Tag Archives: Mecum auction

Car Spots

2005 Lamborghini Murcielago Roadster

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Eyeballing a rare molto bello Italian supercar …

Why should Paul have all the fun? Hey, I spot cars too, like this 2005 Lambo Murcielago Roadster I spied at the Chicago Mecum Auction in October.

This Italian hot rod was parked out back of the exhibition and auction hall where various employees could keep an eye on it in case car nuts like me were wandering about wanting to crawl inside. It was locked, naturally.

It’s so rare to see a Lambo in the Midwest, unless you’re in Chicago where the big money lives. But what makes this so special is the convertible top. The Murcielago had been out several years when it was redesigned to go topless.

Here’s how Motortrend magazine described it back in the day. The Lamborghini has “a body that magnetizes eyeballs like Heidi Klum in a Saran Wrap leotard.”

The sticker on this baby, when new, was $320,000 and for that you got a throbbing 6.2-liter V12, AWD supercar with scissor doors. Sadly I wasn’t allowed to flip these up for a photo, something about “Don’t Touch.”

Power is 575 horses, which may not seem so crazy powerful now that electric cars are touting that, and more, with twin electric motors in some makes. But the Lambo would scoot, doing 0 to 60 mph in less than 4 seconds and top speed was 205 mph.

Yet Lambo advised against driving more than 100 mph with the convertible top in place, as it might lift off and fly into Never Never Land! This thing is all metal tubes and cloth and the fit never was great, one supposes Lambo designers thinking most drivers would be removing the top before racing about.

A few other interesting points with the Murcielago? Well, the engine hatch is hinged at the rear to expose the V12, a design first used on the iconic Lamborghini Miura in even earlier days. The front brakes have 8-piston calipers as you’ll likely need to stop this in a hurry, and this windshield angle is incredibly low, driving home the car’s devilish wedge shape.

Just 4,099 Murcielagos were built, the last in late 2010. Just 899 were convertibles, er, excuse me, roadsters.

If only I hadn’t left the checkbook at home!

#Lamborghini

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Car Spots, Fun Stuff, When they were new

Car Spot: 71 Rolls-Royce Corniche Convertible

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This is one sweet ride

The cool thing about an auction is that you will probably see a special car that you’ve never heard of before. Such is the case of a 71 Rolls-Royce Corniche Convertible that came up for sale a couple of weeks ago at the Mecum auction in Chicago this week’s car spot. Blogging partner Mark Savage was at the event and grabbed these pictures.

Like just about every collector car, it has a story, this one with a little bit of mystery. It was owned by Helen Voorhees Brach. If you’re 30 or under, you probably won’t recognize the name, but if you’re older, you have eaten the candy that her father Emil J. Brach founded in 1904.

Images: Wikitree

Emil Brach is your classic rags-to-riches story. He took $1,000 and on the corner of North Avenue and Towne Street in Chicago opened Brach’s Palace of Sweets. He undersold the competition and parlay that into four factories with a fifth one in the works in 1923 producing 2.23 million pounds of candy in 127 varieties. Name not ringing a bell? Have you ever eaten candy corn or jelly beans? Chances are they were made by Brach’s.

The family company was sold in 1966 for $136 million, around $1.24 billion in today’s dollars. Helen’s husband, Frank, died in 1970 leaving Helen’s share of the Brach inheritance equated to nearly $149 million in today’s dollars. Helen spent her time socializing with friends, and loved the color pink, all her Caddys and Roll-Royces were pink. In 1973 the story gets interesting when she met a young guy through her show horse connections, Richard Bailey, He had a history of scamming the high-income show horse set and did the same with Brach.

On February 17, 1977, Brach headed to the Mayo Clinic in Rochester Minnesota, and never returned. There have been investigations and books written about her disappearance. Bailey was not convicted of Brach’s murder but sentenced to thirty years for defrauding her. In May 1984 she was officially declared dead. In 2019, the case was still considered open and unsolved, with no one ever facing state murder charges for her death. A Who Done It for sure.

OK, back to the car. A super-clean 71 Rolls-Royce Corniche Convertible with just 16,000 miles with an automatic transmission, off-white leather interior with coordinating Magenta piping, and finished in the specialty color known as Brach Candy Purple. Some lucky bidder took this car home, along with a hell of a story for $99,000.

Thanks for stopping by and be sure to check back next Friday for another one of my car spots along with some history of the vehicle. Have a great weekend.

Fun Stuff

Crazy money shelled out at Mecum Kissimmee

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A couple of AMC’s make the list

There was some serious cash thrown around at the recently completed Mecum auction in Kissimmee, FL. Around 3,500 cars crossed the block with some crazy money chucked up for cars like this 2016 Pigani Huayra selling for almost two million.

There were other million-plus cars but what a lot of people probably missed were the number of cars that were built in Kenosha and sold for insane numbers, orrrrrrrr, maybe not.

Let’s start with this 1974 Gremlin X with a 258 6, 3-speed manual, power steering, brakes, and air conditioning. A loaded Gremlin. What makes this special is that it only had 21 hundred miles on it. I’m thinking this might have sold for maybe 20 thou outside of an auction but at Kissimmee it sold for….wait for it….$30,800. That is NOT a typo. Nice return if the seller had bought it new because it would have stickered for $3,454.10.

Photo: Mecum

This next one brought back memories for me, a 1979 Spirit AMX with the 304 V8, and loaded up. I had a white one. This is a survivor with the original paint and interior. It had 8,368 miles and sold for $35,750!

Photo: Mecum

There was a beautifully done 1972 Mark Donahue Trans-Am Javelin tribute car which hammered at $35,200.

Photo: Mecum

Here was somewhat of a head-scratcher. This 1987 Eagle Limited wagon with 72,000 miles went home for $35,200. I would love to have one of these but like the Gremlin, you have to wonder if this would have hit that mark on an auction site. But hey, somebody wanted it bad. Good for them. There was another one that sold for a more reasonable $8,800.

Photo: Mecum

The highest price of any AMC selling at auction was this 1969 AMX with 390, 4-speed manual with Hurst shifter, factory Go Pack, and seldom seen side exhaust. This went home with a happy new owner for $84,700 which is more than I’ve seen 1970’s go for.

Photo: Mecum

Based on what happened this past weekend I think people have discovered our secret, AMC made some really fun and collectible cars.

When they were new

Chasing a future classic car

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Name the most iconic Mustang

gone in 60 seconds, eleanor, eleanor mustang, collector cars, famous mustangs, iconic ford mustangs, ford mustang
Photo: Yahoo

I can think of a couple, the first one introduced in 1964 1/2, 1965 Shelby GT350, 1968 Shelby GT 500KR (I love the convertible!), and for sure soon to be a future icon is Eleanor from the movie Gone in 60 Seconds. One of three of the original Eleanor Mustang hero cars is heading to auction at Mecum’s Austin 2014 auction, December 12th and 13th. What will it go for? If this is any indication, in May of last year, another Eleanore sold for $1M at a Mecum auction. A Million Bucks!!!!!! I could sell all my stuff and still wouldn’t be close. This car is beyond cool. Check out more on the car.