404: Inside Helderburg Defenders with Founder Paul Potratz

All right, welcome to another week of the Collect a Car podcast. A lot of fun stuff happening.

Just came back from Scottsdale where there's some really cool sales going on. I will recap

some of those in next week's podcast. And where am I going to be next? Well, actually, I'm kind of

staying in the office here for a little bit. I believe my next trip will actually be to Cavalino

Classic down in Boca Raton. So if you're going to be down there, be sure to check me out. Look me

up. I will be judging Ferraris. So where am I off to next? Next, I'm off to Boca Raton,

Florida for Cavalino Classic. It's moved locations for at least one year. So I'm looking forward

to seeing what's going on there. And I will be judging Ferraris. So if you're headed to the

show, please find me on the show field. And I'd love to catch up in person. And this is an exciting

episode because it's not about collector cars. It's about high end sports utility vehicles. So

very, very cool. Whenever I have these episodes that are about Land Rovers or Range Rovers,

they seem to do very well because a lot of you really like these. So before we get to the podcast,

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muscle. All right, welcome to the collector car podcast. Hey, it's Greg Stanley as always

looking forward to covering some cool stuff here today because I haven't done, you know,

I do a lot of collector cars, but I haven't done anything around defenders recently. So I'm very

excited about this episode. So I'd like to welcome Paul Potratz. How you doing, buddy?

Good, good. Thanks, Greg. How are you, sir? I'm very good. And you are doing something really

interesting that I'd like to dig into here. So if you would tell us a little about what you do

now specifically around Helderberg defenders and, you know, we can dig into it a little bit.

All right, so I think the really what when people ask me what exactly are we, and I consider a

self more of us more of a design house. And so we do a low volume and we do it's really a design led

development of the classic Land Rover Defender. So they're all 25 years old plus.

But we take a totally different direction than probably anybody else has ever heard or any of the

other people that are in the market. Now, I love this because I'm assuming now correct me if I'm

wrong here, but the reason you chose the defender, I did look on your website a little bit, you have

a love from a young age for defenders. But I would imagine this also because it's such a iconic and

timeless design, almost ageless, I would imagine, right? It's exactly how I really describe it as

timeless. And it goes back really deep, because my father was really drawn to anything that was

British. So I grew up with everything British. I mean, everything from his three speed bicycle that

I would ride on the back in the very comfortable seat when I, you know, barely walk to the point

that his boots, his clothing, the car. So growing up in his shop, it was often that I would see

Jaguars and Aston Martins and Range Rovers. I mean, that's the life that I grew up in. And so I don't

know if that's what really caused it, but I just love the British design, the British personality,

and just the way the Brits really put things together. I mean, we won't get into the other

part of the Brits stuff that we maybe don't like, but that's the part that we fixed.

Right, right. Yeah. And I know it is such an iconic design and not to draw a direct parallel,

but you think about Singer and their Porsches, you know, they picked the generation of Porsches

that they could make, you know, I guess build on that iconic design and make it their own from a

design performance engineering perspective. And it seems like you're doing something similar. So

tell us what is a Helderberg Defender and kind of like, what do you start with? You know, and what

do you, you know, walk us through that process of taking, you know, maybe the donor, you know,

sport ute and then what do you do to it to make it a Helderberg Defender? Right. Exactly. And I mean,

and that is a good way. I mean, a lot of our clients also own singers and they also add a

Helderberg or multiple Helderbergs, because it seems like they just can't invest in one.

But and that's the direction that we have taken. So we do start with, they have to be 25 years

older, older to be able to come into the country legally. That's the first point. But we're very

specific in the donors that we find. So we only work with original left hand drive. And a lot of

people think as a defender as a right hand drive. And that was the vast majority of the ones being

built. So I'm sourcing them from Italy, Poland, France, Germany, countries that are original

left hand drive. And I guess you could say that it's getting harder and harder to source those,

because they simply didn't make as many left hand drives as they did right hand drive.

So we source that, we bring that to our shop. Our shop is in fact in England. I mean, we went

there a number of years ago, because I used to build them stateside. And it just simply didn't

make sense for a number of different reasons. One, I was having to ship all the parts over,

because I spent a lot of time in England. And that's where I went, you know, my past life,

my past career, because cars were my stress relief, my hobby. But I would go there a lot and work with

craftsmen and design everything from cylinder heads to intercoolers to door hinges to exhaust

systems. I mean, the list goes on. And so I'm shipping all those parts over to build the trucks.

And then finding the guys that to put them together while they were good, they weren't great,

because they were used to Ford and Chevy and, you know, American cars. And a Defender is much,

much different. It's much more difficult, much more time consuming, because it has so many more parts.

And so I ended up moving operations over to England, because my best friend has a property

there. We built a shop 28,000 square feet and was fortunate that Land Rover, you know, when it was

bought by Tata Motors, they moved they moved defenders to Slovakia and left some displaced

workers, which gave us the opportunity to hire these craftsmen. That's what they grew up with.

That's what they've known. And even our painter came from Formula One Red Bull UK. So it was,

it just seemed like all the stars aligned for us to build there. But when we first started out,

I mean, we were doing the typical build process years ago, meaning that we were buying parts off

of the shelf. And we just kept on progressing and saying, all right, we need to mill this part,

or we need to find a shop that was supplying some type of a performance part for some type of

manufacture. And piece by piece, I mean, we've redone everything from body panels to cylinder heads,

exhaust system, suspension system, steering systems. And it makes it, we keep that iconic,

and also that collectible, collectible value. And but we keep the really the soul to it also.

So it's like a fine line. And that's what a Helderberg is. It's just a very refined classic

Land Rover that is still numbers matching and is brought right to the line of where it could

be considered a Resto mod, but it's not. Okay, no, that's great. Now, I haven't asked this yet,

but where does the name come from? The name simple enough. My previous life, I like to share my hobbies

and but I didn't want to share the hobbies where my employees would see it because they would want

to raise and I didn't want my clients to see it because they'd feel like they were paying me too

much. So I came up with the name and the name just seemed to resonate because I didn't want to use

my last name portraits. And so that was my alias social media profile to share, you know, everything

that I'm passionate about. So that's how it started. And I was never intending to start offering

my toys, my, you know, more or less on a mass market. But when COVID happened, it just something

magical happened. I mean, I, you know, I wasn't going to the office anymore as no one else was.

And I did a cross country road trip in one of one of my builds. And a friend of mine said,

you should really do this. You're more passionate about this than anything else I've seen. And I've

known you for 40 years. And that's how it really all started. And that's amazing. So how many

personal builds did you do before you explored it as a business?

I don't know an exact number, but I would say probably in the mid 40s. Oh my goodness. Wow.

Okay. And but the personal builds, I mean, the vast majority of those were was the classic

Land Rovers, but I was also doing classic Porsches, Alfa Romeo's. And so there's some of those design

elements that we did and really not design, but the performance elements that we did for,

you know, these really outlandish, no red line Porsches that we built. And it took some of those

elements and built them into the defenders. But yeah, I would say at least 35 of them were defenders.

And it was basically like a really bad addiction. And it's even worse now.

Well, at least you're making it into business now. So, you know, you can indulge. Hey, it's my

business, you know, well, that's the way I justified it to the wife. I mean, my wife always

laughs. Anytime I would go to get something, I'd always tell her how it was going to be an

investment. And she's like, all right, whatever. Well, I love everything you're doing with these

because I'm pulling up the Nixon commission right now. And this is absolutely stunning. Now, it

looks like you do offer, it comes with what a 3.5 diesel, but you do have a V8 conversion. Is that

right? In reality, in truth, yes, I offer the opportunity to talk to individuals about the

V8 conversion. But the chances of me taking a commission on like that is pretty slim because

I feel it's just silly. And for a number of different reasons. And but it allows me the

opportunity to educate someone and explain why the diesel is a superior engine. And I mean,

with the diesels, I have three different levels. I have their original 300 TDI 2.5 liter,

which way in Rover did. And then we have the 300 TDI 2.8 liter, which has our own custom

internals, where we've done crankshafts, we've done connecting rods and everything else that

takes it to a completely different level. And then we have what is we base it off of a turbo

diesel, which is a TD five five cylinder. And then that one has our own computer, our tuning,

our internals, everything on it is our exclusive design that makes all of these very drivable.

But you don't in all of those power plants were engineered for the defender. So you're not giving

up anything, you're just completely gaining everything. Because a lot of individuals, you

know, if you watch videos, you'll hear how they're underpowered and they're slow when it comes to

defenders. But that was by design, because they were built as farm trucks. So the whole idea was

to be able to put your calf in the back and haul it across the field, whether you're in whales or

whatever it was a work truck. So it was built exclusively for torque, not speed. But Range Rover,

which was known as the family vehicle, had the same exact engine. But the defender engine was

detuned. And the Range Rover was not so different purpose. And I think it really comes to the

difference. Do you want a mountain bike or a road bike if you do the same comparison?

And it's so that's what we've done is we've completely retuned everything from the engine,

the transmission, the transfer case, the front and rear differentials, all of that.

Wow, that's incredible. Yeah. And I know that, you know, once you experience a diesel the way

it's meant to be experienced, you really want to stay with that powertrain, correct?

Yeah. And the beauty of the diesel too, it's not like a modern day diesel where you have to use

the death fluid, the diesel exhaust fluid that you have to add. And you don't have any of those

inconveniences. Hence it's 25 years old plus. But you have all the modern elements, you know,

power. So you've got the torque, you've got the horsepower, you've got the drivability.

And with the diesel, you're getting 28 to 32 miles per gallon versus the V8, you get 8 to 10

miles per gallon. The diesel runs cooler, the gasoline runs hotter, and you feel the heat in

the cabin on the gasoline, you don't on the diesel. But I really look at it, do you want,

you know, a real Patek Philippe? Or do you want a fake replica Patek Philippe? And whenever you

put the, you know, a V8, a GM V8 in there, it's not real anymore. And I think a lot of individuals

don't understand that, but I grew up in that culture. And I remember my dad got a 911S. It was a

1969 911S. And it was all original. And that was one of my vehicles. I mean, it was a basket case.

And of course, what did I do? Whatever other teenager would do, I pulled the engine out

and went to the larger, the 3.2 liter. If I would have left that all original, that vehicle

will be worth a quarter of a million versus being worth 70,000. And people just don't seem to understand

that. But not just a collector value, but it's just what it was engineered for. And as my dad

always told me too, that, you know, I would always want to put bigger, bigger, bigger,

bigger into everything. And he said, well, anytime you go for the performance like that,

now you're creating something you're having to work on all the time. It's not going to be reliable.

Right. That's the truth. Yeah. Even though people think GM V8, oh, that's reliable. Well, no, it's not.

Well, I must say, I'm looking at some of your past bills and they're absolutely fantastic.

They're unbelievable. And it's so many different configurations, you know, four door, two door,

you got the truck bed, you've got the exterior outside roll cage. Walk me through the commission

process. So if someone would like to learn more, the description or the podcast link will be in

the description. But yeah, walk us through the commission process for one of these bills.

Yep. So what we do is we, we are, I guess you could say for lack of a better word, we limit the

production. So we do an interview process. First, we talk to the individual and we see

how are they going to use it? How, you know, how long do they plan on using it? How long do they

normally keep their vehicles? And as we go through that process, we decide, are they a good fit for

us or not? And then what are they do, you know, what do they want with it? So if they start asking

questions, can I get a push button start? Can I get retracting running boards? Can I get,

can I get, can I get the take or can I get a body kit? If they start asking those questions,

then I know purely they're not for us. Right. And there's plenty of builders out there that will do

that. And you know, I'm a big believer and just because we can do things doesn't mean we should,

that we should have restraint when we're doing a design. So it really starts with a conversation.

I want everyone to be a one of one. And as you look on the website, I think you can clearly see

that, that every build is unique. And that's what Helderberg's known for is a one of one commission.

And we talk through it and I work with them on design, whether they come here to, you know, one

of my properties, or we do it over the phone. But we talk about, you know, how many individuals are

in their family, how are they going to drive, what type of road trips, what type of, what appeals to

them, stylized colors. So we make it specifically unique for them, one of one. And then we start

with a 50% deposit that that holds in their build slot. And then we start, we'll start that process,

but it goes all the way down to just a bare frame. And then we build it back piece by piece. So

there's nothing that has not been touched in one of our builds. And the materials that go into our

builds, I mean, our, our leather, for example, comes directly from, directly from Scotland,

and it's tanned to order. So we're not pulling a bolt of leather off the shelf. They look at

various leathers, I've got, you know, a lot of different, you know, patina leathers and marbled

leathers and all kinds of stuff. So we order the leather, the Alcantara suede on the roof is from

Italy. So that's all that's done to order to the steering wheel is handmade. But it's made to the

thickness of whatever their glove size is. So it's the proper thickness. The seat frame is made

specifically to them, we have different designs. But it's so we get measurements to make sure that

it fits their, you know, their hamstrings, their torso, their shoulder blades, the center consoles

made specifically to them, the pedals are adjusted, the, the length of the shift rod, or if it's an

automatic transmission. So everything is done specific to the individual. And as we go through

the build process, we, you know, invite them to come visit our shop in England. So we're about an

hour and a half out northwest of London. And they just become part of the process. We don't

really talk about timelines, because this type of process really cannot be rushed. But generally,

it is a little over a year to as long as two years. Definitely, we've done some really unique

builds where we've got some really interesting interiors that's gone in that were private

builds that the client didn't want us to share it. That took three years. And yeah, so it can take

some time. And, and then it just starts to come together. And then it's completed. And then it

comes to, you know, generally, it comes to where I'm at in the Ozarks, or because I don't spend as

much time in New York, because it's too cold there. And I spend time with it. And I drive it,

I photograph it. And then the audio all gets installed here. Now, I notice there's quite

a array of colors that have you've had in the past. Have you ever said no to a color?

Absolutely. Yes. And it wasn't that I said no to a color, it was that I said no to a lack of a color.

Mm hmm. So I had an, I've had a couple individuals come to us and say, I want you to paint it raptor.

And I'm like, raptor, are you talking about linex, the finish that's in the back of a pickup truck,

so it doesn't get scratched? And he's like, yes, that's what I want. And I was like, we can't do

that. Yeah, because I am all about color. I mean, if anybody looks at the vehicles that I've had in

the past or the way I dress, it's all about color. And that's my in our colors. A lot of them are

custom mixed, actually the vast majority of them. And they're one of one. And we have generally not

always 100% one on one, but the client has the opportunity after the bespoke color that we'll

remove it from our list and we won't recreate it again. But I love color. I mean, I always wanted

to be a fashion designer when I was a young man. And it was all about color and patterns. And it's

the same thing on the interiors, too. Well, I was going to say, I can definitely tell that on the

interiors, because the leatherwork and on the interiors and the different types of, you know,

quilted leather, I don't know how you would say it, but or diamond cut leather, I mean, it's just

gorgeous in a lot of different colors in there. It looks like everything's covered in leather,

the dash and everything. It is. I'm not a fan of plastic. I talk about that in my videos. So

don't like plastic, like to have it covered up. And I like to cover it with a foam and then a

leather. And then we, of course, do the different quilted patterns, the quilted patterns, we can

do all different types of custom designs. And then we do the embroidery. So if someone has, for

example, let's say a dog that was their favorite dog or existing dog, we can embroider that into

the seat. And then, of course, you'll, in some of the trucks in the back, you'll see that we do

mahogany wood where we've reclaimed wood from a criss-craft boat and put mahogany wood in the

back in the cargo area. And then we do like an ambiance, a mood, lighting, LED lighting through

the cabin. But and the thing is, when you're looking at a Hildeberg from the outside, they all

are uniquely done. If you can see the consistency in every single design, an underlying consistency,

short of a body style, whether it has a roll cage or not, but it's known as the Hildeberg stance.

And that's a, the development process that we do with the chassis to be able to get that. And then

the axles and everything else. But I keep that core element. But after that, the sky is the limit

in what I want to do. So, because I, you know, clients do expect it to have that Hildeberg unique

look when it's sitting in the parking lot. And I hear this a lot of times on social media, they're

like, oh, I could tell exactly that was a Hildeberg. Yeah, absolutely. I can definitely see that. It

definitely is a, call it a signature style. I mean, the stance, because you can see it from a mile away,

very, very nice. And I love how you have different patterns in the seats. It's not just one size fits

all is purely customized for sure. Now, who gets to name the commission? Generally, I do.

But I always, you know, I offer it to the client, but a lot of times they want me to name it.

I'm a big poetry and history buff. So when I'm, and not only do I love to read poetry,

but I love to write poetry and I love to write. So generally, when I'm driving one of the vehicles,

a name comes to me and the name could have been the previous owner or the previous owner's dog

or a location where they lived or something in poetry. And then some of the names are purely

client driven. And so it's kind of a combination of the two. But yeah, each one has a unique name.

But I always say too, each one has a unique personality. And if somebody's not, either they

get it or they don't, they don't have to be a car person. But I think it's just, it's really,

it's either a get it or don't type of thing that each race unique and different. And I think that's,

you know, one of the things when we were building the Hildebergs that the clients are taking such

an active role. And with the process that we go through to make sure that it is the right fit for

the right client, that there simply is none on the secondary market. So it's just creating this

increased desirability to the point now that there's other builders and there's people that are

listing their trucks for sale and they're calling it a Hildeberg when it's clearly not. So we do a

lot of things, everything from the headlights to the trim on the ring, the rings of the lights

that has engraving on it to show that it's authentically a Hildeberg. Because I mean,

I mean, our prices went from not that much to where they are to this point. And anytime you

start doing that and there's the desirability, then of course, you'd have people wanting to

copy it. And we're seeing a lot of that right now. So yeah, absolutely. Stay busy.

Yeah. So you brought up a couple of things there. First off, what is the average price

point? I know it varies widely based on, I don't know about widely, but obviously based on, you

know, configuration, what's the approximate price point? Yeah. So generally, we started around

around $338,000 and this is general price. But anywhere from $338,000 to about $478,000 and then

configurations, additional configurations can drive it as high as $600,000.

Well, and it's really important what you just said because I won't say where, I won't say who,

I won't say why I went or how, but I was at a concor event and I go to a lot of those all across

the country and I saw someone selling, you know, kind of like a knockoff and it was a big price

point and the quality, it looked good from, you know, 20 feet, but all you had to do was just,

you know, take two seconds to look around and I just could not believe that that price point was

there considering what I was looking at, you know, and they're trying to pass it off as

something of this level when it clearly was not. So you really need to, you know, do your homework

and obviously go with a brand that's proven, you know, and that has the history like yours does.

And I really love, I'm just looking at some of the pictures here, the Marshall speaker,

you know, how often have you seen a Marshall speaker in any car like this or SUV, it's just,

that's a nice touch. Yeah, and it's fun doing those things like that and, you know,

our, what we have been doing now for the last, about last year right now, we work directly

with Focal, which Focal is known to be very high-end audio out of France and we needed a very

specific speaker combo that they make exclusively for us and that's where the clients, when they're

really doing their homework and researching and they start to dig in, they're like, oh wow,

this is, you know, exclusive to a Helderberg and we did even the same thing. So high-fidelity

audio is really important to me because I'm an audio buff, but even our amplifiers too are

handmade in Italy and then the audio system is tuned specifically to the cabin of the vehicle,

whether it's a two-door, four-door, soft top, whatever it may be, but it's all those little

touches and elements that make it complete and especially with the clients because we did one

recently called our equestrian edition, which meant we had to go out and find someone that

knows how to engrave, like a fine engraver that they can engrave a watch, you know, the mechanisms

of a watch or a gun, a shotgun or something like that, but it's, that's what keeps it exciting,

that it never gets stale and it's not like an assembly line either. Yeah, and I love the

steering wheel. The steering wheel is actually, it reminds me of the old Jag steering wheels,

you know, back in the 50s, just the quality, just that, you know, rich wood just absolutely looks

amazing. Now, why do you think vehicles like to Defender resonate so much with so many enthusiasts

for so many years? I think there's a few different factors and I think the one thing how our culture

has shifted away from coupes and sports cars and we're much more of an SUV society now and

so I think that's the one thing, being that it's an SUV, that's why people like it, but I think

the deeper meaning of why a Defender really resonates with everyone and that's what we talk

about. This is a lifestyle, we're not doing performance specs, we're building a lifestyle,

but I think part of it is we grew up watching, watching like National Geographic and Mutual

of Omaha and we would see a Land Rover in the wild and subconsciously I think with that Land Rover

that it evokes a sense of adventure and the more that we're being involved with AI and we don't

know what's real and what's not and driving a vehicle that we have to be careful that we

stay in the lanes, otherwise it's pestering us and I think that people just want that

analog experience and the sense of adventure even if they're just driving to the store that

it allows them to kind of escape from all the noise for a few minutes and I think that's why

it's made it so so popular and then just the utilitarian because you see a lot of individuals

now too that you know workwear clothing is really popular to have that more of that utilitarian

rugged look and the Defender fits so many aspects of it from utilitarian to feeling like you're in

an adventure and then ultimately that I think a lot of us are fighting to have that individuality

and who we are and how we look and how we appear and we just simply don't want a mass produced

vehicle that you can go to a dealership and anybody can buy that we want that individuality

and it's just timeless. I tell you what I can definitely tell the individual aspect of your

custom builds here when looking through the interior and one one interior really surprised me

in that it is cloth so tell me about that build. Harris Tweed so again where I'm just you know

love everything British and anytime I can pull something in that is authentically whether it's

British Scottish you know that's what I'm doing so client I met the client and he had a blazer on

and instantly I spotted and I was like oh you have a black watch Harris Tweed and he's like oh yeah

you know your fabrics and I was like of course I do and I was like why don't we do a Harris Tweed

interior we won't do black watch because it'd be too dark instead we'll do much more of a British

pattern that is looks much like a gentleman would wear if he is going out on a you know a shoot on

a drive and meaning pheasant hunting and he's like oh I love that idea can you do that and I was

like absolutely we can do that so we did the Harris Tweed and then I did an interesting

combo with the leather too and the leather that's in there is the same color as the leather that

they use on a shotgun case for a Holland and Holland. Oh wow wow that's very cool just stunning

just flipping through the pictures just absolutely stunning work you're doing there

now as I close I have two more questions one car related one not but is there a cool car in your

garage that is kind of like an enthusiast type car? Yeah I would say so there's probably a few

actually. What's the one that gets driven the most? The one I drive the most though really

is definitely my the name of its dragon which is it's a 130 which is a pickup truck

and it's in a very vibrant deep golden it's like a gold it's a it is a gold it's gold I drive that

the most and for the simple reason that I have a bad habit of sometimes getting on the phone not

paying attention and running over curbs or doing something like that so I don't drive my sports cars

as much anymore and just for the simple fact that if I run over a curb or a shopping cart it's not

a big deal in my 130 pickup truck because it's an absolute beast and honestly I do love seeing

everyone's smile because when I pull up people just come right to me and start asking questions

and I always love how polite they are and they always say do you mind if I take a picture

and then I'm always saying you want to sit in it let me take your picture so that's my favorite I

would say it's the 130 pickup truck okay you mentioned sports cars can you share one maybe a

Porsche that is in your garage I'm assuming there's a Porsche there somewhere oh yeah definitely so

yeah there definitely is my 1972 Porsche that I did it was a complete rust bucket so it's primarily

carbon fiber but it looks all original because it doesn't have the you know no body kits nothing

so it's a narrow body long hood of course and I did it in leaf green because leaf green was a color

that they offered Porsche did in 1972 however no one chose leaf green as a color they didn't feel

it was fitting for a Porsche but Mercedes had leaf green as a color and so did Jaguar and that was

their popular color on those two cars but it wasn't for a Porsche and I just love leaf green and I

just feel like at the time was color and of course my interior is custom that we did so yeah

and it's that's one that I drive in the rallies okay turns heads oh I bet I bet it does well

actually I I didn't realize this but I do have another question for you before I get to the

non-car one tell us about the events that you do I notice that you are all over the place with some

in-person events but then you also have an opportunity for an event to maybe come to a

business event I don't know tell me a little bit about that yeah so we do a number of events so

our clients it's it's interesting that are well and that's one of the reasons for the selection

process with individuals is you know I'm it's interesting that they're always like-minded

almost almost always but they are like-minded we have the same interests the same passions and

they're very passionate about the vehicle it becomes a family member so what we do is we go to

different clients homes because as you can imagine they have very nice homes and we'll go to the home

and their their Helderberg will be on display and I generally take two more and then it's a private

invite so it's by invitation only that individuals can come out and see see the various Helderbergs

so those are the events that we do all over the country and then we also do events where we go to

car clubs where all these car clubs are popping up all across the country but it's a club where

individuals can store their their vehicle but it's also a social club where people go there and

they have dinner and lunch and smoke cigars and watch football games so we go to those type of

events so again it's all like-minded and so we have those elements and then of course we go to

events that are about wildlife conservation and so that's kind of our events but I love getting out

because I mean I just love meeting all the individuals and so we do quite a bit so in

coming up we actually you know we have a number of different cities that we're going to be in

yeah that's incredible that's really great and the link to all of this will be in the

description of the podcast but tell us what is your website website is helderberg.com and a lot

of end of it it's kind of sometimes it's hard to spell but it's h-e-l-d-e-r-b-u-r-g.com that's

awesome well my last question is is tell me about the two dogs behind you I believe it's two dogs

oh yeah Lucy loves to sleep in the chair that's the princess so she's in a lot of the videos with me

and then Leo back here he's rarely in the videos he's getting too old he can't jump in and out of

the trucks but they're my Italian mastids how fitting now Lucy looked up when you said her name

or she did she thinks we're going for a ride now well that's awesome all right before I close is

there anything else you would like to mention anything cool happening in your world that is

either related to or not related to uh sport youths yeah I think the biggest thing is we I just wrote

a book because one of the things that I always have clients telling me when after they get the

heldenberg is how it's changed their life and the sense that they're able to put their phone down

they're able to go for a drive and they just have conversation with their spouse now so it's a much

more it's a grounding experience to them that they really enjoy to kind of stop the hustle and

that was really why I decided to launch the company and share it because that experience

that I've had where I've done trips with my wife and it meant more than anything else so

it really came down to a philosophy and therefore I wrote a book that's on amazon now and it's called

the gentleman's guide to an intentional life which is it's it's essentially it's a modern

philosophy at meaning ritual and a well-made life wow that's awesome how long has the book been out

now came out yesterday actually so I just came out here not long and uh so yeah and I just kind of

felt like it was time I mean because this was a a book that I started to write about five years ago

so I pulled all my journals and sent my journals out to uh the gal that works with me and I said

can you transcribe this and she said yeah so three months later she had it transcribed because uh I

loved to write in a fountain pen and that's how I wrote the book was in a fountain pen well

congratulations I know that writing a book is a big undertaking and uh to actually get it out there

for people to enjoy is a really big step um most of the folks who listen to my podcast know I have

a book coming out in April called the enthusiast guide to collect your cars so I've been on a

similar journey different subject but similar journey so I can really appreciate what you've

gone through and uh getting that out there yeah it was a relief it definitely was and I

I think I've actually inspired a couple clients that they're saying they're going to write a book

now so I'm going to keep on pushing them to be able to do that that's awesome and I'll put the

link to the book on Amazon in the description as well so Paul again thank you for being on the

you

404: Inside Helderburg Defenders with Founder Paul Potratz

About this episode

Land Rover

Land Range Rovers

collector car

Land Defenders

Land Rover Defender

classic car

Jaguar

Singer

left hand drive

right hand drive

cylinder heads

intercoolers

Tata Motors

performance part

suspension system

exhaust system

collectible value

numbers matching

restomod

Alfa Romeo

3.5 diesel

V8 conversion

300 TDI

turbo diesel

diesel powertrain

diesel exhaust fluid

V8

Porsche 911

collector value

Hildeberg stance

Focal

amplifiers

leaf green

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