CNBC Special Report: Who are the Super Rich?

In 1985, there were only 13 billionaires in the United States. Today there are more than 1,000.

Together with hundreds of thousands of newly minted multimillionaires, they live virtually untouched by an economic downturn that is having a crushing impact on many Americans, indulging in a parallel world of luxury where multiple homes, personal staffs and countless possessions grow along with their outsized fortunes. This creation of unprecedented wealth has brought us to a moment in American history that has been described as the "New Gilded Age."

Once such wealth was a rarity, confined to a small group of people. But today their ranks have swelled so large that the Super Rich have created a world of their own populated by men like Tim Durham, a financier from Indiana whose net worth is over $75 million.

When most of us need a new car we take a drive to the local dealer. When Durham looks for an automobile he flies to Europe.

“I’m actually in London because there's an auction here, some fairly significant cars,” he said as he waited for the auction to begin.

Durham, 45, made his millions from leveraged buyouts. His strength is buying undervalued companies. His weakness is cars.

“It's a great privilege to be able to do this,” Durham said. “These days you can stay right home in Indianapolis and do an Internet auction. But it sure is nice to be in London.”

On this day, he has his eye on a Rolls-Royce, which is on the block for a colossal sum. The auctioneer speaks loudly into the microphone: “Do I hear 3,350,000 pounds now?”

Durham finds the weak dollar puts him at a considerable disadvantage as the bidding exceeds $7 million. So he returns home without a new car — for now. That doesn’t mean he has to worry about hitching rides.

On any given day, when Durham visits his two-story garage, he can drive off with the Rolls-Royce he already owns, a Lamborghini, a Duesenberg or his newest, high-maintenance purchase — a $1.8-million Bugatti.

“I had a nail in the tire," he said. "It cost $22,000. Then I got another nail in it. And so I had to change the same tire twice.”

Many of the cars in Durham’s collection are worth between $1.5 million and $2.5 million. In total, he has over 70 cars, about 20 of which are housed on each level of his garage. The others are scattered throughout the country in museums and shows and in restoration. He has so many cars he sometimes loses count.

Durham grew up in a middle-class family — a typical background for the Super Rich. Today he lives a life of opulence in which money, or the lack of it, is rarely a concern. His main residence is a 30,000-square-foot, eight-bedroom home with a pool, two state-of-the-art kitchens, three bars, an exercise room, home theater and about 20 televisions, including two in his bathroom mirror.

As striking as Tim Durham’s lifestyle may seem for its apparent excess, he is far from alone; the Super Rich have become a species unto themselves. In this New Gilded Age, more people are making huge fortunes faster, and at a younger age, than ever before.

This unprecedented wealth has been sparked by advances in technology that have allowed  leaps in productivity and in turn created money. An explosion in global trade allowed that money to be invested all over the world. The result is that extraordinary sums have rained down on hedge fund managers, private equity partners, real estate tycoons and entrepreneurs. They aren’t merely rich. They are the Super Rich.

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