Chapter 192

10/31/2008

Ch 192 Herb Chambers                                                Empire Builder   

Swap Drive Flashback

This photo is a little complicated, like the subject of this piece. On a BMW swap three years ago I shot the main photo in the big dig tunnel under Boston Harbor as mentioned in Ch 66.  There is a lot of information shown, that I wont explain but the navigation system was telling me to take the next exit back to the Mass Pike back to Albany. Who knew you could pick up satellites under water, probably leftover U-boat technology. They say they would have won the war if they only had spam.

Herb Chambers was the affable Billionaire owner of that dealership I was doing the swaps with. In fact, he is New England's largest dealer owning about 40 dealerships around Boston. I'd done swaps at several of his dealerships (Ch 63) including Audi and Land Rover and met him briefly once, think it was just a nod of the head at his Seekonk Honda dealership.

I never grasped just how BIG he was until recently watching the HD Theater series Chasing Classic Cars. In the latest segment (not yet included among the internet videos) Wayne Carini owner of F40 Motor Sports  finds a Ferrari in Denver that was previously owned by Herb 35 years earlier. Within 24 hours they had to take off by private Helicopter from Herb's estate on the Ferry Road bay in Old Lyme, CT go to the airport for a 4 hour trip in his private Gulfstream 450, inspect the car for 15 minutes and pay the $1,000,000 asking price for the car.

It's interesting to note that selling cars was just a secondary hobby for Herb. He had come from a poor Dorchester background and getting out of the Navy started a copier business with a $500 stake. After developing it into the nations largest independent distributor of office equipment and selling it for billions, he went to buy a Cadillac and bought the whole dealership. General Motors, in their wisdom, wouldn't let him have it alone with no automotive experience and required that he bring in an experienced partner. Currently the Chambers dealerships possess more JD Power customer satisfaction awards than any other dealership in the country.

The dealership has several yachts and you can rent out the one above ($385,000 per week for the 188 ft Excellence III). Helio pad on the aft deck and speed boat storage in the stern. The New York Times had this nice article on it a few years back about the same time when Shawn represented his boating company at the Ft. Lauderdale International Boat Show .

The little silver McLaren F1 he bops around in (above) is another million dollar car in his stable of  the cars he drives.

This fascinating story of a guy who never attended college is repeated on the HD Theater channel Sunday 10pm. Remember, it's not about the money. Like the Argentine couple with no money going to Alaska, it's just following your dream.