Kenny Hargrove

Kenny is tasked with the general evaluation of incoming vehicles for mechanical condition, restoration quality, and historical accuracy.

Maintenance and repair on vehicles, sourcing of parts, and vehicle restoration.

Here, he describes his background in his own words:

"As a child, my mother expressed her frustrations on Christmas day when she found that I had disassembled all my new toys by late afternoon. I explained to her that I was improving on them. My first motorcycle, a used Honda 3-wheeler gifted at age ten, was promptly disassembled for restoration. Prior to my birth, my Father owned a speed shop in Chula Vista Ca. and was always involved in some sort of automotive endeavor, at one point being the self-proclaimed Nomad king of San Diego, he eventually settled into a never-ending stream of corvettes. I did him a favor and totaled his last one for him when I was just 14. A quick trip around the block to dry it off after washing culminated with a 100 mile an hour spinout. He purchased a Porsche 928 and has since continued to collect Porsches, now owning several including an Emory outlaw. At 15, I traded my BMX bicycle for the hulking shell of a VW Beetle and began a complete transformation of it, much of this utilizing the now long gone auto shop facilities at my high school. My first purchased vehicle, a 1957 Porsche 356 coupe became my daily driver senior year of high school, college and for the next several years, eventually parting ways to be traded for my still owned to this day Volvo PV444. Ultimately after a degree in automotive technology (sadly now also defunct) from San Diego State, I followed other career paths in the technological arena, eventually owning, programming, and operating my own CNC business but still restoring items of antiquity as a hobby. From motorcycles and cars to furniture and coffee makers, I refuse to own anything new. Scouring swap meets, auto jumbles and car boot sales in my free time searching out neglected objects of beauty antiquity and historical significance, If it was restorable and merited restoration, I would restore it. In the early 2000’s life changes caused me to reevaluate what I was doing and what I wanted to be doing. I decided that the universe had always been trying to tell me what I should be doing. I sought out employment in automotive restoration, landing in just a few years at Grand Prix Classics."

What do you like about working at Grand Prix Classics?

Aside from the obvious revolving door of amazing historically significant vehicles, the emphasis on historical accuracy and correctness allows me to exercise an elite level of unabridged restoration. There are no questions of how something should be done, there is only one way, the correct way.

What are the values that drive you?

Integrity, honesty, respect, learning, fulfillment, accuracy, seeking art and  beauty in an imperfect contemptible imperfect ugly world with an unending tenacious drive for perfection.

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