Barrett-Jackson

Mr_Shiftright · January 2008

Perhaps but if there was great variety, it was the variety of mediocrity. Once you took away the a) horsepower and b) the chrome from an American car in 1965, all you had was basically a 1935 car that was bigger and went faster.

Very few cars of that time were technically interesting. Just the same old ladder frames, pushrods, under-braked and over-steered.

This is why muscle cars were so appealing. It was all about the engines. Those big blocks brought some excitement to domestic cars.

andre1969 · January 2008

Perhaps but if there was great variety, it was the variety of mediocrity. Once you took away the a) horsepower and b) the chrome from an American car in 1965, all you had was basically a 1935 car that was bigger and went faster.

Well, you're trying to look at it from a modern day technical/engineering perspective, rather than a mass-market, mindset of the typical person ready to buy a car perspective of the time. If you tried to tell someone in the market for a new car in 1965 that there was really nothing new there, they'd look at you like you done lost yer mind!

Name one domestic car, other than Imperial, that still used a ladder frame in 1965. Okay, maybe Studebaker as well. Weren't the Larks and Daytonas basically just 1953-vintage Studes underneath those boxier bodies? Just about everything else by that time was either unit-bodied or perimeter-framed. Ladder frames just weren't well suited to the more low-slung cars that the public demanded in the 60's. Oddly though, with the fattening and aging of the driving population, ladder-framed vehicles would be more suitable these days! As upright as most modern cars are, you could slip a ladder frame up under there and probably nobody would even notice!

How many 1935-era cars had automatic transmissions, power steering, power brakes, air conditioning, etc? Hell, how many of them even had oil filters!

As for the chrome, again, you're looking back through modern eyes. To the eyes of the typical 1965 car buyer, those new cars WERE chrome free compared to what came before!

Mr_Shiftright · January 2008

yes but "mass market appeal" is not what collectibles and classics are all about.

The Model T had a planetary transmission, just about one torque converter away from being an automatic transmission---VERY close in design. Power steering was on trucks in the 1930s (late) and A/C in 1941.

This is not new stuff.

I think it is the very simplicity of American iron that makes it so appealing today in the collector car market.

Not only can you overpay at Barrett-Jackson, but you have the consolation of being able to fix it yourself once you get it home and notice all the things you failed to notice on the auction block.

merckx · February 2008

One sold for about $27,000...usually,i have zero interest in cloned cars...But this little "Porsche" looked perfect...really pretty silver paint. The commentators went on about vw versus porsche power.....Would a vw engine give it a much more "putt-putt' nature? Even the porsche would be pretty low power.....Would engive choice matter that much(other than value,of course)?

Has anyone driven one of these cloned Speedsters?

Mr_Shiftright · February 2008

They are okay---you can build up a VW engine to be much more powerful than a Porsche 4 cylinder---but it doesn't have the durability. VW engines are very cheaply made and when you stress them, they hand-grenade.

The cloned Speedsters drive fine and are pleasant but they feel and sound nothing like the original IMO....for one thing, the interiors feel all wrong and look all wrong--but they do come with lots of amenities.

Certainly fun for the money, but don't ever expect them to appreciate and you can plan on 60,000 mile engine rebuilds.

isellhondas · February 2008

" They are ok"

That's how I feel about them. Nothing like the real thing but they do look nice and are, no doubt more sensible to own.

The worst ones are the Model A Shay Mickey Mouse cars with the Pinto engines. I guess they have their fans too.

Mr_Shiftright · February 2008

Sure, there's a fan for every car. At least VW and Porsche have a shared history and, way back when, even a shared parts bin, so a replica using VW power makes a certain amount of sense. But make a front-engined American flathead automobile into a rear-engine VW is pretty strange. You lose configuration, history, sound, power, behavior--the entire concept is violated. It makes no sense to me. It's almost like putting a cardboard cutout in front of your car.

guss · February 2008

A Porsche Speedster will still look good a hundred years from now. Even a replica can still be a handsome car if done right.

Mr_Shiftright · February 2008

True but so few are done right, and those are always the most expensive. Replicas seem to be like car models. The less you pay, the less accuracy you get. Also it seems the more noble the car they try to replicate, the more awful the result.

69MoparFever · January 2009

Some bonehead just paid 98 k for a '57 Vette. Add 10% and transport to it. These guys buy high then need money and sell at a loss. B-J is a total ripoff and who is the Steve "Mr. Cool" with the sunglasses? Is he blind?

parm · January 2009

Welcome to the market oddity that is Barrett Jackson. The "blind guy" is Steve Davis. He's not the main Kahuna (that's Craig Jackson), but he is the company president, I believe. Yeah, he does get kind of annoying when bidding stalls at a price that's already 20% above it's value in the real world and he rants, "Folks, here's a very nice car for not much money". I often wonder what color the sky is in his world?

69MoparFever · January 2009

Is he just trying to be cool with the sunglasses? He acts like the typical used car salesman trying to say 50 bucks never killed anybody. I watch B-J for the cars but I just can't believe that these people with money, or credit which is more likely the case, can justify these prices. You can buy a car and off frame it for 1/2 what they are paying. It's crazy. Check this out:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Cars-Trucks___1957-CHEVY-CORVETTE-283-270HP-2X4S-- ORIGINAL-4-SPEED-RED_W0QQitemZ110331479624QQddnZCarsQ20Q26Q20TrucksQQddiZ2282QQc- mdZViewItemQQptZUS_Cars_Trucks?hash=item110331479624&_trksid=p4506.c0.m245&_trkp- arms=65%3A13%7C39%3A1%7C240%3A1318

60 k for the same car the idiot paid 98 k plus 10% and shipping for.

69MoparFever · January 2009

97 K for a 69 Jaguar XKE. These guys are nuts.

texases · January 2009

I think he may have been the guy last year who said 'You can't pay too much at an auction, there's always someone bidding against you.' Okay.....

berri · January 2009

I don't think Speedvision does a very good job. While the announcers are knowledgeable, there are so many promos, diversions, digressions and ads that I doubt we even see half of the cars being auctioned each hour. Maybe 20 minutes of actual auction each hour?

Also, I swear there are either big gaps, or some shills in the audience because some of these cars take a huge jump all of a sudden. Why would a legitimate buyer go way up rather than bid incrementally to try to minimize his price paid?

badgerpaul · January 2009

Because by in large these are people with more dollars than sense.

I've been watching it over the past few days and it seems that the prices are down alot over the past years. It always seemed that people would go way overboard on some Cuda or Challenger clone and I'm not seeing it this year.

69MoparFever · January 2009

I love Steve "sunglasses" Davis whinning that at 68 k it's not enough an they should bid more. He should keep his used car mouth shut and not interrupt the bidding.

explorerx4 · January 2009

last year or maybe the year before, i remember a charger hemi clone going for over 400K.
why weren't you complaining about that?

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