I Spent 20 Years Tracking Down The World’s Holy Grail Cars. Now I’m Auctioning Over 100 Of Them

Even though I’m president of the large dealership group Galpin Motors, I have never looked at cars as just dollar signs. From when I was a child until now, when I look at any car, what I see is its story, and what I love more than anything is to tell it — to customers, to family members, to friends, and to the world. That’s why I co-founded The Autopian four years ago, that’s why I loved hosting Pimp My Ride and Car Kings, and that’s why I find myself in a bit of a predicament: I went overboard and spent over two decades tracking down more than 100 of the world’s most fascinating cars in order to tell their stories. Now I’m doing just that in the form of a new YouTube series called Should I Sell It, and I have to be quick because, in November, some of these machines will star in arguably the most unique car auction ever.

Growing up, Galpin Square was like my own personal amusement park filled with amazing new cars, amazing custom cars, and amazing car-people. Whereas most kids probably played hide-and-seek in yards or houses, I played it in the RVs on our lot; the first “job” I remember having when I was a small kid was handing out refreshments when we had big sales; and after I got my driver’s license I had a chance to drive some seriously cool cars. (I specifically remember my dad letting me drive in a traded-in Ferrari Berlinetta only if our service manager — NASCAR Pacific Coast Stock Car Championship-winning race car driver, Ron Hornaday Sr. — rode with me. Imagine that: a teenager being shown the ropes by a NASCAR champ!). I also will never forget being starstruck by George Barris when I saw him working at a booth across from Galpin’s at a car event. “Come let’s say hi,” my dad said. “George!” my dad said. “Bert!” the custom-car legend replied. Of course they knew each other. My dad knew seemingly everyone in the car world.

Galpin was a dream for a kid like me who was falling in love with cars; I got to see incredible custom machines come to life, as “Galpinizing” has been in our dealership’s DNA since our 1952 Galpin Custom graced the cover of Motor Trend. We’ve built amazing vehicles like Mustangs with rumble seats in the back (built by the legendary ASC founder, Heinz Prechter, whom my dad knew well), surfer vans that jumpstarted the conversion van industry, state-of-the-art RVs, our very own in-house supercar called the GTR-1, tons of wacky cars during our time hosting Pimp My Ride, and so much more.

By the nature of the business, my family became friends with car-loving legends like Lee Iacocca, Carroll Shelby, George Barris, Ed Pink, executives from various automakers (Henry Ford III even worked here!), car journalists, car customizers, and on and on. Being part of the world’s biggest Ford dealership gave me a spectacular view of the auto industry for which I am deeply, deeply grateful.

It also made me completely and hopelessly obsessed with cars.

I Love Finding And Fixing Historically-Significant Cars

I especially love obscure, hard-to-find vehicles. For example, my team managed to track down one of the Rumble Seat Mustangs that sunroof-legend Heinz Prechter built for Galpin back in the 1960s:

We also tracked down the guy who found Ed “Big Daddy” Roth’s magnum opus, Orbitron, gathering trash in Mexico outside of a sex shop.

We’ve now fully restored it, thanks to our amazing in-house Hot Rod Hall-of-Famer, Dave Shuten:

When I bought Carroll Shelby’s DeTomaso Pantera, people thought I was nuts spending so much money on an engineless car.

But then, in a junkyard, my crew and I miraculously found the 600+ horsepower turbocharged V8 that Lee Iacocca had gifted Shelby for this project, and that tuning legend Gale Banks had dialed in:

Naturally, we rebuilt that motor, installed it into Carroll Shelby’s DeTomaso, and restored the whole thing:

I live for this stuff.

I live for finding amazing, often obscure cars, bringing them back to life, and telling their stories. Again, that’s why I love The Autopian so much, it’s why I loved making TV shows, and it’s why I created the Galpin Speed Shop, which is filled with some of the most legendary show cars of all time, including icons from Ed “Big Daddy Roth,” Gene Winfield, and George Barris (with the Hirohata Merc being the crown jewel):

Why I’m Auctioning Off My Collection

The Speed Shop is far from my whole collection. Not even close; like I said, I have a problem.

Pimp My Ride and Car Kings got me hooked on the concept of telling automotive stories in video form, and so for years now, anytime I saw an amazing car — especially one that, to me, seemed like a great deal — I bought it, thinking that someday I’d tell its story on screen. In many cases, telling the story means doing a full restoration with Dave Shuten, who is the world’s finest resurrector of custom cars, rebuilding cars exactly as they would have been created in the first place (in other words, we didn’t fix the original “flaws,” we embraced them) by the Big Daddy Roths and George Barrises of the world.

But you get to a point where there are more cars than you can possibly ever finish, and with very few companies buying TV shows anymore, I now have all these cars sitting around, which was never my intent. I’ve never wanted to have a collection of cars for the sake of it; this was always about telling stories, and though it’s not exactly how I initially wanted to tell the stories, this new YouTube series, Should I Sell It, gives me the satisfaction of doing that before letting the cars go on to owners who hopefully can appreciate them perhaps more than even I can.

When it comes to Holy Grail cars, you’re really only the caretaker for a period of time, either until you perish or until you decide you’re ready to let the next person enjoy them; I’m choosing the latter option.

Some of them are going to be difficult to let go of; I’ve changed my mind so many times, flipping back and forth between “sell” and “keep.” For example, I have always loved Aston Martin Lagondas; the absurd wedge-shaped design, and the fact that they were unloved for so many years, and to now see the world start appreciating them more. It’s why I have seven of them, and it’s why I have trouble parting with any. [Ed Note: I was in Beau’s office when he tried remembering how many Lagondas he has. “There’s the shooting brake, there’s the limo…” Two things were apparent to me: Yes, he may have too many cars. But also: Beau really loves Lagondas. -DT]. 

My love for Lagondas even led me to buy the Lagonda concept that debuted in Geneva in 2009. It’s a running, driving, V12-powered concept car that was supposed to usher in a new era for the Lagonda name, and I just couldn’t resist:

There are all the Porsches; especially since opening our Porsche dealership, Porsche Santa Clarita, I’ve really gotten into the Porsche thing.

Sure, I have a GT3 RS because of the way it drives, but I also own cars because of their stories. I love the story of how Porsche tried marketing the 356 to Americans by offering not just a model number, but a name: Continental. This led to a dispute with Ford Motor Company (whose Lincoln brand still uses Continental), requiring Porsche to figure out a new badge to put in the pre-punched fenders. It chose “European.”

Because I love this story so much, I always wanted a Continental. Shortly after I found one (which I adore), I happened upon its even rarer sibling, the European.

Then there is the Hirohata Merc, the standard by which all custom cars are measured, is a car that falls into the camp of “When it’s gone, it’s gone.” It’s a privilege to own the custom of all customs, but it’s such a hard vehicle to actually use. Even taking it to car shows requires a whole security detail. It’s also a lot of money to have tied up in something that isn’t easy to really display. But still, it’s the custom; every time I look at it my jaw drops.

Should I Sell It Is My Chance To Finally Tell The Stories Of All These Holy Grails

This auction is going to be really, really tough for me. When we decided to put together Should I Sell It, The Autopian crew seemed to almost enjoy watching me writhe in agony. “This, this right here — you struggling to decide which cars to keep and which to let go — is the show” they said.

So get ready to watch (on YouTube) and read (on The Autopian) unbelievable tales about some of the coolest cars of all time as my team prepares for an amazing auction in November. Which cars will end up in that auction and which will I keep? I’m still struggling with that, as you’ll see when you watch Should I Sell It, which is set to debut on the Galpin Motors YouTube channel on Sunday, July 26.