Right: Lauren has the kind of Ferrari lineup that would make any enthusiast’s mouth water.
Below: A silver1957 Jaguar XKSS stands out among the traditional British Racing Green Jagaurs.
Most of the cars are in his secluded assemblage of three garages on Long Island. However, he’s building a new single garage
to house all of the cars, in an artificially created mild climate
friendlier than the ambient climate the East Coast provides, to
help preserve them. Perhaps a quarter of the collection is not restored, and there are no plans to turn them into showpieces. These
cars are at their coolest exactly as they sit.
The garage that’s under construction now has a library, which
is where all of the memorabilia and trophies that the more famous
cars have won will be displayed, not out in the main hall where
the cars are. Most of the attention to the new structure was invested in climate control, and the space is kept deliberately sparse
to focus visitors’ attention on the cars themselves. Visitors will be
a rare occurrence, too, because there are no plans yet to open the
structure to the public.
Friends of Lauren’s who will see the collection in its new
habitat include Porsche competition phenom Brian Redman and
America’s first world champion racer and notable car restorer Phil
Hill, who knows the cars intimately. Lauren needs such experts
to begin to help advise him about additional cars to add to the
unique and special collection, because one-of-a-kind supercars
are becoming more difficult to find. Additions to the collection
would be small in volume, says chief caretaker Mark Reinwald,
“He specializes in quality, not quantity, and it’s getting harder to
find the next spectacular car.”
Lauren is a very private celebrity, and when anonymous pur-
26 CarGuyMagazine.com
chases are made at the growing number of classic auctions in the country, his
name emerges as a possible buyer. We may never know how many cars, and
which super-rare machines he will ever own, although according to Reinwald,
he favors driving the modern exotics and some of the older classics when he has
a rare free weekend. Reinwald drives each car every six weeks, which he says is
the best way to keep them in running condition. Each of the seventy machines
is connected to a battery tender the rest of the time so the cars can be used anytime. During good Northeast weather, Lauren will grab one of the supercars,
one of three ’96 McLaren F1s, the ’88 Porsche 959, or the Ferrari F40, and rack
up some miles across the backroads. “Once you drive the McLaren, it’s over.
It’s like no car I’ve ever driven. The McLaren is like Star Wars--a hovercraft. I
feel like I’m not touching the ground. It’s an experience I’ve never had before.”
“Strangely enough, I really don’t like to drive the cars when people are
around,” Lauren admits. “As it turns out, I don’t really want to be seen in the
cars. There’s a part of me that likes the privacy, so the more garish the car, the
less I want to drive it. On weekends, depending on the weather, I love the Jaguars, the XK120 or XK140. I love the Mercedes Gullwing and roadster and the
Porsches.” In addition to the remarkable 959, he has a Carrera GT, too.
The non-race Ferraris, Porsches and Jaguars see a lot of pedal time from
Lauren. But he doesn’t ignore driving the race cars. However, he does drive
them when his mood dictates and when the weather is cool enough that enjoyment in cramped, overheated cockpits is at its highest possibility.
For a guy who’s sweated out paying his Wall Street dues most of his life,
you can forgive his desire to tear around in the air-conditioned comfort of a
new Ferrari 599 instead of a 1958 Ferrari 250 Testa Rossa. Well, we can.