Wayne Carini, Steering Through Life
by Wayne Carini
Seventeen seasons of Wayne Carini filming Chasing Classic Cars that aired on the Discovery Channel in addition to entering and showing cars at myriad events and concours leading to being invited to judge or be grand marshal at others all contributed to Carini’s face becoming widely recognized, netting still more special appearances. He’s seemingly everywhere and now he’s written a book published by Dalton Watson Fine Books.
It could easily and accurately be observed that Carini was born into the life he subsequently lived. His dad restored cars for a living. “As a teenager my love for cars entered a new phase. . . . I attended school during the week and helped out dad in his shop, but working on my own cars was much more fun.” Following graduating from college, he went to work fulltime with his father in the family business in which he eventually became a partner then, several years on after his father’s retirement, its full owner.
Wayne attended his first AACA Fall Hershey Swap Meet in 1957 when he was only six and Hershey in but its second year. Those earliest years are remembered photographically with the ’29 Lincoln Touring (r) and 1915 Saxon Roadster (l) his dad restored.
So ensued a life filled with all types of interesting cars and interesting people—for truly for Carini there isn’t a car he doesn’t like! And he seems to get on easily with people. But it was meeting one man, a fellow native Connecticuter (sounds fanciful but if an authority like Merriam-Webster sanctions it, who are we to quibble? In fact, all the various permutations you’ll find in this review are in actual use!) named Jim Astrausky that really changed life for Carini.
Astrausky owned a television production company providing programming to the Discovery Channel. He’d read an article in the New York Times Donald Osborne had written on Carini and thought it had potential for a program. They filmed a couple of specials and it didn’t take long before a contract was signed with Discovery’s HD Theater Channel. Little could they guess that Chasing Classic Cars was destined for a 17-year run. Selected stories from those years fill the balance of the book.
Filming sufficient shows that would air for 17 seasons meant a lot of travel but also made Carini’s face very familiar to many.
Filming segments took Carini and Astrausky and the film crew everywhere. They filmed Amelia Island Concours founder Bill Warner, not in Florida but on Bonneville’s Salt Flats where he had to “demonstrate to the officials he could scramble out of the cockpit in less than 30 seconds wearing all his safety gear” which included a HANS head-restraint device.
Lowell Paddock beside Wayne Carini in Wayne’s 1910 Baker Electric with which these two Connecticutians were attending the 2020 Lime Rock Concours.
Wayne and crew traveled to and with Martin Swig’s California Mille, Bob Sutherland’s Colorado Grand, the London–Brighton Run, and Arizona Men’s Arts Council’s Copperstate 1000 among others. With the book so generously populated by Connecticutlets it was impossible not to notice no mention though of prominent Connectikites Rich and Jean-Constantine Taylor and their annual trips and tours operated under their company Vintage Rallies name. But then, this is Carini’s book and whom he chooses to include or not is his to decide and determine.
In all respects my assessment is this book is a memoir not an autobiography for it truly doesn’t tell Wayne Carini’s life story but is a means for him to tell stories he wants to tell and, as observed above, tell them in the way he wants to tell them. Although you won’t discover this next until the closing page of his narrative (or from reading this review), Carini concludes his book with: “And I know that there will be many questions, especially about the stories behind the stories of Chasing Classic Cars. And those are stories I look forward to telling in my next book.” So, he’s well aware that this book leaves unanswered questions.
Chapter titles hint at what Carini tells about as does the sampling of interior photos on opposite page.
Another aspect of the book that isn’t revealed until the next to last page is that its subject and author had editorial assistance. From what is recorded on that page it reads as though it likely was considerable assistance. Following revealing the book had at its origin the suggestion for writing coming from Dalton Watson’s owner Glyn Morris, Carini writes “John Nikas began work on this book, but it was ultimately completed by Lowell Paddock. Without Lowell’s patient but persistent prodding, it would probably never have been completed.” Thus it leaves this reviewer wondering why that assistance isn’t acknowledged on either the title or masthead pages.
It should be noted that John Nikas had previously contributed to the 2021-published book Wayne Carini’s Guide to Affordable Classics. But with Nikas located on the West Coast and Carini in his native Connecticut, it’s easy to understand how the geographically more convenient fellow Nutmeg State resident Lowell Paddock might have become involved. Especially now that Paddock, retired from his years with General Motors following editorship at Automobile Quarterly, is executive director of the Lime Rock Concours and a contributing editor to Sports Car Market magazine.
Thus this book is light entertaining reading, generously and nicely illustrated with beaucoups different and diverse cars and people with whom Wayne Carini has shared some motoring experiences and adventures.
Copyright 2025 Helen V Hutchings (speedreaders.info)
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