Amelia Island Concours - Dreams Do Come True

[Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] so we are back from amelia island concourse um and i think i'm going to start this story with a little bit of background we're going to go back in time 10 years ago and i'm going to give you a a very brief synopsis of where we started and how we got to where we were on sunday afternoon 10 years ago uh at the time we had an exotic car rental car business um that was very well known in the community of exotica rentals and we had done things with celebrities and we had done all these really incredible activations as you could call it from justin bieber lebron james all these very cool things in the press but in the reality the business was struggling um and you could say that uh personally financially i was struggling and and you know we always had these issues and accidents and all these different things and and really uh you know perseverance and whatnot tenacity i never gave up on that business and really was just trying to make something out of uh nothing and i think it was the power of our branding that made the business bigger than what it was etcetera etcetera etcetera um and when we were doing really bad at one point uh i decided that i was gonna just follow my passion and i got bored with the new cars and i fell in love with what i had grew up around which was lamborghini diablos and countaches and all these different cars and one of my dream cars was a ferrari 355 challenge i remember seeing it when they were new at cavallino and i remember seeing the famous tommy hilfiger car so that was my dream one day to own one and in that time 10 years ago i found a car for 48 000 or 49 000 that needed everything and i ended up um getting a loan and buying this car and that was my first entrance into what we can call curated it was the first purchase that i had made uh myself to to then potentially redo and resell so i restored the car um i sold it and i made a profit and then i we did it again i did it with a few other cars i bought a diablo sv that had a bad carfax we've talked about that story and my gm of the exotic car rental business saw what i was doing and realized there was something there but in that process the rental car business was doing really bad i had a terrible business partner and the business was basically imploding upon itself so i did anything to survive i pawned my watch at the time uh thank you to an incredible jeweler in boca raton matthew green that held it for me for a year with no interest and i was doing anything to just survive now my dream at the time and i didn't care what it took were what i needed to make for a living but my dream was to really take curated to the next level and start it and and get out of the rental car business and and luckily um my gm of the rental car business we'd met a a great uh gentleman that became our first investor and partner and we started all with one car and another car and another car in another car and we never gave up our values and we never gave up our vision and we never gave up the concept of not giving up um and really my whole life has been to be quite frank a a series of disasters and failures after another and i never gave up and i just kept rolling with the punches and curated has been a dream come true um to be where we are today to have followers and subscribers and passionate fans and incredible clients and great friends and and to have the ability to buying the cars we buy today representing the cars we represent is completely a dream come true so i don't want this following story to sound i want our viewers to know that we're incredibly grateful and that the success of this weekend is definitely humbling and it's definitely coming from a place that uh there was a moment sunday afternoon that i wanted to cry um because of where we are today so um okay we we got that out of the way um uh last week um i'm gonna throw my service manager vin vinnie under the bus for a second but about two let's say about 15 days ago um we were finishing the monaco grand prix countach um in preparation for its first unveiling uh in 30 years 35 years and in preparation for the first inaugural supercar class at amelia island concourse so very big thing for the car very big thing for the current owner of the car and obviously a very big potential venue for the company so we're in preparation and obviously as you guys know we're finishing ferrari f5001 which is essentially was essentially finished a few little details to prepare it for the concourse and the concourse this year um you know this is the second largest and second most important concourse delegates in the us it's the first concourse delegates probably in the u.s and if not the world that has introduced supercars into uh these iconic you know classes of all these great legends and motorsport blah blah blah blah so so this is an important moment and an important moment for the company important moment for for supercars in general and i think an important moment for the next generation so a lot riding on this um a lot at stake and our service manager uh calls everyone into his office and we were waiting for a few more parts from italy and due to covid there's been a ton a ton of delays with parts coming from europe you have customs delays you have all these different things going against us in our our little microcosm of the world and you know we've been pretty lucky sometimes parts could take a week you could rush order it could still take you know four days and we rush ordered all the final parts for the monaco countach things that we knew uh that we should do prior to putting the engine in and we had all the time in the world and guess what the parts get stuck in customs and not just like stuck for a day we're talking this felt like stuck indefinitely no one from dhl would help us they needed to talk to someone at the lamborghini factory the person didn't get them the paperwork in time these parts sat for one day two days three days four days five days i mean we're talking about a week and now we're like okay how do we get this engine back in what do we you know what are the parts that we need so many calls calls us into his office and says guys i'm so sorry but the monaco countach is not going to be ready for amelia island and you know after everything that i've been through in my life and in all of the struggles and trials and tribulations um i just don't take no for an answer anymore and i hope that all of you out there um in whatever careers or passions you have while certain things are impossible i hope that you have a spirit and maybe you learn from this story that we don't take no for an answer and we're gonna do whatever it takes possible to accomplish our goals and dreams and you know i i had to sort of interject and said listen if anyone can move mountains if anyone can can accomplish the unachievable or the impossible we can i mean we have a group of the most passionate intelligent hard-working individuals i've known vinnie for over 15 years i mean this is a guy that i've seen go from major you know spiker corporate lamborghini corporate maserati corporate and he does not give up he's you know hands-on guy he's gonna change a wheel on the side of the road and get the car ready and bring it to you know geneva auto show he's gonna do those things and for him to feel like he's up against a wall i mean it was pretty scary i'm not gonna lie but i do know we have the most incredible team passionate guys they're gonna put their blood sweat and tears as i do into what we do and the vision for the company is much bigger than myself much bigger it's it is truly a a team effort to see everything um and fulfill our dreams together and um i just said no we're gonna figure this out and somehow whatever it was the universe serendipity um we had one of the parts we needed uh the engine would need to be out of a countach it would actually need to be removed from the kundashi to have the part and we had a lp 400s incoming that was recently had a hundred thousand dollars in service work but unfortunately the rear main seal started to leak and that rear main seal the only way to replace that is remove the engine so what would normally be a a complete loss leader if we had to remove the engine out of a countach to to use a part was actually something that we were planning to do anyways so we made the executive decision um we were hoping that the car would arrive in time and suddenly it did um but we made the executive decision that listen it was all hands on deck and we were gonna buy two new parts these were gonna come in and now we were gonna have an engine out we're gonna get this part we're gonna install it we're gonna put the other engine back in and we're gonna get this car finished for amelia island concourse and we were up against now six or seven days to make all of this happen and i can't tell you and begin to tell you the stress and the fear that i was feeling inside i mean i couldn't sleep a few nights but on the outside i had to sort of be the most positive and and present the most i would say perfect picture of yes this can all be accomplished when i wasn't even sure if it could so so we we jumped on the this this lp 400s and okay we said okay we're gonna we're gonna get the engine out we're gonna get this part we're gonna make sure we order the new part we're gonna make sure we have the rear main seal um which ironically we had in stock for the car so that engine is now going back in but we were going to make sure all these things had to happen for the other car the engine to be finished and we had just rebuilt this engine so imagine valves piston rings gaskets everything was going to be perfect on this other car and we were just missing basically one part and the last few days we had already had the entire project planned and scheduled out so each day was going to be a different artisan um kenneth michaels or our dear friend that does all of our interior work he was scheduled the car was actually scheduled to go to him and to finish uh the headliner um the interior of the monaco queen josh was completely original but the headliner was sagging a little bit because of age and and he sourced the correct material but obviously the car would then go to him he would do his work and it would come back to us and we had originally planned for that and we knew we had the time and no now we didn't because now we were working last minute to get the car finished so what did i do i made a call and i said i love you brother we're a great client i hope and can you please come down every hour is so sensitive uh flat betting the car to you is an hour flat betting the car back is an hour the wait time every hour at this point is critical and we've got to get this car done so and in the meantime we had artisans here and a touch-up guy and and this and and all of these other details that were coming together um we had our graphics guy finishing the final version of the graphics because they weren't right and you know we're working on the calipers and making sure that the coloring of the calipers and all these different things to to correct the final details and it's funny because about six months ago and this has been a year-long project now um the current owner of the car uh mentioned to me that sometime the artist has to put down his paintbrush and you know he was basically referring to okay you know give up at this point or not give up but you know okay calm down you don't have to get every detail right the way you see fit but i really believe he was wrong in saying that because i think all the details are correct um you know if something's not right on a sticker something's not right if it really bothers me you know that car is a representation of who we are and i also believe that that car is original paint and original interior as a preservation car so it's also important to preserve it in the way so you got it you got to make sure your your vendors or your subcontractors or your other artisans like kenneth michaels are as passionate about preserving the car and your technicians are as passionate so i probably drove everyone crazy i apologize to everyone for some of my last minute i would say punch lists but these are the details that are important and these are the details that i think over time will help us excel as a small brand and growing so it was a it was a production line of guys on top of the car finishing and uh friday at 3 p.m um i think at this point anybody that was at amelia island was already there except for myself vinnie our team and the cars but friday at 3 p.m uh the car was finally finished our team did an incredible job i was confident enough to sign off on it and say okay it's time it's time to make its debut to peers enthusiasts fans other lamborghini owners and collectors and and we're good so i jumped on the road um which we'll get to another story about my my travels and for a new ferrari f8 which was you know all the gadgets and everything was definitely new to me someone that loves older cars and um it was time for the car to leave and um so we arrived in amelia um the cars arrived the next morning uh we didn't even get time to get the timing right on the countach so the car was acting up a little bit and those cars actually have two distributors so getting the timing actually takes work it can take a couple hours you know sinking everything sinking the carbs and and it was not we were not there yet so we were we knew that the car was running it would it would move on its own power and okay that was that was good enough it would rev up it was fine but we weren't gonna race it on any track yet um and we weren't at that point yet so anyways the cars arrive and i am just very excited very thrilled i'm so proud of our team and honestly we had won at that moment um we you know we we already did the impossible and and we came to that moment so sunday comes and sunday is just a a mad house i mean you have you know judges all over you have you know the mclaren f1 from the revs institute uh you have a clk gtr from a good friend of ours redshift who we met over the weekend what a great guy and a passionate guy you've got dirk one of the leading bmw experts in the world with his m1 you have jazz with his completely restored f40 that was like jewelry uh 959s from the allegra collection i mean you have the best of the best super cars from around the world if not the us and it's just like uh you know goat after goat after goat a 288 gto and i mean all these incredible cars and and then you have f5001 in our monaco grand prix countach so the definitely heavy competition and you have the judges going to each car so i was prepared and i was a little nervous and the judges come around and you know i start talking to the judges and i explained to them our process and our journey with this car and what we wanted to represent and present and i realized that sometimes you feel like you maybe are speaking to deaf ears you know you're talking about a car and i could talk about these cars all day long um and i don't know if anyone cares i mean i i know we i think we're at 32 000 subscribers so maybe there's 30 000 people that actually care about what i say um which is amazing thank you guys don't forget to subscribe don't don't don't forget to like our videos but um to see um these titans in their industry um one of the judges was ralph schill um obviously designer of the dodge viper you know incred i mean an icon in the automotive world um another former exec thomas polinski from bmw north america again major guy lauren fix an icon in the automotive community so to see them as our judges and also see them enjoy the story and enjoy the history of the car and enjoy i guess the details of what we had done and really appreciate the work and the passion and what had gone into the monaco grand prix countach from understanding that the interior was original look at the steering wheel look at the shift knob uh we we got the correct period correct tires and the the calipers are the correct zinc color and the campanello stickers on the wheels and that look at the headliner material and we didn't touch the interior besides this and you see the way the engine is we left the chassis in its original paint we left all the stickers but yes we changed the spark plug wires and the color's a little off but guess what you can't get that color spark plug wires anymore so to go over all those details and watch their eyes light up made me feel like i had done a good job and i had represented the car properly and it made me very proud of what we do and it made me proud of our team and then on to the f5001 and to talk to them about dennis who's an incredible caretaker and someone that's really passionate about the car and has allowed us to basically take a very original f50 that he drives and uses all the time and let's go through all the details and make sure that the disposables are repaired and and making sure that the car is still an original car but fixing all of the little details and making it usable so he can continue to drive it and he'll come back here and we'll fix details again as he uses it so to express that to them and to see their excitement was was awesome so obviously judging is over and we're waiting and i had no expectations and and really amongst our class i did not think um anything or or i didn't even get excited to to to win i mean honestly when you're amongst legends like that uh just to be there is winning and um i see some guys walk over and i see a ribbon go on the f50 and i'm like whoa this is pretty incredible and alberta is like oh my god guys there's something going on and one of our other guys like oh my god and then i see a ribbon go on the countach and i'm like oh my god we just like is this is am i dreaming is this something like i don't know what's happening um and i didn't even know what was going on and i'm asking people what does the ribbons mean like i don't i don't even know um i'm a terrible reader i didn't read any of the instructions or the handbook i just showed up with the cars but but i had no idea what was going on one of them said corporate award um which i was told by someone that superseded the class which was awesome okay and then one of them wasn't it said emilio award which was also another great honor whatever it meant at the time to me and um all i knew is that we got these pagers and we were told to wait by the cars until we were called up to the stage now getting called up to the stage has to be the coolest thing ever because the cars are all lined up and you have thousands of people around all the cars and guess what uh these incredible volunteer gentlemen come over to your car and they tell you to start it up and you drive through the crowd and everyone's taking photos and video and all these different things so i was excited just to do that honestly um uh and and but i still didn't know what we were gonna win so first the countach gets called up and um sort of i fought with the owner back and forth he's like you drive it i'm like no you drive it you drive it so we ended up deciding he jumped in the car and we're driving it up there together and and people are just freaking out we've got the sirens going on and uh you know we're driving through the crowd and he's revving it up and people are taking photos and video and giving you the thumbs up and people are clapping and it's you know i've never been a rock star or anything like that but it was probably the closest feeling to being you know uh i you know whatever sort of 15 minutes of fame um and and my heart's just pumping and and we pull up to the main stage and everyone's there people are texting me and people are calling me and saying congratulations and ends up the countach um in basically in its class was one of the runners-up to best in class and best in class we were with a two-at-a-gto that was a stunning car a clk gtr and a 959s all immaculate immaculate cars and we were one of the runners up so you know for probably political reasons now they don't tell you for second or third but we were one of those and um a complete honor to them pull up and as we were pulling up uh max gerardo a famous auctioneer and a well-known dealer in the uk um is the mc and he's a great mc and he's talking about that today sunday was actually the monaco grand prix and here we have this car that was the pace car for monaco grand prix and someone yells out it's actually 40 years to the day that this car was the pace car in monaco so this surreal moment because you have the 50th anniversary of the countach you have 40 years to the day of the monaco grand prix and you have the monaco pace car on the morning of the monaco grand prix winning this award what an accolade for curated wooden accolade for our team what an accolade to look back 10 years ago at someone that was taking loans and struggling and just had this vision to be where we are today and to have peers and people that i respect really show us love and that is the most beautiful thing in the world and then we drive around and and the car is popping and he's revving it and it's just super super exciting and then we're waiting you know sort of what was the f50 going to win and it was very cool because the judges actually came up and uh they commended us on how we presented the cars and i would say of all the things that i've ever heard i mean listen our friends and family can always say oh my god great you know great job um you know great work you've done a great job and and you you you know you take some of those things sometimes with a grain of salt because you know obviously your friends and family are going to support you no matter what i mean when you're five years old drawing a picture you know that they're going to put on the fridge everything's a you know it's it's a work of art so you take that stuff with a grain of salt but when you have judges that are saying wow you did an incredible job with the presentation we're impressed with your passion i mean i i i was borderline about to cry and not just for my joy but for the joy of the team because i know what their vision was and i know how hard they worked and and i think sometimes in life we need those wins and and those wins are important uh to keep going and to keep focusing on the next phase and growth and all these different things so judges are telling me this and they're like hey by the way the f50 it was an honor we wanted to give it a special award because you know you superseded the class and i'm like oh my god you know and so we ended up finding out um f50 gets called and the owner dennis is like here's the keys this is this is your time to shine you drive it up to the stage i'm gonna go have lunch i want this is this is your moment which was a complete honor because obviously we own our own cars and we have cars on display and different things um but really it's his car it's not our car but to give us that honor um and me the honor of driving it up was was was completely uh incredible and so so we we bring the car up and uh we find out that the the car won the borla trophy um which was basically the best sounding car on the field and to have that honor especially for our guys here that that finished the engine rebuild and finished getting the car running the right way and finished all of these aspects of the engineering side was insane i mean talk about serendipity or whatever you may call it but the universe was on our side on sunday afternoon um i don't know if it's good karma or something but to have that honor was completely incredible um and to be able to drive through the crowd again feeling like some sort of rock star or something everyone's taking photos um so yeah that's the update um i think part two of our journey to amelia island concourse and completely flattered and completely humbled um uh i can't thank everyone enough for your comments and your messages we will definitely have more uh on on both of the cars we'll have a probably even a third part to the f50 restoration video but this is probably one of the most special special experiences of my career the team's career and thank you to everyone at amelia island concourse and thank you to everyone that helped make this happen i love you [Music] guys you

Channel: Curated TV by John Temerian

Views: 32,430

Rating: 4.9492273 out of 5

Keywords: amelia, island, concours, 2021, ferrari, lamborghini, f50, countach, monaco, gran prix, formula, one

Id: y-uHiCC4oZI

Length: 29min 4sec (1744 seconds)

Published: Thu May 27 2021