You hear rumors all the time: 80 Nash Healeys in Maryland; a Connecticut barn with scores of American cars turned on end to pack in more; dozens of wrecked exotics stuffed into ramshackle hen houses in New Jersey. Anyone who’s ever chased old cars has heard tales of cantankerous recluses who gather cars and store them badly while metal rusts and soft parts rot or get chewed to bits. These are the car hoarders.


It’s hard to track a car hoarder and even harder to approach one, though it’s a bit safer than raiding a dragon’s lair. These folks value privacy and aren’t inclined to talk to strangers, so caution is advised. Several collectors I spoke to were hesitant to talk, wondering if they could be hoard- ers, too. “No, of course not,” I’d assure them. “You’re restoring cars and selling some; you’re nothing like that…”


Hoarder or Not? Fishing reel heir John W. Shakespeare had


PHOTO: NICK WHITMAN NWPHOTO.COM


a penchant for Bugattis in the late 1950s and early 1960s, when many sold for the cost of a new Chevy. None were pristine and most were in at least a partial state of disassembly. Some were in another state altogether — Florida — while the bulk of his 30 Bugattis remained in Centra- lia, Illinois. That he sold all 30 Bugattis, including a Type 41 Royale, to the Broth- ers Schlumpf, proved either that he wasn’t an irreconcilable hoarder or that eventual buyer Fritz Schlumpf was relentless.


PHOTO: NICK WHITMAN NWPHOTO.COM


Dr. Sanjay Saxena, director of the Univer- sity of California San Diego Obsessive- Compulsive Disorders Program, is a specialist on compulsive hoarding, which in June 2013 will be included in The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders for the first time. Saxena says: “People save for utilitar- ian reasons. They collect items that have monetary value, or are liquid or useful. Sometimes the reasons are sentimental and are rooted in love or in one’s past.” Although the collecting may start out with some order, that order can break down. In Shakespeare’s case, the “order” was long gone and it took months to reassemble and disinter the long-idle cars before sale.


The man to whom Shakespeare sold his 30 Bugattis was hardly a pillar of moderated appetites. Fritz Schlumpf was obsessed with Bugattis and ruthless in their pursuit. But with his orderly acquisition, restoration processes, and excellent storage and dis- play facilities, Schlumpf didn’t fit the classic hoarder’s profile, though his pathological quest for Bugattis cost him and brother Hans their textile empire and, ultimately, their fabulous collection.


Florida industrial psychologist Dr. Geoff Hacker is on a mission to collect, docu- ment and restore limited-production American cars he has dubbed “Forgotten Fiberglass.” A glance at his front yard or the other properties where his cars are stashed screams “hoarder.” However, Hacker systematically acquires the cars, restores them and sells them. Because the rest of his life is well organized and he’s anything but secretive, his example clearly supports Dr. Saxena’s contention: “If it’s one type of item and they’re moving in and out, it probably isn’t compulsive hoarding.” But it’s a different story if cars or other items continue to accumulate and deteriorate, and the owner increasingly withdraws into his or her obsession.


PHOTO: DARIN SCHNABEL © 2011 COURTESY AUCTIONS AMERICA HAGERTY.COM 41


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