February 16 , 2010

The article "Survival of The Fittest", by John Gunnell appeared in the recent issue of Camaro Milestones.

Please click here or the ppicture to download the pdf of this article.

January 22, 2010

The article "A Legendary King", by John Gunnell, appears in the current issue of Old Cars Weekly. This article is reprinted with permission from Old Cars Weekly.  You may download the pdf of this article here or go to oldweekly.com to read it also.

January 08, 2010

The article titled "Car Show or Research Event?  True Survivors" by Arvid Svendsen appears in the December 2009 issue of Muscle Car Review.  This article is reprinted with permission from Muscle Car Review.  Please click here to download the pdf of this article.

November 10, 2009

Our good friends at Hagerty Insurance have posted a video of David Burroughs evaluating a Corvette as to whether it is a reproduction or it is an original car.  If you would like to know how the judges assess your car, please click here to watch the video, "Series 2 Spotters Guide".

October 22 , 2009

The following article "Survivor Car Event " by Myles Kornblatt appears in the SAH Journal, Issue 241. This article is reprinted with permission from the SAH Journal.  Please click here to download the pdf of this article.

If you would like to learn more about the Society of Automotive Historians, please go to their website, www.autohistory.org. 

August 31, 2009

The following column "Quality Originals" by Richard Lentinello "and article "David Burroughs - Championing The Appreciation of Accurate Restorations and Well-Preserved Originals" by Mark J. McCourt appear in the October 2009 Hemmings Classic Car Magazine.  Both of these are printed courtesy of Hemmings Classic Car, a publication of Hemmings Motor News.

Please click here for the editorial by Richard Lentinello

Please click here for the article by Mark J. McCourt

March 12, 2009

"Restore It? Or Not!" by David Burroughs

Wondering if you should restore your car? David Burroughs writes an excellent article about just that subject. Please click her to download the brochure.

Collector Corvettes- What Differentiates the Collector Car... from toy, driver or used car?

Article by David Burroughs that appears in the March 2009 Issue of Corvette & Chevy Trader

Please click here to download article, page one. Click here for page two.

Richard Lentinello Discusses Preservation Principles

It's Only Original Once

Faded paint, worn upholstery, delaminated glass and pitted chrome – these are just some of the many desirable attributes of original automobiles. Because of their irreplaceable originality, unrestored collector cars are fast becoming the single most preferred type of car that enthusiast, collectors, dealers, auction houses and museums want to possess.  Original collector cars should be considered nothing less than highly prized automotive artifacts. They are important, transportation objects of great historical significance, and provide a look-back into the world of automobile manufacturing of years gone by.

While it’s remarkable for cars built during the late 1940s and 1950s to have survived without being trashed or restored, imagine just how special it must be for cars that were produced in the 1930s, ‘20s and teens to retain today everything that they were first assembled with all those decades ago. Or family cars to have survived unscathed after years of abuse by rambunctious children. Even more amazing are the cars of the muscle era to have remained in top-notch shape after participating in street wars and drag strip competition.

Original cars such as these are our only glimpse into the past, thus affording us the wonderful opportunity to study firsthand the way manufacturing techniques were carried out during all of the different decades and periods of automobile production. We can see how the assembly line workers applied the paint and inspection marks, how the upholstery was stitched and carpet was bound, wood was cut, shaped and joined, and which types of fasteners were used for specific applications. The same is applicable to all of a car’s mechanical parts including engine, transmission, differential, suspension and electrical systems. Better than shop manuals, an unrestored car is existing proof to the way automobiles used to be built, and are the only true guidebook that restorers can use to ensure that the cars that they are restoring are rebuilt in the most accurate, factory-correct manner.

Original automobiles such as these should be cherished. If a painting by Monet or a stained glass panel by Tiffany shows their age those precious works of art aren’t repainted or releaded, they’re just cleaned. So then why should well-preserved old cars be repainted if their original finish is still in respectable condition? After all, once that factory-applied paint is removed and the car is repainted, then that car can no longer be called an original collector car. Refurbished, yes, but certainly not an original.              

As more and more old cars and trucks get refurbished or restored, the survival rate of original, factory-built vehicles decreases. This means that with each passing year there are fewer and fewer original automobiles left for the world to enjoy, appreciate and learn from. The consequence of this trend has not only increased unrestored cars’ desirability and popularity but their values have risen as well. Now, it’s not uncommon for savvy collectors to pay far more for an imperfect original car than for one that’s been perfectly restored.

In fact, Survivor®-type automobiles are now the highlight of collector-car auctions throughout the world. They have realized their own Preservation class at many of the prestigious concours’ such as Pebble Beach, Meadow Brook and Amelia Island; are the center of attention at both Bloomington Gold and the Mopar Nationals; and with increasing regularity are fast becoming the main feature subjects upon which magazines are being sold at the newsstands.

So the next time you attend Hershey, scan the ads in Hemmings Motor News, flip through the pages of your local want-ads classifieds, drop in at the Lions Club car show, view an on-line listing or see one profiled for sale in an auction catalogue, even if you have no plans to buy that all-original collector vehicle take the opportunity to inspect it carefully and photograph its many factory-assembled details for future reference. This information is essential to aid restorers and car owners and ensure that all future restoration and preservation work is accomplished in the most accurate manner. The vitality and, most importantly, the respectability of our hobby depend on it.

Miles Collier Discusses Unrestored Original Cars

CH Motorcars

(Reprinted from Sports Car Market)

The growing awareness of the importance and charm of untouched cars has resulted in the acquisition of unrestored cars by more and more sophisticated collectors. 

Three primary factors lead to automotive value;

1. Good unrestored condition
2. An exciting competition history
3. Immaculate provenance

As such, it takes a bit of study and commitment to make that first plunge buying an unrestored car.  Not everyone wants the concatenation of patina and constraints attendant to owning such a car.  And make no mistake; unrestored cars are very different in the benefits they offer, as well as the restrictions their fragile originality demands.

First, these objects present much more complex issues to their owners with respect to conservation and the level of intervention that is appropriate when compared to ”tear it apart and make it perfect” ideology that so many complete restorations involve.  Further, while unrestored cars can be restored to good, usable operational condition without visible intervention, they can’t be used with the confident abandon that a complete manufacture confers.

All decisions regarding care for the “original’ car are complex, subtle, and, given the newness of the field, rather fraught with opportunities to do real harm to the car, to one’s pocket book, and to history.  Conserving an unrestored car is an art best mastered trough lots of experience; unrestored cars aren’t for everyone.

Corvette & Chevy Trader - December 2008 Issue

"SURVIVOR Worn In, but Not Worn Out "

This article is authored by David Burroughs.  Please click here to download PDF.  

What, Exactly, is a Survivor?

Depending on how into the car hobby you are, the first answer that came to mind was probably either “TV show” or “unrestored original car.” You probably didn’t go to “registered trademark.”

Turns out all three answers are correct. In the wake of the “Survivors” theme on the cover our Winter 2006 issue, I got a call from contributor Arvid Svendsen, who said I should have a chat with David Burroughs, the founder of the Bloomington Gold Corvette show. Burroughs told Svendsen that he had, in fact, trademarked the term “survivor” as it relates to collector cars. “He wants to protect the term as a criteria for judging a car’s originality, and he wants to talk to you about it,” Arvid explained.

Honestly, my first reaction wasn’t a positive one. I was concerned that Burroughs, who I had never met, was going to try to limit the way we talk about unrestored, original cars and possibly even wave the threat of trademark infringement if we didn’t comply with his wishes.

I did all that in my paranoid little brain before actually picking up the phone to talk to him. I can be dumb that way.

David Burroughs is a pleasant, well-spoken, earnest individual who cares deeply about preserving authentic cars. While showing his original Corvette back in the early ’70s, he noticed the shows were doing a great job of handing trophies to car owners who dressed up their rides with flashy paint, plated trim and other gaudy doo-dads. An owner who wanted to preserve his car in factory-delivered condition – original or restored – had little chance of collecting metal.

Burroughs felt there should be a way to reward those who wanted to preserve a car’s authenticity. So he started the Bloomington show for like-minded Corvette owners, and a few years later developed the Bloomington Gold Certification process.

A Bloomington Gold certificate is awarded by expert judges who assess a Corvette’s condition as being within 95 percent of the way it left the factory. The car can be original or restored, but it has to be authentic and no better than when it rolled off the assembly line.

That was in 1978. Ten years later, Burroughs noticed that, as time took its toll on original, unrestored Corvettes, some otherwise fine cars were being dismantled and restored in the quest for a Gold certificate. So in 1989, Burroughs developed another judging system: Cars that were at least 20 years old, were unrestored, could pass a 40-mile road test, and still had at least 50 percent of their factory finishes in good enough condition to act as a template for the restoration of a similar car earned what he called a “Survivor” award. At the time, Burroughs trademarked the “Survivor” name.

The result was two-fold. Burroughs now had a way to identify and reward those who left nice cars unmolested. But so did the rest of the collector car hobby. “You look at Hemmings or any other magazine that advertised cars for sale prior to 1989 and you won’t see the term ‘survivor’ used to describe a car,” he told me. “Then, when people got the concept, they’d advertise their car as a ‘survivor.’”

Three or four years ago, Burroughs saw an “explosion” in the use of the term, which sounds like it corresponded to the start of the current musclecar market craziness. And it worried him. “People who were using the term inaccurately were going to dilute it and make the concept meaningless,” he said. To him, many of these so-called survivors were just original, unrestored cars not nice enough to preserve. Others were worse – modified cars that blatantly misused the term.  

“Any trademark protects the buyer and the seller,” he explained. “A buyer of a Survivor car should be able to say there truly was value added to the car, that an expert declared it as meeting those standards set by Bloomington Gold in 1989.”

All well and good, except that, for one thing, it’s hard to protect a trademark when it becomes the generic name for a product. Just ask the folks at Kleenex, Xerox, Velcro, and so on. Also, while there are judges who grant Survivor status to Corvettes at Burroughs’ show, no similar panel exists to do the same for any other segment of the hobby.

At least, not yet. Burroughs wants to get other car groups on board with his Survivor criteria, so that Survivor status can be a consistent standard, whether you’re talking Corvettes, Mustangs, or any other collectible vehicle. Towards that end, he hopes to start a show open only to these original, unrestored, high-caliber vehicles. He’ll also be happy to grant the trademark rights to other groups, provided they establish an expert panel to verify a car’s authenticity.

“This has nothing to do with money or protecting Bloomington Gold,” he said. “We see it as a chance for collectors, while there’s still time, to get involved and protect these cars. We’re not trying to change the world, just trying to change the direction of a few people. In 25 years I’d like to be able to say, ‘Isn’t it neat that we set up this thing to protect these cars.’ I’m not doing this for the next car show. I’m doing it for car shows 25 years out.”

                                                                                                                      – Drew Hardin

                                                                                                              drew.hardin@primedia.com