Luxury Car Dealer Arthur Kar Details His 5 Most Important Rides
Arthur Kar, pictured at L’Art de L’Automobile in Paris, where he showcases upwards of 50 rare makes and models.
As the founder of the Paris-based used-car dealership L’Art de L’Automobile, ARTHUR KAR tracks down and sells high-wattage whips to an even higher-wattage client list. But for the 36-year-old native of Beirut, the access that comes with being a merchant of motors to the rich and famous is just a byproduct of his profound appreciation for the thing he fell in love with while hanging out in his father’s garage. An avid racer with an enviable fleet himself, Kar hits the brakes just long enough to tell us about five cars that mean the most to him.
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1982 VW GOLF GTI in MARS RED
“Growing up in Lebanon, I never said the word ‘car.’ I said ‘Golf.’ My father owned one, and I looked up to people older than me who drove that car. I was a fan of the people who were driving them as much as I was a fan of some basketball players. The Golf is the one car that people were using in every single community and across every single class. It was the People’s Car.”
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2004 PORSCHE CARRERA GT in GT SILVER METALLIC
“This is a complicated car to drive. It teaches you to be better with yourself, like learning to be better at a sport. You have to play every single week. Every time I drive fast in this car, I still feel like I don’t know it yet. It makes me want to do more kilometers on the track.”
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1989 FERRARI MYTHOS in ROSSO CORSA
“The Mythos was built by Ferrari as a prototype, and Bburago, which was a little toy car company, made some, too. I grew up having that little car in my room. I like cars with a unique design and the Mythos is one of them. If I have a chance to buy it one day, I won’t be the kind of guy who puts it in my room and watches it while I’m sleeping. I want to drive it and go eat kebab with my friends in it.”
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2019 PORSCHE 911 GT2 RS in GUARDS RED
“When I worked at Porsche, I thought, ‘One day I hope I’m going to have one.’ This is the first Porsche I bought for myself, brand new. I always wanted to have a Porsche in red, because it’s a dangerous car. It’s super powerful, super technical, super nice to drive, and has a super-simple shape. It’s like buying the iPhone 25.”
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1999 Mini Cooper S 1300 in BRITISH RACING GREEN
“It’s kind of crazy, what I’m about to say, but it’s how I’ve always felt: For me, every single car has its own energy. You can see a car and you can go inside it and you don’t know why you’re attracted to it, but you are because of the energy the car has. There are so many Mini Coopers on the market, but when I saw the one I have now, I said, ‘Okay, that’s the one I’m connected to. It’s the one I‘m going to buy.’”
