The very first 2013 Chevy Corvette Convertible 427 sold at the Barrett-Jackson Scottsdale auction over the weekend for a staggering $600,000.
Part of this astounding price is that this "fastest and most capable convertible in Corvette's history" was sold for charity. The money went to benefit the AARP's Drive to End Hunger food relief program. For their money, the winning bidder gets the very first 427 Convertible to roll off the line. It will wear a VIN ending in 001.
By being the first off the line, it is, by default, the first convertible Corvette to get the Z06's could-be-the-best-motor-on-Earth 505-horsepower 7.0-liter V8.
As much as we all want this one driven, expect to see it up for sale again at the 2057 Barrett-Jackson auction in Space-Scottsdale with, oh, 258 miles on the odometer. When you can afford $600,000 for a Corvette, you can afford $60,000 for one that isn't a collector's item.
Continue reading...
Categories: Car Auctions,Chevrolet,Convertibles
This Saturday a one-off, School Bus Yellow Ford Mustang Boss 302 Laguna Seca will be auctioned off at Ford's Dearborn Development Center.
The auction is part of the Get Your Heart Racing benefit for the Edith and Benson Ford Heart & Vascular Institute and the Center for Cardiac Care at Henry Ford Wyandotte Hospital. The event begins with a track event where, besides being able to drive Ford products on a drag strip and simulated highway, Tanner Foust and Parnelli Jones will provide ride alongs.
But back to the car. This one-of-one Boss 302 Laguna Seca painted School Bus Yellow in honor of and inspired by Parnelli Jones and his 1970 Boss 302 in the Trans-Am Championship. Jones has personally signed the car.
Another difference between this and your regular, off-the-shelf 444-horsepower Boss 302 is that the graphics and stripes here are hand painted by Ford designer Melvin Betancourt who was treated by this very hospital for a heart problem 11 years ago.
Categories: Car Auctions,Ford
Alongside a 1987 Mercedes-Benz 560SL that was a gift from Sean Penn to Madonna, and a 1994 Toyota Supra from the Fast and the Furious, there will be something genuinely cool at Bonham's Classic California Auction on Nov 12: Fonzie's 1949 Triumph TR5. The Triumph, the last of 4 bikes used in the filming of Happy Days, was chosen as the Fonz's bike because studio execs wanted something small and light that could be pushed around set easily.
The bike has sat since the 70s, but that doesn't seem to matter as the bike has a pre-auction estimate of $60,000 - $80,000.
(New York Times)
Categories: Car Auctions,Motorcycles
We tend to give auction cars a bit of a pass when they're for charity. See: Kiss Minis, that Freddie Mercury/Lotus thing. It's a flaw. We're just too good hearted.But auctioning off the last Mitsubishi Eclipse to benefit the Japan Red Cross? It's not that the Eclipse is a cheap car, especially not in 265-horsepower GT trim where it rings up at a slightly shocking $29,089, it's just that, uhm, who's going to buy it?
This particular Eclipse, though a 2012 Eclipse SE V6 ($24,699), is special, see; it's the last one to roll off the line after 22 years of Eclipse production. It's also coming in a special Kalapana Black, because when Mitsubishi opened up a Facebook poll to decide the color -- between ANY historic Eclipse color -- why wouldn't you vote for a no-cost paint option currently available? It's also got 18 inch wheels, sunroof, leather, Rockford Fosgate 9-speaker stereo, rear-view camear and HIDs. Oh, and it's also the ONLY one to have the SE package and the V6. Which means that it doesn't get the GT's brakes or suspension, but hey, the rocker panel graphics match the wheels and the mirrors are black.
The auction takes place at the Mecum St. Charles, IL Auction on Sept 15-18. The Eclipse will be sold at 1:55pm on Saturday, get your bids in fast. There's no auction estimate, we'll see if it ends up higher than simply pushing the Eclipse into that lake and claiming the insurance on it. Though that probably violates the spirit of charity (and US law) or something like that.
Continue reading...
Categories: Car Auctions,Mitsubishi
For those of you currently wrapped up in L.A. Noir, the idea of owning a Duesenberg Coupe is probably pretty appealing right now. And this one, as the kids say, is a doozy.
It's a 1931 Duesenberg Whittell Coupe --- a bespoke Duesenberg based on the Model J -- which originally sold in 1931 for $17,000. It was built for one Captain George Whittell Jr., the heir to a California Gold Rush and real-estate fortune who counted this among his 6 Duesenbergs. He is described as "one of America's outlandish, Roaring Twenties bad Boys" and "the ultimate playboy of his day." They continue to whet your dreams for the life you really wish you lived with more from the life of Captain George, "Whittell engaged in numerous escapades with women, reckless street racing and outrageous public appearances, like the time he famously showed up to a local tavern with Bill, his pet lion."
The black, red and chrome beauty -- check out the way the paint splits the tire carrier -- was designed at Murphy Coach Builders by Frank Hershey who later went on to style the 1955 Ford Thunderbird. The Whittell Coupe is 11 inches longer than the standard car, has an aluminum folding roof and carries a 420 cubic-inch inline-8.
The auction takes places on Saturday and Sunday, August 20 and 21 at the Pebble Beach Equestrian Center. No estimate was given.
Categories: Car Auctions,Classic Cars
Got a car you need to get rid of fast? Like that project car you keep meaning to get around to fixing up -- and that your significant other wants out of the garage ASAP? But don't want the hassle of taking pictures, fielding calls and weeding out the tire-kickers from the truly motivated?
Copart, an online auction company that sells over 1 million cars each year, just made it even easier to sell your heap classic with the launch of the Copart Sell My Car app for iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad. After downloading the free app, you fill in contact and vehicle information details and upload photos taken with your Apple device. A Copart rep will respond with follow-up questions or an offer to purchase the vehicle immediately.
Continue reading...
Categories: Car Auctions,Car Tech
The inaugural Villa d"esta Auction hosted by RM Auctions is turning out to be a good one. When the auction takes place on May 21 in Cernobbio, Italy, the historic eye-candy crossing the block will be astounding. Here's the short-take.
1965 Ford GT40 prototype Roadster (1 of 5) piloted by Sir John Whitmore and Bob Bondurant in the 1965 Targa Florio: $3.6 - $4.3 million.
1953 Ferrari 250 MM Berlinetta (1 of 17 bodied by Pininfarina) built for Efrain Ruiz Echeverria and entered in the 1953 Carrera Panamericana: $3.9 - $4.8 million.
There's also a 1955 3755 MM Berlinetta by Pininfarina, a 1937 Bugatti Type 57 SC Atalante coupe (owned by William Harrah, priced at $4.8 - $6.3 million), and a 1937 Mercedes-Benz 540K Cabriolet.
And that's just a start.
Continue reading...
Categories: Car Auctions,Classic Cars,Ferrari,Ford,Sports Cars,Tuners and Modifications
Back in October, the 1964 Aston Martin DB5 from Goldfinger was auctioned off for a cool $4.5 million. Well, another car inspired by an Ian Fleming creation is being auctioned this year, but it has nothing to do with James Bond. That's right, in case you didn't know this, the same man who thought Pussy Galore was an acceptable character name also spawned the adored children's tale Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. In modern terms, this is like Tarantino directing Shrek 8.
Where was I? Ah yes, the custom-built Chitty Chitty Bang Bang car used in the filming of the Chitty Chitty Bang Bang movie will be auctioned off May 14 with a pre-sale estimate of $1 million to $2 million.
Continue reading...
Categories: Car Auctions
Even if you don't like looking at old cars that seem hopelessly slow and crude alongside modern metal, you'd take an extra long pause at this car if you were at England's Brooklands Museum on May 18.
This '73 Ferrari GTB/4 Daytona (chassis/engine numbers: 16531) is one of 158 right-hand-drive Daytonas imported to the UK. It has 26,851 original miles, and the paint is Blue Ribot Metallic. The car hasn't accomplished any particular feats in its 38 years on the planet, despite having a front-mounted 4.4-liter V12 rated at 352 hp at 7,500 rpm, but Prince Charles apparently drove it for a week in '73. We hope he went to redline at least once. Top speed is a heady 175 mph on this car, and it would take about 5.3 seconds to deliver you to 60 mph.
More importantly, the Daytona was loaned to Top Gear. Richard Hammond drove it in November 2008 in a race against Captain Slow, who was captaining an XSR 48, the fastest-ever diesel production boat. Video of that after the jump, plus more photos.
(Historics at Brooklands)
Continue reading...
Categories: Car Auctions,Classic Cars,Ferrari
Okay, maybe I would have held out for one that wasn't yellow, but whatever. The Lamborghini Miura SV is one of most classic automobile shapes of all time. It's one of those designs that needs no explanation, it just looks right from all sides.
So it was no surprise that this pristine '71 went for a cool $1.7M over at last weekend's Gooding and Co. auction in Florida. Not all Miuras go for that much, but this example is the actual prototype built to test the various changes made on the SV model. That's what they call provenance in the auction world. We just call it cool.
Categories: Car Auctions,Lamborghini
A 2006 Ferrari FXX Evoluzione set a record at Gooding this weekend selling for something like all of the money. Roughly translated in today's economy, that's equal to $2,100,000. Sure, there were only 30 built and it has 860 horsepower, but still.
Second highest price paid at the auction? $1.7 million for a one-of-fifteen 1953 Fiat 8V Supersonic.
..and they say money can't buy happiness.
Continue reading...
Categories: Car Auctions,Ferrari,Fiat
There's no debate: Grabber blue is the best color on a car since Laguna Seca blue (which was the best color since the discontinuation of Phoenix yellow, but this is an argument for another day...) And so when the 2012 Ford Mustang Boss 302 was announced in only Competition Orange, Performance White, Kona Blue Metallic, Yellow Blaze Tri-Coat Metallic and Race Red, there was outrage.
Okay, maybe not, but the color is pretty spectacular and Ford has finally decided to paint a Boss 302 Laguna Seca in the bright blue. Trouble is, they only painted one like this and it's headed for the 40th annual Barrett-Jackson Scottsdale Auction.
This one-off Mustang features the same 444-horsepower 5.0-liter V8 as all Laguna Seca Boss 302s, but will get distinctive black accents on the roof, mirrors and spoiler, Recaro seats with Grabber blue embroidery and Grabber blue grille surround and rear X-Brace.
Parnelli Jones will be providing commentary for the event which will be televised live on SPEED on January 22.
All proceeds above MSRP will go to the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation. Ford and Barrett-Jackson have raised nearly $2.5 million for charity over the last four years.
Continue reading...
Categories: Car Auctions,Ford
There was no doubt, ever, that the 3 $5,995 2011 Volkswagen Jettas up for sale on Gilt.com were going to sell out. What is someone shocking is the time in which it took them to sell out. The third sale, on December 17, took the longest. The Jetta was on sale for a full second before it was scooped up by a buyer from San Jose. After that, the second slowest sale-- via iPhone-- took 253 milliseconds which Gilt is happy to point out, is faster than an eye blink. The entire checkout for this purchase took 27 seconds.
Coming in first was a woman from Brooklyn, NY who bought the first Jetta on her iPad in 0 seconds though it took her four minutes and 48 seconds to complete the purchase. You know, typing in a CC # in your iPad is tough sometimes with those tiny "keys."
The promotion also set a traffic record for the site with some 50,000 buyers on the wait list. The $18,000 in proceeds from the cars sold will be donated to Dress for Success, a charity that provides women with clothing, support and guidance for professional career success.
Buying cars from a mobile device in less than 5 minutes. It's an intriguing idea. How much money could manufacturers save bypassing the dealer network altogether. If it was cheap enough, would you skip the test drive and simply click "buy it now"?
Categories: Car Auctions,Volkswagen
Back in November, GM put up a Viridian Joule 2011 Chevy Volt up for auction. The proceeds, it was said, would benefit the Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) departments of the Detroit Public School Foundation.
Well, now the auction is over and the final bid was $225,000. That is all.
*The winning bidder has been announced as Rick Hendrick, chairman of Hendrick Motorsports and Chairman of the Hendrick Auto Group which controls at least 12 Chevy Dealers. He was quoted as saying he wanted to "own a piece of history while giving back to the community." And that the Vol is "one of the most exciting and important new cars since we opened our first dealership in 1976."*
Categories: Car Auctions,Chevrolet
Okay, this is to everyone out there: If you have a barn, or you know someone with a barn, or you've seen a barn...go check it for classic cars now. This is getting out of hand. Especially from a Southern California perspective where land is scarce, having spare barns full of rare metal is as unreasonable as those with spare barns think our rents are.
I can say with absolute certainty that I do not have a 1964 Shelby Cobra 289 anywhere on my property. Double check and make sure that you can't either.
But if you really want one, Gooding & Co are auctioning one off at their January 2010 Scottsdale auction.
Continue reading...
Categories: Car Auctions,Classic Cars,Ferrari,Mercedes-Benz,Porsche
In a rare twist, the 40th annual Scottsdale Auction by Barrett-Jackson will feature a slew of drool worthy muscle cars AND a famed collector selling off his absurdly perfect jealousy-inducing collection.
Continue reading...
Categories: Car Auctions,Chevrolet,Classic Cars,Dodge,Plymouth
We've all been a little swept-up in Z28 fever lately, so apologies if we've sort of forgotten about the 2011 Chevy Camaro Convertible. Turns out, however, that they're still doing one and that production has started! And leave it to Barrett-Jackson to get their gavel-banging hands on the second-built 2011 Camaro Convertible.
The auction will be held Friday, September 25 at the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino in Las Vegas and proceeds will go to the YMCA of Southern Las Vegas.
It's a cool car for a good cause. Check out Barrett-Jackson's Las Vegas auction page to see the 2011 Camaro Convertible's listing as well as what else is running across the block this weekend.
Categories: Car Auctions,Chevrolet,Convertibles
This 1927 Mercedes-Benz S Boattail Speedster was once co-owned by two of the Marx brothers and is the actual car used in the legendary "Muroc match race."
As the legend goes, Zeppo Marx got into an argument with dinner guest Phil Berg who owned a Model J Duesenberg. Marx swore his Mercedes would blow the doors off Berg's Duesenberg so they arranged a race at Muroc dry lake in the desert north of Hollywood.
Continue reading...
Categories: Car Auctions,Mercedes-Benz
The original James Bond car, a 1964 Aston Martin DB5, will be on the auction block in London come October 27. RM Auctions is predicting that the car, which still has all the gadgetry and weaponry used by Bond in Goldfinger and Thunderball, will command "in excess $5 million."
That is a postively obscene amount of money, as our resident Bond/Aston expert, James Riswick, points out that ordinary DB5s from that era have been selling in the high-$300,000 range. Then again, Sean Connery's bum once warmed these tired leather seats, so that's got to be worth at least a mil, right?
More photos after the jump.
RM Auctions
Continue reading...
Categories: Aston Martin,Car Auctions,Celebrities,Classic Cars,Coupes
Remember the '63 Corvette Sting Ray that belonged to Harley J. Earl, the designer of the original Corvette? It's this car obviously, and you'll recall that its cockpit is as gloriously blue as its exterior with some two dozen gauges and dials competing for your attention. The dual-panel instrumentation was actually a pre-production 1965 feature, as were the car's four-wheel disc brakes, side-exit exhaust and chrome exterior trim.
Over the weekend, this Corvette, which has a 327-cubic-inch V8, was up on the auction block at Mecum's Indianapolis auction where it sold for $925,000. That's not quite classic Bugatti money, but still a considerable transaction.
Concours, Mecum
Categories: Car Auctions,Chevrolet,Classic Cars,Convertibles
