DEFINITION OF ECLECTIC; AN INDIANA CAR NUT DRIVES WHAT HE LIKES, AND HE LIKES A LOT.(NEWS)

Byline: PHIL BERG

"I have a whole room of trophies, says car collector Tim Durham, "but I don't really know what they're for. I don't know which cars they're for or what the awards are.

Durham has about 45 classic and exotic cars in the home garage that he designed. Some were winners at Pebble Beach and other concours, and some are one-of-a-kind masterpiecessuch as the Elvis Presley Spinout movie car, a 1929 Duesenberg J dual-cowl custom monsterand he likes to show them.

He gets a huge kick out of letting people see what he has in his garage. But what he likes even more is sitting up for most of the night with total car nuts, such as Rob Myers, the founder of RM Auctions, talking about cars, people, roads, parts, drives, deals, artwork and everything else that makes car life good.

So, sometimes he misses appointments with concours judges at 7:30 a.m. and doesn't get to explain why his expertly restored examples of fantastic automotive historyDuesen-bergs, Auburns, Packards, Aston Martinshave unusual paint, upholstery and mechanical equipment. Durham would rather mingle with other car nuts and listen to why they have their particular fetishes about Packards or Ferraris or Jaguars. He loves learning about cars he doesn't haveyet.

Durham grew up in Indiana, where a newspaper route enabled him to buy his first car, a Fiat X1/9, at age 16. That spunky mid-engine targa fueled his passion for sports cars, yet he would also develop an intense interest in classics and bizarre, offbeat creations, such as a Milt Brown-designed Monza Spyder, a fake Mercedes-Benz SL gullwing with a modern V8, a fake boattail Auburn Speedster manufactured by a company he once owned and a weird chopped street rod a la Boyd Coddington called a Zephyr. Durham's collection defines esoteric.

About five years ago, he purchased a five-acre parcel on a 10-acre lake in rural Indiana, because there was room for his ...