Need A Bulletproof Rolls With Full Bar?

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High-volume sales and mass marketing may be the goal of some small businessmen, but Edward and Thomas O'Gara are happy if they ring up three or four sales a week.

The O'Garas sell exotic cars, customized limousines, armorplated vehicles, and jet planes. Their showroom floor features merchandise like a 1964 Phantom V Rolls Royce for $125,000, a Clenet II limited edition convertible for $83,500, and a Stutz Blackhawk Coupe for $91,500.

This year the brothers expect to gross around $15 million, a 40% gain over last year, and they project sales of $20 million next year as they add more products. While bottom line figures aren't disclosed, Ed, a 38-year-old ex-Navy fighter pilot with a master's in business administration, smiles and says, "The markups are profitable."

The two men started their exotic automobile sales operation, known as the O'Gara Coach Co., three years ago with an initial investment of $30,000. As it turned out, the customers who came by the Beverly Hills showroom had more than transportation on their minds. They also wanted security. The result was O'Gara International Ltd., a spinoff that markets armored vehicles -- standard luxury cars with extras such as bulletproof tires and windows, armorplated sides, and plating under the floor to resist mine blasts. Tom O'Gara, 31, spends half of his time on the road, visiting clients in Saudi Arabia, Manila, London, Oman, and Rome. A company office in Washington, D.C., takes care of sales to foreign diplomats.

From conversations with exotic car shoppers, the O'Garas identified yet another market -- people who aren't satisfied with conventional limousines. The two set up a plant at Canoga Park, Calif., where Lincoln Continentals or Cadillac Fleetwoods are cut in half and extended 42 or 48 inches. Plastic fittings are replaced with walnut, and accessories like a color TV set, videotape recorder, and bar complete with crystal glassware are installed. The price for such a town car is around $67,000, FOB Los Angeles.

"We're in the transportation business," Ed O'Gara says simply, then adds, "in the high end of it."