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Automotive Lifestyle
AUTOS: EXCLUSIVE — Rick Hendrick Talks Car Collecting
Rick Hendrick (far left) still has the 1931 Chevrolet pictured here that he drag raced it in high school...
Rick Hendrick (far left) in his high-school mechanic's class with the custom 1931 Chevrolet that he drag raced back then and still owns today. (Photo: Courtesy of Rick Hendrick)
NASCAR team owner Rick Hendrick has been a serious car guy from the time he was a kid, growing up in South Hill, Va., where he and his late father “Papa Joe” Hendrick built a hot-rodded 1931 Chevrolet that Rick drag raced and still has today.
In high school, Rick won the Plymouth Troubleshooting Contest for the state of Virginia back in the mid-1960s, then began buying cars on 90-day notes, fixing them up and selling them. In 1976, Hendrick became the youngest Chevrolet franchise owner in the country, taking over a struggling store in Bennettsville, S.C., and turning it around. It would be the first of many successes at the dealer level.
Today, Hendrick has 80 dealerships and 115 franchises selling 20 different brands of cars in 13 states. Last year, his Hendrick Automotive Group sold more than 120,000 vehicles, with revenue of $4.9 billion. That made his operation the seventh-largest dealer group in the company.
Aside from his racing and dealer interests, Hendrick’s hobby is collecting vintage and muscle cars. He currently has more than 300, better than half of them Corvettes. The Hendrick Heritage Center, which is private and not open to the public, houses a rotating collection of more than 100 cars in 58,000 square feet on the Hendrick Motorsports campus outside Charlotte, N.C.
These days, Hendrick and his associates are regulars at Barrett-Jackson Collector-Car Events, National Corvette Restorers Society shows and other major car events from coast to coast.
And his Hendrick Performance Group is like a cadre of mad scientists, cooking up all manner of exotic performance cars. One of Hendrick’s personal favorites is a jet-black 1970 Chevelle SS convertible with a 638-horsepower Corvette ZR1 motor, a four-speed automatic transmission, four-wheel disc brakes and host of other improvements. It is said to run the quarter-mile in 12 seconds flat.
Among the projects HPG is working on is a 200-mile-per-hour police interceptor, based on the Chevrolet Caprice.
“What we want to do is build a car, build all the components for it — the push bar, the lights and all that — and then have some engine packages,” said Hendrick, adding the car will carry a 650-horsepower Chevrolet LS7 crate motor. “If a state trooper in North Carolina wanted a high-speed pursuit car, that’s really set up aerodynamically — springs, shocks, the whole deal — that’s a pretty cool deal.”
In an exclusive interview with SPEED.com, Hendrick talked about his passion for buying and selling collector cars.
Asked what his advice would be to new collectors, Hendrick chuckled at some of the mistakes he’s made in the process.
“I’ve paid my tuition,” Hendrick said. “Anybody who’s bought a lot of ‘em, you’ve made mistakes and you overlook something and that just happens.”
Hendrick is a firm believer in collecting cars that are original and fully documented.
“If you want to be safe, you buy a car that’s been judged, with paperwork,” Hendrick said. “No matter what it is — if it’s a W-30 Oldsmobile that’s been certified by someone who’s very reputable, and it has all the paperwork, build sheets. And you can look at the trim tag and know it hasn’t been changed.”
In high school, Rick won the Plymouth Troubleshooting Contest for the state of Virginia back in the mid-1960s, then began buying cars on 90-day notes, fixing them up and selling them. In 1976, Hendrick became the youngest Chevrolet franchise owner in the country, taking over a struggling store in Bennettsville, S.C., and turning it around. It would be the first of many successes at the dealer level.
Today, Hendrick has 80 dealerships and 115 franchises selling 20 different brands of cars in 13 states. Last year, his Hendrick Automotive Group sold more than 120,000 vehicles, with revenue of $4.9 billion. That made his operation the seventh-largest dealer group in the company.
Aside from his racing and dealer interests, Hendrick’s hobby is collecting vintage and muscle cars. He currently has more than 300, better than half of them Corvettes. The Hendrick Heritage Center, which is private and not open to the public, houses a rotating collection of more than 100 cars in 58,000 square feet on the Hendrick Motorsports campus outside Charlotte, N.C.
These days, Hendrick and his associates are regulars at Barrett-Jackson Collector-Car Events, National Corvette Restorers Society shows and other major car events from coast to coast.
And his Hendrick Performance Group is like a cadre of mad scientists, cooking up all manner of exotic performance cars. One of Hendrick’s personal favorites is a jet-black 1970 Chevelle SS convertible with a 638-horsepower Corvette ZR1 motor, a four-speed automatic transmission, four-wheel disc brakes and host of other improvements. It is said to run the quarter-mile in 12 seconds flat.
Among the projects HPG is working on is a 200-mile-per-hour police interceptor, based on the Chevrolet Caprice.
“What we want to do is build a car, build all the components for it — the push bar, the lights and all that — and then have some engine packages,” said Hendrick, adding the car will carry a 650-horsepower Chevrolet LS7 crate motor. “If a state trooper in North Carolina wanted a high-speed pursuit car, that’s really set up aerodynamically — springs, shocks, the whole deal — that’s a pretty cool deal.”
In an exclusive interview with SPEED.com, Hendrick talked about his passion for buying and selling collector cars.
Asked what his advice would be to new collectors, Hendrick chuckled at some of the mistakes he’s made in the process.
“I’ve paid my tuition,” Hendrick said. “Anybody who’s bought a lot of ‘em, you’ve made mistakes and you overlook something and that just happens.”
Hendrick is a firm believer in collecting cars that are original and fully documented.
“If you want to be safe, you buy a car that’s been judged, with paperwork,” Hendrick said. “No matter what it is — if it’s a W-30 Oldsmobile that’s been certified by someone who’s very reputable, and it has all the paperwork, build sheets. And you can look at the trim tag and know it hasn’t been changed.”
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