Gasser’s are easily spotted from a mile away. The body’s are lifted up with a straight axle highly visible in the front. In the early 60’s that is what everybody brought to the local drag strips. Back then you didn’t care about pro-touring handling, you just wanted something to go lickity split for a quarter of a mile.
Hot Rod Magazine
The latest issue of Hot Rod magazine (December, 2013) has an article on a 58 Ford Gasser that the folks at Galpin Ford did for a sales manager, Steve Carpenter. The article is a nice write-up on a nice car.
Galpin Gasser
The 331 cubic inch Ford engine produces 500 horsepower and matches up to a Borg Warner 4 speed, using a Hurst 4 speed.   A Currie 9 inch rear end with a 4.11 posi helps hold everything together.  Lots of chrome, which probably wasn’t in use as much back at the old airstrip dragways, is evident. That’s a nice gold pearl paint job with real gold and silver leaf lettering.
Barrett-Jackson
We first saw it at the Barrett-Jackson Auction in January 2013 in Scottsdale, Arizona and thought we could share some extra views of this gasser for our readers.
Galpin Ford has a solid reputation for doing cars right, and just previewed a supercar at Pebble Beach. Here’s hoping that both cars will be at their booth in Las Vegas next month at the SEMA Show.
This past weekend the Lambrecht Chevrolet auction was held in Pierce Nebraska by VanDerBrink Auctions. If you hadn’t heard about this nearly 500 car auction in advance, you missed out on a surely once in our lifetime event. It seems the mom and pop owners of Lambrecht Chevrolet had a history of keeping both new cars that just didn’t seem to move off their lot; or some cars that they took in as trade ins.
Some of these cars were kept in fields, some were stored in warehouses until literally the roof fell in and some were kept at the Lambrecht dealership showroom.   Well the cars weathered and finally the surrounding trees were chopped down and the cars were offered up for sale this past weekend (September 28-29, 2013). Even the History Channel got in the act and offered coverage from the farm fields.
Lambrecht Chevrolet
These Lambrecht Chevrolet vehicles were generally what I would call rough, survivor cars. They were stored outside, after all, and exposed to Mother Nature. Even the better vehicles were bound to need some work. You can’t ignore a vehicle for fifty plus years and expect the radiator, belts, brakes and even engine to be road worthy.
VanDerBrink Auctions
VanDerBrink auctions seemed to have a good handle on this auction. Bearing in mind that they are not a usual purveyor of high-end collector cars, they had things well in hand. This wasn’t their first rodeo! Parking was available nearby and while probably high by Pierce, Nebraska local standards, $20 seems a fair deal given the circumstances. Their website stayed up and had generally accurate descriptions and pictures of the cars. They had plans for temporary storage of the cars, since most had no functional tires!
MSO’s
Most of the low mileage “new” cars were offered with Manufacturer Statement of Origin (MSO), meaning that the cars never were sold and titled in the state. A few cars were noted as being issued a Nebraska title, which I took to mean the MSO wasn’t located. And the balance of the nearly 500 cars were used vehicles, generally with 50,000+ miles on the odometers. It indicates the organizational skills maintained by a small dealership like Lambrecht had, to locate MSO’s from sixty years ago! I know some owners with one classic car that can’t find their titles!
The value in these cars was the low mileage status of them. They are survivors and few and far between. To quote the pundits, “they are only original once.” But many buyers were quoted as indicating they had plans of fixing up the cars and driving them. But once you start putting miles on these cars, their provenance drops.
1978 Chevrolet Corvette Coupe – Anniversary Edition
1978 Corvette Pace car Edition
As an example a 1978 Corvette was sold with only 4 miles on the odometer and sold for $80,000. This was the 25th anniversary model and is a pretty eye-catching model. Being a Corvette, you would expect a few well-heeled buyers and sure enough it was sold for $80,000. VanDerBrink charged a 5% buyers premium on site and a web buyers premium of 8-10%
As a comparison, the Barrett-Jackson auction has sold three low mileage similar Corvettes. In 2011, they sold a 1978 with only 48 miles for $45,100. More recently in January 2013 Barrett-Jackson sold one with 158 miles for $44,000 and in Spring, 2013 at Palm Beach a coupe with 928 miles sold for $33,000. So the Lambrecht version had probably a $40,000 premium for those four miles.
The best news is that nearly 500 cars have found new homes and were saved from the metal shredders. And for that we all should be grateful!
Well this should be an interesting weekend for car auction followers and auto enthusiasts. On one weekend you have three competitive car auctions.
Barrett Jackson
US flag at Barrett Jackson
The Barrett-Jackson monolith rolls into Las Vegas for three days of car bidding; starting today through Saturday (September 26-28,2013). They are at Mandalay Bay and their coverage is a hodge podge of cable channels including National Geographic and Fox Sports 1&2. It’ll be interesting to see how their TV coverage and ratings hold up; now that they are not continuously on the demised SPEED Channel
Russo Steele
Drew Alcazar must have sensed there was enough money in Las Vegas and opted to hold a similar car auction down the street at the Tropicana. He is not charging for general admission tickets in the early part of each day and has some nice cars on the auction block.
VanDerBrink Auction
Chevrolet Logo
This firm is auctioning off a large collection of barely used (but somewhat abused) Chevrolet’s from the Lambrecht Chevrolet dealership. This auction, including on-line bidding, is in Pierce, Nebraska and will be held on September 28-29, 2013. Some of these cars were never sold by the dealership and thus never titled or registered. Some unfortunately were not cared for and Mother Nature and sagging roofs have taken a sad toll. Some cars were trade in’s that never again left the car lot. But not many Chevy’s are around today with less than 10 miles on the odometer. It’ll be interesting to see what some of the more mundane cars/models are bid to. It would seem to me that the demand for some models is limited and short of rolling them in and out of trailers, I can’t see the attraction and value.
Good luck to all three auctions. Here’s hoping all have great cars and heavy bidding!
Finally got the chance to see “Snake and Mongoo$e†movie this weekend. If you love drag racing and appreciate the history and our past this will be a great movie to see. Unfortunately it is only at limited locations for now, so you’ll have to check the website for any local theaters in your area showing this film. The producers actually have keyed in on sites that host NHRA (National Hot Rod Association) races, figuring they would have a built-in audience at those locations.
SEMA Preview
I saw a clip of this film while at the SEMA (Specialty Equipment Manufacturers Association) show last year in Las Vegas, Nevada and it already looked interesting then. If you follow NHRA coverage, they have pushed it heavily since this year’s National’s. John Force Racing even had his cars decaled with the movie for the National’s to help promote it. Here are links to our previous coverage, and an interview with the writer and co-executive producer Alan Paradise.
Snake and Mongoo$e
I absolutely, thoroughly enjoyed the film. It tells the beginning of Don “the Snake†Prudhomme and Tom “the Mongoose†McEwen when drag racing was something done on the weekends and you had a day job Monday-Friday. Prudhomme was a car painter/body man at his dad’s shop and McEwen worked for Douglas Aircraft.
Hot Wheels
The story tells how McEwen and Prudhomme ended up being sponsored by Hot Wheels. This was the first non-automotive sponsorship in motor racing and led the way for corporate America sponsoring motor racing. Hot Wheels sponsored them for $100,000. That wouldn’t buy much in today’s competitive races! Hot Wheels and Mattel always has had close relationships with Detroit and the car manufacturers. In fact at the GM display at SEMA last year, a substantial part of the floor space was a mockup of the orange tracks used by the Hot Wheels. And Chevy even offered a limited production Hot Wheels Camaro available to the public.
Blue Camaros at SEMA 2012
GM Display at SEMA Show
The film does a good job blending archival film in with the new stuff. Had to laugh seeing a much younger Keith Jackson doing a spot for Wide World of Sports. Remember when you had to wait weeks to see a short taped episode of your favorite sporting event (interspersed with cliff diving from Acapulco)? A lot of the current action looks like it was shot at Famoso Raceway.
Authentic
Plenty of actual drag cars are in the background. Plus even the houses in the scenes have that period authentic look that only Hollywood can achieve. The race sequences are real archival footage to help add that authentic, realistic touch.
As with any historical film, you already know the ending. But people still went to see “Lincoln†right? The film starts with a spot from the 1978 Nationals and then sweeps back to the beginning of the Snake and Mongoo$e story. I sense this was a labor of love for the filmmakers and hope it is a money maker for them. The only drawback I can see is that if you aren’t into drag racing, the storyline might not be as compelling. Hearing Prudhomme talk about crewing for Tommy Ivo and driving for Roland DeLong, might not be as relevant if you don’t know the backgrounds of these characters. Don’t want to spoil the ending for those of you who might not know the story, but there are a few emotional spots towards the end and a few good life lessons to ponder.
When I see the Nike swoosh on NFL practice uniforms, listen to football broadcast from ATT Dallas Stadium and see ads on the NBA basketball court, it is amazing to realize this all might have stemmed from Hot Wheels first successfully sponsoring the Snake and Mongoo$e.
Cars and Haulers selling at Barrett-Jackson Auction in Scottsdale, AZ January, 2014
The actual restored drag cars and the matching iconic haulers will be sold by Don Prudhomme by Barrett-Jackson at the Scottsdale, Arizona auction in January 2014. They are scheduled to be present for the Las Vegas auction this weekend so you are apt to see a glimpse of them on the television coverage this weekend.
Some pictures/artwork courtesy of “Snake and Mongoo$e – the Movieâ€
Richard Rawlings and Aaron Kaufman team up in Dallas, Texas to form Gas Monkey Garage. Their “Fast N’ Loud” TV show is a hit on the Discovery Channel, where Richard buys a relic; Aaron and his crew update the ride and then “flip†the car to a new buyer that keeps Richard in beer money. The show gets great ratings, has a loyal following and has a familiar format. Grab a car, make a ridiculously short deadline and stand back to watch the resulting havoc.
Barrett-Jackson Reno, Nevada
At the January 2012 Barrett-Jackson car auction in Scottsdale, Arizona one of their creations, a 1931 Ford, was auctioned off for $12,870 by one of those buyers. So I guess that seller flipped a flipped car? And at a loss, since the buyer on TV bought it for $21,000.
Gas Monkey Garage decided on a different plan for the just concluded Barrett Jackson auction held at Reno, Nevada last month. They took a brand new 2013 Chevrolet COPO Camaro added some decals and auctioned it off for $137,500 (We always list the selling price of an auctioned item with all related buyer’s commissions.) Not bad for a car that isn’t street legal.
COPO Camaro
COPO stands for Central Office Production Order and was used by Chevrolet to offer limited runs of unique setups of their cars to selected special dealerships and those “in the knowâ€. The most legendary COPO was the 1969 Camaro made for Fred Gibbs, with 69 cars sporting an aluminum ZL1 monster motor. In muscle car collections; this is the mother lode. In 2012, Chevrolet resurrected the COPO Camaro but with a severely limited run of only  69 cars. These COPO’s are not street legal, lacking most of the NHTSA safety requirements, and are strictly designed for the drag strip. They are lean and mean.
SEMA
At the 2012 SEMA (Specialty Equipment Manufacturer’s Association) show, the GM folks showed off their only COPO convertible, painted in Inferno Orange. Of course having a drag car racer, without a hard top, might make it hard to pass a tech inspection but it looked great; once you cleared off the slobber marks!
Only convertible COPO Camaro
2013 Gas Monkey COPO
Well Chevrolet said let’s do it again, and made a limited run of 69 COPO Camaro’s for 2013 and Richard Rawlings got his hands on one and added a few extra touches and decals before auctioning it off in Reno. This COPO might be featured in an upcoming episode of their television show and I’m guessing Richard Rollins took advantage of the engine build option and went back to Michigan to be part of building “hands on†the LS7 427 cubic inch engine for the 41st Camaro.
The Camaro was fitted with a NHRA chorme-moly cage and a solid rear axle and looked mean and lean.
If you are an avid drag race fan or into the historical vintage racing stuff, you’ll enjoy watching the upcoming movie, Snake and Mongoo$e. It will be coming to theaters in limited release after the NHRA’s US Nationals being held this Labor Day Weekend. In a clever marketing ploy, it is first being released in markets where the NHRA hosts drag racing. It even had some special preview showings during Hot August Nights and the Woodward Cruise, according to screenwriter and co-producer Alan Paradise. We had first covered this movie this month.
Snake and Mongoo$e Movie Poster
Drag Racing with Mattel’s Hot Wheel Sponsorship
Some of you may recall when Don “the Snake” Prudhome and Tom “the Mongoose” McEwen barnstormed the country with their drag racing grudge matches. Their profiles blossomed when Mattel’s Hot Wheels sponsored the racers, crafting a set of drag racing themed models. This is generally regarded as the first non-automotive related sponsorship of an automobile racing event. Guess you can trace the naming of stadiums, sponsorship of pro team press conferences and ads at courtside of basketball games, all to Mattel and this duo.
The movie offers a trip back to 1970 when these two raced their cars; Prudhome drove a yellow Plymouth ‘Cuda while McEwen piloted the red Dodge Duster. They used color matching car haulers that kept the cars exposed and visible as they crisscrossed the highways. Now these restored race cars are again barnstorming the country to promote the movie before they are scheduled to be sold in January, 2014 at the Barrett-Jackson Car Auction in Scottsdale, Arizona.
Alan Paradise – Screen writer of Snake and Mongoo$e
We had the chance for an interview with the screenwriter Alan Paradise recently, who offered some behind the scenes insights to this movie. Turns out that Paradise is a prolific writer and has authored a variety of car themed books and worked on numerous car magazines over the years. You’ve probably read his words while working for Buckaroo Publications, Truckin’ and Sport Compact Car. As a filmmaker, he developed over 100 video profiles of NASCAR racers and tracks.
The inspiration for the movie
Paradise was first approached by Mattel in 2005 seeking his help in producing a documentary on the then 35th anniversary of the drag racing partnership. The documentary “Once Upon A Wheel” was the result and was used initially for Mattel functions and eventually Tom McEwen acquired the rights to the film and even still sells it today.
While collaborating on the documentary, McEwen suggested that Paradise could make the story of Snake and Mongoose into a book. That started Paradise off on a trek involving hundreds of hours of research and interviews with some of drag racing’s legends including John Force, Tommy Ivo and Roland DeLong.
The more Paradise worked on the project, the more he was convinced that the story needed to be told on the big screen as a movie; and encouraged by his wife, that was the route he pursued. He linked up with Stephen Nemeth of Rhino Films and he started working on a script. It took Paradise seven months to write his first draft and then another 3 months for a re-write, plus another 2 months on final tweaks and changes.
Paradise submitted his script to the Hollywood powers late on a Friday, thinking that he could relax over the weekend before hearing back from the producers at the earliest on Monday. Instead on Sunday, he was in deep discussions with the movie folks who had loved the script and read it right away.
As they sought out financial backing for the film, some distributors were concerned that the story would not have much attraction in the foreign markets. This seems ironic since drag racing is truly an international sport with strong interest across the globe. So the movie folks opted to go the independent route.
Archival Footage
During the movie making process, the producers had access to some archival footage from NHRA and were even offered scenes from private collectors. Several vintage racers can also be seen in the movie including the Greer Black Prudhome dragster. The movie was able to use numerous scenes after colorizing and cleaning up these films. So when you see races, you know they are the real deal.
Drag racing scenes
And for the real deal during the race scenes, obviously the movie actors couldn’t be behind the wheel. Taking the place of Richard Blake who portrayed Tom McEwen was Trevor Larkin, the son of famed drag racer Tommy Larkin. And guess who drove for Don Prudhome’s character? Yep, Don Prudhome piloted the drag car himself instead of actor Jesse Williams.
The actual filming of this epic took seven weeks and then came months of post-production work. A short snippet was shown at the 2012 SEMA show in Las Vegas and it looked terrific. Can’t wait to finally see the full length feature. Once you see it, leave us a note.
Barrett-Jackson had total sales of over $14 million during their first event at the Reno-Sparks Convention Center from August 8-10, 2013. This, combined with 40,000 attendees, proves that Craig Jackson made a great choice being at Reno during Hot August Nights.
Gas Monkey Garage’s custom 2013 Chevrolet Camaro COPO 2 Door Coupe sold for $137,500 and probably will show up on a future episode of their show on the Discovery Channel. You may recall one of their builds was sold at Barrett-Jackson in January, 2013 at Scottsdale, Arizona.
The top 5 sales at the auction were the scheduled last manufactured 2014 Shelby GT500 Convertible for $500,000. This was a charity sale where Barrett-Jackson waives their fees and the charity, Brain Injury Association of America took in the proceeds. Continuing the top five sales were a sweet 1963 Chevrolet Corvette Convertible selling for $192,000, a 1950 Jaguar XK 120 2 Door Roadster went for $178,200, another Shelby, this one a 1968 Shelby GT500 E Continuation Fastback, hammered sold for $165,000 and a classic 1957 Chevrolet Corvette Convertible came in at $148,500. Remember, all prices listed here include buyer’s commissions.
The winner of the Barrett-Jackson Cup award went to a 1969 Ford Torino owned by famed collector George Poteet and built by the talented Illinois wrench Troy Trepanier of Rad Rides by Troy. I’ve been a huge fan of Troy’s builds ever since I saw his Sick Fish at SEMA in 2005. Last year at SEMA there was a Bonneville Salt Flat 34 roadster on display at a vendor booth that was drop dead picture perfect. Here is Hemming’s take on the winner.
This auction also marked the last coverage from SPEED as the Fox Network transitions to Fox Sports 1. But Canadian viewers will still have the SPEED channel available under that name.
Barrett-Jackson also partnered with the upcoming movie, Snake & Mongoo$e (that we previously spotlighted) to showcase the legendary Cuda and Duster 1970 Funny Cars raced by famed NHRA racers Don “The Snake” Prudhomme and Tom “The Mongoose” McEwen along with their color matching car carriers. The cars are now slated to journey to the Woodward cruise in Michigan and eventually will be sold at the January 2014 Barrett-Jackson auction in Scottsdale, Arizona.
Next up will be Barrett-Jackson’s 6th Annual Las Vegas auction on September 26-28,2013. It will be covered on three networks that weekend including Fox Sports 1, Fox Sports 2 and the National Geographic channels.
Unveiling of the 60th Anniversary Corvette at Barrett-Jackson Auction in Scottsdale, AZ
America’s longest lasting sports car icon, the Corvette, first went into production in Flint, Michigan. on June 30, 1953. Since then, Corvette has become an American icon that continues to offer the arguably best in today’s technology and performance for the price.
Over 1.5 million cars have been produced over the past sixty years.
All 300 of the 1953 models were Polo White with a red interior and listed at $3,498.
Since 1956, the sport scar has only been powered by V8 engines. Corvette was available solely as a convertible for its first 10 years.
Since 1981 Bowling Green, KY has been the birthplace for all Corvettes offering both a factory tour and a Corvette museum on the premises.
Chevy’s Suburban is the only nameplate that has been in production longer in America.
When you see this bus, you just have to smile. 21 window vans (or buses) are just neat and this color scheme just screams fun! I’m sure a purist would shudder at taking the originality off of this vehicle but it was a big hit at the 2013 Barrett-Jackson auction in Scottsdale. It sold for $110,000 with fierce bidding between the final two bidders.
You probably heard that George Barris sold his Batmobile at the Barrett-Jackson Auction in Scottsdale, Arizona. But make sure you follow the full money story.
The seller also had to pay a 10% commission ($420,000). Plus since the Batmobile is staying in the state, he pays a 8.95% sales tax ($413,490).
So George Barris also pays a commission to Craig Jackson. Since the car was sold on a reserve basis it generally requires a payment of 10% as well ($420,000). And sellers also pay a fee based on time and day the car is scheduled to be auctioned.
Add it all up and lots of money shifted around with just one car!
Batmobile
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