Is Your Car Fit to Be A Movie Star?
By: Vicky Choy
on Dec 08, 2014 in Autos,
Custom Garage
When it comes to using cars in a
movie, a director is usually very specific, down to the color of what he or she
wants, and it’s up to a transportation coordinator like Steve Zerweck to
deliver. A transportation coordinator is the person on a film or TV project
that is responsible for everything transportation related. A veteran of feature
films and TV, Steve’s duties include transporting the crew and actors to and
from the set, providing the trailers for the actors and finding cars that are
seen in the actual production.
A car that is used in filming is
called a picture car and there are several picture car companies in the San
Fernando Valley that most transportation coordinators will call after they read
a script and see what kind of vehicles are required. The most frequently used
companies are Hollywood Picture Cars, which specializes in classic car collections, Cinema Vehicle Services
and Studio Picture Vehicles. These companies house acres of various types of
vehicles like police cars and cars from different periods, maintaining them for
use in TV, commercials and feature films.
Some of the vehicles don’t even
run but are used for their look. When a car needs to also be driven, Steve has
to find 2 identical cars; one to rig up for shooting and one used for “beauty
shots,” meaning this is the car that has to look good on camera. The daily
rental fee for a picture car can be anywhere from $250 to $1500 a day for a rare Ferrari. The fee also depends on the
production’s budget and how badly that type of car is needed.
Sometimes Steve needs to get
creative when it comes to finding the right vehicles and this is especially the
case when picture car companies don’t have what he needs. One film required a
scene with authentic lowrider cars but none were available through the rental
places. So Steve went to East L.A. and sought out a group of real lowriders and
their vehicles. They agreed to rent their cars to Steve and the car’s owners
even drove and hopped their cars in the actual film. For the Russell Brand
movie, Get Him to the Greek, Steve needed a fleet of high-end vehicles. He
found a car collector in Orange County who had a collection of assorted luxury
cars who agreed to rent all twenty of his cars to Steve for $1000 a day per car
for fourteen days. Steve put all the vehicles on 2 car carriers and had them
transported to Las Vegas where the movie was shot.
Not every car collector is
willing to loan out his babies to be stars because filming on location can be
risky and film crews are notorious for being rough. In Steve’s experience, car
guys (as he calls them) love their cars and are not interested in taking them
out of their custom garages and putting them in movies
just for money. If they want to show them, there are other venues more geared
toward car enthusiasts.
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Ferrari 375MM Spider: A 40-Year Affair
By: Vicky Choy
on Dec 15, 2014 in Autos,
Our Experts
Talk about love and dedication.
The year was 1968 when in Orange,
CA, college professors and car enthusiasts Fred Peters and Charles Betz bought
a wrecked 1954 Ferrari 375MM Spider convertible for $1,100 from another car collector. The Ferrari was a mess; the
body had been destroyed, the chassis shortened and chopped. There was no
engine.
But, Betz had seen the car at its
best when it raced in the 1958 Times Mirror Grand Prix in Riverside and he knew
what it could be.
The men had a vision of restoring
the ’54 Spider to perfection and thus embarked on a 40-year journey to find the
missing pieces. Along the way, the guys kept their day jobs while indulging in
their car restoration business. “It was just a hobby that got out of hand,”
Peters explained. He worked as a psychology professor at Fullerton College and
specialized in restoring German cars while Betz taught economics at Cerritos
and worked on English and Italian sports cars.
The duo eventually started
specializing in Ferraris in the ’60s and ’70s, they were cheap since very few
knew people knew how to work on them and there were no Ferrari service manuals.
In 1968, the men even opened a used Ferrari dealership but it only lasted 2
years. Betz explained, “Everyone wanted a new Ferrari, not a used one. Nobody
likes you if you’re in the used Ferrari business.” They kept restoring cars and
sometimes, they actually made a profit. In 1970, they acquired a Ferrari 250
Lusso that needed a new engine for $4,000. They sold the Lusso for $12,000 in
1976. (In 1986, the same car sold for $80,000 and sold again a few years later
for $580,000).
Meanwhile, Betz and Peters’
families grew and wives came and went as they patiently searched for 375MM
parts, which was no easy task. Only fourteen 375MM Spiders were made and two
had already been destroyed. They found pieces here and there but what they
really needed was in the possession of another collector who had many key parts
they needed. But he refused to sell, so Betz and Peters waited. Finally, the
collector sold the car to English Ferrari restorer David Cottingham who was
friends with the men. Cottingham sold them the pieces they needed: the car’s
original gas tank, shift knob, hood and passenger seat.
The final phase of the decades
long 375MM restoration could now begin. The frame was rebuilt and the body
repaired and painted with reproduced paint. The engine was finally reassembled.
Even the wood steering wheel, the leather seats and details like the hood
latches’ leather straps were restored flawlessly. Betz’s son, Brooke joined the
restoration team. He estimates his dad and Peters spent at least $1 million in
parts with $400,000 going just into the engine. After 46 years, the Ferrari was
finally perfect.
In 2014, the men decided to
liquidate their car collection since Betz was now 75 years old and Peters was
83. In August, the 375MM went on the auction block in Monterey, CA. During the
auction, the men were hopeful since a 1962 Ferrari 250 GTO had already sold for
$38 million, the highest price ever paid for a car at an auction. The top bid
for the 375MM came in a little under $5.8 million.
However, it wasn’t enough and the
guys passed. Betz said, “In terms of what we’ve spent, we would have been way
ahead. But we’ve owned it for 46 years and $5.8 million just won’t do it.”
The partners now store the 375MM
with six other classic cars they keep in their
collection. Inquiries about the Ferrari still come in from time to time but for
one financial reason or another, a deal has never been finalized. The men don’t
seem to mind. They admit they like seeing the restored 375MM sitting in the garage. And they are in no rush to sell
since any time they did sell one of their restored cars, they always felt “a
little twinge.” As Peters explains it “You put your heart into these cars. You
remember what they were.”
Read more about today’s new car
models that’s sure to turn into tomorrow’s classic cars on Motor Trend Garage’s
blog.
This article can be found online
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Cuba’s Garages Keep the Classics
Running
By: Vicky Choy
on Dec 23, 2014 in Autos,
Cars
President Obama’s historic
announcement to begin restoring diplomatic relations with Cuba after 53 years
of Cold War hostility not only ushers in a new era of what’s sure to be
interesting political diplomacy, but it also opens the doors for car
collectors. Cigars aside, Cuba is also famous for classic cars from the 1950’s
because after Fidel Castro gained power in 1959, he imposed an embargo on
importing foreign automobiles. He essentially turned Cuba into a car museum
specializing in 50’s and pre-50’s car models. Now, whether any of these
vehicles, lovingly called Yank Tanks or Máquinas, ranks as a collector car is
another matter.
Banning new car imports in Cuba
also meant banning car parts, so for the last fifty years, Cubans have engaged
in a home garage industry, repairing their 50’s era
cars with fabricated parts from household products and Soviet automobiles. A
car may look like a beautiful classic ’57 Chevy on the outside but underneath
the hood, there can be a Frankenstein-like collection of parts. This fact is
what diminishes the value of a car since car collecting is all about original
parts. Vintage car appraiser Steve Linden says, “The problem is that, in
general, the collectors know these cars have not really been maintained.
They’ve been actually driven and used as daily cars.”
It’s estimated there are about
60,000 Yank tanks on the roads in Cuba today, many of them operating as taxis.
Although Cubans take pride in their automobiles, the island’s poor economic
state has forced citizens to make auto maintenance a lower priority than basic
food and shelter. If a car was beyond repair or the owner couldn’t afford the
repairs, parts would be sold off in order to raise extra income or the car
would be parked until the owner could afford for it to be fixed. If they wanted
to buy another car, Cubans can only buy U.S. cars for private use if those cars
were acquired before the revolution and previously registered for private use.
And if the owner doesn’t have the correct paperwork, a car cannot be sold
legally.
Some experts like Jonathan
Klinger, from collector car insurance company Hagerty, feel that the value of
Cuba’s classic cars might be overrated, “I think some people have this vision
of a treasure trove of lost cars but some of the greatest cars from the days of
the Cuban Grand Prix have already left through other countries.” Economically,
it doesn’t make sense for Americans to buy a classic from Cuba since
restoration costs depending on the car, could run between $40,000 and $80,000
but buying the same reconditioned model in the U.S. could cost anywhere between
$15,000 and $70,000.
However, this doesn’t mean that
classic cars from Cuba have no value whatsoever. The very fact that a certain
vehicle is from Cuba means that it has a historic backstory, which can be
almost as valuable and important as original parts. And, since the steps toward
restoring trade relations between Cuba and the U.S. are just beginning, it may
be a while before American car connoisseurs can truly get a look at what Cuba
has to offer. Meanwhile, as travel sanctions to the island ease, it may be
worth a car enthusiast’s time to take a step back into history and see Cuba’s
classic cars firsthand, frozen in time.
This article can be found online
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Where in the World Are James Bond’s
Cars?
By: Vicky Choy
on Jan 02, 2015 in Autos,
Cars
The revelation of the title of
James Bond’s next movie, Spectre, was almost as eagerly awaited by Bond fans as
the unveiling of the next car Mr. Bond will be driving. And, it looks like the
Aston Martin DB10 will do the honors in the next Bond adventure – due to come
out in theatres in November 2015. Aston Martin designers and engineers developed
the car along with Spectre director, Sam Mendes and the automaker manufactured
10 cars for filming. However, we know how Bond drives, so they would be lucky
if one of those DB10 survives, which leads us to the question: Where are Bond’s
other cars garaged? Never mind what happens to the
Bond girls, what inquiring minds really want to know is what happened to the
hot, sexy Bond cars?
Perhaps the most famous of James’
cars is the 1964 Aston Martin DB5 that made its debut in Goldfinger and
appeared again in the next Bond film, Thunderball (1965). The DB5 ultimately
was used in four more movies, GoldenEye, Tomorrow Never Dies, Casino Royal and
Skyfall. But it was in Goldfinger where the DB5 got the most screen time
to show off its various assets including a pop out gun barrel, bullet-proof
windows, revolving license plates and an ejector seat. Two cars were used for
filming in Goldfinger; one named the “Effects Car” that was rigged up for
filming and outfitted with all the Bond gadgets, and one called the “Road Car”
that was strictly used for driving scenes without special effects.
Amazingly the “Effects” DB5 was
returned to its original factory specs after filming ended and given back to
Aston Martin who sold the car. When the car’s pedigree was discovered, the Bond
gadgets were reinstalled and the DB5 did promotional appearances for years
until it was stolen in 1997 from a Florida airport hangar where it was stored.
The car has never been recovered and the insurance payout for it is rumored to
be 4 million. As for the “Road Car,” at some point after filming, it was
outfitted with all of the gadgets that the Effects car had and returned to
Aston Martin. The automaker sold the Road Car in 1969 to broadcaster Jerry Lee
for $12,000 who kept it until 2010 when he sold it for 4.1 million dollars to car collector, Harry Yeaggy.
The car is now garaged in Yeaggy’s
private car museum in Ohio.
The experiences of the DB5
demonstrates that since more than one car is made for filmming, several
collectors can own various versions of Bond cars at one time. If you have $30
million dollars or so, you too can buy James’ sport cars along with many other
vehicles that have appeared in various Bond films. In February 2014,
multimillionaire real estate investor, Michael Dezer announced he is selling
his James Bond car collection but only in a single lot. Therefore, if you
want the Lotus Esprit Turbo from “For Your Eyes Only,” you also have to buy the
tank from “Goldeneye.”
Dezer bought much of his
collection from a James Bond museum in 2011 and kept adding to it. He now owns
59 Bond vehicles that he houses in a Miami museum. Although Dezer has one of
the biggest and best Bond car collections in the world, the reason he is
selling them is that the value of these cars in Miami is not as high as they
would be if they were in Britain where there is a larger Bond following. Notable
Bond cars in the Dezer collection other the Aston Martin V8 from For Your Eyes
Only, the BMW Z8 from The World is Not Enough, and the Jaguar XKR from Die
Another Day. Unfortunately for car enthusiasts, apparently only James himself
will get to drive the latest Bond car since the DB10 will never be commercially
available. So like everything else in the Bond world, his car will be just
another fantasy that us mere mortals can only experience through movie magic.
You don’t need to be an
international spy to have a custom garage built specifically for your
Bond car. See the myriad of options available for your Aston Martin, Lotus,
Jaguar or Toyota at Motor Trend Garage. (James drove a Toyota
2000GT in You Only Live Twice.)
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