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CPA MAKES VROOM FOR HIS PASSION
'Vette set is just his speed
VANESSA WILLIS
Charlotte Observer
August 9, 2007
Voices one married man dreaming of having a "man room."
Some actually get one.
Gary Artis has two.
One is the bonus room over the eight-car garage at his home off Alexander Road. The other is the loft in his two-story garage in Union County.
Why all the garage space?
Gary also has 12 Corvettes.
And a very patient wife named Linda.
"Every time he says he's going to buy a new car, I first issue a deep sigh," she says. "But one of the things I love and respect about Gary is that he has this passion and pursues it. ... More people should do that. I'd like to have a deep passion for something the way he does."
Gary's fascination with the American sports cars began in childhood. When he was about 11, all he wanted for his birthday was to ride in a Corvette. His father took him to a car dealership and granted that wish.
Gary never forgot the sensation of dropping down into the seat and seeing the wheel wells rise on either side of the hood. Of feeling like your body became part of the car, sharing its power and drive.
He grew up in northern Virginia, went to George Mason University and earned a degree in accounting. He became a CPA and worked as a controller.
"My dream then, as a single guy, was to be a pilot and drive a Corvette," he says with a chuckle. "All the astronauts got matching Corvettes when they came back from space."
He got his private pilot's license first. Then he bought his first 'Vette from a coworker in 1984. It was a midnight blue 1977 model and cost $7,000. He's since driven it on several NASCAR tracks during high speed driving classes -- all gifts from that understanding wife.
In 1989, he moved to Charlotte at a client's suggestion and founded Artis and Associates.
He joined the Queen City Corvette Club shortly after.
`Fun car, good investment'
In 1993 he married Linda. Then he joined Interdyn, a partnership of business software companies, in 1996. Business was booming.He bought his first new Corvette -- a bright yellow 1996 pace car replica that commemorated the 70th anniversary of the Indianapolis 500.
It replaced an old Pontiac Grand Am with 160,000 miles on it.
"Linda understood my entrepreneurial spirit," Gary says. "This was a fun car, but also a good investment. I'd done my homework, researching their market value over time."
In 2000, many technology companies tanked, but Interdyn held on. There were a couple of bad years, Gary says, but since then "we've done great."
He turned 40 in 2001, and bought a 1998 purple 'Vette. It was a replica of the Indianapolis 500 pace car. Linda got a 'Vette, too, and still prefers driving it to their minivan -- it gets about 30 miles per gallon.
"But if someone asked me how much horsepower it had, I wouldn't know," she says, laughing.
Gary started thinking about the investment potential of collecting the pace car replicas -- duplicates of the official cars used in big Indy races.
"I thought about diversifying our investments and realized we could take some of the 401K money out of the stock market, buy some cars, build a garage to keep them in and watch their value rise over time," he says.
The collection is now up to 12. Each is worth from $15,000 to more than $30,000.
The newest is the 2007 he bought recently at the National Corvette Museum in Bowling Green, Ky. He purchased the option to watch it be assembled at the factory nearby and got to drive it off the line.
"I have this great photo of me sitting in it with the odometer all zeroes," he says.
Attention for an introvert
The garage in Union County is like a showroom. Eight 'Vettes are lined up, parked at an angle facing one of two bay doors. Framed newspaper, magazine articles and art posters line the garage walls.
A little yellow pedal car 'Vette waits in the corner for Gary and Linda's children, Heather, 6, and Christian, 3. They visit the garage occasionally but prefer the movie room in the garage's loft to the floor where the cars are.
Gary always has four cars at home -- he rotates them out with the ones in the Union County garage, making sure they're each driven every few months.
He points to his collection of model Corvettes in a trophy case at the garage and laughs. It all started with about 20 of these when he was a boy. That collection has expanded, too, as he tries to add a model version of each full-size car he owns.
"I'm shy, leaning toward being an introvert, like a typical CPA personality," he says. "The Corvettes draw a lot of attention everywhere I go, and I actually enjoy that now. There isn't a day that I fill up at a gas station and someone doesn't ask me about the cars."
Gary knows he's lucky. He says being able to pursue this passion is "living a dream."
"I could get hit by a bus tomorrow and go knowing I had the very best life a man can have," he says. "I have a fantastic wife, great kids, and I've gotten to develop and act on a passion while still having things like college savings taken care of."
Rounding out his luck: He's gotten only one speeding ticket.
'Vette set is just his speed
VANESSA WILLIS
Charlotte Observer
August 9, 2007
Voices one married man dreaming of having a "man room."
Some actually get one.
Gary Artis has two.
One is the bonus room over the eight-car garage at his home off Alexander Road. The other is the loft in his two-story garage in Union County.
Why all the garage space?
Gary also has 12 Corvettes.
And a very patient wife named Linda.
"Every time he says he's going to buy a new car, I first issue a deep sigh," she says. "But one of the things I love and respect about Gary is that he has this passion and pursues it. ... More people should do that. I'd like to have a deep passion for something the way he does."
Gary's fascination with the American sports cars began in childhood. When he was about 11, all he wanted for his birthday was to ride in a Corvette. His father took him to a car dealership and granted that wish.
Gary never forgot the sensation of dropping down into the seat and seeing the wheel wells rise on either side of the hood. Of feeling like your body became part of the car, sharing its power and drive.
He grew up in northern Virginia, went to George Mason University and earned a degree in accounting. He became a CPA and worked as a controller.
"My dream then, as a single guy, was to be a pilot and drive a Corvette," he says with a chuckle. "All the astronauts got matching Corvettes when they came back from space."
He got his private pilot's license first. Then he bought his first 'Vette from a coworker in 1984. It was a midnight blue 1977 model and cost $7,000. He's since driven it on several NASCAR tracks during high speed driving classes -- all gifts from that understanding wife.
In 1989, he moved to Charlotte at a client's suggestion and founded Artis and Associates.
He joined the Queen City Corvette Club shortly after.
`Fun car, good investment'
In 1993 he married Linda. Then he joined Interdyn, a partnership of business software companies, in 1996. Business was booming.He bought his first new Corvette -- a bright yellow 1996 pace car replica that commemorated the 70th anniversary of the Indianapolis 500.
It replaced an old Pontiac Grand Am with 160,000 miles on it.
"Linda understood my entrepreneurial spirit," Gary says. "This was a fun car, but also a good investment. I'd done my homework, researching their market value over time."
In 2000, many technology companies tanked, but Interdyn held on. There were a couple of bad years, Gary says, but since then "we've done great."
He turned 40 in 2001, and bought a 1998 purple 'Vette. It was a replica of the Indianapolis 500 pace car. Linda got a 'Vette, too, and still prefers driving it to their minivan -- it gets about 30 miles per gallon.
"But if someone asked me how much horsepower it had, I wouldn't know," she says, laughing.
Gary started thinking about the investment potential of collecting the pace car replicas -- duplicates of the official cars used in big Indy races.
"I thought about diversifying our investments and realized we could take some of the 401K money out of the stock market, buy some cars, build a garage to keep them in and watch their value rise over time," he says.
The collection is now up to 12. Each is worth from $15,000 to more than $30,000.
The newest is the 2007 he bought recently at the National Corvette Museum in Bowling Green, Ky. He purchased the option to watch it be assembled at the factory nearby and got to drive it off the line.
"I have this great photo of me sitting in it with the odometer all zeroes," he says.
Attention for an introvert
The garage in Union County is like a showroom. Eight 'Vettes are lined up, parked at an angle facing one of two bay doors. Framed newspaper, magazine articles and art posters line the garage walls.
A little yellow pedal car 'Vette waits in the corner for Gary and Linda's children, Heather, 6, and Christian, 3. They visit the garage occasionally but prefer the movie room in the garage's loft to the floor where the cars are.
Gary always has four cars at home -- he rotates them out with the ones in the Union County garage, making sure they're each driven every few months.
He points to his collection of model Corvettes in a trophy case at the garage and laughs. It all started with about 20 of these when he was a boy. That collection has expanded, too, as he tries to add a model version of each full-size car he owns.
"I'm shy, leaning toward being an introvert, like a typical CPA personality," he says. "The Corvettes draw a lot of attention everywhere I go, and I actually enjoy that now. There isn't a day that I fill up at a gas station and someone doesn't ask me about the cars."
Gary knows he's lucky. He says being able to pursue this passion is "living a dream."
"I could get hit by a bus tomorrow and go knowing I had the very best life a man can have," he says. "I have a fantastic wife, great kids, and I've gotten to develop and act on a passion while still having things like college savings taken care of."
Rounding out his luck: He's gotten only one speeding ticket.
