Earl Trammell began working on cars in 1960, fixing up wrecked vehicles out of a four-car garage. He then worked his way to open his own shop on 6th Avenue South, in Birmingham’s Southside neighborhood, in the 1980s.

Throughout his professional life, Trammell collected cars, viewing vehicles as investments.

The Warrior resident, who died in May 2022 at age 88, stored the vehicles in places ranging from the basements of investment properties he purchased to a barn.

The world did not know of Trammell’s extensive collection of hardly used vehicles — which included a 1998 Indy Pace Car with 23 miles on the odometer — and worth roughly a collective $1 million.

Until a few months ago, when Trammell’s widow, Patricia Trammell, settled his estate, selling the vehicles to Alabama car wholesaler John Pierce and Pierce’s business partner, car enthusiast and radio show host John Clay Wolfe.

Wolfe, CEO of the car buying website GiveMeTheVIN.com, featured the collection — and Trammell’s barn — on his YouTube channel.

Trammell’s widow sold Pierce and Wolfe a 1996 Porsche about 1 1/2 years ago. She called the partners recently to tell them she was trying to unload a 1997 Corvette with only 100 miles on it.

“It turned into they wanted to go ahead and get rid of the collection of cars that they had for years,” Pierce said.

Wolfe said the barn’s looks were deceiving.

“It was a tiny little barn in Alabama that looked ridiculous. Like, you would never expect there’s a million dollars worth of cars there,” he said. “Well, there was.”

Pierce and Wolfe negotiated with Patricia Trammell and wired her funds the next day to begin taking possession of the 22 vehicles purchased between the 1970s and 1990s.

Since the cars were not driven, it would be dangerous to start them. Pierce and Wolfe had to move the vehicles on rollers.

The cars don’t need much maintenance, however, and it doesn’t make sense to make them “wet,” or add radiator fluid, oil or fuel to them, according to Wolfe.

“These cars that are new from 1971, 1978, there’s no reason to make them wet because the odds are they’re going to live the rest of their lives in a museum or a collection,” he said. “Right now, its going to be our collection because I’m selling nothing. This is the biggest day I’ve had in a long time, I’m really excited.”

Wolfe said he and his business partner are conflicted about the next steps for the collection.

“He’s gonna want to sell them and I don’t wanna sell them … I’m not gonna screw him out of anything, but I don’t want to sell them,” Wolfe said.

The radio show host and entrepreneur noted that some of the vehicles’ interiors are still wrapped in plastic. Others still have their window stickers attached.

“This is the goofiest thing I’ve seen in my career. I’ve been doing this 31 years, I’ve never seen anything like this,” he said. “I may be like the crazy old guy that bought them. I may die, and the next time that y’all here about them is when I die and people are coming to scoop them out of my barn. This is by far the biggest find of my career.”

John Hollander, Earl Trammell’s brother-in-law, said Earl Trammell began rebuilding 1957 Chevrolets.

“He would just buy Corvettes and put them up, brand new. We’d buy houses and he’d put them in basements,” Hollander said.

Earl Trammell would also store the vehicles in warehouses, which became full.

When Earl Trammer died last year, Hollander said he encouraged his sister to sell his brother-in-law’s collection.

“These cars need to be out where people can see them,” he said.