Mike Moore and Troy Adamek in the repair bay of their Richmond shop, flanked by a recently restored Land Rover and BMW 635CSi. Photography by Adam Ewing
Meet the dynamic mechanic duo steering Virginia’s restomod scene.
“Look at this!” Troy Adamek screams at the camera after he pulls over.
He is standing in a dirt lot, surrounded by Land Rovers and Range Rovers of various vintages, in ever more deteriorating states, in rural Pennsylvania.
He has struck gold—and he documents his Holy Grail-level find of a Land Rover Camel Trophy on his YouTube channel, Addicted Motors, which is where the aforementioned camera comes in. He is the very embodiment of the word obsession.
Addicted Motors, which Adamek, 32, started during the pandemic in 2020, has some 10,000 subscribers and documents his auto-related adventures that he undertakes with his buddy, Mike Moore, 31, owner of Richmond’s Sportscar Workshops.
For fans who miss NPR’s much beloved Car Talk, Moore and Adamek are a little like Tom and Ray Magliozzi, otherwise known as Click and Clack, the Tappet Brothers. For 25 years, their radio show entertained audiences with their witty, brotherly banter and talk about cars, maintenance, and parts. The extra appeal of Addicted Motors is that Moore and Adamek hit the road, unearthing obscure and rare models that may have been hidden in garages for 50 years, or they discuss the pros and cons of one particular car and its year. Their camera is along for the ride, and they frequently post their adventures on their YouTube channel.
The bay at Sportscar Workshops is full of antique cars in various states of repair, including this Triumph TR6.
Moore and Adamek have a loose-seeming business partnership, in which Moore operates the restomod shop and Adamek does digital media. Adamek, a project manager by day, is learning the ropes at Moore’s shop, of which Moore’s family has held some degree of ownership since the 1960s.
At Sportscar Workshops, the clientele drop off Austin-Healeys, Porsches, Lotuses, Jaguars, and—of course—those reliable ’Rovers to be retrofitted and restored to their original or fully-renovated glory—to become restomods, or vintage cars that are up-to-date under the hood. The shop, which offers standard mechanic service and is an authorized dealer, specializes in retrofitting and restoring sports cars specifically for the track and the road. On its website, restored cars are for sale as evidenced by a ’67 Lotus Elan and a ’55 Porche Spyder, which were sold recently.
If you’re a car aficionado in Richmond and don’t know about Moore and Adamek, you’re in the minority. Their renown goes far beyond Virginia and has crept into multi-state car circles across the North and Southeast, also spreading through daily updates to a rapidly growing following on Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube.
In fact, I found out about Adamek on YouTube, through a car buddy of mine in Philadelphia, after I blew up a Range Rover LWB on the side of I-76 during rush hour. When I moved to Richmond, I tracked them down—as much for this story as for their expertise with diesel cars to fix my present Audi TDI.
About their clientele, Moore says, “We work with people who take the service of their cars as seriously as we do.” And while Moore is at home changing the oil of a late-model Prius, his wheelhouse is full engine rebuilds of exotic imports or retrofitting vintage Land Rovers and Jags to look brand new on the interior and run like they’re fresh-off-the-lot, too. (And, for the record, he might not even agree to take your late model Prius in for a service, he’s that selective—or his team just might be that booked.)
Moore says, “Our roots are in vintage European cars. A lot of the Japanese car shops around here do ’80s and ’90s and up, and aren’t used to the older carburetors and things like that. We work on lots and lots of classic cars—the bulk are from the ’60s, but we will get the odd Ford Model A in too.”
In fact, on a trip to the shop, I’m surrounded by antique cars on jacks hovering above squeaky-clean floors and parked neatly outside of their Hull Street garage in a lot behind a tall privacy fence. The property and facilities themselves are neat, tidy, and tip-top.
“We’re kind of like a working museum,” says Moore. “It’s hard to own a classic car without becoming acquainted with the inner workings of a classic car—they love to break.”
The two found each other when Adamek was looking for someone to fix his Porsche 911 when he first moved to Richmond in 2018. Adamek emailed Moore, and Moore invited him to come on over.
“This line of work is predominantly middle-aged men,” says Moore. “So, he shows up, and I was surprised to see somebody my own age. I gave him the tour and showed him everything, and then we both just happened to go to the same car club dinner the next night, and found out we lived like a mile from each other.”
“This was before we ever got into Land Rovers,” says Adamek. “I was working all over the country, so I was coming
from nowhere, but when I got here, I was excited to have a place where I could do a little bit of my hobby that I hadn’t been able to do my whole life.” Since, the two bonded friendship as well as business.
“Richmond has a pretty unique car culture,” Adamek says. “There’s a lot of older cars, and a lot of old money, I guess you’d say. So, cars are stored away, and there’s a lot of cool, interesting stuff that hasn’t been exposed. I think you get a different vein of cars in Richmond—the older German, older British cars. Shops like Sportscar Workshops showcase the car culture of Richmond nicely.” SportscarWorkshops.com
This article originally appeared in the June 2024 issue.
