GRM, next time you're in SoCal, I have a guy you have to do a feature on. I met him today after a sweaty game of ultimate frisbee. We glanced over after finishing up and spot a red Ferrari Dino in the drive. Cool! He's out there working on it. Look a little closer, there's a Lotus 7 replica (we thought) sitting on stilts over the Dino's spot in the garage. Time to meet this guy...
Walk over, notice a cool Mini Cooper next to the Dino spot as we get closer. And a LOT of motorcycles. Shake hands and he shows us. Dino is real, he's stripping the paint off himself before he repaints it himself. He repainted the '65 RHD Mini he imported himself. Lotus Seven is real, also imported that one. Gorgeous. He has an auto-gyro/ultra light thing hanging next to it. Modern BMW 1100 bike, and maybe 30 other bikes dating back to an original 1908 Indian. Tons of other european/vintage bikes in various states of assembly. I can't do justice recalling the bike collection, I'm sure someone that knew what they were looking at would be floored. Schwinn "whizzer" in the side shed (125cc add-on motor for a plain old schwinn bicycle!), and said he had a MG TC sitting behind the house.
The house was just a plain looking 2-3 bedroom, just a two car garage holding everything (they are small). House would probably be worth $150k anywhere other than SoCal. But he was the nicest guy, with a really impressive collection of sweet stuff that is so opposite all the obnoxious materialistic "I've got money" stuff on the roads out here.
Seriously, next trip out here, its worth setting something up with this guy. I'll get his contact info for you if you'd like.
