1956 Li'l Sunshine Bumper Car
Personal bumper car of the late Michael Jackson, fresh from a Neverland estate clearance sale. This provenance, and tasteful customizing work, no doubt helps explain a selling price well over the reserve. The engine compartment, housing a 4.0-liter Lamborghini V-12, is admirably finished and detailed, especially in view of the fact that when it left the factory 55 years ago, this Li'l Sunshine had no engine compartment. The original Naugahyde bench seat was reupholstered in taupe calf leather, then re-reupholstered back in Naugahyde. Hemp floor mats are not original; the original had no floor mats. The ugly "necker knob" on the white-plastic Bluemel's steering wheel was, in fact, standard on all pre-1960 Li'l Sunshines. The Rolls-Royce radiator is a dummy, but the Spirit of Billy Jean ornament atop it is genuine. Lack of an odometer typifies bumper cars of this period. More a conversation piece than a daily driver, but still, well bought at $5.2 million.
2010 Mercedes-Benz E350 Coupe
The attachment of a Hollywood star to any car automatically boosts interest and thus value at auction. A case in point is actress Lindsay Lohan's Mercedes, in silver, with black-leather interior, 4MATIC, a seven-speed automatic, and a 3.5-liter V-6—exceptional only in its provenance. With only 4300 miles on the odometer, this car should be cherry; sure enough, the interior is all but indistinguishable from showroom new. The spare tire and wheel have never been used, and the fuel gauge reads almost full. If you overlook the cracked windshield, front and driver's side collision damage with prominent scrape and burn marks, missing grille and lighting components, very poor fit of the hood, a non-running engine, and front tires off their rims, etc., then the as-sold price of $5000—plus towing charges, L.A. County impound fee, and DUI court costs—is very close to a bargain.
Oil Drip Pan, 1904 Kranzler-Loeffelbein Cambrolette Vis-à-Vis
This tin-plated 24-by-32-inch steel tray is all that remains of the only Kranzler-Loeffelbein ever built—or so the seller claims, because until it went under the hammer, no one in the auction world had ever heard of Kranzler-Loeffelbein. The pan was accompanied by a sheaf of period Austro-Hungarian certification indicating that it was commissioned from a Viennese piano manufacturer by a Habsburg princeling, who, according to the police report, also accompanying, was run over on his very first outing. Its career over the ensuing 107 years is a haunting blank. Romantic, but that a minor item of optional equipment meant to protect a stable floor from dripping oil would fetch such a heady price emphasizes today's collector's obsession with all that is arcane, especially since the oil has not been authenticated as having dripped from the Kranzler-Loeffelbein. Sold at a market-appropriate $120 million.
1982 Chevrolet Corvette Town & Country Coupe
The discriminating Corvette collector might well overcome his snobbery about a tampered-with classic in view of this car's history. Records indicate that its original owner was the playboy scion of Libya's sole mahogany importer, who purchased the rights to the Town & Country name from an impecunious Chrysler Corporation. He received a 100-percent Libyan government sales-tax exemption (papers included) by claiming that the car was advertising for the product. Those wood panels are, indeed, genuine mahogany. Other departures from the original '82 Vette specs include jackal-skin seat upholstery, itchy enough to be a dubious plus, and a four-cylinder, 1.2-liter Isuzu diesel engine replacing the original 350-cubic-inch V-8 ostensibly to get around Libya's mercilessly high gasoline costs and making for a relatively sedate Corvette driving experience. Not a car for the adventurous, the unadventurous, or the brainy. Well bought at $2.4 million.
1937 Bugatti Atlantic
Rarest of the rare, a custom-bodied Atlantic. Not an absolute must-have even for the deep-pocketed Bugattisti; however, since the car's entire midsection was reshaped in 1938 by being conspicuously bulged outward on both driver's and passenger's sides to fit the 402-pound wife of a prominent French industrialist, somewhat compromising that super-sensual envelope. A complete restoration seems advisable before the car is ready to be shown: The upholstery padding in both seats is crushed flat, the seat springs are shot, knee pressure has created a V-shaped indentation in the dashboard, elbow-rammed hollows in the interior door panels have not been addressed, and a head-sized dent on the driver's side of the roof begs to be hammered out. But all window gaskets are new, paint and brightwork are original and in excellent condition, and the complex, period Belgian Boranni asymmetrical wire alloy wheels are correct. Sold at $3.2 million to an Oklahoma oilman with twin 375-pound daughters.
1947 Crosley-Shelby Hotshot
This decidedly one-off "Garter Snake Mark 1" two-seater cabriolet, predating his Cobras by decades, was the very first automobile ever modified by the legendary Carroll Shelby, then a 21-year-old student at the Lubbock Vocational Academy in Texas. Shelby shoehorned a General Motors EMD 20-cylinder diesel locomotive engine, allegedly won in a poker game, into the tiny stock Hotshot, "borrowed" from the driveway of a lady friend's parents. In almost perfect working condition, with four miles on the odometer and stickers still on the tires—as befits its history: Someone unidentified but closely resembling Shelby hid the car in 1959 in a missile silo while escaping a sheriff's posse, and it was unearthed only in 2010 by a Russian SALT inspector. This kind of one-off original will never come our way again; unsurprisingly, snapped up in heavy bidding for an altogether fair $12.2 million.
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Source: http://blog.caranddriver.com/bruce-mccall-presents-the-e-hardy-fils-classic-car-auction/
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