Vintage racer Anatoly Arutunoff in serious but stable condition

Automotive enthusiast, vintage racer, rapscallion and country-boy bon vivant Anatoly Arutunoff is in serious but stable condition following an accident on Feb. 8 while reportedly being a Good Samaritan.

Arutunoff, known as Toly to his friends, was on his way to the Sports Car Club of America convention in Las Vegas when he stopped to help a stranded driver along Interstate 40 in Amarillo, Texas. Reportedly, a freak snowstorm covered roads, and drivers unaccustomed to the conditions put their cars along the roadside. It was one of these drivers whom Arutunoff aimed to help. While trying to move this driver out of a snowbank, a second car skidded into Arutunoff and then sped away. Among his injuries, Arutunoff lost a leg and the other was shattered.

Arutunoff was being air-lifted to Oklahoma University Medical center in Tulsa, where he will be tended to by a team of prosthetic specialists.

Arutunoff is known within the collector-car and vintage-racing world for his quick wit, charm and eclectic taste in automobiles. Proud of his heritage--including being born into a family of means--Arutunoff's passion for cars started at an early age. In an interview in the current issue of Vintage Racecar, Arutunoff retells the story of where his love for cars ignited.

"I always liked cars. I spent part of my life, summers, as a child, in L.A. and I can still remember seeing the first car that caught my eye. It was red and it had a windshield folded down, and it was either an SS100 or it could have been a low-chassis Invicta, but it didn't look that big. It was going across one of those beautiful open intersections near the Beverly Hills Hotel, and honestly, I can still see it. It was going from my right to my left. The guy was wearing a cap, and I like to think that maybe he had a mellow briar clenched in his teeth. It had some sort of plaque on the side of the hood, probably a Union Jack, and I thought, 'Oh, that's wonderful.' We had a house out there, and when I was like five years old, our chauffeur would let me sit on his lap and steer the Cadillac limo on Mulholland Drive. So I was always involved."

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