Formula One is a type of car racing where specially designed cars race on tracks around the world. It's very popular and features some of the fastest cars and best drivers.
The 1967 Mustang is a famous car from Ford that many people love. It has a stylish look and was built to be fast and fun to drive, making it a favorite among car enthusiasts.
A fleet car program is when businesses give cars to their workers to use. These cars are usually replaced after a while and can be sold when they are no longer needed.
A body stamping date code is a special code found on a car that shows when and where the car's body was made. It helps people know more about the car's history.
The Porsche 911 GT3 Touring is a special version of the 911 that focuses on performance but has a more classic appearance. It's popular among car lovers who want a fast car that doesn't look too flashy.
The Ferrari 308 is a famous sports car from Ferrari that was made a long time ago. It's loved for its stylish look and fast performance, and many people consider it a classic.
The Chevrolet Corvette is a fast and stylish car that many people love. It’s known for being a great sports car that can go really fast and looks cool, making it a favorite among car enthusiasts.
The Proton Preve is a small car made in Malaysia that is meant to be affordable and easy to drive. It has a simple design and includes some nice features to keep you safe and comfortable.
Vehicle restoration means fixing up an old car to make it look and work like it did when it was new. This can include repairs, painting, and replacing parts.
The Jaguar E-Type is a famous sports car from the 1960s that many people consider very beautiful. It was fast and stylish, making it a favorite among car enthusiasts.
American cars are cars made in the United States. They are often known for being bigger and having powerful engines, and they have a unique style that many people love.
The Ferrari 360 Challenge Stradale is a special version of a Ferrari sports car that is made for racing. It’s lighter and faster than regular models, making it a very exciting car to drive.
The Porsche 911 Turbo is a super-fast car that is part of the famous 911 family. It has a special engine that makes it go really fast and is loved by people who enjoy driving high-performance cars.
The Shelby Cobra is a classic sports car that mixes British style with American power. It’s known for being very fast and fun to drive, making it a favorite among car lovers.
A barn find is when someone finds an old car that has been stored away in a barn for a long time. These cars can be special and worth a lot if fixed up.
Restoring means fixing up an old car to make it look and work like it did when it was new. It can involve a lot of work to make everything right again.
The Mustang Cobra is a special version of the Ford Mustang that is designed for better performance and speed. It's like the sportier version of the regular Mustang.
Car
Tesla
Tesla is a company that makes electric cars. They are known for being very modern and using technology to make driving easier and more efficient.
The Ford Galaxy is a big family car that can fit a lot of people and their stuff. It’s designed to be comfortable and practical, making it a good choice for families.
LIVE
Well, happy New Year, everyone! Hey, it's Greg Stanley. I'm welcoming you to a new 2026.
I appreciate all of you being here with me. I know I just had a podcast come out on New
Year's Day. I apologize for not saying happy New Year's, but I had recorded it a little while earlier,
so, you know, I just don't always remember when these things are coming out. So,
this one I know is coming out just after the New Year, so hopefully all of you had a good
2025, and you're looking forward to a great 2026. Now, I will tell you, my 2025, if you follow me
online, my newsletter, travels at car shows, it probably seemed like quite a stellar year,
but it was a really, really rough year. If you don't know, a car specialist's job is really,
really difficult, and honestly, I got kicked in the gut a lot in 2025. So, if you're ever
hanging out with me at, you know, maybe at Cavalino at one of the restaurants or bars or
something, and ask me about it, I'll give you some fun little insights that were actually
kind of painful for 2025. So, I'm hoping 2026, I'm sure it will be a much better year,
and it's already started off great. As you know, based on last week's podcast episode,
I have the enthusiast guide to collect the cars coming out May 1st, and a lot of you have
already ordered the book. Thank you for that. As a reminder, it's not coming out till May
1st, but if you would like to explore possibly sponsoring the book or my podcast, just shoot
me a note, Greg at thecollectorcarpodcast.com. It's really cool. The book has, I think it's 55
really influential automotive experts from J. Leno to Supercar Blondie to Wayne Carini,
all sorts of folks participated by providing some insights for the book. So, it's going to get
really incredible distribution. At the back of the book, I'm going to have some full-page ads
that align with collector cars, classic cars, luxury brands and such. And as I talk about
sponsorship, let me go into some stats. I really haven't shared this on the podcast before, but
from a newsletter perspective, I have over 4,000 people subscribed to my newsletter in a 50%
open rate, which based on industry standards, it sounds like that is absolutely incredible. Most
of them are 8 to 10%, something like that. Now on the YouTube channel, almost 240,000 followers,
and what's really interesting about that, and I haven't quite figured out the math on it yet,
but if you look at 2025 in its entirety, I averaged about 30,000 downloads slash views.
But what's interesting, if you look at the last 10 episodes, that's up to 97,000 downloads
and views. So, I'm not quite sure why it more than tripled in the most recent 10 weeks,
but I'm happy to have it. And as always, I put the commercials early in the podcast episode to
make sure my sponsors are represented before people tune out. So, just some fun stats as it
relates to the podcast. And as always, thanks for watching, thanks for listening, and thanks for
reading, and let's move on to the episode. Imagine a journey so rare it only happened
once. That's the spirit behind once. Exclusive, one-time only adventures that will never
be repeated. Our next experience, American Muscle Legends takes you trackside with the most
iconic cars in history. Complimented by luxury accommodations and behind-the-scenes access
you simply can't buy. Spots are limited. When it's gone, it's gone. You can learn more at
discoveronce.com forward slash muscle. Well, welcome to the Eclectic Car Podcast,
and if you've listened to me for a while, or you're on my newsletter blast,
you'll know that I am a stickler for documentation of classic cars. And I have someone here that I
met at Amelia Island, and I just thought this would be a wonderful guest for the podcast.
So, I'd like to welcome Nick Hartnack. How are you doing, buddy?
Hi, Greg. Thank you very, very much for inviting me on. I really appreciate it.
Now, you have a British accent, so where are you right now?
Well, we are in rural Devon, which is southwest England. In fact,
given that Formula One's just happened, if anyone happens to be a Formula One fanatic,
Lando Norris comes from about 40 miles, just a little bit southeast of where we are. So,
we are this Cornwall Devon, Somerset, Bristol, Burr, and then the rest of the country. So,
we're in rural England, basically. That's where we are. So, you guys buddies?
Are you guys buddies? No, no, no. Do you know what? The only connection, there is a,
oh, God, you know, this is tenuous, and it's so tenuous, but he's the same age as my youngest
daughter. And the school he went to was a sports school called Millfield. And basically,
a couple of her classmates from, you know, kindergarten were very sporty, and they
went on to Millfield. So, they would have shared a class, but according to reports,
he wasn't very athletic. But, yeah, that's a tenuous, a slight connection. That's it. I'm
leaving that conversation alone now. Wow. Well, that's amazing. Well, I really
wanted you on the podcast, because you make a product, you have service for car collectors,
I thought was really, really cool. So, if you would, tell us a little bit about your
business, because it's not just the car aspect of it, because you do a lot of other stuff outside
of the car aspect, but how, you know, automobiles became a facet of your business, I guess. I'm
assuming you're a car guy, you know, but yeah, just go over what you do and how it started
and how it got into the car world. Okay, we, yes, I'm a car guy, have been,
well, they just fascinated me. I think it's just the shapes. Its cars have always
fascinated me. At school parties, I was the kid by the front door, looking to see
what child pitched up in what car. That's just been my thing. But nothing to do with how you go
into this. We got into it by mistake, really, not by mistake, but, you know, we just happened
to get into it in the sense that we were in, we were in the furniture business for a large
part of our lives. And then in the 2000s, we basically sold up our furniture business
because the model had changed, the internet had arrived and we were basically designers and wholesalers.
And we'd done well out of it. So we catched and chips and left the casino. And we didn't really
have anything to do. We were looking for things to get into. And our youngest daughter is one
of these ones, the first kids that did everything. And she was collecting all these
certificates and my wife wanted to keep them in one place. And what kind of certificates are you
talking about? Oh, they were just basically, she was very, she's everything that I basically
She can act. She's all of these things. And really, each time we got into a level of doing
something, we'd get a certificate. And there was one particular acting certificate she needed
to move on to the next stage of Shakespeare or whatever it was. So we could, we had to have
that, had the number on it and we could apply for the next, you know, the next exam. And my wife
was looking for the certificate in her room. She shouldn't have been there. She shouldn't
have kept them in there, but she did. And her room was just like a bomb site. And my wife
out of frustration said, Oh, this is Jackie said, Oh, we should have, I have a binder.
I can just, with her name on it, I can just keep everything in there and in life would be
so much easier. Anyway, she couldn't find a binder personalized binder one that she liked.
So she's very, she's very talented is my wife. And so she decided to make one. And
she told, she happened to be telling people, you know, at the school that she had done
there, we could, we'd like one of those as well. And then before we knew we were getting
requests for these certificate binders, achievement binders for children. And, and people who I
happened to make a, Oh, you're not in furniture. What are you doing? Well, Jackie's making
these personalized sort of bespoke binders. And before we knew we were sort of making
binders for all sorts of people. At the same time, I had been looking at cars. And
there was one particular car. I'd always wanted a 67 Mustang because that's,
that's the year of my birth. And I think it's one of the prettiest. And I was at a show and there
was a guy with this completely rebuilt, beautiful 67 Mustang. And, you know, he showed me his
documents and, and the album, you know, of the restoration. And I took one look at this file.
And I just, I mean, it was basically, you know, it was just a very bog standard supermarket file.
It had everything in there. And it had 67 Mustang written on the spine. And I just thought, no,
no, no, no, no, no, no, no. You cannot have this beautifully restored car. And all this
documentation and then just have a binder that looks so ordinary, you need something special,
need something nice. And then as I went around the show at the National Exhibition Center in
Birmingham, I was just struck by how you had all these wonderful, fantastic cars, all the car
clubs are there. And yet those people had a history, you had their histories there.
They were in these, you know, Walmart binders, basically. Nothing special. I just thought,
no, no, this is, you can't have anything as beautiful as what you've got. And then show
us your document, show us the history and the restoration and have a standard,
you know, photograph album and a standard binder. It's got to be as beautiful as the car.
So I just sort of made a thing a note in my head that one day, you know,
I never bought the Mustang, by the way, that one day, if I happen to, you know,
had the opportunity, I would make for somebody this bespoke binder. Anyway, met somebody and I
said, what you need is you need something special to put your paperwork in. And he went,
plus I do, but where do I get one? I said, we'll make one for you. And that's where
it started. And we, we first started with an Etsy shop, put the photographs on Etsy and then,
you know, slowly but surely along, I mean, you know, along with everything else you were selling,
you know, the pilot log books and everything else, we thought it to sort of make sort of
binders for people with with classic, not even classic cars, current cars. And what we do
is everything we make is bespoke. So there's nothing off the shelf. So people will say to
us, well, I wanted this color like this, this big, et cetera, et cetera. And we'd sort of,
and we'd, and that's what we'd make for people. And that's kind of how it started. So yeah.
Yeah. So you gave me a lot there. First off, when you think of bespoke binders,
I must say your prices are extremely reasonable. You know, I looked at a couple of them online
and we're talking custom and I might not even be getting, I just picked one or two
and it was like 300 bucks. I'm like, that seems very incredibly reasonable. And that was just one
of the ones I just happened to pick on because going back to the Mustang, I got to ask, because I'm
a Mustang guy, my first car was a 68 coupe. What color was the Mustang and was it a coupe convertible
or a fastback? Well, it was coupe. That's what I wanted. I thought it was fastback at least.
And it was white. Okay. Well, so I had a 66 dark green A code convertible four speed. I bought it from
the woman who bought it in 1967 when her dad bought it for her 16th birthday. And what was
fascinating about the car is that it was originally a fleet car for the Henry Ford
or the Dearborn. It was for the hospital. So surgeons had a fleet car program back in the day
where they would get a free car. And what was interesting is they actually had a repair shop
on site. And like you could get it at full service station, all that kind of stuff. A year later,
they had to use car light. And so she went there to get this used car one year old.
You know, it was amazing car. I had 17 options for a 66 Mustang convertible.
I should have never sold it. And so there was a red car, a red Mustang convertible. She said,
that's too flashy. That's not me. So she bought this dark green one. Well, I ended up, you know,
fast forward when I'm trying to buy a car. This is probably eight years ago or so.
I ended up buying it from her grandson. And there was so much cool stuff about the car.
And I was so into the car and into the documenting of the car. I took pictures of every
single body stamping date code and decoded it. And I put it in my binder. I took, I went to the
her retirement home. She was 87 years old. And I interviewed her and I took a picture of her.
And I put that in my binder and I did all this kind of stuff. So what you're offering,
Roly speaks to me now. The downside is, is nobody offered your services at the time.
It's not that I could find. So I went to office depot and I bought
a leather bound because I wanted it to be nice. Okay. Yeah. I bought a leather bound
Franklin planner. And that's one of the planners here for your monthly chores and all that kind
of stuff. Yeah. And I took out everything on the inside of it and I put it all together. And I
think I still have it because when I sold the car, I thought I put it in the trunk and I
never did. So I need to mail it to the current owner of the car because it's just so much
information and so cool. Oh yeah. You know, and when you have that kind of documentation,
you don't want to lose it. You want to present it in a way that it can be shared, right?
Absolutely. I mean, my, I mean, my sort of my, my spiel, if you like, or my passion is this,
yes, you have this beautiful car and, you know, the history inside it should,
you know, the history you have should be contained in something I feel that's bespoke
to something special. And the reason for that is that, you know, you might keep your history in,
you know, where you are now in your office or your den and what have you. And, you know,
you might turn to the right or to the left and you're able to look in that bookcase
and there is the binder or binders or whatever it is to that car. And you want to be able
to look at it and smile a bit and kind of go, yeah, that's, that's my car. So you want
to have a degree of joy in the fact that you have something, your history isn't something
that's special and bespoke to your car. But the other side of it is, and anyone says,
well, I'll never sell it. I'll never sell it. But let's say one day someone on your behalf
has to sell that car. And, and then it comes to that stage of the history comes out.
And the history is presented in these, in these binders boxes or whatever it is you
commissioned from us. And it's bespoke. It's, it's got the, it's got the,
it's got the Ford logo. It's got the Mustang logo. It's got the VIN number or the details
on the cover. It can that binder or box will only ever go with that car. It's not a generic
binder or box with Ford on it. It's bespoke to that car. And, you know, the new owner or the
perspective owner or perspective buyer at auction or wherever gets presented with this,
um, gets presented with these binders or boxes. What does that say about you? What does that say
about you, the past owner of that car? That just says, this person loved this car. This person,
this person was absolutely fanatical about paperwork so much so that they got a bespoke binder.
You know, the car looks beautiful. The paperwork looks beautiful. They clearly cherish
this car. So I think it makes a statement about the owner as much as anything else. So,
yeah, that's how I basically feel about these things. Probably.
It's crazy that I don't, I don't have a classic car. So, um, but if I did, that's how I'd feel about it.
Right. I totally agree. And I love the fact. So for those of you who are audio only,
I have some pictures on the YouTube channel here, but you know, you can get the binder in any
color, the same color as your car. I noticed some of them have racing stripes, you know,
like martini racy stripes, if it's a Porsche maybe, and it's truly bespoke. You have some of them that
have the outline of the 911 GT3 touring on the outside. I see a 308 Ferrari, which is very cool.
And there's a lot of different versions. You know, you can do a box set with three or four binders
depending on the needs of your car. I mean, it depends. You know, some of these guys
have these restoration photos that are just laying around in a drawer. And what better
way to share what a great job the restoration was done than by having those original restoration
pictures. So I can see in certain cases where you might need numerous binders to document,
you know, stuff like that. So, but kind of talk about some of the options here because
I've seen some, I've never seen a clamshell box before. That's pretty cool. And you can do
everything from different tabs, different colors. I'm assuming different, are they all, can you
get different exterior materials? Is it all leather? Is it something else?
Yeah. It's a what, I mean, a lot of it comes from our customers themselves. They say,
I want three binders or I want, or I want, I want two boxes where I'm going to keep
all the loose stuff. And then I do a concourse. So what I want is I want a thinner
screwpost binder where I can insert pages in and I can present. So a lot of what we,
what we make comes from them. I want a box. What do you suggest? I want a binder. What do you
suggest? Or, you know, what's it going to be used for? What's going to be stored inside it?
So a lot of the beginning work, although we essentially we made screwpost binders, ring
binders and boxes, the size and everything else pretty much and the colors are determined by
the customer. So particularly with cars, we'll get somebody who has, we'll send us a photograph
of their car and then we will send and they might have a preference for leather. And then what
we'll do is we'll send them out samples of the letters that come closest to the color of the
car. And then we'll take it from there. All, you know, in some of the ones that you mentioned,
the Ferraris and what have you see on our website. And a few others are Corvette as well.
I know you're a Corvette guy. And, and then what the owner says is that, look, taking that 67 Corvette
as an example. Adam Lovelace, you own the car, said it's a 67 Corvette and they're important
because the sixth, no, you have to correct me if I'm wrong, Greg, but the 67 Corvette,
if I'm not mistaken, had a particular air intake that none of the other Corvettes had,
or there was something particular about it. A couple things. They had the side vents that
were specific to 67, but they had the 67 Stinger hood scoop on the 427. Stinger hood scoop. Yeah,
Stinger hood scoop. Yeah. Yeah. And he wanted that. So on the Corvette one you see on our website,
he wanted those two items. He wanted the side vents represented and he wanted the Stinger
scoop. So what we do is we would then say, okay, you send us a photograph of the Stinger
scoop and then we redrew the scoop and then Jackie made through sort of using,
she cut a little window out of the side of the box and she made the vents on the side. So
a lot of the time, yeah, it comes from our customer. There's also a Ferrari on their Ferrari box set.
I can't see my sights. I'm going by memory. There's a Ferrari box set. I think the 50s Ferrari
and that has the Italian flag on the top of it. And there are certain elements you go,
right, okay, we get sent a picture of a car. What are we going to do on that binder,
particularly in the case of those Ferraris where the owner said, here are my cars.
Here's the pictures of them. Here's what I got to keep in them.
Make me something. And we go back and say, right, well, let's design, let's do a silhouette of
the car because it's distinctive shape. Let's add elements to, you know, of that particular
car to the boxes. So it often comes from the owner saying, I want something special.
What can you do? And then we sort of come up with ideas and they go, right, go for it.
And then before, you know, we're sort of withdrawing silhouette. There's anything
as the silhouette, the picture of the car, we draw a silhouette of it, we're finding badges and
we're withdrawing badges and what have you. So yeah, we kind of, you know, it's a little bit
like speed. If this becomes a question of money after a while, it's like, well, how far do
you really want us to go? It's like anything else. But we also do something. We also do,
we also do sort of, you know, we also do things that basically are the binders,
like something like this, which is a cover of a binder we did for something I think is out in
shot. And that's Italian vegetarian leather. And then they sent us the design. This was done
for a Pebble Beach concourse car, actually. Jeremy Jackson sent that Mr. Concourse.
This is one of his cars, and he wanted something to present to Pebble Beach.
He sent us the design, we blasted onto the cover, and it's our sort of, it's our starter,
it's our starter, our starter binder, but it did the job for Pebble Beach.
So yeah, it's kind of, it's kind of horses, horses for courses. It's,
we can do something very simple. We literally go to town, you know, we start to incorporate,
you know, we get car interiors sent to us. We did one car for a concourse, a BMW that was in
Simon Preve, and the owner had the original leather from the seats. How he got it, I don't know.
And we basically made, we made the binders out of the leather and what have you. We
replicated the chrome, the car and the two-tone. So yeah, it's tell us what you want and we'll
try our best to make it for you. Now that's great. And one thing I do want to call out here,
I did find the Corvette on your website, very, very cool. But one thing I also want to call out to,
I know I have a lot of restoration shops that listen to this podcast, and I love the
presentation box for vehicle restoration. So I thought that was really, really smart because,
you know, a lot of these restoration shops, the very high-end ones, you know, they're
dealing with, you know, the high-end clientele, right? And everything that happens is done on a
very high-end basis. So to have something like this where you can take, you know, maybe it's an
Aston Martin DB5, you know, and here's some color swatches. I mean, it's basically going
into like the fryer dealership and customizing your steering wheel in the special room with
the special leathers and all that kind of stuff. You can really set it up from a
presentation standpoint that really makes your client feel special. Obviously they're
paying for that somewhere within the restoration cost, but it still is cool. It really makes them
feel like that's that extra, extra step, extra level of, you know, detail that would probably
make them feel very comfortable throughout the restoration process, obviously. So those are
very cool. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And we have, and we do have restoration shops that, you know,
where the client has basically spent a fortune on the car. They want something,
they want to give a little present back to the, to the client. I'll, you know, place that they can
keep their, in fact, on our website, on the car page, there's a gray E-type, a gray E-type,
I say gray, I'm sorry, it's very un-technical color specification, a gray E-type red interior,
and that was a local restoration shop here in the UK, had just completely finished doing,
doing a P-type, and that was their gift to their client. Obviously that this one had made money,
sometimes they don't. And equally, it's just, yeah, it's just, it's the finishing,
it's the finishing touch, the restoration, it's just, here you go, this beautiful car,
and then you've got something beautiful to keep all the photographs, all the paper working as well.
Yeah, so true. Well, tell us, what is your website so our listeners can learn more about what you
offer here? Okay, well, the website's like the name, it's Hartnack and Company,
and we keep it www.HartnackandCode.com, and it's sectioned out. So, you know, you initially
hit the front page, you might have to sort of go down the middle, and then you'll find,
you'll find the car page. And equally, having said that, if you go up onto our gallery,
you'll see a gallery of past work, that in itself also sections out into, you know, cars, and,
and, you know, you might not want to see the restaurants we've done, or the hotels we've done
for, but, you know, you know, you can just click the card tab, and it'll sort of vehicles,
and it'll show you all the work you've done to vehicles. By all means, please
look at anything else, because you might be in another market where we can be making
something for you. But yeah, so cars has its own, has its own, its own page. And bear in mind that,
you know, we're kind of limited a little bit by your budget, or your, or your imagination,
the idea being that, you know, you want something a bit special. There's a third thing, and great,
you might, you know, it's concourses as well, we do, we're doing more and more concourse cars
as well. And, you know, you know, you know better than I do because you're a judge, but,
you know, it's when it comes to paperwork and what gets, and how the paperwork gets presented.
Apparently, so we're told, you know, you get, what you get from a company like ours
is something that's bespoke, and it just sort of adds, it kind of, you know, it's,
it's just adds to the extra, you know, presentation of paperwork, basically.
Glad you, yeah, I'm glad you brought up the other offerings because I was looking on your website
and you have everything from pilot logbooks to restaurants, to weddings, all sorts of cool stuff.
The one that really caught my eye, and maybe you can shed some, shed some light on this,
is the super yachts. And there's like 40 binders in one picture. I'm like,
what could you possibly have on a super yacht that you need 40 binders for, but don't,
don't give away any client secrets, but no, that was interesting.
Yeah, you know, they will, it's, it looks great on the bridge, basically, you've got everything.
They need logbooks, they're engineered, these bog books, every time they go into a port, it needs
to pay for work. And yeah, we do, we've just done one. And that was, I think, 60 boxes and binders.
And that included absolutely everything. So yeah, there's bridge work, there's engineering work,
there's interior work, but also we do things for, particularly for charter yachts, because of course
the cabins need, need binders that explain the yachts, there's menus as well. Yeah, I think,
essentially, you know, if you need something for spoke and property, we need to do quite a
lot of property, we still do quite a bit of property. And you want to, you know, you're a
developer and you want something that looks, you know, in your, whatever you're presenting to your
clients, and you want to bespoke binder or bespoke box, that's, that's what we do as well. So in
fact, probably cars are out of all the markets are cool. A third I'd say, probably what we do
for people. So yeah, yeah, it's just, yeah, restaurants, hotels, anything that's, you know,
anything that's out of the ordinary, basically happens behind me. And it's my wife. I should
also point out, my wife is a talent. It's definitely not me. I'm just a marketing guy.
She's, she's, she's a talent. It's not me. Well, I do want to, yeah, I do want to end on cars and
all the links will be in my, the description of this podcast, but I do want to end on cars. I'm
really curious. Let's end on a Mustang. Why the 1967 Mustang? Because you're in England,
obviously famous top gear presenter, Richard Hammons, also from England, and he also
loves 67 Mustang. So what is it about the 67 Mustang that you really like?
Okay. I don't know if you're the same, but every car guy must have a thing, a certain
thing about cars. And one of my things about cars is real lights. I've always had a real light thing.
And, um, yeah, 67 is the year of my birth. So I'm lucky in that regard. I think, um, the, the, it's
at that little bit bigger than the 66. It hasn't got a bit fatter than the sort of, the late
60s, 59, 17, although one of my first clubs was the Mac one. So, yeah. And then, but the 67
just, it's the shape. It just looked, there's the bullet car, but there's just, that's my thing.
That's always been my thing about cars, the shape. And that's, I've always had a thing
about American cars. When I was a kid, Hawaii 5.0 was a, was a, was a, was a program. And
although there was sort of, they weren't, they wouldn't say great 60s cars, there was
American cars. And I've always had a thing about American cars. So, yeah, it's, I think
my accent is Southern African as well as British, but I just feel America just made beautiful cars.
We did a binder once, uh, last year for a Florida resident and he had, he had a cool bit and he had
a 59 Cadillac. I think it was, and it was just that time of when America was, it's just
so expressive, so beautiful, just the fin, the everything else. America was just making
beautiful cars, beautiful cars. So, yeah, the 67, I think out of all the Mustangs is, it's just,
the shape of it's wonderful. And then the rear light cluster is, it's great. So, although I
wouldn't say no to a 68. So this picture, right, I'll put all over later. This picture right here
is my parents, 69 Mach 1, the day they bought it in 69. And then they, they sold it when
they had three kids. But I'll, I'll put that picture on a video here. But when did you first see a 67
Mustang? Do you remember that moment? Um, yep, I do. I grew up in, I grew up in what was
Radija. Although I was born here, I grew up in Radija. And, um, yeah, it was, it was green.
The dark green is not the technical name for it, I'm sure. And it was just beautiful. It was,
it was a fast back. And, and I fell in love. And yeah, it's just that shape is just fantastic.
Yeah. And I've yet to own one. I, stupidly, when I had the money, I bought a Ferrari 360. And then,
then I bought a Porsche 911 Turbo. And then I sold that. And the money went into other things.
And I've, I've yet to buy my American muscle car. It'll happen. It will happen. In fact,
the other car I really like, and that's the, the British side is I think the Cobra is, is,
is wonderful. I do, I just, the idea of taking a small British sports car and Americanizing it
is just, I do have a soft spot for Cobra. So yeah, that's my other thing.
For my other listeners that like Cobras, be sure to subscribe because in a few weeks,
I don't know quite yet when I interviewed, did a walking, talking interview with Lynn Park,
who has like nine real Cobras and a bunch of other Cobras. And he actually visited Shelby
in Venice, California, while he was building the Cobras since 63, 64. And he didn't buy his
first one till 69, but that was quite a, quite an interview. So I'll be coming up in a couple
weeks. And the other thing that's kind of sad is I did do a news blast a while ago where I chased
67. I don't know if it's called Dark Moss Green, Highland Green, Dark Green,
67 Mustang Fastback that I found when I was 12 years old at my grandmothers. And I went back
40 years later and I found the same car and it only deteriorated since then. And I'll
overlay a picture here of the two pictures from 1983 and 2023. And he says he's restoring it,
but I don't know that I'd buy that. So, you know, I do know where there is one,
but it's unfortunately not for sale right now, but maybe one day.
You know what's fascinating about something when you were talking about the car you had,
the Mustang you had, you know, it's, what would it have been like back in
nineteen, say sixty seven, it was a Mustang and you received that car. I was looking at your
podcast of the guy who had the car that only had daily delivery mileage on it.
The Mustang Cobra probably.
It was just, and it was just, that was what that car looked like when it came off the factory floor.
And you kind of think, if you were a new owner and you saw that, I mean it must have been,
it must have been love, surely. Absolutely fantastic. For my sins, I used to have a Tesla
because of the company car. And you just don't, how do you fall in love with a Tesla?
You can't. Right. You know, whereas some of the cars that show you were in Chicago,
they were just, oh God, they were beautiful. I mean, if you received that brand new,
oh, how could you not fall in love? Oh yeah, you're talking about that black
galaxy, I think. Yes, the black galaxy of the Ford. Yeah, Rick Schmidt. Exactly. Yeah, that was nice.
That's fantastic. But all the cars there, I mean, they all just looked absolutely stunning.
And there was shape, there was design, there was something about it. Whereas the modern car.
Yeah, doesn't get too excited. I appreciate you joining the Collector Car podcast. And
I'll definitely have to find you at one of these concor events over here. And I need to
join you over there one day. Please do. We have some, yeah, we have some great events.
So it might rain. So that's okay. That's brilliant. Thanks, buddy. Thank you very much. Cheers.
You
About this episode
Nick Hartnack joins Greg Stanley to discuss his unique business creating bespoke binders for car collectors. The conversation dives into the importance of documenting a car's history and how Hartnack's journey from furniture design to automotive documentation began. He shares insights on customizing binders to reflect the beauty of classic cars, including options for colors, materials, and designs that resonate with car owners. The episode also touches on the emotional connection between car enthusiasts and their vehicles, highlighting the significance of preserving their stories.
What happens to a car's story when the engine is off and the garage door is closed?
That question leads this conversation with Nick Hartnack, founder of Hartnack & Company, a business dedicated to preserving automotive history through beautifully crafted, bespoke binders for serious car collectors.
From concours-level Ferraris to family-owned classics, Nick has carved out a unique niche creating heirloom-quality archives that house ownership records, factory documentation, restoration photos, awards, and provenance—all presented with the same care and intention as the cars themselves.
We explore why documentation matters more than ever in today's collector-car market, how presentation can influence credibility and value, and why great cars deserve great storytelling off the road as much as on it. This conversation dives into craftsmanship, legacy, and the small details that separate good collections from truly great ones.
If you care about provenance, presentation, and preserving automotive history the right way, this one's for you.
Do you need help buying or selling your collector car? Contact Greg directly at [email protected], [email protected] or [email protected]. I know, that's a lot of emails but I answer them all...eventually:)
A special thank you to our new sponsor, Discover Once, curators of one-of-a-kind automotive adventures you'll never experience twice. Learn more at discoveronce.com/muscle.
And as always, huge thanks to RM Sotheby's for their continual support and for making so many of these automotive dreams possible.
Listen to the "Octane FM: Shift, Rev, Repeat" album on Spotify!
Stay connected with The Collector Car Podcast—find us on our Website, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, or reach out to Greg directly via email.
Join RM Sotheby's Car Specialist Greg Stanley as he brings over 25 years of experience and keen market analysis to the world of collector cars. Each week, Greg dives into market trends, interviews industry experts, and shares insights—with a little fun along the way. New episodes drop every Thursday and are available on Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Learn more at www.TheCollectorCarPodcast.com or email Greg at [email protected].
