48 Hours: Pedal to The Metal with Richard Sloan

We have likely chased the better sex off underthecounter given our recent posts. Our apologies...we will try to rectify the situation...but not today.

Let them enjoy their coffee talk.

We are going to talk cars as we inch closer to the annual Barrett-Jackson auction. 

Richard Sloan is one of the more colorful characters we have met on our travels.  He is pictured above with his son, Brett, at Sloan HQ just outside of New Haven, CT.  Keeping them company is a 1997 Porsche 911 Turbo S.  Porsche produced 182 examples of this particular model. Richard has sold 53 of them in the after-market. This car was #1 of 182 and was a special order by its original owner, Jerry Seinfeld.

Richard is a serial entrepreneur. He built and sold several businesses which allowed him to indulge his passion.

Automobiles

Today his office is a large structure filled with 40+ examples of Porsche’s finest. 

You might be filthy rich. But you have not owned over 1,000 cars in your lifetime...like Richard.

Sloancars.com consistently has one of the finest selections of pre-owned, low-mileage Porsche 911’s in the world. 

Looking for a 1989 911 Turbo Cabriolet? Richard can help. Here you go…

This one still has the window sticker on it...and 159 miles on the odometer. Do you enjoy the smell of a new car too?

Offer him $118,000 and see if he bites. He has it listed for $125,000.

Do you like to admire Ferrari’s in your rear-view mirror? How about a 2002 911 GT 2? It is like kryptonite to the prancing horse set and worthy competition for even the mighty Carrera GT. If you have been lugging around long positions in Sandisk (SNDK-NASDAQ) and Palm (PALM-NASDAQ) you probably can’t afford it. Call (800) Volkswagen.

Don’t worry...we will pay our respects to German gearheads next week...as we take a guided tour through the wilds of Stuttgart-Zuffenhausen.

This week we are waving the flag. Not the checkered flag...the American flag. Detroit is the home of heavy metal…

Lets get to it…

Thanks for sitting down with us Richard. We all remember our first car. What was yours?

My mother said I loved cars before I could talk. My first car was a 1962 Pontiac Bonneville.  I got it in ‘65 and it had a 389 engine putting out 330 horsepower. I might be dating myself, it also had an 8 track player.

There is a new thing out called an I-POD. Go on.

I was suspended from prep school my junior year for leaving a 400 foot swath of rubber down the entrance to campus.

How and where did you catch the car bug?

In 1975 a friends father worked as a lawyer in the sales office of a dealership . He took me to Jerome Avenue in the Bronx, New York. It was the “mecca” of the highline auto world.

Were you into Porsche’s back in the day or was it strictly Detroit iron?

I bought my first Porsche in 1976, a ‘69 911 S Coupe.  This purchase was the beginning of my great passion for Porsche’s but also the start of my buying, trading, selling Porsche’s. That year I began to advertise in Hemming’s Motor News, “the bible of of car collectors”. I continue to advertise in it to this day.

I started collecting Muscle cars in 1980 and became a specialty dealer with my long time friend Billy Silverman. I have been to Barrett-Jackson nearly every year since 1987 and have set world records for MB 300S, Ferrari’s, Jaguars and Shelby’s.

The auction has become quite a spectacle...what were the early events like?

The auction was held in a big tent with almost 1,000 cars scattered around outside. Cars everywhere!

One morning we were waiting in line to get in and stumbled across a 1963 Lincoln Continental Convertible with suicide doors. It had 10,000 original miles...we bought it for $8,000 and sold it a year later for $24,500. It is probably worth $40,000 to $60,000 today.

Similar to the car featured in the opening credits of HBO’s Entourage?

Exactly.

At the 1988 auction I purchased a 1968 Shelby GT 350 with 8,300 miles for $10,300. I had it for six years and sold it for $29,500. It is probably worth $125,000 today. I have pictures of all these cars.

Can you give us a sense of how much these cars have appreciated over the years?

My former partner Bill Silverman is a long-time friend and a noted Shelby authority. He has some great stories.

Back in 1979 he bought a 1966 Shelby GT 350 for $10,000 and sold it two years later for $15,000 thinking that was the greatest thing since sliced bread.  The car today would be worth somewhere is the neighborhood of $135,000.

He also bought a 1968 Shelby GT-H that he paid $12,000 for. He had it nine months and sold it for $18,000.  Today it is worth $125,000

Those were the cars you could rent at the Hertz counter right? Stories used to circulate about people renting them for the weekend and welding roll cages in them to drag race. They would remove them and then drop them back off at Hertz on Monday.

Ford recently released an updated model of the Shelby Mustang GT-H. Hertz might want to check for welding marks when people return them too. 

Bill bought a 1968 Shelby GT 500 KR convertible with a four-speed and air conditioning in 1984. It was one of 10 made. He bought in for $24,000 and drove it home from Arizona. Two years later he sold it for $36,000. That very car sold recently at Barrett-Jackson for $365,000.

In 1985 I bought a 1970 Cuda with a 440 Six-Pack and a shaker hood for $1,500.

Fifteen hundred bucks?

Yes. It was “Plum Crazy” purple with a white top and white interior and had a slap stick with a blown transmission. It cost me $400 to rebuild the tranny and I sold the car “as is” for $7,500. Today that car is worth $250,000 to $350,000.

If you look closely at the picture above you can see Reggie Jackson with a red jacket and red hat. We were haggling over a 1971 Chevrolet Chevelle SS 454 LS6 that I ended up buying from him. Back then there was as much action outside the tent as inside.

Yes, Mr. October.  My younger readers might not know much about him. They are more familiar with Mr. May...Alex Rodriguez. How about one more story and we will take a break...

Sure. At one swap meet we saw a 1971 Pontiac GTO convertible being flat-bedded in to a parking space.  We bought it for $7,400 before it was even off the truck.  We put a for sale sign on it and sold it five hours later for $11,500. Today that car is worth $95,000.

Thanks Richard. We have plenty more to talk about. We will back soon with Part Two....and a peek at the 2007 Barrett-Jackson auction...

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