Our Potomac Chapter President has been very good about going to cruise-ins and local car shows and he has been successful in collecting new members. The DC metropolitan area is fortunate to have a cruise-in/car show guru that posts weekly notices of all the shows in the area. He and Steve became friends and between the two of them they arranged for us to visit a stunning private collection in the high dollar area of Maryland. Just seeing the estate was enough, but the garages... unbelievable. The owner is a very astute buyer of fully restored rare cars. He told us that it's almost impossible to make enough money on a restoration so he waits and buys the expensive cars for significantly less than the restoration cost. Fortunately he has a soft spot for Studebakers. He bought the '64 GT at Hershey. He knew it had a $50,000 restoration and he couldn't believe the stalled auction price of $16,000 so he put in the next bid and got it. He told us the 1940 Buick woodie had a $400,000 restoration, 5,000 hours of work. His '58 Packard Hawk is very special to him (and it's drop dead gorgeous). Yes, he knows the wire wheels aren't authentic, but he likes them and they do look good. The Packard Hawk is in the garage under his guest house along with some others including his Mercedes 300 SEL which he said would probably bring about $2,000,000 in the better auctions.
I think his total number of cars was a little over 20, but my memory isn't so good any more. He said one of his cars was out of town- gone to Pebble Beach. Every one of his cars are drive ready and he does drive them all periodically.
I guess I must have run over my picture limit and some didn't post. I'll try to add some of the interesting ones in a later response.
I think his total number of cars was a little over 20, but my memory isn't so good any more. He said one of his cars was out of town- gone to Pebble Beach. Every one of his cars are drive ready and he does drive them all periodically.
I guess I must have run over my picture limit and some didn't post. I'll try to add some of the interesting ones in a later response.
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