Some businesspeople find a hobby of model railroads hits the spot; for others, it’s knitting. Some people collect rare, cult films and memorabilia.
And then there are people like Kurtis Kammerer, vice president of sales strategy for Supportworks. Kammerer is a guy who takes his passion for cars to fast and furious extremes.
While most people are drawn to what’s new, what’s shiny, what’s now, Kammerer values age over flashy new bells and whistles.
“I’m 58 and so the kind of cars that I love the most are some of the ones that were around when I was a kid,” said Kammerer. “I’ve always had some sort of car, or dozen. There are my Hot Rods, my fun stuff; and so, I find that I can appreciate new cars, but I find them rather boring to just drive.”
One car that seems to get a lot of attention is the 1966 Ford Squire he will drive to the office. The Ford Squire might not seem like an executive vehicle; after all, station wagons are more often associated with running children to soccer practice. The Squire was a stalwart among wagons. They were first produced in 1950 and last produced in 1978 and are sometimes known as “woodies.” For the 1966, Ford reportedly standardized front and rear seat belts, gave the car a padded dashboard and sun visors, a deep-dish steering wheel, reinforced door latches, and emergency flash signals.
Kammerer regularly rotates the cars he has at home, as well as those at his shop, driving different cars to the office, at home, on the weekends.
For Kammerer, choosing a car to drive can affect his mood and routine for the entire day; just like how the clothes one chooses can set the perfect tone.
“You’re like, ‘Oh, do I want to wear jeans or pants; or do I want to wear these boots or these,’” Kammerer asserted. “Yes, that’s how I look at my cars. It kind of defines my day. And I’m like, ‘Ya know what? It’s a convertible day! I want to get my old convertible out!’”
Kammerer’s explanation for choosing which vehicle he’ll drive, such as the much-ballyhooed ’66 Squire, may seem to the casual passerby as complex as a Facebook algorithm.
Yet, the simplicity of his response is as refreshing as it is, in hindsight, kind of obvious: The cars Kammerer chooses reflects his mood and routine for the day, like how the way one’s clothes can set the tone for how positive, or positively awful, the day may get.
Then again, who doesn’t like attracting a little attention, now and then? Well, for Kammerer, the attention, the stares, are nearly constant.
“It’s almost impossible for people … to not come up to me and say, either ‘my parents had one of those when I was a kid, and we’d vacation,’ or ‘my friend’s parents, or my aunt or uncle [drove this car or that],” said an enthused Kammerer. “My wife loves to travel, and I love driving my old cars. So, we combine [the two], every year, for about 10 days, and road trip. As to where? We don’t really pick a route; we just head out.”
At the end of the road, Kammerer said, it’s less about visiting places unknown than it is about meeting faces unknown.
“If I pull up in a mid-’60s Mercedes or one of these wagons, or my old Corvettes, somebody’s going to come up, and want to talk about the car,” Kammerer said. “While some people would find that hugely annoying, I love meeting people!”
This article originally appeared in the February/March 2025 issue of B2B Magazine. To receive the magazine, click here to subscribe.
