Coolest garage ever

It very well could be every car enthusiast’s dream. A place to relax, kick up the feet, watch the game on a flat-screen TV, have a refreshment, play a game or poker or pool, host parties — all while soaking in the glory of some of the most fabulous and pristine new and classic cars around.

The Crevier Classic Car Co. off Redhill Avenue in Costa Mesa is the brainchild of Don Crevier, owner of Crevier BMW in Santa Ana. The luxurious facility houses a one-of-a-kind 1956 Dodge Golden Lancer Hemi, built to compete in NASCAR races; a 1936 Ford truck with original whitewall tires; a muted-yellow 1935 Packard, which is one of only four known to exist; a 1929 Cadillac four-door sedan; and scads more.

After Crevier started his collection of mint-condition classics, he decided he needed to find a better place to store them.

“Where I had them stored was really kind of generic — it wasn’t a very customer-friendly situation,” Crevier said in a phone interview. “So I got to thinking that maybe there’s other people who have issues like I do. It’s really a growing interest, a growing passion in the baby boomer segment. People my age thinking about cars that they had an interest in as young people and now are in a little bit better position now to afford them … and they have got no place to put them.”

So Crevier’s solution was a dream lounge, a massive bachelor or bachelorette pad — members can be men and women — with the main attraction being the cars, which come from the 1930s through the 2000s.

“We’d hear all the feedback” at car shows, said Jim Clark, who runs the Costa Mesa facility. “ ‘Oh, if I just had a neat place to store it,’ people would say. The alternative is just not storage worthy of a lady.”

The facility can hold about 75 cars, and membership comes with car storage, Clark said.

The space, which was designed by Newport Beach architects H. Hendy Associates, is a throwback to the 1940s with porthole windows on the doors and a vintage feel, despite the high-tech gadgetry, including the TVs and Internet hookups for laptops.

“It’s so neat. It’s a place you want to visit, a place you want to hang out,” Crevier said.

Membership doesn’t come cheap, and it’s quite exclusive because of the limited room the facility has.

But Newport Beach Rep. John Campbell — an avid “car guy” — was one of the first to send in his dues. He plans to keep his 1960 and 1963 Chevrolet Corvettes and a 1958 Cadillac El Dorado in the showroom.

Depending on how much space a member needs and how much is available, costs can be at least $400 a month.

“Don Crevier has come up with a great idea…. In the Newport Beach area generally you have two-car garages, and there isn’t a lot of space to keep an extra car,” Campbell said in a phone interview from Washington D.C. “All of us in the hobby love to see other people’s cars, so it’s a place where you can keep your own car, see other people’s cars and talk to other people in the hobby as well.”

At the end of the month, he plans to throw a party for his primary supporters of last year’s campaign at the club.

The building features a private poker room, a game room, a living room — where Clark said members and their guests can “put their feet up, you can’t hurt this furniture” — a formal dining room, an outdoor patio where Clark plans to hold summer barbecues, and imported Chinese wool carpets.

“It’s all about the cars — the building is one thing, but the cars are the star of the show,” Clark said.

But it’s not just the immediately tangible amenities that makes the club the ultimate place for car lovers. With their dues, members can have their cars detailed, use some of the expertise of Robert Gomez, an experienced classic car technician, and take advantage of a valet service. The staff can also help coordinate trucking when the car owner wants to take the car to a show.

“Here the cars are in what is rapidly becoming a museum-like atmosphere, with car guys like Robert and myself who tuck them in bed each night and love them,” Clark said. “We love the fact they bring a lot of smiles to people’s faces. We look at them as art; we look at them as history.”

For more information, call the Crevier Classic Car Co. at (714) 448-2566.