05/27/2026
Matchmakers on Wheels
The Story of Gold Country Classic Cars
Told By Sergio Edell and Jade Southworth, Gold Country Classic Cars
They like to say they’re matchmakers. Not the roses-and-candles kind—more the chrome-and-horsepower kind.
At Gold Country Classic Cars in Grass Valley, partners in life and business, Sergio Edell and Jade Southworth, connect people with the cars they have dreamed about for decades. Their story, like many of the machines they sell, goes back a long way.
Sergio: from car-crazy kid to classic car pro
Sergio’s love of cars goes back to family vacations with close friends who were serious car enthusiasts.
“We would do family vacations together,” he recalls, “and a lot of them involved going to classic car events.”
Every year, they went to Beach Street Revival in Santa Cruz—a ‘50s-themed show where classics cruised along the boardwalk—and to Hot August Nights in Reno. At that first Hot August Nights in the late ’80s, he was just a kid, but the impact was huge.
“I was just in awe of all the cool cars, and I was like, wow. That’s where I realized you could actually make a living doing this.”
Closer to home, the dream moved into the driveway. A family friend’s son was given a 1965 Mustang fastback, and young Sergio rode shotgun, thinking, I cannot wait to get my license. His brother’s first car, a 1964½ Mustang in primer, became their first big project. With help from family friends, they had it painted and then bolted it back together themselves.
“That kind of jump-started us into learning how to wrench on a car,” he says. “We stood back and were like, wow, I had a hand in that.”
To continue reading the Gold Country Classic Cars story (page 28): https://www.flipsnack.com/C6FF9CA8B7A/2026_destination_nc_magazine-tn0d02fpma
