Boy’s Dream Becomes $26-Million Collection

When developer William Lyon was growing up in West Los Angeles in the 1930s, he was spellbound every time he saw a movie star drive by in a custom-made Duesenberg, Packard or Cadillac.

“Those cars were so special because they were just so different from the everyday cars you’d see, like a ’35 Chevrolet,” Lyon recalled. “As a 10-year-old kid I made up my mind that I’d own one of those cars someday.”

Today, Lyon, the 63-year-old chairman of the board and chief executive officer of both William Lyon Co. and AirCal, owns actress Dolores del Rio’s 1930 Duesenberg SJ Murphy Town Car.

He also owns another 34 classic cars. Lyon’s collection, valued at roughly $26 million, is one of the top 20 private collections in the country, according to noted classic auto expert John Burgess, retired director of the renowned Briggs Cunningham Automotive Museum in Costa Mesa.

Last June at an auto auction in Reno, Lyon bid $6.475 million for a 1931 Bugatti Royale Berline de Voyage limousine. However, he was outbid by $25,000 by Houston shopping center magnate Jerry J. Moore who purchased the automobile for $6.5 million--the largest price ever paid for an automobile.

The high-stakes bidding cast the limelight on Lyon--a very private man who has been reticent about revealing the scope of his collection.

“Most people don’t know what he has,” said Randy Ema, owner of an Anaheim classic car restoration firm. “Other collectors have parties to show off their cars. He doesn’t.”

The public will get a rare glimpse of one of Lyon’s prized possessions at today’s Newport Beach Concours d’Elegance, a benefit car show for the nonprofit Assessment and Treatment Services Center (ASTC) of Santa Ana. Lyon’s 1929 Le Baron Dual Cowl Phaeton J Series Duesenberg, valued at more than $1 million, will be on display.

The fifth annual event, one of the dozen top shows in the nation, raises money for ASTC’s counseling programs for troubled youths and juvenile offenders.

The exhibition of 100 classic and antique automobiles will be held from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. in Aldrich Park at UC Irvine. Tickets can be purchased at the gate for $10 for adults and $6 for children.

Lyon has a hectic schedule running Newport Beach-based William Lyon Co., which is one of the nation’s largest residential development firms. At the same time he wears the hat of chairman and chief executive officer of Newport Beach-based AirCal.

Yet, Lyon finds time to slip away from his Newport Beach office about twice a week to putter around his collection housed in two adjoining warehouses in Costa Mesa and talk with its curator, Greg Bagano, about developments with cars under restoration.

Likes ‘Car People’

“There’s nothing deep about my motivation for coming here. I just like being around classic cars, working on them and going to car shows. I really like car people; I feel I’m in my element.”

When Lyon began his collection 25 years ago, he specialized in limited edition cars he’d seen and admired growing up.

“Take this ’29 Buick (Sports Roadster) with the rumble seat; I got it because my dad had a car similar to it.”

His first years of collecting were largely spent acquiring Packards and Lincolns. However, in the past three years, he’s taken a fancy to Duesenbergs. This has set the classic car collecting world abuzz because in the last three years he’s achieved a nearly unheard-of feat: garnering five of the world’s finest Duesenbergs, which classic car expert Burgess said are each worth at least $1 million.

“There were only 481 of the (Duesenberg) J series manufactured in Indiana from 1929 to 1939,” Burgess said in noting these prized vehicles sold new for between $13,000 and $25,000 during the depths of the Great Depression. “In the ‘30s they were the car of glamorous people like playboys and movie stars.”

During the tour of his collection, Lyon stopped briefly at each of his 35 cars and discussed their unusual features.

While inspecting Henry Ford II’s 1947 Lincoln Continental convertible coupe, Lyon glanced at the odometer. “It only has 20,000 miles on it. Whoever bought it from Henry Ford recognized it as a special car and kept it stored for years without using it for personal driving.”

Lyon’s wife, Willa Dean, influences his selection of cars. “I got that 1923 Austin from (Harrah’s Automobile Collection) two years ago because my wife liked it,” he said. A 1934 Packard Coupe Roadster, which comes with a special compartment for golf clubs and a rumble seat, was given by Lyon to his wife 15 years ago.

Uniqueness Cited

Many of Lyon’s cars are almost literally “one of a kind.” He notes that his 1962 Mercedes-Benz is one of only two four-door convertibles made that year. “And Mercedes hasn’t made any four-door convertibles since then,” Lyon added.

He owns the only 1939 Packard Derham convertible still in existence. It took him four years to restore this seven-passenger car because Lyon said it was difficult finding original parts, or fabricating them when it was discovered they no longer existed.

This painstaking restoration effort was recognized when the car garnered a first-place ribbon in the Packard category last year at the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance, which is generally considered the premier classic car show in the country.

“It’s a pure joy to have this car,” Lyon said as he slid under the wheel of the Packard and turned the ignition key to start the car’s V-12 engine. “Just listen. Doesn’t it run beautifully?”

Also rare is his 1929 Ford Model A Town Car. Only 11 still exist. It has an “upstairs, downstairs” air to it, Lyon said, because the chauffeur drove in a roofless section, while the passenger compartment not only had a top but was curtained from public view.

His 1935 Model SJ Walker-Le Grande Duesenberg is one of only three ever built. And his 1931 Chrysler Imperial Dual Cowl Phaeton is one of only three left in the world with an original body. Moreover, his 1930 Dual Cowl Phaeton Isotta-Fraschini is one of only two of the Italian-made cars now in existence, Lyon said.

Other cars have historical significance. His 1935 Phaeton Special K Series Lincoln was used by Franklin D. Roosevelt during the 1936 presidential campaign.

A 1941 Mercedes-Benz 770 K was used by Adolf Hitler as his staff car. Both the body and the windows of the massive 9,000 pound car are bulletproof. In many respects it resembles an armored vehicle more than a car.

Unlike many classic car collectors who tend to store their cars in what are essentially private museums, Lyon regularly drives his cars. Each morning on his way to work he stops by the warehouses in Costa Mesa and switches cars. Thus, he drives most of his cars at least once a month.

“My attitude is that these cars originally were made to be driven, so I put them to their intended purpose. If I couldn’t drive a car, then I wouldn’t want it.

“Maybe I have this attitude because I’m more mechanically inclined than most,” said Lyon, apilot in both World War II and the Korean War and chief of the Air Force Reserve from 1975 to 1979.

Each weekend Lyon does routine maintenance on his cars, such as checking the batteries, changing the oil or adjusting carburetors.

“Since all but three of my cars are convertibles, bad weather sometimes keeps me from driving them as much as I’d like. And some of the Duesenbergs are driven less often because they’re extremely valuable. You don’t want to get on the freeway and have somebody slamming into a car like this.”

Ever practical, Lyon plans to use his 1935 Ford V-8 stake-bed truck for chores around the country home he’s building in Coto de Caza. On the site he is including a 15,000-square-foot building that will allow him to house all his cars under one roof.

Working on a “Woodie”

Lyon personally supervises the restoration of his cars, whether at his Costa Mesa warehouse or at an outside shop. Walking up to a 1934 “Woodie” Ford station wagon undergoing restoration, he explained that the engine had been painted a garish green because that was the original color.

“Our goal is to restore a car so that it looks exactly like it did the day it rolled off the assembly line. You don’t improve it mechanically or try to make it look more beautiful. This absolute adherence to restoring the car to its original form is what judges look for” at classic car shows, he said.

Lyon doesn’t plan to expand his collection much beyond the 35 cars he now has. Limiting the size of his collection will allow him to continue his practice of driving each of his cars once a month. Also, the cars of the quality he is looking for seldom come on the market.

“The cars I want generally come to me because of changed circumstances. Someone will have financial difficulties, get divorced or die.”

So rather than expanding his collection, he is now concentrating on upgrading it. Although he’s had a handful of his cars for as long as 15 years or more, most of them have only come into his collection in the past decade as he’s “traded up in the market,” replacing one rare classic with one even more desirable.

Lyon said that his car collection fervor is now at its height because of the interest shown by his 12-year-old son, Billy.

“He works with me around here on weekends, and at shows he polishes them and helps out. We’re learning a lot about these cars together.”