SVT, I agree with you 100% ! All this auction does is makes these cars unreachable to the normal car guy! Also it makes the average person that has a muscle car think it is worth 4 times what it is! Think about it you can buy a Superformance Cobra, drop in a new 427 with aluminum heads and install 2 paxton's for a lot less than 5 mil! A superperformance Cobra will out handle an original anyday! As far as i'm concerned these people are nuts!!! Also Barret-Jackson is robbing these people without a gun!!! Mark
These people aren't nuts, they're stupid. Imagine all the good that could come from the money being thrown away on the auction block. I think they should come up with "fair market value" and then contribute anything over that to a worthy cause. I think it has become more about flaunting your money on national TV then anything else. Personally, it makes me sick...
It's not so much that people are selling & purchasing vehicles at inflated prices @ these auctions such as B-J; I don't have a problem with that as that is their respective decisions to do so. If people have that kind of $$$ to spend on cars, then more power to 'em.
What bothers me is how these auctions have now embraced fake vehicles when in years past such fakes were shunned. I can still remember attending auctions in the 70's & 80's when fake Mustangs, whether Shelby's, GT's or Mach 1's were roundly rejected by the auction industry; both the auctioneers & the buyers. Now the auctions have done a 180 & are actively promoting fake muscle cars, such as all of the Hemi Mopars & big block GM cars, euphemistically referring to them as "recreations."
So now anyone can purchase an old 6-cylinder or small block V8 Satellite or Malibu, drop in a crate Hemi or 454 & auction it off for six figures. What absolutely flabbergasts me is that there are so many foolish people who pay those six figure prices for such obvious fakes.
As for the Shelby twin turbo Cobra selling for $5,000,000 that is another one of my pet peeves regarding auctions; e.g. the fascination with celebrity vehicles. I've never understood the appeal of owning a vehicle that was previously owned by a celebrity, whether movie or TV star, musician or any other famous person. Big F'in Deal if you now own a car once owned by Elvis Presley or Carroll Shelby. Who cares?!? That & the proverbial $5.50 will get you a cup of coffee @ Starbucks.
I guess I just don't get it.
What's cool is I worked on the Cobra and accidently put a big chip on the inside of the passanger door with a Batt jump box. You could still see the chip when the camera panned over the car.
I was working for a buddy in NC about 10 year's ago just before starting PAS, we sold exotic cars. He owned the Cobra for about 6 months and Ithink he sold it in the 300K range. My brush with greatness and 15 min of fame all wrapped up in one.
What's cool is I worked on the Cobra and accidently put a big chip on the inside of the passanger door with a Batt jump box. You could still see the chip when the camera panned over the car.
I was working for a buddy in NC about 10 year's ago just before starting PAS, we sold exotic cars. He owned the Cobra for about 6 months and Ithink he sold it in the 300K range. My brush with greatness and 15 min of fame all wrapped up in one.