“It’s a car enthusiast’s collection, right,” says John Campion. “I don’t have cars because I want to impress anybody. If you don’t know what a rally car is, you’re kinda like, ‘That’s a dirty car, there are cracks on it’… But I find the passion I have for these cars goes back to the individuals who drove them.”
Beginning as a “lucky” immigrant to the U.S. in 1984 with $26 in his pocket, Campion has worked hard for the last few decades and is finally able to indulge in the vehicles most meaningful to him. From a Lotus Cortina similar to the Ford Cortina his father bought new in period to World Rally Championship rally-winning group B cars, his collection is definitely filled with fog lights and Martini stickers.
“I grew up in Ireland in the late-’60s and early ’70s, and had a fascination with all things mechanical,” he says. “My father was a mechanical kind of guy, and we grew up restoring old tractors and steam engines-so once I started making a few dollars, I started purchasing cars, and went through the wholy myriad of cars and ended up where we are today, which is predominantly cars from my youth-rally cars.”
He makes no mistakes in recognizing his limitations as a driver, because piloting some of the fastest all-road vehicles ever conceived takes a steel will and full committment- “I drive the car for 15 minutes, and I’m exhausted…” he says to convey how amazing Group B pilots were in period.
“Group B drivers were the best of the best of the best…” he says. “But it’s still humbling to drive the same car as these rally legends; to be able to show the cars, drive the cars, and get a wider audience for these cars.”
“If you own them and don’t show them, and you own them and don’t drive them, and own them but don’t share them…it’s a rich man’s folly.”
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