About Joe

Joe Bortz has made a life long hobby
from his passion for cars. Cars are not transportation to Joe, they
are literally moving objects of art. From the flow of the fender to
the aerodynamics of the design, everything about a car is viewed from
an art lover's vantage point with Joe.

From the time that Joe was 9 years old collecting
new car brochures from every dealer within bicycling distance to his
ultimate treat of the Chicago Auto show from the age of about 12 to 20
- never did it occur to him that he could actually touch one or sit in
one of these beautiful cars. Now after over 30 years of admiring and
dreaming about these cars he has amassed one of the largest private collections
of dream cars.

Not only has he become a collector of some
of the most original works of automotive art he literally has saved many
prototype cars from the "kiss of death". The fact that many of the concept
cars were produced for ideas only, the manufacturers didn't want anyone
to have these cars after they had been shown because of liability risks.
So all of these cars were scheduled to be destroyed.

As you can imagine, it was like telling an
artist that when we're done showing your statue here, we're going to
smash it. These designers would go to the front office and cry. Now and
then, they managed to save one and they would be told, "Well, here, I'm
giving you the car, but I don't ever want to hear about it again."

Through sheer persistence and a driving desire
to find these cars that had managed to escape the crusher, Joe and his
son, Marc, managed to find 24 of these special one-only cars.

Each car that Joe has acquired has been a
treasure hunt with it's own unique history and story. It is interesting
to note the comaraderie among car enthusiasts who have been kind enough
to share their information on the different cars.

The collection has been featured in many museums
and car shows with tremendous response from the public. The cars just
seem to generate more and more interest with every article, t.v. show
and car show that they appear.

Joe Bortz has been a life long enthusiast of collectible automobiles and has been a serious collector for over 50 years. After his retirement Joe has turned his life long passion for collectible automobiles into a hobby business where he assists other collectors buy and sell great collector cars. In addition Joe frequently contributes articles to Old Cars Weekly under his column "BORTZ REPORT".

Joe Bortz takes General Motor's 1954 Cadillac LeMans Dream Car/Concept Car out for a ride when GM was celebrating the new Technical Center building (circa 2003).

Joe was looking into buying a Cadillac from Rick Raciborski, Chicago, IL (who has a huge collection of Cadillacs and Cadillac parts for those of you looking - 312-607-9417) and Joe got to talking to Rick about where he grew up in Chicago and Rick told Joe that his ex-wife grew up in the same neighborhood and when Joe asked her name, Joe said, “Judy Johnson!  I was crazy about her in the first grade!” and so Joe contacted Judy to say hello and she was nice enough to send this old picture.

It is amazing where the car hobby will take you!  This particular Cadillac ended up taking Joe on a nice ride back to the past to say hello to his first love Judy!