Tuesday, February 4, 2014

How Jerry Seinfeld chose a 1967 Volvo 1800S for “Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee”

Readers of Hemmings Sports & Exotic Car are familiar with John Holtzapple, president of the Volvo Club of America and the longtime caretaker of a beautiful 1967 1800S. John had let slip, last fall, that something special was happening with his car, but it wasn’t until last week that we saw it for ourselves: It was the ride of Jerry Seinfeld and Tina Fey in the weekly web series, Comedians In Cars Getting Coffee.

We asked Lancaster, Pennsylvania, resident John to tell us how this came to be, and he kindly shared the story:
Jerry’s production company in New York wrote an email to the Volvo clubs asking if an owner of a 1967 1800 would be interested in making their car available for a video cast. I responded for VCOA, asking which color and features and what dates it would be needed, saying that we had many members who might consider offering theirs. I mentioned Irv’s car, and that I had a red ’67.
They wrote back asking for photos of mine, then wrote again a day later saying that Jerry wanted to see more photos of the interior. After that, they said he was interested in my car, and asked if it would be available ‘so and so’ days for filming. After some back ‘n forth emails and phone calls, we worked out a ‘rental’ agreement and finalized the transportation, by them, for the car to – and back – from New York City. They took it on a Sunday afternoon, for filming on Monday and Tuesday, with overnight storage at the Classic Car Club of Manhattan facility. Filming went great on Monday, but Tina became unavailable to finish the shoot on Tuesday. They returned the car on Tuesday night as promised, and picked it back up again the next week for one more day of filming. Everything went off without a hitch, it was returned no worse for wear.

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