COMPANY

Founded in 1978 by Paul Zimmer under the name, Zimmer Motor Car Corporation, the company's original home was in Syracuse, NY. The company changed hands in 1997 when Art Zimmer purchased company rights due to its failures after Paul Zimmer died in 1988.

He changed the name to Art Zimmer Neo-Classic Motor Car Company and the base also moved, to Jamesville, New York. Zimmer's founder was inspired to create practical antique cars, or rather cars modeled to look antique with the functionality, service and available parts of a modern car.

Paul Zimmer's original idea for the company came while he was having dinner with his son, Bob Zimmer. He used his napkin to draw a design for what would become the iconic automobile model for the company, known as the Golden Spirit. Upon showing it to his son, he told him his plans to build the car and the company.

He also stated that his son would become president of the company. Under this management, Zimmer's best years were in the eighties prior to Paul Zimmer's failing health. At that time, the company had 175 employees. During its first production year, the company manufactured over 1,500 of these Golden Spirits. Then, from 1984 to 1988, Zimmer began producing another model known as the Quicksilver. A factory in Pompano Beach in Florida produced both these models between 1980 and 1988.

Bob Zimmer sold his company shares during 1988 to buy a dealership. Not long after that, his father fell victim to a serious heart attack for which he had to have triple bypass surgery. Being the heart and soul of Zimmer Motor Car Corporation, the rest of the team struggled to keep the company afloat and eventually failed.

However, in September of 1996, Art Zimmer, who coincidentally has the same name but is no relation, bought the company name and leftover materials. He initiated a club known as the Zimmer Motor Car Club, exclusively for those who already owned Zimmer vehicles.

Five years later, more than 500 people had joined the club. To take a slight step back, a year after he opened the club he established Art Zimmer's Neo-Classic Motor Car Company just after having purchased one of the original Zimmer models from a nearby dealership. Presently, the company puts out ten to twenty cars every year.

Art Zimmer decided to place his recently acquired company's factory in Cambridge, Maryland. In 1998,a year after having established the actual automobile company, the first Golden Spirit was released under the new name. He eventually brought the company back to Syracuse. This was because in the year 2000, two metal fabrication and parts supplier companies under the names, Rosenthal and Chadwick signed a contract that brought Zimmer back to its home base.

To this day, Zimmer is known for custom made, high end, antique style vehicles such as the red one driven by Shaquille O'Neil and the four door convertible driven by George Forman.