October 19, 2023 • 41 mins
Sung and Emelia talk with expert craftsman and true artisan, Rod Emory. Widely regarded as the world's preeminent specialist and custom builder of the Porsche 356, Rod shares how his childhood and family work ethic laid the foundation for his career in the car world. They also talk about adaptability through Rod's business pivot after the 2008 recession and maintaining perspective on what truly matters.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:05):
All right, welcome back to another episode. I'm Sound King
and I'm Amelia Hartford, and today we have a personal
hero of mine. I've been waiting to meet this gentleman
for a long time.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
Growing up, most kids play with legos, but at eight
years old, our guest was building engines in his dad's shop.
Speaker 1 (00:22):
He is a true artisan and a lover of the
three fifty six Porsche, one of my favorite cars. And
it's inspirational because he is part of Limbs for Life charity.
He is truly dedicated and has a great, humble attitude.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
And he has such a crazy, amazing story and he
builds these incredible classic Porschas and he's been doing it
his entire life.
Speaker 1 (00:45):
And so, without further ado.
Speaker 2 (00:47):
We'd love to welcome Rod Emory.
Speaker 1 (00:53):
Did you drive your Gray GT three over here?
Speaker 3 (00:56):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (00:56):
The one that you got rear ended years ago.
Speaker 3 (00:58):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (00:58):
I was on the two ten on the way the
Pomona Swap Meet and got rear ended. My son and
I were in the carpool lane and a single driver
in a Ford truck hit us at about forty and
we were stopped.
Speaker 3 (01:09):
So it was a good hit.
Speaker 2 (01:11):
Did it total it?
Speaker 4 (01:12):
No? I mean I could have had them total it,
but for me, it was it was more about just
I mean, I love that car and I didn't want
it to go get crushed.
Speaker 1 (01:21):
So you know that car and that post you did, Yeah,
when you got rear ended, it was a defining moment
of what my impression of you today is. And I
actually took that as like a huge lesson that post,
because you know, I'm around all these car folks and
some of their perspective and their energy is like super
toxic and ve right, so you know, I'll be around
(01:44):
somebody and like, you know, somebody will like lean on
their car. There's you know, there's a little ding by
their kid, and they flip out like it's like the
end of the world, and it's like, oh, dare you
touch my car? You're like, you know how much this
is worth? And your post was I don't remember verbatim,
but it was like, you know, to paraphrase, it was
something like, you know, it's just the car. At the
(02:05):
end the day, this sucks, but it's just the car.
I still have my health. No one got hurt, ye,
And I was like, that's just a great attitude, and
that's probably like a two hundred thousand dollars car, quarter
million dollar car. And I was like, this says a
lot about who mister Emory is because you know, it's
just a great perspective. It is like a great teaching moment.
(02:25):
I don't know if you're aware.
Speaker 4 (02:26):
Of that, not really, you know, I just it's just
kind of who I am. And you know, I mean
these cars to me, even the cars that I build.
You know, sure I make a living, but for me,
it's really about connecting with people and helping people enjoy
the cars themselves. You know. That's why you know you
asked did it get totaled?
Speaker 3 (02:45):
It wasn't about the value of the car to me.
Speaker 4 (02:47):
It was about the connection I have with the car
and the memories that I've made with my wife and kids.
And also that car had a special purpose and meaning
for me. You know, we go through trials and ups
and downs in business in life, and there's certain times
when you reward yourself or you kind of put a
(03:08):
carrot out there to chase, and that car was that
carrot for me that kind of drove me through a
lot of like trials, I guess, you know. I mean
I grew up just like every young boy or young
girl that is into cars, wanting to be a race
car driver. I grew up racing off road and motocross
and wanted to be that race car driver, but didn't
(03:29):
have the money to do it. Didn't have the parents
with deep pockets, and you know, just ground hard like
all through high school. And the business that I built
starting in like the late eighties early nineties, was so
that I could go racing. I was building race cars
for people and then putting them in trucks and taking
them racing. And it was just a way for me
to kind of fuel my racing desire, you know. And
(03:52):
so we would we provided track support and transportation and
like we would store the cars and all that. We
built this great business. I had, you know, thirty clientsients
that we'd take racing all over the country. Most my
clients were super high net worth guys, you know, guys
that want you know, that had successful businesses, you know,
billion dollar companies. But then the economy took a big shit,
as you know, like in two thousand and eight, right,
(04:13):
and everything changed, and everybody's perspective changed, and my business
changed dramatically. Most of them stopped racing, not because they
couldn't afford it, but it was more of a social responsibility,
just you know, how can you lay people off? How
can you start cutting your business and then on the weekends,
you know, go and spend ten grand or fifteen grand,
(04:34):
have rot Emory take you racing, you know. And so
overnight the business changed and I was forced to make
a pivot in my business where it was primarily focused
on vintage racing, track support and hospitality. So I was
forced to, you know, just retool my business. And luckily
I sold my trucks before they didn't have any value
(04:56):
and you know, and just kind of regrouped.
Speaker 2 (04:58):
That was all a very quick decision to make. Then
selling all the trucks and having to force that pivot, right.
Speaker 4 (05:03):
Well, I was really looking out from my employees, looking
out for my family and just saying, look, you know,
I wasn't letting my ego. I need to you know,
be the business guy with my racing and my trucks.
It was more about like kind of survival and pivot
and kind of regear up. And that's when our business
flipped from being focused on vintage race cars and taking
people racing to what you see today.
Speaker 3 (05:25):
And it took me.
Speaker 4 (05:26):
You know a few years I also transitioned from Oregon
back here to California where I grew up.
Speaker 1 (05:32):
Okay, before you continue, I want to know how you
got into the three fifty six because I that is
my favorite favorite Porsche ever made, and I just i'd
love the way it looks, and because I love that
car so much, it's how I actually discovered Rod Emory
and your pieces of art. I don't consider them cars.
(05:52):
I consider them like moving art. So give us the
origin story of how that love affair began.
Speaker 3 (05:59):
For sure, Yeah, it really predates me. You know.
Speaker 4 (06:04):
It kind of goes back to my grandfather and my father.
So my grandfather was Neil Emery. He's in the hot
Rod Hall of Fame, and he was one of the pioneers,
really the pioneer of what you call channeling and sectioning
an American hot rod. So you know, everybody talks about
chopping the top, you know, making the windshield smaller. My
grandfather kind of took the harder route to do the work,
(06:24):
and he would channel it, so drop the body over
the frame and he would section it, which is like
if you've got a door that's like thirty six inches thick,
he'd take four or five inches out of it and
make the door and the whole side profile of the
car thinner. That's called sectioning. So he had a shop
in Burbank. They were focused on hot rotting. And you
know the car the belly Tanker that Bruce Meyer has,
(06:47):
it's the SoCal Belly Tanker. It's a land speed record
car and it's actually the tank off of the bottom
of an airplane, so it's kind of bullet shaped. There
was that car, and then it was a car called
the so Cal Streamliner that my grandfather built in the
late forties early fifties, and it was the first hot
(07:07):
rod over two hundred miles an hour. So he built
the body. So he was a craftsman his cars. You know,
one shows like the Oakland Roadster Show or equivalent today
would be like the Grand National Roadster Show.
Speaker 3 (07:20):
So that was his business.
Speaker 4 (07:22):
And then in the sixties he saw the kind of
business change, not as much like craftsmanship of reshaping bodies.
So he went to work for Porsche in nineteen sixty two,
and then my dad graduated high school and started working
at the same Porsche dealership. So my family kind of
went from being into hot Rods and now into Portie.
(07:44):
And so when I was born in seventy four, I
mean I came home from Hoe Hospital in Newport Beach
in a fat fendered nine to eleven with a ductail
on it. You know, that was what my dad drove
me home in. So you'd think I'd be into nine
to eleven, you know, not three ffty six.
Speaker 2 (08:01):
Wait, just a sidestep. Was it your dad or your
granddad who did the first Baha buggy?
Speaker 4 (08:06):
Yeah, my dad built the first Baja bug where you
cut the nose and the tail off and radius the
wheel wells and yeah, so he did that in nineteen
sixty seven. He rolled a little VW bug that had
been rear ended so the front and rear were smashed.
He rolled it into the body shop where my grandfather
was doing the work, and he says, Dad, let's make
this thing an off road vehicle.
Speaker 2 (08:25):
And they did they.
Speaker 4 (08:27):
And it was amazing. So it was on all the
covers of the magazines. And then a friend to his
did the first like fiberglass kit based off of that idea.
Speaker 2 (08:36):
And we should probably explain what baja is if you
want to and give a little detail.
Speaker 4 (08:40):
Yeah, a Baja bug is a Volkswagen Beetle that you know,
you raise up and put bigger tires on it, and
you know, more clearance on the fenders, and you take
the front suspension beam and twist it up so it
lifts the thing up and raise the rear and you
can go out in the desert. And then you know,
ultimately people started racing them, you know, in the Baja
one thousand and back then the Mexican one.
Speaker 2 (09:02):
Thousand, primarily off road open the desert style racing exactly.
Speaker 4 (09:07):
But my dad, he was the parts manager at the dealership,
and then he had this idea. You know, you got
a car dealership and it's got a parts department in it. Porsche,
you know, would say, okay, you got to buy this car,
but you also have to have room for all of
these parts so that you can service and support the cars.
But the models were changing so much, so they'd take
all those parts that are there from the previous years
and they'd send them back to a warehouse. And the
(09:28):
warehouse was out the size of a costco. And if
you can imagine full of Porsche parts.
Speaker 2 (09:32):
They were a new ports would love to do that today.
Speaker 4 (09:34):
And the warehouse was filling up literally spilling over. Like
if stuff fell off the shelves, they would broom sweep
it into a back room, and when that room was full,
they'd put it in dumpsters and they'd throw it away.
Oh wow, imagine this is nineteen late sixties, early seventies,
and imagine all the parts from the three fifty sixes
and the early nine to elevens, even some like race
car stuff like the spiders, and some of that being
(09:56):
thrown away because there just wasn't any room in these
warehouses in the United States. So my dad went to Volkswagen,
who was organizing all this stuff and Porscha, and said,
I want to buy all of what they considered then
distributor obsolescence. Porsche sold in, you know, all these parts
for like ten cents on the dollar, and then he
warehoused him and then he's really the one that started
(10:17):
supplying those parts to everybody that was restoring those cars.
And so I grew up in a building that was
about ten or twelve thousand square feet that was floor
to ceiling three fifty six Porsche parts. So as early
as I can remember, five six years old, I went
to work with my dad any chance I could get
older listeners on here, I'll know what a microfiche is.
(10:39):
But a microfiche is like a you know, a machine
that you put this little film in and you kind
of search for parts. Now we do it all on
a computer, but back in the day, it was like
these little films. And so when I go to work
with my dad, I'd put the little microfiche in and
I'd look for parts, and then i'd go back in
the parts warehouse and I'd pull the parts and I'd
look at him, and I could build anything I wanted
out of all the parts.
Speaker 3 (10:59):
I just had to put the stuff back after I
was done.
Speaker 4 (11:01):
So, like when I was like eight years old, I
told my dad, I said I want to build an engine,
and he says, well, we've got everything here, so just
go find the parts. Really, and so I would go
out and they were all brand new threefty six or
nine to eleven Porsche parts, and I'd try to build
an engine.
Speaker 2 (11:15):
With guidance or figure it out. Son.
Speaker 4 (11:17):
My dad's busy selling parts, right, it was just that's
what how.
Speaker 2 (11:20):
Did you learn? How did you put bearings in there?
Speaker 4 (11:22):
And that's what kept me occupied because my dad had
all the parts manuals, he had all the workshop.
Speaker 2 (11:27):
Manuals see fold by step.
Speaker 3 (11:29):
Just as a kid, I'm just kind of like looking.
Speaker 2 (11:31):
At stuff eight years old and just going.
Speaker 3 (11:33):
Oh, I love this.
Speaker 4 (11:34):
And then and then I started going to work with
my grandfather, and I started learning how to weld, and
I started learning how to do.
Speaker 3 (11:39):
Some of that stuff.
Speaker 4 (11:40):
And so just as a young kid, anything I could
do to fill that kind of passion of cars, I
was doing. So that's how things kind of started for me.
Was you know, I didn't look at the cars as
a whole car. I was looking at it in little pieces.
Speaker 2 (11:55):
Well kind of what it is, right and how you
raised on first the engine and then it sounds like
working for your grandfather than the body, and then.
Speaker 4 (12:01):
It just kind of started to compound, you know. I
mean I went to school just like every kid, but
when I wasn't in school, I was, you know, working
on mechanical things. And some of the real like mechanical
experience was when I was thirteen years old, I went
to work for a guy that he owned a big
fastener company, but he was a drag racer and he
gave myself and six other kids an opportunity to be
(12:25):
the pick crew on a top field dragster. U. So
from when I was thirteen until I was sixteen, we
raced a front engine like a nostalgia top field dragster.
So in nineteen eighty seven we were NDRA Champions, which
was the Nostalgia Drag Racing Association top Field Champions and
we were the entire crew was under fifteen years old.
Speaker 2 (12:47):
Wow, what a cool opportunity at such a young age.
Speaker 1 (12:50):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (12:50):
So I traveled around doing that and then in eighty
seven we were hired by a guy to run a
NHA top field dragster. You know, by the time I
was fifteen years old, I had rebuilt motorcycle engines, wealth
of knowledge, built Porsche engines. I you know, raced off road,
and I had been drag racing for three years.
Speaker 2 (13:11):
You hadn't owned a vehicle yet, right, because at sixteens
when you get your license.
Speaker 4 (13:15):
Yeah, I had a car and Gia that I was
putting to get over. No, well, my first car that
I bought, it was a fifty three Porsche three fifty six,
but it was a but it took two years to
restore it. Okay, So my first car that I got
that I thought I was going to drive to high
school was, Yeah, a Carmen Gia.
Speaker 2 (13:33):
I've always wanted one of those.
Speaker 4 (13:34):
To kind of circle back to the three fifty six thing.
When I was fourteen, my dad's selling parts for threefty
six is and and I love the shape of the car.
Speaker 3 (13:43):
I love the cars.
Speaker 4 (13:44):
And my dad and I found a really rusty fifty
three Porsche three fifty six, so he bought it as
a gift for me, paid twelve hundred dollars for it,
and twelve hundred dollars.
Speaker 2 (13:55):
Yeah, how much would you say that they are today?
Just for clarity of people listening if they want to
buy them.
Speaker 4 (14:00):
Fifty three so to buy exactly what my dad paid
twelve hundred dollars for, and that was in nineteen eighty eight.
I just bought one that I'm building for Vivian Campbell.
He's the guitarist for def Leppard. So I bought it
the same, almost identical to the car, and I paid
ninety five thousand dollars.
Speaker 1 (14:19):
Oh was it running?
Speaker 4 (14:21):
No, it's what I consider a donor car.
Speaker 2 (14:26):
Isn't that crazy? How much person is about jeez?
Speaker 4 (14:29):
So my dad bought that for me for twelve hundred dollars,
and then he had a right hand drive sixty five car.
So we built these two cars over the course of
two years. And then I found an old Chaparral race
car trailer and I did the work and got it
all dialed in. So I kind of had like this
little race team that I had put together and finished
all of that when I was sixteen, and that was
(14:50):
kind of how I got into the Porsche vintage racing thing.
You know, I was super fortunate. I mean, my parents
weren't wealthy. My dad was hard working, small business owner,
you know. Fortunately Porshes were his thing.
Speaker 2 (15:03):
You have a work ethic that can't be taught, though.
Speaker 4 (15:05):
And that was something that was instilled in me from
my grandfather. You know, I saw him grind his whole life,
my dad and mom grinding their whole life. And you know,
my dad gave me that opportunity, says, you can this
can be your car, but you've got to restore it.
And I did from when I was fourteen to sixteen
years old. When I wasn't at school or when I
wasn't drag racing, I was in the shop and and
(15:28):
so I finished the car when I was sixteen and
then got my vintage racing license at Willow Springs when
I was sixteen years old, and.
Speaker 2 (15:35):
The fastest track in the West.
Speaker 4 (15:37):
It was right, yeah, but so yeah, I got my
racing license and then I started racing at events in
southern California. So all this was just kind of fun
and games, you know, as a kid. But I wanted
to be a race car driver, and you know, I'm
going to do whatever it takes to be one. You know,
once it's in your blood, you.
Speaker 3 (15:55):
Just it's like, I gotta do it.
Speaker 4 (15:57):
But I was racing my little Porsche and Portland at
the Historics in ninety three and I met a guy
that was sponsoring the event. So he was the you know,
kind of the title sponsor, and he had a little
potato chip company, Kettle Potato Chips or Kettle Foods, and
he came up at the end of the race weekend
or throughout the weekend and said, man, I'd love to
(16:18):
have a race car.
Speaker 3 (16:19):
I'd love to do what you do.
Speaker 4 (16:21):
And that started a relationship that is now thirty years strong.
Speaker 2 (16:27):
Was that your first client.
Speaker 4 (16:29):
He was the first person that kind of entrusted us
to build a car for him and to load it
in a trailer and take him racing.
Speaker 2 (16:36):
Wow, wait, how old were you then?
Speaker 3 (16:38):
I was nineteen nineteen.
Speaker 1 (16:40):
So does he still have that car build?
Speaker 4 (16:42):
He doesn't have that car anymore, but another one of
my clients owns it in Sweden.
Speaker 1 (16:46):
So that's considered the first rod Emory Porsche build.
Speaker 4 (16:49):
Well, my fifty three, the car that I built for myself,
is really for a client, for a client. That's the
first one that was built that I like, you know,
maintained and hoarded all that.
Speaker 2 (17:16):
That is a truly special aspect of the car community.
To know where that car is and to be in
touch with a new owner. On that note, do you
still have the car you built for yourself, the fifty
three three fifty six?
Speaker 1 (17:26):
No?
Speaker 4 (17:27):
Oh, I know, that's a whole nother story. That's a
great story though.
Speaker 3 (17:32):
That's all right, Yeah, you hear it out.
Speaker 4 (17:34):
So the vintage racing stuff continued. Just people from all
different walks of life would come to me and you know,
want to go vintage racing, and so I build cars
for them and take them racing. And so that was
the business. And I was racing with them and against
them in my little fifty three portie. But our clients
wanted to also go experience the higher level side of racing.
(17:54):
So we put up program together and ran a new
GT three in the what was then called the Rolex
now it's the EMS series. And I was one of
the drivers and my co driver was an amputee. He
was a guy that I raced motocross with when I
was a kid, but he had lost his leg racing
motocross and he didn't have any insurance when he lost
his leg, and his soul was crushed and so hospital.
Speaker 2 (18:16):
Bills are expensive, crazy insurance.
Speaker 3 (18:19):
So this is about two thousand and two.
Speaker 4 (18:21):
So my clients and I kind of got together and
we got him rehabilitated, got him a new prosthetic limb,
and then I took him through the same racing program
that I went through when I was sixteen, and said, look,
instead of racing motocross, let's go race cars. And we
did like the twenty five hours up Thunderhill, we did
eight hours of Portland. We did a bunch of like,
you know, enduro type stuff just to get him some
experience and.
Speaker 2 (18:42):
DUA meaning endurance racing for those listening, Yeah.
Speaker 3 (18:45):
You know, long long races.
Speaker 4 (18:47):
Got him experience, and then the two of us ran
a GT three Cup program at the Rolex Series, and
our whole motivation behind it was for me, you know,
it's a chance to go racing, but we did it
so that we could help others like him that had
lost limbs. So this was two thousand and four, five
and six, and we raised money at every race to
(19:11):
put a limb on somebody just like him that had
lost it. Right, So we were doing that. So our
car was said the Limbs for Life Foundation. It was
all about raising money for a foundation. So to go
back to my first car in two thousand and eight nine,
I donated it to the Limbs for Life Foundation and
we did this was like right when Facebook was, you know,
(19:31):
kind of ramping up. Instagram hadn't started yet, and I
posted two posts on Facebook that the Limbs for Life
Foundation is selling eighteen hundred hundred dollars raffle tickets for
my car.
Speaker 2 (19:45):
You did the first car giveaway raffle giveaway before.
Speaker 4 (19:48):
This is two thousand and nine. So they sold eighteen
hundred hundred dollars tickets, raised one hundred and eighty thousand
dollars for the Limbs for Life Foundation. And then Chris Ridgeway,
my co driver that was listening to sing his leg.
We trailered the car to Texas because that's where the
foundation was based out of and Chris pulled the ticket
(20:08):
out of the thing, and then I took it to
the guy that won it. You know, there's a part
of me that was sad because a car that I
had raced for twenty years, that was such a special
part of me was leaving my hands. But it had
just raised one hundred and eighty thousand dollars and the
foundation took that money and used it to put limbs
(20:31):
on sixty people.
Speaker 2 (20:32):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (20:33):
So it's hard to explain the feeling.
Speaker 4 (20:36):
But when you know deep down inside that you can
positively impact that many people with giving up a material object,
it changes you and it changes you for life at
the core.
Speaker 3 (20:49):
So the very first car I ever built, that's where
it went.
Speaker 1 (20:52):
Wow.
Speaker 4 (20:53):
The guy that won the car had bought one one
hundred dollars raffle ticket really and I think from some
guys in Colorado that had a VW shop and I
but I delivered the car to him. He kept it
for a couple of years and then he sold it
to a guy up in the northeast.
Speaker 3 (21:10):
And I'm still in contact.
Speaker 2 (21:12):
With him, so I know that I was going to
ask if you know where that car is.
Speaker 3 (21:14):
I know where the car's at. The guy.
Speaker 4 (21:16):
It's one hundred percent unchanged. The guy drives it all
the time. It even still has my name on. I mean,
it hasn't changed at all. Like my name's hand lettered
on the driver's door. My son Zane's name is hand
lettered on the passenger door because they used to go
do rallies and events with me in it.
Speaker 3 (21:32):
But the car's exactly like it was.
Speaker 2 (21:34):
It's nice to know that someone's enjoying it today.
Speaker 3 (21:37):
Yeah, definitely.
Speaker 4 (21:38):
So it's still out there in the Porsche community and
getting used.
Speaker 1 (21:41):
Beautiful.
Speaker 2 (21:42):
Is the foundation still around today?
Speaker 3 (21:44):
It is?
Speaker 4 (21:44):
Yeah, So that that was a big part of our
life from like two thousand and four until about twenty
ten or eleven, was working with the foundation and raising
money and helping them just gain awareness. And Chris Ridgeway,
my buddy that I got him into business transporting cars.
So I mean he still works with me every day
(22:06):
like he's he goes to all the races with us.
He transports cars all over the country and he's got
a big semi trailers and you know.
Speaker 1 (22:15):
So beautiful. That's a great story.
Speaker 2 (22:17):
Yeah, losing a first car. I mean, I don't know
if you still have your first car sung.
Speaker 1 (22:23):
Yeah, I'm glad I don't.
Speaker 2 (22:27):
But losing my first car, it was a very emotional
experience for me because you build this relationship with this
piece of metal that you know, you have all these
crazy memories that go along with it, and you really
form this bond with this vehicle. So it's it's a
very emotional thing and I didn't realize it until I
(22:47):
had gone through it myself. And it doesn't have to
be anything crazy modified. It can be whatever people are
driving their Honta Civics today.
Speaker 3 (22:54):
Yeah, it's it creates the memories and it's the connection,
you know.
Speaker 1 (22:58):
Like a family member and cars, right, so many memories.
Speaker 4 (23:02):
Well, because we relate our memories places that we've gone,
the people we've been with, they all tie back to
the vehicle we were in. You know, what got us there?
You know, how did we meet? You know, I've now
got a memory, you know, with the two of you,
and it's because of cars.
Speaker 1 (23:17):
You know, listening to your story about your fifty three,
three fifty six, you know, the whole ethos of this
conversation and this podcast for me was to be able
to share attributes about the guess that help their success
in life. And you know the definition of success is broad,
(23:37):
so some people think it's just like money or you know,
fame or power. But to me, the most important aspect
of success is when you see the light behind someone's eyes, right,
you go, how did they keep that light shining? And
you know, good times, bad times, money, no money, nice
car and piece of junk car whatever. Like that's something
(23:58):
that I search for every day because I don't want
my light to dim because I've it's dimmed in my life.
Speaker 3 (24:03):
Right.
Speaker 1 (24:04):
The thing that I've taken away from you know, your
story is that when we value material things so much,
and that is kind of that's our identity of like
what this material thing or this car is worth and
how precious it is. It's not as powerful as your
story and your relationship to a car, something that you
(24:24):
love so much and you have so many memories, but
to you, it represents this ability to help people, help
sixty people raise one hundred and eighty thousand dollars and
I could feel the emotion, you know, like it's so impressive.
Rod It's humbling too, and it's such a great lesson
that we're not gonna be able to take these things
with us, and if we can pass it forward and
(24:47):
do something positive with the things that we own in
our life or the things that we value that are material.
Because I go, what do I do with my cars? Right?
What do I do with the stuff that I own?
The things that I've been blessed with. I mean, you've
taught me something today, because if I can pass these
things forward and make the world a better place, it
was all worth it. It was all worth building these things.
(25:09):
It's all worth the hard work, It's all worth the sacrifice,
you know. Yeah, so beautiful.
Speaker 4 (25:14):
Well yeah, I mean, you know, we started this conversation.
You asked me, you know, about my GT three And
you know the reason I didn't total it is because
I went through.
Speaker 3 (25:23):
So many ups and downs in my life.
Speaker 4 (25:25):
I went from racing GT three cup cars to giving
away my car to struggling in business. And I told
myself from like two thousand and eight, when the business
kind of started to change and when I gave away
my three fifty six to the charity and did all that,
I said.
Speaker 3 (25:39):
You know, I'm just gonna push hard.
Speaker 4 (25:41):
I'm going to work as hard as I can, and
They'll come a point in my life where I feel
that I've had enough success that I can give myself
a gift of another vehicle. Right, And I had my sights,
you know, early on, I was like, oh, it'll be
a nine ninety seven GT three, and that you know,
I wasn't wasn't even there at that point. And then
(26:02):
and then you just kind of keep pushing, right, and
you work twenty four hours a day and you do
whatever you do. And I finally got to a point
in twenty seventeen, twenty eighteen where I was comfortable enough
that I could buy that car and it wasn't going
to keep me from putting food on the table and
doing what I needed to do. And it was that
(26:22):
motivation for eight ten years that got me to that point.
And then when it got rear ended, you know, of course,
I was left with a decision do.
Speaker 3 (26:33):
I total it and let it go away?
Speaker 4 (26:36):
There's no way there's that thing could have been wadded
in a ball and I would have kept it because
I didn't get the car as an investment. I didn't
get the car as you know, look at me I've
got a GT three. I got that car because it
was the vision, the kind of carrot for me that
kept me grinding twenty four to seven to build the
business and get to where I'm at today. Yeah, you know,
(26:58):
you have to have to reward ourselves or at least
have something to chase, to give us the motivation to
get through some of the things that we do.
Speaker 3 (27:08):
Right, Yeah, don't.
Speaker 1 (27:09):
I don't know if you heard, Amelia, but when Rod's
nine ninety seven g T three got rear ended, he
did a post on Instagram, and like most guys will post, like,
you know, damn horrible day I got rear ended. It
cost me all this money and screw this guy. All
this kind of toxic energy that goes into look at me,
(27:30):
feel sorry for me at this expensive car, woe with me? Right?
But Rod's posts like really hit me. And I never
met Rod until today, and it actually taught me something.
It's like, don't put too much value, don't put any
value in material things. Because I think his post, you know,
I can't remember a verbatim, but to paraphrase, it was,
(27:50):
I'm still healthy, I'm still here, and no one got hurt.
It's just the car and it's a GT three and
it's a quarter million dollar car. For some they'd be
you know, crying the river. And I was like, wow,
this says a lot about this person.
Speaker 2 (28:04):
But that's who you are as a person. You're very positive,
you're a very thankful person. Who to you it is
you know, it is just an item, and as long
as you have your health and your family, you know,
that's what matters. That's what from what I've known you,
that's what I gather from you. That's a sincere post.
Speaker 1 (28:21):
Yeah, I mean I'm glad to hear that. And meeting you,
I realized that, Like you know, they say, you know,
be careful meeting your heroes, right, you know, so.
Speaker 3 (28:29):
Because thank you so much.
Speaker 1 (28:30):
Yeah. The level of work that you put into the cars,
it's like especially today, you know, the idea of working
with your hands is not its not it's not cherished today.
It's not celebrated, you know, and you're a true craftsman.
You know, it's an artist I breed. Right, are you
surprised that you're beloved? Three fifty six, like twelve hundred
(28:53):
dollars car today is like worth so much money, Like
there's like a fervor over these old.
Speaker 2 (28:59):
Dig because of you that those cars so expressive.
Speaker 4 (29:02):
It's I'm probably part to blame for the increase in
value and interest in the cars, but you know, I
mean they are a very unique I mean, if you
go all the way back to the origin story of
the cars and you know the family that you know
that built.
Speaker 1 (29:16):
Them, and which is they.
Speaker 4 (29:19):
I mean, you know, I mean they built the first cars,
you know, in a in an old sawmill and camooned
Austria and they were hand beating them out of aluminum
on wood stumps, you know, and then the car company
you know, built from there. So I'm not surprised that
the values are where they're at, but I'm grateful that
the world has now come to a point where they
(29:40):
appreciate them and and that the cars are celebrated. You know,
there was a period of time where the cars didn't
have much value, and you know, even Portie they struggled
in the eighties and nineties. You know, it's just great
to see that that the company is so strong now
as a whole. But you know, I just love them.
I mean I've I've built over two hundred of them
to the level that I do in thirty five years.
(30:03):
You know, I like to think that I had a
small part in helping to keep the interest and.
Speaker 1 (30:08):
Make money and make it mone affordable.
Speaker 3 (30:10):
Yeah, I mean it's you know, it's yeah.
Speaker 4 (30:12):
They're a solid investment though, you know, and I think they'll,
you know, even through tough times, they'll they'll hold value.
Speaker 2 (30:33):
I want to ask about advice and business and all
this stuff, but I think before asking about business, what's
more important to me is how you've had a happy family,
a happy life wife Like you're very family oriented and
you've had a very beautiful marriage with your wife for
so long. Now, do you have advice for people out
(30:54):
there to have that work life balance to have a
happy marriage and family.
Speaker 4 (30:58):
Well, you said it, you said balance, and that's the key.
And so we've been married twenty seven years. My wife,
she didn't know much about cars or really have any
interest in cars, but we fell in love and she
jumped right in and she had a good work ethic,
and we kind of had a dream together. We built
our first car together a year after we were married
(31:22):
and did kind of this tour around the Western United
States when Sane was just two months old, and so
she fell in love with cars. So that side of
it has been good because you know, that's part of
why our business is successful. But when we look when
I look at like the success of my family. You know,
we have a faith based relationship. We go to church
(31:43):
on Sundays and raised, you know, two amazing kids.
Speaker 2 (31:47):
And I can second that two amazing kids. Your whole
family is great.
Speaker 4 (31:51):
Well, you know, they grew up at the racetrack. We
did everything as a family, and we put our boots
on and we went to work together as a family.
And I think that's really the success is that that
we were just we've always been moving in the same direction.
Speaker 3 (32:09):
You know.
Speaker 4 (32:09):
When we got married, Amy put her trust in me
that I'm going to be a small business owner and
we're going to build a business together. And she said, well,
I'll do the things that I can. And so for
twenty seven years, she's run the back end of the business.
She doesn't like being in front of the camera, she
doesn't like, you know, that part of it. She doesn't like,
you know, being kind of the front woman. She just
(32:31):
wants to be the you know, kind of charger in
the back. And here we are twenty seven years later,
and my daughter's married, my son who has an acting
career but also become part of the business. We all
work together every day, and I think that's really for us.
It's just that we all work together and that we communicate.
(32:54):
We're just open book and it's full communication, and it's
just like full dedication to each other, and we've just
it's just kept us sow in sync. I woke up
this morning just so grateful for my wife and my
kids and the love that we share, because that's that's
really what it is.
Speaker 2 (33:11):
That's beautiful.
Speaker 1 (33:12):
It was beautiful.
Speaker 2 (33:13):
Was there certain things that you really wanted to instill
in your children going up to pursue their own paths
and dreams.
Speaker 4 (33:21):
Yeah, to to really find their own lane. I'll use
Zine as an example. You know, Zaan grew up, you know,
riding around in the porsches with us, and you know,
so of course as a father, you know, I'm like, well,
got them on a bicycle, and you know, I had
him on little, you know, four wheelers when he was
like three four years old, and by the time he
was five or six, I had him in a little
go kart and then he raced quarter midgets. So by
(33:42):
the time he was eight years old, he had raced
go karts and quarter midgets, and so early on I
was like that excited dad, like, oh, I got my boy,
I'm gonna I'm gonna raise a race car driver. And
he taught me a lesson. It was that realization that
when you're raising a child, it's not about you, it's
about them. Every year from when he was like five
(34:04):
until he was eight, he had to sign his little
racing license because he had his Quarter Midget Association race license.
And so we were sitting at the table, he was eight,
almost nine years old, and we gave him the paper
and we're filling it out and he pushes it back
at us and he says, I don't want to be
a race car driver. And it was that moment that
I was like, did I just like, you know, have
(34:25):
I just ruined my kid's childhood?
Speaker 2 (34:28):
You know, because he almost take it internally well.
Speaker 4 (34:30):
Car people were like, you know, why wouldn't he want
to raceco carts? You know, I've got all these connections
I can. He says, I want to I want to
sing in a choir, and I'm like where that came
out of left field? So when he was nine years old,
he started singing in a choir, and then he started
doing theater and then by the time he was ten,
(34:51):
he had an agent down here in La Now we're
in Oregon.
Speaker 2 (34:56):
And did that have to do with the move a
little bit?
Speaker 3 (34:59):
It did?
Speaker 2 (34:59):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (35:00):
And what Amy and I just realized is we just
have to let our kids be free and just support
them and let them figure out what it is in
life that they want to do. But Zane had his
career in acting, and he came to me a couple
of years ago and said, Dad, he goes, You know,
I enjoy what my career path has been, but I
love these cars and I want to work with you
(35:21):
every day.
Speaker 2 (35:22):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (35:23):
You know, we supported him.
Speaker 4 (35:24):
I never told him he had to come and work
with me, and we just you know, of course, I
always left the door open.
Speaker 2 (35:29):
It's so good for you to allow him to find
that on his own and not force something, you know.
Speaker 4 (35:34):
Yeah, So that's like you asked for advice, that it's
just let your kids be free, support them and see
where it takes them.
Speaker 3 (35:41):
We did that with both of our kids. And you know, Jade,
she trained ariel acrobatics and wanted to be in circ
disilay and after college she asked if she could come
and work with her mom and run the back into
the business. So now we truly have a family business.
Speaker 2 (35:56):
I think it shows in all the work you guys do,
and when your name comes up, it's like, in a way,
the way you communicate with your household, you also communicate
with your clients, and you treat everyone like family. And
I think that's what makes it so special when you
own and you know an emory, you know three fifty six,
you're like you own a piece of family in a way,
and I think that translates in the work that you do.
Speaker 3 (36:18):
Well, thank you.
Speaker 1 (36:19):
What happens when you run out of three fifty six is.
Speaker 3 (36:22):
You know, it's amazing.
Speaker 4 (36:23):
I get that question all the time because you know,
you you know, to the average person, they'd become unobtainable, right.
You know, the only time you see one is whether
it's on bring a Trailer or it's uh, you know,
it comes up on eBay every once in a while,
and you know the values are so high. And you know,
Porsche built from nineteen fifty to nineteen sixty five, there
(36:44):
were seventy six thousand built, So that's nothing when you
look at numbers that car companies are building today. I mean,
they'll build seventy six thousand cameras. I don't know, probably
in four months. You know, that was over a fifteen
year period. There were seventy six thousand of them built.
Of those cars, half of them came to the US,
and half of the US cars came to California, because
(37:05):
California was the biggest market for those cars. I put
fifteen twenty thousand of those cars, you know, within reach
around here, or at least originally. I figure about thirty
percent of those cars are long gone because back in
the day, you know, if the car got hit, if
it wasn't worth fixing, they'd pull the parts off and
they'd just crush it. So about a third of them
(37:25):
are gone. I think ninety percent of the cars that
are left are in circulation. People are driving them, using them,
and I think there's about maybe ten percent of them
that are still undiscovered or sitting somewhere that you know,
needs to be found, to be restored, or somebody's been
holding on to it. I personally, because I've been doing
it for so long, I find four or five cars a.
Speaker 1 (37:48):
Month, wow, four a month.
Speaker 3 (37:50):
That's a lot.
Speaker 4 (37:50):
That is a lot, But you have to realize my
reach is a lot bigger than the average person.
Speaker 3 (37:55):
You know.
Speaker 2 (37:55):
I'm sure people send them to you too.
Speaker 4 (37:57):
Yeah, most of the cars that I and I say,
I only buy like maybe a third of what come
to me because I don't want to buy a car
that's numbers matching or that's I want the one that's
missing its engine, missing its transmission, somebody cut the nose off.
I would say that probably half the cars that I
get are abandoned projects. And so a lot of people
(38:19):
will buy one of these little cars for thirty thousand
dollars or whatever, and I'm gonna make this my project
in the garage, and they take it apart, they send
it out and have it sam blasted, and then they
just pull their hair out and say, what if I
got myself into Because it's too big of a project
for the average person to undertake themselves. And so half
(38:39):
the cars I get, they're basket cases. Somebody's taken them apart.
They attempted to start a restoration, they did some welding
on it, and then they just threw all the parts
in it. It probably sat in their garage for five years,
ten years, fifteen years, and then I get that call, Hey,
my wife said, I got to get this car out
of the garage. First thing I do if it's somebody
that doesn't know anything about the cars or doesn't know
the values, I want to sleep at night. So the
(39:01):
first thing I do is I go, look, this is
what the car is worth. And here's some you know,
kind of comps. You know, you can see it on
cars that have sold on eBay or cars that you know,
and and try to educate them. And a lot of
times the reason they're willing to sell it to me
is because these cars it's a connection. They bought that
car with a dream of someday restoring it and driving
(39:22):
it and enjoying it. When they came to the realization
they couldn't. And I mean I have people when when
I buy cars, the first thing they ask is will
you please send me photos when it's done, because these
cars have such an emotional connection that oftentimes people just
want to see it roll again and live again. And
fortunately they know that if they send it to me,
I'm going to build that sucker.
Speaker 1 (39:43):
Yeah, it'll be a hard piece yet to live on. Yeah,
if the three fifty six is do run out, what
would you do next?
Speaker 4 (39:52):
You know, I kind of have X ray vision on
these cars just because I've been around them for so long.
There's a lot of cars that were restored in the
eighties and nine, even in the early two thousands that
were doing like quick restorations and the cars were shipped overseas,
and now some of them have come back. The market,
like in Japan was huge in the late eighties early nineties,
and a lot of cars went over there, But there
(40:14):
was a lot of people that were doing just kind
of quicker restorations.
Speaker 3 (40:17):
I won't say bad work.
Speaker 4 (40:19):
Well, thirty years later, the paint's starting to you know,
show signs, and those cars need to be re restored again.
So there's always going to be cars that need to
be restored and need to be saved. So it's been
my life's work for thirty five years. I think I'll
be building these things for another thirty years.
Speaker 1 (40:39):
Yeah, it doesn't sound like you're going anywhere. And then
you have Zain to probably take over that.
Speaker 4 (40:43):
I got Zain there, I got Jade there. My son
in law drew an amazing crew. I mean there's twenty
of us within the walls or within the business. It's
not a big company, but it's a strong team, you know.
Speaker 1 (40:54):
Yeah, well, thank you so much for my pleasure. Thanks
a true honor to sit down with you.
Speaker 3 (41:00):
Well, thank you.
Speaker 4 (41:00):
It's great to finally meet you, and I always love
hanging out with her.
Speaker 2 (41:04):
So yeah, You've always been such a huge supporter to
me as well, even when I was a nobody just
turning wrenches in a borrowed garage on a friend's car
because I couldn't afford parts of myself. I'm forever grateful
of that, So thank you.
Speaker 3 (41:16):
You know that offers will stand for life.
Speaker 1 (41:19):
Thanks awesome, Thank you, Ed.
Speaker 3 (41:21):
Yeah, thank you.
All right, welcome back to another episode. I'm Sound King
and I'm Amelia Hartford, and today we have a personal
hero of mine. I've been waiting to meet this gentleman
for a long time.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
Growing up, most kids play with legos, but at eight
years old, our guest was building engines in his dad's shop.
Speaker 1 (00:22):
He is a true artisan and a lover of the
three fifty six Porsche, one of my favorite cars. And
it's inspirational because he is part of Limbs for Life charity.
He is truly dedicated and has a great, humble attitude.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
And he has such a crazy, amazing story and he
builds these incredible classic Porschas and he's been doing it
his entire life.
Speaker 1 (00:45):
And so, without further ado.
Speaker 2 (00:47):
We'd love to welcome Rod Emory.
Speaker 1 (00:53):
Did you drive your Gray GT three over here?
Speaker 3 (00:56):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (00:56):
The one that you got rear ended years ago.
Speaker 3 (00:58):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (00:58):
I was on the two ten on the way the
Pomona Swap Meet and got rear ended. My son and
I were in the carpool lane and a single driver
in a Ford truck hit us at about forty and
we were stopped.
Speaker 3 (01:09):
So it was a good hit.
Speaker 2 (01:11):
Did it total it?
Speaker 4 (01:12):
No? I mean I could have had them total it,
but for me, it was it was more about just
I mean, I love that car and I didn't want
it to go get crushed.
Speaker 1 (01:21):
So you know that car and that post you did, Yeah,
when you got rear ended, it was a defining moment
of what my impression of you today is. And I
actually took that as like a huge lesson that post,
because you know, I'm around all these car folks and
some of their perspective and their energy is like super
toxic and ve right, so you know, I'll be around
(01:44):
somebody and like, you know, somebody will like lean on
their car. There's you know, there's a little ding by
their kid, and they flip out like it's like the
end of the world, and it's like, oh, dare you
touch my car? You're like, you know how much this
is worth? And your post was I don't remember verbatim,
but it was like, you know, to paraphrase, it was
something like, you know, it's just the car. At the
(02:05):
end the day, this sucks, but it's just the car.
I still have my health. No one got hurt, ye,
And I was like, that's just a great attitude, and
that's probably like a two hundred thousand dollars car, quarter
million dollar car. And I was like, this says a
lot about who mister Emory is because you know, it's
just a great perspective. It is like a great teaching moment.
(02:25):
I don't know if you're aware.
Speaker 4 (02:26):
Of that, not really, you know, I just it's just
kind of who I am. And you know, I mean
these cars to me, even the cars that I build.
You know, sure I make a living, but for me,
it's really about connecting with people and helping people enjoy
the cars themselves. You know. That's why you know you
asked did it get totaled?
Speaker 3 (02:45):
It wasn't about the value of the car to me.
Speaker 4 (02:47):
It was about the connection I have with the car
and the memories that I've made with my wife and kids.
And also that car had a special purpose and meaning
for me. You know, we go through trials and ups
and downs in business in life, and there's certain times
when you reward yourself or you kind of put a
(03:08):
carrot out there to chase, and that car was that
carrot for me that kind of drove me through a
lot of like trials, I guess, you know. I mean
I grew up just like every young boy or young
girl that is into cars, wanting to be a race
car driver. I grew up racing off road and motocross
and wanted to be that race car driver, but didn't
(03:29):
have the money to do it. Didn't have the parents
with deep pockets, and you know, just ground hard like
all through high school. And the business that I built
starting in like the late eighties early nineties, was so
that I could go racing. I was building race cars
for people and then putting them in trucks and taking
them racing. And it was just a way for me
to kind of fuel my racing desire, you know. And
(03:52):
so we would we provided track support and transportation and
like we would store the cars and all that. We
built this great business. I had, you know, thirty clientsients
that we'd take racing all over the country. Most my
clients were super high net worth guys, you know, guys
that want you know, that had successful businesses, you know,
billion dollar companies. But then the economy took a big shit,
as you know, like in two thousand and eight, right,
(04:13):
and everything changed, and everybody's perspective changed, and my business
changed dramatically. Most of them stopped racing, not because they
couldn't afford it, but it was more of a social responsibility,
just you know, how can you lay people off? How
can you start cutting your business and then on the weekends,
you know, go and spend ten grand or fifteen grand,
(04:34):
have rot Emory take you racing, you know. And so
overnight the business changed and I was forced to make
a pivot in my business where it was primarily focused
on vintage racing, track support and hospitality. So I was
forced to, you know, just retool my business. And luckily
I sold my trucks before they didn't have any value
(04:56):
and you know, and just kind of regrouped.
Speaker 2 (04:58):
That was all a very quick decision to make. Then
selling all the trucks and having to force that pivot, right.
Speaker 4 (05:03):
Well, I was really looking out from my employees, looking
out for my family and just saying, look, you know,
I wasn't letting my ego. I need to you know,
be the business guy with my racing and my trucks.
It was more about like kind of survival and pivot
and kind of regear up. And that's when our business
flipped from being focused on vintage race cars and taking
people racing to what you see today.
Speaker 3 (05:25):
And it took me.
Speaker 4 (05:26):
You know a few years I also transitioned from Oregon
back here to California where I grew up.
Speaker 1 (05:32):
Okay, before you continue, I want to know how you
got into the three fifty six because I that is
my favorite favorite Porsche ever made, and I just i'd
love the way it looks, and because I love that
car so much, it's how I actually discovered Rod Emory
and your pieces of art. I don't consider them cars.
(05:52):
I consider them like moving art. So give us the
origin story of how that love affair began.
Speaker 3 (05:59):
For sure, Yeah, it really predates me. You know.
Speaker 4 (06:04):
It kind of goes back to my grandfather and my father.
So my grandfather was Neil Emery. He's in the hot
Rod Hall of Fame, and he was one of the pioneers,
really the pioneer of what you call channeling and sectioning
an American hot rod. So you know, everybody talks about
chopping the top, you know, making the windshield smaller. My
grandfather kind of took the harder route to do the work,
(06:24):
and he would channel it, so drop the body over
the frame and he would section it, which is like
if you've got a door that's like thirty six inches thick,
he'd take four or five inches out of it and
make the door and the whole side profile of the
car thinner. That's called sectioning. So he had a shop
in Burbank. They were focused on hot rotting. And you
know the car the belly Tanker that Bruce Meyer has,
(06:47):
it's the SoCal Belly Tanker. It's a land speed record
car and it's actually the tank off of the bottom
of an airplane, so it's kind of bullet shaped. There
was that car, and then it was a car called
the so Cal Streamliner that my grandfather built in the
late forties early fifties, and it was the first hot
(07:07):
rod over two hundred miles an hour. So he built
the body. So he was a craftsman his cars. You know,
one shows like the Oakland Roadster Show or equivalent today
would be like the Grand National Roadster Show.
Speaker 3 (07:20):
So that was his business.
Speaker 4 (07:22):
And then in the sixties he saw the kind of
business change, not as much like craftsmanship of reshaping bodies.
So he went to work for Porsche in nineteen sixty two,
and then my dad graduated high school and started working
at the same Porsche dealership. So my family kind of
went from being into hot Rods and now into Portie.
(07:44):
And so when I was born in seventy four, I
mean I came home from Hoe Hospital in Newport Beach
in a fat fendered nine to eleven with a ductail
on it. You know, that was what my dad drove
me home in. So you'd think I'd be into nine
to eleven, you know, not three ffty six.
Speaker 2 (08:01):
Wait, just a sidestep. Was it your dad or your
granddad who did the first Baha buggy?
Speaker 4 (08:06):
Yeah, my dad built the first Baja bug where you
cut the nose and the tail off and radius the
wheel wells and yeah, so he did that in nineteen
sixty seven. He rolled a little VW bug that had
been rear ended so the front and rear were smashed.
He rolled it into the body shop where my grandfather
was doing the work, and he says, Dad, let's make
this thing an off road vehicle.
Speaker 2 (08:25):
And they did they.
Speaker 4 (08:27):
And it was amazing. So it was on all the
covers of the magazines. And then a friend to his
did the first like fiberglass kit based off of that idea.
Speaker 2 (08:36):
And we should probably explain what baja is if you
want to and give a little detail.
Speaker 4 (08:40):
Yeah, a Baja bug is a Volkswagen Beetle that you know,
you raise up and put bigger tires on it, and
you know, more clearance on the fenders, and you take
the front suspension beam and twist it up so it
lifts the thing up and raise the rear and you
can go out in the desert. And then you know,
ultimately people started racing them, you know, in the Baja
one thousand and back then the Mexican one.
Speaker 2 (09:02):
Thousand, primarily off road open the desert style racing exactly.
Speaker 4 (09:07):
But my dad, he was the parts manager at the dealership,
and then he had this idea. You know, you got
a car dealership and it's got a parts department in it. Porsche,
you know, would say, okay, you got to buy this car,
but you also have to have room for all of
these parts so that you can service and support the cars.
But the models were changing so much, so they'd take
all those parts that are there from the previous years
and they'd send them back to a warehouse. And the
(09:28):
warehouse was out the size of a costco. And if
you can imagine full of Porsche parts.
Speaker 2 (09:32):
They were a new ports would love to do that today.
Speaker 4 (09:34):
And the warehouse was filling up literally spilling over. Like
if stuff fell off the shelves, they would broom sweep
it into a back room, and when that room was full,
they'd put it in dumpsters and they'd throw it away.
Oh wow, imagine this is nineteen late sixties, early seventies,
and imagine all the parts from the three fifty sixes
and the early nine to elevens, even some like race
car stuff like the spiders, and some of that being
(09:56):
thrown away because there just wasn't any room in these
warehouses in the United States. So my dad went to Volkswagen,
who was organizing all this stuff and Porscha, and said,
I want to buy all of what they considered then
distributor obsolescence. Porsche sold in, you know, all these parts
for like ten cents on the dollar, and then he
warehoused him and then he's really the one that started
(10:17):
supplying those parts to everybody that was restoring those cars.
And so I grew up in a building that was
about ten or twelve thousand square feet that was floor
to ceiling three fifty six Porsche parts. So as early
as I can remember, five six years old, I went
to work with my dad any chance I could get
older listeners on here, I'll know what a microfiche is.
(10:39):
But a microfiche is like a you know, a machine
that you put this little film in and you kind
of search for parts. Now we do it all on
a computer, but back in the day, it was like
these little films. And so when I go to work
with my dad, I'd put the little microfiche in and
I'd look for parts, and then i'd go back in
the parts warehouse and I'd pull the parts and I'd
look at him, and I could build anything I wanted
out of all the parts.
Speaker 3 (10:59):
I just had to put the stuff back after I
was done.
Speaker 4 (11:01):
So, like when I was like eight years old, I
told my dad, I said I want to build an engine,
and he says, well, we've got everything here, so just
go find the parts. Really, and so I would go
out and they were all brand new threefty six or
nine to eleven Porsche parts, and I'd try to build
an engine.
Speaker 2 (11:15):
With guidance or figure it out. Son.
Speaker 4 (11:17):
My dad's busy selling parts, right, it was just that's
what how.
Speaker 2 (11:20):
Did you learn? How did you put bearings in there?
Speaker 4 (11:22):
And that's what kept me occupied because my dad had
all the parts manuals, he had all the workshop.
Speaker 2 (11:27):
Manuals see fold by step.
Speaker 3 (11:29):
Just as a kid, I'm just kind of like looking.
Speaker 2 (11:31):
At stuff eight years old and just going.
Speaker 3 (11:33):
Oh, I love this.
Speaker 4 (11:34):
And then and then I started going to work with
my grandfather, and I started learning how to weld, and
I started learning how to do.
Speaker 3 (11:39):
Some of that stuff.
Speaker 4 (11:40):
And so just as a young kid, anything I could
do to fill that kind of passion of cars, I
was doing. So that's how things kind of started for me.
Was you know, I didn't look at the cars as
a whole car. I was looking at it in little pieces.
Speaker 2 (11:55):
Well kind of what it is, right and how you
raised on first the engine and then it sounds like
working for your grandfather than the body, and then.
Speaker 4 (12:01):
It just kind of started to compound, you know. I
mean I went to school just like every kid, but
when I wasn't in school, I was, you know, working
on mechanical things. And some of the real like mechanical
experience was when I was thirteen years old, I went
to work for a guy that he owned a big
fastener company, but he was a drag racer and he
gave myself and six other kids an opportunity to be
(12:25):
the pick crew on a top field dragster. U. So
from when I was thirteen until I was sixteen, we
raced a front engine like a nostalgia top field dragster.
So in nineteen eighty seven we were NDRA Champions, which
was the Nostalgia Drag Racing Association top Field Champions and
we were the entire crew was under fifteen years old.
Speaker 2 (12:47):
Wow, what a cool opportunity at such a young age.
Speaker 1 (12:50):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (12:50):
So I traveled around doing that and then in eighty
seven we were hired by a guy to run a
NHA top field dragster. You know, by the time I
was fifteen years old, I had rebuilt motorcycle engines, wealth
of knowledge, built Porsche engines. I you know, raced off road,
and I had been drag racing for three years.
Speaker 2 (13:11):
You hadn't owned a vehicle yet, right, because at sixteens
when you get your license.
Speaker 4 (13:15):
Yeah, I had a car and Gia that I was
putting to get over. No, well, my first car that
I bought, it was a fifty three Porsche three fifty six,
but it was a but it took two years to
restore it. Okay, So my first car that I got
that I thought I was going to drive to high
school was, Yeah, a Carmen Gia.
Speaker 2 (13:33):
I've always wanted one of those.
Speaker 4 (13:34):
To kind of circle back to the three fifty six thing.
When I was fourteen, my dad's selling parts for threefty
six is and and I love the shape of the car.
Speaker 3 (13:43):
I love the cars.
Speaker 4 (13:44):
And my dad and I found a really rusty fifty
three Porsche three fifty six, so he bought it as
a gift for me, paid twelve hundred dollars for it,
and twelve hundred dollars.
Speaker 2 (13:55):
Yeah, how much would you say that they are today?
Just for clarity of people listening if they want to
buy them.
Speaker 4 (14:00):
Fifty three so to buy exactly what my dad paid
twelve hundred dollars for, and that was in nineteen eighty eight.
I just bought one that I'm building for Vivian Campbell.
He's the guitarist for def Leppard. So I bought it
the same, almost identical to the car, and I paid
ninety five thousand dollars.
Speaker 1 (14:19):
Oh was it running?
Speaker 4 (14:21):
No, it's what I consider a donor car.
Speaker 2 (14:26):
Isn't that crazy? How much person is about jeez?
Speaker 4 (14:29):
So my dad bought that for me for twelve hundred dollars,
and then he had a right hand drive sixty five car.
So we built these two cars over the course of
two years. And then I found an old Chaparral race
car trailer and I did the work and got it
all dialed in. So I kind of had like this
little race team that I had put together and finished
all of that when I was sixteen, and that was
(14:50):
kind of how I got into the Porsche vintage racing thing.
You know, I was super fortunate. I mean, my parents
weren't wealthy. My dad was hard working, small business owner,
you know. Fortunately Porshes were his thing.
Speaker 2 (15:03):
You have a work ethic that can't be taught, though.
Speaker 4 (15:05):
And that was something that was instilled in me from
my grandfather. You know, I saw him grind his whole life,
my dad and mom grinding their whole life. And you know,
my dad gave me that opportunity, says, you can this
can be your car, but you've got to restore it.
And I did from when I was fourteen to sixteen
years old. When I wasn't at school or when I
wasn't drag racing, I was in the shop and and
(15:28):
so I finished the car when I was sixteen and
then got my vintage racing license at Willow Springs when
I was sixteen years old, and.
Speaker 2 (15:35):
The fastest track in the West.
Speaker 4 (15:37):
It was right, yeah, but so yeah, I got my
racing license and then I started racing at events in
southern California. So all this was just kind of fun
and games, you know, as a kid. But I wanted
to be a race car driver, and you know, I'm
going to do whatever it takes to be one. You know,
once it's in your blood, you.
Speaker 3 (15:55):
Just it's like, I gotta do it.
Speaker 4 (15:57):
But I was racing my little Porsche and Portland at
the Historics in ninety three and I met a guy
that was sponsoring the event. So he was the you know,
kind of the title sponsor, and he had a little
potato chip company, Kettle Potato Chips or Kettle Foods, and
he came up at the end of the race weekend
or throughout the weekend and said, man, I'd love to
(16:18):
have a race car.
Speaker 3 (16:19):
I'd love to do what you do.
Speaker 4 (16:21):
And that started a relationship that is now thirty years strong.
Speaker 2 (16:27):
Was that your first client.
Speaker 4 (16:29):
He was the first person that kind of entrusted us
to build a car for him and to load it
in a trailer and take him racing.
Speaker 2 (16:36):
Wow, wait, how old were you then?
Speaker 3 (16:38):
I was nineteen nineteen.
Speaker 1 (16:40):
So does he still have that car build?
Speaker 4 (16:42):
He doesn't have that car anymore, but another one of
my clients owns it in Sweden.
Speaker 1 (16:46):
So that's considered the first rod Emory Porsche build.
Speaker 4 (16:49):
Well, my fifty three, the car that I built for myself,
is really for a client, for a client. That's the
first one that was built that I like, you know,
maintained and hoarded all that.
Speaker 2 (17:16):
That is a truly special aspect of the car community.
To know where that car is and to be in
touch with a new owner. On that note, do you
still have the car you built for yourself, the fifty
three three fifty six?
Speaker 1 (17:26):
No?
Speaker 4 (17:27):
Oh, I know, that's a whole nother story. That's a
great story though.
Speaker 3 (17:32):
That's all right, Yeah, you hear it out.
Speaker 4 (17:34):
So the vintage racing stuff continued. Just people from all
different walks of life would come to me and you know,
want to go vintage racing, and so I build cars
for them and take them racing. And so that was
the business. And I was racing with them and against
them in my little fifty three portie. But our clients
wanted to also go experience the higher level side of racing.
(17:54):
So we put up program together and ran a new
GT three in the what was then called the Rolex
now it's the EMS series. And I was one of
the drivers and my co driver was an amputee. He
was a guy that I raced motocross with when I
was a kid, but he had lost his leg racing
motocross and he didn't have any insurance when he lost
his leg, and his soul was crushed and so hospital.
Speaker 2 (18:16):
Bills are expensive, crazy insurance.
Speaker 3 (18:19):
So this is about two thousand and two.
Speaker 4 (18:21):
So my clients and I kind of got together and
we got him rehabilitated, got him a new prosthetic limb,
and then I took him through the same racing program
that I went through when I was sixteen, and said, look,
instead of racing motocross, let's go race cars. And we
did like the twenty five hours up Thunderhill, we did
eight hours of Portland. We did a bunch of like,
you know, enduro type stuff just to get him some
experience and.
Speaker 2 (18:42):
DUA meaning endurance racing for those listening, Yeah.
Speaker 3 (18:45):
You know, long long races.
Speaker 4 (18:47):
Got him experience, and then the two of us ran
a GT three Cup program at the Rolex Series, and
our whole motivation behind it was for me, you know,
it's a chance to go racing, but we did it
so that we could help others like him that had
lost limbs. So this was two thousand and four, five
and six, and we raised money at every race to
(19:11):
put a limb on somebody just like him that had
lost it. Right, So we were doing that. So our
car was said the Limbs for Life Foundation. It was
all about raising money for a foundation. So to go
back to my first car in two thousand and eight nine,
I donated it to the Limbs for Life Foundation and
we did this was like right when Facebook was, you know,
(19:31):
kind of ramping up. Instagram hadn't started yet, and I
posted two posts on Facebook that the Limbs for Life
Foundation is selling eighteen hundred hundred dollars raffle tickets for
my car.
Speaker 2 (19:45):
You did the first car giveaway raffle giveaway before.
Speaker 4 (19:48):
This is two thousand and nine. So they sold eighteen
hundred hundred dollars tickets, raised one hundred and eighty thousand
dollars for the Limbs for Life Foundation. And then Chris Ridgeway,
my co driver that was listening to sing his leg.
We trailered the car to Texas because that's where the
foundation was based out of and Chris pulled the ticket
(20:08):
out of the thing, and then I took it to
the guy that won it. You know, there's a part
of me that was sad because a car that I
had raced for twenty years, that was such a special
part of me was leaving my hands. But it had
just raised one hundred and eighty thousand dollars and the
foundation took that money and used it to put limbs
(20:31):
on sixty people.
Speaker 2 (20:32):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (20:33):
So it's hard to explain the feeling.
Speaker 4 (20:36):
But when you know deep down inside that you can
positively impact that many people with giving up a material object,
it changes you and it changes you for life at
the core.
Speaker 3 (20:49):
So the very first car I ever built, that's where
it went.
Speaker 1 (20:52):
Wow.
Speaker 4 (20:53):
The guy that won the car had bought one one
hundred dollars raffle ticket really and I think from some
guys in Colorado that had a VW shop and I
but I delivered the car to him. He kept it
for a couple of years and then he sold it
to a guy up in the northeast.
Speaker 3 (21:10):
And I'm still in contact.
Speaker 2 (21:12):
With him, so I know that I was going to
ask if you know where that car is.
Speaker 3 (21:14):
I know where the car's at. The guy.
Speaker 4 (21:16):
It's one hundred percent unchanged. The guy drives it all
the time. It even still has my name on. I mean,
it hasn't changed at all. Like my name's hand lettered
on the driver's door. My son Zane's name is hand
lettered on the passenger door because they used to go
do rallies and events with me in it.
Speaker 3 (21:32):
But the car's exactly like it was.
Speaker 2 (21:34):
It's nice to know that someone's enjoying it today.
Speaker 3 (21:37):
Yeah, definitely.
Speaker 4 (21:38):
So it's still out there in the Porsche community and
getting used.
Speaker 1 (21:41):
Beautiful.
Speaker 2 (21:42):
Is the foundation still around today?
Speaker 3 (21:44):
It is?
Speaker 4 (21:44):
Yeah, So that that was a big part of our
life from like two thousand and four until about twenty
ten or eleven, was working with the foundation and raising
money and helping them just gain awareness. And Chris Ridgeway,
my buddy that I got him into business transporting cars.
So I mean he still works with me every day
(22:06):
like he's he goes to all the races with us.
He transports cars all over the country and he's got
a big semi trailers and you know.
Speaker 1 (22:15):
So beautiful. That's a great story.
Speaker 2 (22:17):
Yeah, losing a first car. I mean, I don't know
if you still have your first car sung.
Speaker 1 (22:23):
Yeah, I'm glad I don't.
Speaker 2 (22:27):
But losing my first car, it was a very emotional
experience for me because you build this relationship with this
piece of metal that you know, you have all these
crazy memories that go along with it, and you really
form this bond with this vehicle. So it's it's a
very emotional thing and I didn't realize it until I
(22:47):
had gone through it myself. And it doesn't have to
be anything crazy modified. It can be whatever people are
driving their Honta Civics today.
Speaker 3 (22:54):
Yeah, it's it creates the memories and it's the connection,
you know.
Speaker 1 (22:58):
Like a family member and cars, right, so many memories.
Speaker 4 (23:02):
Well, because we relate our memories places that we've gone,
the people we've been with, they all tie back to
the vehicle we were in. You know, what got us there?
You know, how did we meet? You know, I've now
got a memory, you know, with the two of you,
and it's because of cars.
Speaker 1 (23:17):
You know, listening to your story about your fifty three,
three fifty six, you know, the whole ethos of this
conversation and this podcast for me was to be able
to share attributes about the guess that help their success
in life. And you know the definition of success is broad,
(23:37):
so some people think it's just like money or you know,
fame or power. But to me, the most important aspect
of success is when you see the light behind someone's eyes, right,
you go, how did they keep that light shining? And
you know, good times, bad times, money, no money, nice
car and piece of junk car whatever. Like that's something
(23:58):
that I search for every day because I don't want
my light to dim because I've it's dimmed in my life.
Speaker 3 (24:03):
Right.
Speaker 1 (24:04):
The thing that I've taken away from you know, your
story is that when we value material things so much,
and that is kind of that's our identity of like
what this material thing or this car is worth and
how precious it is. It's not as powerful as your
story and your relationship to a car, something that you
(24:24):
love so much and you have so many memories, but
to you, it represents this ability to help people, help
sixty people raise one hundred and eighty thousand dollars and
I could feel the emotion, you know, like it's so impressive.
Rod It's humbling too, and it's such a great lesson
that we're not gonna be able to take these things
with us, and if we can pass it forward and
(24:47):
do something positive with the things that we own in
our life or the things that we value that are material.
Because I go, what do I do with my cars? Right?
What do I do with the stuff that I own?
The things that I've been blessed with. I mean, you've
taught me something today, because if I can pass these
things forward and make the world a better place, it
was all worth it. It was all worth building these things.
(25:09):
It's all worth the hard work, It's all worth the sacrifice,
you know. Yeah, so beautiful.
Speaker 4 (25:14):
Well yeah, I mean, you know, we started this conversation.
You asked me, you know, about my GT three And
you know the reason I didn't total it is because
I went through.
Speaker 3 (25:23):
So many ups and downs in my life.
Speaker 4 (25:25):
I went from racing GT three cup cars to giving
away my car to struggling in business. And I told
myself from like two thousand and eight, when the business
kind of started to change and when I gave away
my three fifty six to the charity and did all that,
I said.
Speaker 3 (25:39):
You know, I'm just gonna push hard.
Speaker 4 (25:41):
I'm going to work as hard as I can, and
They'll come a point in my life where I feel
that I've had enough success that I can give myself
a gift of another vehicle. Right, And I had my sights,
you know, early on, I was like, oh, it'll be
a nine ninety seven GT three, and that you know,
I wasn't wasn't even there at that point. And then
(26:02):
and then you just kind of keep pushing, right, and
you work twenty four hours a day and you do
whatever you do. And I finally got to a point
in twenty seventeen, twenty eighteen where I was comfortable enough
that I could buy that car and it wasn't going
to keep me from putting food on the table and
doing what I needed to do. And it was that
(26:22):
motivation for eight ten years that got me to that point.
And then when it got rear ended, you know, of course,
I was left with a decision do.
Speaker 3 (26:33):
I total it and let it go away?
Speaker 4 (26:36):
There's no way there's that thing could have been wadded
in a ball and I would have kept it because
I didn't get the car as an investment. I didn't
get the car as you know, look at me I've
got a GT three. I got that car because it
was the vision, the kind of carrot for me that
kept me grinding twenty four to seven to build the
business and get to where I'm at today. Yeah, you know,
(26:58):
you have to have to reward ourselves or at least
have something to chase, to give us the motivation to
get through some of the things that we do.
Speaker 3 (27:08):
Right, Yeah, don't.
Speaker 1 (27:09):
I don't know if you heard, Amelia, but when Rod's
nine ninety seven g T three got rear ended, he
did a post on Instagram, and like most guys will post, like,
you know, damn horrible day I got rear ended. It
cost me all this money and screw this guy. All
this kind of toxic energy that goes into look at me,
(27:30):
feel sorry for me at this expensive car, woe with me? Right?
But Rod's posts like really hit me. And I never
met Rod until today, and it actually taught me something.
It's like, don't put too much value, don't put any
value in material things. Because I think his post, you know,
I can't remember a verbatim, but to paraphrase, it was,
(27:50):
I'm still healthy, I'm still here, and no one got hurt.
It's just the car and it's a GT three and
it's a quarter million dollar car. For some they'd be
you know, crying the river. And I was like, wow,
this says a lot about this person.
Speaker 2 (28:04):
But that's who you are as a person. You're very positive,
you're a very thankful person. Who to you it is
you know, it is just an item, and as long
as you have your health and your family, you know,
that's what matters. That's what from what I've known you,
that's what I gather from you. That's a sincere post.
Speaker 1 (28:21):
Yeah, I mean I'm glad to hear that. And meeting you,
I realized that, Like you know, they say, you know,
be careful meeting your heroes, right, you know, so.
Speaker 3 (28:29):
Because thank you so much.
Speaker 1 (28:30):
Yeah. The level of work that you put into the cars,
it's like especially today, you know, the idea of working
with your hands is not its not it's not cherished today.
It's not celebrated, you know, and you're a true craftsman.
You know, it's an artist I breed. Right, are you
surprised that you're beloved? Three fifty six, like twelve hundred
(28:53):
dollars car today is like worth so much money, Like
there's like a fervor over these old.
Speaker 2 (28:59):
Dig because of you that those cars so expressive.
Speaker 4 (29:02):
It's I'm probably part to blame for the increase in
value and interest in the cars, but you know, I
mean they are a very unique I mean, if you
go all the way back to the origin story of
the cars and you know the family that you know
that built.
Speaker 1 (29:16):
Them, and which is they.
Speaker 4 (29:19):
I mean, you know, I mean they built the first cars,
you know, in a in an old sawmill and camooned
Austria and they were hand beating them out of aluminum
on wood stumps, you know, and then the car company
you know, built from there. So I'm not surprised that
the values are where they're at, but I'm grateful that
the world has now come to a point where they
(29:40):
appreciate them and and that the cars are celebrated. You know,
there was a period of time where the cars didn't
have much value, and you know, even Portie they struggled
in the eighties and nineties. You know, it's just great
to see that that the company is so strong now
as a whole. But you know, I just love them.
I mean I've I've built over two hundred of them
to the level that I do in thirty five years.
(30:03):
You know, I like to think that I had a
small part in helping to keep the interest and.
Speaker 1 (30:08):
Make money and make it mone affordable.
Speaker 3 (30:10):
Yeah, I mean it's you know, it's yeah.
Speaker 4 (30:12):
They're a solid investment though, you know, and I think they'll,
you know, even through tough times, they'll they'll hold value.
Speaker 2 (30:33):
I want to ask about advice and business and all
this stuff, but I think before asking about business, what's
more important to me is how you've had a happy family,
a happy life wife Like you're very family oriented and
you've had a very beautiful marriage with your wife for
so long. Now, do you have advice for people out
(30:54):
there to have that work life balance to have a
happy marriage and family.
Speaker 4 (30:58):
Well, you said it, you said balance, and that's the key.
And so we've been married twenty seven years. My wife,
she didn't know much about cars or really have any
interest in cars, but we fell in love and she
jumped right in and she had a good work ethic,
and we kind of had a dream together. We built
our first car together a year after we were married
(31:22):
and did kind of this tour around the Western United
States when Sane was just two months old, and so
she fell in love with cars. So that side of
it has been good because you know, that's part of
why our business is successful. But when we look when
I look at like the success of my family. You know,
we have a faith based relationship. We go to church
(31:43):
on Sundays and raised, you know, two amazing kids.
Speaker 2 (31:47):
And I can second that two amazing kids. Your whole
family is great.
Speaker 4 (31:51):
Well, you know, they grew up at the racetrack. We
did everything as a family, and we put our boots
on and we went to work together as a family.
And I think that's really the success is that that
we were just we've always been moving in the same direction.
Speaker 3 (32:09):
You know.
Speaker 4 (32:09):
When we got married, Amy put her trust in me
that I'm going to be a small business owner and
we're going to build a business together. And she said, well,
I'll do the things that I can. And so for
twenty seven years, she's run the back end of the business.
She doesn't like being in front of the camera, she
doesn't like, you know, that part of it. She doesn't like,
you know, being kind of the front woman. She just
(32:31):
wants to be the you know, kind of charger in
the back. And here we are twenty seven years later,
and my daughter's married, my son who has an acting
career but also become part of the business. We all
work together every day, and I think that's really for us.
It's just that we all work together and that we communicate.
(32:54):
We're just open book and it's full communication, and it's
just like full dedication to each other, and we've just
it's just kept us sow in sync. I woke up
this morning just so grateful for my wife and my
kids and the love that we share, because that's that's
really what it is.
Speaker 2 (33:11):
That's beautiful.
Speaker 1 (33:12):
It was beautiful.
Speaker 2 (33:13):
Was there certain things that you really wanted to instill
in your children going up to pursue their own paths
and dreams.
Speaker 4 (33:21):
Yeah, to to really find their own lane. I'll use
Zine as an example. You know, Zaan grew up, you know,
riding around in the porsches with us, and you know,
so of course as a father, you know, I'm like, well,
got them on a bicycle, and you know, I had
him on little, you know, four wheelers when he was
like three four years old, and by the time he
was five or six, I had him in a little
go kart and then he raced quarter midgets. So by
(33:42):
the time he was eight years old, he had raced
go karts and quarter midgets, and so early on I
was like that excited dad, like, oh, I got my boy,
I'm gonna I'm gonna raise a race car driver. And
he taught me a lesson. It was that realization that
when you're raising a child, it's not about you, it's
about them. Every year from when he was like five
(34:04):
until he was eight, he had to sign his little
racing license because he had his Quarter Midget Association race license.
And so we were sitting at the table, he was eight,
almost nine years old, and we gave him the paper
and we're filling it out and he pushes it back
at us and he says, I don't want to be
a race car driver. And it was that moment that
I was like, did I just like, you know, have
(34:25):
I just ruined my kid's childhood?
Speaker 2 (34:28):
You know, because he almost take it internally well.
Speaker 4 (34:30):
Car people were like, you know, why wouldn't he want
to raceco carts? You know, I've got all these connections
I can. He says, I want to I want to
sing in a choir, and I'm like where that came
out of left field? So when he was nine years old,
he started singing in a choir, and then he started
doing theater and then by the time he was ten,
(34:51):
he had an agent down here in La Now we're
in Oregon.
Speaker 2 (34:56):
And did that have to do with the move a
little bit?
Speaker 3 (34:59):
It did?
Speaker 2 (34:59):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (35:00):
And what Amy and I just realized is we just
have to let our kids be free and just support
them and let them figure out what it is in
life that they want to do. But Zane had his
career in acting, and he came to me a couple
of years ago and said, Dad, he goes, You know,
I enjoy what my career path has been, but I
love these cars and I want to work with you
(35:21):
every day.
Speaker 2 (35:22):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (35:23):
You know, we supported him.
Speaker 4 (35:24):
I never told him he had to come and work
with me, and we just you know, of course, I
always left the door open.
Speaker 2 (35:29):
It's so good for you to allow him to find
that on his own and not force something, you know.
Speaker 4 (35:34):
Yeah, So that's like you asked for advice, that it's
just let your kids be free, support them and see
where it takes them.
Speaker 3 (35:41):
We did that with both of our kids. And you know, Jade,
she trained ariel acrobatics and wanted to be in circ
disilay and after college she asked if she could come
and work with her mom and run the back into
the business. So now we truly have a family business.
Speaker 2 (35:56):
I think it shows in all the work you guys do,
and when your name comes up, it's like, in a way,
the way you communicate with your household, you also communicate
with your clients, and you treat everyone like family. And
I think that's what makes it so special when you
own and you know an emory, you know three fifty six,
you're like you own a piece of family in a way,
and I think that translates in the work that you do.
Speaker 3 (36:18):
Well, thank you.
Speaker 1 (36:19):
What happens when you run out of three fifty six is.
Speaker 3 (36:22):
You know, it's amazing.
Speaker 4 (36:23):
I get that question all the time because you know,
you you know, to the average person, they'd become unobtainable, right.
You know, the only time you see one is whether
it's on bring a Trailer or it's uh, you know,
it comes up on eBay every once in a while,
and you know the values are so high. And you know,
Porsche built from nineteen fifty to nineteen sixty five, there
(36:44):
were seventy six thousand built, So that's nothing when you
look at numbers that car companies are building today. I mean,
they'll build seventy six thousand cameras. I don't know, probably
in four months. You know, that was over a fifteen
year period. There were seventy six thousand of them built.
Of those cars, half of them came to the US,
and half of the US cars came to California, because
(37:05):
California was the biggest market for those cars. I put
fifteen twenty thousand of those cars, you know, within reach
around here, or at least originally. I figure about thirty
percent of those cars are long gone because back in
the day, you know, if the car got hit, if
it wasn't worth fixing, they'd pull the parts off and
they'd just crush it. So about a third of them
(37:25):
are gone. I think ninety percent of the cars that
are left are in circulation. People are driving them, using them,
and I think there's about maybe ten percent of them
that are still undiscovered or sitting somewhere that you know,
needs to be found, to be restored, or somebody's been
holding on to it. I personally, because I've been doing
it for so long, I find four or five cars a.
Speaker 1 (37:48):
Month, wow, four a month.
Speaker 3 (37:50):
That's a lot.
Speaker 4 (37:50):
That is a lot, But you have to realize my
reach is a lot bigger than the average person.
Speaker 3 (37:55):
You know.
Speaker 2 (37:55):
I'm sure people send them to you too.
Speaker 4 (37:57):
Yeah, most of the cars that I and I say,
I only buy like maybe a third of what come
to me because I don't want to buy a car
that's numbers matching or that's I want the one that's
missing its engine, missing its transmission, somebody cut the nose off.
I would say that probably half the cars that I
get are abandoned projects. And so a lot of people
(38:19):
will buy one of these little cars for thirty thousand
dollars or whatever, and I'm gonna make this my project
in the garage, and they take it apart, they send
it out and have it sam blasted, and then they
just pull their hair out and say, what if I
got myself into Because it's too big of a project
for the average person to undertake themselves. And so half
(38:39):
the cars I get, they're basket cases. Somebody's taken them apart.
They attempted to start a restoration, they did some welding
on it, and then they just threw all the parts
in it. It probably sat in their garage for five years,
ten years, fifteen years, and then I get that call, Hey,
my wife said, I got to get this car out
of the garage. First thing I do if it's somebody
that doesn't know anything about the cars or doesn't know
the values, I want to sleep at night. So the
(39:01):
first thing I do is I go, look, this is
what the car is worth. And here's some you know,
kind of comps. You know, you can see it on
cars that have sold on eBay or cars that you know,
and and try to educate them. And a lot of
times the reason they're willing to sell it to me
is because these cars it's a connection. They bought that
car with a dream of someday restoring it and driving
(39:22):
it and enjoying it. When they came to the realization
they couldn't. And I mean I have people when when
I buy cars, the first thing they ask is will
you please send me photos when it's done, because these
cars have such an emotional connection that oftentimes people just
want to see it roll again and live again. And
fortunately they know that if they send it to me,
I'm going to build that sucker.
Speaker 1 (39:43):
Yeah, it'll be a hard piece yet to live on. Yeah,
if the three fifty six is do run out, what
would you do next?
Speaker 4 (39:52):
You know, I kind of have X ray vision on
these cars just because I've been around them for so long.
There's a lot of cars that were restored in the
eighties and nine, even in the early two thousands that
were doing like quick restorations and the cars were shipped overseas,
and now some of them have come back. The market,
like in Japan was huge in the late eighties early nineties,
and a lot of cars went over there, But there
(40:14):
was a lot of people that were doing just kind
of quicker restorations.
Speaker 3 (40:17):
I won't say bad work.
Speaker 4 (40:19):
Well, thirty years later, the paint's starting to you know,
show signs, and those cars need to be re restored again.
So there's always going to be cars that need to
be restored and need to be saved. So it's been
my life's work for thirty five years. I think I'll
be building these things for another thirty years.
Speaker 1 (40:39):
Yeah, it doesn't sound like you're going anywhere. And then
you have Zain to probably take over that.
Speaker 4 (40:43):
I got Zain there, I got Jade there. My son
in law drew an amazing crew. I mean there's twenty
of us within the walls or within the business. It's
not a big company, but it's a strong team, you know.
Speaker 1 (40:54):
Yeah, well, thank you so much for my pleasure. Thanks
a true honor to sit down with you.
Speaker 3 (41:00):
Well, thank you.
Speaker 4 (41:00):
It's great to finally meet you, and I always love
hanging out with her.
Speaker 2 (41:04):
So yeah, You've always been such a huge supporter to
me as well, even when I was a nobody just
turning wrenches in a borrowed garage on a friend's car
because I couldn't afford parts of myself. I'm forever grateful
of that, So thank you.
Speaker 3 (41:16):
You know that offers will stand for life.
Speaker 1 (41:19):
Thanks awesome, Thank you, Ed.
Speaker 3 (41:21):
Yeah, thank you.
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