LIME ROCK — Northwest Classic Cars is not your typical used car shop. For starters, the showroom sits right across the street from Lime Rock Park, making it very convenient for race fans to stop by between heats.“I may not get a lot of business from people who walk in from the track, but I get a lot of word of mouth referrals from it,” said owner Christopher Little. “People come in and see the type of operation we run, the mechanical skills Rick [the maintenance manager] has and all the equipment we have, the quality of cars we have, they spread the word.”In the showroom is a collection of muscle cars from the 1960s and 1970s.“We specialize in 100 percent driver quality muscle cars,” Little said. “A lot of the cars here are very collectible.”As an example, he pointed out a restored 1960s Pontiac GTO.“This GTO, fully documented, numbers all match, lots of provenance, restored by Jim Mott, very well-known in Pontiac circles,” he said. “This car won Jim the 2001 nationals for restored Pontiacs.”The GTO is one of the most expensive cars in the shop, with an asking price of $85,000. But Little said it is a gem.“This car is worth all the money because of high options, condition of the car, the quality of the restoration and the fact it won the nationals,” he said. “If you look down the side of it, it is a true mirror finish.” His “crown jewel” is a rare 1969-1/2 Dodge Super B with an A12 446 package. “My father [Will Little, one of the owners of The Lakeville Journal] and I personally own this car,” Little said. “Though it is my pride and joy, it would be for sale for the right price.”But not every car in the showroom is marked at luxury prices. Little is asking $19,500 for a 1960s Lincoln with four “suicide” doors.“I have very high-end cars but I also like to have more affordable cars available,” Little said.Since opening the showroom on Memorial Day, Little said business has been good. In July he opened a service department.“People always have to keep their cars running,” he said. “We’ve had a steady flow of service work. Car sales are a little less constant.” Northwest Classic Cars specializes in mechanical restoration, repair and maintenance of early American muscle cars. They also do service for late model foreign and domestic cars.Northwest Classic Cars is located at 438 Lime Rock Road. For information, call 860-596-4272.
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Greg Fricke and James Boehmer, co-owners of Peggy Mercury in Kent, recently launched their first fashion line, “Imaginary Concerts.”
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Fricke and Boehmer are not there to stock their shelves with the same products customers find at standard makeup retailers. They’re there to help customers find what works for them. That usually means asking customers about themselves and learning about their beauty habits, skin, style and the way they like to present themselves. Fricke and Boehmer believe it’s their job to help customers bring out the qualities that suit them and determine what works best for their look.
So much of the Peggy Mercury world is about emboldening people to become more creative, and possibly bolder, versions of themselves. Some of this comes through the store’s creative collaborations with artists, designers and stylists.
It’s part of an ethos that encourages them and their friends to use the shop as a kind of laboratory, trying out new creative experiments without knowing how they might turn out. Whether in fashion, painting, fiber arts or photography, the projects almost always turn out marvelously.
A line of sterling silver charms they sell started as a small project by their friend Nolan Percival. In the beginning, the pieces were for close friends and loved ones. But Boehmer and Fricke encouraged Percival to get a little more serious about the project and create a whole line for the store. Today, it’s one of their top-selling collections.
Classic styles, bold colors, and creative concerts make up the “Imaginary Concerts” line at Peggy Mercury.Provided
“Imaginary Concerts” has the duo taking their own advice.
The project started as a way for Boehmer to connect with his mother, who had been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. Taking old concert shirts from his own collection, Boehmer and his mother began cutting out the graphics with the idea that they would make a quilt together. Unfortunately, she died before they could complete the project in 2025. The pieces, which were ready for production, were put on the back burner as Boehmer and Fricke dealt with their loss and the whirlwind of projects that never seemed to cease at Peggy Mercury.
But the harsh winter of 2026 presented an opportunity to take some time and focus on themselves. Part of that meant revisiting and redefining the concert T-shirt project. This time, instead of looking to the warmth and comfort of a quilt, they turned to another passion — fashion.
Taking a page from their own book, they wanted to create something that felt comfortable to them. They took two disparate loves — one rooted in simple preppy style, with clean lines and classic silhouettes, and the other in the nitty gritty worlds of punk rock and pop — and blended them together to create something entirely new. Pulling from the staples of vintage Brooks Brothers and Charvet collections, they applied the graphic elements with bold stitching reminiscent of punk jackets of the ‘70s and ‘80s, but with a much more sophisticated air.
But the remixing isn’t just the pairing of prep and punk. The pieces are not canon. They take liberties with the realities of concert tours, combining one band’s dates with another band’s logos, mixing them all up until the reality is lost and imagination is the only truth.
Shirts from Peggy Mercury’s first fashion line, “Imaginary Concerts,” hang on display.Provided
Adding to the mix is an element of perpetual creativity. Art can be messy, both figuratively and literally, and many of Fricke and Boehmer’s artist friends carry evidence of their work on them at all times. As a nod to these tireless creatives, the duo added haphazard splashes of bright color, giving the line an even more distinctive feel.
For them, “Imaginary Concerts” passes the “Peggy Test.” The mythical Peggy Mercury is a fictional figurehead for the company, a character who thrives on creativity and change. The name, much like the clothing line, is a mixture of interests: Mercury is a planet, a deity and an elusive, transformative element, while Peggy is the wonderfully stylish and boundary-pushing Peggy Guggenheim.
Everything Fricke and Boehmer put in their store has to pass this test: Would Peggy Mercury approve? For their first collection, the answer is a resounding yes.
Peggy Mercury is at 9 Maple St., Unit 2, Kent.
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