The Carpenters Legacy Lives On...

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Richard Carpenter's Car Collection
Part 1:

Richard Carpenter inherited a great love for cars from his father, and is a big-time car collector even to this day. Richard has a warehouse full of classic cars that he's collected over the years.

In the August and September, 1997 editions of Cars and Parts Magazine, Richard Carpenter, along with his classic car collection was profiled by Bob Stevens. Below is part 1 of that article.

We want to give a special thank you to Cars and Parts for letting us republish their great article. You can visit their website at www.carsandparts.com.

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Celebrity Car Collector: Richard Carpenter
At Richard Carpenter's it's 'yesterday once more'

by Bob Stevens

Singer, songwriter and producer Richard Carpenter has been a musical talent most of his life, and a car enthusiast even longer. But it's been a life filled with big breaks and little takes...success, failure, promise and tragedy. His highway to heaven has been paved by hard work, sincerity, dedication to a sister who died way too young, devotion to his own family of five, a loving wife and four spirited children, and a life-long love affair with Detroit's hottest iron, especially that wearing the Mopar Pentastar.

• "Yesterday Once More" is not only the title to one of his hit records, it's also what he calls his impressive collection of cars. It is, indeed, yesterday once more for car enthusiasts bitten by the nostalgia bug.

• Handsome, wealthy, popular, successful, creative and in good health, Richard Carpenter is still on top of the world. Aging very gracefully, he has the means to enjoy practically any pursuit or hobby imaginable...and he chose cars...and his passion for vintage tin runs deep, very deep.

Fame and fortune eluded the talented young songwriter, musician for many years, but when it came, it arrived with the speed of one of his mighty Mopars in high gear! He and his sister, performing as "The Carpenters", had several important successes, such as winning first place in the Hollywood Bowl Battle of the Bands in 1965. They were part of a trio with Wes Jacobs at the time, but shortly after the Hollywood Bowl breakthrough, Jacobs left for a position with an orchestra. Marking forever this time in their lives, Richard and Karen bought their first new car together; it was a tripple-black 1965 Plymouth Satellite convertible, and he still owns it.

The Carpenters struggled on, perfecting their crafts (Karen her golden voice and Richard his piano playing and songwriting). Their unique sound, developed and refined in the garage of a friend, Joe Osborn, was too pure, too sweet, too melodic to be suppressed for long. The big break came in 1969 when trumpeter and band leader Herb Alpert "discovered" The Carpenters and their fresh vibrant sound. Alpert, a major recording star whose band, the Tijuana Brass, was in its prime in the late '60s, also owned A&M Records. He signed Richard and Karen to a contract and the two youngsters were on the way to stardom. Richard and Karen, who were born Oct. 15, 1946 and March 2, 1950, respectively, were just 23 and 19 at the time. Their first gold record was only a year away.

• Beautiful red '56 Chrysler 300B sport coupe is a cornerstone of the Carpenter collection; he's owned it many years. It is loaded with equipment, including power steering and brakes, power windows, power front seat and very rare factory air conditioning.

• Immaculate '59 Plymouth Fury hardtop is finished in gleaming white with a contrasting, and pleasantly so, red and plaid interior. All of the Carpenter's cars are maintained in highly detailed, ready-to-cruise condition.

Born in New Haven, Conn., the brother and sister team moved to California with their folks, Harold and Agnes, in 1963. Richard was already ensconced in music, having begun playing the piano when he was just 12 years old. But Karen was more interested in sports, especially baseball, and didn't express any affection for music until well into high school, when she discovered a penchant for the drums. Their career together as musicians and singers would span a decade and a half, including the amateur years of 1965-69, and the professional years of 1969 to 1981.

Along the way they would win three Grammy awards, including Best New Artist in 1970, receive 18 Grammy nominations, and rack up 18 gold or platinum records. They were one of the groups of the '70s, and their performances and their music are interwoven in the history of that decade. With songs like Close to You, We've Only Just Begun, Top of the World, Sing, Rainy Days and Mondays, Goodbye to Love, and Yesterday Once More, the Carpenters made music history themselves, and lent their special sound to a generation of music lovers. Their tunes are often used to characterize the '70s.

• "Yesterday Once More" features a first-year 1955 Chrysler 300, the first of the famous letter cars, although the official letter designation was not used until the 300B of '56. Custom California plate identifies the white hardtop as one of the inaugural-year 300s.

• Correctly finished in black with gold trim, the '57 DeSoto Adventurer convertible is absolutely stunning. Only 300 of these were built, and the starting price was $4,272, which was just about a dollar a pound for the 4,235-pound ragtop.

The Carpenters Fast-starting career launched them through the '70s in a whirlwind of recordings, concerts, television appearances, etc. Karen's extraordinary voice, combined with Richard's equally extraordinary talents as a pianist and composer, created an unmistakable style that actually crossed generations in appeal.

It was an incredible career. But one that would end in tragedy for the duo, whose natural bond as brother and sister had been made much closer by their musical connection. Karen took ill in 1981 and had to withdraw from the entertainment business. She battled anorexia nervosa, an eating disorder, for two years, succumbing to the disease on Feb. 4, 1983. Her tragic death had a profound impact on Richard and his career.

He has performed many memorials and testimonials to his departed sister, and has fond memories of their years together, on and off stage. He is resentful that many remember her more for her bout with anorexia than her golden voice. He remains in awe of his sister's tremendous talent to this day.

• When asked to stand alongside his favorite car, Richard Carpenter hesitated, looked lovingly at his freshly refurbished 1960 Chrysler 300F convertible, glanced twice at his '56 red 300B letter car, peeked at his '59 and '62 Plymouth Sport Furys, started for the '65 Plymouth Satellite convertible he and his late sister, Karen, bought together, paused at the '60 Dodge Polara that's a spittin' image of the car he learned to drive in, and then finally headed toward his '57 DeSoto Adventurer convertible. We were only certain of one thing; that it would be a Mopar product.

• With a matching blue soft top, this '59 Plymouth Sport Fury convertible is a pleasant appearing package. Standard features on this model included special trim, swivel bucket seats, custom steering wheel, and the 260-hp Golden Commando engine.

But many music critics, while recognizing the obvious quality of Karen's voice, assert that Richard has never received the credit he deserves for his creative genius as a musician and songwriter. His arrangements enhanced Karen's performances.

After a few quiet years as a music producer, Richard Carpenter has returned to the stage, and in a big way. After two sold-out concerts in Long Beach, Calif. this past February, he conducted a month-long tour of Japan, and it was highly successful. The two performances in Long Beach, which provided a preview of the Japanese tour regimen, were both staged at his namesake, the Carpenter Performing Arts Center, which is located at Cal State Long Beach, where he and Karen studied.

Richard Carpenter is a major success in Japan, where his tours are sold out well in advance and his records sell in the millions. He was recently honored by the Japan Record Industry Assn. for "Most Album Sales by an International Artist in 1996" for his remixed Twenty-Two Hits of the Carpenters album, which has sold more than two-million copies in Japan. He has also released a new solo album. Richard Carpenter - Pianist/Arranger/Composer/Conductor, which he dedicated to his mother, who died in 1996. The album is not yet available in the U.S.

• Gold-colored Carpenter signature on the wall brings out the natural beauty of the gold trim on this black '59 DeSoto Adventurer hardtop. Just 590 of these beauties were made, plus another 97 convertibles, all of them with the impressive 350-hp dual-four V-8; impressive in both performance and physical presence.

• Impeccably restored '57 Chrysler convertible is a precious 300C, a white example with a tan interior. Only 484 of these gems were made.

Richard lives with his devoted wife, Mary, and their four children in a rambling 8,000-square-foot home in Downey, Calif. Richard and Mary have three girls, ages nine, seven and four, and one son, two-and-a-half-year-old Colin (named after Colin Chapman).

Richard's Cars are quartered in an attractive 18,000-square-foot building in Santa Ana, in Orange County just outside of L.A. The building's exterior is non-descript, since the collection is not open to the public, although selected car club tours are hosted from time to time. In a couple of years, the collection will be moved to new quarters on the north side of L.A., where Richard and his wife are building a new home.

The new custom-built structure to house his collection will be designed with an automotive motif, resembling, after a fashion, a new car dealership's showroom. Once the collection is relocated, he may open it up more to the public. That would be great, as the collection is really something to see and behold.

• Ordinarily, it takes a diehard Mopar man to appreciate the '62 Plymouth, but this red Sport Fury convertible with a dazzling red and black interior would excite any car lover, regardless of loyalties.

• This '59 Chrysler 300E convertible is rare enough, with only 140 hitting the streets that model year, but beyond that it's one of only four sprayed by the factory in cameo tan metallic paint. It has a complementing tan interior, air conditioning and auto pilot, cruise control. "When we found this car, it was painted orange and had a naugahyde interior in it," Richard recalls.

Although most major marques of the postwar era are represented, including Chevy, Buick, Ford, Pontiac, Lincoln, Studebaker, Edsel, etc., the collection is dominated by Mopar products, from DeSoto and Dodge to Chrysler and Plymouth. He comes by it naturally, as his father was a devoted Mopar man. When Richard first began his love affair with the automobile, which he recalls as being about age eight, it was all Mopar products, since that's what his family owned and drove. "But I would have been a Chrysler fan anyway," he insists.

His Dad's favorite car of all time was the 1957 Chrysler (and other '57 Mopar products), especially the 300C convertible. Richard has inherited that lust for '57 Mopar cars, and pretty much likes all the sportier, dressier models in the Chrysler Corp. line that season.

But from a performance standpoint, he's partial to the'59 300E with the cross-ram setup. Off the line and from zero to sixty it's hard to beat the exhilaration of that cross-ram V-8, there's such a difference in performance. His first taste of that Chrysler performance came in the late '60s when he won a talent contest and used the money to buy a friend's white '57 Chrysler 300C. Actually, his friend gave him the car, and the money went to rebuild it. He finished the car in 1968 and drove it, but it was an expensive car to operate and he soon had to sell it. One guy who responded to his ad wanted the car desperately but didn't have any money. However, he did have a 1960 Corvette to trade. "Every red-blooded American boy dreams of owning a Corvette," Richard says, remembering how quickly he made the swap. He enjoyed that car, but his love for Mopar was too strong, and he was soon back in the Mopar camp.

• Injecting a little super car era performance into the mostly Mopar collection is a superb triple-black '70 Plymouth 'Cuda 440 Six-Pack. It's 440 Magnum V-8 is teamed with an automatic. The owner's identity is revealed on the personalized license plate: "CRPNTR". Richard bought this sweet taste of Mopar muscle new, and the fast-swimming 'Cuda has only 39,000 miles on it.

• Richard's parents owned a '60 black Dodge Polara two-door hardtop just like this one, and he learned to drive on it. He searched for several years to locate a clean, solid example. It was harder to find this car than most of the letter Chryslers and DeSoto Adventurers in the collection, he said. The car's personalized license plate - BSBTC - is significant; it means "Big, Solid, Built to Command," which was Dodge's slogan that season.

Another car that brings back fond memories is a 1956 New Yorker Newport that his Dad found in 1977. The original owner still owned the car, and it had only 8,900 miles on it. The guy wouldn't part with it, but six months later the gentleman called Harold Carpenter back and said he'd been diagnosed with cancer and would be selling the car. His Dad bought it for $8,900, exactly $1 for every mile. "It was virtually an NOS car," Richard recalls. Sadly, he sold it a few years back when thinning down his collection, a move that he regrets today.

One very special Mopar in the collection is a black '60 Dodge Polara two-door hardtop. He spent years searching for the car, which is a duplicate of the one his father owned. Richard learned to drive in that car, and it carried Richard and his date to their senior prom at Downey High School.

Function follows form, Richard asserts, and styling had a lot more authority back in the '50s and '60s, which is why he's fascinated with that era. Unfortunately, he observes, "when styling hit a crescendo in the late '50s, production quality went south big-time." But the design of those cars is just so overwhelming, and they boast so many gadgets and styling tricks, that one simply corrects as many production problems as possible in the restoration and enjoys the finished product, reassembled the way it was intended by the engineers and designers, and protected against rust. Richard is pretty well taken in by most Chrysler products of the '50s and '60s. "I even like the '62 Plymouth, and I know I'm in the minority there," he says.

• Bright red Dodge Polara two-door hardtop is, as the vanity license plate proclaims, a "64 500."

• Plymouth Sport Fury hardtop, a '62 red number with a black and red interior, is rather rare itself, being one of 4,039 built.

He was quite concerned about the long-term fate of his beloved Chrysler Corp. in the '70s and '80s, but was delighted to see the K-car arrive. It saved the company, he believes, and Chrysler is now as strong as any automaker, with the right people calling the shots...real car guys at the helm. "But they need to give Plymouth more attention. I was glad to see them get the Prowler, which is a sensational and daring product," he says, adding that he may just add one of the nostalgia hot rods to his collection. He's amazed that a company would even consider making such a neat set of wheels. But then, he adds, look at the exotic Viper.

A real coup he would like to see at Chryser is the transformation of the classic-styled Atlantic dream car into a production reality. "It's simply unbelievable," he says.

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