Esquire Philippines flew to Malaysia and Singapore to visit the incredible car collection and museum of Malaysian businessman JP Chin. From Bugattis, Ferraris, and Lambrghinis to classic Fords, Nissans and Porsches, Chin's collection is truly one of the most impressive you'll see in all of Southeast Asia. Special thanks to Cebu Pacific.
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MotorTranscript
00:00My grandfather, in his life, never had a new car in his life, so he's always buying second-hand whatsoever.
00:06So in a way, as you can imagine, that is a complete reverse motivation to my father,
00:11as compared to me. He wanted to buy something new, he wanted to buy something that he loves.
00:30My name is TJ, TJ Chin. We are in my museum. This is called JPM Museum.
00:36JPM Museum is a place that we store the family cars and bikes.
00:42The museum is not our job. Our job is to pay for the museum, so we are doing other business to pay for the museum.
00:49So we are in the fuel industry, we are in the industry of information technology,
00:54we are in the industry for property development, we are also in the industry for some automotive work,
01:00more on restoration and so on, we have some fintechs and so on. So those are the things that we do.
01:06The family, the father, in my side, my father has been following cars since he was a teenager.
01:14He fell in love with a car called the 240Z, which of today is a very high value collection item,
01:21and I think that's the reason why he fell in love. The car looks fantastic. Every automotive guy,
01:27the automotive is like a family member. Some say their wife, some say their girlfriend,
01:33every automotive guy will keep pride in keeping their vehicles clean and tidy. A couple of years
01:39when my father had some success in life, I was 17 years old when I started racing.
01:47So at 17 years old, we started to get into the idea of automotive purely from the racing side,
01:54so like any kids around that age of mine, you will be influenced by a series called Animation
02:01Series called Initial D, you will be looking at PlayStation, Gran Turismo, you'll be playing
02:07up all these kind of things that deepen our interest in cars. Since then, we've started to
02:12deep dive into car design, how it works mechanically, electrically, how it drives,
02:19and so on. So that's how the interest took shape and lasts until today.
02:28We learned how to drive in one of the cars down there, which is a Mazda AutoZen, Japanese K-Car,
02:34manual, racing clutch, difficult car to learn. Nevertheless, that was our foundation of driving,
02:40and I think I recall when I first started to drive, it was actually a national car,
02:44a Proton that had a manual gearbox that I think I drove for six months to a year. My father gave me
02:52an Alfa 147. Then after I got myself into racing, actually it happened a lot less. So I just drive
03:00anything that was in the family, could be a Japanese car, could be a German car, doesn't
03:05matter. So we drove that. It only took a long time after that I finally got myself a Nissan GT-R,
03:12a 35, that I bought on my own to enjoy it. Then every now and then, I would try to look at
03:18something else to buy, and as usual, before I buy it, the car is already in the house. So that's a
03:22bit of a challenge there, but it's, I suppose, for the better. In a way, so that's when it comes
03:28to the car purchasing or the car experience, that's the story of it.
03:34Other than the initial planting of this interest of cars by the 240Z, since then, he took it upon
03:42himself to wanting to own a car that he's liking. So the family started off with a bit of a humble
03:49background. My grandfather, in his life, never had a new car in his life, so he's always buying
03:54second-hand whatsoever. So in a way, as you can imagine, that is a complete reverse motivation to
04:00my father as compared to me. He wanted to buy something new, he wanted to buy something that
04:05he loves. So the 240Z was a planting of a seed, but no one had the chance to buy a new car unless,
04:15like me, with privilege, that he had that. So what happened to him was that when he had the
04:20chance to do so in his teenage years, he started to buy bikes. And then from bikes, when he studied
04:26in the UK, he started to buy four-wheel vehicles, cars. I recall, I think if I'm not wrong, one of his
04:32first purchases was an Alfa, which was influenced by the fact that it looks fantastic and also
04:40he's married then, but no harm having a car that seeks women's attention. So that was, I think, the
04:46very first thing that got him into collecting cars. So he'll buy an Alfa, he'll buy a unique
04:54piece every now and then, just so that he fulfills the automotive dream in him. When we start to
05:00wanting to collect cars now, we still pick things that are modern, but we only do it, say, if there is a
05:06collection value. Now collection value is a bit of a guessing game. You think it does, it may not have,
05:13so we win some, we lose some. Sometimes we win, for example, we collect some Porsche G3 RS.
05:20Those are currently, at least for now, still appreciating asset. We collect some limited edition
05:26AMG Black Series. We think it's an appreciating asset. At the same time, we also had some modern
05:32supercars like an Aventador that doesn't retain the value as much as we want to. We started to
05:40be a bit more picky of what we collect. At the same time, while we are moving away from the modern,
05:44what we do is we go back to some of the more classic or some of the more unique pieces
05:50that create some sentimental value, or for that matter,
05:54maybe there are some stories behind that kind of vehicle kind of collection.
06:01First, collection is quite emotional, so it has to be emotionally appealing to one. Emotionally
06:07appealing to one could be maybe it's a car that we liked when we were younger, so now we want to
06:13own it. There are some vehicles that even I wanted to own, if I need the right time to do it in terms
06:20of price. That's something we want to do. Or for that matter, it may just appeal to you from an aesthetic
06:25standpoint. Some cars have a sex appeal to people who like cars. You see it, you like it, you want to
06:31own it, so that's another choice. Some may be a story behind the vehicle that is unique, that you
06:39want to collect it. There's a few pieces in the museum that is with that kind of background,
06:45so it's very much on that. We feel if it's something that appeals to us as enthusiasts,
06:50it most likely appeals to other enthusiasts too. So naturally, there should be an investment value.
06:54So that's how we curate the collection.
06:57My brother told me earlier it was $186,000. I'm not so sure if he has it correct because a while back, we know the number were higher, but then again, they are in and out, so it is possible.
07:11The reason we did not take account of it is because the KONG collections are probably there to stay.
07:18Some of the ones that you see in my background are there to stay. They're there to stay because we had
07:22sentimental value of it, although it probably appreciated from an investment standpoint.
07:28The general idea is, what do we do if we sell it? So we probably can't get the same sentiment
07:34collection, so we keep it in that sense. Because of that reason itself, there's a fixed number of
07:38vehicles that we know is going to be around. Then you will have vehicles that maybe at times,
07:43we transition it quite frequently, things that we use maybe daily. So sometimes, we have a car that
07:49we felt we grown our love of it, so we start to sell it, or for that matter, something that maybe
07:54we use more daily, we start to sell it. So the vehicles move in and out quite frequently.
07:58We collect it in more organized meaning, we started to create teams around the collection.
08:03Italian for German floor, Japanese floor, British floor, and we start creating a team of it. We
08:09started to acquire the vehicles in maybe a more opportunistic fashion. That means we see an
08:16opportunity, we buy it, and usually when we buy it, we do not actually have a limit of what we buy.
08:21So example, there's a floor for American vehicles. We bought like 40 or 50 within two months. So the
08:29fact that I say 50 to 40, we don't actually remember how many we buy. We just found,
08:32seems like a good deal, seems like a nice collection, we pick.
08:38It doesn't matter if you collect one or you collect, in our instance,
08:42quite a few. You fell in love with a vehicle that you've seen, whether it's in website,
08:49in newspaper, magazine, or for that matter, YouTube and so on. You look at the car. I recently have
08:55this example. It's a Chinese car. You may know them. It's called BYD. BYD had an electric car.
09:04I was not familiar with Chinese brand. So one day, I was having a breakfast with my wife,
09:11and I was parked on the roadside, and then I saw this particular black car. Looks fantastic
09:17looking. So I was like, what is this? So I saw it's a BYD, Chinese car. It's very interesting.
09:24And I started to do some research into it. I ended up buying another electric car,
09:30but I still intend to buy a BYD in time to come. I fell in love with the car. It's just that
09:36I've made certain choices now. In time to come, I wanted a BYD CO2. I think it's a very nice
09:42looking car. I ordered a Tesla, just in case you wonder. You ordered a Tesla? I ordered a Tesla,
09:48but I told my wife, in time to come, I probably will get a BYD too. Every time you hop around
09:54to the car that you had that passion for, you will find a renewed feeling of it. So example,
10:00I mentioned my GTR. I had a car since 2018. And like I shared the example, for the first,
10:07maybe a year of ownership, you drive it quite frequently. And then you start doing little
10:12things onto it. And then you start to get to a point that, okay, a bit, I wouldn't, jaded is
10:18too strong a word, but you get the point. A bit jaded. So you start to drive the car lesser.
10:23In my instance, it was because it's slightly less practical, two doors and so on, and quite loud,
10:30and so on. So I started to drive it a bit lesser. But the feeling is interesting. Once you drive it
10:37lesser, but every time you hop into it, you'll find that initial feel and passion.
10:45Tesla is one. So, okay, so there's two schools of thought. People who love automotive,
10:52I found it interesting that they are not so for EV. For me, interestingly, maybe I'm in
10:58software business. I'm actually quite, quite supportive of the EV cars. But the challenge
11:03with EVs is, you see the price of EV have come down quite a lot. Back in the days, EV, for example,
11:11we used to have a Taycan, Porsche Taycan. I love the car. I think it's one of the closest
11:17experience to Bugatti. And then we sold it just before the price starting to drop.
11:23The only thing I have to give in to the critics of EV car is, the value retention at this point
11:29in time is still not there. So in a sense, if you're purchasing it as an investment or something
11:34to keep, it may be a bit of a challenge. But to me, I feel some of the brands have come to a price
11:41point where it's a bit more stable. So those are the reason why I feel that in time to come,
11:46I may be able to collect a few more, or maybe when the market has matured, they will have an idea how
11:52the replacement of those car will be.
11:58I suppose in like any dynamics of human relationship, you always have a check and
12:04balance. So in most family, I think the general idea is the children wanted the car, the father
12:12will be more conservative about it. In this family, it's a bit of a reverse.
12:18The father is more passionate, the children is more prudent, in that sense. But I suppose
12:26everything has a face. My youngest brother, TM, is very passionate in terms of restoring Porsches.
12:34So in a way, while I'm looking forward in the more modern automotive, he is looking in a more
12:41historical context. And because of that pivot, I'm sure we will find interesting cars to collect,
12:50to restore, to keep into the collection. So in that sense, I don't imagine that we will be ever
12:56done with the collection. If anything, we are hoping that we can find the financial and also
13:02the economic power to continue this particular family hobby, if you will, something to keep the
13:09family talking to each other.