Pat Caporuscio

Can you share a pivotal leadership moment that shaped your career?

A pivotal leadership moment that shaped my career was when I was doing videos and marketing for a used car place. I use the term place loosely. I realized I didn't want to be around these types of guys. They didn't have a lot of nice things to say behind the scenes. So I left that business and marketing job just out of sheer misery, I guess. Didn't like it at all.

Luckily, a guy approached me to help him sell his classic car collection, and inadvertently he got me into marketing classic cars. So that was very pivotal for me.

What strategic decision has had the biggest impact on your organization's success?

One of the strategic decisions that has had the biggest impact on our organization's success is the fact that we stick with classic and muscle cars and we market them to other people. We really don't deal with dealers very much. I don't think we ever have yet. So we decided to market regular person to regular person, what I call it, and that works really well. It's not an auction site. Those guys call me all the time trying to get to the cars that we have marketed for people.

And the fact that the people keep the title, they keep the car, they handle all the money - that has been a great decision because it makes it easier all around for us and saves us quite a bit of labor, because keeping track of other people's money is labor intensive.

What do you believe is the most misunderstood aspect of your industry by the public?

The most misunderstood aspect of the muscle car and classic car industry is the fact that everybody wants to buy a car that's 100% done, for the most part. A lot of people can't afford that. There are people who buy perfect cars, and actually those are easier to sell or to market for us, but there's people that just want an old Mustang, GTO, whatever, that runs and drives and is mechanically in good condition. It doesn't have to be perfect. When they had it in high school or whenever, it wasn't perfect then.

So I'll say 90% of the market is people that just want cars that they remember. And now that the years keep going by, 30 to 40 year old cars are very sought after. They might not be muscle cars, but they are classic cars. So I think that's a little bit misunderstood.

The other part is they say, "Well, young people aren't buying these cars." Yes, they are. I can tell you that from experience.

Who has been the most influential mentor or role model for you, and why?

The most influential mentor or role model for me was a guy named Frank Hughes. He saw me when I was doing videos for car lots. Had me do a video for his classic car because somebody wanted a video, and the car sold the next day. After I left the car lot business, he tracked me down and said, "Hey, I got this big collection I want to sell, a 50-year collection." And I said, "Yeah, sure."

So he gave me the idea. I already had Muscle Car Fan going. It was probably going on five years we had it up, and we worked together, videoed his cars. He talked about it in the background. They were all nice cars, and lo and behold, they all sold and people were happy. So I'm like, "Hey, there might be something to this marketing classic car thing."

And I would have never thought of it. I used to drag race and I knew cars pretty well, and I had the Muscle Car Fan site, but I never would have thought of it on my own. I always attribute that to Frank.

What excites you most about the future of your field or role?

What excites me about the future of this field is the people coming up, the grandkids, the sons, the great grandkids of people who have had these cars, and they say, "Hey, my grandpa took me for a ride in this car. I've always wanted one." Kids are very impressionable at a young age, and 50, 60, 70 years later they're still thinking about, man, I wish I had one of those cars. Run into it all the time. We're kind of past the ones who say, "Well, I had a 69 GTO in high school," but the grandkids are out there, and possibly the parents. So I'm excited for people to have these cars.

And really, if you think about it, these cars are more than just cars. They are pieces of art. They're works of art. Every car is different, not like today where a lot of them just look the same. And that's okay with me, because you need good, reliable, high horsepower cars. Most of the cars today, even the four cylinders, have more horsepower than the cars of yesteryear, but they look the same. Go out in your parking lot and see how many white cars or white SUVs are parked out there. The only way you can tell the difference is to look at the emblems. So I'm excited for people to keep this going.