Hopefully the anticipation of seeing the rest of the North Carolina Find hasn’t been too painful. After receiving over 200 photos of this collection, it hit us we couldn’t fit all these photos in one post, so we decided the best thing would be to split it up into several posts. Not wanting to stretch it out too long, we decided the best way to do this would be to break it up into makes. To kick things off we are going to start with GM and it’s subsidiary brands. There are enough photos and cars here that we could easily do a post for each make, but we decided to group these under one big GM umbrella, hopefully no one minds!
To say there is a variety of GM products represented in this collection would be an understatement. The owner, Billy tries not to get tied up in brand loyalty, but instead bought what he thought looked good or what was going to be the most fun to drive. He went out of his way to buy what he felt was the best of the best, obviously he felt the Corvette was up there as one of the best! He has several generations of Vette, but it would seem he favors the earlier ones.
Besides American Sports cars, Billy also enjoyed buying American muscle and luxury cars. We will touch on his Cadillacs just briefly, as they are just a small part of his overall luxury car collection. While there are a few Cadillacs in this collection the most notable have to be the two finned Caddies. Our personal favorite is this bright red Biarritz convertible, although we wouldn’t mind having the black convertible either!
We could talk about each and every one of the cars in this collection, but rather than do that, we will let the photos do the talking. We want to thank Jim C for sharing these photos with us! Given the number of cars, we aren’t going to challenge you guys to name them all, but instead invite you to list your favorites. And if you just aren’t into GM products, don’t fear, there will be another installment of the North Carolina Find tomorrow!
I like them all, they are all great. But I guess my favorites would have to be the Tri-five Chevies and the two ’59 caddies.
I’m glad someone had the good taste, and the funds, to acquire all these vehicles. I’m saddened however to see them just slowly withering away, hidden from view and roads. As a MOPAR fan, I can’t wait to see what he might have from Mother. That said, I have a soft spot for 58 Chevy’s and that Impala with the 348 and 3 deuces would be a welcome addition to my stable.
~ although the ’58 Chevrolet was not at all attractive to me as a kid that is on of the most interesting to me, also. the tri-power 348ci is a rare lump.
I have one
i will take any/all of the corvettes and the pickup. this is well worth the wait. great fun and find.
This is simply insane
Such sweet stash of great cars want to see more of the olds toranado and the rest ..wow what a dream find
You call that a GM collection? Not a single Corvair in the bunch! Fail!!!
Sammy, maybe he keeps #6000 someplace “special”.
Aaaahhhhhh… time to get into my Cookie Monster onesie, make a mug of hot chocolate, strike up the iPad and snuggle into a comfy couch .Let the amazement begin.
Well I guess somebody with this many cars who isn’t named Jay leno or Bill Harrah and who doesn’t have a crew of mechanics and fabricators deserves some slack about how he stores the cars. Some are dusty but they seem to be cared for, with some currently being worked on.
A way to look at it is that since Billy probably bought the cars over a long time period he has probably saved some that might have been worse off with their previous owners and eventually become a pile of rust flakes or sent to the crusher for scrap. That, or maybe modified into something they weren’t when the emerged from The General’s works.
I think Billy is a guy with *great* taste in cars, and I for one am very pleased to see that they have been kept stock. In time it’s likely they will be moved on to new owners, most of whom will probably be very grateful that someone kept them stock and didn’t turn them into trailer queens, to be flipped like a commodity every auction season.
I don’t know Billy, but if any of this is accurate then I think he has done a good thing for a lot of very worthy cars. And on top of that it seems from some of the pics and comments here on BF about Billy that he welcomes car guys into his world so they can enjoy them too.
My top pick would have to be the split window ’63 Corvette, which I have always wanted but never achieved. After then there’s the tri-carb 348 Chevy and the early Vettes and the ’57 Nomad and the two ’59 Caddy converts and……
Excellent tastes no doubt by how hard it is to choose which is your favorite! I concur on the split window as well, my dad had two back in the day and I daydream about having one myself sometime in the future, while I can still enjoy it! :)
Damn, what a shame. With collection of that caliber you’d think he’d have a proper storage facility.
Wow what a collection. I have been lurking on this site for a while and this is my first post here. Love all the cars but I would love to add that split window to my basement garage so I could go down and pet it every night. Love the site guys keep up the good work.
It looks like he has some storage buildings that are of higher quality than others. Makes sense if as your collection grows you run out of space in the old barn and need a new tin shed to hold your stuff.
The question I always come back to is why. Why collect so much of something you cannot use, store, maintain them properly? Art collectors make room for a new piece on a wall INSIDE their home. They don’t buy a Van Gogh and hang it on the front of the house next to the porch light. Model car collectors buy a new case, add new shelving as their collections grow but again, they don’t store them in the barn.
I love cars as much as the next guy and its good to see that this gent obviously drives some of his toys. I even get buying to save from certain death by rotting in a field or crusher, but part of saving is moving to a new, proper home. My father saved many old wooden and early fiberglass boats while living at Lake of the Ozarks over the years. He practiced buy to save but he also practiced buy, save, clean up and sell to new home. He knew he couldn’t restore or even store them all. His collection got out of hand with over 130 vintage outboards…..and we stepped in and helped him thin that herd.
What happens to a collection like is the same old story we all know: Gent passes, his kids keep one or two of their personal faves or are gifted via the will, or worst case fight over things cause the gent doesn’t have his life in order. Then it all goes to auction and guys like us can’t afford any of it.
I think these guys are similar to the crazy “cat woman” one occasionally reads about. The ones with 50+ cats in a house filled with carcasses [carcaii??] and cat crap. She has all these cats because she was “saving” them.
Not the same, by any stretch of the imagination, MikeH.
Cars don’t eat. Or poop. Or feel. Or suffer. Or stink if they sit in one spot for a decade. Or draw flies, which leads to maggots, or disease, or the type of filth which only rotted flesh can produce.
Not the same at all…..
Well Bryan, I just have to disagree with some of what you say.
First off, even top-shelf art museums (not just collectors, but actual public or private museums) often have far more pieces in storage than what is on display. One would hope that the conditions under which those works are held are good enough that no deterioration happens over the short or long term, but it is not always so.
SOME model car collectors do indeed have glass cases or shelves for their pieces, but there are probably so very many more who have a considerably different, more haphazard way of keeping the items.
Your father’s way of doing things with boats was not perfect, apparently even by your own standards, but it worked for him. Other people’s way of dealing with posessions which they deem to be desirable need not meet the criteria used by someone interested in 100-point concours show judging, or even the Daily Driver crowd which use a relatively uncommon car as a commuter ride.
Theoretically speaking, most car enthusiasts would feel troubled to see any show-quality or even nice condition collectible car parked outside for any length of time where deterioration could set in. Woods, or field, dester or tundra, nature works relentlessly. That does not appear to be generally the case here. Some of the cars seem to be quite clean. The ones which are dust-covered do not appear to be in a hurried downward spriral as far as the condition goes.
So, why does the sight of such a grouping of cars upset some people so much? Is the concept of “highest and best use” (often applied to real-estate for tax purposes), what drives opinions? Would everyone only be satisfied if each car was fully restored and sealed in a bubble? Bah. So what if someone’s heirs get rich off of an auction some years in the future? This guy is doing what he wants with what he has, right now. We all have that right while we pass the time on this earth, as long as we are lucky enough to live in a society which offers that freedom.
Check out the ’67 Corvette which is coming to auction via Mecum next month. It has just under 3000 miles. I guess it is pretty much perfect, as Chevrolet built it. Amazing, the talk about only the original owner having ever driven it, and only perhaps three people even sat in it! Gee, that makes me sad…. If I had the cubic $ it will take to buy it, I could never own a car like that. Because I’d want to DRIVE it! Do I decry the sanity, or the humanity of either of the two owners? Nope. The first one apparently loved the car, and treasured owning it. The second one… I am not informed as to whether passion, or merely investment was the primary factor. http://www.mecum.com/auctions/lot_detail.cfm?LOT_ID=HA0414-179688&utm_source=emv&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=HA0414-S128
My personal favorite here has to be the Z28. There is nothing like the high-revving small block to make my ears tingle. Then again, I spotted the Big Block too, with the tri-power hiding under the triangle shaped air cleaner. All hail the king of the BB’s! Grins.
More power to Billy, I wish I could meet the gent, and hear some of the stories which go along with his collection.
Hi, Thanks for your comments…Billy is my cousin and a great guy….loves the cars…people collect what they love and if they pay for it I think they can do what they want with it, it is theirs correct. He has a great collection and is a wonderful guy….if you don’t know him don’t make comments on “him”. Thanks
Nice collection. I would love to have that 69 Camaro.
3-D art requires space and the ‘falling’ dust adds a dynamic element to the display which when periodically removed treats the owner to a reincarnation – I understand.
Nice Barn of Great GM Vehicles. I would like to see and good chance I would Buy, Provided they are for sale. Great Restoration Projects With Great Potential. Need Better Storage ASAP!!!
If he sold me the Z/28 or Superbird, I would clean it up,get it running and he could stop by and “drive” it whenever he wants. Deal?
How come I can never find these???
An interesting story about the Nomad. Billy had a Nomad body sitting in the woods and newer Buick that was not being used for anything. He mated the Buick chassis to the Nomad and has the best driving Nomad in existence. He has many other Nomads that are restored. If you look closely, you can see the interior from the Buick.
I’d LOVE to acquire a collection like this. Would never be bored again!
I’d love to buy the ’67 Impala SS 427 off of him. I owned this same car for 15 years before selling it. I regret it everyday. If he’s willing to part with it, email me.
WOW Just wow. what a collection. That’s all I can say.
Being a fan of the big fins, my choice would be any of The Cadillacs!