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Private Notes
Bernie and Leepu are back for Chop Shop Series 2! They have upped their game and are trying to launch a business making modified supercars for superstars. Bernie's natural talent for schmoozing has attracted pop legend and hardman actor Martin Kemp as their first client.
After a slow start, will this first customised car for a star even get beyond the design phase? Will its turbo charged engine survive at race speed and will they keep their first celebrity client onside?
Bernie and Leepu are trying to make a tuned up gangster supercar by modifying a scrapped Saab 900 Turbo for pop legend and hardman actor Martin Kemp.
Having dragged Martin to a road test at Santa Pod Raceway when the custom car wasn't ready, Martin soon discovered that the car wasn't just unfinished - it was unsafe!
Now Chop Shop's task is clear. They must make the car safe but beautiful, and get Martin back on side for the reveal at a British GT event at Rockingham race track. All in just three weeks' time.
Cockney Bernie, Bangladeshi Leepu and their trusty team of mechanics and bodyworkers win a commission to build a modified muscle car for retiring rugby union superstar, Wasps player Lawrence Dallaglio.
They start with the empty shell of a 20-year-old Ford Capri, and try to triple its power by custom fitting a powerful 3.5 litre V8 engine.
At times the task of creating a fast, tuned custom car with the Chop Shop touch seems insurmountable.
Bernie and Leepu and their team are half way through turning a 20-year-old Ford Capri into a custom muscle car for retiring rugby superstar Lawrence Dallaglio.
Up against the clock, mechanical gremlins, and self-inflicted problems, will they survive the scrum when they present the modified fast car to the big man himself after his final game?
Musician and TV personality Jools Holland has asked Chop Shop to work their modified car magic and make him a custom recreation of the classic Jet 1, a Rover Car Company gas turbine concept car, circa 1950, that achieved a record breaking 152mph.
Will Leepu's artistic integrity survive working to such a strict design brief? And can the team cope with grafting together a 50-year-old Rover 80 body shell and chassis, 60-year-old body Rover 75 body panels, with a 30-year-old Jaguar XJ6 4.2 litre engine and suspension?
Jools has certainly never seen tuning like this before!
This car is proving to be Chop Shop's greatest design and engineering challenge to date, and with a collective age of 140 years, this custom classic is even older than Bernie!
The Chop Shop team continue their mission to build supercars for superstars with musician and TV presenter Jools Holland. This meticulous car enthusiast wants a recreation of a 1952 record breaking car - Rover's Jet 1 - The team’s biggest challenge to date.
Having just made a visit to the father of the Jet 1, Spencer King, who pointed out an important design fault, the safety of Chop Shops Jet 1 hangs in the balance.
Adding extra strain to already tight deadlines, Bernie finds out that the days of Chop Shop could be over!
And getting the car ready for the test drive, let alone present the car to Jools Holland, is proving to a be colossal amount of work.
Will Chop Shop ever finish this cover version?
Bernie, Leepu and the Chop Chop team have landed a new commission with Guinness-swilling master of gauche, actor and comedian Johnny Vegas.
He wants a mobile volcano in which he can play batman to solve all the world's ills and which will make him feel as if he's sitting on his gran's lap after she's eaten nine chilli peppers.
Other than that, it's got to be a classic-shaped Volkswagen Golf - albeit an uber-powerful four wheel drive one (Johnny already drives a Golf R32).
Chop Shop mechanics and panel beaters, Julian, Lee and Shaun embrace the project with wild optimism - sourcing the engine and four-wheel drive running gear from a 300hp Subaru Impreza, the like of which has found fame on the world rally stage.
Trouble is, the example they've chosen has been in a major smash - in fact it's the most wrecked donor car they've ever bought.
Have they finally bitten off more than they can chew ?
Bernie, Leepu and the Chop Shop team continue their quest to build supercars for superstars and next they turns their hands to a Volcano Car for actor and comedian Johnny Vegas.
He wants a ‘mobile volcano’, an uber powerful boys toy that is based on his favourite shaped car, the classic Volkswagen Golf. Johnny already drives a Golf R32 and he wants it to eat his Chop Shop version's dust.
So a four wheel drive monster begins to take shape as panel beaters Julian, Lee and Shaun source the engine and four-wheel drive running gear from a 300 horse power Subaru Impreza. If Johnny wants power, he’s certainly going to get it with that engine.
But there’s a snag, the Impreza they've chosen has been in a major car crash and it’s the most mangled donor car they've ever bought. It only cost £700 but will all its bits work once they're extricated from the wreck? Will the boys be able to fit the powerful four wheel drive Subaru parts into the modest front wheel drive chassis of a VW Golf?
And with Leepu not one to have his designs outdone by the mechanics, he decides to use some artistic license and alter the shape of the Volkswagen, without consulting Johnny…
Leepu wants to be the greatest designer in the world and the Chop Shop team are helping him to build supercars for superstars.
Legendary French footballer and model, David Ginola, invites Bernie to the South of France and asks him to build a car inspired by the iconic American cruiser, the Chevrolet Camaro SS.
Unfortunately, Leepu doesn’t wait for Bernie to return to get the full brief and goes off on a Ferrari-inspired tangent, blowing over two thousand pounds of Bernie’s precious cash on a roadworthy Porsche as a donor car.
Confused? Not as much as Leepu is as he tries to blend the two designs into one.
In this final episode it's the moment of truth for David Ginola as his brand new car is revealed to him.
But with challenges behind them, is it the dream car he was hoping for?
