Greg Stanley: Mapping the Modern Collector‑Car Journey

Greg Stanley - Creator for Collector Car Podcast

Join Car Specialist Greg Stanley as he applies over 25 years of insight and analytical experience to the collector car market. Greg interviews the experts, reviews market trends and even has some fun. Podcasts are posted every Thursday and available on Apple Podcast, GooglePlay, Spotify and wherever podcasts are found.

Contact: Greg Stanley at greg@thecollectorcarpodcast.com | N/A | Visit Online!

         

Break/Fix Podcast welcomes Greg Stanley, host of The Collector Car Podcast and author of The Enthusiast’s Guide to Collector Cars, to discuss his path into the collector-car world and how a passion project podcast led to consulting as a car specialist with RM/Sotheby’s, including sourcing cars such as the Ferrari 330 LM/250 GTO that sold for $51.7 million. Greg shares the story behind his rare, unrestored, family-owned Pontiac GTO in Tiger Gold and his multi-year effort to get it featured on Jay Leno’s Garage, including an on-site interview with Leno. He reflects on interview insights, shifting focus away from pure valuations toward stories and experience, and explains why he wrote an entry-level guide to help newcomers and even non-enthusiast partners understand the hobby. We also discuss generational trends, engaging kids at events, the “last analog” era, future collectibles, and Greg’s upcoming Porsche enthusiast guide and book tour schedule.

• One of the major threads in your writing, newsletter, etc is a fondness for a certain Pontiac GTO – Why? 
• You’ve interviewed so many voices in the automotive world — what conversations or insights have surprised you the most along the way?
• How has your perspective on the collector‑car market evolved since you began hosting The Collector Car Podcast?
• In your new book The Enthusiast’s Guide to Collector Cars, you break down the hobby for newcomers. Tell us about your inspiration for writing it, and what its all about? 
• In the book you talk about the emotional side of collecting. What do you think drives people to connect so deeply with certain cars?
• Connecting the dots between your show and the book – How do you balance the analytical side of market data with the more personal, subjective side of automotive enthusiasm?
• Looking ahead, what excites you most about the future of the collector‑car world — whether it’s technology, culture, or the next generation of enthusiasts?
• When you look at today’s market, what trends or emerging segments do you think enthusiasts should be paying closer attention to?

Crew Chief Brad: [00:00:00] BreakFix podcast is all about capturing the living history of people from all over the autosphere, from wrench turners and racers to artists, authors, designers, and everything in between. Our goal is to inspire a new generation of petrol heads that wonder, “How did they get that job or become that person?”

The road to success is paved by all of us, because everyone has a story.

Crew Chief Eric: For years, Greg Stanley has been the voice guiding enthusiasts through the fast-moving, often unpredictable world of collector cars. As the host of the Collector Car Podcast, he’s interviewed industry leaders, decoded market trends, and helped listeners understand not just what cars are worth, but why they matter.

But he’s also the author of The Enthusiast’s Guide to Collector Cars, a book that distills decades of passion, research, and real-world experience into a roadmap for anyone who loves automotive history and wants to navigate the collector landscape. From blue chip classics to [00:01:00] emerging icons, Greg brings clarity, curiosity, and a genuine love for the hobby.

And today, he joins us to talk about the stories behind the cars, the people who collect them, and the evolving culture that keeps this world so endlessly fascinating. And with that, let’s welcome Greg to Break Fix.

Gren Stanley: Thanks for having me, man. I appreciate it so much.

Crew Chief Eric: Greg, like all good Break Fix stories, there’s always a superhero origin.

So let’s talk about yours. What first pulled you into the world of collector cars, and when did you realize this passion was going to then shape your career?

Gren Stanley: Like everybody else, started when I was a young kid, Hot Wheels. My mom used to draw, you know, little stick figure versions of cars when I was a little kid.

That probably ingrained in me somehow. But honestly, it wasn’t until I started my own podcast. You know, I, I always tell people, “If you’re interested in something or if you have your own business, you should always have your own podcast. And never worry about downloads, don’t worry about views. It’s about the people you meet, what you learn, and the subjects, you know, that you discuss.”

And so years ago, I started a podcast that wasn’t about cars, strangely enough. It was [00:02:00] called Learn From Others, and it was a career podcast sharing career journeys with high school kids. And it was really, really cool. I interviewed everybody from, like, the director of Hamilton, who was the speech writer for Ronald Reagan.

But it never really got legs of its own. And at the end of each episode, I wanted a car aspect. And so I would always say, “Well, if you’re a surgeon, here’s the kind of car I think you should own.” So it was always a fun way to work in classic collectible cars at the end. And finally, one of the guys, when we weren’t recording, it was the speech writer for Ronald Reagan, he’s like, “If people could describe you in two or three words, what would it be?”

And I said, “Well, that’s easy. I’m the car guy, you know?” He’s like, “Well, you should probably have a car podcast.” And so I started that up, The Collector Car Podcast. That was just a passion project, you know, as I know you know what that’s like. It’s a grind. People don’t realize what a grind it is to do a weekly podcast.

But I found I had an unlimited curiosity for cars, and so it was either learning about cars from an expert or it was me [00:03:00] exploring a subject about cars I was always curious about or it was talking about valuation trends, you know? So I just kept on plugging along. And I just happened to be scrolling on LinkedIn one day and I saw RM Sotheby’s had a car specialist position posted open, available.

What I learned out later is they always had that that posting on there just to see who would apply. And I applied and, as you would expect, I didn’t hear anything back. And I don’t know, fast-forward six months or so, I had never been to an auction before in my life. I’d never been to an RM Sotheby’s auction.

I’m in Cincinnati. They had an auction up in Dayton, Ohio. It was the John Dixon collection. He had passed away, and he had some really cool Porsches. And so they were doing a one-off on-site auction, and I said, “You know what? I’m gonna run up there just to see what this auction thing is all about,” right?

And so I get up there. Just from, like, TV, I recognized Donnie Gold, car specialist. He’s with Broad Arrow now. Been in the business for 40 years, great guy. I don’t know why, I was like, “Donnie.” I submit a resume. I never heard from anyone. And he pointed to this president at the [00:04:00] time, Kenneth Ahn, he said, “Go talk to that guy I’m like, “Okay.”

Because of that, Donnie now takes full credit for my career in the car business. So I owe him a drink every time I see him. Talked to Kenneth, and he’s like, “Ah, probably some HR filters kicked out your resume, you know?” Gave me his business card, and he said, “Send me your resume directly, you know, I’ll, I’ll take a look at it.”

And I didn’t hear anything for, like, three months, and I got a call. And the call was basically, “We’re not gonna offer you a job, but we like the connections you’re making in the, uh, podcast. So we’re gonna pick up your podcast as our official podcast, and you can be a car specialist consultant, where you can submit cars to auction as you’re able to.”

And so I started bringing some cars to auction and stuff like that. And, uh, in the meantime, I ended up bringing the Ferrari 330 LM 250 GTO that sold for a world record price of $51.7 million. That had a lot to do with our reputation. It was relationships, obviously, but it was RM Sotheby’s selling the Uhlenhaut Coupe that really caught their [00:05:00] attention.

Anyways, long story short, I thought, “Well, you know what? That’s, through a part-time deal.” Not that I could get another GTO, but why don’t I explore this in a little bit more of a full-time fashion? And so while I still consult with RM Sotheby’s, I’m pretty much doing it freelance at this point, so it’s been an incredible journey.

Crew Chief Eric: So what you’re saying is that job o- opening still exists on LinkedIn right now?

Gren Stanley: Probably, probably. They’re always looking, always looking. And some… People ask me, “Well, what is it like to be a car specialist?” I’m like, “It is probably the hardest job I know of,” mostly because it’s built on relationships and network, your personal network.

Crew Chief Eric: Right.

Gren Stanley: And even if you’re the most connected person in the world, that doesn’t mean you’re going to be successful, because, you know, you might know Joe Blow with this great collection, he wants to sell with RM Sotheby’s. But if he’s had a relationship with RM Sotheby’s for 20 years, he can’t be your client, you know?

And so it is really, really a tough job. So the guys that do it, they do it every day. They’re ingrained. It’s really, really hard to start out as your dream job, ’cause it’s a really, really tough job.

Crew Chief Eric: Well, we’re gonna come back to that in a second, but I want to dive a little bit more into your past, because [00:06:00] there’s a major thread that you can pull throughout your writing, your newsletters, your photos, your videos, et cetera.

You have a certain fondness for a Pontiac GTO. Do you want to explain what that’s all about?

Gren Stanley: That was really weird. That was really cool and really special. And this is a scenario where I had a buddy of mine, and he just had some friends that needed help selling a car. You get those all the time. I just got one today, and it’s, like, a 2011 Ford Mustang, you know, with 16,000 miles.

Right. And I’m like, “All right, well, Carvana or whatever,” you know? Like, it’s a very common car. And, uh, this was a scenario where- He’s like, “Yeah, they want help selling their dad’s Pontiac.” And I’m like, “All right. You know, that could be cool. Probably not, but that could be cool.” And this is through text message, so everything kind of came dripping in.

He’s like, “Oh, apparently it’s a GTO.” I’m like, “Well, that’s cool.” “Apparently his dad bought it new.” “Well, that’s really cool.” “Apparently it’s unrestored. He got all the performance stuff on it.” So, you know, it kept getting better. Anyways, as these pictures came in, and [00:07:00] it’s unrestored, it’s special paint, it’s special ordered, it’s AC on a 389 tri-carb, four-speed car, which is extremely rare.

It kept getting better and better and better. And so, ironically, it was only an hour and a half from my house. And any place in the entire country, uh, my friend was in Atlanta that called me, it was an hour and a half from my house. And so by the time that I went to go look at it, I was like, “I gotta buy this car.

There’s just no way.” You don’t come across original family-owned, unrestored, special spec, crazy documentation ever So when I went out there, I had, in my mind, I was like, “All right, if I can, I need to buy this car.” And I did. I also saw that as my ticket to being on Jay Leno’s Garage, which is a whole nother story, so that worked out well, too.

Crew Chief Eric: What would you describe that color as?

Gren Stanley: So, like, a medium metallic gold. It’s called Tiger Gold. So they offered five special paint colors for that year, and this was one of the five. And, uh, what’s interesting about it is it only came with a white or a black pinstripe, but this owner had custom ordered a red [00:08:00] pinstripe.

And what’s really weird is, in Pontiac world, they have the Pontiac Historical Society or whatever, it’s the documentation you can order up that tells you about your car, and even with that documentation, it says it’s a special color, but it doesn’t tell you what the color is. Even on the VIN tag, it says it’s a special color, but it doesn’t say what the color is.

Now, this was fortunate, ’cause it’s an unrestored car, so we knew it had Tiger Gold, we knew it had the red pinstripe. But when they pulled the car out of 40 years of slumber, they pulled the gas tank and they found the build sheet, which is really crazy that it was still there, and it said, “Tiger Gold, red stripe.”

You just can’t ask for a better documentation than the original build sheet. So yeah, it’s a beautiful car. I’ve never been a gold… You know, it’s like anything else. If there’s a color of a car you don’t like, after you own one for a little while, you’ll then love that color. So I really love gold cars right now.

Crew Chief Eric: With Pontiac celebrating its centennial, any special feels for you, being a Pontiac owner?

Gren Stanley: You know, not really, only because this car has been [00:09:00] such a rollercoaster ride ever since the day we bought it. Took it to Muscle Car and Corvette Nationals, it was on the Red Carpet Invitational, had it on The Jay Leno Show, took it to Cincinnati Concours, won the Preservation Award.

And so, it’s like anything else. When you buy a car, it’s a whole journey with that car. So I almost feel like, you know, it’s great that it’s the 100 years, and I’m not sure what’s gonna happen with the car r- right now as far as it relates to the celebration, but I’ve had so much fun with it, it almost seems like, oh, this is cool.

But man, we’ve had such a ride so far.

Crew Chief Eric: So let’s address the 900-pound gorilla in the room, because other people are probably thinking, “I’ve got a numbers-matching, factory original GTO. How come I can’t go on Jay Leno’s Garage?” How did you make that happen?

Gren Stanley: Yeah, this is a crazy story, because I’m very tenacious, I guess, you know?

I just don’t give up, I guess, is the biggest thing. Through the car world, I figured out who a person was in Jay Leno’s garage that I could email, ’cause I wanted him on my podcast. I thought that’d be great, Jay Leno on my podcast, that’d be [00:10:00] fantastic. And so I emailed, and it was always a polite response, but it was more of a, “Well, let’s see what happens.”

And nothing ever happened. I even did some episodes where I dug into his collection, you know, like here’s all his pre-war cars, here’s his whatever cars, and I had like four or five episodes where I dug into his collection, which was a lot of fun to do, and I thought, “Well, maybe that would get me to have Jay Leno on.”

My pitch was is there’s, like, 10 cars that are not in Jay Leno’s garage, like, why are these cars not in his garage? Now, obviously, the famous one is Ferraris, but he doesn’t have a BMW, he doesn’t have a V16, he doesn’t have X and Y cars. And I thought, “Well, that’d be a very interesting podcast episode,” like, “Why don’t you have these cars?”

And it never happened. At, at one point, my contact actually responded saying, “Well, I’m booking him for stand-up events. He’d probably rather do your podcast, so let’s see who wins.” And I never heard anything back. And then a couple years later, I was asked to podcast from the Wynn at the Las Vegas Concours in the lobby, they have a podcast studio, and Jay Leno was [00:11:00] the Grand Marshal.

And so I said, “Well, this is my big chance. I can finally meet Jay Leno in person.” And so he was the Grand Marshal. Outside, he’s swamped all the time, right? I saw him outside, and I ran up to him, and I had like two seconds, and I said, “I’d love for you to be on my podcast so I can tell you the cars that should be in your collection,” which was, like, the worst way to do it, right?

And he just looked at me like, “What?” And that was it, and I got a, a poor selfie done with him, and that was it. And then, like, a year later, between that time and a year later when I was at the podcast studio again at the Wynn, I bought the GTO. And I thought, “All right, well, this is my chance to get my car on his show, and maybe I’ll get him on my show.”

And so I did this huge email with pictures and explanations, how special this car was, and all sorts of stuff, and I sent it to my same contact, and I never heard back. And I was like, “Well, that’s kind of disappointing,” you know? I thought there might be a chance I would see him again in Vegas. And so what I did was is, like, printed off that email- And it had in my back pocket.

I couldn’t meet, catch up with them, and then we got kicked out of our [00:12:00] hotel room at 11:00 AM ’cause we’re, we had the midnight or whatever, the red-eye flight back. So we had this time to burn, and I remember the podcast studio, the guy said, we, he knew we were getting kicked out. He’s like, “Hey, if you wanna hang out in the studio, you can.

Just come by. There’s like a little lobby area.” So no sooner than my wife arrived there with our luggage that Jay and his wife and his small crew of like two other people walk in, ’cause he had to do a, a podcast episode right then. And so we just sat, waited patiently, and he did his interview, and we have our five minutes with him afterwards.

And I pull out my printed off email, and I said, “I think this car would be great for your show.” And he looked at the email. He’s like, “Oh, I know this car. I know this story. This is a great story. Yeah, let’s have it on the show.” And so he gave me his producer’s phone number, and we wrote it down wrong ’cause it was like, you know, here’s his name, here’s his number, and we wrote it down wrong Anyways, after that, I reached out to my contact.

I said, “Hey, Jay wants the car to be on the show,” but I wrote the number down and she put us in contact. It took [00:13:00] off from there, and, uh, it was just a great experience. But it was four or five years of me trying to get on his show. And then when I got there, this is another fun story, I don’t know why, but in my head I thought, “Well, I’ll do an interview with Jay.

We’ll just use his equipment.” California union shops, you know, that kind of stuff. I should have known better. And so we get there, if, if you watch the Jay Leno video, I say, “Hey, Jay, thanks for being on my podcast.” But we hadn’t recorded it yet. They had agreed to do it. And so after our ride for his video, he’s like, “Hey, you want to do that interview?”

I’m like, “Yeah, sure.” And I just happened to have my camcorder with me, but I didn’t have a stand or anything. And the producer was even saying, “Well, I can do it with my cell phone if you want.” I’m like, “No, let’s not do it with your cell phone.” And so we go into this, his motorcycle room, full of Vincent Black Shadows, that kind of stuff, and there’s a coffee table sitting there with a bunch of books on it and stuff.

And I said, “Well, let’s just put it right here.” And the camcorder was a little crooked, and for some reason there’s two black combs on this coffee table. And so we grabbed the black combs and we even out the camera so they can record. So if you go to my YouTube channel, The Collector [00:14:00] Car Podcast, the first video that shows up automatically is that interview with Jay.

The lighting’s horrible. It’s only like a 10-minute interview, but I was able to ask the questions about this or that. Which car would you have if it’s a V16? Would you have a, a Marmon or a Cadillac? For a Ferrari, would it be an F40 or a, I think I said a, a Lusso, maybe something like that. But anyway, so it was a heck of an experience.

I’m hoping to get back there with the book, but so far I haven’t had a chance to get back out there.

Crew Chief Eric: Well, congratulations. That’s like reaching the top of Mount Everest, so good job on that.

Gren Stanley: Yeah. It’s a lot of effort. So don’t ask me, “Can you get me on Jay Leno’s Garage?” ‘Cause it’s very, very difficult.

Crew Chief Eric: And he’s always at the top of every automotive podcaster’s whiteboard.

Like, “We gotta get an interview with Jay Leno,” and then it’s Jerry Seinfeld, and then there’s a couple other people in the collector space that, you know, those are the unicorns that you’re trying to interview. So good job. E- excellent. Excellent. Yeah.

Gren Stanley: Thanks. Appreciate that.

Crew Chief Eric: That does segue us into talking more about the interviews that you’ve done over the years.

You’ve gotten to hear from the [00:15:00] voices all over the automotive world. Of those conversations, what kinds of insights or surprises have emerged when you’ve been interviewing somebody all along the way that you’ve been doing the Collector Car Podcast?

Gren Stanley: You know, it’s interesting, ’cause I, I think what comes across is everybody’s passionate, but then they’re very specific about what they’re passionate about.

And so I’ll give a couple examples here. I used to do a, a version of my podcast called The Ultimate Garage. I’d ask Wayne Carini what’s his top 10 cars, or I asked Ken Gross, who’s, you know, automotive historian, great guy- What I found interesting is the responses were very surprising. For example, for Ken Gross, he is such a student and judge.

You know, he judges all over the world. But it’s not just collector cars, he knows the very specific, very special, very rare cars, you know? And so what was interesting about that podcast, if I asked him his 10 cars, it wasn’t like a Ferrari 275 GTB. It was like, “Here’s the one, here’s the VIN, here’s why it’s special, and here’s who owns it today,” you know?

It [00:16:00] was really one-off Delahaye or whatever it was. It was very cool, very special in the fact that his knowledge base was so deep that it wasn’t like, “Well, here’s the make and model and version I want.” It’s like, “This is the exact car.” And then it was also surprising with Donald Osborne, who used to run Enjay, he surprised me quite a bit because the first nine cars, like, I don’t want to say I could have guessed, but I could have guessed the genre.

French, Alfa Romeo, Italian, you know, very Art Deco or very classic, you know. He’s a classically trained opera performer, you know, like just a classy guy. But his 10th car caught me off guard. It was a 1965 Mustang Fastback with the K-Code engine. I’m like, “Really? That’s great. Like, that’s cool.” Like, I’ve got my…

I’m a big K-Code fan. I’ve got my HYPO book right here. And anyway, so I had a dark blue K-Code I found during Amelia Island Car Week under a tarp that was not for sale and not running, and I bought it, drove it around Amelia Island a year later. And then when I sold it, I put it on [00:17:00] my News Blast. Donald never responds to any of my emails, but this one he did.

He said, “All right, I’ll bite. How much?” And I told him, and I never heard back from him, and it sold in 17 hours, so I, apparently I had a good price on it. So I, you know, it’s that kind of stuff I find very interesting. I also love interviewing original owners whenever possible. Sometimes it’s a guy that has a not that rare of a car, like an ’87 Pontiac Firebird, but he bought it new and then he lost it for 26 years, and then he found it in a barn in basically barn-fine condition, and then he restored it, and now he’s at car shows.

You know, those are just really cool. Obviously, the original owner stories where they’ve had it since 1963 are really, really cool, but it just depends on what the story is. It, it could be a car worth 10 grand if the story’s cool enough, you know?

Crew Chief Eric: So when you look back over the long history of The Collector Car Podcast, what are some of the things that you’ve seen trend or evolve from your very first episode to where you are now?

Is there anything that really stands out about the community as you’ve been diving deeper and deeper into [00:18:00] it?

Gren Stanley: You know, I probably put a little too much emphasis on values at some point. Now that I’ve been doing it for long enough, you know, not all values continue to go up, right? I don’t like the aspect of investing.

Like, it’s fun to spitball and ballpark and forecast and that kind of stuff, and yes, I would prefer to buy a car that I think is gonna appreciate, where at least I get my money out of it or I don’t lose too much money. But I don’t think that’s as much fun as I used to think it was, because as you’re in it for a number of years, you realize, yeah, there are different trends that happen.

Some of them you can see coming, others you cannot. And right now we’re in a really weird timeframe where it doesn’t make a lot of sense with some of the stuff that’s happening. One example I’ll give is the Ferrari Daytonas. You know, they’re classic front engine, V12, manual, analog, all the stuff you want.

Beautiful. Not the most fun car to drive at slow speeds but, you know, once you get it up and running. Those were approaching 800, $900,000 at one point. We’ll never forget, I, I never did a podcast about it, but I wanted [00:19:00] to. There was a yellow, I won’t say the right, you know, Italian phrase for that, giallo, whatever, but it went to 14 different auctions.

The first auction it was a no sale at 700 grand. The second auction it was a no sale at 800 grand. The third auction, 850. And then after that it just kept on declining until a hammer sold for, like, 550. 14 auctions, and what was interesting is it kind of mirrored, at that time, the collector car market as a whole was going through a little bit of a, of a recession, right?

And then we have the time in which the Dinos, doesn’t say Ferrari anywhere on it, you know, rear engine, six cylinder, handles really well, a beautiful little car. But those were trading for more than Daytonas, and they sometimes still are today. I think as so much has equalized, but you still have examples.

Daytonas are back up, I mean, one sold recently for a million dollars. It’s just interesting, you know? So it, it’s hard to predict where some cars are going to go. It’s fun to, but I think I’d much rather focus on the passion and the love for [00:20:00] whatever the car is, and the history, not worrying about the value so much.

Crew Chief Eric: And it’s funny you bring that up, because my mind immediately goes to what’s the next closest underdog of the modern era? And you say the Daytona, and I go, “Eh, it’s okay.” The whole Miami Vice thing, and, you know, all that stuff that goes along with the Daytona. But I go 456. Front engine, V12, manual or automatic.

Very handsome car, but it’s understated because it was overshadowed by the 550 Maranello and the 575 that came after that, and things like that. So there, to me, that’s like the bargain front engine V12. Why spend half a million bucks on a GTB when you could buy a 456 and it’s way more modern? You know what I mean?

Like, I have these debates and these struggles, and I wonder if other- Yeah … collectors out there are doing the same thing when they’re hearing about these classic cars, going, “I can get a much newer car for less money. Maybe it doesn’t have the same provenance, but what about the driving experience?” So how do you handle those sort of maybe misconceptions about the market or, you know, how people are trending and where they’re putting their money?[00:21:00]

Gren Stanley: I think cars from the ’50s and ’60s, I don’t think they’re gonna continue to appreciate the way they ever have in the past. Mostly ’cause it’s a generational shift. If you see someone that’s under 50 pursuing a new Ferrari, they’re not pursuing- Let me just say a Ferrari, it’s typically not an old Ferrari.

That’s part of the challenge is, is getting them engaged. Part of the reason, we can talk about it in a minute, but about my book. It’s like, don’t always look at the new stuff. Have appreciation for the eras that came before it, ’cause there’s a lot of really cool stuff there. I would probably be right with you.

I mean, I’d love to have a Daytona. Now, I’m, I’m not saying I’d want a 456. They are handsome, but they’re not everybody’s cup of tea, right?

Crew Chief Eric: Right.

Gren Stanley: They are handsome. But, you know, like a 550 Maranello, I’d love to have one of those. Manual front engine V12. I’ve always loved those. They’re really sweet. So there are a lot of cars under the Daytona price point I would buy-

Crew Chief Eric: First.

Gren Stanley: Yeah, first. That would be much newer cars. You know, a 458, you know, last of the natural aspirated V8s. You know, there’s a lot of stuff on that list I would buy be- I think we’re in the same ballpark. And I think a lot of folks are like that as [00:22:00] well, ’cause it’s comfort, convenience. You gotta buy right though, because, you know, after a certain while, 456 is probably a good example, probably quite a few parts on that car are very hard to source, and that’s where you gotta buy the best possible car you can when you get it.

I mean, what, servicing’s one thing, but when you start losing, like, some trim pieces or some interior knobs or whatever, who wants to go down the 3D printing route, right, to get the car functioning? Yeah, that becomes interesting. That becomes a challenge. I bought my wife a ’05 Porsche Boxster S that’s 1,900 miles on it, in a collection since new.

Thing’s perfect. It’s like bulletproof. Absolutely love the car. Now, would I love to find a Ferrari version of that? Yeah, sure I would, you know? But there’s different expectations and different cost implications as well.

Crew Chief Eric: For sure. Even the cheapest Ferrari’s gonna be expensive. You mentioned your book earlier, so let’s segue into that, The Enthusiast’s Guide to Collector Cars.

You break down the hobby for newcomers, and I felt that as I read it, and I wanted to dive [00:23:00] a little bit more into your inspiration after all this time. Writing a book is sometimes a mammoth undertaking, especially for a lot of people. You know, some people say, “Hey, how hard could it be?” Famous last words on Top Gear.

But to write a book is something of a journey. So what brought you to that?

Gren Stanley: Yeah, there’s quite a few things. First off, my wife has become quite a car girl. She’s always asking me, like, “Well, what’s that generation of Porsche? What’s that generation of Corvette?” She picks up stuff really quick. I tell people, the other day she was like, “Was that a ’62 Buick?”

And I’m like, “Wait a minute. What? Yeah, that was a…” You know, like, it wasn’t like, “Was that a ’63 Corvette?” You know, something real mainstream. It was, like, totally random and she totally nailed it. I’m like, “Wait a minute.” But I realize there’s not really that one access point in which to dip your toe in the collector car pool, so to speak.

There’s a lot of books out there, and they’re usually like, “Here’s the top 100 cars,” or they’re talking about the collector car hobby as a whole. It’s not necessarily by someone that is so top level, it’s [00:24:00] almost useless. And then you have the flip side of that, which it’s the deep dives are amazing, but it’s just too much of an obstacle for someone new.

I mean, I’ve got- The History of Brumos over here. I’ve got Japan’s Most Astonishing Automobiles by Myron Vernis and Mark Brinker. Incredible anthologies, but it’s not what you buy where, you know, it’s a new enthusiast. And I also have some nieces and nephews that are in their teens that are really loving cars, and I’m like, “Well, what would be a good access point?”

So that was probably the trigger point. Before that, I’d have to say it was my 400 episodes of research. And so, yes, it is very hard to write a book. I tell people this one’s a little different ’cause it’s a guide, so it’s not like War and Peace. There’s not a lot of creative writing involved. It’s more of me as a narrator walking you down the different eras, the timelines of the automotive world.

So I, I plan to have more. I’ve almost done with the Porsche book, which hopefully will come out in October Yes, it is a, it is a big elephant to eat, I guess, is the best way to put [00:25:00] it. But meant to be entry level. It’s meant to be snippets. It’s meant to be somewhat formulaic. You know, you have the same outline for each chapter.

You’re just kind of diving into it differently. So I’m trying to make it where it’s easy to enjoy. Even though it’s 400 pages, there’s a lot of pictures. And, uh, I, I mean, you can read a 400 page book in probably three hours or so. So it’s not overwhelming, which was the biggest goal, and it’s meant to be to inspire people to get excited about cars, which I did when I researched the, uh, classic era, 1928 to 1948, I believe.

I was just like, “Wow, I never appreciated these cars like this,” once I researched it. So I have a much better appreciation for that era of cars than I ever thought I would.

Crew Chief Eric: So somewhere in between the forward and where the guide really hits its stride, you talk a bit about the emotional side of collecting cars.

You make some connections there. You tell some of your own stories. Talk about what you think drives people to stay so deeply connected with cars, even in the modern era [00:26:00] where things are changing. Ferrari just revealed the Luce, and we’re all kind of scratching our head going, “Is this the future of mobility?”

You know, it’s no longer cars. We call it mobility. So how do collectors, especially young collectors like you were talking about, get connected with old cars?

Gren Stanley: Yeah, you know, I think that really has, it’s all about experience really, and knowledge. I was at a show the other day, local car show, and all the different clubs showed up, and I was impressed how many people asked the little kids to sit in their cars, whether it was a Ferrari or it was a Hummer or whatever.

And so it was really getting them involved by, uh, having them sit in the cars. I can remember me growing up, that would never have happened, which might’ve worked in the opposite way. It was all forbidden fruit. You’re not allowed to touch this, so it made me want it more. So I guess you can’t really lose on that front.

But I think it’s just a matter of getting them involved in the experience. As this posts, I will have gone to Velocity Invitational out at Sonoma Raceway, and that is really incredible, ’cause you have the cars screaming on the track. You know, you got [00:27:00] 250 GTOs. You got McLaren F1s. You got Mini Coopers running with their class.

And that is meant to be much more as a cultural event where there’s stuff for spouses and children to do as well. You can camp. You know, you can do all sorts of stuff, and I think that’s really the key to get them involved and engaged. Because at some point they’re gonna connect with something over that weekend, you know, and it might be something totally unexpected.

Uh, it was funny because when I interviewed the founder, Jeff O’Neill, he mentioned he gave, I think it was a media reporter, a spin in his Boss Mustang, but it was one of the factory Parnelli Jones race cars, around the track. The media reporter only wanted to do one lap ’cause he said, “That’s the most violent thing I’ve ever had experienced in my life.”

And I told him, I said, “You know what? He might not have liked it, but he’ll never forget it, you know?” And so if you put a little kid in a scenario like that- As long as you don’t traumatize them, they’ll probably, 10 years down the road, they might wanna relive something like that, ’cause it really sticks in your mind so much.

And it, it doesn’t have to be something like that, but it could [00:28:00] be… My first thing that connected with me is my dad’s friend came over when I was, like, 15. His somewhat shady friend who I didn’t know if I could trust him or not, but he showed up with a ’66 Mustang convertible, and it was so gorgeous in our driveway.

I offered to wash it so I could touch it. And never sat in it, never washed it. Like, an hour later it was gone, and I never saw it again, and that was my forbidden fruit. I just could not stop thinking about that Mustang. I even took pictures of it, but I never sat in it or anything. You know, it’s just trying to get those kids involved.

I think we’re in a good spot though, because I remember there was someone at one of the car shows, elderly gentleman who’s been around forever. I think it was a 80-year-old Ferrari judge, and he said something to the effect of, “I have no concern about the future of our hobby. I’ve never seen so many kids at a car show, you know, with their phones, sharing it on social media, than I have today.”

And I thought that was a re- really good point. You know, you think about probably 40 years ago at these Ferrari shows, there probably wasn’t one kid, you know, and now there’s 40 or whatever it is. So I [00:29:00] think we’re probably engaging them more than we think. I think the motivation might be a little different though.

Some of it is to get likes, to get views, to flex, so to speak, uh, which I don’t think is necessarily healthy. But if that gets them involved in the hobby Let’s go with it.

Crew Chief Eric: Throughout your journey, whether it be putting together the book, your show, interviewing folks, judging at concourse, going to different car shows, you know, reporting on things and whatnot, is there sort of an underdog story or a, you know, your own personal barn find where you were introduced to a car where not just the way it looked, but its story changed your perception of maybe the car or the brand or, or everything that went with it?

Is there something that really resonates with you?

Gren Stanley: There is. I need to keep it somewhat vague, ’cause I don’t wanna give up any confidentialities here. But I was in a collection, and it’s a really hard collection to get into, and the reason being is person’s private, but has some really cool old European cars.

And I just remember one of the cars he had [00:30:00] bought new, call it 1958 or so, something like that, and it was European sports car, and his wife would take his son to school in it. And really cool, really unique. About a, I don’t know, year or two later, he sold the car to get another European sports car that was very extreme, like basically a factory race car that he had on the streets.

It was ’cause it was his dream car, right? And it was just too much for his wife to take the kid to school in, ’cause it was like a factory race car. And they figured out a way, they couldn’t really afford both cars, but they went back and they bought the first car, which they affectionately called the school bus.

So, you know, this is in the late ’50s, early ’60s. And so when I go to this collection, they still own those cars. I was so impressed by the school bus story that I’d like to do some fun pen and ink drawing. So I thanked them for the visit by doing a pen and ink drawing. So I drew the European sports car, behind it I put, “Of era, uh, school bus.”

And I just, you know, say, “Hey, the [00:31:00] school bus”, or whatever. And they sent me a picture back. They framed it, and they put it in front of the car, and they sent me a picture of the two back to me as, “Hey, this is really cool. We appreciate it. Here it is.” Well, fast forward like two years later, I ran into the grandson who I never met.

I said, “Oh, I, I’d visited and I did this pen and ink drawing.” Well, he had had that picture of the drawing in front of the car as his screensaver for like two or three years. Wow. So it was really cool to see it all kind of connect. And as far as I know, those cars are still in that family’s garage.

Crew Chief Eric: All right, Greg, let’s take a quick pit stop and let’s settle a debate, an ongoing debate on this show.

And you being a collector car enthusiast with the new Enthusiast Guide to Collector Cars, you’re at the head of the boardroom table and you cast the deciding vote to build either the space age, highly sophisticated Porsche 959 or the Ferrari F40. Which do you [00:32:00] choose?

Gren Stanley: F40 Yeah, no

Crew Chief Eric: doubt Why? Why?

Gren Stanley: Well, it’s funny you said that, ’cause between the two, I’ve never fallen in love with the 959.

I mean, it’s cool. Technologically, it’s amazing. It has such an incredible story. I had the chance to drive one. Today’s standard, it feels underpowered, which is why Canepa is doing his SC version with, like, 700 horsepower, whatever, which probably feels just about right. I just never gravitated towards those cars, mostly because if you look at the profile view, you can kind of see the 911 in there.

You know, you can see, well, here’s the hood, here’s the windows, and they added the … You know. They’re cool, but I just never gravitated towards those. I’ve always loved the F40. Pop-up headlights are a thing now. Back in the day, they, they weren’t. Everybody hated them. But, you know, that V8, so raw, so incredible, such a cool, angular car.

You know, if they were to make one of those two again, I mean, there was rumors last year of, you know, like, the SP4 was gonna be the modern interpretation of the F40 but with a manual. I’m [00:33:00] like, “That’s the ticket. That’s what they need to do. Do it now.” I mean, I even had people that said they were in the factory, and they said they saw the car.

And I’m like, “Well, that hasn’t happened yet, so I don’t think they really saw the car.” But yeah, there’s no doubt which one I would choose.

Crew Chief Eric: All right. Since you chose the red card and not the gray card- … if you take the F40 versus the F50, which one goes in your garage?

Gren Stanley: Ah, that’s a tough one. So here’s why it’s tough.

The F50 came out, I lived in Atlanta at the time, and so the new Ferrari store up in Roswell, I was sticking my face against the glass windows when the F50 was launched. I did not think it was an attractive car at all. Uh, I remember seeing one go down Georgia 400 South to the toll plaza, and I thought, “Man, that thing is not that good-looking.”

So I was in love with the F40. Now, however, it has aged very well. I have not driven either of those cars, and it’s my understanding based on people who either own both or have owned both, the F50 is a much more enjoyable car [00:34:00] to live with versus the F40. And you look at the back of the F50, you know, you got that grate between the brake lights, you know, it’s basically open air, V12, you know, F1 inspired.

I would probably lean towards the F50, believe it or not, despite all that, even though I love the F40. I don’t know. That’s a really tough question. But if I had to go between a V12 and a V8, both incredible, iconic cars, obviously the F50 much rarer, I would probably go with the F50, non-red.

Crew Chief Eric: Non-red. See, and that’s where the motorsports enthusiasts come to the table and say, “You chose wrong, Greg, because the F40’s a better track car than the F50.”

And that’s why, to your point, the F50 is livable in the street, ’cause the F40 was never really supposed to be a street car.

Gren Stanley: And I would never take it on the track, honestly. I’m just driving it at Cars and Coffee and local concours events.

Crew Chief Eric: Well, let’s go back and let’s connect the dots between your show and the book.

When you’re putting it all together, how do you balance the analytical side of the market data that you are [00:35:00] constantly bombarded with, with the more personal, subjective side of automotive enthusiasm? And I mean, that comes through in the book, so that was part of your writing experience. How did you find a way to strike a balance there?

Gren Stanley: I purposely did not wanna lead people in any direction as far as what they should pursue. Whether it was type of car, era of car, or price point of car. And so in order to do that, I felt like I needed to cover as much of everything as I could. So that’s why there’s, you know, the obvious stuff, you know, the pre-war stuff, the brass era stuff, the muscle cars, the 1950s American, the British cars.

But then I also felt like I had to cover movie cars, ’cause those are culturally so big. I had to cover the restomod movement. I had to cover trucks and SUVs, you know, and that’s not my bread and butter. You know, that’s not what I pursue. But I wanted to present it because that’s where collectors are.

That’s where the enthusiasts are, especially like in the truck and SUV. Those have just exploded recently. And then I also wanted to touch on modern [00:36:00] stuff, like the modern collectibles, like my wife’s Boxster S. I mean, that is the definition of a future collectible if there ever was one. You know, last of the analog.

That made it a little bit easier because I wasn’t focusing on the values, I wasn’t focusing on valuation trends. Now, I still wanted a piece of that in there, and so when you look at the book as an entry point, you know, people might aspire to have a Mercedes-Benz 300 SL Gullwing, you know, $1 to $10 million car, depending if it’s alloy or not, or Rudge wheels or not.

That’s out of reach of basically all new enthusiasts. Well, I put in a collector’s ladder. So what’s the entry level for that era, make, mark, possibly? What’s a mid-level, and then what’s blue chip? So maybe you can’t afford that today, but maybe you can get a, you know, early ’50s Mercedes Fintail or something, you know, to get into that world somewhat.

Because I’ve been in the auction world for a little while, I also thought it would be fun to show at the end of each chapter, like, what are some auction highlights and record sales, because, you know, I’ve mentioned before flexing or showing off or whatever. I think when people [00:37:00] go to these car shows and they videotape these cars that, you know, maybe they’re out there to show, like, the new Pagani or the new Huayra, whatever.

But there’s some older stuff that is really worth a lot of money, that is really cool, and it ties it to, usually to provenance and rarity and performance. So at the end of each chapter, you know, I highlight what are the top sales for, like, brass era, which, you know, is interesting, or, you know, what’s a Lamborghini Miura worth, you know, or whatever.

So I have it in there. It’s not the driving focus obviously. It’s more of a sharing the broad strokes of this hobby of ours and letting the reader decide, you know, what they do or do not like and why.

Crew Chief Eric: And I think you’re faced with the challenge that all of us are faced with as enthusiasts when we try to espouse what makes this so exciting, is falling victim to all the technical jargon.

And if you remember the parody video that was circulating the internet a while ago, remember the old guy giving the demonstration of the Chrysler Turbo Rotambulator transmission? Oh, right. And it’s all this jargon and science and [00:38:00] math, and you’re like, half of it’s made up. Feel like that’s how new collectors feel when we’re talking to them.

And we’re not trying to be that way. The book brings it down to a level that I think everybody can understand, which is really good. But how do we, as enthusiasts, you know, even talking about, “You should read Greg’s book, and here’s why,” and then we go off on this tangent about, you know, this specific Marmon or whatever it is.

How do you rein yourself in? How do you find a way to focus and say, “This is how I can communicate to someone new to bring them into the fold and make them feel like they’re not getting overwhelmed with engineering jargon”?

Gren Stanley: You know, I think I just try to keep it as simple as possible. I like to write, and I do a, a newsletter every Monday.

I guess it comes down to I don’t want to waste anyone’s time. So I think part of that is also making it too technical. There’s probably a couple points in the book I should have put a little bit more of an exclamation, like, “What is a V8?” Part of it, you have to make the assumption that there’s a certain level of knowledge base to even pick the book up.

And so you, you start with, like, well, I’m going to assume they know [00:39:00] these things. Like, what’s a manual transmission? But then beyond that, I really didn’t want to get into it, honestly. You know, I didn’t go into, you know, any sorts of crazy technology we have in the cars today. I maybe touched on it from a factor of if you’re looking to restore one of these cars because of these technological advancements, it might be really hard to, but I don’t go into what are those, right?

You know? It’s just more of a, “If you wanted to buy one of these, here are some considerations you might want to factor in,” and that could even go back to the older cars. You know, maybe it’s a rarity of parts for a pre-war car or whatever, you know, there’s not as much of an aftermarket supply built in. So yeah, it’s just, it’s kind of a fine line, you know, trying to figure out what can I communicate so they keep their interest without losing their interest by going a little bit too deep.

And I also have to say, I was also talking to maybe it’s the spouse or partner that’s in this car relationship, because typically in a household, there’s a car person. If you’re lucky, there’s someone who enjoys it. Typically, it’s someone who tolerates it, right? [00:40:00] I’m fortunate my wife enjoys it. But I also thought, you know, this would be a great book for that other person in the household as a way maybe they could read it and kind of get a little bit of an understanding of what their significant other finds so appealing about the collector car world.

It’d be great if they said, “Oh, I understand why you like the Mustang.” That’s why I also put in, like, cultural significance. Like, why did this happen at this point in time? Like the post-war of 1950s American cars, you know, celebrating after, uh, World War II. You know, trying to make it where it’s accessible, not a little bit too much, but a way to engage someone new for whatever that reason is.

Crew Chief Eric: One of the things that you mentioned earlier was that you’re still working on finishing the Porsche book, and that should be out in the fall. I’m assuming that that’s gonna be in a similar vein and style to this book. As you described it, you basically drew a line in the sand saying there’s a difference between a collector car guide and a buyer’s guide.

So in your Porsche book, do you recommend a buyer’s guide that would go [00:41:00] into deeper detail about, “Hey, I wanna buy a G-Series 911. This is the complimentary book that goes with it to tell you all the nitnoid things about buying one of those, restoring one of those,” you know, really looking at it with a fine-tooth comb when you go to make that investment.

You know, Greg said you should get one, but what happens next? Are you doing that in tandem?

Gren Stanley: No. I’m trying to keep it strictly to an enthusiast guide. My goal is to have, like, you know, you see these youth judging programs, you know? I’d love to see every youth judge to have a book in their backpack that is beat up, dog-eared.

They’re enjoying it as a read. They’re not, “I need to buy this book so I can figure out what the next Porsche is gonna be.” No, I want it to be for that kid who likes Porsches but know n- nothing about Porsches. So yeah, there’s gonna be a chapter on 996 or transactional cars, but it’s gonna say, “Why were they built?

What’s special about them? What’s the performance like? What are some watch outs?” You know, that kind of stuff. So the same vein as this book, you know, so this first [00:42:00] book’s 400 pages. I do not expect the Porsche book to be 400 pages. I would assume it’s gonna be half that, or 250 or something like that.

Maybe there’s more pictures or whatever, but, you know, yeah, it will go into some fun facts. You know, it’ll go into Gemünd or maybe why is the ignition on the left, by era. Why is a, you know, a 930 called a widow maker? You know, the stuff that we all know, but maybe to a, a slightly deeper level. But I also think it would be fun to have a focus on a collector who is noted for 356s or whatever.

I have a, a local guy here, Dick Weiss. He bought his 356 Carrera Speedster, it’s a 1960 model, and he bought it in ’61, and he still drives it. And so I thought, do a little collector focus of these people that have been so passionate about these cars for so long and why, and maybe they’ll share some fun insight about that.

Crew Chief Eric: So I feel like the Porsche book could be bigger than the collector car book in some ways. Where do you draw the line and say, “We’re only gonna cover maybe the street cars. We’re not gonna deal with the motor sports [00:43:00] derivatives, you know, the special cars,” because those exist in the collector world, too. I mean, h- 917Ks and 935 Longtails and 914/6 GTs.

You know, you name the list. There’s a lot of, uh, motor sports-winning Porsches out there. So where did you say, “Enough’s enough. I’m only gonna deal with 356, 911, 944,” you know, that kind of stuff? Where did you strike a balance with the Porsche book?

Gren Stanley: I’m still struggling with that. ‘Cause even Macans and Cayennes, you know, and Taycans and that kind of stuff- So I think that’s where it becomes almost, like, uh, in, in the Enthusiast Guide, I have a chapter on motorsport derived cars that talks about the Alfa 8C, it talks about the 250 GTO, but it’s not comprehensive.

It’s an overview, right? And so you’re right. I mean, I’ve got two things here on the Porsche 917, you know, like two volumes, and it’s super crazy. You’re right. So I haven’t quite figured that part out. You know, I don’t know if it’s a chapter where it just kinda is a brief overview of the top five cars that everybody knows about and [00:44:00] connects it back to the, uh, motorsport history.

I haven’t quite figured that out, but that’s a great question, and I, I am struggling even with, I think I probably need to cut it off at what would be considered a future collectible. You know, like a 2014 Cayenne GTS could be considered a future collectible. Maybe really have to handpick some of those, you know?

Crew Chief Eric: See, I’d argue the diesel Cayennes are rarer, and they’d be more collectible.

Gren Stanley: No, you’re right. Yeah, no, let’s not go down a whole diesel thing. That’s, that, that is true. So I, I have to look at it, like, all right, what would a 15-year-old or just a new enthusiast, what would they find valuable? At some point, you’re going down the rabbit trail a little too far.

Crew Chief Eric: Exactly, and I think you’ll probably find that with Ferrari and then the other brands you sort of hone in on, is you have to say, “Okay, enough’s enough.” Or maybe there’s a volume two to the Porsche book which is motorsport related or something like that, you know?

Gren Stanley: That’s the thing, is it, the series can go forever, it’s just as long as I feel like doing it, you know?

And so far, I mean, I have 420 podcast episodes in, and I [00:45:00] have no lack of desire and curiosity to keep going. So I think it will be the same with the books, honestly.

Crew Chief Eric: Well, since we’re talking about the future, let’s talk a little bit about the future of the collector car world. Whether it’s technology, culture, the next generation of enthusiasts, which we’ve been talking about quite a bit, what excites you about the future of the collector car world?

Gren Stanley: I think it’s in a really weird spot, which I find very interesting. The whole market’s kinda weird right now. You know, you’ve seen the Ferrari prices go crazy. The era I’m most excited about right now is the last of the analog cars. Now, you say that, well, all cars are analog for 100 years, right? So it’s the last without the electric motors, without all the computer nannies, all that kind of stuff.

So you might call it 2000 to 2015. I’m not quite sure. It really hasn’t been defined yet, but I truly think that that is, like, the best of the best, and it’s gonna be that way for a very long time. You look at some of these new Ferraris. Let’s just pick on Ferrari. Jay Leno said it best, “Mechanical stuff breaks.

Electronic stuff degrades.” Like, we might be coming to [00:46:00] a point here where these cars are not future collectibles because you cannot rebuild them, or it’s cost-prohibitive, or there’s not an aftermarket industry that wants to take on this challenge. And so when you look at the last of the last, I’m thinking maybe it’s, like, the analog era there.

Crew Chief Eric: My only counterpoint to that, Greg, is that there’s an LS swap there for everything. So don’t worry about the future of these cars. Man, you’re telling me. So that being said, you’re famous for asking folks about their top cars of whatever genre or whatever the episode is that you’re talking about. So top five future collectibles, looking 2026, cars that are coming out right now that you think are gonna be collectible in the future, what are they?

Gren Stanley: Oh, that’s tough. You know, Porsche has done a really good job of making a lot of desirable variants. I mean, you could pick five right there, but I won’t. Obviously, I would say the ST I think is a really good one.

Crew Chief Eric: Is that the Ford Focus ST? What are we talking about, the ST?

Gren Stanley: 911 ST. Thank you [00:47:00] very much. Um, you know, this new, uh, SC they came out with, Porsche has said themselves, “This is out now because we can’t do it in the future.”

Because of the rules and regulations and everything that’s coming down the pike, they couldn’t redo the ST into a Cabriolet version. They had to come out with something different, and this is the answer. So I think that’s gonna be really interesting. The, uh, Cayman GT4- That’s incredible. Whatever variant, R- whatever you want.

You know, those are really cool, amazing cars. Ferrari’s interesting. I do think the F80 is cool looking. I know a lot of people hate that. They hate the powertrain. The Cilindro, I don’t know what they call it, the spider version, I think that’s a very interesting car, ’cause I don’t like the rear end on the coupe.

But, you know, front engine V12 Ferrari, are they gonna continue making that? You know, I don’t know. I think the Mustang GTD is absolutely stunning, amazing. That’s immediate collectible. I, I think that’s a slam dunk. And if we went back a few years, I think the last year [00:48:00] of the Dodge Viper ACR, even though they’re brutal cars to drive, those have already shown their worth.

I mean, they’re rare. They didn’t make many of them. They’re high performance. They have some racing pedigree, if you go back far enough. Yeah, new cars, that’s a really, really tough one, for sure.

Crew Chief Eric: So you’re saying there’s not a collectible EV in the bunch, not even of the Chinese manufacturers?

Gren Stanley: Tesla Roadster first year, maybe.

Crew Chief Eric: That’s going back a ways. I’m thinking, like, even the new one that just set the r- the speed record. The BYDs, you know, all those kinds that are, like, electric hypercars now. Like, do you think those are gonna be collectible?

Gren Stanley: I mean, they, they are, you know? But they’re more collectible as a museum piece for the historical importance of that.

I think Zinger, that car’s unbelievable. Now, will you ever get your $3.5 million back? I don’t know. I think that’s an incredible car. I mean, of all the c- all the s- if I had $3.5 million to spend, let’s just say I couldn’t get a Pagani, ’cause I’d probably g- get a Pagani first, it would be that Zinger. That thing is unbelievable.

You can’t go wrong with the new [00:49:00] ZR1, X, ZR1, Z06. I mean, they’re all incredible, great cars. I think that Zinger is really something special.

Crew Chief Eric: If you’re looking to invest in the market, do you see a dip? Do you see a cavity, a place where people should be spending their money right now?

Gren Stanley: Um, it’s really tough right now.

I think people are gonna kill me, but I think the Ferraris, because of the Bachman sale, they’re overblown right now. Now, with a couple exceptions. Like I said, it’s a really weird time. The Bachman cars were, people say once in a lifetime. These truly were, as far as I can tell, once in a lifetime, because Phil Bachman, he custom ordered luggage before they had a program.

Like, he had the relationships to make that happen. He custom ordered paint and, you know, different little things, maybe not to everyone’s taste, but he did it before they had a program. And so, yes, you can do both of those things today, but it’s not special. It was special back then. And he didn’t drive the cars, and he kept them in immaculate shape, kept them up.

So can that be repeated? I suppose so, I just don’t know how. Uh, one example I would give is I met someone who’s a Porsche fan, [00:50:00] and, you know, they would custom do, like, the trim and, like, that bronzey look, but they would not do it in a brushed nickel look. And so he asked them if they would do it, and their response was, “Well, we don’t do that, but if you’ll pay to see if we can do it, and we can do it, we’ll do it.”

So he paid for them to do, do the study to see if they could do it, and now he has the only one that has that. So there could be a version of the Buckman sale that is happening now, but you won’t know for 40 years. But I feel like, you know what? Because their 308 sold for 300 grand doesn’t mean all 308s are worth 300 grand And yet the price markup has happened, not to that level, but it’s gone up on all Ferraris after that sale.

So I don’t wanna say there’s a bubble. I think there will be one, but it won’t happen for three to five years, honestly. I think we’re on a tear right now. There are some exceptions, like the Enzo. Take the F50, you know, rare colors, one-off colors. That was seen at Broad Arrow with that Carrera GT in that really cool blue color.

I forgot what it was called, Oslo Blue or something. And so I think paint the sample, which has typically been reserved for Porsches, [00:51:00] has truly expanded to other makes and models. Any Dodge Hellcat or 170 is probably not gonna make what you paid for it, even with a lot of these people paid these premiums.

But there’s 3,300 of those cars out there, the 170s. Those are not gonna bring a premium unless it’s a rare color, and we already saw that with the Panther Pink one. The one of one Panther Pink sold for, like, $400,000 six months ago. So I think there’s an outlier color impacting with rarity, like the orange Enzo that sold at Mecum for crazy money.

I think that’s happening right now as well. So as far as deals, that’s a little difficult. I think going back to the analog era, you find a low mileage 2000 to 2015, something that’s cool and is a high performance spec in a cool color, manual, I think that’s a great investment right now, and there’s too many of those out there to really call out.

I want a 2012 911 Carrera S, the 997.2 and manual, last of the small body style, not turbo. I think that’s a really special car that is not on a [00:52:00] lot of people’s radars right now. So any 997.2 would be, uh, one I would jump all over if I had all the money in the world.

Crew Chief Eric: Well, Greg, we talked about the future of the book series.

What’s next for you?

Gren Stanley: Traveling to a lot of places to share the book. So I think as this posts, you can find me at the Keeneland Concours in Lexington, Kentucky. I’ll be at the hangar party, and then I’ll be at the Concours event. But then, uh, I’m also gonna be all over the place. I’ll be at Monterey. I’m actually doing a speech at Muscle Car & Corvette Nationals in November.

What were the muscle cars before muscle cars? You know, kind of like, what were some of the big horsepower cars before we actually had a term for it? If you go to the collectorcarpodcast.com, I have a calendar there where you can see all the fun places I’ll be hopping around, enjoying cars and sharing The Enthusiast’s Guide and hopefully meeting everybody and having fun.

Crew Chief Eric: So with that, Greg, we’ve reached that part of the episode where I like to invite our guests to share any shout-outs, thank yous, promotions, or anything else that we haven’t covered thus far.

Gren Stanley: I think it would be really great if people would share their stories with me. You know, if there’s some cool thing that you have [00:53:00] out, out there, I always love barn finds.

I heard about a, a Maserati, like 1960s Maserati, in this garage not far from me that’s been here for 40 years. I’m hoping to uncover that on the YouTube channel. Um, if you have just a cool s- original owner stories, barn finds are always great, feel free to reach out any way you can.

Crew Chief Eric: Any details on where to pick up the book?

Gren Stanley: Yes. You can pick it up on Amazon, uh, as you can everything that’s, like, four to six days shipping. But if you would like an autographed copy, just go to collectorcarpodcast.com, click on the book, and you can buy it there at a reduced price, and I will get it out to you as quickly as I can. And it will be in some bookstores.

I’m working on that now, but right now, Amazon and on the website.

Crew Chief Eric: Every collector has a journey, but few people help map that journey the way Greg Stanley has. Whether it’s through the Collector Car Podcast or through the pages of The Enthusiast Guide to Collector Cars, Greg reminds us that this hobby isn’t just about machines.

It’s about memories, meaning, and the stories we choose to preserve. And conversations like this show [00:54:00] how much richer the automotive world becomes when someone takes the time to decode it with curiosity and heart. So as we wrap up today’s episode, let’s let Greg’s perspective linger a little bit longer.

He says, “The cars we chase say something about who we are, where we’ve been, and what we hope to pass on.” So with that, Greg, I can’t thank you enough for coming on Break Fix. I really feel like I could pass your book on to my eldest daughter and say, “Here, read this,” and they would suddenly have an idea of where I’m coming from, where you’re coming from, where we are coming from as collectors, why we love cars, why they get us excited.

And so I say all that to say that this book is an excellent gateway for the newcomer coming into the hobby, and I’m really excited and looking forward to the expansion of the Collector Car series books.

Gren Stanley: Well, thanks so much for having me on, Eric. I really do appreciate it. It was great to catch up a year or two years ago.

We’ll have to make sure it happens sooner than that.

Crew Chief Eric: We hope you [00:55:00] enjoyed another awesome episode of Break Fix Podcast, brought to you by Grand Touring Motorsports. If you’d like to be a guest on the show or get involved, be sure to follow us on all social media platforms at GrandTouringMotorsports. And if you’d like to learn more about the content of this episode, be sure to check out the follow-on article at gtmotorsports.org.

We remain a commercial-free and no annual fees organization through our sponsors, but also through the generous support of our fans, families, and friends through Patreon. For as little as $2.50 a month, you can get access to more behind-the-scenes action, additional Pit Stop minisodes, and other VIP goodies, as well as keeping our team of creators fed on their strict diet of Fig Newtons, Gummi Bears, and Monster.

So consider signing up for Patreon today at www.patreon.com/gtmotorsports. And remember, without you, none of this would be [00:56:00] possible.

Skip ahead if you must… Here’s the highlights from this episode you might be most interested in and their corresponding time stamps.

• 00:00 Meet Greg Stanley!
• 01:17 Origin Story: Starting a Car Podcast and Breaking Into RM/Sothebys
• 05:21 Life as Car Specialist
• 05:55 The Tiger Gold GTO & Getting on Jay Leno
• 14:53 Interview Surprises
• 17:45 Market Trends and Values
• 21:00 Generational Shift in Collecting
• 22:47 Why Write the Guide?
• 25:41 Getting Kids Into Classics
• 29:15 The School Bus Story
• 31:35 Pitstop: Porsche 959 vs F40?
• 34:50 Writing the Enthusiast Guide and avoiding Jargon for Newbies
• 40:37 Inside the new Porsche Book
• 45:06 Future of Collecting, Top Future Collectibles?
• 52:06 What’s Next for Greg?
• 52:45 Where to Buy the Book and Farewell

Greg is constantly traveling to concours events, speaking engagements, and book signings. His calendar is available at collectorcarpodcast.com, where fans can also purchase signed copies of The Enthusiast’s Guide to Collector Cars.

And if you have a barn find, an original‑owner story, or a hidden gem with a great backstory, Greg wants to hear from you. Join him at these future events:

• July 11, 2026 – Autobooks-Aerobooks, Burbank, CA (11-3)
• July 17, 2026 – Keeneland Concours Hanger Bash, Lexington, KY
• July 18, 2026 – Keeneland Concours d’Elegance
• Sept 26, 2026 – The Nethercutt Collection, Slymar, CA

More dates will be added soon as the tour continues to grow.

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All of our BEHIND THE SCENES (BTS) Break/Fix episodes are raw and unedited, and expressly shared with the permission and consent of our guests.

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