Ever since its premiere in 2012, “Graveyard Carz” has made good use of their motto ‘no Mopar or no car’, by delivering some of the most stunning and impressive car restorations to audiences all around the world. By bringing back to life these decades old Mopars, the garage staff has undertaken a relentless mission to make car owners happy no matter what it takes.
Nonetheless, while the “Graveyard Carz” staff of mechanics, steel workers and car specialists have some impressive skills, the shop would be lost if it wasn’t for the leadership and knowledge of Mark Worman, the business owner, and a man who knows more about Mopars than almost everyone else.
So what has Mark been up to these days? Is “Graveyard Carz” still on air, or has he and his staff moved on to other projects? Stay here to know all about Mark Worman’s whereabouts, his automotive passions, personal life, and so much more!
What Is He Doing Now?
It’s been a while since Mark Worman debuted on TV with the premiere of “Graveyard Carz”, but fortunately, life has been looking great ever since. Nowadays, he’s still happily hosting the MotorTrend’s show during its 17th season premiered in late 2022, along with other side projects Mark has been proudly developing as well, such as his series “14th Street Wheelz”.
A man of business through and through, Mark has taken “Graveyard Carz” to the next level by selling merchandise of the show, and often attending car related events representing his company. One of his most recent achievements is becoming an ambassador for MOPAR in 2017, the only person who has been given that honor by the company, due to his loyalty and passion for the brand.
Although not much is known about Mark’s personal life, it’s for sure that the year 2022 was a happy one in the family. In October, he met his grandson Giannis, fourth child from daughter Alyssa Rose, who the “Graveyard Carz” audience knows well for being a recurring cast member of the show for several years. All in all, it seems that life is going great for Mark, both career and personal wise.
When Did “Graveyard Carz” Come Back?
Following the end of “Graveyard Carz” 16th season in early 2022, fans were worried about the future of the show. The reasons were quite understandable, given the start of the new project “14th Street Wheelz” in August that year, featuring Mark Worman and his cousin Dougie, also an automotive enthusiast.
While it isn’t rare for TV stars to split their time between two or more shows at the same time, several months passed before “Graveyard Carz” renewal was announced in November that year, only a month before the 17th season finally aired on MotorTrend.
That being said, it seems unlikely that “Graveyard Carz” would be leaving TV screens any time soon, but it surely won’t be rare to see him involved in other projects just as interesting from now on.
Season 16 of Graveyard Carz is a must-watch. Set your DVR to record tonight's new episode, 10/9c only on @MotorTrendTV #MoparOrNoCar @GYC_Mark ☠️☠️ pic.twitter.com/l1VyiakpWp
— Graveyard Carz (@graveyardcarz) March 30, 2022
What Is “14th Street Wheelz”?
More than just a show about cars, “14th Street Wheelz” is a project about history and love of old times. The show first saw the light of day in August 2022, when Mark Worman and his cousin Dough began posting car and bike building videos on social media, affirming their joint love for the automotive, started during both men’s childhood in Springfield, Oregon.
In fact, the project owes its name to the 14th Street in their native city, where both roamed the roads either skating, riding bicycles, or becoming dazzled by the beauty of putting various items together to build something. The series also owes its name to the house in which Mark grew up, connecting everything to that place which was so pivotal to the person he is: ‘(there) I learned the mechanical skills that have led me to where I am today, professionally. We didn’t have money, but I had imagination’, he wrote on Twitter in December 2022.
That same passion which had joined Mark and Dougie for decades inspired “14th Street Wheelz”, which didn’t take long to be picked up by the production company Meadow Media, which promotes the show as a family friendly production with a do-it-yourself focus. According to its social media, the show was also picked by a major TV network, but further details about its future premiere and format are yet to be known.
Other Projects
Besides “14th Street Wheelz”, Mark Worman has other projects in the making nowadays that will surely make his fans happy. The first is “Graveyard Dreamz”, produced by Meadow Media, and centered on Graveyard Motorz, a car dealership reminiscing of the 1970s and the stories of every car lover’s first ride. In the show, Mark helps people to find their first loved youth car, trying either to track it down to its actual location, or trying to recreate it just as every melancholic car owner featured in the series remembered it.
The project was first introduced to the general public in 2018, through an article Mark wrote for MotorTrend’s blog, in which he affirmed that the idea for the series came from a client named Jim, who was gifted a brand new Plymouth Duster on his 17th birthday. A decade later he sold it, but soon regretted his decision, and has been looking for it for decades.
Jim’s story is not unique, as any automotive fan knows, hence why Mark thought that “Graveyard Dreamz” was a good idea, though it’s unfortunate that the production has apparently not been picked up by any network yet. Other short series produced by Mark include the barn-centered “Grave Digger”, and “History In Reverse”, added to his production company The Division.
Who Is Mark Worman?
It’s never easy to summarise in a few words who a man with the experience of Mark Worm really is, but the most important thing to know it’s that he loves cars and his job. A native of Springfield in Oregon, Mark was always meant to enter the automotive industry, one way or another.
Creativity and imagination were always Mark’s side, spending his early childhood either learning everything he could about mechanics, or building devices from scratch with self-made tools, or even fixing his house’s garden tractor. At some point, Mark grew up and successfully passed his General Educational Development, yet he knew his path wasn’t in academics, and his love for Mopars played an important role in that. Having apparently read all types of muscle car magazines and informational guides to the extent of knowing the specifications by memory, ‘Once I realized it was almost a science to memorize these numbers and parts and codes, I really dove into it’, he explained to Racing Junk in 2015.
Driven by that passion and relentless drive to learn, the young Mark never abandoned his dream of dedicating his life to Mopars. Little did he know that not much time would pass before he could take the first step into accomplishing that goal.
The Start
At the same time that Mark Worman filled his head with lots of codes and Mopar parts specifications, he got other job experience by working as a broom boy in local businesses, or doing car repairs. His time to shine came when he was in his 20s, and the local Wonder Bread, where he had worked in his teens, left town.
Seeing the opportunity to turn the once spacious fast-food basement into a garage, Mark started his first business named Welby’s Car Care Center. Having already gathered enough knowledge about codes and Mopars, Mark knew what to do next: ‘It became a matter of taking the time to walk through the junkyards and cleaning off the parts and looking at their part numbers and thumbing through old parts manuals’, as he told Racing Junk, also affirming that the lack of internet and other resources at the time left him no other option than to extensively research, and actually go searching ‘on foot’.
Nowadays, Mark really doesn’t need to look up on the internet to know what he’s doing. Yet, what’s even more impressive is how much time he dedicated to his craft, driven by passion and will alone.
Why Does He Love Mopars?
Developing a deep passion for cars is one thing, but it’s a different thing to dedicate one’s entire professional life to becoming an expert in one type of car alone. While not everyone is able to comprehend or relate to Mark Worman’s love for Mopars, there’s no one better than him to explain it.
As he said in a 2016 interview with Rose Marie Machario’s blog, Mopars bring back memories from his youth, when he felt that his car also represented who he was. He wasn’t alone with it though, as next to his 1970 Dodge Charger was his cousin’s Plymouth Barracuda and together they were the best match: ‘Most people in my hometown had Camaros or Mustangs. Our cars were the oddballs, a lot like us. And we were different, and the Mopars were too’, he affirmed.
While it isn’t rare to find one’s sense of identity through a car, Mark’s dedication to know everything about Mopars was caused by something equally as important: ‘I think that the fact that I was passionate about the cars made it so easy for me to study them, and learn about them’, he told Racing Junk in a 2015 interview.
All in all, there are lots of things behind Mark’s love for Mopars, yet the most important one is how much it has inspired him his entire life.
His First Mopar
Just like any good car enthusiast, there’s an interesting story behind Mark Worman’s first car, and how it came to be his. Back in his childhood, Mark saved money by taking all types of small jobs, going from making burgers to delivering papers in his neighborhood, finally buying a second hand 1970 Dodge Charger when he was 16 years old.
Nevertheless, by the time he put his hands on that Charger, Mark already had experience behind the wheel. At the early age of 14 years old, he bought a 1971 Honda CL-100 Scrambler with the money he saved as a paperboy. He rode the bike everywhere before hitting the legal age to drive, also getting lots of tickets for his recklessness on the road.
It was around this time that Mark first caught sight of Charger, parked on a house driveway. Not long afterwards, Mark would know that the car hadn’t been moved for three years at the time, but despite the dirt on it, seeing that orange Dodge changed Mark’s life forever. That day he sealed the deal with the car owner, a Mopar guy named Butch who actually waited over a year for Mark to save the $475 the car cost. Truly a charming story, even though Mark had to sell his Honda bike, and work very hard as a paper boy to afford it.
Who Inspired Mark?
While his passion for Mopars was a definitive turning point in his life, there was always someone who Mark looked up to even when times were dark and difficult. Growing up in a household where money was limited, Mark was taught the value of hard work and resilience by his mother.
Ruby Jean, who Mark describes as ‘amazing’ and ‘determined’ in an interview with JP Emerson, was someone who truly inspired her son to accomplish those dreams which are now a reality: ‘she saw something in me that maybe I didn’t even see at the time, and she encouraged me every day to do right, and never quit anything’, he said.
Unfortunately, Mark’s mother died back in 2018, but her idea of doing things right is what to this day still pushes Mark to be the best at it even at work, taking every project as if it was his own car.
Where Did The Idea For The Show Came From?
As usual for Mark Worman, everything has a story behind it, and that also includes how “Graveyard Carz” came to be.
Always up to helping people to have their dream car, Mark took on the restoration project of a 1971 Plymouth Barracuda in the early 2010s. After looking everywhere, Mark finally found a car nicknamed ‘Phantom Cuda’ for his client, who bought it despite the very poor condition of the Mopar. The restoration took place, and so did the filming process, which ended up becoming a pilot episode which they tried selling to every network, without success.
Most of the rejection were caused by the niche nature of the show’s concept, yet Mark wasn’t ready to give up. He proceeded to not only keep on with the project, but to film six episodes entirely in high definition. The strategy paid off, when an Australian company bought the material and distributed it internationally, finally landing on MotorTrend’s offices.
Evidently, Mark’s inspiring nature of always putting his 100% into everything he does is what made it possible for “Graveyard Carz” to be where it is nowadays.
