Wire Wheel Classic Sports Cars

Wire Wheel Classic Sports Cars is a small, family-run dealer in Vero Beach, Florida, that has built its business around British sports cars and historic race cars, with Lotus at the center of almost everything it sells. The company says it was founded in 1991 by Hayes H. Harris and his wife, Charlotte, "out of their passion for British sports cars," and both are still listed as its officers. Where many classic dealers chase American muscle, Wire Wheel's lot reads more like a paddock: Elans and Elises next to GT4 race cars, a Can-Am McLaren and cars with Daytona 24 Hours history.

Who runs Wire Wheel

Wire Wheel Classic Sports Cars, Inc. lists Hayes H. Harris as president and Charlotte B. Harris as vice president in its Better Business Bureau record. The company says Hayes has more than 50 years of experience working with British cars, and its Lotus page claims more than 30 years of buying, selling and racing Lotus cars. A photo on the About page shows Hayes alongside Hunter and Hamilton Harris. In its own description the business "started very small" and has grown into what it calls a constantly changing inventory of more than 45 sports and race cars. It describes itself as a licensed, bonded and insured Florida dealer, and its tagline sums up the approach: classic car enthusiasts selling to classic car enthusiasts.

One small discrepancy is worth knowing about: the BBB file gives April 1990 as the business start date, a year before the 1991 founding date the company uses on its own site.

A Lotus specialist with a race car habit

Lotus dominates. Of the roughly 430 cars shown on Wire Wheel's inventory page, current and sold, about three in four are Lotus, running from the classic Seven, Elan, Elite and Europa to the modern Elise, Exige, Evora and Emira. The company also names Jaguar, TVR, Griffith, Triumph, Austin-Healey, MG, Lola and Panoz as makes it handles.

When we checked the site in October 2026, 20 cars were marked as available. Road cars included a 1967 Lotus Elan SE with an older frame-off restoration, a 2000 Elise 111S Type 79, a 2021 Evora GT, a supercharged 2005 Elise, two 2024 Emira First Editions and a 1999 Morgan Aero 8 with BMW V8 power. The race car side was just as deep: a 1966 McLaren-Elva M1B Can-Am car with period race history, a 1966 TVR Grantura MK III factory lightweight, a 1967 TVR 1800S with Daytona 24 Hours history, a 2006 Panoz Esperante GTLM that the company describes as the last Esperante GT2 built, factory Lotus Evora GT4 cars, a Grand Am Mazda RX-8 and a Red Bull Lotus Exige GT3 built and raced by Lanzante Motorsports.

It also sells used British car parts for Lotus, MG, Triumph, Jaguar and Mini, handled by phone or email rather than through an online store.

How the business works

Wire Wheel is a traditional dealer that buys and owns its stock. We found no consignment program on its site. Instead, its "Sell Us Your Car" page announces that it is a cash buyer for many British sports and race cars in any condition, with a wanted list that includes any Austin-Healey, Griffith, Lola, Marcos or TVR (except the 280i), pre-1974 Jaguar, Lotus and MG sports cars, pre-1976 Triumphs other than the Spitfire and Stag, the Daimler SP-250, modern Lotus Elise, Exige and Evora models, and any road race car.

The company also offers a "generous finder's fee" for a productive lead on a British sports or race car, paid only if it ends up buying the car. For buyers hunting something specific, it says it can help locate a car, whether concours quality or a project.

Buying from Wire Wheel

The terms are spelled out plainly on the site:

• Payment must be made in full with cleared funds before a car ships, by cash, bank check, money order, traveler's checks or wire transfer. All prices are F.O.B. Vero Beach.
• Financing is arranged through outside lenders. The company lists Woodside Credit, Wells Fargo, USAA Bank and J.J. Best Banc & Co., with options that it says cover modern and classic cars, including rebuilt titles.
• Shipping is arranged by the dealer with a range of transport companies, and international buyers are pointed to the forwarder AFL. The company advises shipping any older British car to buyers more than 100 miles away and says modern Lotus buyers have flown in and driven home to California, Michigan, New York and Texas.

The site does not describe an inspection program, so anyone buying from a distance should arrange an independent inspection, especially on a race car, where logbooks, crack testing and component life matter as much as paint. Our guide on how to buy a classic car covers the paperwork and payment checks worth doing before a wire leaves your bank.

Reputation

Wire Wheel has traded under the same name from Vero Beach for more than three decades. Its BBB profile, checked in October 2026, showed an A+ rating with zero complaints in the past three years; the business is not BBB accredited and has no reviews there. On Yelp it has only a handful of reviews, which praise its selection of hard-to-find Lotus models and the help of Hayes Harris, alongside one complaint about a car whose heat and air conditioning did not work on arrival. With so few public reviews, the car itself, its documentation and an independent inspection should carry more weight than ratings.

Visiting and contact

The dealership is at 995 36th Court S.W., Vero Beach, FL 32968. The company lists its hours as 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Eastern, Monday through Friday, with weekend visits by appointment. Phone is 772-299-9788, and email goes to [email protected]. Stock changes often, so call ahead about a specific car. For a wider look at what is on the market, browse classic cars for sale around the state.