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Literally born into the car business and to a father with a sports car racing background, William C.W. "Chip" Lamb was urged to follow not in those footsteps but to tackle more pressing issues. Chip's good fortune in having been obstinate saved him from a lifetime of skyscraper window-washing, trash collection or stock and bond trading in Manhattan for a slightly slower pace of life near Richmond, Virginia. While in school in the northeast and southeastern Virginia, Chip successfully started, ran and sold a computer local and wide-area network consultancy and for the past ten years has run the premier parts source for 2-cycle and early 4-stroke SAAB cars. Since 2006, Chip's West of Sweden SAAB has served as the primary restoration consultant and parts vendor to the General Motors Heritage Collection and its subsidiaries in their role as keeper of all Saab USA's 'vintage SAAB' fleet while dealing daily with a client list into the thousands of enthusiasts and repair shops alike. Chip's long affiliation with automobile-related activities also extends to many levels of automotive journalism. During the mid-1990s, Chip wrote on and off for a major national publication as well as numerous automobile clubs as a regular feature columnist, with one of these positions continuing to this day. A few short years ago, Publisher (then Editor) Keith Martin of Sports Car Market came looking for an old SAAB part when he and Chip got to talking about the state of collector vehicle magazines. It was not long after that Martin's Associate Editors hired Chip to fill the prestigious role as a regular Auction Analyst and Contributing Writer for both Sports Car Market and Corvette Market magazines. Chip has also enjoyed a role as a yearly contributor to Classic Motorsports on a few small annual events. Additionally, Chip is regularly asked before every issue for any and all contributions to Hagerty's Cars that Matter for his input on selected marques and their recent increase and decrease in value. Chip's involvement closer to the heart of the collector car auction business took a new step early in 2008 when local auction company principal, Mark Motley, (The Motley's Group) requested Chip's assistance in coordinating a reprise to their runaway success at a collector car auction the previous year. With a tight schedule (under 90 days from initial planning to execution) and with a last-minute technical glitch preventing internet bidding hampering the overall numbers, Chip near singlehandedly brought over 100 collector-quality automobiles to Motley's Richmond Auto Auction location, wrote each car's extensive catalog-quality description and emceed each vehicle prior to the auctioneer opening the bidding. The encouragement and sophistication engendered by Chip during this sale, despite the failure of the internet bidding system, still helped to get a multi-hundred-thousand-dollar result in the face of what might have otherwise been complete and total disaster. Rather than just writing about Monterey 2008, Chip was offered a unique role by auction company superstar Drew Alcazar of Russo and Steele to assist with the organization's Sports and Muscle at the Marriot in August of 2008. Chip's contribution of almost 150 catalog-quality descriptions, often from little to no information provided by individual consignors, combine with his role as Assistant Announcer working in concert with veteran auctioneer and announcer Dennis Wisbey and Frank Bizzarro assisted in Russo and Steele's positive results in an all-reserve format. Drew Alcazar wanted to add a level of sophistication not usually found at his auctions by inviting Chip's involvement and not surprisingly, Alcazar and his team have asked Chip to continue developing their description strategies and imbuing his 'can do' attitude for their annual Scottsdale mega-sale in January, 2009. An active collector, restorer and genuine car enthusiast in his own right, Chip enjoys driving and working on a diverse personal collection of vehicles, including the sole surviving example of a 1940 Nash Ambassador 6 Convertible, a 1967 SAAB Sonett II and a 1983 Pontiac 2000. The latter car does not sound like your everyday collector car and it is not; built from new for the IMSA Champion Spark Plug Challenge, it is a true road racer that was just recently resurrected from the a few years' dormancy and returned to the track during the autumn of 2008.
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