'Chrome Underground'

Matthew Kelly, Discovery Channel vice president of development and production, said the program is primarily an adventure show.

"It's about people who live by their own rules and who aren't afraid to follow their passion, no matter where it takes them," he said.

Johnson said he and Brunet look for the rarest and finest vehicles for Motoreum buyers, and that search includes traveling outside of the country.

"We do find a lot [of classic cars] in the U.S., [but] we are looking to innovate," Johnson said. "It's a question of competitive advantage to find cars not normally accessible to the U.S. market."

Brunet said finding buyers is easy, but tracking down cars is much harder.

"That's the cool thing about the collector car industry—there's a finite amount of these cars," he said.

Brunet said he and Johnson are familiar with how to deliver cars back to the U.S. as well as with the paperwork accompanying each purchase. He said they use the type of transport—port or border crossing—that makes the most sense, financially and physically, in the situation. He said the pair has even flown vehicles back home from abroad to be sold within the network of customers Motoreum has developed.

"We have investors who are willing to buy that rare kind of seven-figure dollar vehicle," Brunet said.

Brunet and Johnson met in a university's study abroad program and have been partnered selling classic cars for the past decade, said Brunet, who began buying and selling collector cars while attending college. The two entrepreneurs relocated to Austin eight years ago to open the first Motoreum location in Leander before ultimately settling into their current site, 10202 N. RR 620 in Austin, a couple of years ago, he said.

Brunet said Motoreum endured despite the 2008–09 recession because the company was able to buy cars at a discounted price during that time and resell the vehicles at a better price later.

"A decrease in the [economic] market presented a huge opportunity to buy classic cars," Brunet said.

During Austin's Formula One event in November, Motoreum hosted Motostalgia, a gala auction and showcase that raised more than $10 million and made 80 rare cars available to patrons at the Austin Convention Center, he said. However, not all classic car buyers are among the wealthy elite, he said.

"You can enter [the vintage car market] at any level," Brunet said. "You don't need to be buying a six-figure car. You can buy a classic car for $5,000. They're assets you can enjoy and drive."

Bugatti bound

In the first episode of The Discovery Channel's "Chrome Underground," rare car dealers Antonio Brunet and Yusuf Johnson travel to Mexico on a tip from a vintage car scout that a 1937 Type 57 Bugatti is stored in a tough neighborhood. The show narrator said only 17 Bugatti cars of this type were produced and the French vehicle could be worth up to $2 million.

Motoreum, 10202 N. RR 620, Austin, 512-687-4007, www.motoreum.com