Cars & Coffee, Caffeine & Carburetors, Cars & Croissants, you get the idea. Starting somewhat organically in 2006, the original Cars & Coffee came to life on a spacious (organizers thought) corporate parking lot in Irvine California. It’s astounding and fatal success created a new class of casual auto event. In the case of Cars & Coffee Irvine, its demise came abruptly on December 20^th of 2014 when 2,000 classic cars showed up. Cause of death – too popular.

In 2013 an enterprising 20-something Jerseyite decided that North Jersey needed a branded source of events with its own distinctive character. Thus was born Cars & Caffe. Caffe is Italian for coffee. Hey, this is Jersey.

Meet the man behind Cars & Caffe, Tony Boniello

Cars & Caffe’s Tony Boniello is always looking to

brew up something new

So, what if you threw a party and 10,000 cars showed up. Ask Tony Boniello. In the fall of 2017, Boniello in partnering with other groups held a Sunday Cars & Caffe event that filled a major North Jersey shopping mall parking lot and drew 20,000 people in addition to the 10,000 very cool cars. Tony openly admits that that event stands out as an outlier significantly contrasting with the 500 to 1,000 car events associated with the Cars & Caffe name.

Matt Maisano and Tony Boniello

Drivin’ News caught up with Tony at this year’s final Cars & Caffe event. Taking place at well known classic car storage facility Motorcar Manor in Ramsey, NJ, and co-hosted by Motorcar Manor owner Matt Maisano, it provided a perfect venue to display Tony’s vision of a classic Cars & Caffe event.

Tony’s path to staging an eclectic array of distinctive classic car events began as a pre-teen. A fascination with automobiles at an early age evolved into a driving (literally) passion as Tony aged through his teens becoming a true automobile enthusiast. During the journey his desire to classic car event manage took shape.

The essence and attraction of the original and oft copied Cars & Coffee concept resides in its simplicity. It many ways it resembles a slow motion classic automobile flash mob. Tony explains saying, “it’s really intended for like-minded car enthusiasts. The crowd is welcome, but it’s really a car event for car people.“  For the event, enthusiasts’ cars casually assemble at a designated gathering site. Tony says, “It is a very laid back gathering of automotive enthusiasts from across all spectrums of the car world, muscle cars, exotic cars, hot rods, pre-war, post-war, brand-new and JDM (Japanese Domestic Market).” The event exists to provide a communal assembly for like minded enthusiasts. Tony says, It is not a cruise. It is not a concours. There’s no judging. It’s car people engaging, enjoying and bonding with other car people.” Events normally do not promote to spectators though they are welcome. Events take only a few hours on a Sunday morning, never past noon.

Co-Host Matt says, “Enthusiasts drive their car to the event. They hang out for just a couple of hours and then they leave. There’s no entry fees, no registration, no trophies, no ceremonies, no DJs it’s all about the cars. There’s nothing but car people enjoying each other’s cars and conversation. It’s pure. It’s a quick event. You can leave whenever you want. It’s perfect. You can enjoy a great car event and still have time to get stuff done with the rest of your day.

As a teenager Tony witnessed first-hand the promise and problems by attending the original Cars & Coffee Irvine event. Back on the east coast a very successful version of the Cars & Coffee concept called Caffeine and Carburetors blossomed in New Canaan Connecticut. Tony recognized the New Canaan groups commitment to the concept and their professionalism. It all came together when at the age of 20 Tony decided to bring the Cars & Coffee concept to Bergen County. So why not Cars & Coffee?

Tony Says that the owners of the Cars & Coffee brand wanted a five-figure licensing fee. As a college student, the idea of a debt that size held no appeal. Tony decided that he would develop his own branded event.

Tony says, “I didn’t see the advantage of shouldering that debt. I chose rather to build my own brand. I created my own database, my own network and my own business model.” He admits that it remains a work in progress.” His attitude embraces the “Build it and they will come” philosophy with a version that states “Keep building it better and more will come.” And what about the name?

Tony says,  “I wanted to do something unique, something with a little Italian flair. There’s a lot of spin-offs of Cars & Coffee. Being Italian I had a fondness for the Italian word for Coffee, Caffe.

Tony believes that over his eight years in operation, Cars & Caffe has developed a reputation not unlike Caffeine and Carburetors which he clearly respects. Tony says, “The New Canaan event is synonymous with upscale collectible vehicles old and new in the Northeast. I like to believe that Cars & Caffe is at home in that category.”

Tony acknowledges that rules, control and being a good neighbor play a critical role in the ongoing acceptance and success of an event. Rules, if violated will result in a person and vehicle being banned. Rules are simple: No engine revving, shut your audio system off, no burnouts, no donuts (They don’t mean the Dunkin kind) and no speeding.

Tony has incorporated fund raising and food donation as an integral part of the Cars & Caffe culture. His first show featured a Hurricane Sandy fundraiser. The event at Motorcar Manor combined a very successful food drive and a fundraiser to help defray the medical costs facing an 8-year old stroke victim.

Over the years Tony has shepherded the character of Cars & Caffe events with the goal being to promote an ever more eclectic composition. He notes that early on the location of the event would significantly impact the type of cars that would show up. Tony says, “When we were at Ridgewood High School early on, we got a lot of vintage American cars and vintage European cars. As I moved the events around it became more Supercar heavy.” As Cars & Caffe has developed its personality, it has become a more consistently eclectic event. Tony, clearly pleased, says, “Now at any event you might have a Jaguar XK120 pull in next to a Porsche 918 or a ’55 T-Bird alongside a LaFerrari, a brand new Corvette next to a “63 split window fuelie. It’s great.”

Clearly, Tony possesses a vision that extends beyond his Cars & Caffe events. He has set his sights on developing a regional presence. His efforts already evidence themselves with events such as Festival Italiano a judged event with over 100 cars of Italian heritage, RennZeign German heritage concours and “Cars on the Lawn,” a curated eclectic display of 150 cars at the ex-Vanderbilt Florham Mansion.

Tony says, “I think there’s a demand for a large-scale high-end  family of events in the Northeast. I would like to bring that to reality and I’m working towards that every day.

In closing Tony says, “I have found that Cars & Caffe is more about the people than the cars. I think that the community and the friendships that have been made help pass our passion, appreciation and respect for the classic automobile on to the next Generation. There’s a lot of younger people, high school kids, even middle school and younger that their parents bring. I see these kids grow up. I see these kids get their driver’s license and continue with the interest they have developed though our events.

Clearly Tony has found the rewards of Cars & Caffe to be his cup of tea.

It is said that there are, now, more GTOs and split window Corvettes than ever left the factory new. Many have been fabricated from modified versions of less expensive but very similar models. This fact matters to a lesser degree when looking for a good driver and paying a good driver price. However, when authenticity and factual accuracy factor in as concerns for rarity, desirability and price, then, “provenance” becomes a major issue. Provenance describes the documentation of the history of ownership and authenticity of a valued object such as an automobile. Needless to say provenance determines in large part both the asking and selling price of a premium collectible automobile. It goes without saying the higher the price the more provenance becomes a factor.

To understand the many challenges in establishing provenance and the significance of making an accurate determination of provenance, Drivin’ News spoke with provenance expert Mr. Jeff Murray of Vintage Car Research, LLC.

Provenance – Uncovering your car’s backstory

What to do upon retirement often poses a significant challenge if facing 6-hours of golf a day for the rest of your life does not set your heart aflutter. When retiring as an attorney and college professor, Jeff Murray looked around his office and faced a library of vintage car books that he had started collecting in 1959. The bulb lit in his classic car filled brain and illuminated the idea for a company that would research classic car provenance. Thus was born Vintage Car Research, LLC. Its purpose would be to research the history of a rare vintage automobile for a client considering purchasing that automobile. In the subsequent 18-years Jeff’s idea has blossomed into both a profitable enterprise and a pursuit that affords him great satisfaction from working in a field built around a personal passion.

Jeff’s research sends him far and wide to pursue the many facets of his provenance research. His research covers identifying original production specifications, title searching, identifying true ownership, determining clear and clean title, possibility of a car being stolen, tracking down a previous owner and finding research material.

Jeff prefaces all his comments on the value of provenance research with this mantra for when buying a vintage car: Ready – Set – Aim – Fire. He bemoans that he has many customers who follow a different sequence. He says, “Ready, set, fire.” He references one gentleman who spent $200,000 on a Mid-sixties Corvette. Jeff says, “Never checked the provenance. He shows up at a Corvette show to have it judged. They showed him proof of its inauthenticity.”

Jeff points out another example. He says, A fellow brought me a Porsche supposedly worth $500,000. Car was a fake.” It had been entirely assembled from parts. It looked good but failed scrutiny. From this experience Jeff points out a very interesting feature about Serial numbers. He notes that whoever stamped the engine number used a proper number but used the wrong type font.

While on the subject of inauthentic serial numbers, Jeff identifies one of his most valuable resources on this topic to be firearms examiners. Jeff says one expert told him, “If a serial number is ground down you can always find the original.” The expert said, “It is not rocket science. Stamping reorganizes the molecules, and there’s always some evidence of the original stamping.”

In this case the firearms examiner came with his tools to inspect a 1969 Model Year vehicle. The inspector’s assessment was that the stamping was done the week before.

Jeff notes that Vehicle Identification Numbers (VIN#) offer access to a mother lode of vehicle-specific data. Starting with the 1981 Model Year every new car in the world has a 17-digit VIN number.

Jeff says, “If you’re interested in buying a car, Google the four letters N-I-C-B.” It stands for the National Insurance Crime Bureau. There will be a place to enter the VIN number for the NICB VINCheck.” Jeff says, “Double check to make you’re your copied the VIN number correctly.” VINCheck is a free lookup service provided to the public to assist in determining if a vehicle has been reported as stolen, but not recovered, or has been reported as a salvage vehicle by participating NICB member insurance companies. As an additional benefit NICB sells a CDROM showing the location of VIN numbers for every car from 1937 to 2011. Jeff says, “It is $100 and includes a VIN# decoder.”

Another source providing title data may be found on the National Motor Vehicle Titling System www.vehicle history.gov/. This site offers several research services. Jeff uses InstaVIN. Examples of other valuable sources include the Corvette C1 registry (www.c1registry.com) or the XK Jaguar registry (www.xkdata.com) or the Porsche 356 registry (www.porsche356registry.org/). Many marques have similar registries.

Another rich resource for important vehicle information is what Jeff calls “The keeper of the flame. There is always somebody out there who knows a lot about the car you are researching. Almost every marque has one. Check with the specific marque club to find him or her.” That person keeps the interest in the vehicle alive. He keeps records. He will be pleased to answer the phone to satisfy a question about the vehicle that ignites his passion.

According to Jeff, “Don’t screw around with car titles.”  A car title is one of the most important documents because it is the legal form that formally makes you the owner of your vehicle. You receive a title whether you buy a new or used vehicle from a dealer or a private citizen. Jeff says, “When you buy a car you want the title. No title, No deal.”

A title will provide information such as identifying information for the vehicle such as the VIN number, make, model, and year. It will also provide technical information, such as the gross weight and the owner’s name and address.

Jeff says, “Clear title and clean title identify two very important descriptors when buying a car. A clean title means a car does not have a salvage title. A clear title means that the car has no liens or outstanding bank loans.

Jeff provided an example of the importance of knowing what title you are getting. Jeff described a call from a French investor. He has just bought a confirmed authentic 427 Cobra. It is crated up and ready to be shipped back to his home in France. The buyer tells Jeff he wants to confirm that the title is both clear and clean. Jeff says, “I checked very quickly by going to www.cscglobal.com/service/cls/ucc-search to check for liens in all 50 states.” For a small fee Jeff found out that the selling owner still owed $500,000 on the car. The buyer froze the deal until the lien was satisfied.

Finding and vetting people represents a challenge that often must be faced in researching a car. Jeff recommends a low cost system called Whitepages premium. They provide the current address, past addresses, land lines, mobile numbers and the person’s age. They can also do a reverse number search. He also recommends ancestry.com and in the UK genealogy.com.

If you suspect that the party you seek has passed away www.stevemorse.or/ssdi/ssdi/html offers, free, the Social Security Death Index. The index does not list a person until three years after their death.

Of equal or even greater value comes with vetting people with whom you may do business. Said another way, how can you prevent doing business with a felon? Jeff suggests www.searchsystems.net/springapp/premium as a source. However Jeff strongly recommends leaving this task to professionals. He says, “A good attorney is the best choice.”

Lastly Jeff finds rare books a priceless resource for which he does not wish to pay the price. He therefore recommends a resource called www.worldcat.com. To use, simply enter the book title in the search bar and up will come addresses of libraries having that book starting with the one closest to you. If the book resides in a far away library Jeff suggests calling the librarian and ask if they could do the research for you. Jeff has found librarians to be extraordinarily willing to assist.

So remember when buying a classic car – Ready, Set, Aim, Fire – and you will be far less likely to shoot yourself in the foot.

For some of us of a certain age, recalling the 1960s and 1970s rekindles recollections of passionate pursuits of cars we desperately wanted though not necessarily needed. In those days the path to finding a used high performance or collectible car passed through the dog eared pages of the regional Want Ad Press, the local newspaper classifieds or the classified section of the Sunday New York Times. Except for national magazines (Well beyond consideration for most of us) nothing else existed except maybe the bulletin board at the entrance to the local auto parts store, back when locally owned parts stores existed.

Want Ad Press

Back then good cars when advertised were gone in hours. Wildly eager to beat everyone else to that clean Corvette or 240Z or whatever it was that made our pulse race, we would impatiently troll the newsstand waiting for the bundle of Want Ad Presses to land at the curb. I personally spotted and followed a New York Times delivery truck until it reached its next stop at Rockland Stationers in Teaneck New Jersey to toss out its bundles of Sunday editions that contained the precious latest auto classified ads. It was 1:00 am on that Sunday morning.

Today the classic car buying world would be unrecognizable to our bell bottomed selves of yesterday. Choices of platforms for making vehicles available for sale fill communications channels some of which did not even exist a few years ago.

With that in mind Drivin’ News will take a look at today’s marketplace and compare the platforms now available for finding the vehicle we want. To help us in our journey will be friend of Drivin’ News, owner of Motorcar Manor and experienced classic car sales agent Matt Maisano.

Comparing classic car sales platforms

RM Sothebys auction

Today, whether looking to sell or to buy a classic or performance vehicle, the variety of platforms available offer significant choices far beyond anything we dreamed of in our early car buying days. A broad array of venues utilizing the full spectrum of available media exist with each platform possessing its own unique personality designed to appeal to a market segment with specific characteristics.

The mind boggles when considering how many classic vehicles change hands every day and the vast amounts of money associated with those transactions. It does not boggle the mind of any sentient being that with this vast amount of money in play that the number of platforms for advertising, promoting and facilitating these transactions in recent years has exploded. As always, with the introduction of choice comes the potential for confusion. In the days of the classified ad, the choices were few. Basically it fell to deciding what publication to choose for placing a few lines of copy and should a few extra dollars be spent to include a fuzzy black and white photo.

Matt Maisano of Motorcar Manor with Nash-Healey headed to Bonhams auction in Greenwich

Today websites, on–line auctions, in-person live auctions, social media (Facebook Market) and some print offer what can be a confusing constellation of choices when considering the best place to buy or sell a specific vehicle.

Matt Maisano of Motorcar Manor has for over a decade provided concierge services for classic and performance car enthusiasts looking to buy a car or sell a single car or a collection of classic cars.

Matt has extensive experience counseling on the purchase and sale of premium vehicles across the full spectrum spanning from vintage Ferraris, Lamborghinis, Porsches and Maseratis to American Muscle cars and low volume special edition vehicles such as Nash-Healeys and Kaiser-Darrins.

When asked about the state of the market, Matt simply says, “The classic car market is insane. Cars are selling like crazy.” Matt also says, “What some call modern classics are skyrocketing.” Matt considers Modern Classic Cars dating from 1982 on. He acknowledges that most consider the starting date as 2002.  Matt’s opinion about the overall market is mirrored by the latest Hagerty Market Rating for September 2021. Hagerty says, “As we near the end of the second Covid Summer, it’s amazing the difference a year can make. This time last year, the rating was at an all time low, but now the Hagerty Market Rating has increased for a sixth consecutive month to its highest point in over 5 years. After a strong showing at Monterey, auction activity is back to pre-pandemic levels and optimism among our industry experts is at its highest point in over seven years.”

Gooding Company Auction

Without a doubt the expanded democratization of the buying process has benefitted from Covid’s creation of legions of bored, house bound people. Exploring the web, these home bound denizens of the internet armed with computers and money discovered the excitement of online bidding. Game on. An equally important contribution to expanding the market has come courtesy of the increasing number of venues affording access to the buying and selling process and the ease each brings to that process.

Clearly, today, websites and live in-person events dominate the business of selling collectible vehicles. They have almost totally replaced print. Websites, on-line auctions, live auctions and to some degree social media in the form of Facebook Market presently reign as the preeminent players.

While the opportunity still exists to place an ad in print, newspapers and penny savers no longer have much value. Print ads are best placed in auto themed national publications, marque specific club publications and the still reigning king of print car ads, Hemmings Motor News. While Hemmings Motor News still stands as a worthy go-to resource, most other placements do not have the broad reach of the web or pack the concentrated sales power of an auction whether in-person live or online.

For the lower end of the market websites are where much of the  action is. Sites like eBay, Facebook marketplace (Craig’s list), Classic Car.com. and Classics.Auto Trader.com offer affordable access to mostly five figure collectibles.

Bring a Trailer website

P-Car Market website

Certainly some sites rank higher, sometimes, significantly higher than others. Two that have lost much of their early luster are eBay and Craig’s List. eBay, infected with so many scams, and petty annoyances has turned a lot of people off. Though it still has national reach it has suffered from a considerable decline in respect and business. As for Craig’s list, Facebook Marketplace basically has eaten Craig’s lunch. Facebook Marketplace offers a lot of vehicles and benefits. Most significantly it integrates with Facebook’s huge   audience’s social media activities. With people constantly on their phone it offers a powerful opportunity for passive exposure. Most appealing, it costs nothing.

Classics.Autotrader.com provides a collectibles version of the traditional Autotrader site. Both work the same way. When looking for a vehicle one simply keystrokes in the what you are looking for and the site calls up any matching vehicle from its large inventory of actively available cars.

However, significant short comings exist for these low cost platforms that can hinder getting a true a understanding of the vehicle. Content suffers from the amateur writing and photographic skills of most individuals placing the ads. Information is incomplete compared to on-line auctions or in-person auctions. Supporting photographs are few, maybe 30 at most. Asking price often suffers from amateur best guesses or hopeful dreams. As well placing a car on the site can produce a frustrating bevy of time wasting tire kickers and robocalls offering to help sell your car.

Autotrader.com website

For Autotrader.com the fee for placing an ad depends on the term and ranges between $40 and $100.

Classiccar.com offers a site functionally similar to Classics.Autotrader.com but provides a dedicated site rather than an offshoot from the main site. As such classiccars.com is probably a better bet for your tri-five Chevy.

On-line auction sites have truly been where the action is. Established with an offering of three cars in 2014, the Bring a Trailer on-line auction has become the gold standard of digital on-line auction platforms. This year BaT has over 450,000 users and 200,000 bidders. Both figures continue to grow. In 2019 BaT sold over 11,000 cars. In 2020 BaT car sales exceeded $400 million. For 2021 both numbers are trending significantly higher.

While BaT has some issues it is widely considered the go-to site. BaT features an inexpensive listing fee of $99 and an optional added $250 if photo service is desired. With listings running for 7 or 10 days depending on the car, BaT offers a significant benefit for a seller with the ease it provides for posting hundreds of photos of the car from every angle as well as videos showing a walk-around or the car being test driven. No sales website offers that. In theory and most often in practice, this extensive visual reference reduces the need for a distant buyer to personally inspect the car, though a PPI (Pre-purchase Inspection) is always advisable if possible.

A downside to BaT results from its success. First your car must be accepted. Just cause you want to list on BaT does not mean your car will be accepted. A bit of work goes into the submission process. Then, if you want a reserve it requires negotiating with a BaT staff member. Finally if you pass all of the hurdles, you will have to get on a significant line and wait for weeks or months to have your listing posted.

Buyers pay a 5% fee on top of the final sale price to BaT, with a minimum of $250, and capped at $5,000.

Unlike websites with cars for sale the BaT and all other on-line auctions have a bidding process that usually lasts seven days. One nice feature of BaT is that, unlike eBay, sniping with a last second bid is prevented by having two minutes added to the bidding time after any last minute bid.

1999 Ferrari 355 Spyder headed for BaT

One element initiated by BaT and unique to on-line auctions is the comments section. Here users can write comments about a car that has been listed. While some comments provide constructive insights about a car, Matt says, “Primarily on Bring a Trailer, you definitely have people bid a $1,000 on a car just so they can claim that they’ve bid on cars before just to do comments. Some of which are just ridiculous. You know they had one situation or  heard from a friend. They write as if they were experts. The downside is that you get guys with the negative comments. They could hurt the sale. It takes one comment from a guy trying to sound like an expert that kills the sale.”

On-line auction fees compare very favorably to the 10% to 12% charge common to in-person live auctions.

New on-line auction sites playing off the highly successful BaT model appear on the scene with regularity. The most popular include Cars and Bids, Hemmings, P-Car Market and RADwood. All impart their own special flavor to BaT functionality.

Cars & Bids spun off from the large following of blog personality, the knowledgeable and entertaining, Doug DeMuro. C&B adapts the basic functionality of BaT with its own special treatment. C&B limits itself to listing vehicles it describes as anything cool and exciting from the 1980s to 2020s. As well, playing off the popularity of DeMuro, your vehicle, if selected, will benefit from the extra eyes and extra buyers DeMuro will bring to your listing by reviewing your car on C&B.

Barrett-Jackson Auction

Less expensive than BaT, Cars & Bids buyers pay a 4.5% commission, capped at $4,500. Sellers list for free and receive 100% of the sale price.

Reading the hand-writing on the digital wall, historic friend to the collectible car enthusiast, Hemmings, entered the on-line auction fray in 2019. Basically conforming to the Bat functionality with less of the BaT panache, Hemmings Auctions offers anyone listing on the auction six months of Hemmings classified ad space for free if the car does not sell at auction during its 14-day listing. To qualify for a Hemmings auction, the car must be roadworthy and you must submit to an assessment with a listing specialist.

Hemmings auction listings offer an eclectic mix of vehicles  across a range with some modern but usually more classic cars including brass era every once in a while. Listing backlog is usually two to three weeks. Far better than BaT. The seller’s cost to list is $99.95. Buyers pay 5% with a minimum of $500 and a $10,000 maximum.

P-Car Market initially started as a dedicated Porsche site, but now, they do everything. Sellers have a choice of listing options and associated fees ranging from $99 for either a traditional Reserve or No Reserve listing to $500 for a Blind Auction that hides the bid amounts until the reserve is met. Buyers pay a 5% non-refundable buyer’s premium with a (minimum of $500.00 and a maximum of $5,000.

RADwood presents a platform focused on the automotive lifestyle and culture of the 80s and 90s. It will list cars, trucks and motorcycles from 1980 through 1999. Sellers pay from $45 to $125 based on the terms of the listing. Duration ranges from 7 to 10 days. Buyers pay 4.5% with a minimum hold of $150 and a maximum of $4500.

Mecum Auction

In-Person live auctions represent the red carpet events of the classic car selling world. Gooding, R&M Sothebys, Bonhams, Barrett-Jackson, Russo & Steel and Mecum represent the big players with many other smaller operations filling the field. The big auctions present elaborate shows rich with theatrics and a robust party atmosphere often tied to a high visibility event such as Amelia or Pebble Beach. Though the auction itself is a destination.

Every auction has a personality expressed by the nature of the cars it fields. Matt says, “Gooding – High end more modern cars, race cars, 1970-80-90. German, M-B, Porsche, Ferrari. Not brass. RM Sothebys –  Top notch venue, older vehicles Rolls-Royce, Bentley, Jaguar, a good mix. Bonhams – Similar to RM. Mix, 60s and older, more brass, some RH drive. Barrett-Jackson – Muscle cars or a restomod. Traditional American classic cars. At certain locations. You might be able to get a foreign sports car in there but you’re not selling a 356 Porsche Speedster at Barrett-Jackson. Mecum – basically the same as Barrett-Jackson, except one advantage that makes Mecum different is you can put a reserve on a car where at Barrett-Jackson you can’t. Russo & Steel – Mix, modern, high mileage Ferraris.

Bonhams Auction

Live In-Person auctions possess a visceral electricity because you have buyers in the room. Matt says, ”The buyers are there nine times out of ten. They do have bidders on the internet and on the phone, but essentially the buyers are there.” Auction houses typically do a great job in marketing. They will market an event, three to four months in advance. Matt says, “They’re going to market individual cars as well as the event itself. For example, look at this great Bugatti that’s going to be auctioned.”

At an In-Person Live auction the auctioneers are professionals and experts in their field. They have gone through every car and know everything about each specific car going through auction. Matt says, “A potential bidder can ask them a million questions without having to go to the owner where the owner is emotionally attached to the car and might embellish things. The auctioneer will tell you everything you want to know without any of the stories,  smoke, and mirrors.

Here one can find the truly unique and special high value vehicles. Matt says, “Chances are the individual considering buying that car already knows about that car. They already know who owns it. Now that potential bidder may talk to the auctioneer and discuss everything about that car. He might be able to take it for a test drive. The auctioneer is going to relate the entire history of the car. And again, these cars are vetted by the auction house. They’ve gone through it. They know everything about it. They’re not going to put in a Bugatti that potentially is not a real Bugatti.”

While it is often felt that a vehicle can sell for more at an In-Person Live auction, compared to other platforms buyers fees are considerable. Until recently the buyer’s premium stood at ten percent. Matt says, “Now from my understanding certain locations have gone up to 12%. It depends on where. Scottsdale is 12%. I think Amelia Island is 12%. I’m going to say, Greenwich is probably still 10 percent.”

Regardless of the platform selected when looking to purchase a collectible vehicle the best advice is to do your research, make a plan, set a budget and, most important, exercise discipline.

A number of weeks back Drivin’ News took a look at the birth and adolescence of the printed new car brochure from 1900 up to World War II.

Mirroring the explosive advancement in automobile design and execution as the Depression ebbed, the new car brochure came of age just as the world plunged into global warfare.

The creative outpouring poised to blossom in automotive literature would stall until millions of men and women would march off to war to save the world from the greatest tyranny civilization had ever faced.

Marked by the exhilaration born of war’s end, American consumerism exploded with an insatiable appetite for things decidedly modern, exciting and innovative.

With a population exhibiting a manifest destiny-like determination to create a better future, the years following WWII ushered in the dawn of the pinnacle period for a dominant American automobile culture and the accompanying golden age of the new car brochure.

As noted in Part I, the dawn of 21^st century digital delivery efficiencies would doom the high quality, brilliantly photographed, aesthetically striking and increasingly expensive print bibles of the new car sales effort.

In Part II, Drivin’ News looks back at the high point of the new car brochure genre in the latter 20^th and early 21^st Centuries.

Evolution of the new car brochure, Paper to Pixel –

Books that sold the American dream

(Part II 1946 to 2010)

1952 Buick brochure

Just like the postwar automobiles they featured, new car brochures in the 1950s radiated a bold vitality with vibrant colors and striking presentations. They embodied the fruits of greater graphic design sophistication, the ready availability of high quality art and the emergence of photography as a powerful creative tool. Brochures grew in size. Artistic representations of new car models grew in size and in scale when compared to the stature of their blissfully confident diminutive drivers and passengers.

Lifestyle dominated every spread with family an important theme. Images on the page in the fifties displayed greater color saturation but continued to be lacking in detail due to period limitations of the printing process.

By the mid-1950s four-color photography gathered support as a tool considered superior to high-end illustration as a source of hero imagery. Research decidedly favored photography over illustration as the superior technique for delivering visual impact.

1956 Thunderbird brochure

Post WWII America, confident, motivated and determined, embraced the automobile. The automobile empowered millions to fuel the explosive growth of suburbs where they could enjoy the fruits of their efforts and live the good life. It was a life vividly displayed throughout period new car brochures. 1950s new car brochures not only sold cars, they trumpeted the achievable rewards of pursuing the postwar American Dream.

1960s to 1974, Muscle cars to gas lines

1960s drag racing

As all those postwar babies started growing up, American culture would convulse through seismic shifts that reconfigured social, environmental and automotive values. Early on, muscle cars burst onto the scene sparking an intense love affair with power, performance and aggressive automotive design. Horsepower wars sounded a steady and loud drum beat heralding escalating competition on the track and on the street. At the same time other Americans gave their hearts and loyalty to small cars especially the Volkswagen. In many ways consensus splintered as perspectives and paths diverged. However, by decades end with environmental and safety restrictions winding down the horsepower, performance and land yacht party, the stage was set for the last nail in the coffin of the mid-century performance joy ride. Enter “The gas crisis.” For new car brochures it was, at first, the best of times and then abruptly the worst of times.

The 1960s witnessed photography supplant illustration as the dominant source of new car brochure imagery. That changing of the guard coincided with two partnerships that stood above all others as giants in the history of automotive promotional imagery.

Fitzpatrick and Kaufman Pontiac art

Illustrators Art Fitzpatrick and Van Kaufman and Boulevard Photographic founders Jimmy Northmore and Mickey McGuire reside in the pantheon of automotive artistry. Fitzpatrick created deliciously distorted visualizations that powerfully expressed a stylized vision of a vehicle’s attributes. Kaufman, a former Disney animator, created evocative lifestyle imagery employing exotic places and attractive, active people. The two then collaborated to combine their separate creations. They did so brilliantly. Their work in creating and promoting Pontiac’s “Wide Track” promotional imagery stands as the signature representation of their artistic genius. In viewing Fitzpatrick’s and Kaufman’s work, most notably for Pontiac from the late 1950s to the early 1970s, there is no doubt who did it.

Boulevard Photographic towered as a creative force thriving on photographic challenges. Boulevard, powered by the collective visionary genius of Northmore and McGuire, literally willed photography into the forefront of automobile commercial imagery.

Printing’s ability to put ink on paper improved significantly during the 1970s as did the finishing process. Breathtaking imagery and exciting graphic design supported by exquisite typography transformed the new car brochure into a dynamic sales tool that offered a new fresh perspective.

Powerful photographic images displaying a driver’s point of view demonstrated a greater emphasis on interior design. The use of coated glossy paper stock with a richer feel became more prevalent. Full color gatefolds pulled out for more powerful presentations.

During this period American showrooms witnessed the appearance of foreign cars, predominantly European. Initially brochure work for imports reflected a conservative approach to layout with design featuring photography that offered a straight forward depiction of a product usually fairly well devoid of romance. This would change as American attitudes towards brochure imagery migrated to Europe. To quote Mickey McGuire of Boulevard Photographic, “We introduced Europeans to sex and romance…at least as far as car advertising is concerned.”

Boulevard Photographic photo for Jaguar

1975 to `1990, The thrill is gone

By the mid-1970s the execution of the traditional automobile new car brochure had reached a point of maturity in design, production and printing. Brochure production had found its groove. The automobile business, on the other hand, was anything but groovy. America’s gas crisis of 1973 and the ensuing 1975 government CAFÉ standards disoriented an automobile industry already stumbling in its response to the restrictions imposed by the creation of the NHTSA in 1966 and the Clean Air Act of 1968.  America’s automobile marketplace would, now, for the most part, offer for sale smaller, slower, often odd looking and frequently badge engineered products often at odds with the traditional interests of the new car buyer.

1982 Cadillac Cimarron

For the new car brochure, the challenge was daunting. Faced with significantly less steak to sell, new car brochures offered a double dose of sizzle with efforts that often emphasized and aggrandized the trivial. Copy sought every possible way to impart excitement to features like smaller engines, overdrive, improved efficiency, weight reduction and the mini-spare. In these dark times for automotive excitement the new car brochure served as the metaphorical “Potamkin Village” of automobile marketing.

After 1975, new car brochures grew larger as horsepower and vehicle dimensions shrank. Bold photography of boring cars filled oversized brochure pages. Striking gatefolds, improved printing, sophisticated page coatings, and perfect bindings did their best to infuse anemic products with life. For some niche brands such as Volvo, the new age of increased safety awareness and clean air concerns benefited sales.

1986 Volvo brochure touting safety cage

Volvo trumpeted its safety design and Lambda-sond emissions control with showroom brochures that were well executed but reserved, just like the brand. Others such as GM suffered from short cut attempts that resulted in underpowered and unreliable diesel engines and unadvertised brand mingling of parts that resulted in embarrassing and apologetic mea culpa copy. However, on the horizon technological advancements in materials, technology and design brought hopes for the light at the end of the dark tunnel of boring cars. However, for the traditional new car brochure, that light would be attached to a distant but onrushing train.

1990s to Today  – Evolution to Revolution

The 1990s ushered in three transformational forces that would challenge the very existence of the new car brochure.

• Digitization of print design and production
• Elevated environmental consciousness
• Rise of the web

DIGITAL REVOLUTION

Revolutions produce casualties. Digital revolutions are no different. By the turn of the 20th century dead professions littered the field of print design and production. The old ways stood defenseless before the powerful onslaught of digital technology. Digital-based desktop publishing, PageMaker in particular, by the start of this new century would dominate print design and production. Simultaneously CGI or Computer Generated Imagery revolutionized image creation resulting in a profound change in creating product photography. By the early 2000s, CGI made it unnecessary to have the real car to produce a high quality photograph of the car.

Computer generated Image (CGI)

With CGI, brochure images, at most, only needed a background into which a CGI created car image could be placed. As well, the first decade of the 2000s witnessed the ascendance of digital photography (No film, no Polaroids, no processing, no waiting). At the same time, Photoshop revolutionized image modification. Now an already digitally produced photo could be manipulated to reflect a designer’s vision, if not reality.

By the second decade of the 21^st century digital presses employing Variable Data Printing equipped a print run to personalize each individual brochure to target a different person. Digital printing quickly supplanted traditional print for short runs and variable data applications.

By 2010, technology allowed for a digitally created PDF of a brochure to be posted to a website where anyone with a web connection and a color printer could download and print the brochure. While of significantly lower quality than a professionally printed brochure, the download gave manufacturers a significantly cheaper alternative to the printed brochure.

ENVIRONMENTAL CONSCIOUSNESS

Environmental concerns as related to printed matter first moved to the fore in middle 1990s new car brochures. Initially some new car brochures would contain copy proclaiming their efforts to be environmentally responsible.  Next, recycling Icons showed up on back covers. With the dawn of the 2010s the FSC (Forest Stewardship Council) icon approached ubiquity on new car brochures. A voluntary program, The Forest Stewardship Council set standards for responsible forest management.

As we approached the third decade, “carbon footprint” has stepped to the fore in the environmental conversation with profound implications for the printed new car brochure and its important role as a messenger of history for future generations.

A peek at the future may have been provided by a columnist for the Wall Street Journal covering a recent World Economic Forum in Davos. He was informed by an aide at the registration  desk that, ”no paper maps of the town were being distributed to reduce the event’s carbon footprint.”

We will return to the implications of that mindset shortly.

THE WEB

Around the late 1990s web addresses began quietly appearing on new car brochure back pages. Initially, websites peacefully coexisted with 1-800 customer service numbers and Business Reply Cards. However, as a new, fertile and promising mediascape for creative applications, websites were quickly embraced and thrived. By the mid-2000s the auto industry fully embraced the power of the web. By the early teens the auto industry harnessed the web with QR codes, e-brochures, configurators and social media networks.

Mercedes-Benz social media page in 2007 brochure

Social media rapidly expanded its influence into automobile marketing. Model year 2012 saw icons for Facebook, Twitter and You Tube prominent on back covers. By 2015 social media had fully embedded itself in the new car buying experience.

Virtual reality headset

Today, analytics reign supreme like a metric tail wagging the marketing dog as manufacturers struggle to harness the potential power resident in the available flood of marketing and social media data. Tomorrow is already knocking on the door with Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality applications.

Looking Ahead – The Perfect Storm

Digitization, carbon footprint and the web, Is this the perfect storm that will doom the new car brochure as the ubiquitous sales tool for enticing new car prospects. In a word, yes.

What does the future have in store for the new car brochure? At present, there appears two divergent paths.

For most mass market product lines, the print new car brochure has been replaced by the downloadable e-brochure. Alternatively, hypercar brands distinguished by their performance and exclusivity will offer premium, frequently hard cover print pieces. However, rather than traditional new car brochures, these pieces offer detailed and exciting brand profiles employing production values consistent with the superior quality of the exclusive product.

e-brochure

In our current world where bean counters outrank any individual concerned with quality at the cost of an extra nickel spent, the life prospects of the print brochure equate with the proverbial snow ball’s chance in hell. The wasted money from discarding outdated literature in inventory, the inability to immediately adjust to product changes and the cost of printing and shipping in the face of digital technology efficiencies ensured the rapid disappearance of the new car brochure.

As with all profound changes, the law of unintended consequences rears its head in the disappearance of the new car brochure. While not the intent of the manufacturers, its value as a meaningful record of history cannot be dismissed.

Archiving solutions may require museums and libraries to develop closer relationships with manufacturers in the hope that the OEMs can transfer files to ensure that our museums and libraries have the digital records necessary to continue the valuable role new car brochures fulfilled as messengers of future automotive history.

Many things that were once commonplace, today, we now hold dear for their rarity. Such things as having a live and informed person respond quickly when we call customer service, or an auto parts store owned by a family not a franchise or a gas station attendant not speaking on an ear bud to a friend 10,000 miles away, all were once accepted as a given.

Now for those of us old enough to remember a time when superior craftsmanship merited respect and a plentitude of business, we sadly note the dwindling presence of those practicing craftsmen. That so few of these skilled experts at combining art and engineering exist seems incomprehensible in a way that shocks our sensibilities.

Drivin’ News believes in the importance of recognizing the remaining gifted and dedicated craftsmen who sustain our passion for the enjoyment and preservation of classic vehicles. Meet Charlie Olsen, owner of Olsen Engines.

The man they trust to rebuild history

Charlie Olsen with Ferrari Daytona engine

Disarmingly genial and engaging, Charlie Olsen resides within the sparse ranks populating the pantheon of active “go-to” machinists and classic vehicle engine rebuilders.

Charlie Olsen working on Honda 250cc engine

Though chockablock with exotic engines, parts and pieces, Charlie’s Olsen Engines shop somehow projects a reassuring sense of confident orderliness. Since opening for business in 1982 Olsen Engines, has been entrusted by some of the world’s most famous people and most respected professionals to work on some of the world’s most treasured automobile, motorcycle and inboard marine engines.

Maintaining a shockingly youthful exuberance for his passion to bring mortally wounded high performance and exotic engines back from the dead, 67-year old Charlie was born to excel at the work he loves.

Charlie says, “I always had a love for gas engines. By eight or nine-years old I was fixing all of the lawn mowers on the block.” If he found a mower that did not run, he would make it run. By the age of twelve Charlie had graduated to motorcycles. He says, “I bought some old cycles cheap and got them to run.” From then on Charlie’s budding talents for curing the ills of anything that ran on gas blossomed into full bloom.

Ferrari 4-Cylinder

In high school a stint at a local gas station exposed him to the challenges of rebuilding transmissions. He excelled. By 1976 Charlie’s employer at the time, Competition Research of Nyack, New York, closed and a Suzuki dealership took its placed. Charlie accepted the new owner’s invitation to stay and took the opportunity to work on the dealership’s motorcycles and the cars that the owner raced. The experience allowed Charlie to hone his engine rebuilding skills. When the Suzuki dealership closed in 1982, Charlie took over the facility, opened Olsen Engines and the rest is history.

When entering Charlie’s shop one never knows what museum worthy piece of motoring history will be awaiting final touches in advance of shipping. On one prior visit when I was bringing the heads for my 1961 Corvette small block to be rebuilt, I spotted three extraordinary and completed engines poised to bring to life significant examples of the mid-twentieth century’s golden age of motoring.

Glickenhaus GT40

All painted, plated and perfect, there sat a 1972 V-12 for a Ferrari 365 GTB/4 Daytona, a 331 cu. in. hemi for the first Chrysler 300 and a truly rare Aurelio Lampredi designed dual distributor 4-cylinder for a mid-fifties Ferrari 750 Monza. For Olsen, these extraordinary power plants intended for automotive royalty represented just another day. More about these gems later.

Emblematic of Charlie’s easy going self-effacing nature, he explains his philosophy saying, “I just try to do it as best as I can, maybe try to do it even better than I have done it before. Certainly I want to do it better than anyone else.”

When asked about the difficulty of working on a vintage engine that he may never have seen before, Charlie’s response innocently betrays his humility in addressing how his natural gifts,

Ferrari Daytona

years of experience and work ethic inform his approach to accurately resurrecting a piece of engineering history.

He says, “It is all about paying attention to detail.” He speaks about the existence of subtle nuances present with every engine. He says, “If you know of them it becomes mechanical. You can figure it out. After all a four-stroke engine is a four-stroke engine.”

When asked about the kind of nuances other people might miss Charlie easily rolls off a litany of subtle yet meaningful attributes. They include cylinder wall finish, honing procedures, valve guide material, valve seat material, material used in cylinder heads, fastener torque, sizing for crank bearings and roundness of main bores and rod bores.

Chrysler 300

In applying his expertise for famous restoration shops and famous people like Billy Joel, Jim Glickenhaus (Glickenhaus Collection), Craig

Jackson (Barrett-Jackson), Ralph Lauren, Michael Strahan and David Letterman among many others, Charlie has put his stamp on extraordinary milestones in automotive history.

Over its almost 40 years in business, Olsen Engines has seen a wide diversity of exotic and historically significant engines pass through the hands of Charlie. The following examples offer a taste of the performance bounty that has benefitted from Charlie’s touch.

1966 Ford GT40

In sorting out the exact provenance, it has been represented that this big block GT40 identified

Ferrari 750 Monza

as car #4 was one of the three that finished one, two, three at LeMans in 1966. Later research may have indicated that it was one that ran in 1967. At that time of the rebuild it was the only one of the GT40s that had the engine rebuilt. It had been sent to Charlie to do balance work, crank work and block work

Mid-1950s Ferrari 750 Monza

Though a 3-liter 4-cylinder, the engine was a strong performer that ran nearly as fast as the V-12 cars. Charlie says, “I just did the top end. I was getting the clearances right on the bevel drive for the whole front of the engine with the bevel drive operating the generator and both distributors. That engine had two distributors. Finally I had to set up the valve clearances.

That engine was pretty different because it’s a roller cam. It was something I had never come across before.”

Vector

1955 Chrysler 300

Charlie has done a number of early hemis. He says, “They have their idiosyncrasies, a couple of little oiling issues and strength issues.” For the most part the ones he has done were rebuilt for stock performance.

Ferrari 166M

Powering a very rare Ferrari, this engine comes from a late 1940’s model produced before Enzo Ferrari got into the street car business. With a 2-liter Colombo V-12, It’s intention was for racing in events such as the Mille Miglia. Charlie says, “The small bore, small stroke Colombo engine was quite interesting.”

The old Colombo style valve springs on it offered a very unusual “mousetrap” design.

Ferrari 166M

It differs from your usual coil because the spring has two arms that come around to hold the valve up.

1990s Vector

Currently Charlie has turned his attention to the engine of a very interesting rare supercar from the early 1990s, a Vector. The 358 cu.in. fuel injected Chevrolet power plant features a twin-turbocharged design. Charlie says, “ I think there may only be 10 or so of these cars in existence.”

Honda 250cc motorcycle engine

This six cylinder motorcycle engine represents one of only three made and the only one not in the Honda museum.

Raced in 250cc class and GP motorcycle racing during the early 1970s, it is a 250cc, 6-cylinder, four-valves per cylinder engine with a 7-speed transmission. It idles at about 11,000 RPM and will run up to seventeen or eighteen thousand RPMs.

Big Block Grenades

Charlie has done his part for outrageous engines with four figure horsepower builds. He built a number of 2,000 HP turbocharged and blown race engines for Camaros and Mustangs. However, his most vivid description of work he did he describes as “Big Block Grenades.”

Reasons for a rebuild

Charlie recalls in the 1990s how clients for really high horsepower drag race engines wanted to have 4 to 6 thousandths of main clearance. Charlie recalls, “The customers wanted to have a bit more freedom to allow things to move around inside the engine.” Charlie continues, “ I would take these engines apart and you could just see how hard the engines had been working.” At the most these engines stood to hold up for 10 to maximum 20 runs.

Often in engine building the topic of balancing and blueprinting comes up. Charlie certainly shared some interesting insights. He says, “Back in the 1980s when I was running in the IMSA Fire Hawk series I could go through blue printing processes on a 305 cu. in. 200 HP Chevy small block and get an additional 125 HP without changing any parts.” It simply stood as a matter of maximizing compression within the rules and getting all cylinders equal. He did a lot of flow test work to achieve that balance.

Balancing called for individually balancing all rotating and reciprocating parts both statically and dynamically for the smoothest possible operation. Blueprinting called for rebuilding an engine to the precise OEM specs by re-machining each component to the precise measurement in the factory blueprint.

In discussing engine rebuilding for 21^st century modern engines Charlie says, He does not recommend rebuilding an engine for a stock production vehicle. He recommends simply buying a new engine.” Interestingly Charlie says that OEM production techniques have improved so much that modern engines are close to blueprint quality due to the superior production and inspection technology used today.

In reflecting on the his ongoing goals Charlie says, “I hope I never stop learning. I hope that I can always keep trying to improve so that my engine work reflects the pinnacle of my capabilities.” Smiling and showing a sliver of self-satisfaction Charlie says, “I just love it. It’s a passion.”

In reflecting on his future Charlie says, “I’m thinking about slowing down a little bit and maybe just taking on, you know, a couple of projects a year. However, I don’t think I’m gonna ever stop as long as I am capable of doing the work.” Flashing a big grateful smile He says, “I just love the diversity of all the different engines that I get to work on. Almost every day I get something unique come through the door.”

While Charlie acknowledges that what he does can be taught, he clearly believes that, like the art of great musicians, much of the magic he brings to his work is realized through gifts with which he was born.

Undeniably, audiences of classic car owners and drivers revere the tune that an engine rebuilt by Charlie Olsen sings on open roads and closed tracks alike.