It started when Harry was 14 years old and traded a horse for a Whizzer motorbike. He never looked back (or owned another horse since). His first sports car was a 1953 Jaguar XK120 that he purchased for $795.00 in 1959. The collection started around 1970 when he purchased about 20 cars of various makes and models including Porsche, Ferrari, Mercedes and Jaguar. After years of racing off-road motorcycles, Harry had the urge to race cars. In 1978 he entered track events in his Porsche 928. In 1984 he started vintage road racing in a Lotus 51 Formula Ford and soon after followed his son Greg and daughter Pam.

In 1985, Harry founded Vintage Sales LLC, a licensed Colorado used car dealer, for the sole purpose of buying and selling sports cars, race cars and collector cars. Since then, Vintage Sales has built a worldwide as a reliable source of top quality cars, and has sold and shipped cars all over the world.

Specializing in McLaren Cars, Vintage Sales is recognized as a top authority worldwide. The attraction to McLarens started in 1987 when Harry and Greg were racing at Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin. While there, they saw a 1967 McLaren M1C for sale. They followed the seller home to Kansas and brought back the first of approximately 20 different McLaren models to pass through the collection having as many as 15 at one time.

McLarens were successful in Can-Am/Group7, Formula One, Formula 5000, and at Indy. McLaren dominated the Can-Am series of the late sixties and early seventies winning five championships in row from 1967-1971. Bruce won his first Can-Am title in 1967 at the wheel of his new monocoque chassis M6A-1 which is one of four special McLaren models that are the cornerstones of the collection.

The others being the 1969 M6GT street car which was the only purpose built street car built under the direction of Bruce McLaren at the werks factory. This prototype road car was Bruce's personal car and has only 2007 miles showing on the odometer. Most of them put on by Bruce during testing prior to his untimely death in June of 1970.

Next is the 1972 M20-003 Can-Am car which was the last Can-Am car built by McLaren and the 1965 M1A-1 which was the first customer McLaren car built. The M1A was driven by Graham Hill in the U.S. Times Grand Prix and later by Elvis Presley in the movie "Spin Out" produced in 1966. Harry believes the M20 is the prettiest race car ever built and it is hard to argue. Harry says "It is an honor to own and drive these exceptional pieces of history".

McLaren's M16 series of Indy cars were also very successful throughout the seventies finishing on the podium 9 of 11 times at the Indy 500 from 1972-1981 with a couple of wins in that span. They also ran Formula One and Formula 5000 at the same time. Bruce's secret to success was through testing and attention to detail. He came ready to race while many competitors did their testing at the race events, often meeting with poor results.

Although Harry never met Bruce personally, he was fortunate to meet Denny Hulme at Road America in 1992 just a few short months before Denny died. Harry saw both Bruce and Denny race in the Can-Am event at Road America in 1967. He never dreamed that over thirty years later, the Mathews Collection would have the honor of helping to keep the McLaren legacy and incredible race history alive through the stewardship of these fabulous cars. Over the years, Bruce's immediate family, including his daughter Amanda and his sister Jan, have toured the collection and have been a wealth of information, help and advice. For that, the Mathews Collection is forever indebted.

All of the McLarens in the collection are fully operational and most are race ready. Several make the annual trip to the Can-Am re-union at Road America where race fans and potential customers have the opportunity to see these cars in action on the track they where they raced 40 years ago.

The collection is not open to the general public; however, tours are scheduled several times a year to accommodate the requests from local car clubs and car enthusiasts alike. Cars for sale can be viewed during normal business hours, or by appointment.