Contributed by Russ Muller Photography
It started simply enough. I was at the car show in New Smyrna Beach when a coral-colored ’58 Chrysler 300 caught my eye. As I was checking it out, the owner struck up a conversation with me. After chatting about his car for a little bit, he walked me over to look at his son’s ’70 Hemi Road Runner convertible that was parked nearby. We chatted some more, and he invited me to contact him for a tour of his private car collection. That’s how I met Bob Shearer and learned about the S40 Collection…
Fast forward a couple of weeks, and I was in Mims, Florida getting a private tour of a roughly 150 car collection that represented the golden era of Detroit iron, from the mid ‘50’s through the early ‘70’s. The cars ranged from a ’55 Bel Air convertible, to a ’62 409 Impala to two (yes two) Plymouth Superbirds, and lots of great Cadillacs, Buicks, Fords, Oldsmobiles, Pontiacs and more. Bob was a gracious tour guide, and he let me explore the collection with camera in hand. As a thank you, I made a photo book of some of the shots I had taken and sent it to him. That started 
communication between the two of us, and a short while later he asked if I would be interested in shooting some of the cars for him, as he was planning to thin out the collection a bit. I thought to myself “hmm…I not only get to document a fantastic collection of cars, some of which are cars I’ve never seen before, and I will get paid to do it. Yes!” That’s how I got the opportunity to shoot the S40 Collection…
Before I met Bob, I had never had such a large scale photography job and didn’t really know what to expect. On Day 1, I showed up at his property and there were two cars cleaned, prepped and parked in front of the showroom building. I talked with Bob for a while, and when it was time to start shooting the cars I asked him how I could get the cars positioned where I wanted them. His response: “You know how to drive, don’t you?” I knew at that moment that this one going to be a really cool gig. I shot a ’56 Eldorado and a ’58 Eldorado Seville that day, and made friends with Mickey the shop dog…
Over the course of roughly two years, I went out to the S40 Collection and shot cars when both of our schedules allowed. When I went on Fridays, Bob took me to lunch with the other staff that was working on the collection. I wound up shooting a total of 98 cars from the collection. Most were Bob’s, some belonged to his son Kevin, all great representations of “automotive Americana,” as Bob called it. I had an amazing amount of freedom to shoot the cars where I wanted to on
property, and the trust he placed in me with his collection was amazing. Bob passed away unexpectedly in 2016. All of the cars have since been sold, so the S40 Collection no longer exists. I bought one of the cars, and there are a handful of others that are still in central Florida. Every time I see one, I am reminded of a very unique collection, and a very unique person. You never know who you might meet at a car show…
