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I approached the desk, gladly paid
my $20, commented to the kid, “
There
are plenty of free used car lots in
town
.” His only response was a slight
smile, a raise of the eyebrows and a
courteous, “
Please enjoy yourself, sir
.”
The kid’s a class act (they don’t pay
him enough). Upon entering the lush
green lawn area loaded with the likes
of first class Ferraris, Jaguars, and
Porsches, I politely snub the “furrin’
shtuff” to make a direct bee-line to-
ward the highly optioned Ford GT, re-
splendent in midnight blue metallic
with white Ford GT striping.
I noticed two very distinct things
at Bonham, the first being the number
of refined, very knowledgeable ladies
and gentleman talking with prospec-
tive buyers standing right next to the
appropriate cars, and the second being
the soothing, elegant, just in the back-
ground, music. Bonhams provides a
small, intimate, serious automotive
auction environment, where the em-
phasis is on conducting business, but
it’s done in a relaxed, semi-formal
manner.
Wednesday, January 27th
– Brown’s Classic Autos
I promised my wife I would be
back at my cousin’s for dinner
promptly at 6 p.m. and I’m runnin’
late, which is always my discourteous
way. Even though Bonhams was a
quiet place to view exotic, classic, and
muscle cars in a pleasant venue, I had
to hit the Phoenix freeways which
were getting crowded with com-
muters. I wanted to pay a brief visit to
Brown’s Classic Autos. The reason for
my going there should be obvious: on
their showroom floor they have two
427 Cobras, one a 1965 Superfor-
mance MKIII 20th Anniversary and
the other, I have no idea, but it looks
ready to take on anything, be it at the
track or on the street. (I still don’t
know what it was, because as I’m writ-
ing this, I can’t find the car in their on-
line inventory).
When I drive up to a store front
collectible car establishment, I sort of,
“case the joint,” like Edward G. Robin-
son or Humphrey Bogart (if you don’t
get the analogy I pity you) in many a
gangster film before they sprayed the
unsuspecting garage or speakeasy
with their tommy guns. Anyway, I
drove around Brown’s in stealth mode
for a look-see, and definitely liked
what I saw. This is a “complete” col-
lectible car company involved in the
buying, selling, servicing, maintaining,
repairing, and restoring of all makes
and models of collectible cars. They
provide anything and everything from
engine oil changes to complete con-
cours restorations.
When I walked in, there was a very
nice young lady sitting at the recep-
tion desk. I simply told her I was in
town for auction week and stopped by
just to kick some tires. She invited me
to feel free to walk around and enjoy
the cars, while the salesman sitting
behind her acknowledged my presence
and, upon seeing my camera, probably
knew right off I was an off-the-street
“looky-loo”.
It was really cool. I basically had
the showroom to myself and it was
great to have all the time I wanted to
take pics of neat cars and to look envi-
ously through a huge glass wall into
the restoration shop, where car
“magic” was occurring. Out of the cor-
ner of my eye I was looking for Addi-
son Brown, owner of Brown’s Classic
Autos. Gary Klutt of Legendary Motor
Cars got to take a test drive with her
when he and Peter were in Scottsdale
taping one of their great programs. If
you saw that episode, you definitely
know why I was disappointed in not
meeting Addison. Although I am older
than her and very happily married, I
am not blind.
Thursday, January 28th
– Barrett-Jackson
You can always tell when a big car
event is going to be super crowded, be-
cause on the freeway about a mile or
so before the on-site parking lot you
begin seeing signs urging you to exit
the freeway to offsite parking. This
means waiting out in the boonies for a
shuttle bus. Arizona has rattlesnakes,
tarantulas, scorpions and colonies of
huge fire ants, all of which have been
known to frequent the cactus, scrub
brush, rock formations and sand near
the bus pick-up and drop-off points. At
The SHELBY AMERICAN
Spring 2016 47