The UnderGround Car Garage That Will Shock You

For those who are big into BMWs, this is the guy that will make you jealous. His name is Peter Gleeson, a car collector living in Seattle. For the most part, the cars Gleeson owns are BMWs and include some of the rarest models that you don’t regularly see. While he is mainly known for his rare BMWs, he appreciates all types of cars. Even more impressive than the cars themselves are the stories that belong to each car he owns. And the awards, trophies, and medals each car has earned. Gleeson is also a very true storyteller. He can tell you the smallest detail about each car he owns.

Gleeson’s collection of BMWs is arguably the best in U.S. Gleeson’s current collection includes many BMW M1s, a handful of BMW 3.0 CSLs, with countless extremely rare Alpina Models. Including a very special car which is the only rally-spec built by the factory that was named the “Batmobile”. And also one of the first 2002 turbo models ever built. In addition to other BMW models, Gleeson owns one of the first 2002 race cars built by Alpina. The 2002 BMW Racecar Gleeson owns was one of the few that made it through without getting wrecked or replaced with non-OEM parts. Gleeson tried his best to keep the car original since it would have some damaged parts after many years. He also owns other brands of cars such as Bentleys, Mercedes, Ford GT, Plymouth SuperBird, Aston Martin, and Jaguar E-type.

One of the most famous cars that Gleeson has in his collection is Frank Stella’s BMW M1 Art car. Even those who are not deeply into cars know about this car because it was hand-painted by the artist and is very popular across the nation. The car attracted considerable attention. And while the M1 Procar remains the only other example painted by a BMW-commissioned artist. In 1999 The Guggenheim Museum estimated its value at 2.1 million dollars, not including the vehicle itself. Another eye-catching car was the one out of only 7, JPS liveried, Race-spec 6 series built for Australia. He also owns the 1975 BMW 3.3 Li, Which was painted by the artist Dexter Brown. 

Some of the cars that Gleeson owns have been previously owned by celebrities, racers, artists, and members of sporting clubs. A car that he owns has a very interesting backstory, Is the 1989 BMW Z1. Which was previously owned by the vice-chairman of the Chelsea Football Club, Matthew Harding. That was in a 1996 helicopter crash. Gleeson had bought the car from his estate. And when the car was delivered he found out that the keyring had been melted into the key itself. Which has been in Harding’s pocket at the time of the crash. While others would replace the key, Gleeson decided to keep the keyring melted into the key which is very unique.

The central theme of Gleeson’s collection is art. His collection is top-tier in quality but it makes up for the collection lacking in quantity. Gleeson also stated that “ To me, a collection with a purpose is much more special than just acquiring as many expensive cars as possible.” Not only was his collection artistic but it also felt like a museum. Even if it was an art piece hanging on the walls or a car, I wanted to photograph every little thing in the collection. Everything that was in that garage was truly a masterpiece.