The Ferrari Family — Nick Cartwright

We spent a day at Nick Cartwright Specialist Cars in the beautiful Derbyshire countryside for an enthralling chat in the sunshine with Nick and his sons about their infectious passion and how this family business has withstood nearly 50 years selling and restoring Ferraris.

It was a glorious day in Derbyshire, that was about to get more glorious as I drove through the gates of Nick Cartwright Specialist Cars. As I got out of my car, I was immediately greeted by security, a German Shepherd called Jess, before Nick himself warmly welcomed me.

Nick’s passion was evident from the off as he eagerly showed me around all the buildings full of Ferraris, and I was like the proverbial kid in a sweet shop. Once we’d spent plenty of time nerding out over so many stunning cars including a building purely dedicated to five Dinos, we sat down with Nick and his sons Ben and Jim, where we chatted for a solid hour overlooking the countryside about their fascinating history and their passion for Ferrari which is about as strong as I’ve ever come across.

First off, I have to ask Nick where such a passion started. “My interest in cars actually started with Lotus, and for me the Elan was one of the best all-round sports cars of its day. My brothers had E-Types and my father had Aston Martins including DB4, DB5, DB6 and DBS, and we had a lot of fun as youngsters driving around, racing each other around the lanes in Derby! Those were the golden years of motoring and the roads were like your race track.

“When my dad was away we’d maybe get the Aston Martin out and have a little blast out in that, and while the Jags and the Aston Martins were great, while they were sideways out of the bends, the little Dino was solid and it would dust the lot of them. I remember all the motoring writers like John Bolster raving about them back in the day for the way they drove at a fraction of the price of a V12 Ferrari, but even so they struggled to sell them. It was such a beautiful car though and I’ve always had a soft spot for the Dino.

“I bought my first Dino back in ’74 from a guy I knew in Derby and it all started from there. It was such a lot of money at the time so I had to borrow some, and even though it was only two years old, it wasn’t the best example I could have bought. We ran it every day for about a year and it basically rusted before our eyes, and we constantly struggled to stop it from going rusty! We paid off the money we owed and sold it for basically what we paid for it. It was hard work building a bit of capital up in the early days but we started buying Dinos regularly in the late ‘70s.

“The next great Ferrari for me was the 308 GTB, a fibreglass car which I thought was just the best thing, so I scoured the country and I was buying every fibreglass 308 I could get my hands on. They weren’t revered at the time as people didn’t quite embrace the idea of a fibreglass Ferrari, but the finish and build quality on them was second to none, especially when I’d been used to the likes of Lotus and TVRs.

“Everyone thinks I’m purely into classics but I do love the modern cars as well, I just don’t get much chance to drive them because I’m always out and about running errands or transporting cars, basically I'm the gofer. I do love to get out in the likes of the 296, Pista or Speciale and really drive them, although I don’t think the lads like me taking the F40 out! They’re all too powerful for the roads of course, especially as you could call me a mature driver, but they’re just fantastic. The Purosangue is an absolutely fabulous car as well, but I’m not sure people’s perception of you in that car is always positive around here, whereas the other day, I drove through Matlock Bath in a Dino, and dozens of bikers were getting their phones out, taking photos and waving. It's very likely you would get rather different hand gestures in something like a Purosangue!

So from buying that first Dino, how did the business evolve over the years? “I actually went to work for David Clarke at Graypaul Ferrari in the early ‘80s on a freelance basis and it was amazing. There were cars from all over the world in there and Bob Houghton was the main technician at the time. They were interesting days as Graypaul gave me the opportunity to go out and buy cars I couldn’t really afford with an open chequebook, so it was a great basis to learn and earn some money to build our own capital.

“After a year or so, I decided to go back to working for myself and took on some of the techs I’d got to know at Graypaul. The business really took off in the mid to late ‘80s. We employed lots of people and we had a big production line of cars in restoration for our own clients and some main dealers as well, the likes of 250 SWBs, California Spyders and GTOs.

“When I left Graypaul, I dealt a lot with Bob Houghton and his company MHT (Mortimer, Hoguhton and Turner). Robin Mortimer took my place at Graypaul and Andrew Turner also ran Italian Motors in Hong Kong, and was my agent over there. We did really well restoring and shipping cars over to Hong Kong, and Italian Motors would sell them to Chinese collectors or ex-pats, and they would also send engines over to us to rebuild — they were brilliant days that helped us build up a great customer base.

“We used to get quite involved with 288 GTOs and F40s when they were sub-£200,000, but then they started going up and I thought you know what, they’re just getting too expensive, so we concentrated on the more affordable cars at the time, and now look at them!”.

“Since those days, we’ve made the business smaller so there aren’t so many people working for us, but the people we do have working for us, we know have the very best skills. We’re a very small team now and we work together so well”.

So, who makes up the team nowadays? “I’m very fortunate to have two lads, John and Gary, in the workshop whose fathers are both really into cars. They came to work for me at 14 and 15 years old as Saturday lads and those guys in the ‘80s imparted all their knowledge into them, and for them still to be with us to this day getting on for 40 years later is quite remarkable really. 

“Of my four boys, two of them, Ben and Jim, joined the company straight from school and have been very successful. Jim is mostly involved with the restoration side and Ben is more on the sales side, but as a family business, we all do a bit of everything and every day is a different day. In the early days, I was at it from six o’clock in the morning trying to do everything, too much really, but Ben and Jim have taken over that mantle, allowing me to relax a bit more. Ben takes all the pressure and hassle now which is great because I can’t be doing with it anymore!”.

There must be some great stories that accompany cars like these, so I ask Nick to tell us one of his most memorable. “There was a guy in Ilkeston who had this beautiful Chairs & Flares Dino and I wanted it. I used to go and have a look at it in this showroom when I was younger, and then I found out where he lived and said to him whatever you do, if you ever sell that car, please let me know. At that time Dinos were about £6,000 - £8,000 for the best example.

“Anyway, the guy moved out of the area down to Canford Cliffs and took the car with him, then a while later out of the blue, I saw it advertised at £14,500, 6,000 miles, one owner, a very special car. I thought, I’m having that! So I rang him and said I’m coming down to have a look, and I gave him £12,500 for the car. I kept it for a year or two before selling it to a Welsh guy who was a chartered accountant, and he became my accountant for about 30 years! Its value had doubled in those couple of years up to about £26,000 which was a hell of a lot of money back then.

“We’ve had that car back every time it has been sold and we look after it for the current owner as well. He has no children and always says, ‘When anything happens to me, it’ll come back to you guys!’. It’s great to have relationships like that with our customers”.

Having been in the game for nearly 50 years, Nick is as good a man as any to ask about the market. I want to know what Ferrari he would choose now as a good place for your money. “I think the most undervalued Ferrari is a 328. You can buy a 328 for anywhere between £55,000 and £100,000 depending on condition and mileage, and for me it was the last of the Ferraris with good build quality, built in the era of Enzo Ferrari. They’re a fabulous car, cheap to run and bombproof.

“We spent weeks prepping a 328 recently before delivering it to an Italian customer. It looked stunning, he’s done over a hundred miles in it this week and he absolutely loves it. The biggest thing I’d say though is always buy something you like, and always buy the best car you can find and afford”.

We were fortunate to take a short drive and visit the workshop during our visit where we got our geek on once more over Ferraris of all eras in various states of restoration, so it’s over to Nick’s son Jim now to tell us about why he ended up joining the family business, and the work they do here. “I was obsessed with cars growing up. My earliest memories of cars are watching Dad race in the 355 Challenge. I always just wanted to be involved and help out with his car, and that’s what got me hooked. After I got my driving licence I was really into hot hatches like Clios, then went through a BMW phase, but as you get a bit older, you realise there’s nothing like a Ferrari.

“I love how varied the job can be. Some weeks you’ll have your head in one restoration project from start to finish, others will be spent dealing with enquiries and more in-and-out jobs like routine servicing so we’ll see lots of different cars.

“We do everything from routine servicing and repair work to full nut-and-bolt restoration projects. The only things we don’t do in-house are paintwork and major trim work. We leave the paintwork to the painters, but even then, we oversee everything and we do all of the stripping down and putting back together again to ensure everything is absolutely as it should be. Often the integrity of a car can deteriorate after a restoration because it hasn’t been put back together correctly, so that’s very important to us.

“It doesn’t matter if it’s a Mondial 8, Challenge Stradale, 275, Daytona or Dino, if it’s a nice example of anything, we’ll get excited about it. We’re proper enthusiasts and we love the cars we work on. I think people like that when they get onto the phone to us, we’re not just looking to churn jobs out for the next bit of money”. 

Enthusiastic as always, Nick shows us around endless parts and tells us, “We’ve got all the reference in the world for Dinos. When people restore cars without all the proper reference, how are they going to know where everything goes? Some people can get very funny about cars not having all matching numbers, but for us, it’s all about the quality. We’ve seen many matching numbers cars that really aren’t right, whether they’ve not been put back together quite right or something else. All the reference and experience we have means we can restore a car properly and faithfully to the highest standards, regardless of its history, and I’d much rather have a well-restored car even if it was in an accident 40 years ago or all the numbers don’t match.

“The lengths people go to to make these cars perfect really shows how much they mean to them, and seeing owners’ reactions when they get their cars back looking like new after a long restoration is so rewarding”.

Some of you may have been fortunate enough to visit Nick Cartwright when we’ve held events there including our Father’s Day gathering earlier in the year. I want to find out how the partnership came to be and how the guys are enjoying being involved with us. Being our main contact, Ben took the lead on this one “Supercar Driver’s co-founder Richard bought a 360 Spider from us, and when we’d look after it, he’d tell us about all the things they were doing. Years went by and we sort of always kept ourselves to ourselves bar racing and events with The Ferrari Owners’ Club, then James Duce at Supercar Driver got in touch with us about hosting an event at our place, and we thought that sounded great. We’d never hosted anything on that scale and we loved it.

“Like so many people we’re busy with family and work so we struggle to find an excuse to go out and drive, so it’s getting us out driving as well! Jim and dad went out on the Corsa Cavallino around Wales in a 458 Speciale and absolutely loved it, we will definitely do it again.

“We went to Donington for the Secret Meet two years ago and we were just blown away. We expected a bit of a meet with about 50 cars or something, then we got down there and I remember the entrance lined with photographers. We’re so impressed with how it has gathered momentum over the past few years”.

Nick then added a very nice comment about you all, “All the people we’ve met have been really nice, and we’ve had nothing but positive feedback from the events we’ve hosted here so we look forward to the next one”.

Finally, after over 48 years in the game, spending the day here and talking to the guys has shown me that the team at Nick Cartwright Specialist Cars are very happy doing what they are doing, and from my point of view, they have the dream setup, so I wonder if any plans are afoot for the future. “Many times we thought of having a big showroom, but operating out of this site suits us perfectly and offers a totally different experience than going to a big dealership in a city”, Nick tells us. “We’ve had people come from all over the world and say it’s like paradise! We have great plans ahead to put some nice buildings up, but still keep it small. By keeping it small, we can keep total control of our standards, choose the jobs we are best suited to and oversee them thoroughly from start to finish. For us, whatever we do, it will always be about maintaining our standards”.

Written by: Matt Parker.