Feature: Dr. John Engel and the art of car collection
Dr. John Engel, director of career readiness for the School of Business Administration, has a collection of 17 cars.
His passions for cars began at age 16, he described, when he received a “68’ Mustang and fell in love with working on them and being able to customize them.”
“It’s like being a kid collecting Hot Wheels, except now they are full-size and I get to drive them.” Engel explained, “they’re like kids to me.”
His wife and family don’t normally drive his cars because they understand how important they are to Engel, although he stated that they are always welcome to.
“This is my relaxation. I enjoy working on them and being able to share them with others. It helps [me] calm down when I am stressed.”
Engel currently owns the following:
1930 Model A
1978 Honda CB125
1993 Acura NSX
1995 HUMMER H1
1996 Mustang Cobra
1997 Dodge Viper
1997 Indy Car Used by Jeff Ward in the Indianapolis 500
1997 Saleen S281
2000 F250
2000 Mustang Cobra R
2001 Jaguar XKR
2003 Corvette Z06
2003 Jaguar X Type
2003 Saleen S281
2006 Ferrari F430
2006 Bentley Continental GT
2007 Aston Martin Vantage
2014 Nascar Stock Car
He admitted that it was difficult to choose a favorite, but “the 1997 Indy Car is so special to me. It was used in the actual Indy 500 race by Jeff Ward who came in 3rd and got rookie of the year. It is 100% race car, so you can’t drive [it] on the road, but something about having a piece of automotive history makes me smile.”
Engel remarked that most of his cars tend to stay the way the factory produced them, but “I recently sold a GT500 that had around 900 horsepower at the engine. It has just about everything modified and upgraded and was the fastest car I have owned. [Now], the 1997 Viper is the car that I have gone the fastest in. I was able to get it up to 177 mph before I ran out of track.”
In addition to his passion for vehicles, Engel also has experience racing.
“When I first got into cars I started to race at the dragstrip in Jackson. After years of ¼ mile racing, I switched over to road racing and have been on the track at Road Atlanta, Roebling Road, Carolina Motorsports Park, and Las Vegas Motor Speedway.”
Engel’s assembly of cars draws the question of how one could come to own such an expensive collection, let alone the car insurance.
“Years and years of hard work, saving, and making smart financial decisions,” are key, according to Engel.
“Everyone always looks at the collection and thinks this happened overnight or I inherited the money. This has taken me over 20 years to collect and, like they say, a journey of 1,000 miles starts with the first step.”
