Ant Anstead Once Put Together A Car Before He Could Even Drive

Ant Anstead is a car builder, artist, designer, and motor specialist. The car enthusiast is also a television presenter known for his appearance in Channel 4's "For The Love Of Cars" with Philip Glenister. He took the co-hosting reins from Edd China for "Wheeler Dealers" beside Mike Brewer.

In addition to his hosting duties, Anstead founded a television production company in 2014, where he produced shows like "The World's Most Expensive Cars" and "Ant Anstead Master Mechanic." In the latter, Anstead used various spear parts, donor cars, and some hand-built parts to pay homage to one of the most successful race cars created, the Alfa Romeo 158.

In a recent interview, Anstead showed he was more than just a car enthusiast well when he revealed that before the 42-year-old could even drive, he knew so much about cars that he built one himself.

Since the television host left his police job for a career in car building, Anstead has appeared in several television shows. One of his more famous shows was a 2003 British program called "Wheeler Dealers." The show featured car restorers like Edd China and Mike Brewer before Anstead took over from China. The premise was to fix old familiar car models and sell them to interested buyers.

Brewer usually started the show by buying the car in need of repairs, explaining the model's history, then handing it over to China for restoration. This pattern continued until 2017 when Anstead took over from China as the chief mechanic for the next three years. He was replaced by Marc Priestley but has appeared on the program a few times since then.

Besides his tv shows, Anstead has been on "Christina On The Coast," a home renovation show by his ex-wife Christina Haack. The two got married in 2018 but split in 2020. Anstead left her show and the marriage when he left his co-host role in "Wheelers Dealers."

Although Anstead appeared on a home renovation show, his first love will always be cars. In an interview with Influx, the car enthusiast talked about how he loved toy and lego cars as a child before progressing into the real deal.

He revealed that he purchased his first off-the-shelf car kit at 16 and put it together by himself. "Cars have always been my guilty pleasure. I'd built my first off-the-shelf kit car by the time I was 16! I didn't even have a driving licence but knew I wanted to build cars."

Anstead started his career as a police officer but left the job six years down the road to start car building. In addition to his numerous tv host duties, he also runs a commercial company that builds cars and restores old damaged ones. He is also known for making vehicles via customer requests.

Anstead is a famous face in the car world and has over 15 years of professional experience building and restoring cars. However, he couldn't have achieved his current celebrity status without romantic connections to Haack and actress Renée Zellweger.

With the dramatic change his car-building career had in his life, it's no shock to know that the 42-year-old is living quite comfortably. Anstead's business got the much-needed boost with his appearance on different tv shows and celebrity relationships.

Since his company is privately held, Anstead's net worth is not apparent. They get up to six figures at car auctions before expenses. However, Celebrity Net Worth placed the car enthusiast at a solid $5 million while Wealthy Persons took the figure a little higher at $6 million. This is around the same value as his home with Haack when they sold it after their divorce.

Anstead's newest show, "Ant Anstead Master Mechanic," is his second show since he started his television company in 2014. His first show, "The World's Most Expensive Cars," was a hit, and he was invited to co-host many other shows. He was approached to host a car show on Channel 4 alongside British actor Philip Glenister in 2014.

Since then, the 42-year-old has hosted several tv shows and stood beside James May and Kate Humble to co-host BBC's live show, "Building Cars Live," in 2015. In addition, Anstead hosted a few live stages of the UK's car shows and, after dinner and motivational speaking in charities and several schools.

Anstead also took part in the "World's Greatest Cars" show. A panel of car experts look over and evaluate the top five greatest sports cars ever built in the show. The sports cars are assessed based on their unique designs and maximum tier performance.