The Koepke hot rod collection - 47 years of collecting/hoarding

[Robberbaron]

A buddy of mine at work recently told me about a longtime friend of his, whose father recently passed away. The son, Dave, lives up here in Indiana, but he grew up in Florida, where his father remained until he passed away last year.

His Dad’s story is pretty interesting: Bob grew up in Gary, Indiana, built a Model A hot rod (Buick nailhead power) in his youth, went to college, got married, moved to Florida, worked for NASA, daily drove a Ferrari, and basically collected anything automotive that struck his fancy. Along the way he rubbed elbows with the likes of Smokey Yunick.

When Dave went down to Florida to take care of funeral arrangements and to settle his father’s estate, he discovered his inheritance:

http://blog.hemmings.com/index.php/2015/01/15/a-lifetimes-collection-of-hot-rods-and-parts-heads-to-auction-in-florida/

The sheer scope of what Bob had amassed is amazing: rows of Tri-5 Chevys, including 7 Nomads and 4 ’57 Bel Air convertibles. Scads of pre-war Fords, mostly roadsters, 3-windows, and 5-windows. Remains of a 1958 Corvette, a semi-restored 1958 Porsche 356, a 1973 Pantera with 3800 miles (bought from an astronaut), the still running 1978 Ferrari. Stacks of vintage speed parts, including Smokey Yunick experimental /prototype intakes.

From what my buddy has said, the articles that have been posted online are pretty accurate: Dave knew his father had quite a bit of stuff, but he had no idea how much his father kept acquiring after Dave moved back to Indiana, and his father managed to keep him from actually stopping by the house in person for the last 10 years. Most of the cars were stored outside, and the Florida coastal climate hasn’t been kind to many of them (especially a ’57 Nomad whose roof has basically disintegrated). Frankly, however, I’m amazed how good some of this stuff has remained, since some of it has been outside in the salt air for 40+ years.

Dave is keeping his Dad’s Model A, and a 1935 Ford Roadster. I’m sure he’s also cherry-picked many parts. Everything else is getting auctioned off this April:

http://www.vanderbrinkauctions.com/auctions_details.php?detail=165&allimages=NO

I don’t know Dave personally, but he is quite the hot rodder himself, and has had several magazine features on his own cars, so I can only imagine how hard it must be to sell off some of this stuff.

[southpier]

..... his father managed to keep him from actually stopping by the house in person for the last 10 years. ....

odd, eh?

[lordairgtar]

I'm emailing my boss right now about this.

[Robberbaron]

"...his father managed to keep him from actually stopping by the house in person for the last 10 years..."

odd, eh?

Not in the know enough to comment as far as the family dynamic. Does seem surprising to me, since they both shared a common bond in hot rodding, his son was someone who could truly appreciate what he had.

Come to think of it, that might have been the reason he tried to keep his son in the dark. If he knew how his dad was storing some of these cars and parts, he might have tried to make him sell some of it off, or at least store it better.

An example is a complete, factory dual quad small block Chevy out of a Vette, that was literally just sitting outside in the dirt. As they progressed through the property, he was shaking his head at some of the things they were discovering. He did seem to keep the exotic stuff indoors (Porsche, Ferrari, Pantera).

[Jaguar man 21]

308 or the pantera to hard to pick both I guess