When Edward Herrmann was called on to duck under the hood of a 1929 Packard to shoot a scene for the TV show Gilmore Girls he really didn’t have to do a lot of acting. He was very much at home.

“He really knew what he was doing,” says his wife, Star.

Herrmann, you see, is a self-confessed car enthusiast who is as apt to be found taking home prizes from a classic car show as he is winning a Tony for his work on Broadway (for Mrs. Warren’s Profession) or an Emmy for his performances in television (for a six-episode story arc for The Practice). He picked the car for the Gilmore scene - a 1929 Packard 645 Open Touring Car once owned by legendary automobile designer Ray Dietrich.

“A very special car,” he said.

Familiar to TV viewers as a spokesman for Dodge television commercials, a role he played for eight years, and the host for the History Channel series The Ultimate Auto, Herrmann has owned several prize-winning classics, including a 1959 Aston Martin owned by Le Mans winner Carroll Shelby. Three years ago, Herrmann bought a 1929 Auburn Speedster at the Kruse Auction in Indiana and had it restored. It was chosen Best Open Auto at this spring’s Amelia Island (Florida.) Concours d’Elegance after winning its class at the Pebble Beach Concours last August.

Herrmann also currently owns a 1932 Rolls - Royce 20/25 Saloon he is having restored by Enfield Auto Restoration in Enfield, Connecticut. He is known to arrange his travel from his home in Salisbury, Connecticut, to include a stop by the shop to see how things are going.

He’s a stickler for details, Star says. “He‘s really a car guy."

If he has something to ponder over, he often takes a drive to clear his mind. When he goes to bed at night, he likes to thumb through car magazines before turning out the lights. His favorite place to read a script is out in the garage sitting in one of his treasures. And if somebody asks to see pictures of the kids, Star notes, “he pulls out car pictures”.

Herrmann grew up near Detroit, where his father, a vice president with Bulldog Electric Products, “was probably the only engineer in Detroit who wasn’t involved in the car business,” Herrmann says with a smile. His grandfather had been a timer for the Indianapolis 500 in the 1930’s and was a friend of Ray Harroun, winner of the first Indy 500 in 1911. Herrmann’s mother taught in Speedway, Indiana, and he finds it fitting that the present prize-winning Auburn is of Hoosier lineage.

“I think my grandfather would be proud if he knew I had an Indiana car,” he says. “Indiana cars are very special.”

Herrmann is not the only one in his family who is a car enthusiast. His wife collects mascots, or hood ornaments. Those with a devil theme are her favorites. She laments they have become passe. “Wouldn’t it be great if they came back?” she says.

Their 5-year-old daughter Emma helps her dad polish the prize-winning Auburn, which she considers “her” car. Says Star: “She says, ‘Dad can never sell that car‘. She keeps going out to the garage with him all the time. It’s really funny.”

Dad certainly has no objections. “He’s always out in the garage,” Star said. “He’s working on a car or taking it out. He reads everything he can about cars. It’s more than a hobby with him. It’s his passion.”