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Above, top: A 1931
Buick Roadmaster from
Mary Tamaroff's
collection.
Middle: Mr. Tamaroff's
1949 Buick convertible
used in the ads for
"Rainman."
Bottom: A bevy of
vintage Mercedes from
Mr. Glieberman's
collection.

FRIDAY, JANUARY 4, 1991

"This is the only car that
has ever been liberated," says
Mr. Glieberman, pulling out
a black loose leaf notebook
from its trunk. Inside are cer-
tificates of ownership and old
photos, including one show-
ing the 540K at the ceremony
marking the German sur-
render to Holland, in 1945, its
convertible top rolled back to
reveal Dutch Crown Prince
Bernhard in its back seat.
"Bernhard was definitely on
the American side at the sur-
render," Mr. Glieberman says
emphatically in response to
charges that Prince Bernhard
had pro-German sympathies
during that time. "The Dutch
people brought this car to
him, and he drove it to poke
his nose at the Germans!'
In fact, Prince Bernhard
was one of the car's owners,
which included a European
racer and an American GI,
but Mr. Glieberman bought
the car at an auction. Despite
its low mileage, for it had on-
ly been driven 1,900 miles
during the war years, it was
a mere shadow of its former
glory.
A California restorer, Carl's
Classics, brought the car up
to its current, dazzling stan-
dard. "No prices!" says Mr.
Glieberman coyly. "This car
is dangerously high in value:'
Though the trading in
classic cars is international,
restorations are a decidedly
all-American activity. "The
English are great collectors
but they do not do work on
cars. They will polish a car up
and say it is an antique. That
explains everything," Mr.
Glieberman says joking-

ly."The Japanese don't have
much capability to restore or
to store cars, so they general-
ly buy the best and the glitzi-
est ones they can, but they
have enough money to ship
them here to be restored!'
There are probably about
100 good restorers
throughout the U.S. One
Massachusetts company,
Gullwing Services, is current-
ly working on 60 cars, in-
cluding many of the 12 Fer-
raris that fashion designer
Ralph Lauren has been collec-
ting recently and featuring in
many of his ads.
With so many levels of en-
try, automobile collectors can
generally find a niche. Even
if it is only one car that the
true-blue collector can afford,
it is an interesting car, main-
ly because it is a personal
statement as well as an in-
vestment and toy.
Enthusiasts like Larry
Crane bemoan the accelera-
tion of prices, but he notes
that the high end of the
market is currently domi-
nated by the guys who love
the cars of the 1930s and
1940s and have the money to
play with them now. He sees
this giving way, slowly but
surely, to a younger moneyed
group who look to newer vin-
tages for their burnished
memories. "Ferraris have led
the way in the past five
years," he says noting that
"interesting" ones have gone
from $20,000 to $1 million in
value during this time.
What's next? Old Chrysler,
Plymouths, T-Birds, and
Chevrolets are inching up
already. "Bellair convertibles
were sensational in their day.
A two-door 1957 Chevy sedan
is now up to $20,000 where it
would have commanded
$2,000 a couple of years ago,"
he points out.
"Every guy who is in this
has a different passion — and
as for indulging it — nothing
exceeds like excess," says Mr.
Crane. 111