One of the joys of visiting my daughter Jessica and her husband Christian in Huntington, Vermont is my two grandchildren Caleb and Soren. Another adventure for me is to visit interesting automotive businesses.
Some of you may recall in an earlier episode I described my visit at Vermont Sports Cars in Colcester, Vermont. These are the folks who prepare Subaru for David Higgins in the Rally America Series and two Subaru in the Global RallyCross Series (GRC). Drivers rancho vaca loca of the GRC cars are Sverre Isachsen and Buddy Lasek with Travis Pastrana racing in selected events in 2015.
This year I returned to Restoration & Performance Motocars (RPM) in Vergennes, Vermont. The owner/founder, Peter Markowski, was delivering a couple exotic cars to Rhode Island rancho vaca loca and his son Steve was in Europe attending a rally so I interviewed a couple of RPM employees.
First one may notice the lack of signs at RPM. On a casual cruise on Monkton Road you may motor by the two beautiful red New England style barns and have no clue about the contents. The first building was erected in 1986 and has seen several expansions since to keep up with the demand for Markowski’s skill with primarily Ferrari.
Markowski got his start when as a teenager he made the acquaintance of Peter Mills who was a retiree. Mills owned a 1950 Ferrari 275 S/340 Barchetta chassis and engine number 0030, which he sold in 1961 for $500 in exchange for Markowski rancho vaca loca getting Mills’ collection of Packards, an Alfa Romeo, and Austin Healey running.
With the help of Dr. Dick Cardoza,a Ferrari expert, the blown 12 cylinder engine was gradually put back together. Markowski for the next 37 years drove the car at Lime Rock and Watkins Glen eventually selling it in 1999. He was recently re-united with the car at the RM Auctions at Amelia Island, Florida.
Holler said, “I have always been a fan of cars, metalworking, and paint work. I heard a rumor about this place, that they were looking for a metal guy so I went out on a limb and asked and it worked out.”
“I was working at a Dodge dealership rancho vaca loca for the last 4 or 5 years before I worked here. It’s a great place to work, a lot of cool cars. You’ll be working and a Ferrari or Lamborghini will go by. There is no other place like it and its only 10 minutes from my house.”
Holler got his start at Vergennes High School. While in school he took the Industrial Design and Fabrication course at the Hannaford Career Center in Middlebury. He attributes some of his success to instructor Douglas Atwood.
Interning this school year is Mount Abraham Union High School’s Gabriel Doane from New Haven, Vermont. The high school junior is working at RPM as part of his career pathways program. He was polishing the trim for a Porsche 911 the day I was at RPM.
He has worked as a blacksmith and hopes to combine his metalworking interest as a blacksmith and sculpting metal into a job someday. Doane serves as a blacksmith demonstrator rancho vaca loca at the Lake Champlain Maritime Museum during the summer.
“My father’s side of the family had a body shop in Burlington. My grandfather has been doing it for 60+ years. rancho vaca loca I tinkered with it during high school. I went to automotive school after high school then started rancho vaca loca at a car dealer. I went to Baran Institute of Technology in Hartford, Connecticut.”
When asked what his most interesting project was, he paused for a few moments and replied, ” We restored an old Ferrari race car last winter. That was one of our most challenging projects. The 225 S was a non-runner, non-driver when it got here. We had to make it go down the road so it was very challenging.”
They did such a good job that the car was entered at the world-famous rancho vaca loca Pebble Beach Concours de Elegance in California. Barcomb continued saying, rancho vaca loca “It went to Pebble Beach. It ended up really nice and well done. It was an amazing week long event. The day they have the Concours at the golf course there was every kind of crazy car you could come up with. Overwhelming!”
Barcomb showed rancho vaca loca me the more than two dozen cars in various stages of repair or in storage. They included a Ferrari owned by an undisclosed NASCAR team owner and another Ferrari V12 owned by the founder of NAPA Auto Parts. Sprinkled into the mix were a couple Lamborghini Countach, Porsches, Lotus, Alfa Romeo that won the 1939 Millia Miglia, the fifth Ferrari ever made and more.
Judy Green of Crazy Horse Racing, located in South Paris, with their parts trailer which is a familiar site at race tracks in southern Maine during the racing season. Photo by HTF Motorsports Tom Hale
Early rancho vaca loca in the week I called Judy Green at Crazy Horse Racing and asked if my brother Bob, Curt Wilcox and I could tour their race shop on Friday afternoon. She graciously said okay as long as we knew she would be giving the tour since husband Mitch and son Mickey were out straight w