Anybody ever deal with Wirewheel Classic Sports Cars in Vero Beach, FL?

I don't know if they are reputable or not but I like the E type and the Mini.

 

I found out thru the grapevine that they are currently selling a Mini Moke that my father raced from 70 to 75 in Hawaii and Pennsylvania. We sold it about 25 years ago and were sure that it was dead in a barn somewhere. Here's the link and some pics of what it looked like when it was a mean racer. NO affiliation w/ the car (anymore) or the dealer; just coincidence that I heard of them for the first time this week.
http://www.wirewheel.com/1968-Mini-Moke-for-sale.html
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I bought my Ginetta from Wirewheel in 2006. I just sold it back to them about a month ago, and they have since sold it to a new customer.

The other Ginetta they had was bought by a guy in Deerfield Beach, FL, and quickly sold back to Wirewheel who sold the car to a guy in Minnesota. My brother bought from the guy in Minnesota and then sold it back to Hayes at Wirewheel about 4 months ago. Hayes sold it to a multiple car buyer in Georgia. So with two Ginettas, Hayes has now recorded 5 sales of them!

I highly recommend Hayes. He is very good to deal with, and really enjoys what he is doing.

I happened to see the Mini Moke when I was dropping my Ginetta off last month. It is a cool LITTLE car! MY favorite of what he was offering (besides my Ginetta) was the Javan R1. It really looked like a great car for mountain driving.

If you have any questions specifically about Hayes or whatever send me a PM or call me on the cell phone at five 6 won 339-5 n i n e 39.

I also happened to see the mini you linked to while I was there. I just took a brief look over the car, and it looked very good. Hayes is very honest, so any questions you ask I would feel confident about his answer. If you want me to go look at anything specific just let me know. They are only about an hour away.


BT

 

Hi Bill! You're in the gallery with the Ginetta!

 

Haha, yeah, I sent them a few of my favorite photos with the car. Here are a few others (the one in the rain was not so fun)...

BT
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Never dealt with them, but looking at their ads, they are a bit economical with the truth. Some of their prices are close to market, others are pure fantasy.

 

Really? Why do you think they are not truthful? I agree that their prices on some cars seem high (like the Lotus 340R), but some of them are pretty reasonable. I can say that buying a car from them and selling it back to them 5 years later cost me less than $1,000 per year in depreciation. I don't think that statistic is very common. I won't go into detail publicly, but I do have some first hand knowledge of the way Hayes deals with customers, and customer problems, and I can say he is exceptional in that regard.

BT

 

Bryan,
Have you considered buying it?

 

+1, that would be a cool little car to have again

 

I did, for about 30 minutes. Then the other half of my brain woke up; dad and I already have our hands full with the 500 mondial, and I am only about 15% of the way into restoring my Alfa Giulia SS. I have no idea what I would do with the moke, other than having it for purely sentimental reasons (already have the Ferrari for that; in our family now for 52 years); too much work and too little time to turn back into a real race car again. We're just happy to see our handiwork still alive.

A very nice touch w/ car in its current state is that when they painted the roll cage from black to silver, they appear to have masked off all our old tech inspection stickers. Some of those go back to Hickam AFB SCCA in 1970!!

A couple more; first, me going for an imaginary drive about 1970 (before the full rollcage and before we did the lowered front end/fenders); second, driven in anger (note rear wheel) somewhere in central PA, about 1974.
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LOL....how was that understeer?

 

I hear you, but if it were me, for less than 10k, sentiment would win out and the car would be in my garage. Hope you don't regret not picking it up some day.

 

I got this from my father re: the differences in racing/cornering in his RWD Ferrari 500 Mondial and the FWD Mini Moke w/ the giant can-am qualifying tires he bought from Penske.

"The cornering method with the Moke with all of the power and tire modifications was pure textbook. Powering in to a corner and the front end wants to washout so the crash is front first, this is typical understeer. However with the very large tire contact patch if you lift off the power for a very brief period, the weight transfer and the driving traction now available for cornering results in a very quick shift to oversteer where the front end tucks quickly in and the rear starts to slide around. This is the normal crash condition for oversteer with the rear end leaving the road first. However by quickly getting back on the power the front tires are already pointing at the next straight section and the rear end simply follows. The end result is a cornering method where you enter a corner faster than your brain says you can possibly take it and use the understeer/oversteer changeover to make the turn.

The approach in driving the hot Moke is very different than in the Ferrari where it is necessary to have completed your braking by the apex and then use the power to help oversteer through the corner. If every thing is just right, then a drift can be accomplished with the right amount of throttle."

 

I hear you, Luke; I just can't justify right now. We'll see . . . .

 

Hayes at Wire Wheel is top notch

... I bought a Lotus from him a number of years ago sight unseen... I just took Hayes honest opinion on the condition of the car....waited a couple weeks until the car cleared customs and arrived at my home in Canada

....it was exactly as described....phew relief....I did sweat bullets wondering as I waited but I was not disappointed at all....drove the car many years and sold it at a tidy profit...nothing bad about that!

I will be buying another car there soon.... and now that I am wintering in Florida I will make the trek to his shop and finally introduce myself in person.... and likely buy something... he always has a great selection of interesting cars at fair prices.


beev

 

I thought the price on the '71 Jaguar was spot on...considered giving him a call and selling my S1 for cash + the S2 if Nathan doesn't go for it.

 

Nice to see we've been watching the wirewheel site for many good reasons and years, isn't it?


via iPhone / Tapatalk

 

Honestly, the wirewheel place is one of the rare cases where buying a car is lots of fun and not too expensive! I see Hayes at the track occasionally, and his whole group are comprised of car enthusiasts. He makes a decent living, but he really enjoys what he does.

BT

 

Steer clear of this place! I bought a car and the heat and a/c did not work on arrival. When I asked them to make it right, I was told that it was perfect when it left, and it must have happened in shipping. See the attached pics from a Lotus mechanic that shows that it was clearly not in shipping. I would run from this guy!