By Riley Fontana
Hometown Weekly Reporter
Stu Carpenter is a favorite guest at the Center at the Heights (CATH) in Needham. He has been invited several times to discuss his life in the car business and share stories of classic automobiles.
His most recent visit focused on his love of Land Rovers, Mercedes and Ferraris. Carpenter has been buying and selling cars for close to thirty years now, collecting various stories to share throughout his career. He began this discussion with a story about emails from someone claiming to be Nicolas Cage interested in one of his models, which Carpenter initially ignored, thinking it to be a scam. After a few more emails, Carpenter was able to phone call with the buyer, who turned out to be the real Nicolas Cage. “I get countless emails every day from Michael Jackson and Taylor Swift, so I was skeptical.”
Carpenter told stories about how these cars are important to folks all across the globe for reasons beyond their monetary value. Collectors seek these cars because they grew up idolizing the race-cars and off-road vehicles they saw in film or their parents may have driven. “It’s the history and the stories of the cars that matter,” said Carpenter. These cars may be limited-run or mass-produced but they all mean something to their collectors.
The talk focused on classic cars; but what truly is a classic? According to the Department of Motor Vehicles, anything older than 25 years is a classic but Carpenter disagrees. “A 1999 anything I wouldn’t consider a classic,” he said. “It’s all what you grew up with or what you idolized as a kid. Younger collectors are looking at the 1980s and 1990s classics.” This answer sparked some debate among the audience, everyone believing there is something that defines a car as a classic.
Stu Carpenter loves to share stories from his life as a car collector and dealer and to show off some of his personal collections. He brought with him three cars to display for the audience including a 1980s Mercedes Benz station wagon, which he claims as his current favorite car.
