@@barpatron At that age he doesn't have to be busy. Clearly show he is not somebody who cares to impress anyone. He is showing his passion just because he saw a valuable effort from some people. If a person like you go there I am sure he would say "get the F out "
I’ve fully restored 4 Mangustas from bare metal shells to show winners! they are very tedious to work on (to do them correctly) I hope that one isn’t too rotten! Nice find though.
Hi Sarah, the Mangusta is also for sale. Please feel free to contact me directly or share with anyone who may be interested. It is in surprisingly good condition and would not need to go all the way to bare metal. This would be the best example currently on the market that is ready for a sympathetic restoration IMO. Cheers, -Brad
Absolutely the best automotive series on RU-vid or anywhere else. It is so refreshing to listen and learn to such a knowledgeable host who obvious loves automobiles.
Sure is! And as an european myself Tom showed me how vast the american car market is. So many models, so many brands and weird creations both pre and post war.
falconater68 only due to knowing too much about cars I feel. He has to much knowledge about cars in his head I feel he mixes things up from time to time
He has the knowledge but he has the capabilities to ruin beautiful rare cars. I hate guys like him that let cars like these sit and rot. He loves the idea of owning them but he doesn't love them enough to keep them in good order.
Guy seems cool. Problem is the state of the economies in these little towns. You'll have the old well off guys in dying towns. Money not flowing like it used to... Weird thing to see they have stuff like this. A guy in kankakee has a bunch of gassers and other hot rods just sitting.
@@Theorbit10 he keeps them all parked indoors they are not parked out in the weather he may not be restoring them but they are not deteriorating he is keeping those cars so that they are worth restoring
@Kingy B those cars are parked indoors and well-preserved if you're looking for something to restore I'm sure you'll turn to rust before you do anything anyway
Back in '76 when I was in High School, I used to get my hair cut by a guy named Terry that owned his own barber shop in Torrance, CA. Terry drove a Mangusta to his shop every once in while...oh the memories...
Probably one of my favorite guys that Tom has met. Knowledgeable, accommodating, just an all around cool guy with a sweet collection. I feel like I could knock back a 6 pack with him on a Sunday and just shoot the breeze all day long.
Prime example of never judge a book by its cover: most people wouldn’t even think he’d have a car at all - let alone millions worth of the most sought after classics ..
**You seriously believe any of this 'created bullshit' as 'real?'** (this is a 'show' and they are all **ACTING** as-if' this is real'...) It's disturbing you would be so easily deceived.
Lol, I'm just glad I kept my initial thoughts to myself... Lesson learned, and I'm in awe. Awesome collection of unrelated cars, all connected by a passionate car guy in the perfect setting. A classic, unrestored American car dealership. Wow!
so sad what you are jealous of what he has. I bet your so poor you cant even have a normal car and you look at people by the cover. in the end you are earth trash. @@gerrynightingale9045
Seriously ! They wander into SO many dark and scary places , there MUST be some kinda portable light the crew can bring with--we shouldn't have to see a car filmed lit by a cell phone.c'mon Hagerty get it together !
The name Mangusta has a nice and true explanation: Mangusta means Mongoose and is the only animal that can eat a Cobra snake. You know Cobra, as in Shelby Cobra. This is why Alejandro de Tomaso gave this car the Mangusta name.
Valentin Manus not the version that was produced, the Prototipo was suppose ta have a recast aluminium version of the 289, dry sump, fuel injection and was quoted to have 570hp in 1965. No small block cobra could have stopped that. The name was given in jest as this car was tested as the Shelby Mk5. Instead Ford went with what is known today as the Pantera.
Robert, i imagine you will be reading the praise from the hagerty crowd in these comments. You deserve it fella. Props to you for owning cars from such a varied background. Your workshop tour made my day, have to say though if i heard those 6 twin choke webers bark to life on the quad cam v12 Lamborghini that would have made my year!!
An astute observation. The gentleman is a good friend of mine and you are correct, he was a reporter and newscaster on local radio and TV for several years.
Thats why these videos are so important. I wish some of these can be brought back to life. Harry Metcalf and J Leno really love their Espada's. In face Harry is currently re building his engine and documenting it on youtube!
The De Tomaso Mangusta was very much a hand-built car. The early cars were, as mentioned here, incredibly difficult cars to drive as the handling was all over the place, but it was far from the only supercar from the period to have those issues, the much-loved and now massively valuable Lamborghini Muira really didn't handle well at all and suffered from horrific aero lift at around 120 mph which would see it just understeer straight off the road into the scenery due to their being effectively no weight on the front wheels to allow them to have traction on the road surface. The Mangusta was extensively developed over its production life and the last of the line were pretty much as good to drive as the early Pantera that replaced it but the reputation stuck making it a hard sell and the fact that it really wasn't designed for "mass" production sealed its fate. Early Mangustas are incredibly rare now, out of the 50-or-so built (the number is uncertain as road car production figures are mixed up with those of competition variants so the number of road cars may have only been in the 30s) and the difficult handling has led to a lot being destroyed as has a typically Italian ability to rust and low values for a very long period meaning that potentially restorable cars were broken up, so survivors of the early road cars may well be in single figures, most of which have very low mileages on them as a lot of people that had them drove them once, scared the living daylights out of themselves and never drove them again. They were also notoriously unreliable as, although hand-built, they weren't necessarily built with the greatest of care for quality and quality control seems to have been virtually non-existent so it was far from unknown for cars to be delivered with major problems. Surprisingly, the Mangusta was a very successful competition car although a lack of backing meant it never really featured at the higher levels that made other vehicles, like the GT40 so famous. One problem with the Mangusta that never really was fixed was a lack of cooling, you really needed to be maintaining speeds of 30-40 mph to keep the engine properly cool and sitting in traffic with the engine running was an absolute no-no as they would easily heat up enough to destroy the very strong Ford V8 engine. The name Mangusta means mongoose in Spanish...
gosportjamie what ? Competition Mangusta? There may have been 2 or 3 privateers. These are grand touring cars always were. There was actually 401 (or 402) built. The 50 you think you refer to is the number of late US bound cars with the 2 pop-up headlamps. Cooling, same as most Italian cars from the 50s & 60s. Fans were not shrouded. Add a little water wetter and drive it all day long at (and above the speed limit) I did.
@@norac1244 Although it isn't widely known, Alejandro De Tomaso was an exponent of the philosophy of competition improving the breed. As you say, Mangustas were raced by privateers with limited success, but there were also factory-developed competition cars that were raced with a decent amount of success. This tends to get missed as most of them were raced in South America, and not much attention was paid to racing there at the time. The competition cars were the inception of a lot of the improvements that were made to the later production cars, the company didn't have a lot of money for prototyping and development testing so trying ideas on the race cars was an alternative method, and De Tomaso were far from the only company to do so. I stand by my figures for the early, single headlight cars, the figure comes from a marque historian who has been involved with the cars pretty much from day one...
gosportjamie sorry the early cars had 4 headlights. I have read many books on DeTomaso. Even one written by a ghost writer where the author put all the racing stats in the last chapters. I would be very interested to see / read about SouthAmerican DeTomaso.
Fun to read the stories and information surrounding the Mangusta, and I love what you both and Tom and Robert share about them. I always thought the Mangusta had 351's like the Pantera, not the 289/302's. Anyway - "function follows form" - yeah, always loved their phenomenal lines with the crazy gullwing rear covers, but as you say, I've read of owners who sold theirs promptly after experiencing very disturbing nose lift. Some say the source of the handling problems were largely the "center beam" or "backbone" chassis, like the Lotus Elan and DeLorean.. But the nose lift was all aerodynamics. The ZF 5-speed was shared with the Ford GT40 and the Maserati Bora. Despite thermoswitched fans, the Bora is likewise easier to keep cool the faster you go. Too bad Tom and Robert didn't spend more time on the Espada, another exotic from the same era - and Lamborghini's most successful car of its time with just over 1,200 sold - a sales figure not surpassed until the Countach came along. The choice of Mangusta as the name of a snake killer, is said to have stemmed from De Tomaso having a nasty fall out with Caroll Shelby who pulled out of a partnership to build an Italian follow-on to Shelby's Cobra... Cheers.
From Germany: Thank you Tom Cotter it was a great Video with very Nice Cars .I love the Series. The best 30 Minutes of the Day. Thank you Hagerty. Ihr seid die Besten. Grüße aus Hamburg !!!!!!
🤯 what Buick building. I would kill for that!not literally but I love vintage buildings and my favorite brand is Buick if I hit the lotto I would definitely buy this building super cool collection and the Espada it's my favorite Lamborghini ever. When are we getting some merch I would love to buy a shirt one day
That wonderful old building helped to preserve those cars better than an old barn. Judging by the size of it, it was a busy old Buick dealership back in the day. Had some great Art Deco features you rarely see nowadays.
Every car in this collection, including many others not shown are currently for sale. If there is serious interest, please message me and I can help get you further details and put you in contact with the owner. Cheers!
That French car, he could've just turned the car off while it was in drive, left it in gear while it was parked, then simply put it into neutral when he went to restart the car.....not optimal but would suffice....
Wow This building is about 1 mile from my home. I have been aware of this location but had no idea of what was in it. Being old i remember when it was a working dealership. Thanks for the video.
@Andy Williams Rock island Illinois. When I was much younger I was always fascinated by it. Have drove by it many times but thought it was just full of junk. Had no idea of what was inside.
Commenting on a youtube video trying to belittle somebody because of their collection says more about your mental condition than theirs. Plus, if it werent for hoarders this video series wouldnt exist so why are you watching it exactly?
That '57 Facel Vega should have a driveshaft 'E' brake on the Torqueflite (or Powerflite) trans. No Park until '62. Some folks pull that E brake on while mobile and do damage.
Lots of people are happy when people show up and want to buy their stuff thats being laying around for years. But others might shoot you. A find like this is worth the gamble.
I really wonder, does a guy like that, (or anyone; I'm trying to place myself in that situation) with all these unfinished cars, just enjoys it like it is, or is actually frustrated to see them in that state and isn't capable to work on them, is he afraid to let someone else work with it/on it...... Personally I would feel much better leading these cars to a good second home under my own supervision, then later have some handler buy them all at ones, just to make a quick bug.
OMG that old dealership is in Rock Island IL right behind Ace Muffler clinic in off of 4 street This is my home town for 40 years I never new that cars still in the building
I know this building, and always thought it’d make a cool classic car dealership. Every time I drive by it I always hope I see someone there so I can go inside
@@johnbacon2038 It is a sad tale. The Industrial revolution started in the UK after all. They had a *huge* head start. Most of it has to do with how the British car industry was post WW2. Same with the Italian to be honest. Most car manufacturers were small, independant manufacturers making a few hundred cars a year in glorified sheds, not industrialized, mass producing behemoths with millions in development like in Detroit.
Great episode. Love the fact that you kept everything real. Capturing Robert smoking multiple smokes in his own shop and not editing those moments out (in such a politically correct world) captures the real "feel" of what barn hunting might be. You meet some of the most fascinating owners, in the most fascinating places, with the most fascinating collections. Tom, Hagerty - Stellar work! Hands down, one of the best productions on the Tube. -A
What a fantastic episode, great cars in a cool building and a passionate owner! and I love these longer episodes, just wish the 240z got abit more love especially as I have one myself :)
I'm just as intrigued by the building as the cars. wow. I found out more about it and it was a pretty cool showroom, Cars could even be displayed on the roof between the front and back wing. It apparently also had a gasoline service station - imagine if the pumps were still there. Would love to restore a place like that.
This man has collected time men that collect these kind of cars don't collect them because their cars they collect them because they are time machines they bring us back in time
My grandmother traded in a low mileage 68 Chrysler Imperial for a 75 Cadillac Eldorado, talk about the mother of all bad deals. I owned one of the MG B GT's, very fun car in the canyon, but it was a gutless wonder. Sports cars just feel fast because you are sitting on the ground.
It's probably been said already but it's such a shame that some of these cars were collected in probably immaculate condition but have been left to deteriorate. It's no doubt because the owner (bless him) is an eccentric fellow and keeping them in pristine condition wasn't the attraction or desire. It was simply owning them. Awesome video. Thank you.
I think that exact same thing on every show. So many lament the coming of robots, but I just think of all the awesome old cars and fantastic old architecture that could be restored and cared for if we had unlimited labor. So much disintegrates because we humans just have limited time and energy. Perhaps we should all just accept the temporary nature of this world, but dammit, I just love old cars and buildings.
If the registration number show on the Frogeye Sprite is correct then it's a 1958 car that was originally painted Speedwell Blue, the pale blue so much associated with these cars. The information suggests that the car either hasn't been in the US for particularly long, or that it was originally exported before the UK registration system recorded UK market cars being exported. Nonetheless it was a UK market car though not necessarily right-hand drive originally as a lot were sold to US service personnel who bought them as left-hand drive cars ready to take home with them when their service in the UK ended. It could also be that the car has been rebuilt in left-hand drive form though that isn't a particularly easy conversion on a Frogeye...
i think that plate is just a front plate made up and stuck on that car, yac 740 is quite a "famous" reg no in sprite circles, and since in most states the front plate is not mandatory people put a period correct uk plate on british cars jay leno does it. that sprite could be yac740 but i doubt it.
I wonder if this guy would believe that I'm his long lost nephew 😂. I could spend so much time in that building. I wouldn't even have to drive the cars. I would just like to examine all of them
The Building looks just like a Matchbox garage a kid next door to me had. it even had a ramp to drive up to the top. So you could drive your matchbox or Dinky Cars in and get them servced or trade them in. at 19:05 is a pretty significant thing, a Wolseley OHC cam engine ,based on designs seized after WW1 from Hispano Suiza with a shaft driven Camshaft. . I couldn't tell if it was a six or a four ,either way they are pretty cool for an English design. and at 30:09 a Austin Westminster A109 .Similar engine to the MGC but totally different . BTW BMW also used the BW T 35 trans as did Ford UK for a while .Nice simple trans which was pretty common once.
:58 "I stop and peek in the windows". You really are a peeping Tom, lol. But no one call the cops! It's just Tom Cotter! He's not looking to see if you are naked, he's just curious if you have an old car! And BTW, ending it with the sound of that big block Mopar firing up, is icing on the cake! Love the videos!
This episode actually angered me a bit,Its a shame the way he treats his "dream car",it actually made me feel that he doesnt deserve to own cars like this
AMAZING stuff !! As an Englishman, its great to see so many UK cars made it across the Atlantic and are stored, loved and complete. Tragic that they never see the light of day, but lets hope videos like this encourage people to dust them off and get all these wonderful cars back on the roads. Fantastic
This Lamborghini has the series 2 dashboard but with the series 3 wheels that have the 5 bolt pattern rather than the single mounting stud similar to the Miuras which is strange. It must be a 1972 Series 2 model which was upgraded to mount the newer wheels and hubs. I had a series 2 which was a 1972 the last year before production of the Series 3 started in 1973 with the wrap-a-round metal/leather finished dash and more modern wheels rather than the simple wooden finished dash also the engine is identical to the Miura's with the 6 twin-barrel Webers producing 350bhp. Yes, many British parts were used to build this car. Mine had a Jaguar's clutch which was much cheaper to purchase over the Lambo's when it started to slip and needed replacing.
The steel disc wheels with hubcaps were standard equipment on the MGB (before the rostyles) and MGC. Painted or chrome wire wheels were extra-cost options, and pretty expensive ones when they were new, especially the chrome units. The automatic gearbox was a very expensive option on those and now incredibly rare as an awful lot of the automatic cars were converted back to manual gearboxes as a cheap way to afford one of these cars, as well as the B. The automatic cars were a long way from desirable for a very long time and could be next-to-impossible to sell as used vehicles so they were very cheap indeed. Now, whilst still often seen as somewhat of a poor relation, factory automatic cars are at least similarly desired to the manual cars due to their rarity though it's fair to say that an automatic MGC is far from fast and rather heavy on fuel, and an automatic MGB is decidedly pedestrian...
I have two MGCs. My understanding is all of the MGCs imported to the USA had wire wheels. The disk wheel cars you see in the US were Canadian imports, or imported from Germany or another right hand drive European country.
@@ericl452 You may be correct for the US market though I'm not certain as the MGB was certainly sold in the US with the standard steel wheels and hubcaps so it would seem unlikely that the MGC wouldn't. It is, perhaps, more likely that, with the US being a wealthier market, more people could afford to order what was a fairly expensive vehicle with "appearance" options such as the wire wheels...
The early MGBs in the US market definitely came with disk wheels. You typically find them in 1962 to 1965 vehicles. They became less common after that. By 1968 when the MGC was sold, almost all MGBs were sold with wire wheels. On a side note, the MGB disk wheels and MGC disk wheels are physically different. The MGB wheels were 14x4.5 and the MGC wheels were 15x5. This difference in dimensions applied to both disk and wire wheels.
@@ericl452 I knew the MGC wheels were physically larger than those on the MGB. I can only imagine that the C, with its much heavier engine would be close to impossible to drive on the smaller, MGB-spec wheels and tyres. They do already have a reputation for being more than a little nose-heavy with the big Austin C-series cast iron 6-pot in the front...
@@carl_marks1626 That's what I'm saying. Its so sad to hear some one talk about the love for cars and then we see them under covers that haven't been touched for years. That's not what I would call love.
@@mmill6505 As you get older, your dreams and intentions move farther away. I had dreams of retiring at 55 and working on cars. In your 50s, your body starts breaking down. When I was younger, I could work in the garage for 12 hours without a problem, now after 2 hours, my back is aching and I have to rest. I had a 54 Corvette kit car sitting in the garage for 10 years and only got the chance to work on it for 1 month to install 84 Corvette suspension, 350 sbc tri-power, T5 tranny. I sold it a couple of years back realizing that I would never be able to finish it. What used to take a day, now takes a week. That's life.
I'll chime in and stick up for my friend Robert. Some of the cars are projects that won't be finished, but a number of them are cars that he bought in good running and driving condition (Mangusta, Espada, E-type, Imperial, Sprite, Crosleys) Unfortunately, they haven't been driven in a long time and will need substantial refreshing, but they are not mostly "project cars."
@@scottjohnson9853 "haven't been driven in a long time and will need substantial refreshing" That would make them mostly "project cars." If they are not running and driving them what would you call them? 1
Tom is a walking enceclopedia on anything to do with cars, but this old guy is also a wealth of information! Great to see those two lovable guys enjoying themselves.
Its great that these guys have these cars and keep them in storage so they survive but alot of them just let them sit there and rot. They have them just for having them sake. such an ironic waste
Wow, wow,wow and one more for good look WOW. Nailed it tom. Did you ask Robert if any of the Cars are for sale. Fantastic Vlog. A bit sad though, I’ve got to wait for the next one. Cheers Tom.
