Concours, Resto-Mod or Preservation?

Romanosky Automotive Weekly Gazette

Concours, Resto-mod or Preservation?

In my last column I talked about Miles Collier, the Revs Institute, and how Collier views the classic automobile as a historic artifact worthy of study. Other collections are more narrowly focused, and each is the manifestation of the owner’s interests and values. You could make a solid argument for saying that Miles Collier, Jay Leno and Ralph Lauren have three of the most significant car collections in North America, if not the world. All three are first class auto enthusiasts, but their curatorial objectives are quite different. I would characterize them as Concours, Preservation, and Driving.

Ralph has great taste, and is a regular winner at Pebble Beach. Paul Russell & Co. restores his cars. His first ‘nice' car was a 1971 Mercedes-Benz 280se 3.5 Cabriolet which he bought new after selling a lot of neck ties. He still has the car. After Robert Redford appeared in his clothes in the 1974 movie, "The Great Gatsby", ‘Polo by Ralph Lauren’ took off, and he started buying cars - mostly on the basis of aesthetics. Pre-War Bugattis, SSK Mercedes-Benz, Alfa Romeo 8Cs, Blower Bentleys as well as the very cream-of-the-crop sports-racing cars from the 50's and 60's were quietly accumulated. A Ferrari 250 GTO, 250LM, Testa-Rossa, California Spyder, Jaguar C Type and XK SS were bought well before their prices became stratospheric. A couple of McLaren F1’s are ‘drivers’. The classics were all restored to a higher standard than they ever were new. Ralph displayed 17 of his cars at the Louvre in Paris in 2011, where they certainly didn’t look out of place. Ralph’s cars have transcended mobility, and can rightly be described as art.

Collier Collection's Porsche 917 in 'as raced' condition

Miles Collier’s grandfather figured out that you could advertise on the side of streetcars, and made a lot of money doing it. The Colliers became the largest private land owners in Florida, and have a County named after them. Miles’s father and uncle are credited with starting the sports car movement in America in the 1930’s. They owned the Sebring race circuit and drove for Briggs Cunningham at Le Mans. Miles bought out the Briggs Cunningham collection, and has acquired a large number significant racing automobiles; many unrestored with their original patina. Miles’s collection and Revs Institute take an intellectual approach to collecting, and focus on automobiles as a change-agent in society.

Jay Leno's Bronco, displayed here at SEMA, has GT500 powertrain, looks stock though

I was at one of the Gooding & Co auctions at Pebble Beach and David introduced a man on stage who he said, “knows more about cars than anybody I know”. Now, David Gooding’s father, Ken Gooding, led the research department for Bill Harrah’s 1,500 car collection in Reno, NV, which included two Bugatti Royals and sixteen Duesenbergs. David worked for Christies Auction, became President of RM Auctions, and launched ‘Gooding & Co” at Pebble Beach in 1984. He has been at the very top of the collector car world for virtually his entire life. David knows a lot of people who know a lot about cars. The guest was, of course, Jay Leno.

Jay uses his cars and is not apprehensive about modifying them to drive around LA. He bolts a modern Tremac transmission in anything that will fit it, and virtually all his cars have modern Wilwood disk brakes. He wants the cars to keep up with traffic and to stop. He will happily 3D print any part he needs, and will ‘resto-mod’ just about anything, and has several Rolls Royce Merlin aircraft-engined specials. His daily driver is a Tesla, but he exercises his collection frequently, and does a ‘Jay Leno’s Garage’ YouTube video most weeks.

Three different men, collections and perspectives in the car collecting hobby. You would be brave to call any one of them incorrect. Which category do you fall in?

Let’s say that you don’t have half a billion dollars to invest in cars. Let’s say you are in the ‘rounding error’ category comparatively. Let’s say you like old Land Rovers...

I’m just putting the finishing touches on my 1959 Series 2 109 Land Rover - it is mostly original with all of its major components dating from the late 50’s or early 60’s. It is the long wheel base model with a pick up truck configuration and a canvas cover for the rear bed (see right). I bought it after drinking some wine on eBay. It was cheap, and there weren’t too many Land Rover Pick Ups around. It was in Saanich, which was semi-convenient as Sarah’s parents live in Nanimo.

I had done a concours Series One Land Rover about 20 years ago and went completely bonkers on it in a quest to make it the best one in the world. I took five vehicles apart just to assemble a complete set of Whitworth nuts and bolts which were all ‘clocked’ to align perfectly. I came reasonably close to my objective but lost $40k when I sold it at the RM Monterey auction in 2005. Sports Car Market wrote it up here. I didn’t want to do that again, and figured I would just buy a ‘driver’, and use it to go to the Sunnyside Garden Centre which was nearby.

Well, it wasn’t reliable. I fussed around with it for a while then said ‘fork it’, and took it back down to the frame. I paid a guy to rebuild it for me, but that was going extremely poorly and after more expletives I pulled the job. With some time on my hands because of COVID I took it apart... again. Finally it is back together after 6 years and I really enjoy looking at it...

Every car has its ‘sweet spot’ in terms of the speed it likes to go; where the engine is in its happiest rev range, and the noise and harmonics are pleasant. In the RUF Porsches it is about 200km/hr. In a 1959 Land Rover it is about about a quarter of that.

There is also a certain window of time that most people are happy driving a classic: this has to do with the ride, steering and clutch effort, gearbox, ventilation, visibility and the general stress of driving something old. In my W126 Mercedes S Class, I can drive all day. In the Rover, fifteen minutes is the ideal duration. Fifteen minutes @ 50km/hr gives a radius of about 10km. Perfect for going to the Sunnyside Garden Centre, except it isn’t there anymore. But I can make it to Home Depot or get groceries or find other errands to do so I can use my truck. Maybe I’m getting old, but I don’t want to drive it much further than that.

Insulating the interior with Dynamat, ‘Hardura’ fabric and even carpet would help a lot with the noise and vibration. You can buy an effective ‘Mansfield’ heater and demister with an electrically heated front windscreen from Rovers North, who will also sell you Parabolic springs which help the ride greatly. Rocky Mountain Rovers will sell you a ‘Roamerdrive’ overdrive to allow you to keep up with traffic on the highway. You can retro-fit a Series 3 fully synchronized gearbox so you don’t have to double-clutch each gearchange. You can buy off-the-shelf engines with higher compression and better performance. Some guys fit a later Land Rover powertrain, or even a Mercedes-Benz diesel. Defender disk brake conversions will STOP the truck instead of just slowing it down.

I have another Series 2 Land Rover that is ready to be put back together. All the parts are refinished. At this stage decisions as to the final specification need to be made. I did a video of it here. I’m going in the direction of 100% originality, but there is a lot to be said for making it just a little easier to drive - a comfortable 100km range would open it up to more adventures than getting groceries.

Vintage 4x4’s are very popular right now, but most people want to drive them. Originals are pretty agricultural. But where do you draw the line? An Arkonik-modified Land Rover Defender just sold on BAT for $260,000. It had a Corvette engine, 6 speed automatic, quilted leather that looks like it came out of a Bentley, and enough LED’s to light up a runway. There isn’t much Rover left - the body, frame, dashboard and axles and that’s about it. It it isn’t really a Defender anymore. The only real thing it has in common with a Defender is that you still have to work to keep it in one lane!

I have another Rover that I’m selling for a client (see above right). It is an original Series 2 dating from 1961. It is extremely original. It came to me a little bashed up. I had Lyle from Rods N Restos cobble up a set of good fenders which we kept in the bare aluminum to match the rest of the bodywork where the paint had worn off. I replaced the rear light panels; again with unpainted aluminum. The rest of the patina remains though we’ve gone through the truck mechanically and addressed the fuel system and brakes to make it roadworthy. This one is an artifact.

For me, I wish I had my Series One back. As the original Land Rover, its purpose was to mobilize farmers and to provide a mobile power source. It soon became the vehicle of choice for expeditions, and was the first motor vehicle many people in the developing world saw. I mostly just like their charm and like to drive them for short, low speed errands. That is pretty much what they were designed for. If I had $260k to spend on an SUV, I'd buy a Bentayga.

Land Rover Series 2 Restoration

My goodness, look at all those Land Rover parts...

2014 PORSCHE 911 C4S COUPE PDK

5,800km only, Aerokit Cup w/Sport Design, Sport Chrono, Sport Exhaust, Full Black-Tan Leather, as new. $160k MRSP, replacement $200k and 12 month wait.

$130,000

2005 MERCEDES-BENZ CL 65 AMG

43k, Tuned by Reg Reimer from RCTS incl. Eisenmann exhaust, 620hp Dyno, $240k+ spent. Car looks new. One owner, bought new at Lone Star. Full History. Name another 600+hp, 300km/hr, V12 luxury coupe for less than $100,000.

$50,000

2014 Porsche Cayenne GTS

124k mileage, $121,000 MRSP. Clean CARFAX, no paintwork, one owner, bought and serviced at Porsche Calgary. Normally aspirated 400hp V8 engine w/Sport Exhaust, roof rack, trailer hitch. Mostly highway km.

$42,000