Auctions, Car show, Uncategorized

Gas Monkey Garage’s Ferrari at Barrett Jackson Auction

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Gas Monkey Garage

The fun loving folks at Gas Monkey Garage are connected to three cars selling at the Barrett-Jackson Auction this week.  Funny how things can quickly change.  Last year a car, previously featured on Gas Monkey’s “Fast N’ Loud” TV reality show,  sold with little fanfare or publicity.

Camaro

Since then, Richard Rawlings sold a COPO Camaro at the Reno auction.    And he is now selling a CRC Camaro ready for the dragstrip.

Ferrari

Now the 1991 Ferrari F-40 that arrived at Gas Monkey Garage as a wreck; was fixed on the TV show and sold to Dennis Collins, his business partner, is a featured car on Saturday night in Barrett-Jackson’s Salon Collection.

F-40 Repairs

The folks at Gas Monkey Garage knew their limitations and imported some hired guns to help out on the frame and body work.  The Ferrari has less than 7,200 miles and is no longer a stocker.  The car was repainted black, rather than keeping it the original red.  The turbos are changed out (or enhanced), new shocks added and new seats were added, along with custom 18″ wheels in satin black.   The original aluminum V8 engine is intact with 2.9 liters displacement.

Given the rising fame of Richard Rawlings and Gas Monkey Garage it’ll be interesting to see what this thirteen year old car fetches.  Will the purists despise the mods or will a buyer want the car featured on Fast N’ Loud.

Tell us what you think!

 

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Auctions, Car show, Uncategorized

Bruce Willis’ Nomad has some humor

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At any car auction, sellers are quick to point out the car’s connection to a celebrity.  While some stars are known for their affection to cars for others the connection is loose or weak.  It seems every few years Jodie Foster’s VW Bug runs through the auction, but really?  Jodie Foster?

Barrett-Jackson

So at this week’s Barrett-Jackson Auction, you wouldn’t be surprised that some cars come out with a connection to stars.  Simon Cowell is selling his Bugatti, while Gene Simmons is selling a Ford Truck that was first premiered at the SEMA Show.

Bruce Willis

But this Nomad’s seller shows he has a sense of humor – or a great copywriter. This 55 Chevrolet Nomad was previously owned by actor Bruce Willis.   The seller mentions he has a written note from Bruce stating ”the car brought me many years of fun, and happy memories”

1955 Nomad

The car has a Skyline Blue and India Ivory interior, and for some reason the engine was replaced with a 1966 Corvette L79 engine with a three speed automatic.  The hero card mentions Bruce’s association to the car seven times.

But the humorous addition?  See what the car comes with in this pic!

55 Nomad Bruce Willis

 

Auctions, Car show, Uncategorized

Afterburner Ford Fairlane by Ring Brothers at Barrett-Jackson

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Ring Brothers 1964 Ford Fairlane “Afterburner”

The 1964 Ford Fairlane dubbed “Afterburner” and built by the Ring Brothers debuted at the SEMA Show in 2009.  It was eye-popping and showed the exceptional skills and vision continuously displayed since by the two boys.  We loved it then and love still today.

In the interim the Ring Brothers have continued to make a name for themselves and have produced a great number of jaw dropping cars.

Barrett Jackson

Now it is auctioning off at the 2014 Barrett-Jackson Auction.  This beauty is a work of art and has less than 1,000 miles on it since first built.  The Ford Windsor engine with a bored out 427 is spectacular.  The body modifications made by Ring Brothers is exceptionally eye pleasing.  Here’s hoping that more than one bidder falls in love , like we did five years ago.

What do you think it’ll bring on Saturday?

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Auctions, Manufacturer news, Uncategorized

Corvettes at Barrett-Jackson Auctions

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Corvettes Rule

The number one manufacturer offered for sale at Barrett-Jackson?  Consistently, year after year – Chevrolet.  The number one model – no contest – the Corvette!

The Barrett-Jackson Auction starts on Tuesday, January 14th, and over the six days of car sales , with over 1400 vehicles offered up for sale – 136 will be Corvettes!  Hands down the Corvette will be the number one model sold.  Of course it doesn’t hurt that the Corvette, covering seven generations (or model changes), has been around since 1953.  But this is still a huge tribute to the American sports car.

Here are just a few pictures to whet your appetite – enjoy the sneak preview and let us know which is your favorite.

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Auctions, Manufacturer news

Gas Monkey Garage COPO Camaro selling at Barrett-Jackson

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Gas Monkey Garage Does It Again

Gas Monkey Garage, from Dallas and the stars of Fast N’ Loud on the Discovery Channel, will be auctioning off their last COPO Camaro at the Barrett-Jackson car auction in Scottsdale on Saturday January 17th during the first of two “prime time” schedules for that day.

Gas Monkey Garage COPO Camaro
Driver side view

COPO Camaro

The COPO Camaro was developed by Chevrolet to be a drag strip car and certified to NHRA certification levels.  Each year Chevy sells 69 units, which are NOT street legal, by way of a lottery system.  This past year Richard Rawlings and his partner bought out an additional 20 chassis’s from Chevrolet which are considered CRC- Certified Race Chassis.  So these come with the power train components.  Gas Monkey Garage then offered them for sale with either the buyer adding on the optional go fast components or leave with just the chassis.Gas Monkey Grage COPO Camaro Interior

Barrett-Jackson Auction

At the 2013 Reno Barrett-Jackson auction they sold a similar COPO Camaro, but one that Rawlings and his financial backer actually had a hand in building and was featured on Fast N’ Loud.

Of the twenty originally available only this one and a rolling chassis are left.  The one being auctioned lists as being the only one with the Gas Monkey Garage decals.  This one is offered at auction with a three speed automatic transmission instead of the more traditional two speeds.  And they stuffed a 454 LSX engine under the hood.

At the auction Barrett-Jackson has set up two time slots for their Salon Collection cars on Saturday.  The first will be from 1-3 (local time MST) and shown on the Fox Channel.  Probably the first time a car auction has been shown on nationwide television by a big four broadcaster.  They then have a second two hour block on Saturday shown on the National geographic Channel from 5-7 MST.

Prediction?

This COPO Camaro will be the third one sold.  The one in Reno sold for $137,500.    What do you think this one sells for?  Their web site shows the remaining rolling chassis originally was selling for $85,000  and now offered for $75,000.

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Photos Courtesy of Barrett-Jackson

Auctions, Uncategorized

Classic car auctions in Arizona

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January in Arizona can only mean one thing!  It is classic car auction time.  Between all the car auctions being held in January, if you want a specific car this is the place to find it.  And if you want to sell your car, this is the spot that will have the most buyers available.  Most sites are held in impromptu tents on large pieces of vacant land.  In six days, six auction houses will descend on the Valley of the Sun and offer a collective SEVENTEEN days worth of auctions.  Surely a busy week for every car aficionado.

Barrett-Jackson

Craig Jackson’s dad was one of the pioneers in the classic car auctions and once again over 1300 cars will be sold over six days, January 14-19,2014.  The auction takes advantage of permanent buildings at Westworld in Scottsdale, AZ and will have live coverage on three networks, after SPEED dropped off the cable scene.  So the auction can be seen on Fox Sports1, Fox Business and National Geographic channels.  Remember when the TV turns on, the prices go up!  The funny cars and trailers from Don Prudhome and Tom McEwen recently popularized by the movie “$nake and Mongoose” will be for sale.

two car haulers and funny cars to sell at car auction
Haulers on movie set for Snake and Mongoo$e

Most of the cars are sold with no reserve, except for a select few offered for sale on Saturday during prime time

Russo and Steele

This auction run be Drew Alcazar starts up on January 16th and runs through Sunday the 19th in North Scottsdale.  Russo and Steele was the site of a horrendous storm where plenty of classics were damaged by uprooted tents a few years back, but Drew has persevered and offers a great event.

 

Gooding and Company

This British sounding group based in Santa Monica, CA  will be having two days of sales on the 17th and 18th of January at the Scottsdale Fashion Center shopping mall.  Last year they hit the fences with the highest selling car, a 1958 Ferrari California Spyder, which sold for $8,250,000.

Bonham’s

This auction is a one day affair on Wednesday January 16th at the Westin Kierland resort in Scottsdale.  It is interesting that they want to have their slots over with before the heavy weekend of car sales.

Silver AuctionFor sale sticker at car auction

Mitch Silver runs a low-key, unpretentious auction on the Fort McDowell Yavapai Nation and they are known for good cars at fair prices.  They will be set up for Friday-Saturday the 17th and 18th as well, and expect 400 cars.

RM Auction

This site sneaks in for a quick two day sale on the 16th and 17th, again avoiding the hectic frenzy of  a Saturday auction, while being held in the venerable Biltmore Resort in central Phoenix.

Automobilia Scottsdale

First time entrant offering strictly automobilia from various dealers will be held for two days January 16-17 at the Fort McDowell Radisson Resort, the same site as the Silver Auction.  This is similar to the automobilia scene at Monterrey in August.  It’ll be interesting how this fares as most car auctions have some car themed pieces to sell before the cars run through.

Follow along on this site or on our twitter feed for daily updates

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Manufacturer news, Uncategorized

Corvette’s Jake Logo Revised

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With the introduction of a new generation Corvette, the C7, it figures that a new Jake design would be in order.

Jake is the logo for Corvette Racing and featured a modernized skull with the corvette crossed flags as the eyes.

jake-c6r

Image 1 of 1

Jake Updated

The C7.R (the full on racing version of the Corvette) will make its track debut at the Rolex 24 at Daytona in January, 2014.  This is the day after its unveiling at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit on Jan. 25, 2014. When the C7.R takes to the track, it will sport an all-new Jake logo, which has become the unofficial mascot of Corvette Racing.

corvette-c7r-jake-mascot

Image 1 of 1

Jake logo Black and White

The History of Jake


Jake first appeared in the early 2000s, when the Corvette Racing team was gaining momentum and winning multiple ALMS championships and the 24 Hours of Daytona and 12 Hours of Sebring. The team began uniting behind a rally cry of “Take No Prisoners” and a flaming skull logo that represented its unrelenting drive for victories.

It wasn’t until after the C5.R completed the final 24 Hours of Le Mans that the unofficial logo was born. Urban lore claims that the sketch started on a cocktail napkin as a skull with crossed flags for the eyes and was named after Jake, Jim Belushi’s character from The Blues Brothers.

Jake Concept Edition

Jake even was honored with Chevrolet concept car that was shown at SEMA in 2010.  It was based on a Grand Sport edition and was liberally covered with sedate Jake logos.

The new Jake, with the seventh-generation Crossed Flag logo for eyes, is more modern and more aggressive just like the C7.R will hope to be.

Artwork courtesy of © General Motors

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Tool Chest, Uncategorized

Bridjit Curbs to the Rescue

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Many low slung sports cars face a suburban threat – driveways.bridjit-driveway-2

 

It seems that many residential driveways have too sharp of an incline to allow for low profile cars to enter without scraping the side effects or body panels.

bridjit3 I have even experienced  a Toyota Camry scrape a driveway when “loaded” down with four adults!  But Bridjit has come to our rescue.

bridjit-installed

These folks at Bridjit have engineered a heavy-duty rubber curb that helps minimize the drop off on many curbs and driveways.  It is made out of recycled tires, so you can even get an environmental thumbs up!  We first ran across this item at the SEMA Show in Las Vegas.

Bridjit to the test

Our test vehicle was stock 2003 Corvette.  Regardless of the angle of the approach, the car always scraped the front air dam.  Now Chevrolet did design this to be a flexible item, but eventually this air dam is bound to tear off or worse.

With the Bridjit in place the Corvette has a much easier time traversing the driveway.

Bridjit installs easily

The typical set up consists of a main portion of straight curbing and two tapered end pieces.  They bolt together with galvanized nuts and bolts.

bridjit-backsideIf necessary you could order additional sections of the main straight piece for longer drives.  These babies are tough and durable.  Ours has been exposed to the harsh Arizona sun for years now with no deterioration.

Bridjit is safe

Bridjit curbs are also rain and street sweeper safe.  There is a circular channel built into the underside so water can run underneath the curbing.  And the city street sweepers just steer around it when they come down our street, just like a parked car or similar obstruction.

We were originally concerned that the Bridjit might “disappear” at the hands of a midnight thief so our name was painted on the underside.  But truth be known, at twelve feet and 75 pounds, these are a bit unwieldy, after assembly, so doubt if theft is a big issue.

What will be an issue is curiosity from passerby’s.  We have had more than one car back up and peer again at the Bridjit and look it over. Nice that Bridjit inscribed their name and toll-free phone number (877 522-6611) on the curbing.  Good marketing and free advertising!

bridjit8

Purchase the Bridjit

Several car shops carry the Bridjit curbs but I’d suggest ordering straight from the website and checking in with the friendly owners if you have any specific questions.

 

Car show, Manufacturer news, Uncategorized

Bumble Bee Camaro Tire with Hollywood Magic

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Bumble Bee -the Star of the Transformer Movie Anthologybumble-bee Camaro

The Bumble Bee is one of the main characters in the Transformer Movie Series and is a bright yellow Camaro.  Chevrolet certainly enjoys the publicity that is garnered by the Bumble Bee and Hollywood studios are known for accepting cash or product for a movie “placement”.

bumble-bee-hood

SEMA 2013

At the recent SEMA show, the three “stars” of the upcoming Transformers 4 movie directed by Michael Bay were showcased by Chevrolet at a standalone display.  Present were a new sleek Corvette Stringray, an urban looking Sonic and the yellow Bumble Bee Camaro.  They were highlighting the upcoming Transformers 4 release next summer.

bumble-bee-side

The same three cars were present at Chevrolet’s Media Event.  But after Monday’s event some sharp eyed spectators noted a slight change in the “shoes” the Bumble Bee was wearing. pre-close-up Bumble bee tire It turns out the Hollywood magic must have worn out and the painted on Goodyear logo and Eagle name were removed showing the true brand of these tires – Pirelli.post-close-up Bumble Bee tire

Ah, the magic of Hollywood!

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Car show, Uncategorized

Double Down Deuce by Bryan Fuller at SEMA Show

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Bryan Fuller’s 32 Ford Roadster – Double Down Deuce

double-down-deuce-3

We’ve always been a fan of the work and craftsmanship that Bryan Fuller demonstrates.  Last year at SEMA (Specialty Equipment Market Association) he dragged out the ultra-long “Thundertaker“.  Now this year at  SEMA  we were once again impressed by his “Double Down Deuce” Ford.  And we weren’t the only ones – Hot Rod Magazine did not just one but two entries on the deuce.

Fuller – All Wheel Drive

After all when’s the last time you saw a quick change gear set – in the FRONT end??  Yep this is an all wheel drive beast!  This metal roadster is powered by a Ford Boss 429 producing 600 cubic inches and huge horsepower with a GMC Denali transfer case and a clutchless five speed. from G Force.

Slick is Sick

The “Slickest” item might be the Goodyear 28.5—14.50-16 Goodyear Eagle slicks to provide the traction to the asphalt or even the salt flats. This roadster will be at home on the auto cross, with pro tourers or at Bonneville.

double-down-deuce-4

While still “a work in progress” this “Double Down Deuce” in bare metal is still awesome.  Plus we had the chance to see it again in November at the Jet Hot display at the Goodguy’s Southwest Nationals show in Scottsdale, AZ.

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From classics to muscle cars – everything automotive