Passions can come in all shapes and sizes. For Dwayne Blevins, they come in the shape of an engine that’s bigger than 400 cubic inches. It’s a passion that has taken him across the country in search of his next find, but he always brings them home to Boerne. So he decided they needed a garage that was big enough to house all that horsepower.
What Dwayne created is a 5700-square-foot personal car show. His hot rods are joined by friends’ cars, high-powered motorcycles, and new additions he finds or friends find for him. When you talk to him, it’s easy to see that Dwayne has his favorites: an exquisitely crafted replica 1965 Shelby AC Cobra (autographed by Carrol Shelby himself), a 1970 Chevrolet Corvette Convertible LS5 454 in “Molson blue,” and a rare 1968 Chevrolet Camaro RS Z28 Survivor that still has the original paint.
The garage includes a 1200-square-foot apartment, complete with a lobby, bar, living room, two bathrooms, and a bedroom for those nights when you just don’t want to leave. “We’ll have Formula 1 watch parties here with friends. We’ll do happy hours,” he explains. They’ll even host pickleball tournaments when there’s enough room inside. “Yeah, we built it to share.”
Dwayne’s passion for muscle cars began as a kid with a 1972 Chevrolet Chevelle SS 454. Before he bought it, Dwayne drag-raced with friends and worked on their cars. So he saved up his money and bought the Chevelle. He remembers enjoying racing it in high school, but he loved it so much that he rode the bus to spare it from the perils of the school’s parking lot. He remembers, “I was terrified of the guys at school, afraid somebody’s gonna run into it. 16 years old, first time driving.”
Those childhood experiences have turned into an all-out passion as an adult. Dwayne spends a lot of time on cars, but it isn’t all he does. “I’ll put the collecting on hold for a number of years as we built our businesses and raised our kids,” he says. “But then you get a little further along in life and you’ve got the means to do it, and you start collecting more… What’s one more car?”
This level of collecting would be impossible, Dwayne says, without the buy-in of his wife Tesha, who is almost as passionate about cars as he is. “She sees a car she likes, she says ‘Oh! You’ve got to get it!’” he laughs. She not only loves driving one of hers (either a 2020 Range Rover Sport HSE Dynamic or 2018 Mercedes-Benz AMG GT R at the moment), but she’s sometimes ready to collect a new toy when he isn’t. “She’s all gas, man.”
Dwayne rolled his first car inside in November and hasn’t stopped since. Right now, he has 12 cars in his collection, but the number can change frequently — car collecting “is like a disease,” he says without a hint of regret. You might catch it too if you see him cruising through the Hill Country with his fellow collectors on a Sunday afternoon. Talk to them, and you’ll hear the passion in their voices… assuming you can hear over their 400-horsepower engines.
Featured:
1965 Shelby AC Cobra Replica (autographed)
1968 Chevrolet Camaro RS Z28 Survivor
1969 Chevrolet Corvette Coupe 427 Tri-Power
1970 Chevrolet Corvette Convertible LS5 454
2006 Ducati Monster S2R
2013 Ducati Hypermotard