Vehicles

I love cars and I think I need some therapy and counseling. I am thinking about checking myself into the Henry Ford Institute (not Betty Ford Institute, ha) so they can help wean me off this addiction. If my wife would let me, I would have 20 today and looking for more.

I counted the vehicles I have owned over my lifetime and can remember 61 of them. I feel sure there were 8 or 10 more that just escapes my memory. Needless to say, there has been a lot of driving going on and I am only 39 years old.

The most used vehicle I ever owned was a 1998 Tahoe that I ordered with every available option. The most joy received from a vehicle is probably the Shelby I currently own and by far, the worst vehicle was a 72 Jaguar that needed to be worked on every other day. It was probably the best looking of all the cars but that joy was quickly overshadowed by the nightmare of owning it.

Some years ago, I was selling a hotel in Nashville for a guy and when I got to the hotel, they had a Boss Mustang on the lobby floor when I walked in. After I picked my tongue off the floor the owner’s son told me his dad had a few cars in a warehouse just down the street if I wanted to go see them. It took me a while (1 second) to tell him I would love to see the cars. I was thinking 5 or 6 dusty old nothing cars behind a few old dirty garage doors. When we pulled up to the “warehouse,” it was a purpose build 100k sq. ft. climate controlled facility. It had a full-time staff that took care of the cars and a better security system that the White House. As we entered in the foyer there were double doors leading to the area where the cars were and when the client opened the doors (literally true) I almost went weak kneed. The first 13 of 67 cars was one of every color 69 Yenko Camaro that were made. Yenko Chevrolet only made 201 in 1969 and each one today is worth 300-400k.

For the second time in the same day, I picked my tongue off the floor and looked around the room and realized he had the first ZR1 Camaro, several factory Copos and one of the two actual 1969 Daytona 500 pace cars. As I looked around the warehouse there were Shelby’s, Boss Mustangs, Hemi Cudas (maybe it is Cudi for plural, ha), Vettes, GTOs, Super Sports, Superbirds, Trans-Ams, and some of the most rare and valuable muscle cars ever produced. My guess is his collection was probably worth 20-25 million dollars. When I left that day, I needed a tongue lozenge and a shower. Ha

I believe after I retire from selling hotels, I want to have a muscle car shop where we buy and sell vintage muscle from the late 60’s and early 70’s and the back-ground music playing will be Three Dog Night, Doobie Brothers and Creedence Clearwater Revival. Except for long hair, double knit bell bottoms, Woodstock and Vietnam, 1967 – 1971 could be the greatest error of cars and music of all time. KT

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