After 5 Car Collector Series, Part III: Exotics

Randy Mattison sells the period at the end of a sentence describing the American dream. He does it in near anonymity locally, but car lovers across the nation know his name. Mattison is the sales manager at Motorcars International, an exotic car dealership at 2701 E. Sunshine St.

Many of the people he sells his cars to are doctors, athletes, celebrities or self-made entrepreneurs. They set high goals and have high standards. If they want a low-mileage or new Ferrari, Lamborghini or maybe a Saleen S7, the American super car out of California, they come to Mattison. Exotic cars are his specialty.

“There are some people who just love sports cars,” he says.

Most of those people apparently live outside of southwest Missouri. It seems exotic car owners are rare in the Ozarks.

“We sell a few cars here locally,” Mattison says. “I’d say 99 percent of our business is elsewhere.”

Sight-unseen, buyers will call Mattison looking for the vehicle of their dreams, wire him the money, and away it will go on a trailer bound for anywhere in the country. He even has people ship their cars across the country for an oil change, but local walk-in traffic is nonexistent.

“People are actually afraid to come here,” Mattison says. “I actually think it is intimidation. At night, you’ll see them looking in.”

A Ferrari 599 GTB Fiorano F1 sits on the showroom floor. Of the 53 destined for the U.S. market, Motorcars International has three. They fetch $500,000 apiece.

Mattison delights at showing off the lines and engineering of the handmade car. Sporting 611 horsepower from the Enzo Derived V-12 engine and race-car engineering, the car isn’t just capable of reaching 200 miles an hour, it is built to cruise at that speed.

Those are the qualities that attract exotic car owners – uniqueness, craftsmanship and power. Adam McBurnie, sales manager at Import Specialists at 2140 E. Pythian St., also knows those guys.

“A Ferrari or a Lamborghini guy, now that’s a driver,” McBurnie says. “He is not worried about the value. That is an exclusive car. You are not going to see another one at a stoplight. They are buying themselves a reward or a car they have always aspired to.”

That is certainly true of Dr. Shachar Tauber, St. John’s director of ophthalmology research. He and his wife have a love affair with Ferrari.

“The cars are made to be driven,” Tauber says. “They need good upkeep and good mechanical care. If you provide them that, they perform like nothing else.”

Tauber was a member of the New England Ferrari Club before moving to the Ozarks. The members used their Ferraris to raise money for charity. He hopes to replicate those efforts in this region.

Tauber owned a Ferrari 320, the “Magnum P.I.” Ferrari, and now drives a Ferrari 355 GTS. He has seen an evolution in the two vehicles. The 355 is much more comfortable. The 320, he says, was built for a driver with a small frame.

“It was made for an Italian man,” Tauber says. “Short and thin but with long arms and, for lack of a better term, a small little butt. Apparently pasta in Italy doesn’t add weight, but pasta in the United States adds weight. There were no frills. It was much more of a pure sports car.”

Owning and driving an exotic car is no small thing in terms of skill or money. Owners have to re-learn their driving skills.

“When a clutch is 15-grand, you learn in a hurry,” McBurnie says. “It is definitely a learned situation. In those cars, much more attention is needed. When you get into a Ferrari or Lamborghini, you’ve got five-digit service calls waiting on you every 15,000 miles. An oil change can run you $1,000.”