The world's largest classic car restorer
Where in the world can you find more than 200 people working in one classic car restoration complex – with vast hangar-like halls for bodywork, for Jaguar, for Rolls-Royce and Mercedes, for future projects and more?
Surprisingly, the answer is not the United States, UK, Australia or anywhere in Europe – it’s the Philippines, on the former US airbase that is now Clark Freeport Zone.
The idea of Australian businessman Jim Byrnes, the Byrnes Motor Trust Restoration facility was established six years ago.
Choosing a location where workers are skilled and dedicated, but labour rates are a fraction of those in the world’s main centres of classic car enthusiasm, meant that Byrnes could get his burgeoning collection restored well but cheaply, commissioning restorations in batches for economies of scale.
Byrnes’s classic car credentials are clear. “My first job was in the car industry in 1976. I’ve had the smell of oil and rags in my blood for 40 years,” he says.
“Car collectors are addicts – the sound, the feeling, the wind in your hair – I like cars that were engineering feats. I love things made with blood, sweat and tears. Jaguar E-types, early Porsches, Rolls-Royce, it’s important to preserve them.
“I’ve been a collector for 40 years, but six years ago I sold a company for $100 million and started investing seriously. If I buy the right cars, they’re a currency hedge; if the currency is down in one country, I’ll buy there. If it’s strong in another, I’ll sell there.”
Byrnes explains that seven to 10 years ago it was not economically viable to restore most E-types, due to the cost of the parts and the small matter of 3,000 hours of work.
