With 41 years under his belt, Brown, 73, figures Carolina Auto Trim is among the oldest Beaufort businesses still under the direction of its original owner. “Cars are just something I’ve always enjoyed,” Brown said. “Back when I was young, a lot of young people were really into cars, especially hotrods. Really, the reason you would get a job was to save up enough to buy an automobile and afford insurance for the year.“… There was more of a car culture back then. There were four or five drive-in (restaurants) in Beaufort back then, and that’s what you did — drove your car from drive-in to drive-in to be seen and to find someone to drag race.”

Brown’s mother, the former Clyde CQ Blocker, was a Beaufort native. She met Herbert Brown, a Marine from Indiana, while he was stationed here before World War II. The family settled in the Lands End community of St. Helena Island, but Herbert was careful to imbue his son with a love for his home state’s biggest sporting event. “One of my earliest memories is listening to the Indianapolis 500 on the radio every year,” Brown recalled.

As a young adult, he became a racer himself, driving 6-cylinder hobby cars at regional tracks. Any thoughts of a racing career ended abruptly, however, when he broke his back in a motorcycle accident at age 25. Brown was riding on the back when a friend crashed while speeding down Seaside Road. He needed nearly a year to recuperate, spending much of his recovery in a body cast. At a time when few had air conditioning, Brown sweated through a sweltering summer, scratching himself beneath the thick plaster with a straightened coat hanger. It was miserable, but it might have been a blessing, Brown says: “I was pretty wild back then. Really, that wreck might have ended up saving my life.”

The injuries kept him from behind the wheel, but not away from the track. For 25 seasons, Brown was team owner for Hal McGraw, who ran a salvage yard in Hardeeville during the week and raced dirt and asphalt tracks around the Southeast on weekends. The team won several championships and earned a spot in the Grand National race at Daytona International Speedway in 1983. Their crew chief for that race was Dale Earnhardt’s former business partner, Gary Hargett, who remains one of Brown’s friends. Brown also is friendly with Hargett’s protege, Dale Earnhardt Jr., who as a teenager camped with the men on property near St. Helena that Brown leased. (Earnhardt hasn’t forgotten those times, either; while Brown was recovering from an illness in late 2016, Junior called to wish him well.)

The grind of running a business and a race team eventually became more than Brown cared to tackle. He still makes time to tinker, though, buying and restoring classic cars. He owns a 1931 Ford Model A chop top, and he yearns to reacquire the 1932 Ford roadster he sold a few years back. “Biggest mistake I ever made,” Brown said of his decision to trade the muscular V8 for two other vehicles and a little cash. Brown once totaled that car in a crash in front of the Chapel of Ease, then painstakingly restored it for a second time. He drove it to auto shows all over the Southeast and Midwest — never on a trailer, though. “People would speed up on the interstate to get a look at that car or get their picture with it,” Brown recalled with a smile. “That was the real fun part. It’s a great feeling driving a car like that.”