Focus on : Tom Hartley Junior

from Supercar Driver Magazine Issue 39

Aston Martin Vantage GT8

We spend some time with Tom Hartley Jnr to talk about setting up on his own, the brand he’s most passionate about and the cars he longs to get his hands on.

Written by: Matt Parker

I’d be amazed if you’re reading this and haven’t heard of Tom Hartley Jnr. He’s been in the business of the world’s best cars for as long as he can remember, and since making the bold decision to go it alone a few years ago, he’s continued to deal in the sort of machinery dreams are made of. We caught up with Tom to find out why he took that leap of faith and what makes the man and the business tick.

“I left school at 11 years old to go into the car business”, Tom tells us, “Then, after working for several years, firstly in my dad’s business and then becoming a full partner in that business, working alongside my father and brother, I made the conscious decision in 2014 to launch my own independent enterprise. “It wasn’t an easy decision, but at the same time, I wanted to create a business that totally reflects the way I conduct myself in business and to concentrate on the cars I’m particularly interested in”.

As so many readers will know, things can be slow in the infancy of a new business, but Tom has fond memories of a surprisingly successful start. “When I first set up on my own, the very first week, I remember selling three very different but important cars. One was a Ferrari F12, one was a Ferrari 250 Tour de France and the other was a Ferrari Daytona — they all sort of happened quite quickly which was a good start for the business!”.

Since that roaring start, the team grew and the momentum continued. “At first, it was just myself, my PA Holly and my head detailer Jonathan, both of whom had worked for me in the old business. Now, there are 10 of us in total, and as every year has gone by since 2014, the business has grown year on year which is

something I’m very proud of”, Tom tells us, “In our last financial year, we sold around £150 million worth of cars, which was a lot when you consider our staff is only 10 people. We probably only sell around 150 cars per year, but the average value of a car sold is about £1 million”. As he mentioned, of the biggest draws to going it alone for Tom was the ability to focus on the kind of cars he’s most passionate about, so what are those cars? “A lot of people ask me if we focus on classic cars or modern cars, and I would answer that by saying we focus on collectable cars. Collectable cars are what turn me on. Our bread and butter is modern supercars, the likes of a Carrera GT or LaFerrari, because we know them extremely well, we don’t need to do as much research as we would on a 1953 Aston Martin DB3S and we can sell quite a lot of those cars throughout a year.

“The business will probably do equally as well out of modern supercars as it will classic cars, but the focus is always on collectable cars, and that can even be the lowest mileage Mini Cooper in the world, or it can be a Ferrari 250 GTO. At the weekend, we sold a Mini Cooper that had done 13 miles from new, and tonight I’m waiting to close a deal in the region of $40 million, so it really can go from one end of the spectrum to the other, but they’re both important cars and very collectable cars”, Tom explains. It’s not just his interest in collectable cars that fuels the fire of the business either, Tom explains how they actually make financial sense too. “I grew up in the modern car business, and in the modern car business, every week you watch your stock go down in value, so you’re constantly rushing to sell your cars, then when they’re not sold, you have to reduce them. I find, in the collectable car world, things can go down in price, there can be corrections in the market and there have been cars I’ve lost a considerable amount of money on because I made the wrong decision when I bought them, but the majority of the time, if you’ve bought something that’s special enough, you can hold onto it and you don’t have to be in a rush to sell it, because it will always hold onto its value, or even appreciate”. Dealing in the world of the most rare and special cars must bring its fair share of stories, whether it be the cars themselves, the people met or the places visited along the way, so we ask Tom for his highlights. “I wouldn’t say I’ve been spoilt, because all of our deals only ever come out of hard work and a lifetime of dedication to the industry, but there have been so many fantastic deals that I do take time to sit at home with a glass of wine, smile to myself and think wow, that was quite incredible. It could be the way the deal happened, it could be on cars that are eight-figure sums, and there are always so many stories about how the sale came around.

“There have been lots of interesting stories along the way, whether it’s going to Tokyo to buy a delivery mileage McLaren F1, or I remember spinning a coin on a deal for like a million dollars, and unfortunately I lost!”, Tom goes on to tell me there are endless stories of incredible deals, but so many of them he sadly can’t divulge, “I’d love to sit down and share with you that we sold this car to this person and you’d hardly believe some of them, you wouldn’t even know some of the people were into their cars, but if I did, it would go against everything the business stands for. “Because of the nature of the beast, a lot of people do business with us because of the assurance of confidentiality, so it would be a little inappropriate for me to start giving too many stories away on those cars because people would know how much cars have been sold for and who physically owned them, sorry to be so boring with that!”, Tom laughs. Now we know Tom’s thing is for collectable cars, but I don’t imagine I’m the only one who has noticed a particular preference for Ferrari, given how heavily they feature on his stock list, he’s sold so many of the brand’s rarest models and brought a 288 GTO to the 2020 Secret Meet. Tom confirms my observations are no coincidence, “My favourite manufacturer, for certain, would be Ferrari. I suppose because of their racing pedigree I have more passion for them than any other marque, but Ferrari is also the best manufacturer for the business, in fact, no other even comes close.

“Ferraris are more collectable than any other car. It’s like you have the classic car market, and then you have the Ferrari market, it absolutely stands on its own. If somebody tomorrow wanted to build a Lamborghini collection, they could buy a Miura and a Countach, and they’d be well on their way. If somebody wanted to build a McLaren collection, they could buy an F1 and a P1, and be pretty much done. If somebody wanted to build a Ferrari collection, they would need to have very deep pockets, and where do you start?

“They’ve built so many great cars for over 70 years now, and they’re the only manufacturer who have been there delivering important cars at that level continuously for that amount of time. For example, the pre-war Mercedes were fantastic, but what Mercedes do you really want to buy from the ‘80s or ‘90s? I’d like to think the business is known for selling the most important cars, and there are more very important Ferraris than there are very important Bugattis or Mercedes-Benz, and that’s why you’d gravitate towards the 250 Testa Rossa we sold recently or a 250 GTO or one of the many 250 California Spyders we’ve handled. Ferrari or otherwise though, we sell a lot of very special cars, that’s what the business is modelled around”, Tom explains. From the outside, you’d be forgiven for thinking there is no car Tom hasn’t sold, but I had to ask if there’s anything out there that has escaped him or that he would love to get ahold of. “There are several cars out there and it can just be a particular model that stimulates me. Ferrari 275s for example; I’ve sold every different variant of a 275 on the planet 10 times over, but there are particular 275s that might have been delivered in a unique colour or unique spec, and I will get just as excited by that as I would by saying I’ve never sold a Bugatti Royale before, and yes, I would love to sell a Bugatti Royale. “I’ve sold more McLaren F1s than anyone else, but I would love to get my hands on the George Harrison F1 — that’s a car I would run across the road naked for!”, Tom laughs, “At the same time, there are so many other cars, and that’s the most fantastic thing about the world we are involved in. I could be as active as I am now for another 50 years, and I still wouldn’t have gone through all of the cars I will long to deal in throughout my career”. With several years under his belt as his own enterprise, Tom is very well established and respected in the collectable car world, but we’re keen to know if Tom has plans to keep growing. “We have a big announcement that we are hopefully going to make later in 2021 which is going to be very exciting, although I can’t say much more than that at the moment”, Tom eludes, “My goal is continue to scale the business but at the same time not lose any control, not let our customer service slip in any way, not let our expertise slip in any way by trying to grow too fast. “Our team is only 10 individuals, but they are 10 great individuals. It takes time when someone first joins this business to be moulded and get the best out of them, and whilst I’m a hard taskmaster, I don’t demand anywhere near as much from the employees as I demand from myself. The employees who realise that are the ones you want on board, and you can only scale the business by having great people”, Tom proudly explains. Before we finish, Tom has been involved with for a number of years now, so we wanted to talk about the partnership. “Adam first reached out a few years ago, I went to one of the events you guys organised and I was very impressed. The Secret Meet I’ve been going to at Donington for the last couple of years is a fantastic event, one of the best events in the UK. I was amazed last year by the cars you managed to get there on that one day in that one location, and it was also very supporting of the UK car industry because it displayed just how many car enthusiasts there are in the UK. In fact I’m not certain that event could have been held anywhere but the UK. appeals to both audiences, it appeals to the classic car collector and also to the modern supercar driver, and that’s testament to how good a club I think is”. Something Tom has been active with is keeping members engaged even during lockdown, hosting a fascinating Live event to take people behind the scenes of the business, albeit virtually. “Adam asked me to do the first Live event in lockdown, which I hope all the members enjoyed. It was a little daunting to start with, because when you’re talking to nothing but a camera for an hour without any feedback, you’re wondering whether you’re doing a good job or if people are actually interested, but we received a lot of good feedback from it and we appreciated being asked to host the first one”. Some of you may have been fortunate enough to attend the real event at Tom’s HQ in 2019, and if not, I’d highly recommend getting yourself down for the next one since invites don’t get thrown around willy nilly, “Of all the times in the past people have asked me about doing something like that, we’ve never actually opened our doors to any other car club or held a private event until we held the event and we’re going to do another one as soon as we get out of this unfortunate lockdown we’re in at the moment. These virtual meets are all good and they help, but it’s not the same as driving somewhere and seeing all these fantastic cars in the flesh”.