Wrench Nation

#170 Wayne Carini – Chasing Classic Cars, from Barn Yard Find to Restoration Gem

09.14.2019 - By Frank LeutzPlay

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The Wayne Carini Passion

Wayne's passion for cars started when he was a child, working alongside his father on such classics as Duesenbergs, Lincolns, Packards and Ford Model As. Then, at just 9 years of age, he experienced a life altering event: he went for a ride in his first Ferrari, a 1960 Rosso Chiaro 250 SWB to be exact. Wayne was instantly bitten by the Ferrari bug and hooked for life. Automobiles have been Wayne's passion ever since.

Wayne learned the art of Ferrari restoration from his mentor Francois Sicard -- a former Ferrari racing mechanic and widely considered to be the foremost Ferrari expert on the East Coast -- and his good friend Luigi Chinetti Jr., whose father Luigi Chinetti Sr. won the 1949 24 Hours of Le Mans race for Ferrari and opened the first Ferrari dealership in the country.

Chasing Classic Cars

With an emphasis and talent for Ferrari early on, Wayne has built a career of seeking out some of the worlds most rare vehicles of a by gone era, giving way to preservation and beauty for all to enjoy, and of course to buy!

His lifetime of experience in automobile restoration under his belt, master car restorer Wayne Carini has a resume that includes body and paint work on rare car collections owned by the likes of David Letterman, tennis great Ivan Lendl and the DuPont family.

Then comes Chasing Classic Cars, a U.S. television documentary series presented by Wayne, who owns F-40 Motorsports, who looks at classic cars from all eras, focusing on finding and getting cars running, with the option of restoration and a likely sale. The series shows the restoration and auction process, and not all projects are financially successful. It has featured cars which have not previously been shown in public for decades.

Pay It Forward

Wayne is also involved in and regularly attends many different car clubs and events to get young people involved in the car collector hobby. He believes that without young people's involvement, the car collector tradition will disappear. His latest passion is convincing families with special needs children to consider placing collector cars into a special needs trust with the hope that the cars will benefit the children in the future.

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