Car engine fanatic Amand Ayensu is a vehicle maintenance teacher at a college in Havering who has now become a national TV star.

He appears in a new series of Classic Car Garage on the Yesterday channel, giving car owners advice.

 “I loved cars from the age of six,” Amand admits. “I was always looking under the bonnets and reading everything I could find.”

He started teaching mechanics at Tower Hamlets College in Poplar 22 years ago and now “works his magic” at New City College’s Ardleigh Green campus.

The multi-talented tutor, who also plays musical instruments, took up teaching after studying the PGCE qualification at Poplar.

He started teaching sound recording and music technology, but his passion for cars soon drove him into the mechanics' workshop.

The programme’s producer Paul Windle said: “He works his magic on these classic cars, making owners happy with his encyclopaedic knowledge, passion and wealth of experience for all things motoring and engineering, getting to the bottom of their motoring problems.”

Amand moved to Ardleigh Green campus in 2019 and now teaches the level 1 light vehicle maintenance course.

The chance to be part of Classic Car Garage came through another car enthusiast who runs the garage where the filming takes place.

Amand's mechanical knowledge soon become widespread.

He is known in a classic car club as ‘The Professor’ after posting simple-to-understand explanations on how new engine technology works. 

“They asked if I’d copied it from Wikipedia,” Amand recalls. “They couldn’t believe the breadth and depth of what I knew, so I have become ‘The Professor’.”

But it hasn’t been an easy ride, having to wake at 4am and drive 100 miles to meet the crew, filming up to 14 hours on some days.

He does the ‘tinkering’ on the show, or car-fixing, sorting out the car owners’ issues.

Amand fills his spare time driving to events all over the country.

He owns an ultra-rare 1992 Fiat Uno Turbo, believed to be one of only 12 on British roads. He also has a 1966 Oldsmobile Toronado back in Ghana which he hopes to restore one day.

The Classic Car Garage is on Thursdays at 9pm on Yesterday, Freeview 27, or streamed on UKTV Play for all 10 episodes.