Richie Herman's 2015 Ford Mustang GT
Richie Herman grew up on Long Island, NY, in a car-loving family (despite them being of the Brand-X variety), and his involvement in the hobby is proof that the automotive apple didn’t fall far from the tree. Working in a body shop as a young man (and eventually marrying the owner’s daughter) certainly helped Richie acquire the skills needed to personalize vehicles, and that’s a big part of the story behind his award-winning 50th Anniversary Package 2015 Ford Mustang GT. Find out the other part by reading Richie’s Mustang story:
“Hi, my name is Richie Herman. As a kid who had parents that were really into cars, it was a no-brainer that I would follow in heir footsteps. My dad was a Road Panther (a hot-rod club in Glen Cove, NY) and my mom drove a 1969 Camaro SS396 until 1979, when she gave it to me for a graduation present. That’s when I got my first real job at Sagamore Auto Body in Oyster Bay, NY. The owner of the shop, Jimmy Brown, took a real liking to me and I got the nickname ‘The Chosen One’ from my co-workers.
“I moved up fast from body man to head painter to eventually running the paint shop. I would do whatever I wanted on my own cars because car shows were a big part of my life. So my boss would let me work on my car, and my mom’s car, being that she went to shows to compete against me. I was there until 1985, left for seven years – and came back. That’s when Jimmy really put trust in me. Fast-forward 1999 -- I became his son-in-law. I was now in charge of the shop and in 2000 I built my 1968 Chevelle in there, which I still have. Fast-forward again, and I started building cars there which, at first, Jimmy wasn’t a fan of doing. He was an old-school collision man, but he trusted me, so some jobs were just body and paint and some were complete builds.
“When he started seeing powder-coated chassis’ coming back to me and chromed-out engines in the shop, he got into it and pushed me more. He was proud of what was I was doing. But in 2007 I bought my first Ford Mustang GT. My mom was sick and I wanted her to drive it because she could drive a stick. It was white and I wanted to stripe the car for her, so she helped picking out the blue for the stripes. But after she passed away, I held off on striping it. Then my dad (who worked at B&R Performance) came to me and said, ‘Here are the mufflers mom wanted on that Mustang … and you better stripe it.’ Once again, Jimmy was in favor and said for me to do it, so over that Thanksgiving weekend I did it. When Jimmy saw it he said, ‘Hey, stripe under the hood -- make it nice.’
“Now fast-forward to 2010; Jimmy sold the business. My wife and I wanted to buy it from him, but the taxes on it were too high. I was upset -- but now I’m glad things have worked out the way they did. Fast-forward to July of 2015, when my wife and I found this 50th Anniversary 2015 Mustang GT on a dealer lot. My wife wanted to buy it for me, and I said sure – I like the white because I’m thinking I’m gonna’ stripe it like my ’07. So she spoke to her dad, Jimmy, and he told her, ‘No -- I want to buy it for Richie!’ When she told me that, I was lost for words. She said he wanted to talk to me. When I met with Jimmy, he simply asked, ‘You want it?’ I said, ‘Yes I do.’ And he replied, ‘O.K., I’m buying it for you.’
“I was blown away. I got the car, and right into the garage it went. Jimmy would watch me work on it, always wanting to know what was being done on it. At one cruise night, my father said to him, ‘Jimmy, that was real nice of you to buy Richie that car.’ And Jimmy said, ‘He deserves it.’ In 2016, I entered it in a show which you had to qualify for, and it won a 6-foot-tall trophy! When I got home, Jimmy was there with tears in his eyes. I knew then that this car was very special in Jimmy’s eyes. Now Jimmy lives in Florida, and asks about the car all the time.
“I’ve won over 50 1st-Place awards with this Mustang, and never had a car that did this well at show. But my first 100-point award came at the big NY AutoFest show, of which I’m very proud. The late Leo Cerruti, then-owner of NY AutoFest show, would sometimes say to others, ‘If you want to win, go look at Richie’s car.’ We didn’t have shows in 2020, as the pandemic made it a bad year; we lost Leo to COVID (RIP, Leo). Hopefully as we move well into 2021 we can again have car shows, so that I can again tell Jimmy the Mustang is winning awards again. I owe a ‘Thank You’ to Jimmy for his trust in me all these years, and for pushing me while we had Sagamore Auto Body. I thank you for this, Jimmy, and I’m glad I have made you proud!
“Now, for the list of mods of my 2015 50th Anniversary Package Mustang GT: I kept the interior stock, except for a Shelby steering wheel and Shelby shifter. On the undercarriage, I added Eibach Sportline springs, BMR sway bars and K-member brace, J&M Vertical Links, with Steeda jacking rails, Magnaflow ‘Foose Edition’ exhaust, and a Barton shifter mount. The body has a Foose hood scoop and rear spoiler, an RTR side splitter, and a custom front splitter that I made. Engine is mechanically stock, but I modified the appearance, giving it a little pro-touring look. Everything is smooth-out painted. The car rides on CS40 Shelby wheels, 20x9-inch in the front and 20x10-inchers in the rear, with Nitto tires, 255-35-20’s up front and 295-35-20’s out back. And that’s the story of why I have this special 2015 Mustang. And it’s all thanks to Jimmy Brown, my wife, Linda, and my daughter, Kayla, -- for always pushing me to do more!”
(photo credit: Ford Performance)
