Dream Car Restorations May Be Coming To Plainview

Last month, a team of counsel, engineers and representatives of Dream Car Restorations appeared before the Town of Oyster Bay Town Board seeking a Special Use Permit and Site Plan Approval for their planned auto restoration and repair operations just south of the Long Island Expressway on 45 South Service Rd. in Plainview.
“Chris Mazzilli and Dave Bloom have been in this business, in many businesses, but in this one particularly together for seven years and have entertained clientele from all over the United States and beyond, I believe,” said Elisabetta Coschignano with the law firm Sahn, Ward, Braff, Koblenz. “The clients of Dream Cars have special, particular vehicles, most of which are antique, that they own or are looking to own to restore to immaculate condition. Many of these clients spend anywhere from $100,000 to $300,000 just to restore these vehicles to their classic condition.”
What also makes this shop special is that they’re nationally known. Dream Car Restorations was featured in a six-part docu-series on History Channel called The Lost Corvette.
The summary for the docu-series on the History Channel website reads as follows:
“In 1983, for the first time since the brand’s inception in 1953, Chevrolet did not release a Corvette model for that year. Designs were drawn, parts ordered but no car was ever released. On what would have been a celebratory 30th anniversary – no ‘Vette hit the market. In this History special, die-hard Corvette expert and builder Chris Mazzilli will try to fix this missing piece of muscle car history as he and his team build a one-of-a-kind 1983 Corvette from the ground up. The creation will be presented to a panel of experts, including the Corvette designers who pulled the plug on releasing the ’83 originally, to see if it’s worthy.”
But the docu-series is not the only time Dream Car Restorations caught the nation’s attention.
In 1989, VH-1 held a sweepstakes to give away 36 Corvettes, a model from each year since it debuted. Mazzilli entered the sweepstakes, but did not win. Little did he know these cars would enter his life some way or another.
Another Long Islander won the sweepstakes and ended up selling all 36 vehicles to a German-American artist named Peter Max, who was going to use them as canvases for a series of paintings. This project eventually became abandoned and the cars ended up being stored away and abandoned. They stayed there for years until a group of investors purchased the collection. Dream Car Restoration was called in to assess and restore the Corvettes, a 4,000-hour ordeal.
“But if you ask Chris Mazzilli, he will tell you that the labor was one of love,” Coschignano said.
Those cars got the spotlight through The Lost Corvette documentary, and subsequently all 36 cars were given away to 36 different winners. All the proceeds benefited veterans throughout the National Guard and Stand for the Troops organizations.
“So this could show you the type and quality of operation they maintain,” Coschignano said. “It’s not your typical auto repair body shop. There are times when they’re working on cars for, maybe, a year or so or more. There are parts that they have to retrieve, and it’s not a — you’re going in, getting your car fixed, and in a few days you’re getting it back. Not at all like that.”
Dream Car Restorations needs a Special Use Permit in order to run a vehicle restoration repair facility. The premises is in the town’s Light Industry District, which provides the opportunity and encouragement for the development of manufacturing, assembly, warehousing, research and development and other compatible types of uses that are established in the industrial areas.
At the time of the meeting, Nov. 15, a public comment was left open for two weeks following the hearing.