Episode 8 - Craig Jackson

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
I grew up in a shop, so I grew up
working on cars.

Speaker 2 (00:04):
Okay.

Speaker 1 (00:05):
I was so happy to see the art that I
thought was dying coming back to life by having builders
actually you know, using all the metal working equipment and
building stuff from scratch again, not just customizers buying stuff
and bolting it off right, but actually hand fabricating items

(00:30):
and showing art and restoring cars or bikes. It is
art and you can take as much liberty as you
want with it, but you got to have style, and
you got to I always go back and do this analogy.
I grew up in the air restoring Dalla hayes that
had Fegoni flashy coach work, very flamboyant, and rebuilding all

(00:56):
the chrome on them because they've ground against the one
foot high curve herbs and re rolling all the fender
panels and all that. And the guys that I learned
from when I learned, they were in their seventies to eighties.
They taught me how to lead. They taught me how
to run a plenishing hammer and English wheel, a you know,
a deep throat shrinker, and how to fabricate parts. And

(01:20):
I was like, you know, is this going to be
a dying art. Well, the art has really been taking
off and seeing you guys customize the bikes, and Jesse
James showing how to do it and all the early adopters,
and then Boyd when he got his show out. Although
I thought Boyd trying to build a car in a week,
you know, like overhauling in that is not reality.

Speaker 2 (01:42):
It's a tricky deal, you know.

Speaker 1 (01:44):
It's a tricky deal to build something and actually go
out and drive it, nut and bolt it. And I
own three of Boyd's cars currently, all of them. I
took a part redid them together. Yeah, made sure that
all the nuts and bolts are tight and everything lined up.
And that was just because first one came out of
the oven, I think a little too soon, and I
was like, all right, the next one's we're going to

(02:05):
actually go get there right. But the art is what
I go after, and a car has to have the
right proportions and be built the right way. And at
our auctions, you know, we're about selling all types of cars,
resto mods, customs, but we take the same look at
a car, whether we're selling a numbers matching car, because

(02:26):
we look at who put it together, How is it
put together? What all the components and was it done
in a workmanship type manners? Anybody can go and buy
a hellfin engine, stick it in something and you're going, yeah,
those brakes and rear end are just gonna instantly explode.
Everything needs to be tied together. Everything needs to be

(02:46):
thought out. When you do a build, what do you
visualize it looking like? And how are you going to
use it and drive it? And that's our job as
an auction company. When somebody says they're interested in something,
first thing I ask him is what do you can
use it for? You know, I'm gonna do this with Yeah, you.

Speaker 2 (03:03):
Got the wrong Yeah you're not drag racing this thing, right?

Speaker 1 (03:06):
Or I just love the way a Hemi Koda looks,
and I love hemikud as. I collect them, but you
know some guy will buy one and drive it. Go.
This thing doesn't steer or stop for damn right, I'll
drive it around the block. You know, it drives exactly
the way it did night.

Speaker 2 (03:20):
That's right. It's doing exactly what it did from day one.

Speaker 1 (03:24):
From day one. That's why you may want to rest them.
Ad if you really want to go out and drive it.

Speaker 2 (03:28):
You know what It's funny that you say that too,
because I got into when I got into car, you
know what I do for a living, right, We've known
each other a long time, and I'm with you with
the art side of things. I'm an artist over a
bike builder, a car builder or anything. It's art forward
for me, and I've been fortunate to be able to
work on some pretty amazing projects through the years. But
when I got into cars, and it wasn't I was

(03:51):
not always into cars. I really got into them probably
back in twenty eleven or twelve. I started buying cars,
and I was buying them as a ridge as possible,
so you know, I'm a customizer. But I fell in
love with history in the way of cars. And the
only way to really experience history, at least this has
been my experience, is to drive an old car, right,

(04:13):
because the way it was in thirty seven and thirty
six and forty one, you see what I mean. And
so however it smelled, and however drive and however it
didn't stop right, and however it barely went. Is what
you got is what that man who drove that car
maybe a salesman's coup back in you know, thirty six

(04:33):
experienced on a daily basis, and that's what I fell
in love with. Of course, the form. I've had a
lot of rare Hudsons. I had a thirty one boattail roadster.
Most thirties Hudsons are kind of uncommon and they're pretty
art deco. And I had a thirty six convertible, and
I had I had a thirty six pickup. I had
all these. I got into Hudsons like heavily. I'm like that.
Once I start collecting an area, I go like completely

(04:56):
out of my mind and I hunt cars and so
but I love I love originality. I really love originality
because you experience history that way. And when I designed
this car, I didn't want to take too much away
from its original history. I wanted to respect the original design.

(05:17):
And that's why when you talk about Dela Hayes such
an inspiration, those cars are the most magnificent, flowing robes,
beautiful cars you've ever seen. And so I just took
a little inspiration from the Dela Hayes and the Bugattis
and that Zephyr has everything you need anyway, except for
a few things. And I feel like those fenders should
always came back and I know that wouldnt have been

(05:38):
practical for production, but esthetically, I thought, man, this is
a nice area to spend some time and get this
thing to flow out. And then really the speed fin
and I modernized it. Inside it's got air ride, but
esthetically we did the suicide doors to make the fenders work.
But esthetically that car is almost stock. I mean it's

(05:59):
got to stock end. We souped up the carbs. I
did the Zephyr scripted heads. I'm a purist when it
comes to cars, so it was almost I almost found
a little difficult doing anything to the car, except for
the fact that I was given an opportunity to put
my twist on it for the first time. And after
looking at these cars for so many years, these are
the things that I decided should be done to it.

(06:19):
And even that speed fit in the back. You see
how simple that thing is, and it just it gives
it so much speed. We use the original frame, we
channeled it out, we lowered it. It's on air ride,
but it's not laying on the ground. I don't that's
not I like it to look like a car, not
like you know whatever. It's just for my eye. I
want to see a little bit more tire. I like

(06:41):
it low Those cars look like they're waiting for a
flood from the factory because roads were not so great
back in the day, you know, So I think we
lowered it just the right amount. The Dunkel blow, which
is the dark blue paint, to me, is the best.
It's beautiful. It's a color I love. But you know,
black is just black. And we went with that kind

(07:06):
of a mahogany whiskey what's the word I'm looking for
with a with a leather brown leather interior. So that combination, yeah, conyac. Yeah,
my wife's saying konyak because she picked the interior and
uh and so you know, we really wanted to just
pay homage to the past and kind of bring it
up to speed a little bit. You know.

Speaker 1 (07:27):
Well, it's certainly a piece of art. I appreciate that
type of work. I love cars that somebody took the
eye to look at. How does it flow? And you know,
buying a car is a passion, and people that love
this hobby do it because the passion, that camaraderie, and

(07:47):
it is rolling art. Selling these cars. Not all of
them are rolling art, yours is some are more function
over form versus form over function.

Speaker 2 (07:58):
I agree with that, and you're right. I mean the motor.
I didn't hop up the motor. You look in that car.
We cleaned up the firewall, you know, we did things
we got rid of, like a lot of the wires
that you don't want to see. But you look down
in there and you got that twelve cylinder motor sitting
in there on the original motor mounts. And I really
love that about the car. It didn't need that much.
And I do think that it's a very over customized car.

(08:21):
People take, They french it all out, They get rid
of the handles, they get rid of all the trim,
They chop the roof, which doesn't need to be chopped
it really and they over chopped so it looks like
a pancake. You know. It looks like someone dropped it
on upside down. It really does. And these guys think
it looks good, and I think you ruin the car.
That's my feeling. I mean, the original design of that

(08:41):
car is one of the best coops of the thirties.
So in fairness to my design, again, I had to
pay respect to the to the original designers, which I
believe is Grigory, right, I mean that's the original designer,
is Grigory. I think that's how you say his name.
Because in this Effort club they have they rate these

(09:01):
cars based on this Grigory rating, which is on one
hundred point system. I've had a couple like one hundred
point cars in the past, so you know, and that's
the nuances with where the stickers go and everything like that.
I didn't pay as much attention to that as making
sure those fenders were just right, the way they came
back into the rear fenders and the way the suicide
doors open up. I love the suicide doors, and I

(09:24):
don't think there's another Zephyr out there with suicide doors
like that, because when you open them up, you get
to see the interior from the front perspective of the car,
so you get that leather and everything else. And I
just I've always loved suicide doors, even on some original
cars from thirty six. I think at thirty six Ford
has suicide doors. There's a couple other ones out there,
but I just took my years of experience of things

(09:47):
I love, and I go to all the concords. I
judge at the Concord. So I've seen some of the
most spectacular cars you can ever imagine. So for the
past ten years, I've been seeing all these cars, and
I finally got a chance to build kind of what
I would consider my dream car, you.

Speaker 1 (10:02):
Know, and this is it come to life.

Speaker 2 (10:07):
This is yes, this is the first stage. I think
I want to build some more. I got some different
ideas for some different cars. But yeah, I mean I
just think it's good. And you know, when I look
at it, it's like my body of work. It's cars
and bikes, but it's just design. It's just good design,
good flowing lines, good proportions, and good fabrication. Because I've

(10:28):
seen it all, you'd be surprised. I've seen some bike
builders where I go, Wow, it's a nice bike, and
you get on top of it and you're like, oh
my gosh, who did these welds? You know, like chicken,
you know, scratch. So the fit and finish for me
has always been extremely important. I'm like mental about how
it looks and how it's done. And I think with

(10:50):
this car, we I think we hit it out of
the park with this one. I really, you know, the
form of this car, and I seen it on the
cover of the magazine that you guys put out, and
it just, Man, it's art. It's art. It's moving when
it's sitting still. And that's pretty much everything I do
is along those lines, the flow, in the motion it

(11:10):
has when it's just sitting there. It's just critically important
to me, you know.

Speaker 1 (11:16):
Well, so you said you started really buying cars and
getting into two thousand and ten.

Speaker 2 (11:23):
Yep.

Speaker 1 (11:24):
Prior to that, you were strictly just into building the
bikes with your dad pretty much.

Speaker 2 (11:29):
Yeah, you know, like old cars were just old cars,
you know. I mean I had a I had cars.
I had like a I had a Superformance Cobra, which
was fun, really nice, had a lot of fun with that.
I had a four GT forty, which I wish I
never would have sold. I sold it too soon, one
of those heartbreakers that got away. Now those cars are
like four hundred thousand, you know, and I bought it

(11:51):
brand new with no stripes, and it was a really
cool car. So I liked cars, but I just didn't
understand old cars like in the thirties. And I think
when I finally started, once I got bit by that bug,
it was lights out for me. Man, I love art deco.
You know a lot of guys like muscle. I'm not
a muscle guy. Can I appreciate him, Yes, And I've
had a couple of matter of fact, I sold that

(12:13):
sixty seven Super Snake in two thousand and seven in Arizona.
That was the last time I think I saw you,
and so I appreciated that.

Speaker 1 (12:23):
I believe he what did he sell? He was?

Speaker 2 (12:27):
Oh? He no, he had a he had a sixty
Corvette convertible with a matching motorcycle. And we both sold
our fastbacks, and yeah, and he was. He wasn't real happy.
But we don't have to get into that. He always
wants more and he always wants to sell cars for
more than I get for mine, you know. But it
was a great experience coming down there, and I got

(12:50):
to tell you the reason I went with you, other
than our relationship in history, because obviously I could sell
this place at other auctions. You guys do it the best.
You guys do it the biggest, and you've put you've
put it in a place. I feel like you're like
the Wwe of the auction world. And I mean that

(13:10):
with all respect because it's a it's a it's a
show that people want to be a part of. It's exciting,
it's living. And these other auction houses are great, but
they're but they don't do what you do. And I
and I feel like when it was time I say,
we got to go to Barrett Jackson with this thing.

Speaker 1 (13:26):
You know, well, thank you. And Palm Beach has got
its own flavor down there. A ton of money has
come into the area, but a ton of car people.
South Florida is on fire for the just the amount
of supercars and car shows we're down there, and it's
a car show or two every weekend day where we're

(13:50):
actually just driving around going to different car, car shows,
supercar shows. People love cars down in South Florida. So
it's got a real follow up to it, much more
than Los Angeles nowadays. Really really South Florida.

Speaker 2 (14:04):
It's a different culture, right. I feel like those supercars
are big. I feel like Los Angeles is a little
bit more of a mixed bag, and it's a lot
of like the thirties chopped cars and the hot rods
and the fifty one merks and things of that nature.
Right Is that is that right?

Speaker 1 (14:21):
It's it's across the board. Yeah, it's you know, being
able to take the cars out and use them and
people appreciate them. And the cars and coffee started in
southern California, so he can't take anything away from him,
but the camaraderie that I feel down in Florida and
everybody is just super psyched when you're driving a cool

(14:43):
car out and seeing it when it's Valet Park and
everybody around it. And I sold a car to a
customer and I sought at a restaurant, so I went over.
I was like, that's got to be the car, and
the owner came up and we started talking king and
you know, he told me what he likes and got

(15:04):
a great bunch of cars, a lot of supercars, and
he ended up buying Sammy Hagar's law Ferrari because he
just loved the colors and the combination of the car.
But these things are organic by just going out and
being with the car people. And that's what we try
to bring into the auctions, and that is that it's

(15:24):
not just an auction, it's a gathering of people that
love cars. The passion and the amount of buyers to
cars comes because the cars are going up for sale
and you're the last person with your hand in the air.
It's your car. It's not there for an appraisal. It
is there to find a new home and another passionate

(15:47):
person to care for it till it cycles back through.

Speaker 2 (15:52):
Right, We're just We're just here. We're just We're just
curators of these things for a short period of time
and then they move on. You know, we're just stewarts,
right we are.

Speaker 1 (16:03):
I collect cars myself and restore cars and care form
very much because I love the history and I love,
you know, doing the research on we're doing to I
mean a Bugatti right now. I just bought back one
of my Dlahy's that I restored when I was twenty
years old, So I can't wait to see what it

(16:24):
looks like forty five years later. Painted it in lacker
and in the pictures that looks gorgeous.

Speaker 2 (16:32):
Still is it still an the original? Because I know
those Dela Hayes go through some Delahayes, they go through
years of changes and they'll they'll redo the trim different.
You know, I've seen a lot of these cars where
the original car doesn't look like the car today because
it goes through different hands. So is it still your work?
On that car or as someone.

Speaker 1 (16:52):
Is exactly the way it was done, and the gentleman
I bought it back from I told him after I
bought it. You know, I got a picture of that
when my dad body went to buy a fifty three
Durham limousine and it was sitting on the lot, and
I have the picture of it on the lot in
the early sixties. I have a ton of pictures growing

(17:13):
up with the car. And then I restored it, went
between that when I was nineteen and twenty years old,
and then we sold it, and then I went and got
another Dallahya Figoni flashy and restored it. As I started
to say, we were now restoring a Type fifty seven
Bugatti in our shop here and a thirty four Cadillac
that was my parents' first collector car.

Speaker 2 (17:35):
Wow.

Speaker 1 (17:36):
And my parents drove it from Michigan to Arizona. My
mom drove the car.

Speaker 2 (17:41):
That's a great year. Thirty four and thirty five are
great years for cadigc sumers.

Speaker 1 (17:46):
Yeah, it's got a lot of Art deco touches to it,
one hundred and fifty four inch wheelbase. It's a big
two door coup.

Speaker 2 (17:54):
Really, is that what it is. Yeah, I was going
to ask you that those cars are awesome. They're so
big for a coop.

Speaker 1 (18:00):
Know, yes, And pictures of me in the back seat
in the little jump seat in the back when I
was a kid. So going down memory lane restoring the
car to take it to Pebble eventually, and the Bugatti's
going to go to Pebble this year. I love that
era of cars because I grew up with them with
my dad and Tom Barrett. But I also love all

(18:22):
the modern cars nowadays, so my collection is a little
bit diverse and all sorts of different cars. I love
the cars they're popping out today.

Speaker 2 (18:32):
Oh yeah, some fantastic.

Speaker 1 (18:33):
Will be making these kind of super fast cars. When
I grew up in high school, I didn't think that
this era would ever come because I graduated high school
in seventy seven, okay, and you know seventy four to
seventy seven were not great years now.

Speaker 2 (18:48):
No, pretty pretty horrible actually after that muscle car stretch, you.

Speaker 1 (18:53):
Know, yeah, we hadn't figured out all the purbos and
fuel injection and everything else we could get performance. So
I grew up collecting and driving old muscle cars, and
you know, they were just used cars back in the day,
but had a lot of fun doing it. So my
passions sort of broad. And the main thing I love

(19:16):
is when somebody has the passion and the art. And
that's why I have gravitated to everybody that has had
TV shows that show people how to do this, what
it's a like, what's the passion behind it and taking
something that is a you know, a lot of work

(19:36):
and turning into something that's a piece of art, and
that's the goal.

Speaker 2 (19:40):
Yeah, and you know I think about that. So in
the capacity of television. I look at some of these cars,
like the one I'm getting ready to sell, but even
like Boyd's cars and stuff. I mean, that stuff becomes
exponentially more valuable over time just because of the providence
and because they have some kind of you know, history
with the builder. I mean, I mean, look at all

(20:01):
the Barriss cars. These cars are like, you know crazy.
Even motorcycles, you know, like even some of Indian Larry's
motorcycles sold pretty good for the level of notoriety that
he had. Unfortunately, people have to be gone a lot
of times for that stuff to really go crazy, but
it always gets there. I mean Von Dutch and you know,

(20:21):
I look at all these guys as my predecessors. I
look at all their stuff and I just think, Wow,
these guys really they really made a mark, even like
Ed Roth, you know, with his mailbox, trike and all
that stuff. All that stuff is a big inspiration to me.
And I look at you know, I'm fifty now, so
I've been doing this like twenty five years of television,

(20:44):
and I look at my body of work differently than
I did when I was a young guy just making stuff.
You know, I look back at it. I've tried to
get back quite a few of my bikes through the years.
I've gotten some of them back. I've been able to
keep some of them. So I have a pretty large
collection of my bikes from the show. But when I
look at my body of work, it's very exclusive. I
don't build anything past for large corporations or big charities there.

(21:11):
I don't really build for individuals. I don't floor plan stuff.
It's commission only. So this car is part of a
body of work that's pretty exclusive. There's not a lot
of it out there. And the stuff that's out there
is globally recognized, you know, and we you know, Discovery
for all those years really afforded us a global audience
of two hundred countries and territories and ninety languages, and

(21:33):
that's pretty remarkable for it from upstate New York guys
who really when when the show started, I didn't even
like my picture take it, you know, So what an
amazing American you know, dream story for for just some
guys up in upstate New York. You know, the show
hit at just the right time. And even though there

(21:54):
was all the chaos and the and the family arguments,
which really made the show unique, we had something to
show for it. You know. We built these great works
of art, and we did it as a team, and
we didn't know He's do it perfect, but we certainly
we struck a chord with people. And I think that
in the long run, there's a lot of staying power

(22:16):
for us. Even now, the nostalgia for the shows off
the charts, because all these guys that grew up that
we were all teenagers and twenties, mid twenties, and now
they're all like me, fifty with kids, and you know,
people are settled in their careers and so it's an
interesting thing. Also, like you said, I feel like we
showed people how to work with their hands and that
it's okay, you know, and we motivated. I can't imagine

(22:39):
how many guys said, I do this because of your show.
This is what I do for a living because of
your shows. You know. It's amazing how much inspiration we
were able to put out there. And again we were
just being us. But in hindsight, I start to look
at our body of work and I go, my gosh,
this is even bigger than bikes or motorcycles or cars
or any of that. You know, we had. We've made

(23:01):
a mark, you know.

Speaker 1 (23:03):
You absolutely did. You know, you made some names there.
And I don't know if you knew this, but Von
Dutch was one of our painters. I grew up with
him as a kid, spent a lot of time, more
time with him than my mother liked.

Speaker 2 (23:18):
Is that right?

Speaker 1 (23:19):
He really was a bad influence.

Speaker 2 (23:22):
I heard a lot. I've heard a lot of things.

Speaker 1 (23:26):
So I used to live here in Timp. His shop
was down on Curry and he used to go to
Minderbinders and have lunch there and every day he'd pinstripe
the door or something. I mean, the place was a
Von Dutch archive and learned a lot from him, and
then he when he left Arizona, he went to Movie
World in California. Oh yeah, re storing a lot of

(23:48):
Big Daddy ed Roth's cars. And Big Daddy ed Roth
was actually over at Knotsberry Farm and that's where he
ended up retiring and was painting all the rides. If
you ever saw the rides back then they had pinstriping you,
That's where both these guys sort of end.

Speaker 2 (24:05):
I met him one time. I brought the Black Widow
back in two thousand and two to the Rats Hole
Show in Daytona, and he was there. He was a
little he was I guess his health wasn't great at
the time, but it was like, you know, maybe a
couple of years later he passed, but I did get
to meet him, which was cool, and I got to

(24:26):
be a part of his show. And you know, his
stuff is so cool. These guys are like, these guys
are like the legends of what I do.

Speaker 1 (24:33):
You know.

Speaker 2 (24:34):
I even think of arlen Ness and how he goes
way back and what a theme builder that guy was
really laying the groundwork for a guy like myself, you know.
So I have such an appreciation for history, and it
really translates. If you can see up in this corner,
you see that tank up there, Yes, the stars and stripes. Yeah,
that's a Von Dutch painted gas tank. And I have

(24:55):
In nineteen sixty six, Look magazine did a whole spread
on him that I have all the photographs, every step
of every inch of that tank. Can you hand me
that tank? I want to just show him. It's really cool.
And there's a story that goes with it that Peter
Fonda saw this tank. Now this is sixty six. It's signed.
It says receive a California on it. And the story

(25:17):
is that that Peter Fonda saw this tank and liked it.
And you can see how it might have been inspiration
for a bike that everybody is familiar with, right, But
you can see it's his Von Dutton and there's there's
his signature. I don't know if you can see it,
but I can.

Speaker 1 (25:33):
Yeah, I'm very familiar with it.

Speaker 2 (25:35):
What a great tank, huh.

Speaker 1 (25:37):
Yeah. Anyway, I sold a lot of Dutches stuff over
the years. I collect some of it. I have some
of his tools that he engraved.

Speaker 2 (25:47):
Yeah, that's it. He was something else.

Speaker 1 (25:50):
You had paintings regular paintings. I have the square rainbow.
So every time he was doing a new color, he
would tape off something and he would put it in
it so and it's really three D when you look
at it. He was a master. He also made guns.

Speaker 2 (26:06):
Yeah, I've seen some guns.

Speaker 1 (26:07):
Us knives, master engraver. Yeah, you know, when you have talent,
you just have talent, that's it. And yeah, it was
painting seeing him. Now here's the trick to Dutch. He
had to have at least one beer, but no more
than six. Who we're in between there. He had a
straight hand after that.

Speaker 2 (26:27):
Yeah, that's right, that's right. He started out shaky. It
was smooth and then got.

Speaker 1 (26:31):
Shaky later fun you had to hit that sweet spot.
But having him do something freehand and then you could
trace it and flip it to the other side, it
was perfect and it was spot on.

Speaker 2 (26:44):
I've seen a few pinstripers that were very good. But
I know he was a master. I mean he was
a machinist, right, I mean he did what didn't he do?
He did everything. He literally could do anything. He was
one of those guys that just had natural gifted talent
and he had his style and he was you know,
kind of prolific. I guess right. I mean you knew him,

(27:06):
and that's like, wow, that's that's pretty neat.

Speaker 1 (27:09):
Yeah, yeah, very well. Didn't understand the impact. I just
like hanging out with them when you come to the shop,
paint and pinstripe and all that, and I just hung
out just trying to absorb it all and learn. And
you teach me on an old hood, how to how
to pull stripes and how to do different designs, and

(27:30):
you know, just learned a lot metal work. He was
actually great at metal work. He hated doing it.

Speaker 2 (27:36):
But he was good at it.

Speaker 1 (27:37):
He was good at it. Does he understand metallurgy. That's
why he was such a great machinist. He knew it.
It wasn't his favorite thing to do, but the paint
and the guns and those were some of his favorite
things to do.

Speaker 2 (27:52):
Yeah. I've seen some pretty crazy engraving. And if you
ever get tired of any of that stuff, I buy
a lot of that stuff. As you can see behind me,
I'm a big I'm a big fan of everything early
transportation in Americana. Just a colectic I like a mix
of stuff. I love signage that is one piece I mean,
if I spun you around, I'm just surrounded. I got

(28:13):
the walls covered. And I collect very unique, mostly rarer stuff.
I'm not you know, I've got over ten years, I've
kind of refined my collection. I like one offs, you know,
even one off sign stuff you really don't see a
lot of. And I like history. I like anything that
has a big story. I'm a sucker for a story.
I'll pay up for a good history. Boy. You get

(28:36):
me hook line and sinker. And I do like a
lot of research. I'll become even if I don't buy something,
if it's something that I'm interested in, I'll do a
ton of research on it. Maybe I won't get it
or maybe whatever, but I'll but then i'll catalog that
so next time I see that item, I go, oh, man,
that's this is what that is?

Speaker 1 (28:54):
You know.

Speaker 2 (28:55):
So I think history has got its hooks in me.
I'd put it that way, you know, Oh.

Speaker 1 (29:02):
I appreciate that. To it. The story and the history
behind the artifacts is what makes them what they are.
It's who made it, how did they make it.

Speaker 2 (29:13):
And why did they make it?

Speaker 1 (29:16):
For? Why did they make it? For? What journey was
it supposed to go on? Or what purpose was it
supposed to have? And you know, you look at all
the great cars, it's a great designer behind it. And
it may have if you're lucky. The great designer has
great engineering underneath the hood. And you know, you look
at all the people Harley Earl, all of his great cars,

(29:40):
they fantastic, you know, all of the main the Big
Three had great designers behind them.

Speaker 2 (29:49):
Yep.

Speaker 1 (29:49):
Virgil Xeler so what he did yep.

Speaker 2 (29:51):
And those guys jumped around a little here and there too,
and they have their influence and mixed and really cool stuff. Man, really, yeah,
I love I love automotive history. It's so it's so uh,
it's so eclectic, and it's so subjective. Even when you
look into the past. Even if you look at like
the early airflows and stuff, how they were so far
ahead of their No one wanted them. I mean, no,

(30:13):
these are beautiful cars at the time, they were too advanced,
you know. And you look at that history and it's
like it's the history of us as a country, because
automotive history is our history, you know.

Speaker 1 (30:25):
It absolutely is. Look at the Tucker. He was a
fantastic The Big Three had to crush him because he
was going to kill him.

Speaker 2 (30:33):
No, and then there's what there's only like forty one
of other there's like a limited number.

Speaker 1 (30:37):
Twenty yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2 (30:40):
Yeah yeah. I judge every year at Amelia, and they
had a nice Tucker two years ago, I think. And
it was fun to just get right up on that car.
What a work of art man, What a visionary guy
to be able to put something like that together at
that time.

Speaker 1 (30:56):
You know, yep, it's uh, everything that happens around moving
technology forward. What it takes to take the risk to
have the vision and then make it happen. And you
got to give it to the car companies back then.
A lot of them rolled the dice when the bean

(31:16):
counters may say no, but they got they took the chance,
you know, Corvette things like that. You know, when the
cars came out, well this is not a four door
stand No, we're going for the sports car market.

Speaker 2 (31:29):
That's right. It was impractical for all for the bean
counter's purposes.

Speaker 1 (31:34):
But look at where we are today, right, God, people
took chances.

Speaker 2 (31:39):
Yeah, and even race history when you go way back,
even like you know Vanderbilt cup stuff. I mean these
cars when they were fast, they were selling, right, I mean,
that's that's the bottom line. And so when you look
at race history and what a what a critical role
it played in how people bought cars and what they
thought was good. I mean, this goes back to like
when cars started, and it still today holds true. Right,

(32:02):
So it's interesting the moves that these companies make and
then the competitive nature between all these even like the
Ferraris and the Fords. You know, you see, all this
stuff is a very very competitive industry, you.

Speaker 1 (32:17):
Know, absolutely is. And I think the movies throwing a
light back on the great people like Carol Shelby. I
collect a lot of his cars, you know, I think
if it wasn't for Ford versus Ferrari, I don't think
the general population would know what a risk taker he was,
how much he fought against the bureaucracy inside of Ford.

Speaker 2 (32:41):
He did.

Speaker 1 (32:41):
What a maverick. Maverick that was him, you know.

Speaker 2 (32:46):
It's funny. So when we did those Mustangs, he was
a part of that. Carol Shelby, he was a part
of that company, and he was on our show and
I was able to spend about an hour and a
half one day just me and him, uh and we
just talked and he just told me like his whole
life story in about an hour and a half, soup

(33:06):
to nuts, racing with his overall got shown up at
the races with his overalls on, chicken crap all over
him and just jumping the cargo and then go right
back to work. Really interesting guy, even his whole South
Africa thing, and he was breeding these different cows, and
we talk about like a renaissance man. The just they

(33:27):
don't even make people like that anymore, you know.

Speaker 1 (33:31):
And it's amazing how many people run into that, know,
one from all different. When I went to his funeral,
it was amazing the whole aviation side that came there.
What a pilot he was, How he went through ground
school and he had such a knack for flying airplanes
that he didn't end up going and fighting in the war.
He ended up training other people how to fly.

Speaker 2 (33:53):
Such an aptitude, such an aptitude for things.

Speaker 1 (33:56):
He did, and a passion between you know, farming, you know,
being a rancher out in Texas and chickens and all
of that. But then you look at his other businesses Chili,
you know, he got off into the Chili deal and
working between Ford and then Dodge, you know, the father

(34:17):
of the Viper and working with Leiah Coca on that
like he did back with the Mustang, and you just
sit and you talk to him, and the stories he
would tell you, the off color ones were actually very hilarious,
the antics that went on back in those days.

Speaker 2 (34:34):
But he had away with words in a great sense
of humor.

Speaker 1 (34:38):
He did. And miss him all the time, and he
was one of those great people to be around. Had
a great time with him and the coach when we
sold his Cobra, we sold Sammy Hagar's Gt. Five hundred
and we were in my coach together and Sammy and
him were carrying on and it was great just sitting
back and watching these two guys, the legends in their

(34:59):
own world, funding over Mustangs and four twenty sevens and cars.

Speaker 2 (35:04):
And loving it.

Speaker 1 (35:05):
You know, those are those are days that you just
look back on. Every time I talked to sam Man
when we said mare with Carroll is telling me it's
all about it. You got that motor never ran right,
That's why I'd had to run at seven thousand rpm.
And you put it in a street car and wonder
it's crazy.

Speaker 2 (35:19):
Yeah, oh yeah, it's funny. That's great. Man, that's great
to hear that from the master. You know, where else
would you get that information? You just wouldn't, you know, it's.

Speaker 1 (35:30):
Been It's great Kevin that you go back to the history,
the history of the cars and the people that took
the chances to build them and did it for the
right reasons, because they loved the cars, and you know,
the competitive spirit of America back then, wanting to go
beat the world coming out of the war. We want

(35:51):
to we want to dominate.

Speaker 2 (35:52):
And you know, I.

Speaker 1 (35:54):
Think Ford versus Ferrari really shed light on how hard it.

Speaker 2 (35:58):
Was to go do that was so far and far ahead,
so far ahead of the game.

Speaker 1 (36:05):
Yeah, and their engines were really sophisticated. Yeah, and pieces
of art themselves that you know, it took tenacity And
that's what I love seeing as people that have grit
and tenacity. I think that's why people loved watching your
your show. You guys showed grit and tenacity.

Speaker 2 (36:25):
Yeah. I think you're right, especially Paul, you know, yes,
my thoughts. Yeah, right, that's that. I think that was
the staying power, you know, that was the that that
level of relatability you're talking about. I don't think i've
ever met a person that didn't say, your dad reminds
me and my dad, right, because they're from that that
certain school that for all intentsive purposes doesn't exist anymore.

(36:50):
The people aren't coming up behind those type of personalities
so much. I don't see it, you know. I was
just talking to my brother. It's like, I think everybody's
getting a little soft anymore, or in this country. You know, Uh,
these guys were think about it. You talk about these
guys from the past, they're you know, were they rough
around the edges? Were they quite often inappropriate and things

(37:11):
of that nature. Yes, but you kind of miss that
mentality that it's the tenacity is like it's part of
the package. I guess you would say, you know, and
so I do. I do really like, I do really
appreciate what we were able to do through the show
for all those years, uh, and and the impact it
had on people.

Speaker 1 (37:31):
You know, I think it shows if you have a dream,
all takes his effort to and talent to make it happen.
If you got both of those.

Speaker 2 (37:42):
You got a lot, right, you got something to work with, right.

Speaker 1 (37:45):
You know, Guys like Dutch had pure talent and he
had definitely had tenacity. It takes the other part of it.
You have business sense of how to monetize that a
lot of people don't, and a lot of people don't
have the last.

Speaker 2 (37:59):
Especially creatives, especially creatives that you're right, and sometimes you
even give up, especially with painters and people like that.
They're very particular, they're very honory, quite often hard to
deal with, very eccentric. And so you know, if you
can have the creativity and be a good business person
and be relatable and be able to have conversations, that's

(38:22):
like the trifecta, right, that's how you can manage to
make your art your living. And fortunately, by the grace
of God, that's what I've been able to do. You know,
make these beautiful works of art, but make money at it,
not just make them for people to enjoy, but to
you know, buy things with, have a family, like a
have a good business throughout the years.

Speaker 1 (38:42):
You know, it's good to say that you have a
broader passion for this. And it's not just the bikes.
I love that you've gotten into the cars, and obviously
you like the stories and the memorabilia and the automobilia.
I love the game. Isn't that great that's incredible.

Speaker 2 (39:03):
Stars and stripes. It's fantastic. Yeah, I appreciate, yeah, you know,
and I uh, and my my passion grows. I'm not
you know, I'm fifty so and I'm just learning still.
I mean, there's so much to learn, uh there, you know.
And I have so many great older guys that have
taught me so many things about the different areas that
I'm passionate about. So if I have a question about things,

(39:26):
I could go to a number of guys. And over
time you start to just get more seasoned about all
of it. Right, you start you see something, you go,
I know what that is, and I know who built
that engine and who you know who who designed that
car or or whatever it is? Right, collectibles and everything else.
So it's a fun journey. And uh it's and I

(39:46):
will say, man, the collecting thing, as you well know,
because you collect cars, you get bit by that bug. Man,
it's you're it's you're done, it's over. You can you
can't walk away. I look at I've especially signs for me.
I really love signs. I love advertising. You know what
I've really done through these years is people just look
at it and go, oh, we love the bike. But

(40:08):
I build marketing and advertising. I know what I'm doing.
I build. I build bikes for companies that don't need them.
What they need is outside the box marketing. I've done
that my entire career. Not one of these four, like
the Yankees, didn't need a bike, they needed some outside
the box marketing, or MLB or Cadillac or Mercedes AMG
like all these companies through these years, they didn't really

(40:30):
need a motorcycle. They needed outside the box marketing. And
we got them there because creatively we told the story
of their brand or product. With what we did, it
was fully integrated. We didn't hold up the can and
say this, we built the bike to look like the can.
Do you know what I'm saying. So the storytelling aspect
of things is really I think what makes it far reaching.

(40:54):
Even for the show, Like we built the fire bike,
right people, they didn't care about the motorcycle in a say,
they cared about the firemen that died nine to eleven.
You know, these are all the ways we've sent the
message across so our audience has been so much broader
than motorcycle people. And for you know, as far as
you were saying, like me with the mix. I'm a designer.

(41:16):
My father he rides motorcycles. He loves I ride a
motorcycle once in a while. But I'm more about the design,
and that's why I'm able to do the cars and
basically anything you can throw my way. I have an
eye for design. That's my gift is design, right, and
I do it in the way of theme right. So
you like the car behind you, I could build a
bike to match that car and it would look like

(41:39):
it got built at the same time as the car,
you know. So it's a lot about the storytelling, you know.
And in the same sense, as much as I love history,
I look at how we've been able to make history
and continue to do so.

Speaker 1 (41:50):
You know, I think people look back at your body
of work very favorably.

Speaker 2 (41:56):
As my opinion, yeah, I appreciate that.

Speaker 1 (41:57):
Think you were a trendsetter in a lot of way,
but you look back at the masters as to how
they did stuff, and it's a blend.

Speaker 2 (42:06):
It is, yep, And you know, I would say this too.
The team has always been the only way to get there,
and we've had some of the best teams through the years.
So I can have an idea, but I can't do
all the aspects of that idea. I can just toe
the line, okay in the endgame. It's my design, But
I can't do it without my guys, you know, my

(42:27):
sheep metal guys, my painters, engravers, machinists. All these guys
come together to make one big, beautiful piece of art.
And it is always about team, I'm telling you. Even
like my sheet metal guy, Brendan, he's out in California.
Every time I have a project, I fly. He's my
only guy. That's it. Since I've been in business for myself,
he's my only sheep metal guy, you know. So that

(42:49):
has been like a big factor because me and him
together were like Batman and Robin. You know, we can
like accomplish anything once we go to work. And it's
been it's been a great so far.

Speaker 1 (43:01):
You know, did he roll some of the parts on
the zeffyort to extend?

Speaker 2 (43:05):
This is the only No, this is the only project
because he's in California, And when I started that, I
think people were still not traveling because it's a couple
of year project. Yeah, I just couldn't couldn't make that
one happen. But for every single bike that you see
around my showroom that I built since twenty ten when
I started. Paul Junior designs the motorcycle aspect of it.

(43:25):
Every single bike. He's got his hands on every single bike.
He did the sheet metal. So are all our build
off bikes and we make a crack team. You know.

Speaker 1 (43:36):
Well one thing you mentioned you built the nine to
eleven bikes. So we are doing a charity car at
Palm Beach four tunnels to towers, vin one of a
dark Horse Mustang nice and Frank Stellar will be there
to sell that with us.

Speaker 2 (43:52):
So fantastic.

Speaker 1 (43:54):
We've sold quite a few customized vehicles over the years
for tunnels to hours and I appreciate all the builders
that over the time have built special vehicles to help
our veterans and first responders, and you guys through the
show have also done the same thing.

Speaker 2 (44:13):
So yeah, yeah, thank you. That has always been near
and dear to our hearts. Uh working with first responders, military, police, firemen.
You know, even like the military, right, I didn't go
I didn't go fight in the military. So my whole
life I always thought, well, you better, you better, you
better prop these guys up. You didn't go over there

(44:35):
and do it. You know they're over there for you.
You better do something to let them know how much
you appreciate them, and let everyone else out there know, Hey,
you better let these guys know how much you appreciate
what they do to keep us free as a country.
And it's a very real thing, and I think it's
a little I think it's coming back a little bit
more these days. I feel like patriotism is a critically

(44:56):
important thing and I'm starting to sense it again. It's like, Okay,
this is America, and I feel like I don't want
to get way into it, but I think we're in
a good place and I think it's only going to
get better.

Speaker 1 (45:08):
Yeah, knock on?

Speaker 2 (45:10):
Would knock on? Woud I know? Well? So what do
we expect at this auction on the twenty sixth of April?
What are we looking at for the weekend? It's going
to be a good rollout or what?

Speaker 1 (45:23):
I think it'll be good. We're about six hundred cars
all no reserve. What do we have five different charity
cars that were selling. It's smaller than Scottsdale, so we
normally do about two fifteen hundred to two thousand register
bidders Scottsdale about six thousand, but it's still the same

(45:44):
ratio of buyers. It is very much a party. People
come to Palm Beach to have a good time. The
auction Scott Stale will go till ten eleven o'clock at night.
The auction there ends early and we all go out
and have fun. Palm Beach and the surrounding area is
a good time, okay. And Palm Beach is really matured,

(46:06):
especially since Trump came into office down there. It's really
been a catalyst for that area. A lot of corporations
moving there. It's a fun area, great resorts, and a
great time people. If they're watching the podcast, you should
register it to bit at Barrett hyphen Jackson dot com
and come there in person because Palm Beach, Florida that

(46:30):
time of year is just a kick.

Speaker 2 (46:32):
Yeah. Yeah, I'll tell you when we were out there.
I think when we were out at the one where
we sold our cars. I think that was when Carol
Shelby's cover sold for five million for a charity. If
I'm not mistaken, that was going way back it.

Speaker 1 (46:46):
Is, so that was the same year. And yeah, we've
sold that car three times now.

Speaker 2 (46:52):
Wow.

Speaker 1 (46:53):
And Carol is a part of our family. Yeah. Eight
we made Barrett Jackson addition all bees, we made a
hundred of them with Carol and Ford collected five of
those because I just think they're just a neat peach
dune and Barrett Jackson colors and one off cars so cool.

(47:13):
You know. The the South Florida one is a lot
like Scott's doone. When you were there, it was in
the tent. Now it's almost doubled in size. It's one
point two million square feet under roof, eight tenths of
a mile from the front entrance to the end of
the tent.

Speaker 2 (47:30):
Yeah. I remember being overwhelmed with the size of it.
Back then. I was like, what is this like the
greatest show on Earth right here?

Speaker 1 (47:37):
You know, it's it's doubled in size. Scottsdale, that's amazing.
So the good thing and the bad thing about Scottsdale
it's imments. It's a lot of walking, and it's two
thousand cars. You sort of you know, it's you know,
which tent do you want to go? Look at? Me
write an app just to tell you how to go
find all the cars. Palm Beach is a little smaller,

(47:59):
a little bit more intimate but has the same excitement
in the auction arena. Yeah, I know people will love you.

Speaker 2 (48:05):
Yeah, you know, I'm looking forward to it. There are
my people down there down south, and I thought this
would be a good one for that because you know,
Arizona is the big one. But I feel like maybe
the car gets a little bit more attention in this arena.

Speaker 1 (48:18):
And bingo, you are the feature car.

Speaker 2 (48:20):
Yeah that's good. That's what we wanted.

Speaker 1 (48:22):
Fifty in a row that are all five hundred thousand
dollars cars.

Speaker 2 (48:26):
Yeah, okay.

Speaker 1 (48:27):
And you know I've had that same theory, you know,
Steve Davis, our president, who lays out the dockets. I
put a car in years ago, and then I get
the catalog and I'm like, put it where you think
it's good. Like I'm flipping through Friday, I'm looking through Saturday.
I go back, I'm i I'm on Wednesday. He goes, Yes,
you are the feature car of Wednesday. I like it

(48:48):
sounds good when you say it broke a world record
because it was the car of the day and everybody
went to the car and that record stood for years.

Speaker 2 (48:59):
Wow.

Speaker 1 (49:00):
So whether I would have put it on Saturday, I
don't know if it would have got that wow, because
it would have been just another Shelby. But it was
a four speed Hurts car, so it was a rare car, right, and.

Speaker 2 (49:14):
You know you made you made the right decision.

Speaker 1 (49:17):
He made the decision.

Speaker 2 (49:18):
He made it for you, right, Okay, fair enough?

Speaker 1 (49:21):
At first, I was like, yeah, wow, your car. That's
why we put it on the cover. You know, ye
for gts and other cars, but there are production cars
and we put four GTS on the cover before. Yours
is a piece of art. The photography is spectacular and
when they ran the cover by me, I.

Speaker 2 (49:40):
Was like, yep, that's it.

Speaker 1 (49:41):
Good.

Speaker 2 (49:42):
I'm glad it worked out this way. And this was
kind of a we were really only like a month
and a half ago that we started talking, not even
I don't think this was pretty quick, but you know,
nowadays you can move like that. You don't have to
be so far out. Look, we're doing a podcast about it.
You guys got it out there and everybody meet. We
got it shot within a week and so we were

(50:03):
able to move pretty quick. And I was able to
get the article done and I'm going to have a
Saturday spot which I think is going to be cool,
and it's my lot number seven nineteen and I think
that's gonna I like the number.

Speaker 1 (50:15):
Well, hang out all day, you'll be my guest and
as well as you need anything, and everybody should come
and join us there because it really is a fun
party at Barrett Jackson down there and a great night
life to go out and hit the town afterwards.

Speaker 2 (50:30):
Cool, that's an invitation, then, huh.

Speaker 1 (50:32):
It's an invitation.

Speaker 2 (50:33):
All right, I'll take it. We'll see you there, all right.

Speaker 1 (50:36):
Thank you. This has been absolutely a pleasure.

Speaker 2 (50:39):
Yeah, yeah, me too. I appreciate your conversation. I appreciate
seeing you again, and we'll see you in a couple
of weeks, all right, look forward to it, all right,
Thanks Greig.

Speaker 1 (50:47):
Bye,