Garage Visit: Avant Garde

BY ERIC PETERSON, PHOTOS BY TOSH KANNO AND JOHN LACKO

On Saturday, May 20th a double-dozen Porsche enthusiasts rolled into Northeast Portland to have a closer look behind the scenes at the Avant Guard Collection. Founded by Matt Crandall and Josh Bryan as a shop for auto enthusiasts, based largely on their individual passions for cars and racing, Avant Guard has evolved into the single largest seller of cars on the popular “Bring a Trailer” platform. The combination of Matt’s history and knowledge of popular sports cars and Josh’s incredible photography, perhaps combined with a little bit of luck, has landed them in an enviable position of getting to help sell some wonderful cars for hundreds of owners each year. While Matt is busy opening the new Avant Guard store in

Scottsdale, Arizona, on the 20th Josh and the shop employees hosted Oregon Region guests to talk about the garage, the Avant Guard philosophy, and the entire end-to-end process of selling with “911r” on Bring a Trailer.

A handful of us got to see the new “pre-sale warehouse” where cars are sitting under sheer plastic waiting to be listed, delivered, or worked on to get ready to “hit the Trailer.” The warehouse was full of interesting cars from all eras, all ready for their next owner to fight to the end of the twominute clock for the win at BaT. My seventeenyear-old kept calling me over saying, “Dad, Dad ... look at this! Have you ever even seen one of these??” That was a lot of fun. Plus, it’s always great to get member Ron Gotcher’s perspective on old Porsches!

Thanks so much to Matt, Josh, Tom Floyd, and their staff for opening up the garage to ORPCA. n

Enjoy the photos. There are many more on our SmugMug site: https://orpca-pix.smugmug. com/2023-ORPCA-Events/Garage-visit-520/