Mustang Man

Love your Ford Mustangs? Not as much as the chap with 43 stored in a super-size 'man cave'

We might have a new contender for world's finest garage, at least for muscle car fanatics. Mike Berardi keeps his 43 cars in a 20,000 sq ft industrial unit that's also equipped with a kettle and a jukebox. He's got a couple of garage lifts in there to work on the cars and a giant fifth-wheel caravan just in case he needs to sleep over.

Mike's collection takes in the Mustang's greatest hits

And the cars? In keeping with the theme of the last few days Mike is obsessed with Ford Mustangs. We got a flavour of his obsession when he gave us a tour of the place while we were in Detroit to check out the newest version, and totally get it. Living in the Motor City, we'd be obsessed with US muscle cars too.

Mike reckons his collection is now worth $1.5 million (around £900,000), largely down to some choice versions of the first generation car such as a Shelby GT350H from the infamous Hertz 'rent-a-racer' programme that started in 1966.

Beradi tells us he paid $315,000 for the building back in 2011, not bad for a covered space half the size of a football pitch. So he's obviously got a bit of cash and must do quite well in his senior service division job for Ford.

Collection includes 43 cars, 20,000 sq ft and jukebox

But he's not wealthy-wealthy and is trying to make his habit pay by eBaying parts off junker donor cars that sit round the back. For that he specialises in the later first-gen cars from the early 70s, the ones with the ridiculously flat fastback screen, because he says those are trickiest to get reproduction parts for. Take off the part, box it up, stick it in the storeroom, post on eBay and get the mailman to pick it up. Easy spare-time cash.

He says he buys most of his Mustangs off eBay blind. "I know what questions to ask," he says. Although the first-gen cars like a repro of the launch-model 1964 Indy pace car would appeal to most petrolheads, Mike's got a soft-spot for the less popular third-generation 'Fox-body' car from the 80s. He picks up nice examples for about $10,000 a throw, but reckons interest is picking up. "They're going up slowly. For guys aged 35-40, this was the car they had in high school," he says. He's got the rarest too - a late SVT Cobra R with a 235hp V8 of which only 107 were made.

Mike's even got time for the unloved 'Fox body' cars

He's got a good selection of fourth-generation cars and a choice number of the current model, including a GT500 with the 662hp supercharged 5.8 V8. "A ticket waiting to happen" he says, adding. "Of the all the cars I have this is the most fun to drive."

The only generation he doesn't have an example of is the terrible second-gen Mustang II from 1974. He claims this is because he didn't have the space in his last place (a mere 4,000sq ft), but it could also be this was a shockingly bad motor. A 1977 version was his first car, so he really must hate it not to have one!

Mike's approaching retirement and is obviously looking forward to it. He reckons he puts 300 miles a year on everyone one of his 43 Mustangs, but that's surely going to go up. With Bob Seeger playing on the jukebox behind him, he tell us "When I retire I'm going to come down here and play."

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garypotter

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