His job, roughly described, is to lie convincingly to strangers for several months at a time. Somebody nominates a friend, and Tim Shaw has to get that person’s beloved car out of their garage without them noticing, keep the secret through an entire restoration, and then hand it back. He came to it from radio, and the skills turn out to transfer remarkably well.

Quick Facts

Name	Tim Shaw
Born	9 June 1974
Age	52
Birthplace	Sheffield, South Yorkshire
Studied	Mechanical Engineering and Product Design at Oxford
Degree held	Professional broadcasting
Radio career	Joined Kerrang! Radio in 2004
Breakfast show	From 2007
Main TV role	Co-presenter of Car SOS since 2013
Co-presenter	Fuzz Townshend
Channels	National Geographic, Channel 4, More4
His role on the show	Sourcing cars, parts and keeping the restoration secret

Who Is Tim Shaw?

Tim Shaw was born on 9 June 1974 in Sheffield, which makes him 52. He is a broadcaster who has co-presented Car SOS alongside Fuzz Townshend since the show began in 2013. Where Fuzz is the mechanic, Shaw is the fixer: finding the cars, chasing the parts and running the deception that the entire format depends on.

Engineering Before Broadcasting

He studied Mechanical Engineering and Product Design at Oxford before moving into broadcasting, eventually holding a degree in professional broadcasting. That engineering background matters on a show like this. He is not a presenter reading autocue about a car; he understands what is being done to it, which is why the exchanges with Fuzz sound like two people talking rather than one explaining.

Kerrang! Radio

His broadcasting career began in radio, joining Kerrang! Radio in 2004 and reaching the breakfast slot by 2007. Breakfast radio is among the most demanding jobs in the medium: live, early, relentless, and requiring you to be entertaining at six in the morning every single day. Three years from joining a station to fronting its breakfast show is fast progress.

Why Radio Suits This Job

Radio is excellent training for what he does now. Both jobs require filling time, thinking on your feet and holding a conversation that sounds unscripted because it largely is. Add the ability to talk your way into and out of situations, which is essentially the entire brief when you are trying to remove somebody’s car from their driveway without them noticing.

The Art Of The Deception

The hardest part of the format is not mechanical. Somebody has to persuade the owner’s family to lie for months, invent a plausible reason the car has gone, manage anyone who might let it slip, and keep the whole thing intact until the reveal. That coordination is his job. When it goes wrong the episode collapses, and it very rarely goes wrong.

Sourcing Impossible Parts

The other half of his role is finding parts, which for cars built in small numbers decades ago is genuinely difficult. It means specialist suppliers, autojumbles, breakers and owners’ clubs, and often persuading somebody to part with a component they have been hoarding for twenty years. It is the same detective work that keeps Mathewsons and every restoration business running.

The Chemistry With Fuzz

What makes the show watchable across fourteen series is that the two of them clearly get on. The teasing is affectionate rather than staged, and neither is competing for screen time. Television is full of presenting pairs assembled by a producer; audiences can tell the difference immediately. This one reads as two people who would still be friends without the cameras.

The Emotional Weight

It is worth acknowledging what the job involves emotionally. The people they help are frequently seriously ill or bereaved, and the presenters spend months alongside families going through the worst period of their lives. Turning up cheerful for a reveal while knowing the full circumstances takes something. That is not a skill anybody trains for in radio.

Compared To The Other Format

Set it against Wheeler Dealers and the contrast is stark. That show is about margins and honest arithmetic. This one spends money it will never recover on a car nobody will sell. Both are legitimate versions of the hobby, and our guide to UK car TV presenters covers how the whole genre divides between the two instincts.

Fourteen Series In

The show reached a fourteenth series by 2026, which for a factual format is remarkable longevity. Both presenters have been there throughout. Continuity like that is rarer than it looks; most long-running formats churn through presenters as contracts and interest shift. Having the same pair for well over a decade is a large part of why it still feels consistent.

What Is His Net Worth?

No verified figure exists and we will not publish an invented one. He has had income from radio and television across two decades, none of which is publicly disclosed. Broadcaster pay at this level is simply not a matter of public record, which is why the confident numbers you find attached to his name, and to Mike Brewer‘s, should be ignored entirely.

Where To Watch Him

Episodes air on National Geographic, Channel 4 and More4 and are repeated frequently. Every episode stands alone, so there is no need to work through them in order, although the earlier series are worth seeking out to see how quickly the format found its shape. Our full Car SOS series guide covers the format, the funding and the criticism in more detail.

The Nominations Process

The show receives far more nominations than it could ever make, which means somebody has to choose. The criteria are not simply the saddest story: the car has to be restorable, the logistics have to work, and the family has to be capable of keeping a secret for months. Plenty of deserving nominations fail on the third condition alone, which is a quietly brutal part of the process.

Radio Skills On Screen

The clearest sign of his radio background is what happens when something goes wrong on camera. A part does not fit, a plan collapses, a car will not start. Presenters trained in scripted television tend to stall; people from live radio simply keep talking and make it entertaining. That ability to fill unplanned time is why so many of the best factual presenters came up through radio rather than drama.

Working With Families In Crisis

The part of the job least visible on screen is the months of contact with a family who are usually going through something painful. Somebody has to build enough trust for relatives to conspire for that long, manage expectations about what is achievable, and be sensitive to circumstances that may change during filming. That is closer to pastoral work than presenting, and nobody trains for it.

A Format That Could Not Be Faked

It would be easy to cheat this format and nobody does. The restorations are genuinely completed, the owners genuinely do not know, and the specialists genuinely donate work. Faking any of it would collapse the whole thing, because the audience for car programmes contains thousands of people who could spot a bodged weld instantly. That constraint is what keeps the show honest.

Final Thoughts

Tim Shaw is 52, studied engineering at Oxford, learned his trade on Kerrang! breakfast radio and now spends his working life persuading families to lie to someone they love for several months. It sounds absurd written down. On screen, it produces some of the most genuinely moving television Britain makes.

Frequently Asked Questions

How old is Tim Shaw?

He was born on 9 June 1974 in Sheffield, which makes him 52 as of 2026.

What did Tim Shaw study?

Mechanical Engineering and Product Design at Oxford, before moving into broadcasting and holding a professional broadcasting degree.

What radio station did Tim Shaw work for?

Kerrang! Radio, which he joined in 2004, reaching the breakfast show slot by 2007.

What does Tim Shaw do on Car SOS?

He sources the cars and parts and runs the deception that keeps the restoration secret from the owner until the reveal.

Who is Tim Shaw’s co-presenter?

Fuzz Townshend, a drummer, mechanic and motoring journalist who leads the restoration work on the show.

What is Tim Shaw’s net worth?

No verified figure exists. Broadcaster pay is not publicly disclosed, so any published number is guesswork.

Disclaimer: This article is for general information. Biographical details come from published sources and broadcaster credits. We do not publish estimated net worth figures where no verified source exists.