House of Robb Features Panel with Supercar Blondie and McKeel Hagerty

Two automotive giants converged at the House of Robb activation at Monterey Car Week to reflect on the future of the collector-car market in a panel moderated by Robb Report‘s automotive editor, Viju Mathew. Social media maven and online-auction impresario, Alex Hirschi, aka, Supercar Blondie, and the enthusiast’s enthusiast, Hagerty Insurance CEO, McKeel Hagerty, explored how their passion for cars have established radically different business empires that share a powerful common ground.   

Alex Hirschi leapfrogged auto-journalism conventions by building a vast social media audience of 120 million followers by showcasing some of the most innovative exotics in existence. Hirschi’s newly launched SBX auction site presents high-end offerings that are personally vetted. 

Though her business ventures have focused on the high-end market, she credits simple origins for her automotive addiction. “My first car was a seven-year-old, busted Mitsubishi Lancer with rust on the roof,” she says, explaining that coming from a car-centric family in rural Australia fostered a deep love of long-distance driving. It wasn’t until she moved to Dubai after university that she fell hard for supercars. “I started filming my takes on supercars as someone who loves and appreciates driving them. It took off because I had a new perspective on cars that were already being talked about.” When her Instagram following grew to 50,000, monetization followed through brand deals whose revenues soon eclipsed her day job. “I realized, there’s something to this, I may as well go for it.”  

McKeel Hagerty grew up in a similarly automotive-focused family, with a father who drew his three children in with restoration projects. Hagerty joked that the 1967 Porsche 911 S he purchased for $500 and restored with his dad was the “ . . . only good car deal I’ve ever actually done.” The restoration seeded a lifelong passion that has driven the expansion of Hagerty Insurance into an event and media juggernaut which includes the Hagerty Drivers Club Magazine, which has grown into the highest circulation automotive magazine in the world. 

According to Hagerty, one of his key missions is to “create more on-ramps for the next generation of enthusiasts. “The first time I judged at [the Pebble Beach Concours] I was 32 years old, and the youngest judge in the room. 10 years after that, I was still the youngest judge . . . that’s a bad sign, everybody.” Recognizing the need to propel the hobby into the future, Hagerty has acquired and transformed a series of automotive events for a younger generation. “There are traditions in the car world that need to be protected and stewarded,” he says. “I’m mindful of the fact that there is nothing less sexy than insurance, right? But we chose to think of ourselves as an automotive company and not an insurance business from the beginning.”   

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While Hagerty harbors a deep appreciation for analog cars from yesteryear and Hirschi embraces cutting edge extremes like the hydrogen-powered Hyperion XP-1 hypercar prototype that will soon be available on her SBX Cars auction site, they meet in the middle when asked what the next once-in-a-generation, Ferrari 250 GTO–level collectible will be: the 90s-era supercar masterpiece, the McLaren F1, which merges analog three-pedal driving with future-forward engineering. At the end of the day, it’s cars like the F1 that bring a story to the experience of driving and appreciating special cars. 

“Feeling something, that’s everything,” Hirschi says. “This is not about transportation, Hagerty adds, “in this world of cars, it is all about emotion.”