"YESTERDAY ONCE MORE" WAREHOUSE: Richard's Car Collection

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I'd love to see Jay Leno's Garage do a feature on Richard Carpenter's Garage. :agree: Jay really appreciates cars so meticulously restored!

BTW, answered my own question about the Riviera. I still think I see a '66 or later 2nd gen Riv (black, in a side view), but there is a black '65 in one of the other photos.
 
brycem said:
Here is a link to an eBay auction for one of Richards newer cars..... http://m.ebay.com/itm?itemId=261730399846
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I have a really funny story to tell you about this car. When I was down there last year, this Bentley was over in the mechanic's bay (next to the 'Cuda on the lift with CRPNTR plates). Daniel, Richard's chief house mechanic and I were chatting about the different cars and he was telling me the back story on the Bentley. Apparently after Richard bought it and had it delivered, and upon first driving it, he realized there was a rattle in the dash and insisted that the Bentley dealership take it and investigate where the noise was coming from. NO ONE could hear it but Richard. Bentley gave it back with the idea that there wasn't anything wrong with the car. Daniel ends up pulling the entire dash apart, and sure enough (I think it took a couple of days), he isolated and fixed the problem! To quote him, "If Richard sees an eyelash on the windshield, it'll set him off!" LOL...the life of a perfectionist :wink:
 
Cool story Chris...I can just imagine this! I remember watching a documentary where Richard drove up and parked the car outside the Carpenter Performing Arts Center. As he closed the car door, he made sure to touch only the door handle and not the paintwork or window LOL!

Watch the clip below from 1m07s to see how meticulous he is even closing a car door :)

 
The cost of maintaining this collection must be ENORMOUS. Think of it: full-time mechanic, yearly license plates, maintaining the cars and the building. and I would not even venture to guess the cost of insuring each of these vehicles.
 
newvillefan said:
Cool story Chris...I can just imagine this! I remember watching a documentary where Richard drove up and parked the car outside the Carpenter Performing Arts Center. As he closed the car door, he made sure to touch only the door handle and not the paintwork or window LOL!

Watch the clip below from 1m07s to see how meticulous he is even closing a car door :)

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What an astute observation! I would never have noticed that.
 
I'm wondering if this is just a part-time venture for Richard. It would get expensive to have a staff of mechanics unless he were continually restoring automobiles, like at Leno's garage where there are always a few car restorations in progress. Plus, they all need to be driven regularly. Not being daily drivers, I don't think the insurance is quite as high, although any truly unique one of a kind vehicle (like the Chrysler Turbine car that Leno owns) would undoubtedly have some additional coverage of some sort on it. I've looked into classic car insurance in the past, and even historical plates, but these both come with limitations that the car not be a daily driver.

The Bentley's auction closed maybe $10-$20k below the going market rate. I wonder if he sold it anyway. The main photo in the auction shows Richard's garage, in a decent wide angle shot.

R-Carpenter_Bentley1.JPG

R-Carpenter_Bentley2.JPG
R-Carpenter_Bentley3.JPG
 
Given the crap royalty structure in the music industry, Icon would have had to sell 2.5 million copies to pay for it.

Since I will never buy a copy of it, someone else needs to buy the other 2,499,999 copies.
 
Chris May said:
Yesterday I had the opportunity to spend some time at the warehouse in Newbury Park where Richard stores his cars and much of the Carpenters memorabilia! For all of you car buffs, I thought this would be a fun thread. Several have been either featured on album covers, in documentaries, and/or documented in both the Coleman and Schmidt biographies. Enjoy!

Collage 3.jpg
Collage 1.jpg Collage 2.jpg
Collage 5.jpg Collage 4.jpg​
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did anyone else notice the "Solo Album" Purple chair set in these photos?
 
That "Talking about Cars" interview is really good. I was born in 1950 and every couple years we'd drive from Maryland to New Mexico to visit my grandmother. Richard describes exactly how car travel was in those days, driving through Oklahoma and Texas in the summer with no AC in the car, the father pushing to make his daily mileage quota, and stopping at the non-chain motels. I'd love to see his collection, but I guess it's not open to the public.
 
newvillefan said:
His voice is raspier than ever. It'll be interesting to see how he sounds on the forthcoming ITV broadcast.
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Sounds like it's not as raspy as on the "Perry Como Christmas Show" bonus interview.

Of course since Richard mentions a 2005 car, this was obviously done after 2005.
 
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