Rich Carpenter's '70 Barracuda

[Wildcat]

It took a few years, but I guess Jay Leno must finally have convinced fellow collector Richard Carpenter to share one of his vehicles on Leno's Garage. Interesting!

 

[AudioGeek]

Personally, I'm sick of Leno and his bragging about his vehicles, though this one is Carpenter's. Also that car in black is cliche and pretty boring. I'd have it in something else like Plum Crazy or Curious Yellow/Lemon Twist, etc.

That body style of the Barracudas from '70-'74 is my fave though. I had a '74 that I should have kept.

 

[fredcohiba]

Awesome car. Carpenter seems to be getting older however. Not me. I just picture him as he was when they were at their prime hit making age.

 

[Wildcat]

Awesome car. Carpenter seems to be getting older however. Not me. I just picture him as he was when they were at their prime hit making age.

Yes, he's getting up there now and is pretty much retired. Outside of the Leno visit, he is only doing the rare interview now.

He has close to 40 cars in his collection, and houses them at a building/garage called Yesterday Once More in southern California. He is very meticulous about his cars.

 

[Pio1980]

I'm glad Jay is willing to share the joy with the tutorials and ride-alongs. The youtube vids brought a lot of pleasure to an elderly gear head friend, now sadly gone.

 

[fredcohiba]

Yes, he's getting up there now and is pretty much retired. Outside of the Leno visit, he is only doing the rare interview now.

He has close to 40 cars in his collection, and houses them at a building/garage called Yesterday Once More in southern California. He is very meticulous about his cars.

I saw Richard on something else and saw his car collection at the time, and yes, they all looked like showroom beauties.

I'm glad Jay is willing to share the joy with the tutorials and ride-alongs. The youtube vids brought a lot of pleasure to an elderly gear head friend, now sadly gone.

Yes, I too am glad Jay did this interview and shared it. it was very interesting.

 

[Pio1980]

If you are a vintage gearhead, do check out the pre-WW-II cars in Jay's vids.
The pair of Doble Steam cars are a treat. I suspect he put as much or more into the Howard Hughs Doble Murphy roadster as he paid for it. Guess how many running Doble survive, not that many. Jay owns two, perfectly restored, plus a 3rd cutaway dealer demo chassis.

 

[John James]

I'm happy that Jay is willing to share his collection via video.

 

[MaxxVolume]

IMHO, Jay invested his money wisely....he now owns a lot of "rolling artwork", and he`s not afraid to take them out and drive them (including the occasional "But, can it do a burnout ?" segment)

 

[Wildcat]

He is very meticulous about his cars.

Here is an amusing example, via one of my fellow moderators at another forum. Richard owned a Bentley at one point--it was sold a couple of years ago. But while he owned it...

I have a really funny story to tell you about this car. When I was down there last year, this Bentley was over in the mechanic's bay (next to the 'Cuda on the lift with CRPNTR plates). Daniel, Richard's chief house mechanic and I were chatting about the different cars and he was telling me the back story on the Bentley. Apparently after Richard bought it and had it delivered, and upon first driving it, he realized there was a rattle in the dash and insisted that the Bentley dealership take it and investigate where the noise was coming from. NO ONE could hear it but Richard. Bentley gave it back with the idea that there wasn't anything wrong with the car. Daniel ends up pulling the entire dash apart, and sure enough (I think it took a couple of days), he isolated and fixed the problem! To quote him, "If Richard sees an eyelash on the windshield, it'll set him off!"

Also in the Leno visit, he mentions the '65 Plymouth Satellite convertible his parents owned. He didn't give the full story though--he had sold it but, having come across it again, purchased it back. The other owner had dropped a larger engine into it, made a few other modifications and put some wear and tear on the vehicle. Richard bought it back and proceeded to have the entire car restored to original, including putting an original engine back into it. The license plate bears his parents' initials.



Did anyone notice how he closed the hood in the Leno video? He used the bottom of his t-shirt to close it!

The Ferrari GTC 4 he owns gave him no end of grief...

http://www.richardandkarencarpenter.com/Auto-20 1972 Ferrari GTC4 Aside.htm