Owning 'fun car' spawned many collector enthusiasts

SPEED's Joy passionate about Barrett-Jackson role

By SPEED Release
January 8, 2008
09:08 AM EST

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Mike Joy is best known for his eloquent, yet simple play-by-play style when he describes the otherwise chaotic sport of NASCAR. Joined weekly in the FOX and SPEED broadcast booths by Darrell Waltrip and Larry McReynolds -- an Emmy winning combination -- Joy has helped paint a picture for NASCAR and auto-racing audiences for more than 30 years.

He's done many things in the sport, from pit reporter, studio anchor to play-by-play; even gone as far as completing on-track tests in Cup and Truck series machines. He wouldn't be doing anything else ... unless that something else was in the collector car industry.

Joy

When Joy isn't talking about the Car of Tomorrow or the latest Jeff Gordon-Matt Kenseth pit-road spat, he's busy paying attention to the ever-changing world of collector cars. Joy's depth of knowledge and passion for classic cars is one of the main reasons he's a critical cog on the auction block for SPEED's coverage of the Barrett-Jackson Collector Car Event (7 p.m. ET on Jan. 15).

Growing up in the New England area, Joy's bond to cars was cemented during his formative years of high school and college, attending the University of Hartford and Emerson College. When he wasn't working the public address system at area short tracks, Joy was ogling the many great cars he remembered from back in that era.

"Growing up in New England, cars were a big part of everyone's lives," Joy said. "When I was in college, most of the guys I hung around or drove with either owned British or Italian sports cars, or they drove big American iron like Camaros, Mustangs and some of the cars you would see competing in the Trans-Am Series. You couldn't help but love these cars for their style, drive-ability and sound."

His career in racing and love of collector cars aren't mutually exclusive. On different NASCAR weekends, Joy will come in to a city early to peruse the local market's classified ads. If he finds a car or two of interest, he calls, sets up an appointment to view the car and will buy it before heading to the track.

Joy has purchased cars in the past at many auctions throughout the country, mainly American, but through the years he also has built an affinity for the late 1960s and early '70s British sports cars.

"I've had many types of cars over the years from Ferraris, Austin Healeys and the like, but the car that I own now -- a 1967 MGB, is the one I like the most," Joy said. "It makes me feel like I'm 21 again. These cars are simple, fun to drive, easy to work on and just a blast to own and have fun with.

"I think the idea of having a secondary car came from the winters here in the Northeast," Joy said. "During the winter, you would get a vehicle that you could drive around in the slush, slop and cold weather. Then you would get out another car for the spring and summer months, which was presumably a nicer car which would have been subjected to all of that salt damage and rusting. It became more acceptable for people to buy a car -- something that you could call a 'fun' car."

Joy brings his personal passion to the auction block, inspecting, evaluating and grading each car as if he was working a buy for himself. That experience helps him give an overall perspective to the audience.

"I see two main things, each year the quality of the cars that come to Barrett-Jackson are better," Joy said. "We point things out about the cars on the auction block that benefits both the bidders and sellers. They know the things that bidders are going to be looking for. As a result, the general presentation of the cars seems to be better. Or, the explanation that surrounds each car seems to be more complete.

"We had one car this past year that had very odd and awkward gaps between the panels," Joy continued. "But the seller had put a sign saying that 'we did not screw up. We measured the panel gaps before we took this car apart to restore it. We have duplicated the factory irregularities exactly.' So, something like that that people might look at as a fault, turns out to be correct because many of these cars turn out to be over-restored, as that is what people are looking for. They are looking for cars that are perfect -- or close to it -- they aren't looking for cars that are 'as new.' And quite frankly, the build quality on these cars back in 70s let's say, wasn't that great."