Upamanyu Biswas
Prime Video’s ‘Motorheads‘ centers on a rust-belt town known as Ironwood, Pennsylvania, where two teenage siblings – Zac and Caitlyn – settle down to navigate a murky past centered around street racing. As they step into the stomping grounds belonging to their parents, they learn extensively about the social hierarchy that exists within the neighborhood, befriending a group of outcasts who are looked down upon by the other school students, such as Marcel. After becoming fast friends with Marcel, Zac becomes a regular at his workplace, Wade’s Diner, which his troubled father originally founded. To that end, it serves as a prominent and recurring backdrop throughout the series, similar to Logan’s Auto Restoration, the garage run by Logan Maddox. Both places allow the teenage characters a neutral and cozy spot to share news about their adventures.
Wade’s Diner is a Fictional Diner at the Heart of Ironwood
Despite playing an essential role in the Prime Video series, Wade’s Diner is a fictional shop created by the show’s writing team, John A. Norris, Carrie Gutenberg, Obiageli Odimegwu, Adrian Dukes, Kenny Neibart, and Wendy Straker Hauser. It is depicted as a traditional greasy locale where the inhabitants of Ironwood stop by to have breakfast, lunch, or dinner, based on their preferences and needs. While set in Pennsylvania, the filming for ‘Motorheads’ takes place in the neighborhoods of Ontario across several regions like Brantford, Brant County, London, Hamilton, Grey County, and Toronto. As such, the store’s exterior was likely recorded as being in a modified establishment within Ontario. The indoor spaces may have also been filmed outside Toronto at the Cinespace Film Studios.
In the show, Wade’s Diner serves as a tension reliever for large parts of the show, offering a safe space for Zoe, Caitlyn, Curtis, and Marcel to meet up on a regular basis. While it plays a cursory role at the start, the diner also becomes central to Marcel’s family storyline as we learn that his father used to be the owner and founder of the store. The name “Wade’s Diner’ is actually a reference to Marcel’s dad, who is abusive towards his son for still working at the place despite the fact that the old man no longer operates it. Instead, Marcel finds himself increasingly caught in the crosshairs of his dad’s antics and the reaction of the store’s current owners, who both vie for control over the store. Thus, it plays a crucial role narratively, even though it remains a fictional shop in conception.
Logan’s Auto Restoration Brings Our Characters Closer to Street Racing
As ‘Motorheads’ largely centers on a blue-collar neighborhood, its central setting – the town of Ironwood – stands out for its unique blend of economic hardship matched with the unruliness of luxury street car racing by night. This combination leads to an obsession with racing within the town’s hierarchy, especially among the younger folk like Zac, Caitlyn, and Harris. To that end, the Torres family siblings spend their time working on modifying their cars at Logan’s Auto Restoration, a garage operated by Logan Maddox, the kids’ uncle. Like Wade’s Diner, the shop is a fictional addition to the Prime Video series, brought to life primarily by the show’s scriptwriters. For filming, the production crew likely used a combination of shots to authentically create the shop’s backdrop, which is likely lensed in Toronto, Ontario, at the Cinespace Film Studios.
At the start of the series, the store begins as a simple auto body repair shop. However, around episode 5 of the inaugural season, Logan decides to expand his operation to also work on restoring old automobiles for a great sum of money. Much of the work takes place within the same garage space, which is convenient for the mechanic. However, the store becomes a prominent mainstay because of Zac and Caitlyn’s storyline. The latter uses it as a spot to work on her father’s old car, restoring and updating it so that Zac might use it to race Harris Bowers. Therefore, it allows ample space and opportunity for the four friends to catch up with one another and support each other’s latest objective. To that end, it adds a unique flavor to the township of Ironwood despite its fictional roots.
Read More: Motorheads Season 2: What to Expect?
