DRIVEN TO COLLECT
THE TOM ELLISON COLLECTION
STORY | Steve Clayton
PHOTOGRAPHY | Brian Smale
Car collecting can sometimes seem like big-game hunting – the acquisition of trophies to put on the wall and admire – or in this case, in a temperature-controlled garage beyond the gaze of those who admire them the most. Unless your name is Tom Ellison that is. His collection does indeed sit in a temperature-controlled garage but every one of the cars gets regularly driven. If not, it gets sold and replaced with something that will be driven. There can’t be many collectors who would sell their Mercedes 300 SL roadster while keeping a 1961 Austin Seven Mini. Tom Ellison doesn’t collect cars as trophies, he collects cars to drive them.
In fact, he doesn’t really consider the cars he owns to be a collection. What is a collection he asks… answering his own question by saying “when you have more than one, I guess?”
Ellison’s collecting began where many begin – with Porsches. His first 911 was a 1979 911 SC that he leased and fondly remembers the exterior color as Casablanca Beige Metallic matched with a cork leather interior. When talking with Ellison, it quickly becomes apparent that not only does he drive the cars in his collection but that he also knows each of them intimately. As you scratch the surface beyond his innate humility you find a collector who can tell you the history of each car, whether it has been restored or is original and the precise color and lineage of the model. Where others wouldn’t, he sees the subtle differentiation in paint where his tangerine 1968 Porsche 912 Coupe has had light restoration. And, like any good petrol head he knows his BHP, but not simply for the sake of reeling off stats. He’ll often take two cars of similar output for a drive with friends around Mercer Island both for enjoyment but also to compare how cars can achieve the same effect in very different ways… say with a 2006 Lotus Elise and a 1973 Ferrari Dino 246 GTS.
It’s the range of Ellison’s collection that catches the eye when you first look upon it. The most modern car is a Carrera White 2020 Porsche Taycan Turbo S while the most recent addition to the collection sits at the other end of the age spectrum. A black, 1957 BMW 507 roadster that was acquired from Bring A Trailer. The 507 holds a place of pride on a turntable inside the garage and when fired up creates a noise that is in stark contrast to the Taycan that hummed stealthily by when the Ellison family departed for a dinner engagement at the end of our shoot.
He was in no rush to leave though, eager to tell the story of each vehicle and how he acquires them. Tom admits that he’s never consciously looking to add anything to the collection until he sees something that piques his interest, such as a Minerva Blue 1978 Porsche 911 SC. He admits too that color certainly plays a part in the Porsche’s in the collection. He has a soft spot for the Irish Green of the 1965 911 as well as the Lizard Green of the 2019 911 GT3 RS that sites alongside the orange 997 GT3 RS (he confirms that the earlier car is the “keeper” of the two). His Porsche collection extends from a 1976 Ice Green Metallic 930 Turbo, to an immaculate Champagne Yellow 356 SC and a Mint Green 1982 911 SC Outlaw that appears to bark when not even fired up. Then there is the 1989 930 Turbo Cabrio (Guards Red), a white 911 Turbo S Cabrio of 2018 vintage, and a 1961 356B in Grey that sits a few rows from the 911 S 2.0 Targa in Polo Red. It’s almost easy to miss the 2016 Racing Yellow Cayman GT4.
Each car is ready to roll – and they need to be as every morning the owner strolls across to his garage, picks a car and drives it to work or meetings in downtown Seattle. The Irish Green 911 had been the pick on the day we talked. No trickle chargers clutter the garage either as each car is turned over every few days and meticulously cared for.
Across from the main garage is a smaller space for family vehicles with one unusual addition, a 1972 Citroen ID21 Station Wagon of a light blue and white distinction. On most roads the 2015 Ferrari 458 Speciale Aperta (Bianco Avus with Bleu Stripes) or the Blu Pozzi Ferrari F8 Tributo in Ellison’s collection would likely grab the attention of passers-by. But on Mercer Island, which is home to quite a number of Maranello’s finest, one can’t help wondering if the Citroen may be the head turner of the bunch.
There’s no doubt that the BMW 507 will turn heads when it gets selected for the lap of the island. Sitting still, next to an Austin Mini that is four years its senior, you can’t help but marvel at the curves of this stunning example that is one of only 250 ever built. Sporting Dunlop disc brakes and a 3.2-liter aluminum V8 it fires up on first turn of the key and glides off the turntable and out to the baking concrete and timber fir backdrop of Proctor Landing, home to Ellison and his family along with the collection of cars. It’s a stunning canvas on which to admire this automotive array and in which to hear another V-configured motor cackle into action as the V6 Ferrari Dino joins the BMW in the driveway. The Ferrari’s classic, black and red interior and gated stick shift invite you to slip inside, though it’s hard to tear yourself away from the beauty of this car from the outside. Ellison talks glowingly of the freshness of the car even alongside modern-day Ferrari’s and how it runs well even after sitting for a few months over the winter, noting that it doesn’t even require any choke to fire it up.
When pushed on which three cars Ellison himself could not tear himself away from he pauses, observing that he is more often asked which is his favorite car of the collection. After some deliberation, the final three are not, on paper, the ones you may expect. The Lotus Elise makes the list, as does the Dino, at which point Ellison notes that he’s picked two mid-engine cars which may have influenced his third choice, a Porsche. It’s the only Porsche in the collection that wasn’t in the garage during our visit – an Ivory White 1973 Porsche 911S. He picks it because “it’s fast, it’s a great looking car, it’s a great touring car and has air conditioning for the summer.” In hindsight, there was never any doubt a Porsche would make the list and Ellison follows up by admitting that 50% of anything he will buy in the future will be a Porsche. And they will all be driven – just as the 911S was when Ellison showed it at Luftgekühlt in April 2019 at the Universal Studios backlot in Los Angeles and then promptly drove it back home to Seattle.
As our conversation winds down, we take a stroll through the collection – talking about a few we’ve missed such as the silver 1960 Austin Healey Sprite Bugeye and how it drives so differently to the Mini and how the Lotus Elise has the same power to weight ratio as a Ferrari 430. Another Lotus, a yellow 1965 Elan S2, sits with its British brethren at that end of the garage before giving way to the sea of Porsches before the Italian wing arrives – the aforementioned modern Ferrari’s and Dino joined by an elegant Bleu 1966 Ferrari 330 GTC. It’s a collection that is wonderfully eclectic and lovingly considered and cared for.
One car will soon join the collection and perhaps be the bookend to where things started with that 911 SC. A 1991 Singer Porsche 911 has been in production for over four years, and it’ll be that same color – Casablanca Beige Metallic – a fitting homage but one suspects not truly a bookend to this living, driven, collection. We look forward to a hot lap of Mercer Island in the Singer with you, Tom.
