#ClassicCarAuctions

This weekends Concours d’Elegance in Monterey California raised quite a few eyebrows. Not only did we catch the debut of stunning cars like the BMW M4 concept and the Cadillac Elmiraj concept, classic collectors were given the chance to lay down cash on some of the most exotic cars in the world. 

Some of us might remember the beginning and end of the Pink Panther Show where our favorite animated feline exits and enters into a dramatic, low slung custom car. That machine, appropriately named the Panthermobile, was originally built by Hollywood custom car legend Jay Ohrberg in 1969 for the show, which aired on NBC in the US from then until 1976.

As part of this most recent weekend’s festivities at the Goodwood Festival of Speed, the annual Bonhams’ Classic Car Auction generated £7.2 million ($11.6 million) worth of sales, as collectors flocked to the tasty offerings up for grabs.

Mecum Auctions has announced that it will be offering a very unique Corvette collection for sale during next weekend’s Bloomington Gold event.

A very rare 1965 Ford GT40 prototype is being featured at RM Auctions and is to be sold May 21st. The GT40 is just one of five roadsters that were built.

It’s a little rough around the edges, but this Futurliner bus represents the essence of a bygone era, specifically GM’s Parade of Progress, which during the 1940s and ’50s traveled across the country demonstrating the latest in the General’s automotive technology to consumers.

We’ve all heard about those so-called ‘Duesy in a barn,’ stories, but sometimes they actually do happen. Take the case of Bill Fair, a businessman and auctioneer from Lecompton, Kansas.

Once raced by John Whitmore and Bob Bondurant in the 1965 Targa Florio; this Linden Green 1965 Ford GT40 roadster, one of just five ever built, was thought to have been lost forever.

Among Mustang and modern muscle car fans, the 2 012 Boss 302 is one of the most highly anticipated cars of the year, however diehard enthusiasts are bemoaning the fact that you won’t be able to get one in perhaps the Mustang’s most signature color – Grabber Blue. OR can you?

It’s that time of year again, where the big collector car auctions get revved up for some serious gavel action in Arizona. RM Auctions, which this year is offering a whole fistful of vintage and classic British machinery, is also offering this, the very first Dodge Charger ever built.

CSX 1001, one of only 12 genuine 1965 Shelby Cobra S/C 427s and the only one to sport an aluminum engine, will be going up for auction at Russo and Steele’s Scottsdale event in January.

The very last Mercurys might be rolling off the assembly lines as this blog is posted, but the brand will likely have a long future yet, at least in classic car circles.

Bob McDorman has been a Chevrolet dealer for more than four decades, building his franchise into one of the most prominent in the United States.

Not only is that impressive in itself, but so was the collection of cars he amassed, some 150 prime machines, including a fistful of Corvettes (Bill and Florence Knudsen’s one-off Sting Rays, plus another experimental ’64 owned by Bill Mitchell, among other things).

However, on November 6th, through Mecum Auctions, McDorman elected to off-load his collection, during a one-day auction that took place on the site of his dealership. Eager bidders from around the country and abroad, flocked to the event and at one point some 1,100 viewers tuned in to watch it on a live webcast. By the time the gavel fell for the last time, the collection had generated $7 million in total sales. Hit the jump for a list of the top 10 cars that were auctioned off and the amount for which each was sold (naturally the list includes the unique Knudsen and Mitchell Sting Rays).

Back during the first muscle car collection boom in the 1980s, the two big collections everybody knew about were Otis Chandler’s in the West and Milton Robson’s in the East.

Barrett-Jackson’s recent Las Vegas auction took on near reality soap opera proportions when a high profile bid went south. The 2008 Bugatti Veyron shown above, arguably the most high profile car to cross the block, drummed up more than $700,000 in bids, but when the gavel came down, the ‘winning bidder’ backed out of the sale, leaving B-J on the hook for the $700,000 price. As a result the buyer was stripped of his bidding credentials and promptly escorted off the property.