CLASSICS TODAY: August 2010

Due to recently enforced South Carolina Department of Motor Vehicle laws, Muscle Car Auctions Inc. will not be able to host the retail motor vehicle auction at the Myrtle Beach Convention Center this September. We have been working extensively with the SCDMV to bring this great event to fruition but we can’t conduct this auction and satisfy the SCDMV simultaneously.

ENGLAND ON THE 6TH

1939 ROLLS ROYCE

BRITISH HERITAGE

by Barons

Sandown Park, Ester, Surrey

United Kingdom

http://www.barons-auctions.com/

+44 (0) 8545 30 60 60

IDAHO ON THE 4TH

1953 WILLYS

SUN VALLEY AUCTION

by Silver

The Sun Valley Resort

Sun Valley, Idaho

http://www.silverauctions.com/

1-800-255-4485

INDIANA ON THE 3RD

1970 PLYMOUTH CUDA

THE AUBURN CLASSICAL EVENT AUCTION

by Classical Event

3375 State Road 427

Dekalb/Waterloo, Indiana

http://www.classicaleventauctions.com/

1-260-667-4804

INDIANA ON THE 2ND

1942 ALFA ROMEO

THE AUBURN AUCTION

by Worldwide Auctioneers

Worldwide Auction Park

Auburn, Indiana

http://www.wwgauctions.com/

1-800-990-6789

INDIANA ON SEPTEMBER 2ND

1946 CHEVY

AUBURN COLLECTOR CAR AUCTION

by RM Auctions

Auburn Auction Park

Auburn, Indiana

http://www.rmauctions.com/

1 519 352 4575

HERB GRASSE.......2010

Herb Grasse is not a household name among many car guys, though that’s not for a lack of impressive accomplishments over Grasse’s career. A graduate of the Art Center College of Design, he designed and modeled cars for Chrysler, Ford and Nissan, lending his design work to the Challenger, the Australian XD Ford Falcon and many Asia-Pacific products of the latter two companies. However, it’s outside of the big automotive companies where most people would recognize his work: While an associate designer for George Barris, he helped transform the Ford Futura concept car into TV’s Batmobile; and while working with Malcolm Bricklin, he single-handedly designed the Bricklin SV1, an effort that resulted in multiple awards.

His work can be viewed at http://www.herbgrassedesign.com/productionvehicles.htm

photo credit: Jim Cowen

VACATION TIME.....

For the month of September I will be vacationing in America. All September auctions will appear here in the next couple of days. Formula One/IndyCar will appear as I see them. Tuesday's Special will start in October. I am off to see the Wizard....

TUESDAY'S SPECIAL

1964 RELIANT SABRE SIX GT

Built by Reliant’s Competition Department for privateer Alex Griffiths, this Sabre Six competed in the 1965 Monte Carlo Rally and has since entered numerous rallies, sprints and hill-climbs including the Pirelli Marathon. In the current ownership since 1988, it underwent a documented body-off restoration in 1989 and has done just 4,000 miles since a full engine rebuild which included uprated pistons, balancing and a lead-free conversion. Fitted with a Raymond Mays cylinder head and triple Weber 40 DCOE carburettors it now produces 170bhp at the flywheel. Documentation includes FIA papers, FIVA Identity Card and an MoT certificate expiring May 2011.

+44 (0) 1428 770015

Car is in England

photo and text credit: ross & ewing

Sunday

FORMULA ONE IN BELGIUM

LEWIS HAMILTON

Belgium is one of the oldest tracks and one of the best. Fans and drivers both like it. No disappointment there. While Hamilton led from start to finish, all the action was behind him. My favorite this year, Mark Webber, came in second with Robert Kubica pulling up third.

With 1.5 seconds between Hamilton and Webber it was just enough to put Hamilton in the points lead.

INDYCAR IN ILLINOIS

Dan Weldon, 2nd-PowerHawk-Dario Franchitti, 1st-Marco Andretti, 3rd

IndyCar is back to the ovals. I am not wild about ovals, but they sure keep people on their feet. Nose to nose, wheel to wheel at 230 miles per hour....lots of action. On the ovals the finish is always close and in this case the difference between 1st and 2nd was only 0.0423 seconds. The top 10 were separated by 0.9841 of a second. Amazing!

Dario Franchitti came in first and Dan Weldon was second. Bringing home third was Marco Andretti, grandson of Mario. The Andretti team, which fielded 4 cars, came in 3rd, 4th, 5th and 14th. Will Power who looked like a winner had to pit towards the end for lack of fuel.

There were 5 women in this race. Danika Patrick (14), Sarah Fisher (15), Milka Duno (19), Simona De Silvestro (23) and Ana Beatriz (24).

Saturday

BUYER BEWARE!

The classic auction magazine Sports Car Market runs articles (under "Legal File") on the legal problems faced by buyers and sellers of classic cars. Always interesting. The article below is just an example. You can check them out at http://www.sportscarmarket.com/

The "Jay Leno Special Edition" that Wasn’t

Our sister publication, Corvette Market, reported the sale of a 2007 "Jay Leno Special Edition" Corvette at the Barrett-Jackson Palm Beach auction in April. The well-optioned, 1,873-mile Corvette was in show-car condition. Leno reportedly "handpicked" the car from a Carson, California Chevrolet dealer. The Corvette was autographed on the valve cover by Leno, carried Jay Leno signature exterior badging and a laser-inscribed Jay Leno dash plaque.

The lot also included a selection of Jay Leno memorabilia, including an autographed photograph of Leno with President George W. Bush, and a genuine Corvette jacket and golf cap, both with Leno’s signature embroidered on them. The car came with a certificate of authenticity. The "Leno-Vette" brought $44,000, which was about $5,000 more than a comparable Corvette.

There is only one problem-Jay Leno believes he may well have signed the valve cover, but otherwise he didn’t have anything to do with the car.

As you might imagine, not everyone involved in this deal wants to talk about it. However, based on interviews with some of the players and informed sources whom we believe to be reliable, here is what seems to have happened.

Free isn’t good enough

A bank bought the Corvette new from the Carson dealer. The car was a prize in a contest among the bank officers. One of the bank’s directors, who also happens to be one of Leno’s attorneys, thought he would sweeten the pot and get Leno to autograph the car.

A bank employee drove the car to Leno’s hangar, Leno autographed the valve cover, the bank employee and the car left, and Leno forgot all about the entire matter until reading about it in Corvette Market.

The bank awarded the Corvette to the winning officer, who immediately sold it online to a Tucson-area hairdresser. The hairdresser’s salon is in the same strip mall as a sports memorabilia shop owned by an acquaintance, who happened to have the aforementioned autographed Leno/Bush photograph in his inventory.

Building the Package

The facts get fuzzy here, but somehow the photograph and the car became the germ of a special-edition, one-of-one collectible package. The hairdresser had the memorabilia dealer create a Certificate of Authenticity for the car.

The dealer did that by comparing the valve-cover signature to the signature on the photograph from his inventory, deeming them identical, and certifying the signature as authentic. The certificate wrongly states that Leno purchased the car from the Carson dealer, but the memorabilia dealer included that only because it was what he was told by the hairdresser. The dealer points out that his only opinion was that the signature was authentic. To round out the package, the hairdresser had a local embroidery shop add the Leno signature to the Corvette jacket and the golf cap and created the Leno badging for the car-all to create a more valuable package.

The hairdresser then traded the package to a Florida dealer for another car, and the Florida dealer consigned the entire lot to the auction.

What does the law say?

"Legal Files" deals with the legal aspects of the collector car hobby, which in situations such as this, comes down to the theoretical question: "Who could sue whom?"

Let’s start with the buyer. There is little doubt that the car was misrepresented to him, and he would seem to have a pretty good claim that he should at least get his money back. The analysis of his claims is governed both by general principles of the law and by his bidder’s agreement with the auction company.

Under the law, an auction company essentially acts as a broker. Its descriptions of the cars being auctioned are necessarily based upon information provided by the seller. Bidder agreements typically make that clear. As long as an auction company sticks to the information provided, and it isn’t obviously inaccurate, the auction company generally faces no greater liability than refunding the purchase price of the car, if that much. The consignor, however, can face much greater liability.

Barrett-Jackson, the company that auctioned this Corvette, prides itself on its documentation procedures, and employees ran this car through their usual analysis: title verification, VIN search, review of documentation provided by the seller, and so on.

Barrett-Jackson President Steve Davis explained that they always go above and beyond the minimum legal requirements and verify as much information about their consigned cars as possible. Davis was clear that all the usual procedures were followed here, and turned up nothing wrong with this car.

"But if I did make any mistake at all," Davis said, "I should have called Jay."

Davis may be a bit too hard on himself here. The auction team probably did all they really could to verify the story behind this Corvette. It’s just that much of the information given was not easily verifiable. The only parts of the lot that had any direct connection to Leno were the autographs on the valve cover and the photograph, both of which turned out to be genuine.

Calling him to verify the autographs might be too much to expect, as Leno told "Legal Files" that he autographs all kinds of stuff. "People bring car parts to the show for me to sign three to four times per week," Leno said. "I’ve signed valve covers, glove box doors, you name it."

To their credit, Barrett-Jackson has been very professional here.

"They have been terrific, and very straightforward," Leno said. "They acknowledged the situation right away, and said they would take care of it."

And that they did. Barrett-Jackson contacted the buyer immediately and explained the situation. They refunded his money and took the car back without hesitation, taking on the task of sorting out the situation.

Owner liability

There is no doubt that the Florida dealer is going to end up holding the hot potato. After all, he was the seller, and he gave the story to the auction company. The consignment agreement between the owner and an auction company typically makes it crystal-clear that the owner is responsible for all misstatements about the consigned car.

"Legal Files" would expect that any auction company’s agreement would make the seller, in a case such as this, liable not only for refunding the sales price, but also the auction company’s lost profits on the sale, attorney fees, and incidental expenses. And the buyer may have additional damage claims against the seller, above and beyond the buyer’s claims against the auction company.

We don’t have sufficient information to evaluate whether the dealer can recover the purchase price of the car from the hairdresser. That depends on what was said between them, and "Legal Files" was unable to reach either for comment. It seems highly doubtful that the dealer would have claims against the memorabilia dealer, since the hairdresser stands between them. Further, the certificate accurately claimed Leno’s signatures were genuine, and that may be all that it really said.

Leno’s position

The same as any other TV or movie star, Jay Leno’s entire persona-name, likeness, signature, and so on-is an extremely valuable asset. Making use of any part of it without authorization is certainly actionable. The persons who misappropriate it-here, the hairdresser and possibly the memorabilia dealer-can be required to give up any profit gained from the misappropriation, reimburse the celebrity’s legal fees, and perhaps pay even greater damages.

When the subject was raised, Leno quickly rejected the idea that he would sue anybody over this.

"It’s really not that big a deal," Leno said. "I was mainly worried that someone might be paying for something that they weren’t really getting. As for me, the whole thing was just an annoyance."

And, what seemed to annoy him the most was, "The very idea that I would own a Corvette with an automatic transmission!"

Learning from the story

SCM readers know that provenance is often a considerable element of the value of a particular collector car. When that provenance involves something like celebrity ownership, that history can be difficult to verify. And, when something is difficult to verify, it becomes very easy to fabricate.

If you are going to pay a premium for a Ferrari F40 because it was once owned by Mother Teresa, you’d better spend some time and money researching the car and verifying the story. Without a copy of a certificate of title issued to the celebrity-which can easily be faked-previous ownership can be very difficult to establish.

Your due diligence process may not be very easy, and it may well involve some significant expense for experts to do the research for you, but it is necessary to avoid situations such as this one. The Leno-Vette seems to be a "Special Edition" that was created by one of the owners of the car, acting on his own. That shows how easy it can be to blend a little fact with a lot of fiction to create something that never existed.

Tuesday

TUESDAY'S SPECIAL

1932 CHRYSLER IMPERIAL CH

1932 Chrysler Imperial CH sedan, 135" wheelbase, 385 c.i. straight 8, unrestored original, 36530 miles, beautiful original interior, runs well, Grisette Brown Deep color, formerly part of Paul Stern collection, have history back to original owner.

For the Chrysler corporation as a whole, 1932 was the year of "Floating Power," Chrysler's newest idea: engines cradled on strategically placed rubber-lined mounts. W.P. Chrysler himself modestly called it the industry's "fourth milestone," after the electric starter, enclosed body, and four-wheel brakes.

Also new in 1932 were "silent" gear shifting through a free-wheeling transmission, activated by a dashboard button; squeak-proof springs with the leaves separated by discs of Oilite, an oil-impregnated sintered metal; and "Centrifuse" brake drums, which gave a longer lining life.

Floating Power was not necessary for an engine as smooth as the 385, but it gave Chrysler's finest just a little more advantage to compete with rival twelves and sixteens.

On the styling front, the Chrysler Imperial Eight CL models introduced for 1932 were even more attractive than the CG model they replaced. Hoods now swept almost to the windshield and louvers were replaced by cleaner vent doors. Convertible windshields were newly vee'd, and the massive bumper with its central "dip" identified the car at a glance. Weight went up, with all but the convertible coupe tipping the scales at more than 5,000 pounds.

The CL's paltry sales were leavened slightly by a new, smaller Imperial, the Series CH, mounted on a 135-inch chassis and priced from just under $2,000. A coupe, sedan, and convertible sedan were offered, and Chrysler built 1,400 of them, mainly the sedan.

All shared the CL's huge front bumper and some body-design features, plus the 385 engine. But being up to 500 pounds lighter made CHs more vigorous performers. It was another smart move. Chrysler avoided being left high and dry with a separate make, like some of its rivals, while not significantly compromising the big CL's prestige.

The 1932 racing scene was less noteworthy. George Howie went back to Indianapolis with another GNH Special, qualifying at more than 103 mph, but this time it wasn't enough to make the starting field.

An Imperial driven by Argentine Juan Guadino, the Golden Seal Special, qualified at 107.47 and started 36th, but dropped out after 71 laps with a burned clutch. Still, it was amazing that a racer derived from a car this big and luxurious could compete at all at Indy.

1-574-261-3734

Car is in Indiana

SOUTH DAKOTA ON THE 29TH

KOOL DEADWOOD NITES CLASSIC CAR AUCTION - PART 2

by McPherson Auctions

Deadwood Gulch Gaming Resort

Convention Center Parking Lot

304 Cliff St. Hwy. 85 S.

Deadwood, South Dakota

http://www.deadwood.org/

http://www.mcphersonauction.com/

1-605-348-1369

SOUTH DAKOTA ON THE 28TH

KOOL DEADWOOD NITES CLASSIC CAR AUCTION

by McPherson Auction & Realty

The Open Cut Gold Mine Parking Lot

161 North Main Street

Lead, South Dakota

http://www.deadwood.org/

http://www.mcphersonauction.com/

1-605-348-1369

KANSAS ON THE 27TH

1940 CHEVY CUSTOM

1955 CHEVY

2010 CLASSIC AUTOMOBILE AUCTION

by Black Top Nationals

Downtown Wichita

Wichita, Kansas

http://www.blacktopnationals.com/

1-316-425-6767

1956 LINCOLN

1969 OLDSMOBILE

Monday

WHERE DOES YOUR OLD PORSCHE FIT IN

To celebrate the 60th anniversary of its arrival in America, Porsche has launched a search to find the oldest Porsches in the nation. In addition to searching for the great-granddaddy of them all, Porsche wants to identify the oldest Porsches in 12 model categories, from the 356 to the newest generation of Boxsters and Caymans.

What’s the lure, beyond bragging rights? A special badge and inclusion on Porsche’s 60th anniversary website, for one thing. Not only that, but the oldest U.S.-market cars from each of 12 models could be photographed and included in the American exhibit that opens October 12 at the Porsche Museum in Stuttgart, the automaker says. There’s also the chance that one car will be chosen to share the Porsche display at this year’s Los Angeles Auto Show.

The organizers will have to see some proof of your car’s age, of course, but they’re offering some help through the website. For instance, “Perhaps your old 924 has black and white checkered flag insets on the seat inserts and door panels? Only the first few to come to the U.S. had this feature – a sign that you might have a Porsche with winner potential.” Entries will be accepted from now through October 1, and complete contest guidelines are at the website. Good luck, and may the oldest Porsches win.

photo credit: porsche

INDYCAR IN CALIFORNIA

And in the Winner's Circle it is the usual suspects. Will Power, in the last road course of the season, wins with gaggle of people chasing him. Scott Dixon was second and Dario Franchitti third. It was a bump and grind race before the start and to the end as shown in the video below. Road and Street Courses are still my favorite. Especially these older road courses.

IndyCar is divided into several types of races, oval, street, road, flat airport tracks and for those in the series, the Indy 500. Will Power got a special trophy for being the leading driver on the road courses. The trophy is named after Mario Andretti. Everyone has to remember him from both sides of the ocean, what a class act. Take a look at Mario, he looks fantastic and he is 70.

Sunday

NELSON HOUSE

Nelson House, the founder of the Woodward Dream Cruise, died Thursday at age 70.

The Woodward car show the Ferndale plumber conceived of to raise money for a children’s soccer field in 1995 grew into one of the premiere classic-car events in the United States.

Nelson House wanted to hold it in conjunction with a Woodward car dealership and thought it would be fine afterward to cruise down the street like he did when he was younger.

Then, the local oldies radio station WOMC 104.3 heard about it and mentioned it on air and instead of 250 people showing up for that first muscle-car extravaganza, 25,000 did – and attendance only grew from there.

Now in its 16th year with over a million in attendence.

DETROIT'S WOODWARD AVENUE "DREAM CRUISE"

Saturday

MISSOURI ON THE 20TH

1934 FORD CUSTOM

1941 STUDEBAKER

MISSOURI SUMMER CLASSIC

by MotoeXotica

Springfield, Missouri

http://www.motoexotica.com/

1-636-600-4600

1936 FORD CUSTOM

1948 CHEVY

Thursday

FERRARI FORMULA ONE SIMULATOR

The robotic arm Ferrari F1 simulator in this video was developed by researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics, in Tubingen, Germany. The robotic arm Ferrari F1 simulator is based on an industrial grade robot that has been converted into a Formula 1 simulator, complete with G forces and sound.

Although it looks like a mountain of fun for us gearheads, the robotic arm Ferrari F1 simulator has a very scientific purpose. With its help, researchers hope to get a better understanding of how we humans perceive motion.

The robotic arm Ferrari F1 simulator can offer the complete spectrum of motion possible, including putting you upside down.

You don't want to experience that in real life, but it's definitely helpful to know how it feels in case you find yourself in this kind of situations.

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