Auction Express News: 8/16/2007

Russo & Steele presents Roth designs

Russo and Steele Collector Automobile Auctions recently announced that it will have two Ed "Big Daddy" Roth creations in its Monterey event. This sale will feature 150 vehicles, and will take place August 16-18 at the Monterey Marriott in Monterey, Calif.

The auction company sold Roth's "Tweedy Pie" at its Scottsdale auction this past January for $335,500 (record for a vintage hot rod). This will also be the first time that one sale has offered multiple Roth creations.

Ed Roth is best known as the imaginative and innovative hot rod builder who valued the engineering and performance as well as the aesthetics of an automobile. He was able to break new design ground with his Fiberglass bodywork.

Roth's "Globe Hopper" was his last and one of his most famous creations. It's a hot rod-looking, Porsche-powered trike, and remains in untouched, original working condition.

Roth's "Globe Hopper" helmet, a 1970s Vietnamese fighter pilot helmet all wired to the radio/cb/radar detector in "Globe Hopper," is autographed and will be included with the sale of the trike.

The science fiction-inspired trike dubbed the "Great Speckled Bird" is a Type 4 Volkswagen-powered design, that will also be offered for sale. The "Great Speckled Bird" was donated to Harrah's Museum were it was on display for 25 years. It's in original working condition and even has Roth's original California license plate on it.

The Monterey sale will also feature the "Astro Sled," Roth tribute bubble-top hot rod. Built by Roth-inspired hot rod designer Dave Shuten, the "Astro Sled" is a no expense-spared million-hour project. It features a 1957 354-cid Hemi with a Weiand blower and eight Stromberg carburetors.

For more information on this auction, call 602-252-2697 or visit www.russoandsteele.com.

Christie's Monterey sale

Christie's Monterey car auction will take place on the evening of August 16 at the Monterey Jet Center in Monterey, Calif. The auction will feature 60 cars, with a third of these offered at no reserve. The featured car of the sale is Steve McQueen's 1963 Ferrari 250GT Lusso.

The featured marques for the 2007 Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance are Auburn-Cord-Duesenberg and the Christie's auction includes one example of each of these American Grand Classics: a 1930 Duesenberg J Convertible Berline, coachwork by LeBaron – one of only three examples in this configuration; '36 Auburn Model 852 Straight Eight Supercharged Boattail Speedster and '29 Cord L29 Cabriolet.

Christie's will also offer three examples from the collection of the late Allan B. Stone, the celebrated postwar and contemporary art collector and dealer. The lead lot is a 1938 Bugatti Type 57 Three Position Drophead Coupe, complete with the much-coveted Letourneur & Marchand coachwork. Two other Bugattis featured in the collection are a '27 Type 40 two-seater and a circa '28 Type 52 "Baby." Originally conceived for Roland Bugatti, Ettore's second son, the "Baby," designed for children and with a top speed of 18 kph, went in production after an enthusiastic response to its showing at the 1927 Milan Automobile Salon.

In addition to the much-anticipated McQueen Ferrari, the sale includes two other significant celebrity-owner offerings.

Property from the collection from Max Weinberg features three cars from the long-time drummer for Bruce Springsteen and the E-Street Band. The three cars he is selling are a 1951 Ford F-1 pickup, '31 Model A Ford woodie panel hot rod and '57 Chevrolet Corvette.

The 1998 ex-Peter Fonda Harley-Davidson FLHR 'Road King' provides enthusiasts a unique opportunity to own "Captain America's" own Harley. The bike comes with its own custom trailer and the successful bidder will have a chance to meet with Fonda after the sale.

For more information on this sale, visit www.christies.com/cars.

Bonhams presents 10th Quail Lodge

On August 17 at the Quail Lodge Resort in Carmel, Calif., Bonhams & Butterfields will present its 10th annual flagship auction.

Highlights of this sale include a 1907 Packard Model 30 Runabout, the ex-Otis Chandler '69 Chevrolet Camaro Z/28 JL8 coupe, '38 Delage D6-70 Cabriolet with coachwork by A. Guillore, "The Oldest Known Cadillac," New York Auto Show 1902 Cadillac Rear Entrance Tonneau, '57 Dual-Ghia Convertible and '38 Bugatti Type 57 Stelvio with coachwork by Gangloff.

The sale will also feature the racing suit of famed motorcycle racer and Hollywood stuntman Bud Ekins.

As with that of best friend Steve McQueen, Ekins' racing suit is orange in color with black and white racing stripes down the left side. On the front of the suit is the name "Bud" embroidered above a Solar Productions patch (McQueen's production company), and on the back is a shoulder-to-shoulder Solar Racing emblem.

The legendary Ekins is a champion international racer, was a pioneer of the Baja 1000 race, and was the owner of a thriving SoCal Triumph dealership that sold motorbikes to the likes of Paul Newman, Clint Eastwood and, of course, Steve McQueen, and even employed Von Dutch. Ekins also had a successful career as a movie stunt coordinator and stuntman for 30 years and performed some of the most memorable stunts in Hollywood history: launching the Mustang through the streets of San Francisco in "Bullitt" and jumping the motorcycle over the barbed-wire fence in "The Great Escape."

Ekins wore this suit when he and Mc-Queen raced together in the Mint 400, also known as The Great American Desert Race, in the early 1970s.
For more information on this auction, call 415-861-7500 or visit www.bonhams.com/quail.

RM to feature Le Mans Ferrari
T
he legendary 1959 Ferrari 250GT long-wheelbase Spyder California, built for the 1959 24 Hours of Le Mans race by Luigi Chinetti's N.A.R.T. organization, will be one of the automobiles at RM Auctions' Monterey auction to be held at the Portola Plaza Hotel at Fisherman's Wharf on August 17-18 in Monterey, Calif.

Aptly named after its biggest import market at the time, this California Spyder is one of only seven alloy-bodied racing models ever constructed and one of only two equipped with the more powerful Tipo 128F engine, designed exclusively for competition.

Driven by the team of Bob Grossman and Fernand Tavano, the car won a respectable fifth place overall at Le Mans in June of 1959.
For Classic collectors, RM is offering one of the most luxurious Duesenbergs ever built – the 1935 Bohman & Schwartz Duesenberg Model SJ Town Car.

Originally designed for actress Mae West, the car cost more than she could afford, and ended up going to Ethel V. Mars, heiress to the Mars Candy Co. Mrs. Mars, one of the world's wealthiest people at the time, used the car for trips between the Mars headquarters in Chicago and the family estate "Milky Way Farms" in Tennessee, before selling it to a Chicago dealer who, in turn, sold it to the famed D. Cameron Peck collection. In 1986, it was rumored to have undergone a restoration in which more than one million dollars was spent.

This year's RM Monterey auction lineup will also include 13 historically significant racing cars and three early motorcycles from the David Uhlein Collection and over 400 lots of rare and original automotive posters and artwork from the David Lawrence Collection.

For more information on this sale, call 800-211-4371 or visit www.rmauctions.com.