High Quality Work Won’t Go Out of Style

I had the opportunity to spend time with my friend Tom Yang over the past few days. Tom is a considerably experienced Ferrari specialist and restorer who shares a common passion for doing things right. Tom has a great website you should check out.

We’ve shared ideas, issues, and cures with problem cars in the past, but finally got to spend some quality windshield time talking about the business side of the car hobby. Much of Tom’s thoughts centered around the Ferrari side of the market, while I tend to come from the more pedestrian European production cars, Healeys, Alfas, and Jaguars.

I came away still convinced that while vehicle values will always swing higher and lower, the demand for people and businesses to maintain them will most likely not wane. Mostly because many of the people currently able to perform work on these gems will be aging out of the business. My crew at Sport and Specialty is young by industry standards these days, averaging in the late 40s which is a planned blessing. We spend a fair amount of time cross training and coaching on both technical acumen and quality outcomes overall.

Our discussions focused more about how to produce higher quality work than how to do more work of just any quality. It was both interesting and fun to share time with someone as committed to providing high quality work and not bowing to lowering his standards. It made me feel better, plus it was fun to show off the shop. See you at Amelia Island!