John staluppi jr biography
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The smell of exhaust hangs in the air from cars starting and rolling out of the massive building onto waiting transport trailers. He also believes the marine industry has plenty it could learn from the car retail trade.
‘The boating business needs to learn how to handle customers like we do in the car business – more customer-friendly building of yachts would make a big change, and I see some of the brokers starting to use car dealer techniques.’
It’s not just the sales and customer relations that make a Staluppi boat special, though: the engineering that supported his early career is still very much his thing.
‘What we bring to a shipyard, no other owner can bring,’ he asserts.
In Staluppi’s boats the plumbing will work, the air-conditioning will vent and drain properly, and you won’t have to ‘rip half the boat apart to get at a pipe’.
But even if everyone starts thinking about it that way, there’s no doubt John Staluppi will still find the method to build remarkable, noteworthy boats.
Originally published: August 2012
UPDATE: Since this interview was first published Staluppi’s car collection was sold off, the vehicles going to different homes.
John Staluppi Charity News
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JOHN STALUPPI PHILANTHROPY
John Staluppi 's successes were never just for him.
‘We pulled the engines out before the boat was finished and went to MTUs and water-jets. I like that they have fuel injection; carburetors are a pain in the ass.
Biography - Lunch with… superyacht owner John Staluppi
Words: Mark Chisnell
Photography: Ginny Dixon
Superyacht owner John Staluppi, in the diner at his old private vintage car museum.
He’s still left with a huge chunk of change, the kind of money Staluppi once only dreamed of earning.
In his teenage days, Staluppi worked 9-to-5 as a mechanic at a Brooklyn-based Chevrolet dealer, doing his share of drag racing on the side with cars he built himself. His father did, however, teach John the value of quality, hard work, family and friends.
Starting out as a petrol station mechanic in Brooklyn, Staluppi built a billion dollar business of car dealerships, before turning his hand to creating some of the most iconic superyachts ever built.
We meet at Staluppi’s offices in North Palm Beach, Florida, but – apropos the man – this is no ordinary office building.
It was the 1950's - the golden years of the American automobile. An investment-grade Camaro at a fair price.
Staluppi’s dream was born of necessity. The original 365- cubic-inch V-8 sits underhood, and the rest of the car was treated to a cosmetic restoration including 24-karat-gold-plated emblems.
Since The World Is Not Enough there has been Casino Royale, a 49m Christensen, and Quantum of Solace, a 52m Benetti. Staluppi began adding Honda dealers, filling his showrooms with little N600 micro sedans when Honda offered cars for U.S. sale. His father, Francis, was a hard working electrician who worked two jobs to make ends meet and his mother Millie was a homemaker.
In fact, John is proud that there is a sign in all his dealerships that reads "Every visitor to our dealership is an honored guest in our home, every day, every time, without fail, no exceptions". He built a new race boat and this one caught fire on Lake Pontchartrain, near New Orleans. They’ve raced almost anything that goes fast: Porches, Corvettes, motorcycles, snowmobiles, cigarette boats…
The powerboat racing came to a fairly swift end after a couple of high-speed crashes.
I don’t like any pieces of s***, excuse my language,” John Staluppi, a reasonable approximation of a sturdier Robert De Niro, says in his Brooklyn accent.
“Classic cars just have the look,” he insists. John Staluppi is incredibly grateful to his father for his support and guidance during that time.