Sam Glover
Sam infiltrates an astonishing American car collection
Sam is convinced that his own car collection is far from excessive.
When I admit to owning 50 cars, people usually respond with pity and concern. In normal company, it’s akin to declaring that one has three dozen cats or a room filled with Spice Girls memorabilia. People assume I also have a hoard of empty cereal boxes and deep-set personality problems, and they treat me with due caution. Not so Terry Gale. ‘Why only 50?’ he asks. ‘You should get more!’
Terry owns 816 cars. He worked in the oil business and made a good enough fist of it to retire in his thirties. He now focuses his waking hours on collecting, repairing and restoring classic cars on his 165-acre estate near Denver, Colorado.
‘It all started with my dad’s ’54 Nash Ambassador,’ he explains. 'Dad bought it for $50 and drove it until the oil pump failed, then it sat in a field at the back of the house for 18 years. It took me three years to get it running and driving. As soon as it worked, I was hooked. I drove it to my ranch and restored the body and interior. Then I wanted more…’
Terry built a shed to house his first 30 cars a few years later – and matters have escalated ever since. He now has the world’s largest collection of Nash and American Motors Corporation (AMC) cars.
The Rambler Ranch
Although AMC cars are Terry’s primary fetish, he’s by no means fixated. ‘I love everything with wheels,’ he enthuses. His taste in other vehicles, however, remains respectably left-field. Shed number two houses appealing American orphans from Crosley, Studebaker, Packhard, Desoto, Willys, Allstate and others – plus a brace of Chevrolet Corvairs and a flock of Kaisers. It even boasts such exotica (in the US) as a Vauxhall HC Viva and a Wolseley 1500.
My eye was drawn to a Dodge Omni GLH – a US version of the Talbot Horizon with handling tweaks and a lurid bodykit by Carroll Shelby. ‘It’s got a 2.2-litre turbocharged Chrysler engine and GLH stands for Goes Like Hell!’ Terry explained. ‘How many of these cars are roadworthy?’ I asked. ‘All of them!’ replied Terry. ‘I try to keep all the finished projects ready to take out when I fancy.' Shed three sports 110 resplendent AMC products from early Ramblers to end-of-line Eagles. It’s a sensory attack of slippery beige vinyl, deep-pile velour, whitewall tyres, brown plastic dashboards, ludicrous go-faster stripes, stick-on wood, Slot Mag alloys and in-your-face orange, yellow and lime green paintwork. AMC didn’t hold back in the Sixties and Seventies – and tasteful understatement didn't appear on any options lists. This retro visage is completed by a spectacular collection of AMC memorabilia and period tat, the centrepiece being a fully-equipped Sixties kitchen complete with a Nash-kelvinator refrigerator.
AMC produced Americanised Renault models in its final years. Naturally, Terry has a several of each. The Alliance was based on the Renault 9, the Encore on the 12 and the Medallion on the 21. The rarest and most interesting, though, is the Premier – a substantially restyled Renault 25. I want one.
An aspirationally-equipped workshop and a few lean-to sheds house another few handfuls of cars. The other 600-or-so are planted in orderly lines around Terry’s verdant estate, like a postapocalyptic car park in a town where everyone had impeccable taste. A Citroën SM taking root under a pine tree is glared at gormlessly by a Ford Edsel, while a Fiat X1/9 confronts an army of AMC Pacers. It’s a truly remarkable sight. ‘The climate’s pretty kind here, so they barely rust at all,' says Terry. 'We’ll be restoring a bunch of them. One-or-two more will be arriving to take their place, of course…’
If anyone finds themselves near Denver and wants to see something truly astonishing, Terry’s 'Rambler Ranch' is highly recommended. It's not open to the public, but private tours are possible. Visit ramblerranch.com for more information.
‘600-or-so classic cars are planted in orderly lines around Terry's estate’