Kevin Hand
Greensboro, NC
Kevin Hand works in the new-car business as the general manager of Crown Honda in Greensboro, North Carolina. But when it is time to relax, he has amassed a great group of classic American iron he can enjoy. Here is a portion of it in his personal game room. This somewhat fluid collection, focused on quality and rarity, is housed in a climate-controlled residential building that has been decked out with a checker-patterned tile floor, a big-screen rec room and kitchen, bunk beds, and lots of cool memorabilia. He has another building nearby for his unfinished stuff. Check it out.
A. One of only 24 Ram Air IV models built for legal California sale (it was actually delivered to Arizona) and with bulletproof provenance, this Firebird was recently restored to absolute perfection by CPRx in Pennsylvania with help from expert Bill Oxley. How nice is it? It took First Place at the '08 Trans Am Nationals, its first and only public appearance to date.
B. Under this cover is a real but worn '70 W30 4-4-2 Kevin is gathering parts for. Blue and white, it will get a complete restoration soon, but he has a couple of Motion Chevrolets being done at the moment.
C. '08 Challenger R/T: Need we say more?
D. All around are icons of the performance era, including signs, photos, posters, and even old gas pumps. This collection creates a great environment for the cars parked around it.
E. With all the cool but expensive stuff sitting around to tempt you, you need to have a fun machine to play with no matter what. This Mr. Norm-style tribute Demon built by Jim Maxwell and Jim Bodanis fits that bill. It's now packing a 340 Six Pack, a T/A exhaust system, a four-speed, and the ability to broil the balonies at will.
F. Boss Mustangs are boss, and this example is fully documented with a complete owner history. It is numbers-matching and has always been owned in the state of North Carolina; Kevin doesn't have many Fords, but this one was too nice to pass up.
G. Considered the highest-option '72 GTX on the planet and fully documented by Galen Govier, this one has a sunroof, a Dictaphone, a 440 engine with Air Grabber, a Pistol Grip four-speed, power windows, and more-very cool and very rare for the post-Hemi era.
H. This is a true one of one; no other Yenko Vega wagons are known to exist. Tim Lopata pulled it from a Texas junkyard years ago, and Kevin had it restored to as-built shape. Powered by the standard Vega four-cylinder (though the original engine was gone when he bought it), Kevin recently scored an in-the-box N.O.S. Schwitzer turbocharger to put on the car. Restored a Vega lately? This one has four N.O.S. Goodyear Polyglas tires that were scrounged as spares by restorer Rickie Smith...from four different cars.
I. Talking rare, here is a real '70 440-6 Plymouth 'Cuda drop-top, one of just 17 unleashed on the streets of America that year. Factory-built in Lemon Twist Yellow with a white top and interior, the high-option car is spectacularly restored thanks to Time Machines in Florida and is an alpha dog Mopar in Kevin's building. Obviously in this condition, it gets driven infrequently.
J. Kevin is a lifelong resident of the South and is a cousin of NASCAR drivers Jeff and Ward Burton. Really. He grew up with them and even went to college with Ward-and has some business ventures with him to this day. "They're great guys on and off the track," Kevin says.
K. This is more of a prototype than anything else. It was the only Rollfast 2 twin-seat Stingray bike built by Schwinn. Kevin says it is fully documented and there is truly nothing else like it in the world (at least not commercially as far as he knows).