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Tucked away, exotic cars await new owners

Tucked away, exotic cars await new owners

by DeVore Design, February 17, 2017

Tucked away in a warehouse in Lake County are 13 exotic cars that together are worth about $14 million — euphoric orgasmic car candy for the fancier of an upscale ride.

The collection, for sale or trade by Eustis broker Scott Ales, has a goody for just about every taste. For those who fancy the classic, there’s a 1933 Duesenberg — the only touring car of its kind — worth $4.5 million alone. And for the inner racecar driver in us all is the 2016 Aston Martin Vulcan, a low, sleek monster with a jaw-dropping 820 horsepower.

Both are among the 13 Ales has to sell, and they are only a small chunk of the total owned by a North American collector who doesn’t want to be identified.

Ales, 54, a former Eustis mayor, showed off the collection to friends earlier this week, walking through the warehouse, touching each car parked nose-to-tail — Ferraris, the Vulcan, a rare Toyota, a Lamborghini with scissor doors, a Porsche that won the 24 Hours of Daytona and the typical favorite of the burger-eating American male, the Chevrolet Corvette. This baby is a 1963 “Tanker,” so-called for its 38-gallon fuel tank.

Please, folks, no drooling on the cars.

Ales said that his owner might like to trade some of his vehicles, which range in estimated value from $140,000 for the 1974 DeTomaso Pantera, which was sold at Lincoln Mercury dealerships from 1971 to 1974, to the pricey restored Duesenberg Motors convertible.

Each has its own story.

Take the Duesenberg, the eight-cylinder car that simply purrs at a low rumble as it idles. With a straight-eight engine and a twin cam, it was “meant to be the greatest car you could buy — just magical,” Ales said.

Actress Marie Dressler of silent films first bought the car — only three were produced — and sold it within a year to Roy Del Ruth, a Hollywood director through the Depression years and World War II. He married in 1934 and his young wife, Winnie, hit a telephone pole with the car, damaging the body beyond repair. It was replaced with one 10 inches longer than the standard, leaving a sleek convertible that needs a driver with a long white scarf to complete the picture.

“It drives like a truck,” Ales observed. So much for the romance of that one.

The Duesenberg had been painted red until the current owner restored it to its original light tan. Useful quirk: The headlights turn in the same direction as the steering wheel.

By far the flashiest car in the bunch — the one with the most “Wow!” — is the sassy 2016 British-made Aston Martin Vulcan, a crazy powerhouse of 820 horses under the hood that has a knob to keep the critter under control for the beginning driver. Consider that the 2017 Chevrolet Cruze packs a grand total of 153 hp.

This Vulcan is one of the 24 track-only, V12 supercars Aston built last year, one of three in the U.S. and the only one in “Midnight Purple.” Folks who own these cars fly them all over the world to specially rated tracks, and nine of them are expected to be together in Texas later this spring.

The Vulcan isn’t legal on a street, which is hardly a surprise considering its ground clearance is a slim two inches. It goes from zero to 60 mph in under three seconds and reaches cruising speed at 210 miles an hour.

“It’s not just fast. It stops so violently that the G-force on the chest from the belt and harness — your brain basically can’t process it,” Ales said.

Price: $2.3 million new last year.

Ales said the cars are for sale individually or as a unit — some collectors want a “starter kit” when they get into the hobby and don’t want the hassle of finding, negotiating, vetting and transporting such vehicles.

Among the other cars:

  •  A 1963 Chevrolet Corvette with a split rear window. Only 63 of the cars were made that year, and this “Tanker” is valued at $400,000 to $500,000, Ales said.
  • A1989 Porsche 962 race car. Sponsored by Budweiser, it won the 24 Hours of Daytona race in 1989 with John Andretti, Derek Bell and Bob Wollek behind the wheel.
  • An arrest-me-red 1989 Lamborghini Countach 25th Anniversary car, one of 657 made that year. The car, valued in the $250,000 to $300,000 range, has funky scissor doors that rise like wings above the car.
  • A1973 bright yellow Ferrari 365 GTB/4 Daytona. Ales said the car looks like the one used by detectives on the old show “Miami Vice.” However, he said, “That one was fake. This one is real.” He stroked the dashboard, covered in what dealers call mousehair because of its distinctive feel. Value: $750,000 to $800,000 range.

So what prompts car fiends to buy? To trade? To get so deeply into the hobby? The answer is in that French phrase Je ne sais quoi — a certain something.

Ales only knows what gave him “the itch.” He said when he and his wife, Debra, were first married, he found a DeTomaso Pantera in Nebraska — like the 1974 model he has for sale in this collection. It was the early 1980s, and they were living in a four-plex with a payment of $390 a month. He couldn’t resist.

He bought the car for $16,500 and then they had a Pantera payment of $850 a month. It’s what started him down the lifelong career of buying and selling cars and equipment.

“Completely misguided,” he admitted.

Price of that bit of 1974 nostalgia now? $140,000.

Lritchie@orlandosentinel.com. Lauren invites you to send her a friend request on Facebook at www.facebook.com/laurenonlake.