Classic Auto Mall - #075 - Stewart Howden with Steve Saffier
Annotations will appear as you listen
0:00
57:52
Car
Toyota Tundra
The Toyota Tundra is a big truck that can carry heavy loads and drive on rough roads. People like it because it's tough and has a lot of room inside for passengers and gear.
Concept
Electricville
Electricville is a place where you can see and learn about electric cars. It's part of events that show how cars can run on electricity instead of gasoline.
Car
Ford Mustang
The Ford Mustang from 1965 is a classic American car that many people love. It's known for being fast and stylish, and it helped start a whole category of cars called 'pony cars' that are sporty and affordable.
Car
Chevrolet Corvette
The Chevrolet Corvette is a famous sports car that is known for being very fast and having a cool design. It's a symbol of American car culture and has been around for many decades.
Term
PPI
A PPI is a check done on a car before you buy it to make sure everything is working well. It's like a health check for the car to find any problems.
Concept
auction format
An auction is a way to sell cars where people place bids, and the highest bidder wins. It can be a fun way to buy a car, but you need to know what you're doing to get a good price.
Term
bidding
Bidding is when people say how much they are willing to pay for a car at an auction. The person who offers the most money gets to buy the car.
Term
original motor
The 'original motor' is the engine that came with the car when it was new. If a car has its original engine, it can be worth more to collectors because it's more authentic.
Term
high horsepower
High horsepower means the car has a powerful engine, which allows it to go fast. These cars can be tricky to drive because they respond quickly to the driver's actions.
Car
Nissan 350Z
The Nissan 350Z is a sports car that people enjoy driving because it is fast and fun. It has a powerful engine and is designed for performance.
Term
infrared temperature gauge
An infrared temperature gauge is a device that measures how hot something is without touching it. It helps you see if parts of a car are too hot or cold, which can be important for checking if everything is working right.
Term
paint gauge
A paint gauge is a tool that checks how thick the paint is on a car. It helps you find out if the car has been repainted or if there are any problems underneath the paint.
Car
Lamborghini
Lamborghini is a famous car brand that makes very fast and expensive sports cars. They are known for their unique shapes and powerful engines, making them popular among car enthusiasts.
Car
Lamborghini Couture
The Lamborghini Couture is a luxury sports car known for its stylish design and powerful performance, typical of the Lamborghini brand.
Part
Chevy V8
A Chevy V8 is a powerful engine made by Chevrolet that has eight cylinders, providing strong performance and acceleration in cars and trucks.
Concept
Formula One
Formula One is a type of car racing that involves very fast cars racing on special tracks. It's known for having really advanced technology and exciting races.
Concept
Indy car
Indy car is a type of race car that competes in a series of races, including the famous Indianapolis 500. These cars are built to go really fast on special tracks.
Car
Pontiac Chieftain
The Pontiac Chieftain is an old car made by the Pontiac brand. It was popular in the 1950s and is known for its unique look and good driving experience.
Car
Chevrolet Bel Air
The Chevrolet Bel Air is a famous car from the 1950s and 60s that many people recognize for its classic look. It's a popular choice for car enthusiasts and collectors.
Term
Strato Flight automatic
Strato Flight automatic is a name for a specific kind of automatic transmission that helps cars change gears smoothly without the driver needing to do anything. It's known for being reliable and was used in some older cars.
Concept
parts car
A 'parts car' is a car that doesn't work well or at all, and is sold mainly for the pieces inside it. Other people can use those parts to fix their own cars.
Concept
barn find
A 'barn find' is a car that someone has kept hidden away for a long time, usually in a barn or garage. People often find these cars and restore them because they can be special or rare.
Car
Chevrolet El Camino
The Chevrolet El Camino is a car that has a truck bed in the back, making it useful for carrying things. It's a classic vehicle that many people find interesting.
Car
Cobra
The Shelby Cobra is a classic sports car that is very fast and powerful. It was made in the 1960s and is highly sought after by car fans.
Car
Chevrolet Camaro
The Chevrolet Camaro is a sporty car that looks cool and goes really fast. It's been around for a long time and is loved by many people who enjoy driving.
Term
Tampa Blue Metallic
Tampa Blue Metallic is a special paint color for cars that isn't usually available from the factory. It makes the car stand out more.
Term
crate 350
A crate 350 is a type of engine that you can buy and install in a car. It's a popular choice because it's powerful and reliable, making it great for custom cars.
Concept
restomod
Restomod means taking an old car and fixing it up with new parts to make it better while keeping its classic look. It's a way to enjoy the style of older cars with modern technology.
Car
Ford Mustang II
The Ford Mustang II is a version of the Mustang that was made in the 1970s. It was smaller and aimed at being more fuel-efficient during a time when gas prices were high.
Car
Chevrolet Standard Coupe
The Chevrolet Standard Coupe is a car model from 1930. It's recognized for its classic look and is popular among collectors because of its historical value.
Concept
restoration
Restoration means fixing up an old car to make it look and work like new again. This can include painting, repairing parts, and cleaning it up.
Term
inline six
An inline six is a type of engine that has six cylinders lined up in a row. This design helps the engine run smoothly and is often found in older cars.
Car
Ferrari F40
The Ferrari F40 is a really fast and fancy car that was made a long time ago. It's famous for being one of the best sports cars ever and is loved by car fans.
Car
Plymouth Barracuda
The 1969 Plymouth Barracuda Fastback is a classic car that looks sporty and has a powerful engine. It's well-known among car enthusiasts for its unique design.
Car
Pontiac Gto
The 1970 Pontiac GTO is a classic car that is famous for being fast and stylish. It's a popular choice among people who love muscle cars.
Car
Bugatti Chiron
The Bugatti Chiron is a super fast and very expensive car. The Profili version is a special model that sold for a lot of money, making it the most expensive new car ever sold.
Car
GMC Typhoon
The GMC Typhoon is a fast SUV that was made in the 1990s. It's special because it can go as fast as some sports cars, which is unusual for an SUV.
Car
Chevrolet Blazer
The Chevrolet Blazer is an SUV, which means it's a big car that can carry a lot of people and stuff. It's known for being tough and good for different kinds of driving.
Car
Gmc Jimmy
The GMC Jimmy is a small SUV that can carry a lot of people and stuff. The three-door version is a bit different because it has only three doors, making it unique.
Car
Porsche 928
The Porsche 928 is a fancy sports car that was made a long time ago. It's known for being fast and comfortable, which makes it special compared to other cars.
Car
BMW Z8 Bmw
Car
Alpina Z8
The Alpina Z8 is a special version of a BMW sports car that has been made even better. It's a fancy car that many people want because it's fast and luxurious.
Car
BMW Z4
The BMW Z4 is a stylish sports car that can be driven with the top down. It's known for being fun to drive and looks really nice.
Car
Dodge Charger
The Dodge Charger is a big car that looks tough and can go really fast. It's been around for many years and is popular among people who like powerful cars.
Car
Chevrolet Nova
The Chevrolet Nova is a small car that was made for many years and is known for being cheap and easy to drive. Many people liked it because it was practical and affordable.
Car
Chevrolet Chevelle
The Chevrolet Chevelle is a classic car that many people love because it's powerful and looks great. It was made a long time ago and is now a favorite among collectors.
Car
Plymouth Roadrunner
The Plymouth Road Runner is a fun and fast car that has a cartoon bird as its logo. It was made a long time ago and is known for being exciting to drive.
Car
Dodge Viper
The Dodge Viper is a super-fast sports car that looks really cool and has a big engine. It's not made anymore, but many people still love it for how exciting it is to drive.
LIVE
This is the Classic Automall Show.
Broadcast from the studios inside the Classic Automall in Morgantown, Pennsylvania.
Just one hour west of Philadelphia at Pennsylvania Turnpike Exit 298,
featuring nearly 1,000 classic vintage and barred-fine vehicles for sale under one climate-controlled roof.
Now, here's your host, Classic Automall president and the man with all the toys, Stuart Howden.
Good morning, Classic Automall listeners and guests here at Classic Automall today.
My goodness, it's another busy day.
We have in our studio today our co-host, Steve and Ethan in the control booth out there.
We have had a busy, busy, busy couple of months and a half since January 1st.
We did the Harrisburg Auto Show, the Philly Auto Show.
The Philly Auto Show was amazing.
The crowds were strong this year and it's interesting because of the lack of some of the manufacturers being there.
Right.
A lot of people expected, came and expected, because we're on the way in and we're on the way out so we hear it all.
We hear that.
Oh, I'm so excited to be here to grumbling on the way out.
I didn't get to see this.
But I think that the overall display was very nice.
They had the Camp Jeep area where the jeeps and you get to ride over the tundra and the terrain.
And then they had Electricville in the middle where they had cars that, electric cars that you could, whoa, what was that?
Is that you?
That was me.
Sorry.
That's all right.
I'm looking for my headphones.
Check, check.
And they had a driving experience in the center with the electric cars.
And then they had us and the AACA with about, I don't know, they had probably close to 30 cars in their display, didn't they?
Mm-hmm.
And then we took, well, 16.
We ended up with 16 cars.
I think they had about 20.
Maybe 20 or 22.
And some nice stuff.
Mm-hmm.
And so the thing that the Philly Auto Show people like about us and the AACA is that some diversity is something a little bit different than what you would normally see at a car show.
And then they have our buddy Scott Velvet with his celebrity cars that he brings as well all the way from Missouri.
He does a lot of these car shows.
Does he?
A lot of these new car shows because they need some variety.
Mm-hmm.
Because the car world, the new car world is different than it used to be.
Because it used to be you really didn't get to see the new cars.
You needed to go to the car show to see them.
Right.
Now you see them everywhere.
They're online.
There's photographs.
There's spy shots.
They're revealed years before they even come out.
Yep.
So it's a different world.
And we talked about this before in the old days.
They put paper across the glass of the showrooms and the different dealers to do the reveal in September or whenever the new cars came out.
Usually September.
Right.
And that's kind of stopped because it's not as interesting anymore.
But you know, I don't understand what the manufacturer is not being there because I know for our own experience, for a little old classic automobile, a little old Morgantown, Pennsylvania,
that one-on-one talking to people is the best marketing that we do.
And when you get people that come to see your new cars at a new car show, having those people on the floor talking about the benefits of this car and why you should consider this over the X, Y, Z, Pontiac.
But Chevrolet over Ford or Ford over Chrysler, Chrysler over Fiat, whatever.
You know, it's important that one-on-one, you get that relationship building with somebody and that's what we do.
And that's why we go to however many events we go to.
We're everywhere.
We are everywhere.
I can't even keep up with where we are.
People say, well, I saw you at So-and-So.
I was like, well, I wasn't there.
Yeah, but we saw your team.
Right.
The other benefit is just letting people know the classic automobile exists because a lot of people come through that fill the auto show, especially on weekends.
And they are like, I never heard of this place.
Well, it's 45 minutes or an hour from where we are right now.
So check it out.
If you're in the cars, you would think that you would know about it.
But it proves the old point that just because you have a place somewhere and that you advertise in a significant amount of places, that everybody's paying attention.
You just assume that people know who you are and you kind of get a little upset that, you know, what do you mean you don't know who we are and where we are?
We're not that far away.
We're only 45 minutes away and we advertise in every possible place you could be.
And we've been here for five and a half years.
Why don't you know about it?
Right.
And equally as common is, oh, I passed that place.
I didn't know what it was.
I mean, if I had a dime for everybody who came up to me at fill the auto show and said, I passed that place, I didn't know what it is.
You can go in there.
Yes, not only can you go in there, but spend a couple hours.
You can spend days.
I mean, we'd like you to leave and come back.
We will set the alarm if you're still here.
Yeah, don't be sleeping in the cars.
They're trying to get the next day.
But we like people to come in and check out what we've got and see the place.
And even if you're not in the car, I mean, even if you're not a buyer for cars, because here's the way we look at it.
If you come and look at our place and you're just somebody who wants to come and look at cars and you're not in the market for a new car or you can't afford a new car, whatever the case may be.
We want you to come here.
And our admission charge is basically your two-fold, your email address so we can send you once a month or newsletter.
And if you want to sign up for a newsletter, you can go to classicautomall.com.
And the other two, the second part of the two-fold part of it is that we want you to tell everybody that you know that's in the cars about the place that you saw.
How cool is this place I just saw?
If you haven't been to Morgantown to see Classic Automall, you got to go see it because they have all these cars.
Or, by the way, I know you were looking for a 65 Mustang and they had three of them there.
Or four of them or 12 or 18.
I don't know.
How many 65 Mustangs we have?
We have quite a few.
Quite a few.
We have 50 plus Mustangs in stock and inventory.
And 60 plus Corvettes I think.
Right.
And everything else, little of everything else.
Can I relay one story that somebody told me and this is their experience?
I don't want to downplay auctions or something, but he had a bad experience.
I won't mention which auction house was one of the major ones.
You know, you have two seconds to look at the car.
You really can't do a PPI.
And you're excited about it and it's the energy and maybe you had a drink or two.
And you bid and you get the car and you have it shipped cross-country.
And then you realize that something...
Now, these auction houses, it's as is.
You really have no responsibility and you have no recourse, but this place is a little bit different.
Well, here's the thing.
You've got all the time in the world to look at a car.
If you put a $500 refundable deposit on a car here, then we give you at least a week.
I mean, we'd like it to be not much more than a week, but a week's time to have somebody come out and inspect it
or you come and inspect it yourself.
And to go through the car as thoroughly as you'd like to go through it.
And it's just a real simple thing.
We try to make it so it's not something that you're feeling pressure or uncomfortable with.
Some people are totally cool with the auction format and environment and I get that.
Some people love that because I think one of the reasons is that they think that they might be able to get a little bit better of a deal.
If the car starts out, the bidding starts at $500 or whatever and the car's a $50,000 car
and you bid, you put a bid in at some juncture of that phase at $15,000 thinking,
well, maybe who knows, no reserve, maybe nobody's looking.
And the case is that usually somebody is always looking and normally cars don't get stolen at auctions, so to speak.
You may get a better deal, you may not, but the problem is that you don't get much opportunity to know what it is you're buying.
Now, on the other hand, there are some guys who can look at a car in an environment that is like at an auction
and they can look under and over and they know the difference between a car that's good and a car that's not good.
They can almost tell you how well that car drives without ever driving it.
I mean, I have buddies of mine who buy at auctions and they're brilliant at what they do.
They can tell, they're more experienced, they have the knowledge.
A lot of people that go there just excited about seeing a 69 Pontiac, whatever.
How often do I say that you'll know more about a car if you just read our description and look at our pictures
than you would if we just said, well, here's the car you look it over.
Because you wouldn't think to ask about half of the stuff that we tell you about.
You wouldn't think about all of the details because you're caught up in the moment, the shiny, pretty car.
And it's real easy to forget, oh, I should have asked this or I should have asked that.
That's why we tell our guys, look, tell everybody everything you know about the car, the good, the bad, the ugly, tell them everything.
So at the end, hopefully they know everything.
You know, when they're ready to make a decision, they're making an informed decision.
Not a decision based on that car looks pretty.
I hope it's nice when I get home.
And the other problem is, is that people think that just because you buy it at an auction, that it's all the cars, all original
or it's the matching numbers or it's the original this or the original motor.
And that's not always the case.
And you got to be very careful when you, and again, I'm not downplaying.
I love auctions.
Don't get me wrong.
I do too.
I think they're fun.
They're exciting.
There's bargains to be had sometimes.
Sometimes you find stuff that you'll never find anywhere else.
But you've got to be very, very careful in what you do.
And you got to make sure and listen because what's written on the description in the window can be superseded by what the auctioneer tells you on the block.
So in the description you read on the window, everything's hunky and rosy and glory.
And then all of a sudden they make an announcement on the block.
By the way, after further research, this car is not the original motor or not the whatever.
So they update it.
Yeah.
And that supersedes legally what's written on the car that you're reading on the side of the car.
So you go and you read it on the side of the car.
You don't pay any attention when they're talking about introducing the car.
All of a sudden they've said something different.
Now it's up to you to have paid attention to that.
Right.
And if you didn't, well, you know.
Which is why I'm saying that Classic Automall, especially if you're in this region, you live in this region as opposed to going to Arizona and having something shipped back,
is come in here and take a close look, read the description.
And you can, in some cases, test drive cars.
Absolutely.
And depending on the car, it's not a blanket thing that we're allowed to do.
We're not a bucket list place.
Can I drive that to you?
I'm thinking about buying it.
Yeah.
Well, you're going to think really, really hard about buying it.
I mean, usually the test drive is the last piece of the proverbial puzzle.
After the pause it's been made.
The pause has been made and agreed upon price.
You've gone through the car thoroughly.
You know what it is you're buying.
The only thing that's keeping you from buying the car at that point in time is the test drive.
It's not the test drive and then, oh, I want to look the car over.
I want to look it underneath.
I want to agree on a price.
No, no, no.
That's the backwards way.
The forwards way that we do it is that everything happens before that.
And a lot of times, depending on the car, the only test drive we're going to give you is a ride around the parking lot.
You and the passenger seat, us and the driver seat.
And that's from a liability standpoint.
We sell some cars that are significant high horsepower cars that are a little finessy.
They're a little finicky and they need some finessing.
And you need to know what you're doing when you drive this car.
And we'll spend all the time in the world, if you buy a car, going through all those points and things that you need to know about the car.
But to just say, oh, here's the keys.
Go take your test drive.
We'll see you in an hour.
This is not a new car.
This is not a new car dealership.
The liability is we are responsible for other people's cars because these are all consignment cars.
I'm surprised you bring up an interesting point because I've looked at newer cars recently and they do just hand you the keys and say, I'll see you.
I'll see you.
I'm like, aren't you going with me?
I guess there's a liability in that too, especially a two-seater when you can only take one salesperson with you.
Well, and how many salespeople have been scared to death with test drives?
You know, a guy's not a very good driver or drives a little faster than he should have or whatever the case may be.
I was really surprised.
How far can I go?
How long should I be gone?
I mean, what's the protocol for this?
I don't know.
I probably always come back too early when I test drive.
I do too.
Maybe I've been gone too long.
I did two laps in the 350Z a couple weeks ago because I came back and I'm like, wait, that's not enough.
And I'm like, how fast can I go in this thing?
Maybe they have a little governor on it.
You do want to get the heat up a little bit.
You want to cycle the heat so you can see what's going on.
There's so many things that you overlook, though, when you test drive a car.
Did you even bother to check the air conditioning?
You know, I mean...
I do, but you're right.
Most people don't.
Most people don't.
And how do you check the air conditioner in the winter?
Because if it's colder and crap outside, it feels cold when it's coming out of the thing.
You really got what you need is some kind of temperature gauge, one of those infrared temperature gauge things to...
Yeah, and bring a paint gauge too and check all the paint, check all the panels.
Yeah, and you know, it's fun to watch somebody thoroughly go through a car
and understand all the nuances and everything about the car.
It's one of those things that, you know, when you're good at it, you're really good at it.
And we have guys who are really good at it.
That's what they do and that's their whole job every day is to go through these cars
and find out what they are and what they aren't.
Hey, somebody pulled up at a car in coffee a couple months ago in a Lamborghini kit
and I was like, wow, a Lamborghini couture.
I can't believe it.
And the whole time, I totally didn't.
He opens the hood and it's Chevy V8 and I'm like, oh, man, did I get full?
I don't believe Lamborghinis came with a Chevy V8.
It was a good copy, but I felt...
I was live at the time, too, on TikTok and I felt fairly sure.
Well, you know, hey, we turned in my car guy club.
We all have to be humble, you know.
We haven't talked about our friends at the casino lately.
Oh, have you been over there?
I haven't been much.
We've tried to limit ourselves a little bit.
We're in that self-help program.
But it is a lot of fun.
Yeah.
And it's exciting.
It would be fun to have one close by.
Yeah, it's fun.
And you just have to be disciplined like anything.
We're all adults, so nobody tells us no on much of anything anymore.
So you have to tell yourself no, which really sucks.
That's the part about being an adult that I have to be my own self.
It's called Free Will.
There's a rush song called Free Will.
Is there?
Yeah, there is.
Not to be confused with Free Willy.
That's a movie.
That's a whale movie, right?
Or the Cocaine Bear.
You see that?
No.
You don't watch TV or movies.
The Cocaine Bear, I heard about that.
Some bear got into some cocaine that was dropped from an airplane.
And that guy, they went crazy.
I don't know.
And it happened in Tennessee, of course.
Right.
Oh, they made a whole movie.
They made a whole movie.
One and a half of it.
Thanks, Ethan.
Bear on Coke.
Yeah, Bear on Coke.
Now, that's fun.
That's exciting.
That's a good plot line.
Is it really look good?
Really?
Okay.
Please do.
All right.
We want to hear all about the Cocaine Bear movie.
Anyway, where did we sell cars to?
Where did you?
Steve.
Oh, my goodness.
How about Pensville, New Jersey, West Springfield, Virginia, Owing Mills, Maryland, Rogersville,
Tennessee, Peach Bottom, Pennsylvania.
I smile when I say that.
Staten Island, New York twice.
Wilsonville, Oregon.
Long Beach Island, New Jersey.
Tuxbury, Massachusetts.
Berlin Center, Iowa.
Oh, Iowa.
Ohio.
Oceanside, New York.
Green Valley, Missouri.
Horsham, Pennsylvania.
Green Bray, California.
Milford, Delaware.
Birdsboro, Pennsylvania.
East Petersburg, Pennsylvania.
Easton, Pennsylvania.
Lake Wales, Florida.
St. Louis, Missouri.
Prince Edward Island, Canada.
Toledo, Ohio.
Baltimore, Maryland.
Missouri City, Texas.
Stoneham, Massachusetts.
Massachusetts.
That's one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, well, 13
states and Canada.
Yeah.
Canada's not really a state, right?
No, it's a dictatorship.
State of mind.
It's a dictatorship, isn't it?
So, we were talking about video games and one of the ones that we used to play back in
the early 80s, pole position.
It was like a Formula One, Indy car type deal.
It wasn't very exciting graphic wise.
I mean, now the new stuff is amazing.
It is insane.
Yeah.
I want to get a play seat.
Have you ever seen one of those?
Yeah.
Actually, it's a Formula One driving seat.
And what I didn't realize in a Formula One car, I mean, I just never really thought about
it, was that actually your butt is lower than your feet.
Okay.
Yeah.
So, you're, yeah.
I see that, yeah.
So, your feet, so if you look at that play seat, which is online and can be purchased,
you buy that and then you buy the monitors and the Xbox and the wheel and the whole thing.
And, but yeah, your feet are above your butt.
Wow.
Which is odd.
It's got to be kind of weird and awkward.
I would say.
You know, there's an entire eye racing community.
Oh, I know.
I mean, it's huge.
Yeah.
And they wear gloves.
Yeah.
I mean, they're real serious.
The serious.
The serious.
Well, because, you know, that Xbox could catch on fire.
It could catch on fire.
But there's a whole world out there and those guys racing and you can race people across
the world.
Well, I mean, all of the professional drivers have, you know, simulators in their home.
Right, right.
And a lot of young drivers came up that way, came up through the simulator.
Yeah, exactly.
It's easy to say when you're from the south simulator simulator.
It's up there on that simulator.
We've been threatening to buy one for a while for our basement.
But like you said, I don't want to all of a sudden get divorced over a simulator.
Right.
Let's do it.
Where are you?
Where are you?
Always in the basement on that dagum race car.
Just trying to beat that one last lap.
Right.
You know.
But anyway, some great new inventory in this past couple of weeks.
We were talking off air on the 57 Pontiac Chieftain hardtop.
What a great car.
It's an awesome.
Talk about different.
Yeah.
Tartan red and black over black and white interior.
And it's just, it frame offer store, 347 VA.
It's one of those cars that you look at and at first glance you think, oh, that's a Bel
Air or something, you know, of that, you know, ilk.
Yeah.
And then you realize, no, no, no.
It's got some different graphics.
It's got some different, not graphics, but different chrome and the shapes.
And before you know it, you're realizing that it's a completely different car.
Yeah.
When it was out in the parking lot and they were test driving it, when they first got
here, we were like, I don't know what that is.
Right.
Got in here and you can see it.
Yeah.
Yeah.
It looks familiar yet unfamiliar at the exact same time.
So it's got a strato flight automatic.
I love the names of the automatic transmission.
Strato flight.
I imagine that's just a two speed power glider, some version of it, rust free, got a brand
new interior.
So it's, you know, it's, it's nice and pretty and ready to go.
So, and most of our cars are ready to go.
One of the things that you'll know if you read our descriptions is, is that if the car
is for whatever reason doesn't run or it's inoperable or we're selling it kind of as
a, you know, barn find, ish parts car, we convey that to you, you know, so we don't want you
to get confused and come here to test drive the one that's in boxes.
We don't sell many that way.
No, not many.
Not many.
But every once in a while we, we sell them, you know, we get a collection of cars and
included in the collection might be two or three cars that are, you know, partially built
and not completely built.
And that was something we had to explain at Philly Auto Show because we had pristine beautiful
cars there.
Right.
And we're like, oh, we can't, no, I'm saying this is, this is just a sample.
We have everything from $8,500 cars all the way to, you know, $900,000 cars in between.
If you look at the cars we just sold, the list I just went through, the cheapest one
we sold last week was $7,500 and the most expensive one was $81,000 plus.
So it is not all just high-end cars here.
And you're right.
That's a valid point to make that they're not all just high-end cars here.
We have all price range from, you know, $10,000 El Caminos to $20,000 kind of driver quality
Camaros or Corvettes up to, you know, our most expensive cars are Cobra, almost a million
bucks.
And, and then we've got some other cars that are close to that price point.
But certainly our bread and butter stuff is more on the affordable range of it.
But we're, we're getting more and more high-end cars and we're talking about creating a special
showroom just for the high-end cars.
And maybe it will be by appointment only or something like that.
But you know, just something that concierge, a concierge service, yeah, say that word
twice.
I'd love to bring the 1922 camper to Philly Auto Show, but I don't know if all the rattling
would get there in one piece.
That would be so cool to have that as a showpiece.
Yeah.
The Weedman Chevrolet Camper that we had is a pretty amazing piece.
Probably the favorite vehicle in the whole building.
Over anything.
I just know how you'd get it there.
It probably wouldn't last.
You know, we have a one or a nine-tenths or a eight-tenths or eight-ninths or whatever
scale Wright Brothers airplane.
And it's kind of hidden.
It's back in one of our corner rooms and you can't really see it too well because we've
got cars in front of us.
And it's a closed room.
And it's a closed room.
But they delivered that from Maryland on a flatbed.
Oh, wow.
Well, first of all, I was afraid it was going to fly off of the truck because it would get
lift driving down the road.
But then we were afraid it was going to be destroyed.
It's all paper.
Yeah.
I don't imagine it went 70 miles an hour when the Wright Brothers flew it.
I would imagine it probably was lucky to go seven or eight miles an hour.
I don't know.
I wonder how fast they were going to get lift, right?
Yeah.
I don't know what the coefficient of lift and drag.
Podcast at classicaldomall.com for you, arrow engineers.
And listen, you know, you ask why we don't know the answer to questions because we're
not just going to Google.
We're not Googlers.
We're not just going to Google it and act like we're the smartest guys in the room.
We're going to tell you when we don't know something.
We want to hear from you.
We want to hear your perspective inside of it and what the lift is and how fast.
This is an interactive podcast.
This is not just a now-to-we're not, you know, listen, I can Google anything and be an expert
and tell you everything there is to know about whatever I need to know about.
Or pull out an encyclopedia.
Yeah.
That's the problem with Google is that, you know, my doctor was telling me the other
day, he said, you know, the problem is, is that we send test results before you come
to your appointment.
And now people are on the Internet Googling their test results.
And sometimes that can be to a fault.
You know, sometimes you're getting the wrong information or sometimes you're getting information
that is correct, but it just doesn't, it's not applicable to you.
So medical research on the Internet is a, what do you say, maybe a double-edged sword
or two-sided coin or a little double-edged sword.
Although if you go to like the Harvard site, you'd think that's got to be pretty good.
You're in the Mayo Clinic.
Mayo Clinic.
What's the, WebMD is out for now.
I go to Mayo or maybe I'm something out of Harvard or something, but it's risky.
It's risky because...
And don't go to the doctor and say, I read this, huh?
Yeah.
Yeah.
They don't like it when you tell them how to do their job.
Right out of there.
Get out of my office.
And yeah, I'm talking to you about...
All right.
New inventory.
New inventory.
How about the 37-core 810 Westchester?
Big star of the Philly Auto Show.
It was right there front and center and people loved it.
And no idea what they were looking at, did they?
No, not many.
Some did, but it's...
Yeah.
It's Tampa Blue Metallic, which is not a factory color.
I don't believe.
Beautiful.
But it's really the paint is spectacular on the car.
It's tan interior.
It's got a crate 350, which is odd for a cord.
You don't see many of these in the Resto Mod Hilt very often.
Mostly they are original.
People were surprised.
Yeah.
And I don't know the backstory of why that car doesn't have its original motor or any
of that.
Nor is it my concern, you know, to each his own if you want to replace that motor or if
there's a valid reason to replace the motor.
But I'm not the arbiter of right and wrong.
Just because I say so...
It's a nice car and it starts.
Yeah.
And maybe there's a good reason that they replace the motor or maybe there's not a good reason.
It's none of my damn business whether it is or it isn't.
You will forget all that when you get inside that car.
Oh, it is amazing.
Yeah.
It's like a step back in time, but it's like you're sitting on the showroom of a
Ford dealership in 1937 and it's got heat and air and a Mustang two front end.
So it's modern conveniences and can be driven and used.
And listen, I try not to find fault with people when they want to make something more user-friendly.
You know, some of these cars are hard to drive and some of them are finicky and that sometimes
takes the fun out of it.
Some people like the challenge of what an older car does and some people don't.
And the reason, or I shouldn't say the reason, but when the people that don't like the finiqueness
of an old car, that's who buys the Resto mods.
So they want the looks of a 67 Camaro, but they don't want the lack of conveniences and
the lack of modern amenities.
And I mean, that's especially true with Corvette Resto mods.
And that's why they're fetching $100,000 to $200,000.
Or like the ones at Bear Jackson, $700,000.
For a Resto mods 67 Corvette.
The sum of the parts is probably half that, which lends you to think that it's becoming
more art than just the sum of the parts.
I mean, you know, listen, people have built cars in the past and will continue to build
cars in the past that they, what it costs them to build it, they can sell for more than
they built it for.
And that's the whole idea with guys who are in the restoration business, the resale restoration
business I call it.
And so, you know, it's, it's one of those things that, you know, I think that to each
his own, and if you want to do those kind of things, you can do those kind of things.
And we're not here to judge.
Right.
We are just here to help you either purchase or sell.
We will find a buyer for whatever we've done to the car.
There is a butt for every seat.
Well, we may have a few that have been proven wrong on that.
Time will only tell.
Although I get surprised, we have cars that have been here quite a while that all of a
sudden will come across my desk and we've got a deposit.
So, you know, anyway, when we return, more fascinating banter between Steve and myself
and we'll continue talking about things.
The Classic Automall here from the Classic Automall podcast and speaking about it.
Ever since the first time you saw it, perhaps even as a child, you knew you wanted one.
Now, you're at a point in your life where you have the means to buy and keep one.
Your significant other is even in agreement.
But where and how can you find one and trust, you know, as much as you can about it before
the purchase?
That's why there's ClassicAutomall.com.
One thousand classic vehicles of almost every conceivable make modeling here, all under
one climate controlled roof.
You can visit and look to your heart's delight or do everything online from the comfort of
your own home.
Shipping nearly everywhere worldwide, ClassicAutomall can make your dream come true.
Visit the World Wide Web at ClassicAutomall.com.
We're back with the ClassicAutomall podcast.
We were just looking at some old Mel Tillis and my son footage from the theater days back
in Branson.
How does Mel Tillis know your son?
Well, because I was married to his daughter Connie.
We moved to Branson, Missouri in 1991 and ran his theater there, which was, we were
sure, when we moved there, we'd never even been to Branson.
We never even really knew where it was.
He had already been up there for a couple of years and he invited us to come work for
him up there.
We were like, okay, no idea where we're going or we thought it was going to be a hoedown,
you know, vent seats and sawdust on the ground and these were chandeliers and wall-to-wall
carpeting and these theaters were absolutely amazing and they were, some were, some were
about 750 seats up to, ours was 2,700 seats.
We had Claire Brothers as the audio.
We had very lights which were used by Pink Floyd and Genesis for the lighting system.
I mean, we had state of the art.
This place was unbelievable.
It was about 170,000 square feet, all told, and just an amazing theater and a great show.
We're still there in the Maltillus Theater.
It is, but it's not the Maltillus Theater anymore.
It's the whoever bought it and whatever they're going to do with it theater.
Okay.
But this thing was amazing.
We would sell out two shows a day, six days a week and it was a grind though.
I mean, it-
Where did Branson pull audience from?
Chicago?
Chicago, Iowa, you know, Kansas, Arkansas, a lot of mid, mostly Midwest.
People didn't come from the West Coast to visit.
No, no.
I mean, we do now.
Yeah, they do now and they know about it and they know it's that down home country,
country cooking and, but we spent 20 years there.
Great place to raise kids, great school system because of all the tax revenue because it's
such a tourist town and now it's become this golf mecca, Johnny Morris, who owns a big
seater, Bass Pro Shops.
Okay.
Also owns a resort there called Big Seater Lodge.
Did they have gambling in Branson?
They do not.
My goodness.
Okay, sorry.
I know.
Fire in Branson.
They have gospel.
It's the Bible Belt, Steve.
No gambling.
I wasn't aware.
Yeah.
Now they have gambling in St. Louis and Kansas City, so it's not far from there.
Somebody's checking out the split window.
Oh, there you go.
The hood is up.
Our first one.
That's our first split window we've ever had.
That conversation.
Yeah.
But anyway, Branson was an interesting place.
No gambling there.
Silver Dollar City is there, which is a theme park owned by the Herschan family, which also
owns Dollywood, which is the same.
They own that.
Okay.
It's Dolly's name on it.
Sure.
But yeah, we built a theater there.
Mel started performing there in about in the mid 80s with Roy Clark, who had a theater
there.
And then we ended up building our own theater in 91.
And then another theater in 93.
And then sold it in 2002 or three somewhere around there.
I just had had enough.
It's like Nashville, Northop.
It really was.
And it was pretty amazing, though.
But they, I mean, we had a 20-piece orchestra.
I mean, Mel had horns and four fiddles and two keyboard players, and they all dressed
in these fancy nudie suits.
And, you know, it was quite the spectacle.
Interesting.
Maybe Morgantown could be the next brand.
Well, we have a casino.
We need a theater.
We need a theater.
And then we'll start from there.
A lot of people have tried to replicate what Branson was.
The problem is, is that what it was and what it is, sorry, I'm really digressing.
Well, there was a car museum there.
We can talk about that.
Yeah.
Branson Auto Museum, which was my place, was there.
We built there.
And then now Celebrity Car Museum is there.
Everybody's Scott Velvet, who you met at the Filiotto Show.
And then prior to that, Mark Trimble, a gentleman who started Long Long Story, had a museum
there in the mid-80s.
And it was really early, early on, and he got so tired of fielding phone calls from
dealers across the country, asking him what a 37 Packard was worth, because he was the
only known kind of classic, or one of the few known classic car guys back in the day.
So back in about 87, he brought crews in, Dean Cruz and his crew, to have an auction
to sell off most of his cars.
And then he was just going to move to a warehouse because he couldn't be bothered.
He was tired of taking phone calls.
Interesting.
He just wanted to be in, you know, he just wanted to have classic cars and not be bothered.
And then that's how I ended up in the classic car business, because the crew's family
continued to do an auction in Branson.
So you moved there for the theater and ended up in the classic car business.
Fascinating.
Fascinating.
Fascinating.
Other new inventory we got.
I forgot to tell you.
Yep, go ahead.
1930 Chevrolet Standard Coop, Burgundy in black over tan.
This is an AACA national first place winner.
But in 1996.
So think about it, it's 27 years ago.
This car still holds up.
Still good.
And then amazing.
A good restoration, well maintained, is going to hold up for much longer than you think.
I'm always, and I'll say this, I'm always concerned about fresh restorations, a car
with only 50 miles on it.
And we have those.
And if you know what you're getting into, I tell everybody, when you buy one of these
old cars, I don't care how fresh the restoration is, I don't care what the provenance is, have
a little money aside.
Because there may be things that it may be, it's only been driven 50 miles.
There may be things that need to be sorted out.
There may be things that you want to do to it that the previous owner didn't want to
do, or didn't have to do, or didn't think about.
Anyway, this thing, 60,000 actual miles, it's an older restoration, obviously, 194 cubic
inch inline six, zoom, zoom.
Yeah.
Also, we got a really interesting car in 1978 Chevrolet Malibu station wagon.
They've got to be rare, right?
Yeah, you just don't see them.
You don't see them.
And wagons are hot still.
One of 32 believed to be built.
Oh, is that right?
Yeah.
Yeah.
Saffron over camel tan and plaid.
We've got the F-40 suspension, whatever that means.
Not the Ferrari F-40 suspension.
Yeah, she thinks not.
We took it right from the F-40.
That's why the prices.
Yeah.
That's why we're only asking whatever.
We've got a 305 and then a Saginaw four speed manual.
That's what makes it rare.
That is a four speed manual.
Manual.
10 bolt positive and it's got the original interior.
Wow.
Yeah.
So really a neat car.
I might have to find a car and film it today.
Yeah, I think that's an excellent one for your film because those seem to be very popular
on our YouTube channel.
Wagons are good.
We had a Buick, like a 79.
Yeah, remember that?
Mid?
That was our first big hit.
Mid 70s to late 80s seem to be very, very popular on TikTok and YouTube for some reason.
It is.
I don't know why.
Anyway, the 69 Plymouth Barracuda Fastback is another one we just got in.
It's got a 440.
It's blue over black, A727 automatic we built, new front disc brakes and a new legendary
auto interior.
Really a neat, neat looking car and then a really cool car.
It's in our main showroom, the 1970 Pontiac GTO hard top.
It's orbit orange over black, which is really a popular color.
It's an odd orange.
Yeah.
It's hard to describe.
It's not even tangerine.
It's more creamsicle.
Creamsicle, yeah.
There you go.
It's creamsicle.
It's creamsicle-esque.
Not too many.
They couldn't have painted that many.
No.
Is that a factory color?
Well, yes.
Mostly original metal.
It's a three-year Resto.
It's got a 400 cubic inch V8 with a Ramair three heads.
But it's liveried up as a judge.
It's not an actual factory judge.
It's a factory GTO with a replacement motor and the GTO graphics.
Or the judge graphics.
Tribute.
Tribute.
It's like Elvis.
It's a tribute car.
The Elvis tribute we always like.
Right.
The judge tribute.
Yeah.
So if you get a chance, come check it out.
Oh, it's got the Muncie M22.
Yeah.
But anyway, and I don't know if we talked about this.
This is something that's interesting and automotive world about Ken Block.
Oh, right.
Yeah.
We missed it a couple of weeks.
Yeah.
It's been on my list for weeks.
Yeah.
You know, it's one of those things that just because I ride it doesn't make it so.
Right.
And Ken Block was an amazing, amazing driver who died in a snowmobile accident.
Yeah.
Oddly enough.
Yeah.
Well, look at, you know, it's weird that snow and accidents happen a lot.
Michael Schumacher, you know, having a hit in the tree, Sonny Bono.
I don't know where that came from, but, but it's just, it seems to be that you from time
to time hear that where people, I guess they get carried away on the snow and can't control
what's going on and.
It landed on him, I think.
Yeah.
Fifty-five years old.
He was a pioneer in the rally car and the drifting and the Jim Conna world and an interesting
guy.
And if you never saw the video of him in a, I think it was an Audi that he was running
through Vegas.
Have you seen the video?
That's the most recent.
Yeah.
Hoonigan kind of thing.
Yeah.
And you know what Hoonigan means?
One who behaves or drives in a reckless manner.
Is that right?
It's appropriate.
Yeah.
It's very appropriate.
If you watch the, just type in on Google, Ken Block, Las Vegas and you watch this guy,
the control he has over a car is like nobody's business.
Like, I don't know how you're that good.
He destroyed three of them in the making of that film, but.
Did he really?
No.
At the edit.
They edit it all.
Yeah.
They can edit anything.
No, he did it for real.
Yeah.
Amazing.
Yeah.
He controls the car, you know, starting that drifting.
Like he's wearing it.
Like he's wearing it.
Yeah.
Like it's part of amazing him.
You know, and, and we all know that learning to control a car in a skid is a very valuable,
you know, get out in a parking lot on a rainy day that has no big poles and get your car
sideways and learn how to control that and learn that when you're got your feet planted
to the floor of the brakes and the car's not turning away from the tree you're about
to hit, let your foot off the brakes.
Yeah.
Yeah.
You know, we call that in self defense, we call that stress inoculation.
So actually practice it.
Right.
You know, and when it happens, you'll, you'll panic.
Your tendency is to push harder.
Yeah, exactly.
And the heart or the opposite direction and what's happened when you're pushing those
brakes and you're sliding straight and you're not turning and your wheel turn to the left,
you're not turning.
You have to let off the brakes because the wheels are locked.
That's right.
You're not going to do anything.
Yep.
Exactly.
But try to tell your brain that in the middle of that.
In a panic.
In adrenaline rush.
Yeah.
In a little bit of an adrenaline rush.
That's right.
Right.
So we were talking about some of the auctions that have happened here recently.
RM sailed out in Scottsdale.
They had that C2 Corvette, probably the most expensive one ever, so $3.1 million.
Wow.
One of two built, $427,000, $564,000, all aluminum, can-am racing motor.
You could buy from Chevrolet.
Right.
I mean, I'm sure you had to know the right thing and here and this and you know, all
that.
They also recently, RM just sold the most expensive new car ever sold, a 2022 Bugatti
Chiron, Profili, I'm sure I'm pronouncing that wrong, $10.7 million.
Oh my God.
Is that crazy?
Well, you know, if you got it, enjoy it.
If you got it, you got it.
And speaking of prices of cars, how are cyclones and typhoons?
Your favorite kind of car is doing those GMC.
For those of you who don't know, GMC built in the 90s, early 90s, right?
91 to 93.
Typhoon, which was a four-door SUV Blazer for all intents and purposes.
Two-door.
Or two-door, excuse me.
Is it basically a S15 GMC, Jimmy?
A Jimmy, which is the same as a Blazer.
Blazer, right.
And then the cyclone was the GMC, what was it?
It was an S10.
S10 Pickup.
Well, they call it, it's an S15 for GMC, but it was a Chevy S10, essentially.
Right.
And they put the Buick 3-point...
The prototype had the 3.8-liter intercooled, but it didn't work out, so they used a 4.3-liter
V6.
Right.
Turbo.
Turbocharged, intercooled, but it's air-to-water, and Buick had air-to-air intercooler, so there's
all kinds of differences to it, and they're all wheel drive, so they really dig off the
They can hook up, yeah.
And super quick.
And yeah, the values have climbed.
They sort of plateaued at this point, so they're not, I mean, you find a good low mileage
one.
And, you know, they're $50,000, $60,000, which is unbelievable, because I sold one for $8,000.
Don't say that so nonchalantly, right?
Yeah, so they're on the rise and collectible, and yeah, it's weird, because, you know, I've
had them for a long time, and nobody ever gave thumbs up, or like, nobody ever...
There would be times I'd pull up to a car show and they'd go, oh, yeah, spectator parking
is over there.
Right.
I'm like, no, no, this is a rare truck, and it looks like mom's SUV, but it's pretty
rare.
And now people are saying, oh, they're getting a lot of press and just a lot of coverage
now as they've reached that 30-year pinnacle mark and become classic.
And of course, Cyclones, they only made 28, about 2,800 of them, and so they're super
rare.
And Typhoons, they made less than 5,000 in two years.
And who knows how many are left, because, you know, they got beat on, they got rusted.
So what's the...
I mean, is there a preferential, would you have a...
If you could have the best in the world, would you have a Typhoon or a Cyclone?
Actually, because they're more rare, they're a little bit faster, 300 pounds less than a
Typhoon.
There's a couple special edition ones.
In 92, they made challenge trucks to sort of showcase the 92 Cyclone, which never happened.
There's two of them in existence, they're white on gray Cyclones.
And then there's the PPG Pace Truck, which I actually saw at Laguna Seca.
And it's a special truck, and it was owned by GM for a long time in their heritage collection.
Now it's privately owned in Arizona or somewhere, and it's got, you know, paste lights on it
and a weird paint job.
It's one of one, and fire retardant, and it's really cool truck.
And that went for $60,000 on Barrett Jackson 10 or 12 years ago.
When General Motors was selling off some of the heritage collection, which I still didn't
understand, which I still never understood.
That's when it happened.
Why were you selling that off?
I don't know.
Make room, like we're going to do.
Just get another warehouse, but you're GM.
You could get another warehouse.
It stinks.
So I wish you knew more about the Cyclone.
Yeah.
I could go out and spend a whole segment.
Oh, you know what?
We got to go to commercial.
But I will say there's also the 10 Marlboro cyclones that were given away as a promotion
if you bought in the cigarettes or something.
How many packs of cigarettes did you have to smoke to get a Typhoon or a Cyclone?
There's 10 of those in existence.
Larry, the cable guy had to smoke 800 packs to get the Marlboro jacket for his girlfriend
and she spilled mustard on, or he spilled mustard on.
Anyway, when we return the Classic Automall podcast from the Classic Automall Studio,
don't forget to check out our website, classicautomall.com, or if you have a question for us on the
podcast, podcast at Classic Automall.
It's a museum.
It's a showroom.
It's an experience.
The Classic Automall in Morgantown, Pennsylvania is 336,000 square feet of rare custom and
specialty automobiles on display and on consignment.
From the earliest production cars to modern exotics, Classic Automall is a feast for the
eyes and the memories.
Stroll through time in any season in this climate controlled facility that you simply
have to see to believe.
Admission is free.
Just remember to bring comfortable shoes.
And we're back with the Classic Automall podcast.
We were just talking about things.
About everything.
My sunny day.
I mean, nice for you to be more knowledgeable about things when I ask you a question.
Yeah, don't ask me about cyclones and cyclones because I will go off because I know, and
my friends who have been in the club, you know, I've had one since 2005 and those guys
know everything and there's a lot of interesting history of these trucks and now that they're
becoming very collectible and the values are going up, there's plenty to learn.
And like I said, I'll try to get an interview with those guys because...
Yeah, I'd love to hear that.
And you know, it's funny, once you start kind of paying attention to a particular car,
you get so inundated with car information, especially in our business, that it's easy
to be, have a lot of knowledge about a little bit of a car, you know, a little bit of knowledge
about a lot of cars.
And if I knew about that, as much about that split window that I know about cyclones and
cyclones, I'd be the expert of the world because I wish I knew everything all the little...
I can look at a typhoon and tell you what's wrong with it, what's missing, that kind of
thing.
I wish I could do that.
And it is a learning process.
I am learning and every time I do a TikTok and I write up a script or something, I'm
learning something about the car.
Well, and that's what Peter does too.
I mean, we were talking about that last week with him, 4,400 cars that he's written about.
You know, you're going to learn something.
And I find that myself too.
You know, there's cars that I've always been interested that I want to own.
And I'm in the market for a particular car right now.
And all of a sudden you start learning stuff.
You start talking to people and you find out things.
Most of these cars that you're going to buy that are collectible like I'm looking at,
they're not next door.
You can't just go drive them.
You're going to have to make the decision like people do here is that I'm going to buy
it sight unseen.
I'm going to base my knowledge.
I'm going to ask all the right questions about what it should be and what it is and what
it is.
And maybe get a PPI.
And get a PPI.
And, you know, talk to a friend of mine.
There was a particular car I was looking at and he said...
And I can't afford the manual transmission.
So you would get the automatic, which is basically paddle shifter.
And he says, this thing shifts so brutal that it's not even fun to drive.
So then I got...
So that pushed me.
And that was the second time I'd heard that.
So that kind of pushed me away from that car.
So now...
That's interesting.
And it gets back to cyclones and typhoons because of one to two shifts.
It's so hard.
And whenever somebody buys one and goes online and goes, something's wrong with my transmission.
It's so hard.
Right.
That's normal.
That's one to two.
Yeah.
And that's one to two for you.
Well, and, you know, normally one is just starting out if even that.
You know what a dog leg transmission is?
Yeah.
Yeah.
So that's what the 928 Porsche is, which I had a whole thing.
Okay.
We can talk about one thing, but we didn't.
Which means first is left and down and reverse is left and up.
And the reason being is that because you shift more between second and third when you're racing,
the one is kind of...
You get it out of the way.
And then you got...
Never get back in it.
Yeah, you never.
You never would go back to one or very, very rarely in a race car that you go to first gear.
Right.
It's almost like the granny...
And you're only there for a second and out of a pit and that kind of thing.
Yeah.
But second and third, that's where you spend most of your rowing.
Right.
And so that's one of the reasons that they had the dog leg shifter and they had those
in the early...
Or in all the 928s that were manual transmission.
That's another car on my list, the 93, 4 and 5 GTS 928.
It's on my list too.
Yeah.
And the Z8 BMW is kind of the one that's in my radar.
It's on everybody's radar.
Yeah, on my radar now.
They're just so cool.
They are really...
People don't really know what they are, which I really kind of like.
I like having a car that's not as recognizable as others that people have to do a double
take and say,
What is that?
That looks familiar because it's BMW familiar, the kidney shake grill and all the different
things.
But it's something like, you know, it looks like a Z4, but it's not.
You can tell it's bigger and bulkier and muscular and it's the louder and it's got
a V8 and it's got almost 400 horsepower and it was built in 2001 so the navigation has
stick people.
But it's really, really cool.
Pixels.
Pixels and, you know, no place to plug in your iPod.
Cool cars.
Yeah, but they're very, very cool.
So if you see me driving around in one of those in Wavenhaw and I haven't bought it.
I'm just thinking.
It's on your radar.
It's on your radar.
You know, it's always car shopping.
Always car shopping.
Always thinking what if and could I should I would I blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
So what car back in the day ruled your high school parking lot?
What was the baddest car that was in the parking lot?
Oh, that's a really, I have a good one.
I don't know if there were, there was a particular make that that were multiple, I mean, people
had pedestrian type cars in high school.
My friend bought it, like I may have mentioned, had bought a 68 charger in while he was in
high school and I thought that was the coolest thing.
Plus I had the 79 transamps.
Right.
You were pretty cool.
And I can't think of too many, it was just, it was the 70s cars with the big fat tires
in the back and the traction bars and everybody had, everybody had that.
That's Nova's.
Nova's.
Yeah.
Chevelle's.
Later model Chevelle's.
What, what we didn't know back then, and we've talked about this before, the difference
between cars that were, the difference between variations of a particular car.
You could get a Chevelle with a 307, you could get a Chevelle with a 396, 375 horse, blah,
blah, blah, and everywhere in between.
I don't think we all kind of realized that.
We just thought, that looks cool.
That's what I want.
Right.
And put Kregor SSTs on it when we were cool, like everybody else.
Yeah.
And jack it up in the back with traction bars.
And the chrome.
Diff, diff cover.
Yeah.
The diff cover.
Yeah.
And chrome valve covers and a chrome air cleaner.
And you're cool.
It didn't matter it was a 307.
And some yellow spark plug wires and you know, you were, you were the cool kid.
And maybe a good Kregor, or not a Kreg, a Kreg power play eight track.
A B&M shifter.
You had to get the aftermarket, even if you had an automatic, you got the B&M shifter.
And the Kreg power play with a Kreg 50 watt amp.
Now you're really cool if you had an eight track player that had fast forward on it.
You could go forward on it.
Oh wow.
Otherwise you could just switch between tracks.
So there's four tracks on an eight track.
Why are they called an eight track?
I don't know.
Cause there's only four.
Four.
Yeah.
And each one had two or three songs on it.
You know, so you could click through to the next one.
Made a loud click.
Click.
Yeah.
Right.
Right.
So, but anyway, we'll, we'll get off of that.
So.
I was into, we got, I was in the cassette era.
Yeah.
So my 79 had a cassette and I burned through a couple of those too.
Yeah.
I had the Alpine cassette player that grabbed it from your hand and gently eased it into
the.
State of the art.
Yeah.
And ADS box speakers.
The box.
Yes.
And they had the little mounts in the back and they were really, really cool.
Yep.
And we would, we had a road in, in Knoxville, Tennessee, where I grew up called Nubbins Ridge.
Nubbins Ridge.
Yeah.
And that was our track.
And so at night you could pull up to the kind of the top of Nubbins Ridge and you could
look all the way down Nubbins Ridge and tell whether there was a car there or not.
And then Nubbins Ridge was this fast, long, long downhill straight sweeping right hand
turn up over the hill, sweeping left hand turn and then a cool S curve.
And then you finished up by the, the, the McMillan's house.
And there was a stop sign there that you never made, but coming out of that S curve and that
Trans Am back in the day, having it just a little bit sideways and a car full of people,
God forbid.
Right.
And you were cool.
You were Mario Andretti.
The most fun on Nubbins Ridge though was just me and my buddy.
Okay.
Not with a car full of people.
Right.
I let off when there was a car full of people.
Right.
My mom always said, don't come home if you kill a bunch of people in a car, you know.
That's good.
That's good advice.
Thanks, Mom.
While you were at Nubbins Ridge, I was cruising Fremont Street in Las Vegas at my Trans Am.
Yeah.
So we would race out in the desert because there was nothing out there at the time, you
know.
Except dead people.
Whatever was out there.
Roadrunners.
Roadrunners.
The bird.
The bird, the actual roadrunner.
In the desert.
And so there was plenty of room to race.
If you picked up a race on Fremont, you would cruise Fremont Street and then if somebody
wanted to race, you go behind what's now the Union Plaza.
And would there be people out there lying down?
No, not really.
It was just more one-on-one.
It was just a dark desert road.
Yeah.
And who proved who won?
Yeah.
It was new.
Well, when I raced one time, the guy didn't stop and hit a curb and he missed the turn,
you know.
And I was able to break out of it.
But yeah, it's not safe.
Don't street race people.
Don't condone this.
I don't condone street racing.
Yeah, you don't want to get hurt.
Right.
No.
That takes all the fun out of it.
We're ruining your car.
Yeah.
I'll never forget my buddy of mine and I went to, there was a place in Tennessee in
East Tennessee called Royal Blue where you took your dirt bikes.
He went racing and I had a Yamaha KX 125 and he had a, or a Kawasaki KX 125 and he had
a Yamaha 175 or something.
And I'd never been there and he took us there and he goes, all right.
So this thing goes straight and then there's a little dip you go down and then it's straight
again.
I'm like, okay, cool.
So we take off from the trailer where we're parked and I'm just following him.
And all of a sudden, boom, on mine, I run out of fuel.
I've forgotten to turn my petcock on.
The petcock is what controlled the fuel on the motorcycle.
So I come to a stop and I reach down and turn the fuel back on and start to kick it.
And I look just as he's launching off of that thing and I'm not too far from here.
So I pull up, well it turns out he'd forgotten that there was two different places you could
enter this place.
And the one he was at was about a 150 foot drop off with trees and he was in the middle
of about a, he was about 75 feet off the ground in a tree with his motorcycle still running.
Wow.
And had broken his shoulder.
Oh my God.
And I had to get him out of there.
That's cool.
I don't even remember how we did it.
Get the bike out of there.
Get him to a hospital.
No cell phones.
Had to call his wife.
Wow.
We're like an hour from home.
You know, he's got a broken shoulder.
So anyway, I'm glad I brought that up.
Motorcycles.
Do you still have your motorcycle?
I do.
Speaking of motorcycles?
Yeah.
I never ride.
It's got, I put nine miles on it in one year.
That's what they're for.
And it's just there to.
Look pretty.
That and look pretty.
Throw your jacket on top.
No.
What I do is I go out in the parking lot and, you know, blow off a little steam every once
in a while.
I've got to run them right.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So I run them and, you know, that's the problem.
You have to run these things.
You can't let them sit, sit, sit.
I've got the other cars back there that just sit, sit, sit.
And I really have to be self-conscious and conscious about getting them out and running.
I'm happy to take them home once in a while back and forth.
It's going to be here.
Little exercise.
Little exercising.
Short ride.
Yeah.
A little short ride.
And the problem is, is that I can make an excuse for any reason not to drive them.
Yeah.
Well, there might be a little salt on the ground.
Oh, there's a ditch in the parking, you know, there's a hole in the parking lot.
There's this.
Hot holes.
Yeah.
What else?
Gravel.
Gravel.
Salt.
Salt.
Rain.
One-one-hundredth chance of rain.
That and suede shoes.
Oh, I won't drive my typhoon in the mist like you wake up in the morning in the ground
from the dew.
Nope.
No dew.
No dew.
Yeah.
Yeah, we are giving you the dew-free guarantee and, you know, it's easy to talk yourself
out of driving because invariably, the minute you get to them, the battery's dead.
Yeah.
Something's wrong.
You forgot this.
We talked about this, you know.
It's all the things that trip you up.
Ethan says, why don't you buy something, why don't you sell the typhoon and buy something
else?
But you know what I was thinking, Ethan?
Whatever I replace the typhoon, it's going to sit in the garage just like it.
It's the same thing.
It's the same thing.
It's going to be a garage in the same way.
Viper, something like that, just going to sit.
Yeah.
There are some deals on vipers out there.
I know.
We have some.
We have four vipers, right?
Actually, I think one just sold.
One just sold.
We have three vipers and, you know, they're not, for what you get, they're very reasonable
price.
We've got a Z06 Corvette in that's got my, I've got my all over it.
It's red, 427, you know.
I know.
Manual tranny.
No, automatic.
It's automatic.
Oh, see, that's automatic.
I mean, I think it has paddles, but it's automatic.
For me, that's a deal breaker because I want a sports car with a stick shift.
But the Viper did very well, you know, 03 Viper shown at Philly Auto Show, bright red,
beautiful car.
My buddy's got a 03 Viper in Vegas and a great, great looking car.
Oh my God.
There and the sounds of the performance is, you know, absolutely spectacular.
I mean, you just hard to beat, you know, what a Viper gives you for, for the money that
you pay for it.
I mean, you know, I've got to tell you, though, I think that you're wrong about this Z06.
No.
Oh, okay.
I looked at it.
I'm always looking at that.
Six speed manual.
The red one.
The red one.
Wow.
The red one.
Look at the picture.
It looks like an automatic, but it's a big ball shifter.
Okay.
You're talking about the red.
2007.
2007 Z06.
Oh, the 2007.
Yeah.
Not the 2017.
2017.
2007 with the 427.
Okay.
Sorry.
Wrong car.
Right.
As my grandmother used to say, right church wrong queue.
So she had a lot of funny things.
She also said, if she, if she wasn't sure about somebody, she'd say, that boy has the
peculiar's.
Listen, my buddies, I bought my first cyclone again, cyclone type in Tennessee, right outside
of, uh, outside of Nashville.
And my, my buddies down there have the best sayings.
I can make a whole list of them.
Some of them are X rated.
Yeah.
So we can put them somewhere out there on that.
But man, you Southern guys have the best.
Yeah.
There was some great sayings back in the day from that rear of their ugly head every once
in a while.
I have to be careful in what I do.
Yeah.
Anyway, next week, uh, got a special guest going to be on the show, Alex Rosie, uh, who
owns RB collections out of Allentown, Pennsylvania, beautiful building and showroom they have
up there.
They're a boutique.
Uh, they're at Sacks with Avenue and we're Walmart.
So that's the, so they are a boutique, uh, classic car sales and, uh, restoration facility.
And they've got this beautiful brick building in Allentown and, uh, just met him by, by
happenstance.
I was driving past this garage door, opens up and a 57 fair lane convertible is backing
out and stop and wave and hey, I'm Stuart with classic autumn all come in to Alex, Alex
is from Italy.
So he's very, uh, heavy accent.
He and his brother, Al will be here with us on.
So it's Rosie with an R.
Rosie.
R U O Z Z I.
Yeah.
It's not Rosie, like a whole lot of Rosie, Rosie, but I'm sure I won't pronounce it right
because I'm not Italian.
But anyway, they will be on the show next Saturday, which is a week from today, which
is today is actually February the 11th and this will air February the 18th.
Right.
So, uh, we're a week behind.
Yep.
That's, that's just the way it is.
It's just the way it is.
Well, anyway, we will catch you next week on the classic autumn all podcast.
You got any questions for us?
Podcast at classicautomall.com or visit our website, classicautomall.com and, uh, we'll
be happy to answer any questions or take any suggestions or correct us on anything we
got wrong.
We'll catch you next week.
Take care.
Bye.
Bye.
Bye.
Bye.
Bye.
Bye.
Bye.
Bye.
Bye.
Bye.
Bye.
About this episode
Stewart Howden and co-host Steve Saffier dive into the bustling world of classic cars, sharing insights from recent auto shows and discussing the unique inventory at Classic Auto Mall. They explore the differences between classic car auctions and the benefits of buying directly from a showroom, emphasizing the importance of thorough inspections. The episode also touches on notable cars like the 57 Pontiac Chieftain and the 78 Chevrolet Malibu station wagon, while reflecting on the evolution of car culture and personal experiences in the automotive world.
auction format
barn find
bidding
Chevy V8
crate 350
Electricville
Formula One
high horsepower
IndyCar
infrared temperature gauge
Alpina Z8
BMW Z4
BMW Z8 Roadster (E52)
Bugatti Chiron
Chevrolet Bel Air
Chevrolet Blazer
Chevrolet Camaro
Chevrolet Chevelle
Chevrolet Corvette
Chevrolet El Camino
Chevrolet Nova
Dodge Charger
Dodge Viper
Ferrari F40
Ford Mustang
Ford Mustang II
GMC Jimmy 3 Doors
GMC Typhoon
Nissan 350Z
Plymouth Barracuda
Plymouth Road Runner
Pontiac Chieftain
Pontiac GTO
Porsche 928
Shelby Cobra
Toyota Tundra
Original notes
Archive Show #075 airdate 02/18/23 Stewart Howden and Steve Saffier talk all things automotive including the value differences between versions and options on similar car and how values can vary widely.
GET OUR FREE APP: https://ClassicAutoMall.appimize.app When it opens click on the ORANGE button to install on your phone or computer for DIRECT ACCESS to our VIDEO and AUDIO shows and our website.
CONTENT NOTE: Contests, Prizes, Offers, Vehicles & other items may no longer be available or offered after each show's original broadcast or posting date.
Recorded in our Showcase Studio just inside the entrance of the Classic Auto Mall in Morgantown, PA, Host Stewart Howden, Classic Auto Mall President and Classic Car Specialist Steve Saffier talk about this unique and amazing place often with amazing guests.
YES...Classic Auto Mall is a REAL former shopping mall that covers almost EIGHT football fields with an average of nearly ONE THOUSAND classic vehicles under one, climate controlled roof and they're all FOR SALE!
Be sure to LIKE and SUBSCRIBE to be informed of new episodes and SEE them on the Classic Auto Mall YouTube Channel. We also invite you to VISIT US IN PERSON at Classic Auto Mall, one hour west of Philadelphia at PA Turnpike Exit #298, VISIT us online at ClassicAutoMall.com or talk to real, live people about visiting, buying or selling your classic on consignment at 888-227-0914.
.
Classic Auto Mall SHOW
Stewart Howden
0:00
57:52