Unique Design for Exotic Protection

By George L. Nitti

Success in any industry sometimes comes down to finding one’s niche.

Shawn Sowden, owner of 64 Motor Cars of Middlesex, NJ, which exclusively focuses in on the transport of specialty/exotic cars, is a case in point. While working as a manager for a luxury car transport business, he made contacts with car dealerships that directly solicited his help to move cars for them.

One day, he was offered an opportunity to transport a specialty/exotic car to Colorado, using his own pickup truck and trailer. He said, “When I talked to my father and asked him what to do, my father responded, ‘Son, do the job. I’ll put you under my insurance and you’ll transport the car.’”

Sowden revealed that his trip to Colorado led to blowing every single tire on the trailer and spending every dollar that he made on repairs to his truck. Upon his return, a big question mark loomed about his future, but the phone calls from dealers requesting his service continued to trickle in. “At first,” he said, “I thought it would become a side business.”

10 years later, Sowden now finds himself transporting between 3000 and 3500 specialty cars a year, having purchased his fourteenth piece of equipment that includes 5 rollbacks, one of which is a 2020 International NV with a Century LoadRight.

The company name, 64 Motor Cars, which is written elegantly on the side of their units just under a sketched image of a race car, sprang from the death of a good friend. Sowden said that when he started the business, he was grappling with a name and didn’t want to use clichés like “luxury” or “white glove” to define his business. Instead, he thought of his friend and co-worker who had died in a car accident at 21. Sowden said, “He drove a race car numbered 64.” In his memory, he took the number as the name for the company.

Graphically, Sowden intended to use a ripped American flag on his units. “But the problem I ran into was that anytime you took the American flag, and you tore it up to make it look like it was ripped, it just never looked right,” he said.

So the wrapped design became a minimal rendition of the American flag, with no stars and red stripes that were turned into tears, on a white background.

Although Sowden entertained the idea of doing custom paint, he discovered after the first (and last) painted unit that paint chips and was more difficult to maintain. He said, “Vinyl is easy. If I sell the truck, I just peel it off. It’s good to go.”

What also sets his units apart are the Conestoga covers made by Quick Draw, which ensure that the specialty vehicles that the company transports are protected from nature’s harsher elements.

He said, “We were the first independent company outside of a dealership to have an enclosed rollback. It’s airtight and keeps the water out.”

With a focus on exclusivity, and a niche with demand, catering to such a business clientele requires having the tools and equipment to execute the job to perfection.

Afterall, someone has to transport that 22 million dollar McLaren F1! Why not 64 Motor Cars?