- [Narrator] The Sacred
Heart University community
is made up of so many incredible families.
On a beautiful Saturday this summer,
I was fortunate to spend time
with one of those great pioneer families.
The Iannelis down in
Saddle River, New Jersey.
- My business started 35 years ago,
my personal business, European Auto.
Before that I was with my dad,
from the time I was two years old.
My main excitement was
to watch him come home
with different cars, and we go riding.
Which I did with Mia now at night
we come home, we drive the SOS,
we drive the McLaren, we
drive the sports cars.
And it's a great experience
because it brings me back to my youth,
when I did it with my dad, Mia enjoys it.
The only difference is we
all listen to Frank Sinatra
she's, listen to Freddie Wop.
(Narrator laughing)
- It's a little bit of
difference with the music,
but the general feeling which
she might not even realize
that it brings to me is something of joy
that I enjoyed with my father
and my family growing up.
- [Narrator] Bruce Ianneli
is a business owner, entrepreneur,
car enthusiast
and also happens to be a
very involved shoe parent.
On this day, Bruce invited
me see some special cars
in his collection
and learn more about
his passion in business,
European Auto Wholesalers.
- So first we're looking at
a 3.5 Mercedes convertible 71
only made an eight cylinder in 71
they only build 1300
and 50 copies of this.
This is what we call a match set
there's a coupe and a convertible.
We'll show you the coupe in one second.
And the beauty of these cars for us,
besides the incredible
restoration on this car.
The price was devalued at
the time we bought 'em.
And so restoring 'em to this level,
they've increased in value tremendously
and it's been a wise investment for us.
So this three five's
convertible now we'll walk over
to it's sister car,
which is a coupe, sunroof, (indistinct),
factory air conditioning coupe,
restored simultaneously
by Mercedes Benz classic.
That's a 100 point restoration.
And the car is a fabulous car,
they both came from Northern California
they were sister cars, and
Mercedes restored them for us.
And it's a very expensive car to restore
because it was their
last hand built vehicles.
So these cars are all hand built.
We'll go over to this 36 Mercedes 220.
This is unique for two reasons,
when the Classic Center
opened many years ago,
this is the first car they ever restored.
The car had a restoration
costs to $550,000,
the car is an unbelievable
car with all to with it.
The mounts, the mirrors, the
side markers didn't come out,
it's really unbelievable car.
This was probably a noted car in Germany
with maybe an official or something.
When you judge a restoration of this sort,
and it's held up like this for 15 years,
it's pretty incredible that
it's in this condition.
The car is flawless
and if it went to a concourse today,
it would probably receive 100 points.
Just the head lights, the awards,
the lights, the appearance, the chrome.
- [Narrator] Of such attention to details.
- This is something that
a Mercedes tried to build
this car today there'll
be a million dollars
to build this car.
So we're gonna move on next
to the car in the center here.
Mercedes Benz
built six 190SLRs,
for racing.
Where the six are no one really knows
but the difference between
a 190SL and a 190SLR,
the doors are shaved down
are made out of aluminum,
the hood is made out of aluminum,
the trunk is made out of aluminum.
They have racing seats.
They have a beefed-up
cam, little bigger motor.
Cut down windshield rubber.
We've won three awards in
California to concourses
with this particular car.
- Whoa.
- And it's a fabulous
car in our collection,
- [Narrator] Yeah, look
at the steering wheel.
- The steering wheel,
I was just gonna mention
the steering wheel.
We found three original
steering wheels in Germany
from race cars and we had them restored.
- [Narrator] That's awesome.
- Our friends at Mercedes took pleasure
showing this car and get winning awards.
(mumbles)
Okay, so we'll move on to
this little Sunbeam Tiger now.
Sunbeam Tiger is a baby Cobra.
Cobra's a million five to a million four.
The difference between this
car they had 260s and a 289
the motors.
We have the original 260
that the car was built with
and the fellow I bought his car from
hand built this car and he
put a factory 289 in it.
Car goes like hell.
It's unbelievable, is
fabulous restoration.
We bought this about
two years ago on a whim
because we couldn't afford to buy a Cobra
and have a baby Cobra.
So when you get on this
car, you drive this car.
You really feel the road,
and it's really beefy.
And it's really cool to drive.
It's got many light wheels
they put on the car,
and it's a really nice, Tiger.
Okay, I think we'll move
on to my Volvo next.
So I saw this car three
years ago in an auction,
it belonged to a Volvo
restorer in California.
And I bid it up to $80,000
and he didn't want to sell it.
Two years later,
it appeared at another
auction in California.
And the right guy wasn't there that day
and I bid it to 40,000 and I bought it.
- [Narrator] Whoa.
- Did I just kept lucky,
did the market go down?
You couldn't restore
this car for 100 grand.
Car's perfect.
In every way, did I get lucky?
I think I did get lucky.
And so our next car we're gonna show you
is a 72
BMW 3.0CSL,
L meaning lightweight.
Aluminum hood, aluminum
trunk lid, lightweight.
Car is an all original car.
It's never been restored,
it belonged to a good friend of mine.
He owned it for 40 years.
I bugged him for 20 years to buy it.
He said "No, no, no,
no, no," for 20 years.
Finally, five years, he
said, "I'll sell it to you."
I had it for about two months
and I got greedy again.
Brought it to an auction, and
it brought a lot of money.
I sold it.
Eight minutes later I
said, why not sell it?
Waited five years, about six months ago,
I called the Auction
House where I bought it,
called my friend in Barnum's
and I said, where is that car?
Well, it went to a
collector in Rhode Island,
a big, big collector.
I said, can we get in touch with him?
And he said, "I guess so."
We got in touch with him and
we gave him a sizable profit
and we bought it back.
I had to have it back,
it's a very unique car.
And it's a car we drive,
it's a really cool car.
Pretty rare and it's something
that kinda just fits in
in what we do.
Did I pay too much?
Time will tell.
So now we're gonna move on to two Jaguars.
We put six Weber
carburetors with top drafts,
we put five speeds in 'em.
We put Dunlop wheels on 'em.
We put Aston Martin racing lights in 'em.
It's amazing, then here we
took all the grille work out,
it's a slick, just a
racing version of the car
and properly restored
and really beautiful.
Now we wanted to do it
just like the two Mercedes
and match pair.
We also did a coupe.
Same configuration,
same color combination.
Dunlop racing wheels,
five speed, six Weber carburetors,
Aston Martin racing
lights, deleted bumpers,
glass in the headlights.
The steering wheel of this
car like the other one
are racing steering wheels.
The early cars had the chrome console's
- Yeah.
- And it's really a neat car.
The last car I'll be showing
you today is Mia's Whip.
It's a 2012 SLS, which
we bought new in 2012.
Has unique interior,
it's got this dark brown, AM Shoe leather,
and it's a really nice car.
And we spend a lot of nights
just driving around in it.
I sit here, she sits there,
I lean back, and we cruise
and that's a great part of it all.
- Yeah, ties it all together.
- Ties it all together.
- [Narrator] Mia is
entering her senior year
as a management major
in the Welsh College of
Business and Technology.
And has spent her whole
life watching and learning
the automotive industry from her father.
I just had to ask what's
like traveling to auctions
all over the country with her dad.
- It's a really good experience
where we travel a lot
from Florida to California.
My favorite is Pebble Beach.
There's a lot of action going on there
and seeing the latest model
cars or the concept cars.
It's a lot of fun,
being out in an auction
is definitely intense.
So, there's a lot of men
just screaming at cars
(Narrator laughing)
or lifting up their hands.
But a lot of time my dad
will let us bid on cars.
He'll be like, oh, this car is,
this car I grew up in.
So it's really exciting seeing
cars from when he was a kid
to like, now cars when I'm a kid.
- [Narrator] Later in the day,
we took a ride to Lodi, New Jersey.
Where Bruce taught me
about the restoration side
of his business.
And of course, to check out a
few more amazing automobiles.
- Alright, so we're down here
at my office European Auto.
This is our repair shop we set up.
Where we mechanically service the cars.
So we'll go over the cars and
today we're gonna give you
a comparison of a 98 Mercedes
that has zero restoration
that's 200,000 miles on it.
And we're gonna show you
the bottom of the car
and we're gonna show you
the kind of condition
that it would be in right off the road.
And then we're gonna
show you a restored car
and we'll show you what we do to the cars
to make them correct.
Has 200,000 miles on it,
but it's in mechanically good condition.
But to restore this car properly,
all these exhaust pipes will be exchanged.
Any leaks that might be
coming will all be serviced.
This car is very dry for a 98 car.
So I believe a lot of
service been done to it,
but it's very, very solid.
(mumbles)
Nothing is here that would
hinder you from driving this car
every day for another 100,000 miles.
All right at this moment now
we're gonna take this down off the lift
and we're gonna show you
a properly restored car.
What we have here is a 69 280SE Mercedes,
which has been properly restored,
naturally it's a much more expensive car
in the first version,
but look at how this car is restored.
Everything is exactly as
the factory built the car.
Every component is perfect.
The exhaust system is perfect,
the cross member's perfect.
When we take a car like this
every aspect to this car is
gotta be plated, taken down,
cleaned, serviced,
to make sure the mechanics
of this car are perfect.
Its car's been disassembled,
it's been painted off the body,
it's been put back on the body.
And every component in this
car, the wheel cylinders
has been properly restored.
So if the car has 80,000 miles on it,
it's a car that has no miles on it.
This car is virtually prior 10 miles
since it's been restored,
and it's really never been on the road.
You can see there's not a speck of dust.
This is exactly how
they did at the factory,
with this texture, and this body.
That's what makes a
car valuable like this.
An average one is probably worth 50 grand.
This car is probably worth 125,000
because it probably cost to a 100,000
to get it to this level.
These are black plate California plates.
They're white now in California,
but this shows that
this is an authentic car
that was bought
either by the first or
the second owner in 71
and that's part of the
documentation of the vehicle.
This is what they call a low grille
280SC 69.
One out of 115 built,
and I say a low grille
because most of the 69s
had a higher grille.
This is the same grille
on the eight cylinder car.
This car we just finished
the restoration on.
Everything's been done to this car,
it's done on top to bottom.
This car's called Dark Olive
with a Cognac interior,
very rare car.
The Cognac interior is
the original interior.
This is not a restored interior,
this is not a replacement interior.
This is the interior that
came with the car in 69.
And, you know it's been
kept up, impeccably,
nothing's been changed.
This car didn't come off the body.
It's been painted on the side,
but this is a totally original rare car.
Now we're gonna move on to a
very, very unusual special car,
it's a Jaguar.
This is a 59 Jaguar,
150S coupe.
It was owned by the actor Ray
Milland, originally documented
on the build sheet it's
one of 150 coupes built.
It won in every concourse.
It has 100 points on the restoration.
Every inch of this car
is exactly as it came
from the factory.
Every nut, every bolt,
the tires are the original Firestone tires
that would come on the car.
Every inch of this car is perfect.
It runs absolutely perfectly.
And it you go to any concourse
and take first price,
you know, everyone has a convertible,
they made very few coupes.
It has all sorts of awards at one.
I mean, you look at this car,
it really looks like the big cat
and that's why they refer to
these cars as the big cats.
And (indistinct) it's very, very special.
- [Narrator] Before the day was over,
we had time for one more quick tour.
This time of Bruce's personal garage
where he shared a little
family history with us.
- This is dark burgundy.
- Burgundy.
- With Cognac, leather interior.
- Yeah, it's really beautiful.
- It has a very unique
option which very few cars...
This has, they call it a kindle seat
but it's really a grandmother's
seat in the back of the car.
- I see, whoa!
So she or someone would sit side?
- Yeah right, someone should sideways.
- [Narrator] I've never seen that!
- It's a fabulous car.
The next automobile I'll
show you is a sister car
of the 190SLR, this
one's done red metallic.
It's a duplicate car, it
has the same features.
It has the racing seats, cut
down windshield, roll bar,
cut down doors, and it's
100 point restoration
Like the other one has
about 130 horsepower,
most of them are about
80 or 90 horsepower.
And it really flies.
Next car is one of our favorites
it's 61 Aston Martin DB4
If you look at the tires alone,
the original style of tires, (indistinct)
these Michelin tires here.
This is what gives a car like this depth.
Look at the steering
wheel in the car, I mean,
it's just...
Look at the dashboard how it's created.
This car was restored
at a cost of 300,000.
The wheels, the style of the car,
the restoration makes
it an unbelievable car.
- You get this one on the
road much, you open her up?
- We did when we first got it,
listen the trick to keeping these cars
in the condition they are,
you can do one of two things,
you can ride them often,
or you can take all the fluids out of them
- [Narrator] Right.
- And reservice them every six months.
So this is a kind of a
historic room that we built,
because there's a lot of memories here.
Now, I wanna show you
one very important aspect
to this room.
- [Narrator] Okay.
- And one of the reasons we're here.
Sacred Heart University,
we did an event for women in racing.
I was proud the university
made this poster for me.
Signifies their appreciation of what we do
and what we try to do for the university.
We're involved with Sacred Heart
because we have to give back to people
that has just given us so much.
The school gave me an
opportunity for an education.
It gave me an opportunity to be involved.
We need to give back, this
is the way I give back.
People remember
the day we brought our
300SL roadster race car
to the school and we did a segment
with about 50 kids and some teachers
and we explained how we took
this car from its raw state
and restored it over four years
and in an increasing in value
and how much fun we had doing it.
We believe something
like that will be forever
and something like Haddon Heights
when we brought our 58 Chevy convertible
and our Ford retractable up
there as an entrance piece.
There was a lot of conversations.
Where did you get that car?
How did you do that car?
How did you restore that car?
And it will stay in
people's minds I believe
and it will associate with the university.
- [Narrator] We're so
grateful for the Iannelis
Bruce, Margaret, Mia and Lauren.
Thank you for inviting us into your home
and for a glimpse behind the
scenes of your family business.
I had a lot of fun today and
look forward to seeing you all
back on campus soon.
