the fascinating stories behind Jay Leno's best 15 motorcycles in his collection (including the Vincent that Rollie Free rode to set the record at Bonneville on) Thank you George!

Syrian Dictator Assad's extensive car collection was seen for the first time today when Syrian fighters broke into his abandoned palace

Videos posted to social media and extensively reuploaded show a group of men exploring a large warehouse containing dozens of vehicles, from classics to supercars to an extremely rare six-wheel camper. Highlights include a Lamborghini Diablo, a Mercedez-Benz SLS AMG and SL65 Black Series, a Ferrari F50, an Audi R8, loads of Toyota FJ Cruisers and Land Cruisers, and a new Land Rover Defender.

https://www.reddit.com/r/lebanon/comments/1h9g24a/assads_car_collection_f50_diablo_lm002_sl_65_bs

https://www.thedrive.com/news/syrian-dictator-bashar-al-assads-abandoned-car-collection-found-with-ferrari-f50-sl65-black-series

Charles Nuss worked as a mechanic’s helper before opening Charley Nuss Garage, his own repair shop, in Rockford, Ill. With the success of the garage, Nuss obtained the Mack truck franchise in 1959, becoming Mack of Rockford. His son carried on the family business, and grew the collection of Mack / AC trucks

 

https://www.oldcarsweekly.com/features/a-glimpse-inside-the-nuss-collection

Ralph Lauren's car collection is worth about 600 million.

https://mph.com/news/79/how-ralph-lauren-s-600-million-car-collection-serves-as-his-creative-muse

Ralph is about 85 years old right now. 

David McGraw, from the McGraw-Hill publishing company founding family, built a house in Osterville on Cape Cod to store his collection of 68 motorcycles.

McGraw Hill, one of the country’s biggest textbook and education publishers, was founded by David’s great-grandfather, James H. McGraw. David’s father and grandfather worked for the company, but David chose a different path. The New Jersey native moved to Cape Cod in 1980 and opened a business restoring antique cars, Classic Coachworks

A lot of his motorcycles were on exhibit in 2019, Art On Two Wheels, on Long Island, including a 

1915 K Board Tracker, 

1927 Pea Shooter, 

1927 Hill Climber, 

1928 JDH, 

1936 EL Knucklehead, 

1949 Flat Track, 

1950 Panhead, 

1966 CRS Scrambler, 

1967 XLRT Lance Weil, 

1968 Drag Bike, 

1970 XRTT 750 Daytona Roadracer, 

1970 XLCH Land Speed Streamliner, 

and a 2005 Destroyer Drag Bike

https://www.mansionglobal.com/articles/a-publishing-heir-built-a-home-to-show-off-his-motorcycle-collection-now-its-hitting-the-market-91a8d4dc

https://www.barnstablepatriot.com/story/entertainment/2019/09/13/fast-company/2801997007/

https://www.antiquesandthearts.com/art-on-two-wheels-at-cultural-center-of-cape-cod/

Bill Deutsch has what could be the only one of its kind left, a 1930s prototype of the Trackson Traxcavator attachment on an International I-30 tractor, called the International TracTracTor.

Bill Deutsch uses a lot of the machines in his operations as the owner of Deutsch Excavating in Northfield, Minnesota. That includes 1950s-era cable Cat dozers, scrapers and motor grader.

Using the vintage Cats came about from a need for bigger equipment during the Great Recession, when he didn’t have enough money to buy new or even operable used ones.

Since then, he’s grown to love the pre-hydraulics machines, appreciating their history, unique feel and simplicity.

“It's old-fashioned mechanics,” he says. “It's a joy to work with because it's virgin steel. There's no garbage in it like we have today.”

“It is the simplicity of it,” he adds. “If it doesn't work, it's because there's literally something broken, not because there's a broken wire or sensor.”

About eight years ago, Deutsche saw a photo of the TracTracTor prototype with the Trackson Traxcavator on an online equipment chatroom. He didn’t know anything about the owner other than the town where he lived. So he drove around the town trying to find the building in the photo.

“And that's how I found the guy and pulled in the driveway and knocked on a door and asked him questions, and we were right,” Deutsche says. “I’ve had some pretty good luck doing that kind of thing.”

Turns out the owner had bought the prototype tractor by accident. He thought he was bidding on a different one at auction but mistakenly bought the tractor next to it.

“It didn't fit his collection. He's a John Deere guy,” Deutsch says. “He was willing to sell it to me because I have a better Trackson collection.”

The three prototypes were sent to iron mines in northern Minnesota to be tested. International eventually sent a truck to pick up the prototypes, but only two of the prototypes fit on the truck. So one stayed at the mine and over time went to auction, then ended up with Deutsch. 

 Bill Deutsch built this 50-year-old D6C using parts from two of the vintage dozers, which he still runs for Deutsche Excavating, along with 1950s Cat pull-type scrapers.

Deutsch’s hobby of finding and restoring vintage equipment became a necessity during the Great Recession when his excavating company – of which he is the sole owner, operator and employee – fell on hard times.

He had formed the company in 2000 and was doing well. But in 2007-2008, like most of the construction industry, things took a drastic turn for the worse.

“I needed some bigger machinery, and I didn't have a ton of money to spend,” he recalls.

He uses his Cat No. 12 motor grader to plow snow each year for a nearby town.

“It is the main piece of my winter income – from 1958,” he says and chuckles.

“People don't know how old it is. They know it's older because a lot of my stuff is older. But they don't have a clue that it's almost 70-some-odd years old. It still looks nice.”

https://www.equipmentworld.com/collectors-corner/article/15684159/contractor-saves-rare-traxcavators-runs-vintage-cat-equipment

Keller’s Retired Tractors in Wisconsin collected tractors for 50 years, 587 tractors, 74 of them are the first production tractors off the assembly line, 12 are experimental

Bruce’s grandfather, John Keller, who never collected himself, but opened a John Deere dealership in Forest Junction in 1929.

By the time the 1980s rolled around, Bruce and his dad had shifted their collecting philosophy from simply old tractors to rare ones.

“There’s some tractors that are not common to our area. High crops were down in Louisiana, Florida and Californi. Orchard tractors, which there are a few in Wisconsin but not real popular. So we started collecting the rare stuff,” explains Bruce

Bruce says one of his dad’s prized finds is a 1929 Experimental John Deere, 

It took Bruce 32 years to get an experimental 1936 John Deere BW-40, a special narrow experimental tractor of which only six were ever made and only 4 exist, which were sent to vegetable farmers in the Sacramento Valley.

https://www.wbay.com/2024/09/05/small-towns-john-deere-lovers-disneyland/

I've never heard of the Rudi Klein car collection... but Sotheby's is auctioning it off... so now there are some ultra rare cars collectors will be emptying their bank accounts for

an alloy Gullwing (one of 29) in the pair of 300 SLs,  a brace of 911s and, hidden right in the back, an incredibly rare Iso Griffo A3/L Spider

the Mercedes-Benz 500k built specifically for legendary racing driver Rudolf Caracciola.

https://www.drivencarguide.co.nz/news/legendary-car-collection-hidden-for-decades-to-be-auctioned-in-california

wow... the nostalgia of matchbook cover art and the diligence of a collector, combined with a perfect display setting... amazing.

 

As you can tell, the art and variety is worth looking at, but Dave Rutan did an incredible job of putting together displays on topics like the trains and matting them so well!

from Don's magazine that evolved into a website, https://garagestylemagazine.com/classic-match/ where he finds terrific garages, and lots of cool things at auctions is this article on Dave's collection

https://www.atomicmatchstudio.store/ for Dave's business where you can get really cool stuff! 

looks like a cool collection huh? But this is the illegally bought storage of former Indiana Sheriff Noel, so... not likely to be his much longer, and it's all evidence of his million of dollars of theft

I see a Hellcat, a Superbird, a 70 Coronet, 69 Roadrunner, 71 police car in the top, 2nd from the right in a plastic drop cloth, a 68 Charger, a Packard in the lower right, 2 modern chargers possibly Scat Packs, the lifted hood red 1969 looks like either a Super Bee or Road Runner

this is how much he and his family blew through in the past couple years.... 54 thousand dollars in cigars? 83 thou at Macy's? Macy's must LOVE his family.  

The SBA concluded Noel family members racked up the following amount of "unlawful" charges: Jamey Noel: $3,494,571.95 
Misty Noel: $663,211.92
Kasey Noel: $109,361.32

Jamey Noel is facing 25 felony charges, his wife Misty Noel is facing 10 felonies, his daughter  Kasey Noel is facing nine felonies. They all are also looking at over 4 counts of tax evasion each.

https://www.whas11.com/article/news/crime/jamey-noel-case-audit-reveals-former-indiana-sheriff-made-3-million-illegal-purchases/417-ad5ad11e-1f4f-451f-8211-adaa50955703

Here's a news item that either shows a half ass approach to getting the job done, or, indicates just how hard it is to get owners to loan their prize vehicle to a museum... but, the Pete is getting 6 Motorama cars together. No museum's ever done that before. Shame, they won't have one of the busses

Not since General Motors’ original Motorama traveling shows have six of its mid-1950s dream cars been displayed together

https://www.oldcarsweekly.com/news/gm-motorama-makes-its-way-to-the-petersen-automotive-museum

I will guess I've already posted them all, one by one, as different reasons and times allowed. I've even see a couple in person at Concours de Elegance shows, and SEMA. 

But, I never even considered that anyone would ever try to replicate a Motorama display, with busses and cars. That would be frickin epic. 

Since this is just the Joe Bortz collection, and he doesn't have a bus, I guess it's still possible that someday, someone will get the whole set (as much as possible) together for a museum display and really blow everyone's minds. 

I just learned that George Foreman collected cars, and he's now auctioning 50 of them off, including this VW bug he's owned for 33 years, it shows only 555 miles.

you can see the whole collection at https://www.hagerty.com/marketplace/search?type=auctions

https://www.hagerty.com/media/buying-and-selling/hagerty-marketplace/9-knockouts-from-the-george-foreman-collection/

a collection of Superbirds is coming to auction, 10 of them, and one Daytona, al from one collector

I think Chris has a perfect job now, working as a publicity guy. Good! Good for him. 

a lifetime collection of Schwinn's... getting sold for nearly a 1/4 million dollars (the seller is asking anyway)

https://www.facebook.com/commerce/listing/1068182217926055/?media_id=0&ref=share_attachment

In August 2004 Hurricane Charley ripped through Florida and destroyed a warehouse that was storing a Ferrari collection worth about 15 million

The Ferraris were assembled and owned by a Florida real-estate developer named Walter Medlin, who in the 1990s ran into some trouble with the Internal Revenue Service. The IRS seized three of the cars for non-payment: a relatively nondescript 1976 308 GTB, but also some very historic racers, a 1966 P3 and a 1967 P4.

The remaining 20 cars, still showing their hurricane damage, are to be auctioned separately, without reserve on Aug. 17 by RM Sotheby’s during Car Week in Monterey, California.

“The collection has been in Indiana for a decade, across the street from the Indianapolis Motor Speedway,” Keast said. “They’re still covered in dust, sitting on flat tires and not running, basically as they were when the barn collapsed on them.”

notable is a 1956 250 GT Coupe Special by Pinin Farina with Superamerica-style bodywork. The first owner was King Mohammed V of Morocco.

https://www.autoweek.com/car-life/classic-cars/a44131115/hurricane-damaged-ferrari-collection-headed-to-auction

a hard core 60's custom car goofball, who is wonderfully atomic punk, did a video tour of his garage and collection of crazy neat stuff - including a Turbonique go cart replica of Capt Jacks rocket cart, and replicas of a couple Zingers

 

crazy good collection of car waxes

and one cool display of old gauges

Speed shop display so the comparison can be felt between the different Hurst shifters

and an entire drug store rack of cool 60s magazines! Sweet! 

Thanks Marc!