Fancy artwork hanging on a wall may please some of the rich.
For some Orange County entrepreneurs, artistic beauty is collecting sleek machines that can often zoom past 100 miles per hour.
Private car collections are the preferred game among some of the most prominent professionals in OC.
Santa Ana developer Mike Harrah owns a collection of vehicles that he estimates is worth about $70 million.
“They really are pieces of art,” Harrah told the Business Journal.
“Some people have pictures. Some have sculptures. My stuff is all rolling art. I don’t need to sell any of it.”
Many of these private collections as well as car museums began as private collections and are now open to the public. What follows are their stories in the Business Journal’s annual special report on auto dealers and automakers.
A Country Club for Car Enthusiasts
The exterior of the 103,000-square-foot Finish Line Auto Club looks rather plain. The casual passerby would never know within the industrial building’s walls are a collection of high-end vehicles – Tesla Cyber Trucks, Ferraris and Mercedes Benzes, to name a few – parked in individually-owned garages, some of which are designed as man caves.
Finish Line is in a Costa Mesa business park bordering John Wayne Airport, with a private vehicle entrance for owner-members to access their private collections.
The second-floor lounge features a wine cellar, bar and an area for members to socialize or host events.
Only garage owners can access the first-floor conference room and foyer or second-floor lounge. The public cannot access any portion of the property.
The club’s managing partner Tony Principe initially launched Finish Line in the Conejo Valley, located between Los Angeles and Ventura. The Costa Mesa location opened in 2021 and, according to Principe, was 85% pre-sold at completion.
There are 32 garage condos at the Costa Mesa location, with 30 owners and no empty units. A second phase being developed will include nine more units and a rooftop bar.
Each of the 32 units already occupied are between 1,000 and 7,000 square feet in size.
“Each owner at Finish Line has their own specific style of collecting, so the vehicles there range from classic sports and race cars to modern day super cars and everything in between,” Principe, who is also the president and chief financial officer at Westcord Commercial Real Estate, told the Business Journal.
“One of the many things that makes Finish Line unique is that the project is dedicated exclusively to car collectors.
He added the cost to buy a unit ranges from $1.2 million to $4.5 million.
“Finish Line Auto Club is unique and stands out from any other auto storage facility because it offers car collectors the opportunity to purchase individual garage condos that can be customized and decorated to complement their collections with other like-minded auto enthusiast in a highly secured facility,” Principe said.
The Art of the Automobile
Caribou Industries’ founder Michael Harrah has a great ambition to develop the tallest building in Orange County.
But the planned 37-floor residential high-rise building in downtown Santa Ana isn’t the only impressive thing associated with Harrah.
Inside a non-descript, industrial building in Santa Ana is his collection of 108 classic cars, including the Batmobile used in the 1992 film “Batman Returns” and a 1930 Cadillac Fleetwood owned by Al Capone.
The rear doors of the Cadillac are equipped with bulletproof windows to protect Capone and a small hole for one of his bodyguards to fill with the barrel of a Tommy gun.
Harrah’s private collection – stored inside a personal museum that feels and looks like a 1920s era speakeasy – is a personal passion. One room is a formal lounge with specialized lighting and an elegant bar space. The main floor is filled with a car used by Elizabeth Taylor.
Toward the back of the main floor is a recording studio and a formal dining room, both flanked by the Batmobile and Capone’s Cadillac.
In all, the 14,275-square-foot warehouse features a 1931 Rolls-Royce Phantom II/Drop Head Coupe, 1946 Packard Aero Flyer/V-12, 3,000 horsepower and 1929 Packard/645 convertible sedan (in addition to the Batmobile and Capone Cadillac).
“I’ve been around cars my whole life. It’s taken me about 35 years to amass these cars,” Harrah told the Business Journal.
“This is like a personal extension to Mike Harrah’s personality,” said Harrah, who bought his first car, a 1956 Chevy Nomad, when he was 14.
The only way to see Harrah’s collection is to attend one of the few private events held at the Santa Ana warehouse.
Harrah was on the Business Journal’s OC50, the Giving 50, a list of entrepreneurs and executives making a difference in Orange County nonprofits.
The Embodiment of Art, Sculpture, History & Design
Orange County entrepreneur Rick Rawlins found his passion for automobiles when he was a young kid, building model cars and working on engines more than 50 years ago.
That passion led him to amass a private car collection of about 20 classics, all displayed at his Santa Ana business.
“My father and I built an old Model T Ford together,” Rawlins told the Business Journal.
Rawlins said he doesn’t particularly have one favorite car but is instead attracted to automobiles with high-quality craftmanship and high-performance for the era it existed.
The Orange County entrepreneur does have a soft spot for supercharged sports cars from the late 1920s and early 1930s. Examples include a 1926 Bugatti, 1929 Bentley and 1931 Alfa Romeo, all three of which are in Rawlins’ 20 car collection.
“I like history. I like design, and I like sculpture, and I like art. To me, real great cars, vintage cars I’ll call them, embody all of that,” Rawlins said.
An Officer and His Son
General William Lyon is well known as the patriarch of Orange County homebuilder Lyon Homes.
The late World War II veteran built a 14,000-square-foot building next to his Coto de Caza house to store his private car collection. A few years later, he expanded the building by adding another 10,000 square feet.
The 24,000-square-foot facility features about 80 of General Lyon’s private collection and another dozen race cars that belongs to his son, Bill Lyon.
The Lyon collection includes a 1935 Duesenberg SJ, which was used by an Indian maharaja, or “great ruler,” who had a residence in Santa Ana.
The supercharged Duesenberg has been with the Lyon family since the 1980s. General Lyon also founded the Lyon Air Museum, which features several classic vehicles and is open to the public.
Among General Lyon’s favorites, according to his son Bill, are the Duesenberg Packard and classic Mercedes-Benz’s. Bill Lyon, on the other hand, has a soft spot for Porsches.
The private display features several 1920s and 1930s era Fords, as well as the 1941 Ford Super Deluxe the Lyon family bought for General Lyon on his 90th birthday.
Bill Lyon recalls his father’s love for classic cars began as a child growing up in Los Angeles. One day while walking on Sunset Boulevard, his father saw a red Cadillac convertible driven by a Hollywood starlet – a stark contrast to the “not very exciting” Fords and Buicks.
This vivid childhood memory sparked his lifelong passion for coach-built American cars.
Bill Lyon, meanwhile, recalled his interest in cars being sparked by his father taking him to auctions and car shows. He picked up car racing at 13.
“For some reason, I was attracted to sports cars and racing cars in the 50s and 60s. That’s been what most of my collecting has been about,” Bill Lyon said.
Holy Dueling Batmobiles!
There is no shortage of iconic cars featured in Hollywood blockbuster films – the Aston Martins and BMWs in the James Bond series, the Ford Mustang Steve McQueen drove in “Bullitt” and, of course, the Batmobile in every “Batman” movie.
Thanks to local collectors, Orange County is home to two Batmobiles – one from the 1989 “Batman” film and the other from its 1992 sequel, “Batman Returns.”
The Marconi Museum Batmobile
John Marconi, who runs Marconi Automotive Museum Orange County in Tustin, has the Batmobile from director Tim Burton’s first run with the Batman film series.
It is showcased prominently in the center of Marconi’s museum, which features more than 100 Ferraris, Corvettes and other high-end race cars.
In front of the Batmobile is a life-size wax figure of Batman and the Pontiac Trans Am that starred as KITT in “Knight Rider” starring David Hasselhoff.
Behind the Batmobile is The General Lee, the 1969 Dodge Charger that starred in “The Dukes of Hazzard” television series.
During the Business Journal’s visit, The Batmobile was the most popular attraction for those visiting the Marconi museum, which is open to the public.
Michael Harrah’s Batmobile
Viewing Orange County’s other Batmobile isn’t as easy, as it is parked amongst a private collection of other notable vehicles (such as Al Capone’s Cadillac) in Santa Ana.
Developer Michael Harrah owns the Batmobile used in “Batman Returns.” It was driven in the 1989 film, driven by actor Michael Keaton.
Harrah keeps his Batmobile nestled in the rear of his private collection, a few feet away from Capone’s Cadillac and a stone’s throw away from a fully functioning music recording studio.
