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Cars

A classic case of love and lust

There's always a new hot number in Bob Savoie's life. They come to him needing a little help, and leave in all their glory.

By MARTY CLEAR
Published March 11, 2005

About eight months ago Bob Savoie found and purchased the car of his dreams, the car he had been longing for and searching for, his automotive Holy Grail.

He spent those months lovingly restoring the car and gently modifying it, spending full days with his upholsterer to make sure everything was done exactly right.

A few months from now he's going to sell his dream car, and probably take a loss.

"I get bored easily," Savoie said.

Over the past few decades, Savoie, 61, has owned maybe 30 or 40 collectible cars. He has had classics, street rods and modified cars.

He has loved each one of them and would probably still have them all if he could. Finances make him opt for serial monogamy.

"I can't afford them all, so I have one at a time," he said. "I usually buy one or two every year. The most I've had all at once was three."

His current objet d'amour is a 1970 Buick Riviera.

He found it advertised in a magazine for car owners. It was in pretty good condition, with less than 70,000 miles on it.

"I had had a couple of 1965 Rivieras and I always wanted a '70," he said. "For some reason the '70s are hard to find, especially in good condition. This one was pretty presentable. There's only one other '70 in this area that I know of. I've admired that car for a long time, but the owner was never interested in selling it."

The 1970 Riviera has some distinctive styling that makes it especially prized by aficionados. Among other features, it is the only "Riv" that came with fender skirts.

"Some had little short skirts and some had full skirts," Savoie said. "Mine has the full skirts, which I think look better."

Savoie's Riviera came fully loaded, by 1970 standards. It still has its original FM radio and eight-track tape player.

It's a much different car now than eight months ago when Savoie bought it. He has added some modern appurtenances, including remote door locks, and a CD changer. He has added a new steering wheel and altered the suspension so that the car sits a couple of inches lower to the ground than it was meant to.

But he has enough respect for the car that he's made sure that it looks pretty much the way it did when it rolled off the factory floor back in the Nixon administration.

"All the modifications I've added are bolt-ons," Savoie said. "If someone buys it, a purist who wants everything original, it could be restored to original condition in about eight hours."

The car had its original light green paint when Savoie bought it. When he repainted it last year, he used the exact same shade (called emerald mist). When the time comes to sell the car, a color other than the original could reduce the price a purist is willing to pay.

Savoie doesn't do too much of his work himself. But he has been in the Tampa area since the 1950s and has been restoring, modifying and showing cars since the 1970s, so he has managed to hook up with some of the best people in town.

In fact, he considers Rudy Bailey of Rudy Bailey Top and Trim in Drew Park to be perhaps the best upholsterer in the entire country.

"He's the best there is, better than the people at Rolls-Royce or wherever," Savoie said. "He's a real perfectionist."

For paint, he turns to a friend named Floyd Clark, who works independently.

Bailey and Clark have apparently served Savoie well over the years. One of his cars, a 1961 Lincoln convertible, was considered one of the finest in the country.

In the early 1990s, Savoie drove it to Dearborn, Mich., for the 75th anniversary of the Lincoln. It was perhaps the largest gathering of Lincolns ever.

"At Ford or Chevy shows, there's 300 to 400 cars in a show," he said. "For a Lincoln show you might get 100, and that's a good turnout."

At this particular gathering, there were several hundred Lincolns from all over the country. Lincoln executives gave awards to the best car from each decade. There were more cars from the 1960s than any other decade, but the executives voted Savoie's the best.

A few months later, he sold the car at an auction. It brought $37,000. That was a world-record price for a Lincoln at the time, still about $17,000 less than Savoie had spent restoring the car.

He'll probably sell the Riviera this summer after the show season ends. He has his eye on a '49 Ford in Venice.

"I'm at a point in my life where I'm getting burnt out on all this stuff," he said. "I love the cars, but I'm tired of the shows, the politics. But I always say I'm going to get out, and then I get right back in."

[Last modified March 10, 2005, 09:33:10]