Clive Cussler and Dirk Pitt Revealed By Clive Cussler with Craig ...

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All the photos on all the jackets were shot on a lawn across the street from my warehouse. On two
occasions, we were lucky because it snowed the night before, allowing the colors of the cars really to
burst forth. I damn near got frostbite standing beside the cars for three hours because I couldn't walk
around and make footprints. As far as I know, I'm one of the few authors who oversee the print and
layout of their book jackets.
CRAIG DIRGO:Let's talk about your cars.
CLIVE CUSSLER:I'm often asked if Pitt and I own the same cars. In most cases, yes. In the earlier
books, he drove a Maybach-Zeppelin and an AC Cobra, which I do not own. He also has a Ford
Trimotor aircraft and a Messerschmidt 262 jet fighter that I lack.
Unlike Pitt, I own no airplanes. I tried to buy an old Ford Trimotor one time, but the elderly fellow
who owned the aircraft wanted two million dollars for it, and I barely had enough to buy the landing
wheels.
Nor do I own an old aircraft hangar to store my car collection like Dirk Pitt. My cars are stored in a
warehouse near Denver. They are maintained by Keith Lowden and Ron Posey, who operate a
restoration business on one end of the building. The cars are taken out and driven occasionally, then
stored with all gas and batteries removed.
Beginning withDeep Six , I loaned Pitt the blue Talbot-Lago. I blew this car up in the book and was
amazed at the five letters I received asking if I really demolished the car. I assured the readers by
answering that the car was alive and well and living in a warehouse in Colorado.
I've been a car nut since I was eight and saw my first town car, a body style where the chauffeur used
to sit in the open while the passenger was enclosed.
The first car in my collection is a 1946 Ford Deluxe that my wife spotted for sale in the front yard of a
farm during a Sunday drive.
"Oh, look," she said, "there's a '46 club coupe like I had in high school."