The Exotic Car Marketplace

• Everyone has an origin, and your automotive past is quite extensive – where did it all get started? What is Sixty5 Motorsports? What were the Porsche and Ferrari Marketplaces? Rocks & Revs?
• Many people have contested “cars are a bad investment” – is this true? How have they not become a depreciating asset? How do you tell the difference between an investment and a money pit? 
• There are many types of car collectors out there, many folks just jump on marketplace or AutoTrader or maybe through their local car club. But when and where does “discrete purchasing” come into play? 
• Thoughts on the current collector market – thoughts on Bring-a-Trailer?
• Tips & Tricks for buying collector cars (for the newbie and the veteran) 

and much, much more!

Crew Chief Brad: [00:00:00] BreakFix podcast is all about capturing the living history of people from all over the autosphere, from wrench turners and racers to artists, authors, designers, and everything in between. Our goal is to inspire a new generation of petrolheads that wonder How did they get that job or become that person?

The road to success is paved by all of us because everyone has a story.

Crew Chief Eric: A bespoke showcase, uniquely incorporating Porsche DNA at its heart. Authenticity and legitimacy due to the family position of the company’s founder and international car designer Christopher Reitz. Design and styling cues interpreted from iconic road and racing Porsches of the past combined with Feuerbach hand built craftsmanship and ultra low production creating for each owner a supercar that’s like no other.

With over 20 years of experience in the automotive market, our guests can source and sell that [00:01:00] specific exotic collector car that you desire. Some of you might know or have bought from William Ross, the founder of the Porsche and Ferrari marketplaces, but most recently he has taken on the role as sales director at Fuhrerbach Porsche.

And he’s here to talk to us about how you can purchase your first or maybe your next collector car. Welcome to Break Fix, William. Hey, thanks for having me. I appreciate it. Like we always say on this show, everybody has an origin story, but I had to start off with, well, who’s William Ross? You know, you have quite the extensive automotive past.

How did you get started?

William Ross: This sounds like I met my therapist. Who am I? I guess you’re going way back to the start, how this all got in my blood. Since I could walk, I’ve always had something to do. I had wheels and a motor, started riding and racing motorcycles at five. Then got into carts and still motorcycles, then moved into cars.

And as you get older, you know, you get stuff that’s bigger and faster. So it’s just kind of, I’ve always been in that aspect of it. [00:02:00] And it’s always been in my blood. I guess, you know, the petrol head in me through and through. So it’s just one of those things wanting to be involved somehow, some way to earn your living and be in part of it.

So it’s like finding that right way that, Hey, I can do something I love and also pay my bills with it. And I’ve just been fortunate enough to be, I don’t want to say the right place, right time, but you know, just, you know, you follow your passion and usually you can figure out ways to support yourself and have fun doing it.

The adage is, you know, if you do something that you love, you won’t work a day in your life. That’s kind of my motto and what I’ve usually just done pretty much my whole life. You know, you meet a lot of great people, the industry, the market, everything, the racing side of it, even much more so. It’s very family oriented.

Great industry and great thing to be a part of and be involved in. You’re very

Crew Chief Eric: right about that. I mean, you’re very passionate about cars and, you know, you look at your LinkedIn posts and things like that. You’re always posting something, you know, from the past, especially, but always inspiring and bringing us back into the heyday of motorsports, but always surrounding Porsches and Ferraris.

What’s the affinity [00:03:00] behind those two?

William Ross: It’s just the two marquees that I’ve always been just really passionate and attracted to. You know, I love everything out there. That’s also built Mercedes is great. You know, I’ve had plenty of BMWs in my life and Mercedes. The lineage, the history, the passion is tied to those two.

Enzo, what he did with Ferrari built for us. And then Ferrari did with Porsche, you know, and just coming up, it’s, you know, respectful of what they were able to accomplish, especially in the times that they started manufacturing and building those cars, Enzo basically started around the time when world war II was coming out and, you know, It was with Alfa Romeo, but then the war hit and he was doing spindles and that kind of stuff.

And then got into the cars and then very, you know, he unfortunately had to do some stuff for, we won’t mention anyone’s name. Got away from that, was able to build what he could, you know, under scrutiny. I want to say persecution, but you know, a lot of people didn’t want to deal with them. And the fact is just because of what his history was.

And it was unfortunate, but persevered and got through it. You know, the great thing about Porsche, you look at what he was able to do, in essence, a Volkswagen engine. It’s a little boxer engine, [00:04:00] air cooled, but then he took the car and light, fast, you know, and just made it what it is. You know, Enzo, his most important aspect of the car is the engine.

The body’s just built around it for the engines to go faster. If you want to turn, go do something else. You know, it’s just all about speed. Those are two brands I’ve always just been really drawn to. I just, their history, the lineage, just everything done, especially in motorsports. That probably is one of the biggest factors too, is just, you know, what they’ve done historically wise, you know, they conquered many, many of different types of racing.

So it’s, and me being the racer that I am, it’s just kind of respect, I guess.

Crew Chief Eric: And what’s ironic about that is it’s probably the one of the longest bloodiest feuds between two manufacturers in the motorsports world. If there ever was one, right, you see all the time. Oh, well, you know, Mercedes at the top of formula one and Toyota just won Le Mans again.

And then, and then that, but there’s nothing nearly as just Wrenching as the wars between Porsche and Ferrari, and it’s across all the different disciplines of motor sport. You know, Lamont’s 23 coming up here. We go [00:05:00] again. Porsche says, I’m coming out with the LMP, you know, GTP car. And Ferrari goes, so are we.

We’ll see you there, right?

William Ross: I told my wife that does it look, I go, um, plan our vacation next year as we’re going to Lamont. Cause it’s going to be unbelievable. I mean, not just those two marquees. I mean, you got all these other manufacturers come back and a shout out to Glickenhaus. I tell you what, they’re holding their own great to see a small specialist like that be able to hold their own again, especially, you know, going against Toyota.

I think they did well, you got some mega companies spending 500, 600, if not more on their racing program for that. And Glickenhaus comes in, they’re spending, you know, maybe 10, 15 million a year. Be able to do what they can and they’re just going to get better. It’s going to be awesome next year for that series.

I just love the fact that it’s taken so long for both sides of the pond to finally agree, look, let’s stop battling each other. Let’s make this work for both entities. So the manufacturers can do both instead of having to pick and choose, which is going to be the one where they want to focus [00:06:00] their marketing dollars on.

Is it going to be the United States and that market? Are we going to take, let’s go Europe. It’s awesome to see that they finally realize that, Hey, they need to play together.

Crew Chief Eric: The upcoming partnership between WEC and IMSA, I think is a long time coming, not only for the racers and the organizers, but for the fans as well, because it just got confusing with the classes and this car runs here and runs there, but it’s not the same, but it isn’t, you know, and I think that’s a good turn of the page looking forward, especially at the hundredth year.

anniversary of the first running of Le Mans being next year. But let’s step backwards into part of your career in both the Porsche and Ferrari marketplaces. What was that all about?

William Ross: It’s one of those situations where I was at a time on the restoration side. some fab shops, not so much doing the complete restoration, but actually handling specific metal fabrication of parts for the manufacturing side.

And so you start dealing with clients. They have one car, they got 10 cars kind of flows in the conversation. You get them to start talking and [00:07:00] then they say, well, I might be thinking about selling this. I think you might know anybody. Well, as a matter of fact, I do, because so and so over here, he’s working on this, but I know he wants to get that.

It’s just connections and networking, and it just kind of went from there, grew and grew, turned into a job, so to speak. And I hate calling it a job, because it’s not really a job, because I love what I do, but it just grew from that. It took a lot of time, but it’s just getting to know people and meeting people, and we’ll touch on it, you know, later in this conversation.

People don’t realize a lot of transactions, In the collector car world, especially the dollar marks, you hit, you start getting at that 500, 000 and up, or especially when you’re in seven figure ranging up 50 to 60 percent are done behind the scenes. If not, maybe a little bit more. It’s just done amongst people that know people because they don’t really want their business being put out there for public in the world.

And once you post something somewhere with evaluation to it, saying, Hey, I want X, that’s where your thing, you’re saying what the cars were. You know, same kind of thing, taking cars to auction, you’re kind of pigeonholing yourself to what the value could be. [00:08:00] You look at the history of the car ownership, racing history.

There’s so much you can tack onto a car that adds value to it. And this day and age, you know, the research you can do, and there’s so many individuals out there and companies that can get you that history and photos, everything, documentation. People want something that’s got that something to it, not just something that Bob down the street owned it for 20 years and just kind of drove it around the block and went to church with it.

That was it. They want something tangible. They want something that’s got some history to it because they love talking about their cars. Kind of going back to like why Porsche and Ferrari, those seem to be the ones that I dealt with the most when that seemed to be the cars seem to have the most action in regards to people moving them, selling them, trading them, doing all that kind of stuff.

So it just kind of went

Crew Chief Eric: that way. Folks that listen to this show have probably realized by now, you know, I’m a big fan of the nine 14 and there’s plenty of them out there, but there’s a difference between buying a nine 14, six GT, or even a replica nine, 14, six GT and buying the Duval Sunoco number five, or by the Jaeger Meister [00:09:00] nine 14, which by the way was the first Jaeger Meister liveried Porsche was a nine 14, six GT stuff like that.

The value it’s priceless. There is no value. And to your point, The minute you put, let’s say, the Jagermeister 914 up on the auction block, suddenly it becomes real. Suddenly, it has a limit. It has that glass ceiling, right? Versus, I guess, those behind the scenes sales are more like selling fine art. It doesn’t get talked about, but you know it happens, and they’re moving around, right?

William Ross: Oh, exactly. That’s it completely. You put it in an auction environment or you put it just selling wise, but in auction environment, you know, you got two people bidding on it. The one person that really wants it will just go that much higher that he has to than the another person. Whereas that guy that really wants the car would have spent 50 percent more or something, but if he spoke to someone new or reached out and find out, cause he wanted that car and just what it was.

And you know, a lot of these means something to a lot of people too. They have a connection to it. It really kind of helps regarding value wise and what it’s actually worth.

Crew Chief Eric: So as a broker of [00:10:00] fine automobiles, when you were dealing with the Porsches and the Ferraris, did you run the gamut or did you have to narrow your focus and say, no, I’m not going to sell 944s and 308s.

I’m only going to sell these types of cars, maybe air cooled Porsches or only 250 series Ferraris or something like that. How did you limit or was your scope very, very wide?

William Ross: No, it’s limited. If when I started now, obviously to be stopped, you’re going to start with everything, then you start really have to narrow your focus.

I want to say become that specialist, but you know, everything I deal in basically in the Ferrari side, it’s your fifties, sixties, early seventies. Now I’ll get into the two eight eight GTOs, F forties, you know, a lot of Ferraris and that kind of stuff. You have the higher dollar stuff, you know, that are very special collectible side.

Porsche, basically the same thing, all air cooled stuff. But I’ll get into some of the stuff that’s a little on the rare side. That’s a bit newer, but not a lot, very, very little. If I have a client that I’ve dealt with for a long time, and for some reason they’re looking for 2014 four liter or whatnot, okay, I’ll help.

Of course, [00:11:00] but it’s not something I’ll actively go out and pursue or do. I want to say they’re a dime a dozen, but you go through any of the books, you go through sports car marketplace, you can put any of the magazines or you go online. There’s so many miles there to deal. Hey, we just, whatever you want.

If it’s got a course badge on it, Hey, we sell it. You know, you really spread yourself thin. Yeah. You’re going to find one or two people out there that really know everything. Cause that’s all they did was immerse themselves. You want to know what you’re dealing with, the specifics, history, background. They only built X amount of these with that and everything along those lines.

I really narrowed my focus to those, uh, I can say years and models in both marquees. Yeah. So

Crew Chief Eric: let’s say you ran from the 50s up through almost the Malaise era or the beginning of the Malaise era, where obviously in the Porsche world, that’s where the 924s and 44s were introduced, the 930 turbos came on the scene, in the 928s you started to get these more almost commodity Porsches at that point, and the same with Ferrari, you had the 308 was on the main stage thanks to Magnum PI and all that kind of stuff, but if you look at the times ahead of that, from let’s say the [00:12:00] 80s forward, Are there some rare cars in there that would fit the mold?

And I’m going to throw an example out here for you. Something like the Carrera GT, which is so unique in the Porsche world, that it’s an instant classic that then runs right alongside of some of these vintage cars you’re dealing with. Are there other ones like that, that you’ve handpicked out of the modern era?

William Ross: Oh yeah, the GT one, the Carrera GT, definitely, you know, you get those special, and I think Porsche is kind of, I want to say jumped on that bandwagon, but they’ve started doing limited run on certain miles. Like that new sport classic they’re coming out with. Tried to get on the list for that thing, but that was just impossible.

That thing’s gorgeous. It’s a great car. They’re only doing 1250 of them, stuff like that. You start getting into where, yes, because you’re talking 1250 worldwide. All of a sudden you got a very rare marketable car, you’re going to have a lot of people clamoring for something along those lines. As soon as they announced that, my email box and phone was blowing up wanting to try and get one.

I [00:13:00] was able to help a couple people out. They paid the premium, but they wanted it. I want to say it’s a case by case basis. Going on the Ferrari side, say a 360 or especially a 430, manual, okay? The 360s, you know, you can find the manuals not easily, but relative easily. But the 430 manuals, now those are very difficult to hire.

You can pay a premium. They hardly build any in the 430. So you’re getting the kind of those ones, the rarity of them. And if there was such a limited build of them, I’ll definitely get into it. Because those are the ones that people are really starting to want, especially on the Ferrari side with the manuals.

If it’s got a six speed in it, you’re going to pay through the teeth on the newer stuff. It’s finding those ones. And it gets kind of fun with those, especially them being newer. You’re not afraid to drive them. It’s better ownership experience, especially for the person that that’s the only Ferrari, or that’s one that they’ll ever buy, or the first one they’ve ever bought.

It’s like, look, if you want something analog, you want to be part of it. Getting to the newer stuff, it’s pick and choose, but you know, there it’s got to be something special about it. To be involved in part of it.

Crew Chief Eric: So does that apply to the [00:14:00] newest of the new as well? And I’m referencing basically the EVs, right?

We have things like the Tecan and on the Ferrari side. I cringe every time I say the words, Ferrari, SUV, these things that are coming to bear to market. Now, are they gonna be collectible in the future or are they just gonna be commonplace? I don’t see ’em being collectible.

William Ross: I, I honestly don’t. Sorry. Uh, EVs, there’s so many manufacturers coming out with an EV, the herd will get thin who’s can last, but I just don’t see it because until they can create the battery for the car that can last and you can recharge it, you know, in five minutes, 10 minutes, what have you, I mean, there’s, I just don’t see it.

And. The car won’t last the battery, but those things will change so much in regards to design capability, you know, what the battery can perform. I just don’t see that being a clutch because it’ll be a paperweight sitting there. It’s unfortunate because like that Tican, gorgeous car. I love that the Sport Turismo is awesome.

I’m a big wagon fan. I love wagons. You know, I, I [00:15:00] think that’s gorgeous when I get one at two, yeah, but I mean, I don’t think I’d pay that much for it because you won’t be able to go on a road trip because I’m not a person who likes to sit somewhere for a couple of hours, charging up my car, trying to figure out something to do.

I just don’t see it being collectibles. I just don’t see it happening. I mean, will they hold value? Yeah, but they’re not going to be something 20 years from now, you’re going to be paying, you know, five times what sticker was or 10 times sticker. I just don’t see it happening. You said

Crew Chief Eric: you liked wagons.

What do you think of that Ferrari station wagon that came out a couple years ago? Cool. Cool. You know about the FF and the GT4 Lusso

William Ross: now? Yes, yes. Honest and butt ugly. Yeah, I’ll be honest, I don’t, I don’t like a whole lot of punches. When I drive one, heck yeah. It’s a great car because it’s all wheel drive.

You can put some all season or winter tires on it. Drive it winter, just eight. have some fun, but I just ugly. Well, let me ask yo

Crew Chief Eric: on, say you’re in the boa to decide between the [00:16:00] ven

William Ross: Oh, they have 40 all day long. I love that nine, five nines. Great. You know, I’ve driven one it’s phenomenal. I mean, just what you get out of it, but I’ve also had the opportunity.

This is some years ago, but I drove an F40 once, you know, it wasn’t very long. It wasn’t like I had all day with it, but God, the experience of that F40, it’s such a, just, I would say bare bones car. If you ever even sat in one, you get the feeling. So you just look inside, there’s nothing in that interior.

You got your engine right behind you, your two seats, you got your steering wheel, your pedals and the gear selector and go. I mean, it’s such a raw experience, man. It’s just phenomenal all day long. It’d be the F40. You

Crew Chief Eric: know, I’ve heard it described. Many times that the nine 59, it was space age technology in the late eighties and it was well ahead of its time.

And it still sort of is. And there’s a lot of things that newer Porsches take from it. It is technologically superior. It is an amazing piece of German engineering, but the F 40 is [00:17:00] like when fire was presented to the cave men for the first time. And suddenly like, You ignite and you’re lit with passion.

And it’s like, Oh my God, this is the ultimate vehicle ever built ever. It’s just, it doesn’t matter how good the 959 is.

William Ross: You said it right there in your comment. German engineering is so it’s buttoned up tight collar. I mean, everything’s to its nth degree engineered wise and stuff like that. Then you got the Italians over there.

Oh, just build it. We’ll go. It’s two completely different things. And you’re right. A hundred percent. Bruce Canavan, what he’s doing out in California with the 959s, upgrade them and do what he’s doing. No, he’s just making them that much better. They’re fabulous cars, but it’s just two completely different driving experiences.

And

Crew Chief Eric: it goes

William Ross: back to that

Crew Chief Eric: rivalry, right? If there was a rivalry for the modern times, it’s still those two cars. We can go back to that point in automotive history and go 959 versus F40. I mean, Ferrari versus Porsche all the way. Oh yeah, completely, completely. So let’s step back into your origin story just a [00:18:00] little bit.

So what is 65 Motorsports?

William Ross: That’s pretty much my umbrella company that I put everything under. The 65 is actually a number I raised. So I just created 65 Motorsports. I basically run everything under that, but I took that entity. kind of transitioned it into events and fundraising type stuff under that umbrella under 65.

Crew Chief Eric: We all know that Cleveland rocks and you’re from the greater Cleveland area, but a lot of people might not know that you were the chairman and founder of something known as Rocks and revs touted as one of the most exciting automotive concours in the country, combining cars and music and how they influence one another.

And we actually talked about this on several other episodes. So I want to get your take on why a concour, what influenced you to start it? And let’s dig into rocks and revs just a little bit more. Why not

William Ross: send it? You know, I go to all these events. throughout the years, all over the country. One day, I’m like, why do we not have [00:19:00] an event like that here in Cleveland?

The North Coast Harbor’s got the Rock Roll Hall of Fame, the Great Lakes Science Center, and the Browns stand right there. It’s all on the waterfront. Gorgeous area to host something. So I said, Hey, let me make a phone call to the Rock Roll Hall of Fame, see if they’re interested. Call them up. Yeah, that sounds great.

I’m interested. Call the Science Center. Yeah, that’d be great. Call the Browns. Oh, definitely. We’d like to be a part of something along those lines. Okay, so I think I might have something here. Call the city of Cleveland, set up a meeting, bam, they’re on board. Love the idea. Yeah, go ahead. Let’s do this.

Whatever we got to do to help you. Hey, put it all together. So it just kind of grew from that. It’s kind of say, Hey, look, you know, music influences cars, cars, influence music, both ways. Rock and roll, rock and reps just kind of came together real quick. The science centered aspect of it is we’re trying to create the history of the car where it went from where it came.

So it works out perfectly in regards to what we can have at the event. You know, we have miles ahead on board, they’re going to set up, they do a fundraising. What they do is they set up a track with electric carts, which is awesome. So we got them on board. So we have a couple of things come out. We’re raffling off a [00:20:00] 1972 Corvette.

That’s where one of the places we’re raising money for, for Island Safe Harbor Animal Sanctuary. The other entities involved, you know, Make A Wish and the Cleveland Clinic Pediatric College Department. And we’re pretty close. Hopefully we can get University Hospitals, Rainbow Babies Children’s Hospital also as one of the beneficiaries.

They’re all involved because I’m a wish granter and I work with Make A Wish. I volunteer at the Island State Harbor Animal Sanctuary. It’s one of those things where it just made sense. I always live life, it’s easier to ask. If someone says no, all right, hey, you gave it a shot. But everyone I spoke to and everyone I got to is, So enthusiastic about it and got to the point where I guess I got to do this.

So we’re on schedule for next year to have our inaugural event. And one of the other cool things I’m trying to get set up with the Model T club of Northern Ohio. We want to have it where we’ll teach you how to drive a Model T like over an hour. They’ll teach how to drive it. Cause I don’t know if you’ve ever driven one or been in those seats.

They’re fun. Once you get to figure it out or take it for a ride, we’re trying to have the events within the event to generate more money. In regards to that, that we can, you know, [00:21:00] donate to the entities involved.

Crew Chief Eric: So that being said, what do you think is the best pairing in terms of music era and car? Oh,

William Ross: that’s a tough

Crew Chief Eric: one.

William Ross: Obviously, I go into got with the beach boys, kind of get in the sixties. If you think of Janis Joplin and her Porsche, you kind of go in the seventies and I always go right to a lot of the guys, especially John Bonham from Led Zeppelin and the cars he had. He had some great cars. Outrageous stuff. And then you go into the eighties, the Jaguar calling over it’s always there.

So a specific one, I wouldn’t say like, Oh, it’s always gotta be this. I mean, I’m a big fan of music and I listened to all genres, you know, everything from the fifties, sixties, seventies, eighties, nineties. Oh, you see that influence there. And I don’t know if you ever had the opportunity. I wouldn’t listen to you on the rock hall.

You know, they have a lot of stuff in there. It kind of goes along those lines, you know, songs that were influenced by a car and. So is

Crew Chief Eric: there an ultimate music video car?

William Ross: Well, you’d have to go with the Ferrari, and I can’t drive 55 from Sammy Hagar. Oh, that’s a good one. You [00:22:00] know, that car was the focal point of the video, him driving, you know, everything.

It was, you know, it wasn’t kind of in the background. It didn’t have some woman crawling all over it. You know, it was the car, it was getting wrung out. In my mind, that was probably one of the ones I remember the most is that one.

Crew Chief Eric: Before we transition to talking about Fuhrerbach, one last Pitstop question for you.

What’s the sexiest car of all time in your opinion? Most beautiful, gorgeous, whatever adjective you’d like to use.

William Ross: It’s going to be probably a cliche or whatnot, but my mind is the 250 GTO. A lot of people say, Oh, you know, the E type, you know, Enzo, you said it was the most beautiful car you ever seen, that kind of stuff.

You go up on a GTO and you’re like right next to it. And smelling it and putting your head inside whatnot. I mean, that’s one I’ve never had the opportunity to drive or even go for a ride in, unfortunately. So fingers crossed one of these days, but you don’t realize how small it is till you’re standing next to it.

You see one person, it’s small. You look at the photos, you think, Oh, it’s kind of some big, long photos. It’s like, no, I think small. And again, it kind of just to the rawness of it. [00:23:00] That car, when it was built, there really were no drawings done. They just built it, put it together. And it started with the one designer kind of finished with the other, what they came up with was phenomenal.

And look, it’s racing history. I want to say unbeatable, but that thing was pretty close to it. To me, I think that’s just one of the most beautiful cars ever made. A long history

Crew Chief Eric: in the automotive world, and now you find yourself at Führerbach Porsche. Tell us, what is Führerbach? What do you do in there?

What’s it all about?

William Ross: I’d known one of the individuals for a little while, and he did work and stuff with Chris Reitz, who’s the designer. Anyone knows Chris or looks him up, he said he was head of design at Alfa Romeo and Nissan. He is a member of the Porsche family tree, so it’s got that DNA in it. When they show me the initial drawings of it, my jaw dropped.

I was like, this thing is absolutely stunning. But what he’s got, he’s got the homage to the 60s cars, the Abarths and that, taking the hood scoop, minimalized the interior. It was just a gorgeous, gorgeous car. And I [00:24:00] really liked what we’re putting together in regards to when you look at it and know what it is and what we’re building immediately, everyone’s going to think a Singer because they’re the big whale in the room.

They kind of started this craze, but you know, they’re taking, you know, The nine 64 series and that nicely three series. And I always say, yo, they’re basically tightening them up, cleaning up the lines and just taking the interior, going to the nines on them. They’re gorgeous cars, but that’s one of those situations where you see that going down the road.

It sounds good. Don’t know it’s a nine 11, but they’re not going to know it’s a singer. Less someone knows cars or loves cars with this. Yo, especially you’re taking a newer generation car, the nine, nine, seven series cars, turn them into a mid engine car, like the RSR race cars. And just changing all the body panels out because it gets stripped down to the shell.

And then it’s all carbon fiber body panels bespoke to the owner. And we’re only building 25 of them. It’s very exclusive regards to ownership. I really like that aspect of it because it’s not just like, Hey, we’ll just start taking as many deposits as we can. And when we get to it, we’ll build you a [00:25:00] car.

We’re limited what it was, you know, we’ll have subsequent models that also come out after this one. I love the 911. It’s a great car. What Chris was able to do with this car design wise, it just really took it to a different level. Everyone I’ve showed initial stuff to just rant and rave about it. It’s a fantastic car.

The entities we got involved that are doing the building of the car, manufacturing of it, all the components going into it, you’re picking the best of the best and putting them on the car and just making something that is going to be built wise, structure wise. Just performance wise, it’s going to be a fabulous, fabulous car.

We’re excited about it. And I’m really excited about it. Cause it’s not taking something brand new, building it from scratch. Like, Hey, we’re going to build a whole brand new car, but it almost is kind of along those lines. We’re taking a car and building a new car. It’s an exciting process to be involved with, especially from day one, going through the process in regards to, okay, getting everything put together, getting the manufacturing side of it, what are we going to put in it?

Okay. What’s our message? What’s our brain? I really enjoy [00:26:00] doing that. And it was something that I jumped in wholeheartedly with when they approached me about it.

Crew Chief Eric: So outside of becoming mid engine, is there any performance changes to the vehicle happening? Or is it still going to be whatever power plant was in the shell, whether it be a 997 normally aspirator or turbo or whatever you’re working with, or is it totally new engines?

If

William Ross: they want turbo put on it, but when we start, it’s going to be the GT three engine, but what happened is that they will get completely dismantled and gone through it, but it’s going to get rebuilt with Porsche Motorsport internals, camshafts and that, and just depending on what the owner wants to do.

Horsepower wise, big question. You ask them, what’s your intention with the car? Is this something you’re going to take Canyon carving on weekends, long distance road trip, Or is it a track day car? That’s the first question you ask. What is your intention with the car? What do you want to do with it? Then we build the car to what they want to do with the car.

You’re going to be no less than 560, 570 horsepower in the motor, you know, after it’s redone, but it can just go up from there. It just depends on what you’re going to do you want something that you’re going to be able to drive in traffic and not have to rev it out to [00:27:00] RPM to really enjoy it with the cam you got in it, all right, we built it that way.

It’s building a bespoke car for that individual. to what they want to do. Being able to have that opportunity is just fantastic. It’s a lot of fun too. A couple of people we’ve got, you know, spoken to they’re interested about getting a car. It’s a completely different experience starting basically from scratch with this car.

What do you want to do with it? Yeah, I asked that question to people though in other aspects looking for a Ferrari or Porsche or the classic side. What do you want to do with the car? But you know, this is completely different because, okay, now you’re going to do that. We can build this set up with this boat.

You know, it’s so fun. I mean, it’s just, it’s exhilarating.

Crew Chief Eric: This tradition of taking 9 11s and extremely modifying them goes back quite a long ways. You know, Singer wasn’t the first, right? They came in line behind Ruth and Gambala and other names that were doing the same thing for decades. And so it makes me wonder though, Why always the 911?

Is there no room for the next generation? Reimagine 928 or 944 [00:28:00] or something else that’s in the line? Why

William Ross: always the 911? I want to say the abundance availability of cars. Obviously, there’s quite a few 944s out there and stuff. You know, there’s a decent amount of 928s. I’m trying to remember the name. I just saw it the other day and I read an article about it.

Someone is doing a 928 and going along those lines. With the 911, you have so many different choices from model years that you can tweak it to what you want, pull that engine out, you know, people stuff an LS in them if they want. What you start with, what you have, it’s just, it’s open to so much interpretation by the designer.

I think it’s just, it’s an easy choice to go with because the flexibility to create your vision is that much easier. The 944, you’re not going to get much out of that four cylinder engine.

Crew Chief Eric: That doesn’t mean you couldn’t put a V8 in its place. I mean, you guys are putting a GT3 motor in a 997. You’re kind of losing what

William Ross: the 944 is, and you’re just creating this hot rod, so to speak.

911, you’re still using, That six cylinder is basically came with building it up to what this, I mean, so you kind of don’t lose that. It’s [00:29:00] always different when you look at a car that, you know, it came with the four cylinder, but it’s got a V8 in it now.

Crew Chief Eric: You do have the option though, with let’s say a 944 as an example to use the Audi or Volkswagen base two liter turbo, which is an excellent motor, makes tons more power.

You can get 400 horsepower out of it and it’s still a four banger.

William Ross: Maybe the thing is about though, if someone looks at the 944, see this, the poor man’s Porsche. Like the

Crew Chief Eric: 308 Ferrari, right? It’s like the 308

William Ross: Ferrari. As the years go on, especially as the transition goes from the gas, you know, EVs here, trying to keep the classics on the road more.

I think you’re going to start seeing more of those along the lines. They might electrify it. You know, look at Everati, what they’re doing. They’re doing a great job. Their cars are gorgeous. EV West, right? With all the old 556s and stuff. Exactly. I’m sure I’ve seen a lot more of them. Only time will tell. It takes someone that’s got that mindset and the vision for it, and creates something that people love.

Creates that demand. If you do it right, there’s always a buyer out there.

Crew Chief Eric: Maybe the real answer is you couldn’t really approve on the 968, so we just have to leave it where it is.

William Ross: No, [00:30:00] and you mentioned RUF. I was over in Germany a few years ago, and I went to their factory. What they put out of that was a gorgeous shop.

Not very big, but that new car that they came out with, where they created the shell itself and everything like that. God, that thing is absolutely stunning. If I had the means, I would get my hands on one of those in a heartbeat.

Crew Chief Eric: Which is actually a great segue into my next question about Fuerbach. RUF originally was doing what, you know, Singer is doing now, harvesting existing vehicles and modifying them and things like that.

But RUF eventually got to the point where they started building their own chassis. They were awful close to real 911 chassis, but they weren’t vinned from Porsche, right? They’re RUF cars now. So, and to your point, they’re bodying them. They’re doing all these kinds of stuff out of their small shop there.

So do you see the same sort of future at Furerbach when they move into maybe their future model lines and things like that, or will it always be based on something that came from the factory?

William Ross: I would love it. Cause somewhere down the road, we get to that point, but obviously that’s a long process to get there.

And my guess [00:31:00] is I’ll either be in the ground or I’ll be going around on my jazzy scooter, you know, down in Florida where I’m a lot of plaid. That’s where we want to take it and get it to that point, you know, obviously, Hey, you gotta, you know, take your first step and go, but that would be the plan and the path to take is to get to that point.

Then you have so much more control over what you can build and how you want to present it. Instead of taking an existing thing, you’re kind of stuck with regards to what you can do with what you’re working from. Unless you start hacking it up, re engineering thing and doing all this welding to it, then, okay, well, you might as well just build a whole new car anyways.

But again, when you’re at that point, where are we going to be at? Is it going to have to be electric or are you going to still harvest? I mean, I don’t know. I love what Porsche is doing in regards to make that push with that synthetic fuel. They make that affordable. That could be a game changer for the internal combustion engine, getting a second lease in life, so to speak, in regards to some more longevity to it.

Carbon emission wise, basically zero. Solves the problem, you know, the greenhouse thing was coming out of the car. I’m really [00:32:00] excited about that what they’re doing. I don’t know if you saw, you know, F1 race, but I know before Sam, you know, he had bought the red number five, Nigel’s old car. He did a demonstration run it and they were running the synthetic fuel in it.

Let that thing rip and there’s nothing like the sound of that V10. That’s just music. That’s just music.

Crew Chief Eric: In what you were saying there about, you know, building your own car, what do you end up with and all that, I think that’s a tip of the hat to what you said earlier about Glickenhaus. Kind of where do you end up?

You end up there with a unique vehicle that’s out there kicking butt, that’s designed in such a new, new but retro way. That’s the one thing I want to say about those cars. We kind of take a look at what you guys are doing at Fuhrerbach, the new car. I looked at some of the pictures that are in the press material and whatnot.

It’s a gorgeous car. It has to your point, the lines of a Barth and Zagato, and even some of the five 50 is in there and mixed in and things like that. It’s a beautiful car by no stretch of the imagination, but a lot of people are probably thinking, well, if you’re only going to make 25 of them, when are we ever going to see one or people buying these as a model car, or are we going to see the first [00:33:00] Fuerbach at Amelia or at pebble or some sort of event like that, what’s the future look like for the final product?

William Ross: It’s going to be a tight stretch to try and get for a million next year to have probably more than likely not a running, obviously driving car, but we could have a one to one scale model where we’d really have to get our ducks in a row, like right quick, like within the next month to be able to put it together, to do it, but more than likely it’d be at an event for her sometime in 2023, as for like seeing it now, like we’re just going to build a 25 some off and then, Hey, come across one.

In a blue moon. Hey, there you go. I mean, we’ll definitely have cars that we’re going to take out to events and shows. We really want to build the brand and Fuhrerbach name out there. Doing those 25, the subsequent cars that go along behind it that we’ll have and we’ll build. We want to be able to have multiple models going on at once also.

We don’t want to just build 25 and disappeared and also come back a couple of years later with something else, you know, we need to stay in people’s minds and out there. So we’re going to be hitting events, showing people the car. [00:34:00] Once we do have production ready car, we’ll have the one where we’ll send it around to all the online, you know, all the magazines, the publications, you know, driving or whatnot and get, you know, feedback and what have you.

Our intent is so people will be able to see the car. Cause we want to build up that brand and the name.

Crew Chief Eric: Yeah. And I

William Ross: want to

Crew Chief Eric: remind our listeners to, you know, 25 cars, 25 cars, that’s nothing, but these are hand built vehicles. There’s not a lot of manufacturers that are hand building cars anymore. Even if they are being harvested from existing chassis.

I mean, you look at like the story of Zampoli when he built the Susetta, he was cranking those cars out by himself. And he could only put out so many in a year. I forget what the number was. It was probably less than 20 in a year, but it was absolutely nutty. And to be able to do that and you guys have a team and you’re getting all this stuff done.

And 25, that’s a good number for something that, you know, you’re taking a car, tearing it down, re imagining it, and then putting it back out there with immense amounts of detail. I mean, again, it’s a gorgeous car and I can’t wait to see one in [00:35:00] person. And hopefully one of the big shows,

William Ross: especially for the owner, the people that are going to buy the car.

Our other goal was to make this an exclusive card. So to your point, like you say, when would you see one? You’re not going to run into one of these at a cars and coffee, maybe out Malibu or something like that on one of the days. But other than that, you’re not going to run into it down the corner. Sloppy Bob’s bar and grill, whatever, you know, it ain’t going to happen.

You know, and that’s what we want to build is, you know, you start getting saturation with the model and the car, then it just becomes, Oh, everyone’s got one of those. Now you see them all over. We want to make it and keep it exclusive for the owners. And make it something very special that they have in their collection.

Cause obviously the people that can afford to get the car are going to have multiple vehicles in their collection. We’d love to build a car that, Hey, it’s for 75 grand. So anyone almost could come out and get one, but it just way the world works, it can’t happen. And we just want to make this. Such a unique, valuable car to the owner, make it that special for them that they can say, I’m only one of the 25 that have one.

And that’s a rare club. I mean, [00:36:00] it’s like the GTO, people with the McLaren F1, you’re a member of a rather exclusive club. And those guys have a lot of cool events that go on that people don’t know about. Very secretive about, but they all get together and they all talk how they can make another billion dollars from each other and move on the next day.

I

Crew Chief Eric: could probably guarantee you two sightings of the vehicle. You said Malibu and it’ll either be Jerry or Jay driving it. And then, and then probably at the Goodwood Festival where they’re going to put a car like that on display for everybody in the world to see. So I’m looking forward to that. I’m excited about it.

William Ross: Exactly.

Crew Chief Eric: Yeah. If

William Ross: any of your listeners out there know how to get ahold of Seinfeld, get ahold of me, let me know. Get ahold of Eric, get ahold of me. We love to hit him up. It’s up his alley. Love the car. You don’t know until you ask,

Crew Chief Eric: right? That’s right. There’s a butt for every seat, they say. You know, we’re talking about collector vehicles, especially at this point, we’re talking about bespoke specialty vehicles.

Many people will contest that cars are a bad investment. Is that

William Ross: true? You hear all over the place. Everyone says, you know, never [00:37:00] buy a car thinking you’re going to make money on it. I guess it’s true to some extent. You can’t go into, you’re going to double your money in five years. It does happen. If you’re an individual, if that’s your only collectible, you have buy the car that you want to forget about, Hey, it’s going out in the valley, it’s going to hold its value by the car you want, be sure you buy the right car by the best car that you can afford, unless you have the wherewithal to be able to work on your car every weekend, every night of what have you and tinker with it.

That’s what you love to do. So be it. You’re more on the side where I just like to drive, enjoy my car, go to events on it, buy the best that you can afford. Spend that extra 10, 20 grand, whatever it is, you know, if you can stretch it to that point, do it. You’ll appreciate it that much more because nothing will turn you more sour on a car is when you go to drive that won’t start.

Or you go out there, there’s a big puddle of oil, you know, it’s gonna just drive you nuts. If you’re in the industry and the market and you follow it very closely, and that’s what you do, you’ll know what to buy and what to go after. You’ll see the trends. It’s just like the stock market. Get into that, you’re going to have your ups and downs.

But if you buy something [00:38:00] correctly, it will slowly grow. It’s going to drop a little bit here and there, but over a period of time, stick with it, it’s going to gain in value. You just got to buy the right car that’s going to do that. It’s just kind of looking at trends and looking where they go. You can never really go wrong with a sixties Ferrari front engine, V12 Enzo era car.

Those will go up the value by the right Porsche. It’s going to go up in value. You maintain it. You’ll add to it. You know, it’s going to go up. I don’t want to go up one or 2 percent a year, but it’s still going to go up in value. If this is the only car that you ever going to own or buy, take that out of the equation because you’ll just drive yourself nuts and you’ll piss yourself off.

There’s all set. If it loses value, it loses 10, 15%. Okay. The first couple of years you buy it, you know, you’re going to get angry. And if you told your wife that, Hey, that’s why you’re buying it. Cause it’s going to go up in value. That’s how you sold her on it. You’re looking like an idiot, but you know, if you got the means and you have multiple cars, you’re probably going to have someone that knows advising you.

There’s not a lot of guys out there that really buy a car because they know it’s going to go up in value. You got the gentlemen that [00:39:00] are fortunate enough, they’re on the Ferrari list and they can buy that new Ferrari that only X amount of getting, they can turn around and saw it. They’ll make money.

Crew Chief Eric: You don’t necessarily buy the newest car as a collector car.

I guess there’s a balance there. Granted, the guy that bought the 300 SL Gullwing Mercedes when it was new and everybody told him was a fool for buying it because, hey, that’s a depreciating asset. Why would you buy that stupid car with those goofy doors hold onto that car for 40, 50 years? And suddenly it went from, yeah, that was a 6, 000 car in the sixties.

And now it’s a 600, 000 car. You have to have, to your point, a little bit of a crystal ball, but you can’t just buy everything, right? Commodity vehicles. There’s even commodity supercars. There’s even commodity exotics. I mean, I hate to say, look at some of the Lamborghinis post Audi era, where they’re all basically R8s with different skins on them.

There’s a million of them because they became super popular and everybody wanted a Lamborghini again. But it’s that performante, it’s that, you know, whatever, super Leggera version that they [00:40:00] only made 12 of, like the Bugatti Divo, they made 41 of them. That’s the car to buy. Now that’s on the extreme end of this.

I mean, we have different levels of collector. The guy that bought the Viper, the original Viper when it came out, that’s a whole nother story. That car has also gained in value. So, Is it always sports cars? Probably not. Is it always the rarest of the rare? Probably not. But to your point, it’s what’s makes you happy, but I think you need to hold on to it in order to see that value over

William Ross: time.

It’s not something that you can sit in your mind and think, okay, I’m gonna buy this in three to four years. Now I’m going to flip it and make all this money on it or make something. It’s a long term investment where you need to hold on to it for 10, 15, 20 years and maintaining it. And keeping that a great level of performance and keeping that value there, you can’t just sit and go buy it, park it, and let it sit under a tarp in your garage.

Then all of a sudden, 15 years later, you to turn around and sell it for all this money. You got to maintain the car. You got to keep investing in that investment so it can get to that point. [00:41:00] It’s tough when someone comes at that question because they’re not buying a car for the right reasons. So how do you

Crew Chief Eric: tell the difference between an investment and a

William Ross: money

Crew Chief Eric: pit?

William Ross: One, if you’re going to Barney Rubble or Fred Flintstone the thing home, or if you can actually start it and drive it home.

Crew Chief Eric: So I guess, are there some collector cars though, that are just absolute nightmares where some people buy them anyway, and you’re just like, Oh, you kind of cringe every time you see it happen.

William Ross: I hate saying it, you know, E types, great car when they’re running great, but it’s a lot of work to keep them at that level to be able to drive them. In all honesty, you know, Alfa Romeos, they’re also kind of a nightmarish thing to deal with. That’s something if you buy, you better know how to work on a car.

When they run right, they’re awesome. They’re fantastic. It’s all about your commitment level to what you want to have. I guess the big question to ask yourself. Again, it kind of goes back. Do you want to be wrenched on that car every weekend? To be able to drive it that one weekend a month? Or you want something where you can buy it and you only got to wrench on it [00:42:00] once every six months and you’re driving it every other weekend to go to your events, stuff like that, and just doing your little things here and there, changing your oil, whatnot.

It’s all about how someone’s looking at it. It goes back to that question. What do you want to do with this car? What’s your enjoyment? What do you really want to get out of this car? Some people can look at something that’s been sitting out in the farm field for 40 years and pull it out and they see a diamond in the rough and you know, they’ll take five, 10 years to make it show car like it was brand new, where you got someone else that walks up to it, go that thing just should be hacked up and scrapped.

It’s all up to the individual and it’s all house looked at. Someone’s going to see a money pit. Someone else is going to see a diamond in the rough.

Crew Chief Eric: So you brought up a really fantastic point about the Jaguars. The running joke, at least that I know, has always been never buy a Jag with low mileage because you know it never ran.

Yeah, there’s a reason it’s got low miles. Exactly. Well, that being said, we’ve been kind of skirting around this to say there’s different types of car collectors out there. Many folks nowadays, they love the ease of the internet. You got this marketplace and that marketplace and auto trader and cars. [00:43:00] com.

And some people buy cars through their local car club, or it’s like, Hey, this guy’s getting out of this car. You know, he’s getting older. He wants to sell it, whatever word of mouth, but there comes a point. In which you need to cross the threshold and enlist the help of somebody like yourself. And in that discrete purchasing comes into play.

When does that happen? When in the collector life cycle, if you’re really committed to that part of the automotive world, when do you get there? When do you make that transition? One, when you can afford the car,

William Ross: that’s going to be involved at that level. But two, if you’re looking for something very specific, that’s where it helps to get someone like myself involved.

And again, even if it’s, Hey, this is going to be the only car you buy, but take, you got that 250, 500 grand to spend up, but you only want one, but you want this kind of specific one. That’s where you’re getting that involved because. You want to get the value for what you’re paying for, because it’s such a meaningful purchase.

If you’re finding something that’s very unique and hard to find, and you have to know people that know people that, hey, I can get my hands on one, but you’re going to have to pay the premium for [00:44:00] it. That’s where someone like myself gets involved. It kind of goes back into an earlier conversation when you asked, hey, you Is it every Porsche 4R remains?

No, it’s not. It’s very specific ones from specific eras that I’ll deal with. You can go online in the auto trader, all the other sites on there. Bring a trailer and all this stuff. You have all these cars in there. But bring a trailer kind of blazed the trail how these more simplified auction sites got set up.

You know, then they sold out, but then you had all these other cars and bids. You know, Doug DeMuro, you know, launching his. These, all these other ones came out and for 99 bucks, there’s somebody who now says they’re not even charging to list your car. Spring and Trail was at 5%, capped it at 5 grand. Then the next one came out, they capped it at 4 grand and it was free.

And everyone keeps undercutting everybody to make it cheaper just to get the listings and have the cars on there. I know they say, Hey, we try and weed some out, or we’re going to be picky about what we put on there. What I was down to, they got to make money. So they’re going to start putting whatever they can on there because they got bills to pay, they got employees to pay.

They’re going to start letting stuff slip [00:45:00] through, you know. That was a nice thing originally, bring a trailer was very, very particular about the cars they put on there. So you knew what you’re getting, who the owner was. It was a great person because they spoke to the owner, have all stuff. Now that they got bought out, they got to make money for the corporate entity.

They have to, so now they’re taking whatever they can.

Crew Chief Eric: So we joke all the time, at least on our drive thru episodes about how bring a trailer has basically ruined the used car market because everybody now has this false sense of what their car is worth because they go, well, I’m bringing a trailer, my geo Metro sold for 200, 000.

It must obviously be worth that. What’s your take on the current used car pricing market? Because you threw out some numbers. 250 500. You buy a new Corvette right now, not even fully option. Now you’re talking 100 grand. So that threshold has moved and used car prices are going up and everything is just like crazy town.

What’s your take on this bubble? Is it going to settle? I mean, he’s got a course. Correct.

William Ross: Definitely. How long? I think it’s still going to be [00:46:00] another couple of years that this is going to be, but you know, on the new car side and the manufacturers are salivating over this because especially, you know, how Tesla is their business model regards how they sell and they want to emulate that however they can.

Because they don’t want to have inventory. That’s money on the books. We want you to order the car on the internet, then it’s there. And we only have five cars at the lot. They can just test drive one. They really want to go that route. I mean, what’s happening now in the marketplace and the used car prices, it’s really going to define and change the course of how new cars and new cars are sold.

It’s really going to change up. It’s going to last a while. There’s a big hole. It’s not like all of a sudden they’re going to start cranking out all these new cars and, you know, fill these holes and people can go buy them. They got all these flooded used cars on it. I mean, it ain’t going to happen. It’s going to be a while before the ship corrects itself in regards to, it gets things balancing out.

And the other side too, is you could see the used car market staying where it’s at, absolutely crazy forever now. Because people can’t afford the [00:47:00] 100, 000 EV, but they can afford the 30, 000, 100, 000 mile car that’s sitting there as 10 years old. Well, I can afford that, but I can’t afford that. I just foresee that happening also.

It could just also be like, look, this is the new norm and it’s not going away. These EVs are priced so high, what percentage of people can afford it? So they’re going to be forced to buy the ICE engine cars. And you know, that edge goes, Hey, supply and demand. And you know, they’ll just

Crew Chief Eric: gouge the heck out of you.

We’re seeing that on new cars too, right? Where Ford had to step in and say, you can’t raise all these fake dealer markups and all this stuff that’s happening.

William Ross: Oh, I’ve seen, I’m sure you have too. You know, some of these photos I’ve seen online and videos, people go into new cars here to see what their market adjustment 8, 000 for this, Doesn’t cost anything going on these obscene numbers to jack it up.

And what’s unfortunate though, is they’re selling people coming to buy it. And it just

Crew Chief Eric: perpetuates the problem. And this goes back to something I’ve always said. There’s plenty of old cars to go around. So when [00:48:00] you’re looking to spend that kind of money, I mean, fossil fuels aren’t disappearing overnight.

Doesn’t make sense for them to suddenly shut off all the taps. Does it make sense to drive? a Ferrari California Spider like they did in Ferris Bueller every day as your daily driver. No, but there could be something older that maybe is a little bit more collectible. That’s a lot more fun. And if you’re looking to spend a hundred thousand dollars on a new Corvette, well, what about an older Corvette?

Like a C3, like you were talking about for the rocks and revs, you know, something like, or even a C2, a Stingray. What are they going for right now? Kind of do those mental gymnastics and then you enlist. the help of somebody like yourself, a headhunter for these classic cars, let’s just say, and go, William, I’m looking for this.

What can you do for me? I mean, is that as simple as the process is to get that ball started? How does it work if somebody looks to get

William Ross: your help? Yeah, that’s about as simple as it gets. It’s a, it’s a, It’s like, Hey William, I’m in the market for X. They could have a specific car model. They’re looking for say, Hey, I’m looking for a [00:49:00] 67 to 75 GTB four cam.

Okay. Now we’re getting very specific color wise. What I started getting to it. You want a class C certified? I’ll go, Hey, what do you want? I’m looking for a Ferrari. Okay. Then to start asking questions, what do you want to do with it? What’s your budget? You know, what do you plan to do with the car?

Everything like that, you start asking those questions, really start boiling down to what you really want to get out of the car. Now, like to your point, say with a Corvette, like a CSC2, you can find something out there relatively inexpensive, but are you happy with a non numbers matching car? But hey, do you want to be able to drive this thing out there?

So you want disc brakes on it all around? So you want to basically, you know, it’s a resto mod? Is that what you’re looking to have? You know, How extreme do you want it? It really boils down to what some of one, what do they want to do with the car? What do they want to get out of it? You know, what’s their budget.

And then you start bringing them down to reality, what they could afford. And that’s the other big thing is kind of getting them to see the light. Cause some people think I got 500 grand. I want a two 50 GTO. Well, you might want to add a couple of zeros to that. And sometimes, you know, you have that heart to heart with them.

And you bring them down to reality. Then they all say, kind of turn. So, [00:50:00] all right, you know, well, let me think about it some more. And I’ll call you back. Don’t let you call back and say, you know, they look more around at the internet or what have you. They kind of came to realization of what they can afford, what really would work for them.

So they put more thought into it. Then make a hasty decision. Some of you don’t hear back again. They take the money, they put a stock market or buy another vacation home or do something along those lines, you know, or buy a boat. And

Crew Chief Eric: I think you brought up a really good point with the American muscle. And I know some of us get scared when you see the prices coming out of like Barrett Jackson and Mecham and some of these other auctions, you’re like that Camaro sold for what granted it’s not Ferrari money, but it’s still like your eyes are bugging out of your head.

I think those cars are underappreciated in the sense that there’s going to be a lot more of them available here in the next 10 to 15 years, but the people that have taken care of loved for and maintained some of those classic muscle cars, you know, late sixties, early seventies, we can say almost to the malaise era.

They put a lot of really cool things into them, right? You talked about rest of mods, power brakes, air conditioning, modernize this, the [00:51:00] suspension, like all this kind of stuff. They’re actually better than they ever were intended to be. And they make good daily drivers now put that big. Cast iron V8 aside, they’re not the most efficient engines in the world.

But if you’re looking for something reasonable, cost effective, and a lot of fun that makes all the right noises, maybe divert your attention over there. Not trying to take anybody away from Porsches and Ferraris, a nicely redone C2 Stingray. I mean, I’m not looking for a split window here. That’s not a bad car, right?

William Ross: Oh, no, it isn’t. They’re great. That’s things you’re exactly right. That’s where you’re having the conversation with the individual and really getting down to brass tacks with them and really kind of making them see some things and have that honest conversation with them. My goal is to make them happy. I want them to be to have with that purchase.

Cause one, I want them with, they ever will come to sell it. I want to buy another card. I want them to come back to me. But two, I also want them to tell their friends, because they’re going to be involved in clubs area dance. Someone’s talking to them, saying, Hey, I’m still going to buy a car, you know, what’d you do?

Hey, you want to get ahold of William, you know, [00:52:00] he’s helped me out immensely. That’s my goal. The plus side is, yes, I get to make a living from it, but I want them to be happy with it. They need to have an honest conversation with regards to what they want to do with the car. You can have a lot of fun with a 60s, 70s, 80s car.

Look at the Fox Body Mustangs. I had one. It was a lot of fun. It was a great car. You just gotta look at what’s out there availability wise, because a lot of these guys get very narrow blinders on in regards to what they think they’d have fun with, what they want. But then when you talk to them or you start suggesting things and then they go, Oh yeah, I didn’t even think about that.

Oh God. Yeah. I remember that car. Oh, my buddy had one of those in high school. Yeah. That thing was great. It’s just having a conversation with them and just really getting them to see the whole market. What is out there and what you could do with something.

Crew Chief Eric: William is the living, breathing version of our, what should I buy episodes?

He embodies why we have those episodes and we’ll put a pin in that because maybe he’ll be a special guest on a future. What should I buy episodes? So stay tuned for that, but I do want to [00:53:00] ask you any tips or tricks for buying collector cars, both. For the newbie and the veteran collector from your experience, things that you’ve just learned that are gotchas that you want to pass down to folks

William Ross: by

Crew Chief Eric: the

William Ross: best thing you can afford is basically it.

I mean, going out there thinking you’re going to find grandma’s got her son’s car that was unfortunately killed in Vietnam. It’s been sitting there for 40 years. It’s got 1500 miles. Actually bought it right before he got shipped out. And those days are long gone. Stealing something from under somebody.

And to me, I don’t like that. I just think that’s just unfair. And it just does a disservice to the industry itself, you know, and it’s not fair to the seller. It’s not fair to the buyer. I’m a very honest, straight shooting person. If I approach someone about a car that I I’m looking forward to someone. And I think it’s underpriced.

I’ll tell them, look, you know, this is a great car. It’s great, but I’m going to tell you right now, you know, you should be asking a little bit more money for this. They appreciate that honesty and being straightforward with them about it. If you go to an auction, you’re looking through it. You know, you might be able to [00:54:00] sneak something out of there.

That’s like one of the last five cars going across and everyone’s left. Or it’s one of the first couple of cars got across and no one’s there. You might in a blue moon come across something like that. You’ll rummage through all the places you can find cars that are for sale. You might find something that’s a diamond in the rough.

You know, Hey, I bought it for five grand. If I put another five grand into it, Hey, it might be worth 15 grand. It just needs a little TLC. Needs a little engine work, just to tune up this and that. A solid, good detail job does miracles for a car. I tell people, I say, look, yeah, you can do it yourself, but if you really want it done, right.

Spend the 500, 800 bucks and have a professional do it inside out. The difference is night and day compared to what is getting all store marks or that it’s well worth it. Especially if it’s a car, you plan to keep it. You know, if you go up to say spending the two grand, getting a detailed ceramic coated PPF, the whole nine yards, maintain it and keep it.

It’s well worth that investment in that car, especially if you know, you’re going to keep it. The bar find days are gone. Find something along those lines. Internet, everything like that, you know, [00:55:00] those things came across all of a sudden, everyone was out there trying to look. You’re seeing the guys taking drones out, going in the middle of Nebraska, flying a drone around all the farms, trying to see if they see a car sitting somewhere, you know, those kinds of things.

Yeah, you might find something here and there, but this day and age, that person knows what they have in the garage. Unfortunately, so like you mentioned before, bring a trailer, made someone think a car that’s worth 10 grand, they think it’s worth 20. It’s like, oh, that just sold for this. It’s like, It’s not the same car.

Same thing with auction, a car goes through and then someone says, Hey, I just saw that go on Barrett Jackson, you know, in Arizona the other month. And I had that same car and I think it’s, no, you don’t have the same car. You

Crew Chief Eric: know, there’s a big difference between your Camaro and the Yanko Camaro that went across that

William Ross: auction

Crew Chief Eric: line.

William Ross: Yeah, exactly. Exactly. And sometimes the person won’t listen and it’s like, all right. Oh, I just wanted to help have fun. Go at it, but sometimes, you know, the personal listen to, so it’s kind of both sides of the coin.

Crew Chief Eric: Well, William, any shout outs, promotions or anything else you’d like to share that we didn’t cover thus far?

William Ross: Hit me up, check out the [00:56:00] Furibach course website. It’s very minimal in regards to what you can see, but hey, if you’re interested in some information, I can send it out to you. If you’ve got any questions, don’t just, uh, shoot me an email, William at furibachcourse. com.

Crew Chief Eric: Keeping transactions out of the public eye increases the value of your collectible so that you get the most value for the few and not the many.

That’s the world of bespoke car collecting. That’s the world that William Ross comes from. To learn more about Führerbach, Be sure to log on to www. fuhrerbachporsche. com and to get in contact with William, you can reach him via LinkedIn or email him at William at fuhrerbachporsche. com. So William, I cannot thank you enough for coming on the show and talking about your corner of the automotive and motorsports world.

I mean, we talked to all sorts of different people on this show. But it takes all of us to continue to keep these gears turning and you’re a part of that larger equation. So thanks for giving us some insight, some tips on collecting cars, and to come check out the [00:57:00] newest, hottest bespoke car on the market, if you’re a back Porsche,

William Ross: I really appreciate you having me on the show.

It’s been a lot of fun. And like you said before, you never know. You might hear from me again on the show.

Crew Chief Brad: If you like what you’ve heard and want to learn more about GTM, be sure to check us out on www. gtmotorsports. org. You can also find us on Instagram at grandtorymotorsports. Also, if you want to get involved or have suggestions for future shows, you can call or text us at 202 630 1770, or send us an email at crewchief at gtmotorsports.

org. We’d love to hear from you.

Crew Chief Eric: Hey everybody, Crew Chief Eric here. We really hope you enjoyed this episode of Break Fix, and we wanted to remind you that GTM remains a no annual fees organization. And our goal is to continue to bring you quality episodes like this one at no charge. As a loyal listener, please consider subscribing to our Patreon for bonus and behind [00:58:00] the scenes content, extra goodies, and GTM swag.

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