Bio Leading Up to Cars of Hope – Romas Povilonis

When were you first interested in cars?

I grew up on a small hobby farm with my parents. My dad was a full-time journeyman electrician working on large construction projects. He always knew how to keep me occupied.

When I was eleven years old, my dad towed home a small red Austin Mini which looked like today’s Austin Cooper. It had some rust issues and needed a $160 fuel pump, which was expensive for the late 60’s and not worth the cost of a professional repair. We duct taped an empty windshield washer bottle to the front right fender, filled it with gasoline, and gravity fed the fluid to the carburetor. Excited to test out my latest project, I drove the Mini and immediately broke it. But then, intrigued by engines and machines, I headed back to the garage and fixed the car for years to come.

My dad was a collector of free cars. He stocked up on a dozen cars on our unused plots of farm land. With that I got the idea to build myself a low budget dune buggy using parts from some of the cars on site. Over the course of a year, I built a two-seater dune buggy. I used the chassis of a Volvo P44, having removed the body and shortening the wheel base, engine, and added in a transmission and speedometer from an Anglia (British Ford), brake and clutch with pedals linkage and master cylinder from a Chevy II, as well as a carburetor and seats from a Corvair. For the frame and roll bar, I used heavy scrap steel and large galvanized pipe that my dad brought home from finished construction jobs. There is no doubt that creating this dune buggy further kindled my interest in cars.

In the middle of high school, I had a high school teacher share her frustrations with me about the repairs on her Ford Capri. She was upset with how the local repair shops were too expensive and often did not fully address the real issues. I took her Capri home, looked it over carefully, and made what I thought were the needed repairs. These are the repairs I would have done to my own car. She was so pleased with the results that she regularly brought her car back to me for routine maintenance and even started sending her friends to me with their car repair and maintenance needs. In these moments, I was not only interested in fixing cars, but I also felt the joy of helping other people.

During my senior year of high school, my father encouraged me to go beyond merely fixing cars. He wanted me to design them. I went on to get an engineering degree and I have just completed a full career in designing agricultural and construction machines at Caterpillar. Throughout my career, I have continued to complete car maintenance and repairs on my family’s vehicles – even bringing my children in to work alongside me and teaching them how cars work.

While at Caterpillar, I was moved to start and direct Cars of Hope, a 501(c)3 charitable organization which provides deserving families with needed vehicles. We are an organization of volunteers who enjoy working on cars and helping people. I am now in my ninth year directing Cars of Hope and am enjoying every minute of it.

Romas Povilonis

Director

Cars of Hope