In this episode, Fletch travels with Mark Behr of Shannons and films his acquisition of another American classic, a 1971 Imperial by Chrysler and then follows the journey as he drives the Imperial from the East Coast of the USA to California to be shipped to Australia.
As they drive across America, crossing through Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, Kansas, Colorado, Wyoming, Nevada and into California they experience a diverse range of scenery and also some great motoring enthusiast points of interest well worth a stopover.
Just out of St Louis, on Route 66 is a car dealer with a difference, 'Country Classic Cars' with over 600 cars for sale. Only recently they experienced a devasting fire that destroyed 143 cars, but now they are almost ready to reopen after the Amish community rebuilt the 50' x 528' storage shed in just three weeks and three days, Russ the owner is soon to be back in business.
Further down the road near St Louis is the Museum of Transportation, famous for having one of the only two remaining GM Aero Trains, a design project to take automotive design/styling to the American railway system. The train is a space age, futuristic design that would sit comfortably in today's market but unfortunately didn't meet the rigours of the railway system.
A journey wouldn't be complete for Fletch & Mark Behr without visits to a wrecking yard or two. First up, a Denver Wrecking yard on 35 acres with 5,000 cars, a veritable sea of iron, and closer to the finish line in Fresco, California an even bigger yard, the Turner's Auto Wrecking Yard on a massive 70 acres, hours of viewing here with 10,000 wrecks to pour over.
The journey comes to an end at Interglobal Logistics in San Francisco where the car is handed over for shipping to Australia. Mark Behr says many people have the cars shipped from the point of purchase but he prefers to drive to the West Coast and make the whole purchase a great experience, and at the same time getting to plus see parts of America others never get to see. He admits it does require when buying an older classic you make sure that it can make the distance, but any costs associated with that is well worth it
