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Brian Styles: Growing up, I can tell you that I never had a cool car. Not in high school,
not in college. I think that's one of the reasons people collect, is because they're
trying to either get things that they never had, or they're trying to replace things that
they had and lost. For me, it's probably a little bit of both. I never had any cool cars
growing up, but I did have a lot of toy cars. I still collect them, too.
It wouldn't be a passion if it didn't come naturally. I think you're either a car person,
or you're not. You're either a dog person or a cat person, or you're not a pet person.
It's the same way with cars. We've lost things over the last four years.
We've lost passion in the American automobile. Everything's become a bit too utilitarian.
Cars are about telling stories. That's the passion that's keeping the hobby alive. We
can walk around 20 cars and maybe spend three minutes per car. I can tell you why it's special,
because they built 34 of them and only five of them were yellow, or whatever it might
be. Stories go hand in hand with the cars. In Provenance, it's about being able to tell
those stories. It's about the accuracy of them. It's about paperwork. It's about the
history of the car. Celebrity ownership, all of that.
Rarity and desirability intersect. That's where your blue chip investment comes from.
I think that the cars that we've put into the collection have those factors. The trick
becomes hunting down the rare example of that desirable car, such as a convertible with
the biggest engine you could get, and possibly a four-speed. Then you have the rarity and
the desirability. You start to get to a very august group of how many of those were built.
That's where the hunting and collecting comes into play.
I think that the thing that most people learn is, be selective. The fun is in the hunt.
Anyone can fill a garage with tires. Waiting for the cars, chasing them down; being able
to liberate them from collections that might only happen once in a lifetime when that collection
goes up for auction. The fun is in the hunt. What's the primary purpose of your collection?
Without a doubt, some people buy cars and treat them as art. Other people buy cars and
have a good time and enjoy them. These cars will break down if they're not driven. They
have to be exercised. Even ponies need to run around the stable.
I also have two different types of cars. There's the cars that I do drive regularly, and then
there's the cars that are just so valuable. They're often on tour at shows in museums
that they don't get driven as much as they used to. They're all enjoyed, just at different
degrees. Samantha Styles: I'm Samantha Styles. I'm
Brian Styles' girlfriend. I think that collecting cars has really strengthened
the bond of our relationship. We have something that we share; we're both passionate about;
we have fun with. We can travel the country at the drop of a hat and go do things and
see things that we both truly enjoy. It's exhilarating.
Brian Styles: We're each other's own voice of reason sometimes when it comes to chasing
a car. I might really want to hunt down a specific car, and Samantha will talk some
sense into me and say, "Do we really need this one?"
Samantha Styles: Yeah, we find the right balance with each other.
Brian Styles: Yeah. Samantha Styles: Before I met Brian, I was
a salesperson. I was always looking for the best deal, the best buy, the best sale. I
think that that's helped me feed into this. For Brian's vision, I was on board from the
beginning. That's why it was very important for me to find the space that he wanted. It
was very important for him, so it was very important for me. It was just as simple as
that. Brian Styles: It's affectionately called the
zoo. It's called the zoo, because as you can see around us, we've got a nice selection
of fierce creatures. We've got some goats and a bunch of fish. I think there's a cougar
over in that corner. They all like to be fed high octane.
Samantha Styles: The zoo is very important for entertaining. We have our kids come here
with their friends. We have our friends come here with their kids.
Brian Styles: Something comfortable; something where you can gather socially. Cars aren't
necessarily the entire focal point, but they're an integral part of the space. I think some
of them enjoy coming for the cars. Others come from the different amenities- the pinball
machines, the game room, movie night, whatever it might be.
Samantha Styles: If you collect things, you're wanting perfection. It's the same thing for
the space that houses it. Brian Styles: A big part of it is when you
collect things, you have a lot of things that you want to display. You can't just use a
cookie-cutter approach and say this is going to be the space, and you get to put a vase
over here. Your collectibles, the exhibits have to be shown in a specific way. Making
sure that you factor all of that in when you're designing the space, when you're choosing
where to lay out each wall, how many paintings am I going to put in this wall, and pinball
machines, and books on a bookshelf. It's all very important.
Ownership is you get the bills; you dust the car off; you keep it clean. Caretaker, yeah,
that goes along with it. But it's about stewarding the car. It's about showing it, sharing it,
and making sure that it's preserved for the future generations. Which museum are we going
to choose to put this car in, whether it's titled to us, or hopefully titled to someone
else someday? Those of us that are lucky enough to have
a cool collection of cars and that are also blessed with having the time to be able to
do something with it, I think it's a little bit of a responsibility in perhaps creating
a museum, which is something that we're working toward doing. It does you no good to have
a great collection of cars if the doors are shut all day and no one can come in and enjoy
it. The responsibility only comes into play if you have the cars. If you do, I think the
responsibility is to try and share them and tell the story and promote the hobby as best
as you can. People ask, "Would you mind if I take a picture?"
I'm like, "I'll mind if you don't take pictures. There's a lot of fun stuff here." Yes, if
you can take it pictures and share it socially, online, and other people give you a thumbs
up and enjoy it, and that's what keeping the hobby alive and passion is all about.