litre V8 Capri and you’re getting the idea.
Readers attending this year’s Peter James Insurance Bromley Pageant of Motoring on June 17 this year will now have the chance to meet the presenters in the flesh: they’ll be guests of honour at the event, which is organised by the compa-ny behind Classic Car Buyer and is said to be one of the world’s largest one-day classic car shows.
We recently had the chance to interview the GWG team for our sister title Retro Cars and it’s a fascinating insight into the programme.
The Goblin name came about when Jimmy was looking for jet engine parts and came across a ‘Goblin Works’ part in a chicken shed in Norfolk. Goblin Works was an engineering company from the 1970s, better known for its Teasmaids and vacuum cleaners, but it was also involved in the British fighter jet pro-gramme. Jimmy decided to resurrect it and put together a team of petrolheads to build custom cars and motorcycles as Goblin Works Garage.
All three presenters are fresh to TV which makes a nice change: Jimmy was al-ready involved in the custom car business, Ant ran a high-profile custom mo-torbike business in Marbella and Helen co-owns Skull & Pistons Garage where past custom projects have included a Mk2 Cortina with a four-inch roof chop.
“The classic car industry in this country is very sleepy, very set in its ways, and in my opinion is in need of a good shake-up,” says Helen – a comment which sums up the show’s ethos perfectly. The cars (and bikes) featured are chosen because they’re accepted classics which are attainable price-wise but also show potential for modification in the unique Goblin style.
Getting off to a flying start, the GMG team built six cars and four motorbikes in just six months, with the production being very much a fly-on-the-wall ap-proach: the presenters really are building the cars, without a huge team arriving to complete the work the moment the cameras are turned off.
All of this explains why Quest is fast becoming an office favourite. Meanwhile, you can book your tickets for the show at Bromley Pageant and you’ll find Goblin Works garage on Quest every Thursday at 9pm. More details at www.questtv.co.uk/goblin-works.
