Another in a series of previews of classic car auctions in January.

Bonhams is doing everything it can to make the third time the charm in selling classic cars at auction in Arizona.

“When people get our catalog they will see a quite severe upgrade in the quality of the cars we’re offering,” promised Jakob Greisen, motorcar specialist and head of business development for Bonhams motoring department.

Greisen said Bonhams set out on the new path last summer with its classic car auction at the Quail Lodge in Monterey, Calif.

“Our Quail auction went from $12 million in 2012 to just over $30 million in 2013, and with less cars,” said Greisen, who joined Bonhams last year from Gooding & Co.

The idea, he added, is “less but more,” as in fewer offerings, but offerings of high quality.

Bonhams, established in England in 1793, certainly is known for the quality of its auction offerings in Europe, where it recently handled the sale of the famed Ecurie Ecosse racing team collection and where, last summer, it sold the 1954 Mercedes-Benz W196R Grand Prix car for a world-record auction price of $29.65 million.

Not only will the quality of the cars be upgraded, Greisen said, but so will their presentation January 16 at the Westin Kierland resort in Scottsdale.

“We sat down and said, ‘you know what? It’s a very big marketplace and our share is not where it should be, and when it comes to the  handful of auction houses that can handle an important car, we’re not handling as many as we should be. We rethought our strategy and our business plan. We’ve been outgoing more and have reached out more to our clients. Especially in Scottsdale.

“It’s about offering the client something unusual, something they have to buy at auction, that they cannot find on eBay or Hemmings, something that [they realize presents] an opportunity.”

For example? Griesen offers two of them , one a pre-war car, one from the post-war period.

The pre-war car is a 1931 Alfa Romeo 6C 1750 supercharged gran sport spider with bodywork by Zagato.

“The car has a fabulous history,” Griesen said. “It was bought new by a baron in France, a young playboy who raced at Le Mans and had airplanes and he had this great car.”

The young baron co-drove an Alfa 8C with Luigi Chinetti at Le Mans in 1933 and they finished second, trailing only another 8C co-driven by the legendary Tazio Nuvolari and Frenchman Raymond Sommer. In the 1930s, the baron sent his wife and son to Switzerland but he remained in France and joined the resistance movement.

He sold the Alfa 6C in 1935. Through several owners, the car remained in France in original condition until it was sold in 2007 at Monterey. The American collector who bought it there had it restored. He sold it three years later. The consignor for the Scottsdale auction also had it restored, by Steve Babinsky of American Restorations.

Since then, still with its original engine and bodywork, it has been shown at the Pebble Beach and Amelia Island concours. In 2013, the car participated in the Mille Miglia and then took part in the Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este.

The car’s pre-auction estimate is $2.4 million to $2.7 million.

Griesen’s post-war example of Bonhams boost in quality is “the tailor’s car,” a 1951 Ferrari 212 Export Berlinetta with bodywork by Touring.

“The car has had the same ownership since 1969 and is one of four export 212s that had Touring superleggera coachwork,” Griesen said

The car, he added, was one of the first Ferraris produced, purchased new by Augusto Caraceni, a racing driver and professional tailor with clients that included Enzo Ferrari, Gianni Agnelli, Aristotle Onasissis, Humphrey Bogart and Cary Grant.

The car came to the United States in the early 1960s and the consignor has owned it since 1969. Its restoration, by several Ferrari experts, began in 2008.

Since it’s restoration, Griesen said, “it has never been shown, but it is a car you could take to Pebble Beach or Cavallino Classic and the Mille Miglia.”

The pre-auction estimate is $3-$4 million.

While the Alfa and Ferrari may be two of the most outstanding examples of Bonhams’ new push, Griesen noted that the catalog ranges from a 1910 Simplex 50HP Toy Tonneau to a 2010 Ferrari 599XX. In between those dates and cars are many others, including two Mercedes-Benz 300SLs, a gulling and a roadster; a 1936 Mercedes-Benz 500K sports phaeton; a 1966 Ferrari 275 GTB/6C; a 1954 Bentley R-type Continental fastback; and a 1950 Delahaye originally displayed at the Paris auto salon.

And it’s not just the quality of the cars offered that has been upgraded, Griesen said. So has the quality of the automobila offerings, which include such unique items as the tweed jacket worn by Steve McQueen in the movie Bullitt.

Photos courtesy of Bonhams

Another in a series of previews of classic car auctions in January.

Let’s have some fun with numbers (Gooding & Co. certainly did in 2013):

• 10
• 192,600,000
• 286
• 50
• 673,68
• 95

Now for the fun…

The 10 is here because 2013 marked a decade in business for the classic car auction company started by David Gooding, who grew up in one of the country’s best collections — his father was the curator at the National Automobile Museum (nee Harrah’s) — and David took his lifelong knowledge of classic cars with him to Christie’s and RM before launching on his own.

That 192.6 million is the dollar value of the 286 classic vehicles sold in 2013 at Gooding & Co.’s three auctions. Fifty of those vehicles sold for $1 million or more.

Yes, the fact that the average sale at a Gooding & Co. auction was $673,686 is quite impressive. But even more impressive to my way of thinking is the fact that 95 percent of all vehicles offered at those sales actually were sold.

“We love that number,” said Garth Hammers, one of the car specialists at Gooding. “We put a lot of work into that. We accept cars very carefully. It has to be the right car, the finest example we can find. It has to be priced competitively, and it has to be something people are looking for.”

Consider that the vast majority of vehicles sold at Gooding & Co. auctions carry significant reserve prices. Auction houses work with consignors to set those reserves. Set them too low and consignors go home discouraged they didn’t get what their cars were really worth. Set them too high and both bidders and consignors are discouraged, bidders because they couldn’t buy the car and consignors because the car didn’t sell.

But consign the right cars and know your customers — both sellers and buyers — and cars sell for the right price and everyone goes home happy.

Note that while other auction houses are adding events, Gooding has kept its calendar to three sales — Arizona, Amelia Island and Pebble Beach.

“The sales roster that we have allows us to focus on customer service and being able to hand choose every car that goes into each of the sales,” Hammers said.

The limited schedule allows Gooding & Co. specialists and other staffers to spend time searching for those best-example cars and to work on important but less publicized parts of the business — brokering private (non-auction) sales and helping car-collecting clients with estate planning.

Gooding opens its second decade with its annual January sale in Arizona, where it sets up shop in a couple of big tents next in the parking lot next to the Dillard’s department store at the high-end Scottsdale Fashion Square shopping mall.

The catalog for the auction includes 118 lots, and 20 of them are vehicles wearing the three-pointed star of Mercedes-Benz.

“Once we saw it coming together and that we were moving in that direction, we thought it would be interesting to pull in a lot of different models from Mercedes-Benz,” Hammers said. “Historically, they sell very well. Mercedes has had so many timely designs and their engineering is beyond reproach.”

He added that classic Mercedes, even those just being “awakened from a sometimes long slumber” are capable and reliable drivers, whether on classic tours or in everyday traffic.

One reason for that, he said, was the Mercedes-Benz Classic Center, a Mercedes-owned parts and restoration shop in Irvine, Calif., that has become something of a one-stop shop for keeping vintage Mercedes on the road and running and looking good.

Among the Mercedes being offered at Gooding’s Arizona sale are a pair of 1956 300SL gullwings that may share their red interior and black body colors, histories of nearly 50 years of single-family ownership, and even their estimated values, but otherwise are very different.

One, valued at $1.35-$1.7 million, was owned by a single family for nearly 50 years, but sold in 2006 and a year later underwent a concours-quality restoration at RM Auto Restorations. The car was sold again in 2011 and won best-in-class honors at the San Marino, Calif., concours.

The other, with an estimated value of $1.1-$1.4 million, is offered in original condition. The car was put into storage in the 1970s and only recently has been rediscovered.

“They are priced somewhat similarly but are probably for vastly different customers,” Hammers said. “One car has been off the road for decades. It has its original interior, but the leather has splits in it. The headliner is threadbare. But it’s wonderfully original.

“The other has been restored to an extremely high standard and is as comfortable on the road as it is on the show field.”

But the Arizona auction isn’t just a Mercedes-Benz showcase, Hammers said, pointing out cars such:

• the 1929 Duesenberg Model J dual-cowl phaeton originally owned by one of the Dodge brothers and the 2010 best-in-show winner at the Meadow Brook concours;
• the 1997 McLaren F1 GTR “longtail” FIA GT racer (see photo below);
• a 1956 Ferrari 410 Superamerica, one of 16 and “likely the last one that’s unrestored”;
• a 1986 Ferrari 280 GTO that not only has been “federalized,” but is “California-legal”;
• a 1958 Ferrari 250 GT Series 1 cabriolet.

And while those are expected to be seven-figure vehicles, the catalog includes several other less-expensive gems, Hammer said, including a pair of 1956 Austin-Healey 100Ms, a 1971 Alfa Romeo Montreal and for the first time ever at a Gooding auction, a 1954 Hudson Italia.

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Another in of a series of articles about cars that someday may be considered classics.

Car collectors usually start out by buying the car they wanted but couldn’t have in high school. For baby boomers, those were Detroit muscle cars and little deuce coupes. But for a younger generation, they were road-legal rally cars, vehicles such the 2004 Subaru WRX STI.

Subaru was among those seeking global attention for their cars by racing in the early years of this century in the World Rally Championship. Rallying may not have been as big in the United States as Formula One, Indy cars or NASCAR, but globally it was second only to F1 and even here is was popular with the video gamers.

Subaru’s WRC hopes rode — and rode well, winning the championship twice within three years — on a souped-up version of its Impreza compact sedan. To race in the WRC an automaker had to homologate its racer for the road and thus the WRX STI. WRX was sort of short for World Rally eXperimental and the STI came from Subaru Technica International, the company’s in-house motorsports shop.

What those letters brought were 300 turbocharged horsepower and 300 pound-feet of torque from Subaru’s 2.5-liter, horizontally opposed four-cylinder engine, an architecture similar to that employed by the likes of Ferrari and Porsche, just with fewer cylinders in Subaru’s case.

With a six-speed manual, strengthened suspension components, Brembo brakes and driver-adjustable full-time four-wheel drive, the WRX STI was (and remains) quick and nimble. With a massive hood scoop, big BBS wheels and ginormous rear wing, it had (still has) a menacing presence that belies its commuter-car underpinnings.

Put it all together and the WRX STI is ready for handbrake J-turns on dusty forest roads (the center diff is so smart it disengages the rear-wheel drive when the handbrake is applied) and for smoking its tires — and its competition — on tight autocross circuits. Don’t be surprised if it also shows up on classic car auction blocks somewhere down the road.

 

1958 Ferrari California Spider photo by Patrick Emzen | Provided by RM Auctions

Another in a series of previews of classic car auctions in January.

As if it wasn’t enough to do nearly $63 million in business in little more than two hours, it turns out there was a bonus dividend for RM Auctions in the aftermath of its Art of the Automobile auction in conjunction with Sotheby’s in November in New York City.

“It used to be harder to sell the client on ‘let me sell your car at Arizona or Amelia Island’,” said Ian Kelleher, a veteran car specialist at RM.

It seems most everyone wanted their cars included in RM’s big summer auction at Pebble Beach. But then along came the new New York auction, which drew a lot of attention — from consignors, from the media, and from people, especially younger people, who previously may not have considered classic cars as art to be purchased and even cherished.

And because the New York auction was taking place in a limited space, there was room for only 31 vehicles. However, RM could offer those that didn’t fit in Manhattan a slot at upcoming auctions in Arizona and Florida.

Kelleher also said the New York auction introduced young art collectors to the joy of classic cars.

“It’s become something people want to get involved in, even if it is just for one of two cars,” he said, adding that such newcomers “see something and love it and that’s what they want.

“They want to be able to enjoy their car,” he added, explaining that such newcomers are very good news, especially for people selling cars for less than a quarter of a million dollars.

“They see a Porsche GS GT Speedster and the see a standard-engine 1600,” Kelleher said. “To them, it doesn’t really matter if they have the four-cam variant as it does to have the same style. People are buying style and design. This is a very visual world and a very visual hobby.”

Such cars, he added, “represent accessibility to a world that is difficult to jump right in. People are driven to things that will allow them inclusion in collector car respectability” without having to spend seven figures until they have enough experience that their tastes mature and they realize the importance of that four-cam car.

1930 Duesenberg ‘Disappearing Top’ photo by Dari Schnabel | Courtesy RM Auctions

RM returns to a two-day format — Thursday the 16th and Friday the 17th — for its Arizona auction, which again will be held at the Arizona Biltmore Resort in Phoenix.

The Arizona auction begins a new year for RM, which enjoyed a phenomenal 2013 during which the RM group, which includes RM Auctions, RM Restoration and Auctions America, did $442 million in sales and had a car emerge from its restoration shop to win best-in-show at Pebble B each for an unprecedented fifth time. Total sales marked a 20-percent boost over 2012 figures.

To start 2014, the catalog for RM’s 15th Arizona auction includes more than 120 vehicles. Among them:

• a 1958 Ferrari 250 GT LWB California Spider (one of 50 built);
• a 1930 Duesenberg Model J “Disappearing Top” convertible coupe known as Melvin’s Murphy in honor of Walter P. Murphy Coachbuilders, the Pasadena company that created the bodywork, and Melvin Clemans, who owned the car for more than 50 years;
• a 1929 Bentley 4 1/2-liter tourer;
• the 1953 Siata 208S Spyder known as the Siata-Ford;
• the 1935 Hispano-Suiza J12 Cabriolet de Ville with bodywork by the Rippon brothers;
• a 1956 Mercedes-Benz 300 SL gullwing coupe;
• a 1964 Ferrari 250 GT/L Lusso;
• the 1937 Bugatti Type 57C Ventoux that won Elegance in Motion honors at Pebble Beach in 1998;
• one of two 1961 Chaparral 1 race cars, this one formerly owned by Skip Barber

Kelleher said the catalog also includes a variety of “entry-level collector cars people can get in and drive and enjoy very easily.”

1961 Chaparral 1 photo courtesy RM Auctions

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When we report to you about classic car auctions,  we tend to focus on the highest dollar sales figures: Which auction house sold the most expensive car in Monterey? Which auction house took in the most money in Arizona?

Dana Mecum thinks we’re looking at the wrong scoreboard.

Mecum points out that when the OEMs — the original equipment auto makers who produce the cars that might someday become classics — when the auto manufacturers tally up their monthly and annual scorecards, “No. 1 is whomever produced and sold the most cars.”

That’s the most as in volume, not as in the most expensive.

Of course, Mecum likes keeping score by volume rather than by dollars because Mecum Auctions is the classic car volume leader.

“CNN reported that 19,000 cars were offered at classic car auctions in 2013,” Mecum said. “Well, we offered 12,000 of them. That’s 65 percent of the market.”

Mecum added that he’s not claiming that big a slice of the marketplace. Instead, he said, “I think their number was low. I think it’s more like 24,000 or 25,000 vehicles.”

But that still leaves Mecum controlling half of the classic car auction market, at least in terms of total vehicles.

Mecum said his perspective is based in part because of his personal experience. “My father has been selling cars for more than 60 years,” he said. “In the 1960s, he was the largest wholesale fleet dealer in the world. I’ve always been around large groups of cars. Five-hundred cars. Two-thousand cars.”

While the auto makers continued to focus on volume, “years ago, people in the collector car industry started counting success by dollar volume,” Mecum said. “I disagreed.”

While Mecum agrees that dollars are one way to keep score, they are not the only way. Nonetheless, he’s willing to play that game.

“If you take what I call the major auction companies and go to the dollar volume,” Mecum said, “there are four that sell more than $25 million a year: Us, Barrett-Jackson, RM and Gooding.

“If you take those four and the number of cars sold, we’re at 70 percent [of the market]. If you take the dollar volume, we’re [still] at about 35 percent.”

Mecum chuckles at those who try to make the classic car marketplace more complicated than it is.

“It’s such a basically simple industry,” he said. “It runs on middle-school economics: Supply and demand.”

Sounds to me as if Mecum definitely is into the supply side of the economic equation. What do you think?

This is the first in a series of previews of classic car auctions in January. 

“Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & … ” Oops, of course we mean Barrett & Jackson, not Barnum & Bailey. But while one is “The Greatest Show on Earth” and the other merely stages “The World’s Greatest Collector Car Auctions,” both provide multi-ring, circus-style entertainment for children  — and car collectors — of all ages.

Sure, next month Barrett-Jackson moves its auction block from a big old tent-style structure into a dazzling new 130,000-square-foot arena that was part of a $52 million upgrade to the WestWorld facilities by the City of Scottsdale, Arizona. Fear not, however, the circus continues. This year, the 43rd for Barrett-Jackson, there even will be a carousel, which you’ll be able to ride — provided, of course, that you are the high bidder — and there also will be bull-riding cowboys providing late-night entertainment over in the newly completed Equidome.

You’ll notice the changes as soon as you arrive at WestWorld, where the activities begin Sunday, January 12, with the annual Family Value Day from 8 a.m. until 5 p.m.

Monday, Bret Michaels will provide the entertainment at the auction gala. Bidding on some 1,400 vehicles begins at 2 p.m. Tuesday and runs to the late afternoon on Sunday. Over the course of the week, some 250,000 people are expected to attend the circus — err, auction.

Instead of the old and relatively narrow entry way, you’ll be greeted by a set of structures that stretch eight-tenths of a mile.

“We’re in the new building but we still have the old tent,” said Barrett-Jackson chairman Craig Jackson, who said there will be structures stretching from the old building to the new one, and from there some 600 feet out into what used to be a parking lot.

“That’s eight-tenths of a mile all indoors,” he said.

Because of the new buildings, the ride-and-drive area has been moved from the upper lot to the lower pavement.

Jackson also said that the “portapotties are gone,” with the exception of a few down on the lower field. The new buildings include real restrooms.

Also gone, he said, are all those noisy electrical generators, except for the few that provide backup power for the equipment used to televise the auction.

And even the television package has changed. Gone (at least in the United States) is the Speed Channel. Instead, the Scottsdale auction will be televised by various other Fox channels, including Fox Business, the National Geographic Channel and even the primary and over-the-air Fox broadcast channel that shows everything from NFL games to American Idol.

Speaking of American idols, some of the most iconic American cars will be featured during Fox Broadcast’s live coverage on Saturday.

Barrett-Jackson’s star cars, the Salon Collection, will be split into two groups with American cars up for bidding during the Fox Broadcast in the afternoon and European classics and sports cars during the usual prime-time Saturday night extravaganza, which will be televised by National Geographic.

“We’ve supersized Saturday,” Jackson said.

The Salon Collection gets its own 216-page catalog. That’s in addition to the 600-plus page catalog that covers the rest of the auction docket.

Those Salon cars range from a 1929 Duesenberg to a gull-wing Mercedes-Benz 300SL and from a Shelby King Cobra to the Snake and Mongoose Hot Wheels funny cars and their transporters.

“We’ve had an incredible journey this past year with the Snake and Mongoose,” Jackson said. “The first premiere of the movie was at Hot August Nights [where Barrett-Jackson staged its newest auction during the popular and annual hot-rod festival].

“Then we took both cars and car haulers and drove them down the drag strip at Indy where all the [famed] grudge matches started in the U.S. Nationals. There was another movie premiere night at Indianapolis and all the modern and legendary drag racers came. That was truly incredible.

“Snake [Don Prudhomme] and Mongoose [Tom McEwen] changed drag racing by bringing non-automotive sponsorship — and showmanship — into it.

“I don’t know what the cars and transporters will bring,” Jackson added. “I put them into the wild-card category, but they’re truly a piece of American history.”

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