Dumpster Driving: Inside the Treasures From the Los Angeles ‘Junkyard’ Car Collection

Classic car enthusiast Rudi Klein was, by all accounts, a unique character.

The German émigré lived in Los Angeles, where he opened a junkyard called Porche Foreign Auto Dismantling (with the automaker’s name misspelled to avoid litigation). Klein, who passed away in 2001, took in only high-end foreign cars, mostly Mercedes and Porsche, but also BMWs and every brand of supercar, including many very rare examples. The junkyard’s trophies included famous Grand Prix driver Rudolf Caracciola’s 1935 Mercedes 500 K Special Coupe, a rare 1955 Mercedes-Benz 300 SL “Gullwing” (one of 29 with alloy bodywork), and many more.

Stacked-up Porsches are still in place for the auction.
Robin Adams/RM Sotheby’s

Most, but certainly not all, of the cars that Klein bought were crashed, burned, or otherwise derelict. A German crew managed to get into Klein’s closely guarded sanctuary, subsequently producing the unauthorised 2017 photo book Junkyard . Many other people were turned away from the gates, and Klein charged such high prices for salvaged parts that purchases were fraught. The doors remained closed after Klein’s sons, Ben and Jason, took over. But now, everything is coming into the light as RM Sotheby’s prepares to auction cars from the Klein collection on Oct. 26 in its current South Los Angeles location, including those two notable Mercedes-Benzes.

Andrew Olson, car specialist at RM Sotheby’s, said Klein’s premises have “an interesting and special atmosphere—if we moved the cars, some of that would be lost. There’s still a rack of Porsche 356s. We took them out to photograph them, but then they went back to where they were.” In Monterey last year, the auction house staged a horde of storm-damaged Ferraris as if they were still in a collapsing warehouse. Klein’s yard provides natural staging.

There’s a total of 180 cars in the sale, Olson says. Most of what was in the yard will be sold, minus some extensively burned cars and those with a current value that would not justify restoration.

The 500 K Mercedes coupe has bodywork by Sindelfingen. It is a one-of-one vehicle, still wearing its original body. The car was restored and caused a stir at the famed Pebble Beach car show in 1966 and then again in 1978. But it was parked under Klein’s ownership in 1980, fortunately under cover. “The condition is surprisingly good,” Olson says. “It’s very solid and should be a straightforward restoration.”

A roomful of Porsche 356s at Rudi Klein’s yard.
Robin Adams/RM Sotheby’s

The alloy-bodied 1955 Mercedes 300 SL was the only one delivered in black, and had once been owned by Ferrari importer Luigi Chinetti. The auction house describes it as “a unique example of the most sought-after of all 300 SLs, virtually unseen for decades.” Complementing it is a 1957 300 SL Roadster that was painted Fire Engine Red from the factory, with a cream interior, and coveted Rudge wheels.

Rudolf Caracciola’s 1935 Mercedes 500 K Special Coupe is in “surprisingly good” condition.
Kegun Morkin/RM Sotheby’s photo

The 1967 Iso Grifo A3/L Spider is a prototype built by the Italian coachmaker Bertone, and is the only factory-built Grifo convertible. Klein acquired the car, with Chevrolet V8 power, reportedly from auto enthusiast and Hollywood producer Greg Garrison. According to Junkyard : “It was one of Rudi Klein’s all-time favourites, and he hoped one day to rebuild it and take part in a classic-car rally in Bavaria.”

Chanel Robinson achieved exactly what the gold rush of blockbuster weight-loss drugs promised: She lost nearly 100 pounds, lowered her cholesterol to normal levels and reined in her polycystic ovary syndrome.

Yet, nearly three years into her journey on Mounjaro, the 30-year-old from Atlanta, Ga., is discovering the hidden costs of the slimmed-down life.

Robinson experiences muscle fatigue daily, feeling physically weak, frail and often cold. Robinson said she experiences bursts of sluggishness sporadically during the day, and has trouble with basic tasks like opening a jar. “It shouldn’t be this difficult,” she said.

GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic, Mounjaro and Zepbound have been a success for public health and the pharmaceutical companies that make them. Obesity rates are falling, the volume of food consumed in America is declining and retailers report a slump in sales of plus-size apparel. It has improved health and happiness for millions of people.

But for at least some of the 13 million Americans taking them, losing muscle along with fat is an unexpected downside that isn’t broadly discussed or immediately apparent.

The drugs can cause rapid and significant loss of lean muscle mass, up to 10%, comparable to a decade or more of aging, according to an analysis published by the American Diabetes Association.

The loss of lean tissue is similar to weight loss from dieting, but the magnitude over a short period can lead to frailty, instability and lack of coordination, doctors and researchers say. Another concern is that losing muscle could slow down patients’ metabolism, leading to weight regain.

“We are curing obesity by encouraging frailty,” said Daniel Green, principal research fellow at the University of Western Australia, who contributed to the analysis. Many taking weight-loss medications initially lose fat and feel great, but quickly start to feel weak and lethargic, he said.

Green’s research showed that the rate of muscle loss could be slowed significantly by regular strength workouts. “It should say ‘must be taken with resistance training’ on the box,” he said.

Drugmakers say weight-loss drugs should be taken only on the advice of a physician and as part of a long-term plan that includes diet and exercise.

A spokesperson for Eli Lilly, maker of Zepbound, said Food and Drug Administration guidelines say it should be used “with increased physical activity.” The spokesperson added: “Sustainable weight loss is about more than a number on a scale.”

Both Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk said clinical trials showed users did lose some lean muscle tissue, though at far lower rates than fat. Liz Skrbkova, a spokeswoman for Novo Nordisk, said that trials for its drug Wegovy showed changes in muscle mass didn’t “significantly differ” from patients who took a placebo. Eli Lilly said users lost three times more fat weight than lean tissue.

Rayna Kingston, 30, from Denver, said her injections of Zepbound left her feeling so tired the following day that she struggled to complete anything other than basic tasks. She said she shifted her dose to a Sunday because Mondays were her least busy day. Her partner would bring her meals in bed because she felt so weak.

She stopped exercising, and said her doctor didn’t give her any guidance on strength training or muscle maintenance. “I was relying on Reddit forums to understand what was happening to my body,” she said. She got so frustrated with the fatigue she came off the medication just under two months later.

Experts say that losing muscle at such a rate can be especially dangerous for those over 50 or with osteoporosis or limited mobility as it could lead to an increased risk of injury. “Loss of muscle mass is detrimental to moving around and quality of life, but it is also not safe,” said Katsu Funai, associate professor at the University of Utah.

Elderly Americans are set to be able to get GLP-1s from Medicare from July.

There is also pushback from doctors and regulators against using weight-loss drugs as a “quick fix” to lose a bit of weight.

People who take GLP-1s regain weight four times faster than those who lose weight through lifestyle interventions, and weight regained is often mostly fat, according to a recent analysis published in the British Medical Journal. There currently are few, if any, guidelines or studies on de-prescribing the drugs, researchers say.

The nurse practitioner who prescribed Robinson the medication didn’t warn her that resistance training is essential to maintaining muscle mass, Robinson said. She said she regrets not exercising and now does Pilates once a week.

In the haste to disrupt the obesity epidemic, weight loss has been treated as the singular, undisputed metric of success, which experts say is problematic.

“People worship body weight as an outcome measure because it’s simple, quick and inexpensive,” said Green. “But what matters is fat and muscle mass, which is more expensive to measure as it requires an MRI.”

Grace Parkin, 34, a property manager from Sheffield, England, has lost 125 pounds after she started taking Mounjaro in 2024. “I don’t care about my muscle mass as long as I’m a healthy weight,” she said.

The doctor who prescribed the drug didn’t tell her to exercise, though the pharmacy that sold the medication gave her information on exercise and protein intake, she said.

She didn’t exercise and said she soon felt side effects: a “deathly cold, from the inside” likely because of the drug. Still, she vowed to keep going, saying the weight loss was worth it.

In response to some of the side effects, drug companies are hoping to develop weight-loss treatments aimed at preserving or even building lean muscle mass.

German drugmaker Boehringer Ingelheim recently said it had promising results from one such drug. Eli Lilly last September halted a trial of a similar drug.

While weight-loss medications are designed as lifelong treatments for chronic diseases, namely obesity and Type 2 diabetes, they are increasingly marketed as lifestyle fixes.

Tennis superstar Serena Williams, who used GLP-1s to slim down after having children, was featured in this year’s Super Bowl commercial promoting telehealth company Ro’s weight-loss medication.

Serena Williams holding a GLP-1 weight-loss medicine injector.

Serena Williams poses for an ad campaign for a weight-loss drug. Ro/Handout/Reuters

Women may be particularly vulnerable to the drugs’s side effects, which can also include nausea, diarrhea, migraines and rarer cases of pancreatitis.

A study last year from a university hospital in Turin, Italy, showed that women are more prone to adverse reactions to weight-loss drugs than men, including muscle loss.

Green, the researcher, said the issue is of particular concern to those taking GLP-1s recreationally and who don’t have much muscle mass to begin with. Others say a lack of oversight is compounding the issue.

“Patients are self-reporting, and telehealth companies don’t have the patient in front of them to conduct a proper medical assessment,” said Rupal Mathur, an internist in Houston whose practice specializes in weight loss.

She said medical spas are prescribing off-label drugs that don’t meet the criteria set out by the FDA that justify a prescription.

The number of people taking weight-loss drugs who are not living with obesity or Type 2 diabetes is difficult to track since it is unregulated.

However, an analysis by the FDA from 2023 found that more than half of new Ozempic and Mounjaro users didn’t have Type 2 diabetes.

Scientists are calling for more clinical trials to pin down the full effects of weight-loss drugs on muscle loss in different demographics.

“The only studies that have been done have looked at people living with obesity or Type 2 diabetes,” said Green. “That makes it all the more concerning for those using weight-loss drugs in an ad hoc or unregistered way.”

Dumpster Driving: Inside the Treasures From the Los Angeles ‘Junkyard’ Car Collection

As millions flock to GLP-1s, doctors warn the drugs can cause rapid and significant muscle loss.