Chuck Schoendorf: Rolling history
 
At the tender age of five years, Chuck Schoendorf was given something that changed his life forever. It was a car magazine.
He”™s been a car buff ever since, now owning two Ferraris, a 1952 Chrysler, a 1946 Lancia Pegani, and one of 25 street cars built by Briggs Cunningham.
“The fifties and sixties were a great time to grow up around cars for design and manufacturing,” Schoendorf said.
“The cars that I really admired when I was a kid were the Chryslers and the Chrysler Hemi motor,” he said.
“The Cunningham is the perfect crossover for my interests. It”™s an American car with a Chrysler Hemi motor but the body was designed and built in Italy. It”™s a hybrid of America and Italy made in the early 50”™s.”
His love of his father”™s 1953 Chrysler Saratoga sedan has stayed with him since his early days growing up in Albany, N.Y.
After his father scrapped the car, Schoendorf asked if he could have the motor.
“I played with it for a couple years and eventually I had to get rid of it.”
In those intervening years since, Schoendorf attended Clarkston University for engineering and achieved his MBA in accounting and finance from the University Rochester.
“I worked two years in public accounting, but I didn”™t care for it.”
He left accounting to open his own insurance company, Charles Schoendorf and Company. He owned it for 12 years before being approached in 1995 by Arthur J. Gallagher & Co, a national insurance broker with locations in Stamford and White Plains, N.Y.
“After the acquisition I thought I”™d be there five years and then find something else to do. Now it”™s been 14 years and I”™m still there but still enjoy it as rewarding work.”
Schoendorf”™s car collecting career officially began after taking a food tour of Italy, during which he stopped for a tour at the Ferrari factory.
“Having been to the factory really made me want to own one,” he said. After the trip, he bought his Ferrari.
“Ferrari”™s are like Lacoste shirts, all you need is the money and you can have one.”
His second purchase was a 1946 Lancia Pegani.
Last year, he attended the 2008 Mille Miglia, an annual Italian road race which began in 1927 and has been revived to allow car enthusiasts to race cars built between 1927 and 1957, the last year of the race.
Schoendorf who was in attendance as a spectator took note of a completely restored 1952 Chrysler Saratoga entered by two Californians.
“We were all over their car and they were only too happy to talk about it. Their intention was to find an American car that was in the original Mille Miglia in expensively, restore it and bring it over to run the race. They spent five years and a fortune putting it in top condition.”
Upon returning to Rowayton, Schoendorf found the very Chrysler he had seen in Italy for sale on eBay this past January. Schoendorf contacted the Californians and offered them just over the highest bid.
“He took it,” said Schoendorf. “It feels like I”™m completing a project from my youth. Right now it”™s in show condition.”
Schoendorf typically enters his cars into two or three shows each year
“Work is just something to do between the cars and meals,” he said. “Work is also what allows me to pursue these things.”