Portrait
Eye Candy, Classic Car Style
by Greg White - Photography by Steve Pomerleau

Windsor company dazzles with new world class car collecting and restoration business

The lights in the refurbished old plant on Wheelton Drive in the Rhodes business district, just behind Windsor Airport, kick on with a loud pop, leaving a couple of first-time visitors wide-eyed from the sensory overload four-dozen classic automobiles, laid out in a 20th century museum-like setting, will tend to produce. Close by, Anthony Maggio can be forgiven for seeming somewhat indifferent to his guests’ reaction. After all, their take on this goldmine of classic cars is nothing new to one of the proponents of this newest and most unique of Windsor-area businesses. It’s a reaction Maggio has seen many times over since the spring opening of his A.D.E. Collector Cars and Restoration - a veritable “candy store” for car collectors and auto historians alike. And it’s one he’s sure to see much more of as the business blasts ahead into the lucrative but competitive classic car industry, kicking off with a grand opening July 27.

For Anthony Maggio, this latest element of his family’s business holdings is somewhat of a "coming-full-circle" type of thing. That’s because for as far back as he can remember, the 25-year old Maggio has loved classic cars: loved working on them, loved driving them, loved simply being around them. He came by those sentiments naturally, having been a firsthand witness to the budding car collection his father, local land developer Dino Maggio, has accumulated over the years. Indeed, from the moment the younger Maggio first went cruising in his father’s original classic machine - a '78 Lotus Espire – he’s been hooked.

“Yeah, you could probably say it goes back to that very moment,” says Maggio. “I remember as a kid going for drives in that Lotus and just thinking how cool that car looked, and how neat that engine sounded. I think that started the whole thing with cars for me, and certainly with classic cars. As I got older, and my dad added to his collection, it just seemed working with these cars – getting to know how they worked and what it took to restore them – was what I wanted to do. So when the opportunity presented itself to make a business out of this, it was an exciting prospect for me.”

Maggio’s love of everything auto lead him into racing as a youth, where he again followed his father’s footsteps; this time within the realm of competitive go-carting, where he raced two-stroke carts at places like Mid-Ohio, Florida and Toronto. In fact, there was a time he toyed with the idea of a competitive race career, but the family’s thriving development business soon beckoned, so Maggio instead found himself learning the various aspects of his father’s development company. His love of vehicles and car collecting never waned though, fuelled as it were by Dino’s increasing collection of classic automobiles; which by 2006 had grown to more than 20 vintage cars. It was around this time that Maggio began exploring whether he and his father’s hobby might have the legs to become an actual business.

“The more involved I got with my dad’s collection, and the more I learned about the restoration business, I really began to think that there was a market to provide classic cars – and classic car services,” says Maggio. “This is a huge billion-dollar industry worldwide, with a buying and collecting public that crosses a wide vari ety of demographics. Most people tend to think that classic cars are an exclusive ‘rich man’s game,’ and while it is a hobby of the socalled rich and famous, there are lots of everyday people who are into classic cars. You can probably drive down any street in Windsor and there’s a good chance you’ll find a classic car in someone’s driveway or garage. It truly is a wide-ranging and global thing, and definitely something we thought could be developed as a business.”

By last summer, Maggio was working in the residential side of things with his family’s development company, but with the new housing market having swooned with the downturn of the local economy, the timing seemed right to get serious about his classic car business idea. And to that end, Maggio, is the first to recognize his parent’s role in turning his idea into reality.

“I know I’ve been very fortunate to have parents like mine,” he says. “My dad has worked hard to build a successful company and it has allowed him to do certain things, with classic car collecting certainly one of them. I approached him with the idea about this kind of business and, as a seasoned collector, he understood how the concept could work. I think he also realized it would be a better way to store his own collection!”

The elder Maggio's stable of classic cars had been kept partly in off-site storage and partly at his personal residence. When his son presented a business case for the classic car and restoration company, the entrepreneur in dad kicked in. While his son got the business going out of a small 1,800 sq. ft. shop on Assumption St. in Olde Walkerville, the Maggios eyeballed the building on Wheelton, which formerly housed a component of an ongoing Windsor auto parts company, but was light years away from the kind of showroom and restoration facility father and son had in mind.

“It was a facility that was perfect for us as far as size and location,` says Maggio. "But it required a lot of work to get it to the point of what we envisioned (for the showroom and restoration services). We started renovating in the late fall and were able to wrap things up this past spring. If you'd seen the place when we started, you'd say it's pretty amazing. We tried to make it a unique and fun place, and I think we’ve accomplished that.”

Indeed, what was a dark and somewhat dingy manufacturing plant has been transformed into a magnificent classic car showroom which almost serves as much an auto museum. Loaded with classic automobiles (there are presently about 50 cars, split fairly evenly between the Maggios and those of their clients), some as rare as anything collectors will find in North America, A.D.E.’s showroom is accessorized with timeless artifacts, props and souviners from the respective eras of the vintage wheels on display. Visitors are transplanted back in time with the help of such visuals as a 1950s' movie theatre marquee, a pair of old-school gasoline tanks, and a finished bar right out of the Roaring 20’s. An audio system pumping out classic tunes adds to the nostalgic atmosphere.

"Having these kinds of theme's were important to us and the kind of experience we want to provide our customers," says Maggio, of the detail that has gone into the esthetics of the showroom. "There are a lot of different restoration companies out there, but we wanted to create a place and a business that offered something more; something that provided a richer retail experience for our customers. Classic car collectors are passionate about their cars and their collections, which makes trust a huge thing in this business. Whether we're selling or storing someone's car, or doing a restoration project on their vehicle, they need to have that trust in us. That's why we've worked hard to provide this kind of inviting setting. We want to make their experience dealing with us something they'll remember, and will have them doing future business with us."

The company has already seen dividends toward that end, having attracted interest from all over North America, and even Europe. Maggio recently sold a vintage Jaguar to a collector in California, while inquiries for their restoration services have been increasing rapidly since their opening.

"We've got a great crew of talented and experienced restoration specialists," says Maggio. "Pat Moody, our chief consultant, is as experienced as they come in this business, and the guys working under him know classic cars inside-out. We have the ability to restore pretty much any classic vehicle, regardless of how bad a condition it might be when it gets to us. That's our business - restoring these wonderful cars."

Later this month, car enthusiasts both local and from the four points of the continent will descend on the 30,000 square foot Wheelton facility for A.D.E.’s grand opening, an affair that will befit the image of what Maggio and company have put together. "It's going to be a pretty exciting opening," says Maggio. "We've got about 450 people attending, with many of them coming from across the U.S. and Canada. It's a great opportunity for these people to see what Windsor's all about."