Bal Harbour

BAL HARBOUR 163 long viewers spend with a video—is high for this kind of content, especially for cleaning videos. Kosilla had walked himself into the middle of the 21st century platform with the biggest hit of the 20th century: the automobile. (Plus soap and steam.) "Before and after videos are everything now," Kosilla says. On his AMMO NYC channel, Kosilla is a fast-talking yet calm presence with a special taste for detail. If you don't learn enough from the main videos, there is also a schooling channel where Kosilla will spend up to three hours on a single cleaning strategy, like lifting dirt off an older paint job without doing any damage. Now a retail brand of cleaning products in 73 countries, and a YouTube channel with almost two million subscribers, AMMO NYC is an amazing vector of luxury, OCD compulsion and that new kind of content that soothes and distracts with small, discrete tasks that, unlike much of life's problems, can be quickly KFGPVKƂGFCPFFKURCVEJGF#FKTV[VTWEMKP!#FKTV[VTWEM# FKTV[VTWEMKP!#JCNHJQWTƂNOKEOCUVGTRKGEG 9JGP+ƂTUVHQWPF.CTT[oUEJCPPGN+FQWDVGFJQYOWEJC New Yorker with no real attachment to cars would be drawn in. Several hours and three cars later, I realized that my own need to clean (fairly pronounced) found a perfect match in his videos. All my time during the pandemic watching pool-cleaning videos (sublime) and Tibetan cooking (can't miss) put me in the perfect headspace to witness an old red Mercedes make its return to the stage after 40 years in the garage. When I see Kosilla and his assistant, Jordan, in early February, VJG[CTGYQTMKPIQPC.CODQTIJKPK%QWPVCEJQPGQHQPN[KP the world. His garage in Danbury is a fully-equipped TV studio, complete with bright white lights (designed to inspect car paint) and advanced wireless broadcast gear—a truly dual purpose URCEG6QCPCOCVGWTNKMGOGVJG.CODQTIJKPKKUCDTKIJVTGF YGFIGVJCVHWNƂNNUVJGKFGCQHCpURQTVUECTqVJCV+JCFYJGP+ was, say, eight. This is but one of dozens of abandoned luxury ECTU-QUKNNCƂPFUKPDCTPU p2GQRNGCUMOGJQY+ƂPFVJQUGRNCEGUq-QUKNNCUC[U laughing. I ask if he tells them. He laughs more. 4KIJVPGZVVQVJG.CODQTIJKPKKUC#WFK4CNUQMPQYP as "the car from Iron Man." This isn't a commercial investment— it's Kosilla's own car, or one of them. (He also has a blue Porsche Taycan Cross Turismo outside that came with a "delivery experience," meaning that it was under a big black cloth and unveiled at the Porsche Experience center in Atlanta like a prize on The Price Is Right.) Fastidious and persnickety car owners make Kosilla money, and his detailing schedule is booked out until next August. This doesn't mean anything goes, though. The guys who buy a yellow .CODQYKVJUWKEKFGFQQTUCPFFQFQPWVUKPVJGNQECNRCTMKPINQV for attention need not inquire. "Those guys make us look bad," he says. "They're buying a car for status and ego reasons. Honestly, I really don't care what kind of car it is, as long as you are super into it. That's the type QHECTIW[+NQXGq9JGP+CUMJQYJKU4KUFKHHGTGPVJGGZRNCKPU the position of the engine (in the middle of the car) and the beauty of the gated shifter (it's clicky). But it's something slightly JCTFGTVQFGƂPGVJCVOCMGU-QUKNNCJCRR[ "When I go get the groceries in this, I'm driving around in a work of art," he says. "It's a truly great car, and when you clean it yourself and then go for a drive, it just drives so much better. I can't explain why, but it does." A M M O I S A N A M A Z I N G V E C T O R O F L U X U R Y, O C D C O M P U L S I O N A N D T H A T N E W K I N D O F C O N T E N T T H A T S O O T H E S A N D D I S T R A C T S W I T H S M A L L , D I S C R E T E T A S K S . At left, Kosilla blasts the tires of a Scuderia Cameron Glickenhaus 003S; above right, a Pontiac LeMans 350 awaits the AMMO NYC treatment, beside a sparkling Scuderia Cameron Glickenhaus P45.

• Cover