HomeMediaRon Brown estate sale draws 1,500 to Texas Hill Country

Ron Brown estate sale draws 1,500 to Texas Hill Country

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Ron Brown's 17,000-mile 1970 Plymouth Hemi 'Cuda sells for $220,000 | Worldwide Auctioneers photo
Ron Brown’s 17,000-mile 1970 Plymouth Hemi ‘Cuda sells for $220,000 | Worldwide Auctioneers photo

Some 1,500 bidders and guests braved recent flood warnings in Texas Hill Country to attend the no-reserve sale of 104 vehicles from the estate of the late Ron Brown.

“I had a feeling that the auction would be a big success,” Worldwide Auctioneers partner and auctioneer John Kruse said in a news release after the sale. “All week leading up to the event there were constant streams of people checking out the cars and memorabilia.

“Friday evening’s memorabilia segment was fun, with people vying for their favorite gas pumps, signs, juke boxes and the like. Prices for the memorabilia were strong and carried well into the cars on Saturday.”

“The room was absolutely packed on Saturday,” added Rod Egan, Worldwide’s other partner and chief auctioneer. “Over an hour before the first car crossed the block, every seat in the house was full of registered bidders. It was standing room only with more bidders in every corner and nook in the building. The phone bid desk was very busy – the room was buzzing for sure and virtually everyone stayed until the last car was sold.

“It’s the type of auction Mr. Brown would have loved being at himself.”

Brown was born in the spring of 1953 in Shreveport, Louisiana. With his father, he ran Alloy Piping Products until 1996, when he opened Street Dreams of Texas. Tony Cothren, a longtime friend of Brown and his family, will continue to operate Street Dreams as a fully functioning classic car dealership.

Cothren and the Brown Estate donated all of the auction’s general admission monies to the Next Gen Education Program, a workshop created for students and at-risk youth in Texas and Indiana. The three-year-old program was created by Indiana-based Worldwide Auctioneers and uses the automobile as a forum to inspire students toward personal growth.

The Brown Estate sale was held November 2 at Street Dreams in Fredericksburg, Texas, west of Austin. The top sale was a 1970 Plymouth Hemi ‘Cuda that brought $220,000 (including buyer’s premium). The car, powered by a 426cid V8, had been garage-kept for 43 years and driven less than 17,000 miles since new.

Other featured sales included a quartet of 1963 Chevrolet Corvette split-window coupes. An all-original example with air conditioning and a four-speed manual gearbox sold for $170,500.

A 1966 Corvette 427 roadster brought $162,250. A 1967 Corvette 427 coupe sold for $137,500.

A 1970 Dodge Charger R/T Hemi brought $132,000 and a 1959 Chevrolet Impala convertible sold for $123,750.

Larry Edsall
Larry Edsall
A former daily newspaper sports editor, Larry Edsall spent a dozen years as an editor at AutoWeek magazine before making the transition to writing for the web and becoming the author of more than 15 automotive books. In addition to being founding editor at ClassicCars.com, Larry has written for The New York Times and The Detroit News and was an adjunct honors professor at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University.

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