The Shelby American (Spring 2016)

50 / 103

an abrupt halt after almost crashing
into some caffeine addicted folks, then
I simply blurt out, “ Can I get some ice
coffee?” The second the words leave
my big mouth, I sense the presence of
someone beside me, and sure enough,
I had rudely cut in front of a beautiful
woman who had been waiting to place
her order – oops, my bad! I had to
make a gentlemanly recovery, so I
chivalrously offered up the following
words, “ I’ll also pay for this beautiful
woman’s coffee because I so rudely cut
in front of her.” The rather formal cof-
fee grinder server curtly offered up
these Downton Abbey accent words,
“ Sir, the beverages are compliments of
Gooding and Company.” Ooohh,
SMACK! She and I began to laugh,
however, the barristoid adopted a
regal glare, with only a hint of a smile.
Friday, January 29th
– RM/Sotheby’s
Entering RM/Sotheby this fine
evening, I am on my own to once again
(probably my only again) enjoy the
“ladies and gentleman” atmosphere of
one of the best auction houses in the
classic, exotic, muscle car world. Don
Lee’s more than gracious hospitality
in making me a member of his “crew”
means I have the “purple” wristband
to enjoy carte blanche access to the
ballroom.
Strolling head held high past the
eagle eye sentries with my wristband
in full view, I don’t see any of the oth-
ers around, but walking through the
double doors to the ballroom, I in-
stantly find myself face to face with
Barry Meguiar, the “Car Crazy” guy
his mo’ bad self! He doesn’t recognize
me, of course, but I introduce myself,
tell him we’ve met a couple of times,
including Concorso Italiano during
Monterey Auto Week, and that I am
from Sacramento, California.We get to
yakkin’ carspeak, and when I explain
to him I am now writing articles on
auto events, focusing on Shelby cars,
he invites me to the Benedict Castle
Concours this April in Riverside Cali-
fornia. He and his beautiful and gra-
cious wife, Karen, assure me this
event attracts a truly eclectic number
of cars, ranging from garage built hot
rods to ultra-high tech exotics, and
everything in between. I’m there!
The auction begins and the bid-
ding is spirited, but not quite as
healthy as I expected. Even though
the white on red ‘64 289 Cobra went
for a respectable $1,072,500 big ones,
I thought the Fuchsia ‘63 289 Cobra
Dragonsnake was a very good buy at
$990,000. After all, with its race cred
as being the winningest drag race
Cobra, plus the fact it’s only one of
three, a $1,200,000 or so was my low
ball guesstimate. But then what do I
know; it’s not my money!
Meeting new people, and reac-
quainting myself with folks I already
know is one of the many benefits in at-
tending as many classic, exotic, and
muscle car events as possible each
year. While standing between two cars
sitting to the left of the auction block,
I struck up a conversation with a
young gentleman named Patrick, and
we were soon accompanied by his fa-
ther, a car connoisseur who was get-
ting his son involved in the hobby.
They travel to auctions and concours,
and have a couple of projects they are
“wrenchin’ on. Best of all, they are re-
ally big into “Blue Ovals” and “Bow
Ties,” both of which are my favorites.
So we had a lot of Cobra and Corvette
experiences to share. As a retired high
school teacher, I always enjoy seeing
fathers and sons together at car
events and enjoying all aspects of car
collecting.
Then, talk about a “coinkidink,”
later in the auction after both Cobras
went to the highest bidder, I turn to
walk out of the ballroom, only to see
another great father and son dynamic
duo, Peter and Gary Klutt of Leg-
endary Motor Cars in Canada. I have
met Peter at a couple of events, one a
SAAC convention being held at Auto
Club Speedway in Fontana a few years
ago, so I nonchalantly mosey on over
to say hello. I introduce myself to both
he and Gary, and express to them how
it’s great to see a father and son team
make such an important contribution
to the collector car world by showing
the cooperative teamwork required to
pass the work ethic and skills from
one generation to another. I seriously
thought about asking Gary how it felt
to be taking a test drive with Addison
Brown, but I didn’t think that would
be too cool. I didn’t want him to think
I had her on my mind, which I guess I
did.
Saturday, January 30th
– Silver, Auction
The Silver Auction is located in
Fort McDowell, about a forty-five
minute drive east of Phoenix. It’s held
in the parking lot of the Fort McDow-
ell Resort & Casino. I love this place!
Silver just has that down home, howdy
neighbor feel to it, like when you buy
your ticket at the entrance the nice
lady says, “ You enjoy yourself, sweet-
heart!” with absolutely no fear of being
sued for sexual harassment. When I
The SHELBY AMERICAN Spring 2016 50