Who are we?

Appreciating Classics was founded by Steve Earl and Richard Beel.
They are both life-long petrol heads and whilst working together at Panel Graphic, Steve’s electronic display company they soon came to realise they had some very similar interests.

Steve and Richard started doing this together as a hobby; buying cars they liked, enjoying them for a few months and then selling them on to fellow enthusiasts. What began as some fun soon snowballed and became something of a vocation. Not only did they have an eye for a nice car, but they both enjoyed the ‘chase’, finding the ‘right’ cars and bringing them back to their former glory.

They quickly spotted the potential for a business; allowing them to enjoy owning lots of lovely cars and share the investment opportunity with fellow enthusiasts. Since then the business has gone from strength to strength, to the point that Richard now runs the business on a day to day basis and it is now his full time job, having left Panel Graphic.
The rest, as they say, is history.

Steve has always been into his cars. From an early age he had pictures of 80’s classics around the walls of his bedroom, including a white MK1 XR2 fiesta and a white Lamborghini Countach.

Today he owns a successful electronics display business with a multimillion pound turnover which is his full time job.
His passion for cars actually inspired him to start his electronics display company, realising that he would never be in a position to afford his dream cars if he worked for someone else.

In the past he has been lucky enough to own many beautiful cars: Porsche 911 GT3s, an Aston Martin and a classic Ferrari to name a few.

However, Steve doesn’t own nice cars for the bragging rights; it’s the cleaning he enjoys the most.

As soon as Richard was old enough to hold a spanner, he was helping build motorcycles for shows. Bikes gave birth to his passion for performance and much like Steve his childhood bedroom was covered with pictures of Supercars (mainly Lamborghini’s) and Ford RS Cosworth’s.

At the age of 14, he owned an extensively modified and tuned Rover SD1, and he started working for a world renowned V8 specialist, where he became familiar with high performance cars, the majority of which were an impressive list of mouth watering classics.
With an impressive history of 80’s & 90’s cult car’s himself, running Appreciating Classics full time allows him to hunt down and enjoy the cars he grew up with.

Holding multiple qualifications for motorcycle and car mechanics, the company allows him to combine his expertise with his ever growing love for all things beautiful, fast and loud.