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Report: Cache of vintage Chevys in Nebraska headed to auction [w/video]

Filed under: Classics, Auctions, Chevrolet

This isn’t the first car dealer turned time capsule, but it might be the biggest. Ray Lambrecht stashed about 500 new cars from 1958 to 1980 that didn’t sell at his Pierce, NE, Chevrolet dealership before he closed shop in 1996, Yahoo News reports. His reasoning? Instead of selling previous model-year inventory at discounted prices, he kept the cars thinking they’d appreciate over time. Soon we’ll find out how his unique business strategy worked, as all of the old/new cars – stored in the dealership and at a farm – will hit the auction block next month. We think old Lambrecht will be making some good money – perhaps as much as six figures on some cars – as many vehicles in the collection are über rare and word of the auction has spread worldwide.

It is reported that visitors from all over the US and at least a dozen countries will descend upon the 1,800-resident town for the auction to buy old Chevys with negligible miles. The cars with the fewest miles in the collection are a 1959 Bel Air and 1960 Corvair Monza with only one mile on their odometers. A 1958 Cameo pickup truck with just 1.3 miles sits in a corner with some damage to the roof and a thick layer of dust. About 50 vehicles have 20 miles or less, including the newest vehicle in the collection, a 1980 Monza with nine miles. While the cars in Lambrecht’s collection can be a bit rough on the outside, the ones that were stored in the dealership still have pristine interiors.

So what will happen to the vehicles once they’re sold? Jay Quail, executive director of the Classic Car Club of America, says many collectors who buy the low-mileage vehicles likely will put them on display as works of art. “It’s like having a Picasso in your garage,” he says. “Collectors will pay for a car that’s totally unmolested.”

UPDATE: Take a better look at this time-warp collection with the new Associated Press video added below.

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Cache of vintage Chevys in Nebraska headed to auction [w/video] originally appeared on Autoblog on Wed, 21 Aug 2013 16:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Auctions: Shelby Cobra, Mercedes 300SL and 1947 Woodie from Petersen Museum headed to auction

Filed under: Classics, Convertible, Performance, Wagon, Auctions, Ford, Ferrari, Luxury

The changes happening at the Petersen Museum have been making the rounds in major press, but it probably won’t be until August 18, during Pebble Beach, when we get the full story on what’s happening; that’s where and when museum reps plan on announcing the way forward for the SoCal institution. In the meantime, the museum is still reorganizing its collection, and that means auctioning some of its showpieces at this weekend’s Auctions America event in Burbank.

Three of the stars are a 1964 Shelby Cobra 289, one of less than 20 produced with a three-speed C-4 automatic transmission, a 1960 Mercedes-Benz 300SL owned by actor Robert Stack and the last 1948 Ford Sportsman ‘Woodie’ ever produced. The Cobra, now restored to its original white exterior and red leather interior, was a factory demonstrator that first sold for $5,250. Showing just 38,950 miles on the odometer, its pre-sale estimate is $800,000 to $1 million.

The 300SL is actually a 1957 model but wasn’t titled until Robert Stack took possession in 1960. The lead actor in the The Untouchables TV series used to drive by the Sunset Boulevard Mercedes dealership to ogle the car, but couldn’t justify spending the money to buy it. When he and the producer of The Untouchables won Emmys for the show, the producer, who happened to be Desi Arnaz, bought the car for Stack. He owned it his whole life, it has been left as Stack drove it and still bears the California license plate “UNTCHBL.”

The 100-horsepower 1947 Woodie is considered to be the last Sportsman ever built, one of just 28 examples produced that year. It’s been thoroughly restored and returned to its Maize Yellow hue, with the original Birdseye Maple along its flanks and gray cardboard lining in its trunk.

They will go up on the plinth with rarities like a Jaguar XJ220, 1974 Mercedes-Benz 600 LWB Pullman Limousine and 1971 Ferrari 365 GTB/4 Daytona. You can read about the cars and the auction in the press releases below.

Continue reading Shelby Cobra, Mercedes 300SL and 1947 Woodie from Petersen Museum headed to auction

Shelby Cobra, Mercedes 300SL and 1947 Woodie from Petersen Museum headed to auction originally appeared on Autoblog on Mon, 29 Jul 2013 17:31:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Report: Supercars seized from African dictator’s son sold for over $4M in Paris auction

Filed under: Government/Legal, Earnings/Financials

Corruption is a big problem around the world, but perhaps nowhere more than in African dictatorships. Proof? Despite living in one of the wealthiest countries on the African continent, the citizens of Equatorial Guinea live in abject poverty. Clean drinking water is available to less than half the populous, and one in five children is dead before their fifth birthday.

As so often seems the case with dictatorships, while the citizenry suffers, the rulers of EG live in the lap of luxury. With any luck, though, justice might be catching up to “President” Teodor Obiang’s son, Teodorin, according to a report from the International Business Times.

Obiang was subject to a raid by French law enforcement in 2011 that lasted two weeks. Why did it last two weeks? Because authorities had to search the his 80 million Euro, 101-room mansion on the Champs Elysees. Naturally, the house and everything in it was found to have been purchased using state funds. If this blatant display of wealth doesn’t outrage you, let us point you back to that stat about 20 percent of this country’s citizens dying before age five.

The seizure included a fleet of luxury and sports cars, including models from Bugatti, Bentley, Rolls-Royce, Ferrari, Porsche, Maserati and Maybach. The kicker is, most of the cars had little to no mileage on them. Fine art, vintage wine, and antiques were also seized. Now, French auction house Drouot has sold several of the cars, racking up over $4 million in profits. We can only hope the funds go back to the citizens of Equatorial Guinea, but we aren’t holding our breath.

There’s more at the IBT. Give it a read if you’re interested in making yourself sick.

Supercars seized from African dictator’s son sold for over $4M in Paris auction originally appeared on Autoblog on Tue, 16 Jul 2013 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Official: Fangio F1 car sells for record $29M at Goodwood auction

Filed under: Motorsports, Auctions, Mercedes-Benz, UK, Racing

Rare gems of automotive history are always popping up at the Bonhams auction at the Goodwood Festival of Speed, but the racecar you see above just made a little more history. This Mercedes W196R was driven by Juan Manuel Fangio to wins in the 1954 German and Swiss Grand Prix races, and when the hammer fell at auction yesterday, the $29.65 million price it fetched made it the most expensive car ever sold at auction. It’s also earned the honor of being the most expensive F1 car ever sold and the most valuable Mercedes-Benz in the world.

Still battered by racing and time, this car in an important piece of history to both Formula One and Mercedes-Benz alike. According to Bonhams, Fangio’s wins gave Mercedes its first back-to-back post-war Grand Prix victories, and it introduced F1 cars to fuel-injection, tubular spaceframe chassis and inline eight-cylinder engines. Robert Brooks, Bonhams Chairman, called this car the “most important historic Grand Prix racing car ever offered for sale.”

Based on our own records, the Mercedes W196R came close to almost doubling the prior record holder for the most expensive car sold at auction, a 1957 Ferrari 250 TR Prototype that sold for $16.39 million at Gooding & Company’s Pebble Beach auction in 2011. The Mercedes even came kinda-sorta close to the record price for a car sold privately, the current big seller being a 1962 Ferraro GTO built for Sterling Moss that went for a reported $35 million in a private sale last year.

Scroll down for more information about the Mercedes W196R F1 car, and be sure to check out the trio of images (including one of the car in action).

Continue reading Fangio F1 car sells for record $29M at Goodwood auction

Fangio F1 car sells for record $29M at Goodwood auction originally appeared on Autoblog on Sat, 13 Jul 2013 08:57:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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1926 Rolls-Royce Phantom 10EX prototype up for auction

Filed under: Concept Cars, Classics, Auctions, Rolls-Royce

1926 Rolls-Royce Phantom 10EX

1926 Rolls-Royce Phantom 10EX – Click above for high-res image gallery

Times change and so do trends. These days, everyone’s clamoring for more environmentally-friendly and fuel-efficient cars that even Rolls-Royce is tinkering with electric propulsion. The program is being carried out on the 102EX electric Phantom prototype. But go back nearly a century and speed was the cause célèbre du jour. And then just as now, Rolls-Royce was keen to prove its mettle. This was the car with which it did so.

As Rolls-Royce presented the first-generation Phantom to the world, it was eager to show what it could do, so the company’s managing director Claude Johnson had the crew at Crewe put this prototype together. Named in his honor, the “CJ Sports Car” featured a more aerodynamic “torpedo” coachwork by Barker. Although many experimental Phantoms followed (straight through to the aforementioned 102EX), this was the only one that the company held on to after it was done testing, and was even rumored to have been loaned out to Laurence of Arabia at one time.

10EX is expected to fetch around £400,000-£800,000 ($650k-$1.3m) when it goes up for auction on June 23 at RM’s inaugural Salon Privé auction at West London’s picturesque Syon Park estate. Joining it on the docket will be numerous other Rolls-Royce, Bentley, Jaguar, Aston Martin classics (among others) representing the finest of historic British motoring. Follow the jump for the full press release.

Continue reading 1926 Rolls-Royce Phantom 10EX prototype up for auction

1926 Rolls-Royce Phantom 10EX prototype up for auction originally appeared on Autoblog on Wed, 18 May 2011 19:25:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Rare four-cylinder ’57 Ferrari Testa Rossa expected to top $4 million at auction

Filed under: Classics, Auctions, Ferrari

1957 Ferrari 500 TRC Spider

1957 Ferrari 500 TRC Spider – Click above for high-res image gallery

Wait a second, a Ferrari 500 with a four-cylinder engine? Come on, Autoblog – check your facts. Don’t we mean a Fiat 500? Maybe that special-edition Abarth 695 Tributo Ferrari? Nope. What we have here is a genuine four-cylinder Ferrari. And a highly coveted one at that.

The Ferrari 500 TRC (that’s Testa Rossa Type-C) Spider was one of the last models Maranello ever built with an inline-four, the engine originally designed by Aurelio Lampredi for Formula Two, but later adapted for sports racing prototypes after the engineer’s departure. Derived from the Monza, this was the first Ferrari to bear the Testa Rossa name for its red valve headers. And though the styling is similar, it’s even rarer than the 250 Testa Rossa that followed: only 19 of these cars were built, all during just one year or production, making this rarer than the more powerful 12-cylinder 250 TR and 250 GTO that rake in the big bucks at auction.

This particular example – chassis number 0670 MDTR – was the sixth made, ordered by a customer in Sicily who entered it in numerous races around the world in its heyday. While other 500 TRC Spiders went on to claim class victories at Le Mans and the Targa Florio, this one took its class win at the Monte Pellegrino Hillclimb in Palermo – the same locale where we drove the Ferrari California on its launch several decades later.

The car stands as the latest consignment to RM Auctions’ docket for the upcoming Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este, where it is expected to fetch €2,600,000 to €3,300,000 (equivalent to $3.6M to $4.6M at current rates). There it will stand alongside such notables recently covered on these pages as the collection of Bertone concept cars, the Talbot and Bugatti art-deco classics and the pair historic Zagato-bodied Kamm-tailed Alfa Romeos in what’s shaping up to be an historic event in its own right. Follow the jump for more details on the 500 TRC and take a closer look in the high-res image gallery.

Continue reading Rare four-cylinder ’57 Ferrari Testa Rossa expected to top $4 million at auction

Rare four-cylinder ’57 Ferrari Testa Rossa expected to top $4 million at auction originally appeared on Autoblog on Tue, 17 May 2011 19:25:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Blake Griffin to auction dunked-over Kia Optima on AutoTrader.com [w/video]

Filed under: Sedan, Auctions, Videos, Kia, Celebrities

blake griffin goes airborne over a 2011 kia optima

Blake Griffin goes airborne over a 2011 Kia Optima – Click above to watch video after the jump

Mixed opinions arise when discussing Blake Griffin’s over-car dunk at the 2011 NBA Slam Dunk Contest. Regardless, it got people talking and the 2011 Kia Optima played a major role in the jam. Kia turned Griffin’s hop into a commercial, and now Griffin is again using that same Optima for another good move; one that will benefit cancer research organization Stand Up to Cancer.

With the help of AutoTrader.com, Blake Griffin will auction off the car that helped him win the 2011 Dunk Contest title. Signed by the recently named Rookie of the Year, this Optima has been seen by millions of people courtesy of YouTube (and you can join that group by clicking past the jump and watching the dunk for yourself).

All proceeds will go to Stand Up for Cancer, which is a charity close to Griffin’s heart. His friend, and former high school basketball teammate, Wilson Holloway recently lost a three-year battle with Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. AutoTrader.com, which typically does not auction vehicles, has stated that it’s eager to help raise as much money as possible for such a worthy charity. The auction will run through May 15th, and can be viewed at a special Blake Griffin-specific page on AutoTrader.com.

Click past the jump to get a refresher on Griffin’s sedan-soaring slam, then be sure to read through the press release for more information. It’s also worth mentioning that donations can be made to Stand Up to Cancer here.

Continue reading Blake Griffin to auction dunked-over Kia Optima on AutoTrader.com [w/video]

Blake Griffin to auction dunked-over Kia Optima on AutoTrader.com [w/video] originally appeared on Autoblog on Thu, 05 May 2011 23:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Bonhams to auction McQueen’s Husqvarna, memorabilia at the Quail Lodge

Filed under: Classics, Auctions, Motorcycle, Celebrities

Steve McQueen's 1971 Husqvarna 400 Steve McQueen is revered by gearheads as an enthusiastic owner and driver of all sorts of cars, from a brown ’63 Ferrari 250 GT Lusso to a teal ’58 GMC pickup and everything in between. But the King of Cool was equally into motorcycles, and rode them regularly.

Arguably one of the most recognizable was his Husqvarna 400 dirt bike. It was on this Swedish gem that he was photographed for the cover of Sports Illustrated (pictured at right). The bike was sold in 1984 and subsequently changed hands a couple of times, but has throughout remained in the condition in which McQueen last rode it – right down to the spare spark plug he taped to the frame.

Now the ’71 Husky is crossing the auction block once again as part of Bonhams’ enormous motorcycle and memorabilia auction at the Quail Lodge in Carmel, California, on May 14. Alongside it will be an endless array of McQueen artifacts, including his race trophies won on both two wheels and four. Joining the McQueen items are such notable consignments as a pair of custom Harleys built for Otis Chandler and owned by the Guggenheim Foundation, as well as a pair of classic Norton racers. Follow the jump for a pair of press releases and check out the images in the gallery below for more.

Gallery: Steve McQueen’s 1971 Husqvarna 400

[Source: Bonhams]

Continue reading Bonhams to auction McQueen’s Husqvarna, memorabilia at the Quail Lodge

Bonhams to auction McQueen’s Husqvarna, memorabilia at the Quail Lodge originally appeared on Autoblog on Sun, 24 Apr 2011 11:07:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Bertone hits Shanghai, says museum car auction may not happen after all

Filed under: Concept Cars, China, Europe, Earnings/Financials, Shanghai Motor Show

Bertone emblem

Our friends at legendary Italian design house Bertone had a small group of us over to its headquarters in Caprie just to the west of Turin in order to shed greater light on what the company’s current situation actually is. In brief, from the mouth of CEO Marco Filippa, contrary to reports that recent Fiat rumblings have put Bertone on the skids, the company is instead thriving in its own humble manner… sort of.

First sign of thrive-ery is the unveiling of three Bertone-executed showcar concepts at the upcoming Shanghai Motor Show, two of which are strictly for Chinese clients and a third being of potential global significance for General Motors’ joint partner SAIC, known also as Shanghai GM. Bertone’s holding company and Stile Bertone have signed up four of the top five Chinese brands for 2011 projects, along with a project with what some insiders say is BMW, and one more with the newly incorporated Fiat Industrial.

Awkward news reports insinuating that Fiat’s pause in investing in the manufacturing facility it bought from Bertone in late 2009 – and the announcement of six Bertone museum pieces being put up for sale by RM Auctions at the upcoming Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este – had many people concluding that Bertone was desperate for cash. “Not the case at all,” CEO Filippa has assured us.

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Bertone hits Shanghai, says museum car auction may not happen after all originally appeared on Autoblog on Tue, 12 Apr 2011 15:58:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Ferrari Daytona of royal, Top Gear provenance up for auction at Brooklands

Filed under: Classics, Auctions, Ferrari, Celebrities

1973 Ferrari 365 GTB/4 Daytona - chassis #16531

1973 Ferrari 365 GTB/4 Daytona chassis #16531 – Click above for high-res image gallery

With examples from the 250 series fetching earth-shattering prices, the Ferrari 365 GTB/4 “Daytona” is quickly becoming a classic favorite. The wedge-shaped GT from the late 60s and early 70s was a clear separation from the bulbous models that proceeded it, and is today regarded as one of the definitive classic Ferraris of all time. But even among the 1,400+ built, some are more special than others.

For starters, this particular example – which is going up for auction in May under the auspices of Historics at Brooklands – is one of only 158 right-hand-drive models. But chassis #16531 is set apart from the other 157 by its fate once arriving in the UK.

Its first owner was HRH Charles, Prince of Wales, who only drove it for about a week before selling it. A few owners of varied stature owned the car since, until it appeared on the BBC’s ever-popular car show Top Gear. You may recall the episode (twelfth in the fifth season) when James May set sail for Saint-Tropez from Portofino in a speedboat, while Richard Hammond took the coastal road in a Daytona? Well this is that very same car.

Resplendent in metallic blue, tan leather interior and Borrani wire wheels, this 365 GTB/4 has only 26,281 miles on the odometer, and was verified on the dyno shortly before the Top Gear filming to have lost none of the 352 horsepower with which it left the factory. It’s a beauty. Details in the press release after the jump.

Gallery: 1973 Ferrari 365 GTB/4 Daytona – chassis #16531

[Source: Historics at Brooklands]

Continue reading Ferrari Daytona of royal, Top Gear provenance up for auction at Brooklands

Ferrari Daytona of royal, Top Gear provenance up for auction at Brooklands originally appeared on Autoblog on Wed, 30 Mar 2011 17:22:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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