Hmmm. It’s hard this week.
Do I write about the ACCC instituting proceedings in the Federal Court against Audi for dieselgate, or the class action brought by 91,000 Australians against VW with first hearing in April? Mercedes being dominant in F1 pre-season testing, or 101-year-old Ella Ebery laying doughnuts in her racing red Toyota on the main street of St Arnaud, Victoria? Or today’s Amelia Island Concours with five classic car auctions and dinner at Salt, overlooking the Atlantic Ocean. That includes “Steak & Eggs” beef tenderloin served on a 250 million-year-old Himalayan salt block and a very fine espresso martini to finish up?
Salt is the signature restaurant in the Ritz Carlton, which just happens to be home to both the Concours and RM Sotheby’s auction. Look, if you’re doing it tough, I don’t want to rub this in your face, but you just can’t come. Basic rooms at the Ritz are $1000 a night, I’m into Salt for over $200 and I’m only on my fourth martini. Concours tickets are $160 (cash and service animals only), it costs $350 for a catalogue and entry to the RM sale and the cheapest car I can find is 1980 Toyota Land Cruiser Series 40 for $93,000.
You know there will be hundreds of pristine, better-than-new classics worth zillions of dollars in the Concourse but can I just point out a couple of specials? First up, Elvis Presley’s BMW 507 roadster will be on show tomorrow. For younger readers, Elvis was a popular chanteur who is credited with inventing sex for white people in the fifties and sixties.
Elvis took delivery of the white V8 507 roadster on December 28, 1958 when he was serving in the US Army in Germany. Elvis later gave the Beemer to Ursula Andress. Ms Andress was famous for walking out of the sea in a white bikini in Dr. No, a film about James Bond who, disappointingly, drove a Sunbeam Alpine. Anyway, the Elvis car was lost for many years till Jackie Jouret, a journalist for BMW magazine, tracked it down to a pumpkin shed south of San Francisco. Serendipitously, the pumpkin shed and owner, Jack Castor, lived close to one another and up went the door. And there was the once white car, now red, because so many persons of the opposite sex wrote lewd messages in lipstick on the car that Elvis had it painted red.
BMW then flew the car to their classic restoration centre in Munich where it spent two years being restored.
Also worth a squiz is the only surviving Le Mans-winning Jaguar D-Type, Al Unser’s “dream team” Porsche 962 prototype that won the 1985 Rolex 24 at Daytona and the very beautiful Prince R380 that won the second Japanese Grand Prix in 1966. This one was built on a Brabham BT8 mid-engine chassis.
At the auction, start with RM’s 1928 Bentley 4½-litre Le Mans Sports “The Bobtail” by Vanden Plas, which will be a snip at a bit under $10 million. A Bentley driven by Sammy Davis (no, not the chanteur) and renowned bacteriologist Dudley Benjafield won the 1927 Le Mans. Wocka Bentley knew he would need more power to win again in 1928. So, he built three 4.5 litre cars in a secret factory. Australian driver Woolf Barnato won this one for Wocka but not in the bobtail. In 1929 Bentley took first four positions, with the bobtail third and another Australian driver, Bernard Rubin in a Bentley, failing to finish.
OK, a quick look around the other auctions. Twenty-two million should get you a 1957 Jaguar XKSS Roadster at Gooding & Co, while somewhere over $300,000 will put you in the race for a really interesting and sexy looking ex John Surtees 1968 Lola T160 converted to a 530kW T70 at Hollywood Wheels. And maybe somewhere above $7m could put you in the historic driver’s seat of the 1950 Cisitalia Abarth 204A Spyder, driven by Tazio Nuvolari.
Motostalgia sold this for a world record $6.2m in 2013 and has it up again tonight. And of course, everyone has Ferraris. But think about Bonhams’ 1955 Ferrari 250 V12 Europa GT Alloy with coachwork by Pininfarina. One of just two built with factory competition features, it was built for the Mille Miglia but didn’t take part until 1999. Now it’s ready to go again for somewhere over $3m.
But why not relive your time on the tools with the Toyota BJ40 at Bonhams? I can’t believe people are paying close to $100,000 for these in America. Expect to pay $25,000 in Australia for a good one, or from $6700 on eBay.
This is a shortened version of the original article. Read the rest at The Australian
