Wayne Carini A master restorer and a collection advisor!

 

Wayne Carini is a master restorer and a collection adviser and manager for clients around the world.  For more than a decade, he has been the host of Chasing Classic Cars, now on MotorTrend Network.  He recently moved to his dream home on a farm where he can play with his cars and grow grapes for his next project, Carini Vineyards.

HOW Wayne Carini ran a vintage rally in a $300 Renault, thanks to a peanut jar

By:  Wayne Carini

I grew up driving a tractor on my family’s 350-acre fruit farm in Connecticut. Eventually, I wanted a cheap car that I could drive around the property. Now, when I say cheap, I mean dirt cheap.

I ended up with three in all. There was a ’51 Chevy, a ’49 “Shoebox” Ford four-door, and a ’46 Chrysler convertible that my dad used as a parts car. The top was gone, the interior was coming unstuffed, and it had the unusual Fluid Drive transmission. What these cars had in common is they all cost me less than $25 each. They weren’t running when I got them, so I took a lot of satisfaction in getting them working again. Once they started and ran, I removed the exhaust systems so they’d make as much noise as possible.

My parents were always worried that I’d roll a car and kill myself, and they insisted I have a friend out there with me. Of course, that friend, Tommy Carone, whom we called “Top Cat” or just “TC,” had to have his own cheap car, too. Boy, did we have fun chasing each other through the orchard roads.

Those days were a distant memory until I met Dick McClure, a California car collector. We quickly became great friends as he helped me rediscover fun with cheap cars. Inflation being what it is, you can’t find $25 cars anymore, but Dick has found cars like MGs, Porsches, Renaults, Morris Minors, Sprites, and a chopped Volkswagen for $500 or less.