Long story short, I am the caretaker of a Bentley that belongs to a friend who never drives it. 2005 Arnage w 8k miles and the last 2-3k were mostly me over the last 5 years or so. I go and take it out of the garage a couple times a year, get the maintenance done if needed, etc. I drive it for a few days and then put it back in its garage on a trickle charger.
It needs to be smogged for registration and is throwing a code w no symptoms, so I dropped it off today at the independent shop I use, Charles Agipou in West Hollywood. I've always noticed this place on Santa Monica Blvd. near the Troubador and Dan Tanna's but never paid much attention to it because I've never been into Rolls or Bentley cars. I needed to find a good independent after seeing that the dealer was robbing her blind on small repairs and in some cases, not even fixing the problems they were charging for.
It always seemed packed w cars so I figured that this is where everyone brings their Bentleys and Rolls. The proprietor, whom I now have a friendly relationship with, is an older English gentleman of impeccable manners who really knows these cars. He is THE GUY in town for RRB cars. Sells/services/restores them. I like him a lot.
I'm on Bring a Trailer last week reading comments on a Bentley auction and the car is local and has had a lot of work done @ Agipou. Someone in the comment thread mentions something about the Agipou brothers having worked for Carroll Shelby back in the day, this piques my interest. So today when I'm dropping off the car, I remember to ask Charlie about Shelby.
Turns out that he was Ken Miles' crew chief back in the early '60s and followed him as he drove for Shelby @ LeMans and elsewhere, first w Cobras and then w Ford GT40s and the car that followed, (forgot that one), what a life!
The best part was that he just came off of a consulting gig for the big Shelby vs. Ferrari film that has been in the works forever and finally got made. It's the story of their bitter rivalry @ Lemans in the '60s. Matt Damon plays Shelby and Christian Bale plays Ken Miles. With Shelby and Miles dead, they obviously needed Charlie very much to fill in the story and what really went down. The last sentence is mine, he is too modest and polite to blow his own horn but that is definitely the truth.
I love living in L.A. and find it fascinating how many times you can scratch the surface of someone like an auto shop owner and find such amazing background stories. I've been in his place many times and talked to him and his wife quite a bit but never knew about his Shelby/Ken Miles connection.
