By Ruth Ann Ruiz
The Post Newspaper Features Editor
“I’m just an old guy that loves old cars,” said Vinnie Tortorella owner of Muscle Cars of Texas.
By age 14 he knew cars were his passion. With borrowed money, he bought his first car, a ’32 Pontiac. “My father and I took it completely apart and restored it to what it had been when it came out of the factory. Then we rented it out for weddings and other events,” said Vinnie.
He worked in his father’s candy shop to pay his sister back $2,500 that she had lent him for his auto purchase.
From there he was on a roll. He had discovered his life’s passion and kept working in the candy shop while learning more about cars and making changes to his friend’s engines so their cars would run faster.
Like other boys of his era, he had put together the typical plastic model cars, painted and detailed them. But that wasn’t out of the norm and really didn’t define his future. It was that moment when he decided to purchase and restore a ‘32 Pontiac that defined who he would become.
Since his first restoration job, restoring old cars has been part of his life regardless of whatever else was going on. He ran his own shop on the East Coast for part of his early adult life and then made his way to Texas.
“In the late 70’s New York was just going down and Texas was booming, plus I’d never have to shovel snow again,” Tortorella explained.
Arriving in Houston he worked for someone else for three months before he opened his own business focusing on restoring Corvettes. He took a 10 year detour and went into ice manufacturing and distribution. “I kept restoring cars on the side while I ran the ice business,” said Tortorella.
Returning to running his own car restoration shop in 1999, he opened a business in Sugar Land. From there he relocated several times as his business expanded and finally ended with his current location in Alvin.
Muscle Cars of Texas takes in vintage autos from all over the country, and he and his staff strip them down, clean all the original parts, send the nuts and bolts and various other metal parts to specialists who replate the parts and making them look brand new. Vinnie and his staff then put the parts back on in the exact place they were originally.
Every inch of the car is restored. The cars are painted and seats are reupholstered. They do everything that is needed to restore the car to what it was when it rolled off of the assembly line.
Though he can restore any car, Vinnie’s specialty is Corvettes. His most recent restore is a ’65 Corvette, Nassau Blue with a white convertible top. The blue and white beauty won a blue ribbon from the National Corvette Restorers Society.
It’s been close to three weeks since Vinnie has been able to work on a car restoration. You can see it in his face something has been missing. He hasn’t gone this long without having his hands engaged in mechanical and body work for as long as he can remember.
Vinnie is on to a new venture for just a bit this summer. He got a call asking him if he would run the car show for Moody Gardens’ first Air, Car, and Boat show.
Vinnie knows cars and he knows a lot of vintage car owners, but he had never been a producer of a car show. The first question he asked the person on the phone was, “well how much time do we have?” The answer was just six weeks.
Time was short but that didn’t scare Vinnie. He jumped into the project as producer of the auto show with both feet and brought all his staff in with him. After all, who wouldn’t want to be a producer of an auto show down on the island?
“We started making phone calls to all the vintage car owners we know,” shared the shop manager. Between the two of them they figure they made over 200 phone calls to line up the inventory needed for the show.
They succeeded in getting the word out—the show will host at least 61 autos in the Moody Gardens Convention Center, which runs from Friday thru Sunday.
The cars range from a 1902 Huntsman Horseless Carriage to a 2022 Corvette. Other cars featured in the show will include Mustangs, Corvettes, vintage pickup trucks, Impalas, vintage Chevy’s, some race cars, and other vintage autos.
After the show is done, most likely Vinnie will head home and relax in his backyard by the pool while he enjoys his grandkids splashing around. Then he’ll be at his shop ready to get his hands on another Corvette for restoration.
