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Automotive Lifestyle
AUTOS: Barrett-Jackson Thrives In New Venue
Inaugural Orange County auction beat expectations, auction says; VW charity sale thrills Sunday crowd.
Bob Golfen  |  Posted June 28, 2010   Costa Mesa, CA
Craig Jackson, CEO of Barrett-Jackson, who grew up with the Scottsdale-based auction house, with a 1970 Chevelle LS6 that wears "my favorite sign" at this year's inaugural Orange County auction. (Photo: Bob Golfen)
Barrett-Jackson’s first Orange County auction wound down to a quiet conclusion Sunday afternoon with a mixed bag of collector cars, restored pickup trucks, gravity racers and some heartfelt charity sales.

Sales during the three-day inaugural auction were strong, if not stellar, and the crowds were decent, if not overwhelming. Sunday afternoon, a pleased-looking Craig Jackson said the inaugural event went “better than we expected.”

The 1938 Packard Victoria Convertible that once belonged to Barrett-Jackson co-founder Russ Jackson sold for a strong $170,500, with bidder fee. (Photo: Barrett-Jackson)
“Some of the customs went for a lot, classics were strong, the ‘right’ resto mods brought great money, and so-so cars sold for so-so money,” said Jackson, the auction CEO, just after sitting for an interview with a Costa Mesa local-access TV station.

“The Packard brought good money,” he added, referring to the 1938 convertible that once belonged to his late father and auction co-founder Russ Jackson. The classic sold for $170,500, with bidder fee, one of the highest sales of the auction.

In unofficial totals from Barrett-Jackson for the all-no-reserve auction, sales for Friday hit $4.25 million and Saturday’s take exceeded $9.5 million, with Sunday’s totals still out. The top-selling car was a highly desirable 1970 Chevy Chevelle LS6 convertible, which sold Saturday for $253,000, including fee.

“Who said muscle cars are dead?” Jackson said with a grin.

For a slide show of the final day at the Orange County auction, see Sunday at Barrett-Jackson.

As for the crowds of spectators at the sprawling Orange County Fair and Event Center, Jackson said, “We filled the place on the first year. We packed them in on the second day. We’re gonna need a bigger building, but you’ve heard that before.”

The 1970 Chevelle LS6 convertible, a rare holy grail for muscle car fanatics, is powered by a 450-horsepower V8. (Photo: Barrett-Jackson)
The Scottsdale-based auction had brought along some of its own tents to add to the main building at the fairgrounds to accommodate the expected crowds watching the bidding.

Early crowd estimates from Barrett-Jackson were 17,000 on Friday and 30,000 on Saturday, with the numbers still out for Sunday. They had hoped to attract 50,000 people over the three days of the new event, Jackson said, and it seems that number was reached, including Sunday.

The unlikely sale of a 2006 Volkswagen Jetta bio-diesel race car, hardly the stuff of car-collector dreams, raised the roof late Sunday and provided a signature high point for the entire weekend, with bidders and donors scrambling to open their wallets for a worthy cause.

The professionally prepared Jetta TDI touring racer was offered as a personal charity car by a family that had lost an 11-week-old infant to cancer, prompting them to start a foundation in his name and donate their race car to raise funds for it.

Jim Osborn, standing on stage with his wife, Amy, and their two small children, broke down as he told the story of the brief life of Austin Hatcher Osborn. The charity is named after him: the Austin Hatcher Foundation for Pediatric Cancer.

A 2006 VW Jetta bio-diesel race car raised $80,000 for a pediatric-cancer foundation with the help of some unprecedented private donations. (Photo: Barrett-Jackson)
Bidding started briskly for the VW, but stalled at $30,000. And then something amazing happened.

From the crowd seated in front of the auction stage, one man added a donation of $10,000 to the price of the car, prompting the spectators to go wild with applause. Then, one-by-one, other audience members raised their hands to offer $5,000 donations for the foundation.

Even Barrett-Jackson added $5,000 to the growing pot, and so did the Carroll Shelby Foundation. And the buyer of the Jetta raised his own bid by $5,000.

When the smoke cleared, the little Jetta had raised $80,000 for the Austin Hatcher Foundation.

“Wow, folks, that just takes your breath away,” auction president Steve Davis told the cheering crowd.

Bob Golfen, Automotive Editor for SPEED.com, is a veteran auto writer based in Phoenix, Arizona, who has driven and evaluated essentially every new vehicle sold in the United States. A lifelong car enthusiast with a passion for collector cars, car culture and the automotive lifestyle, he annually attends and writes about Arizona's famous January collector-car auctions, focusing on Scottsdale’s monumental Barrett-Jackson Collector Car Event and other Barrett-Jackson auctions. SPEED.com fans email Automotive Editor Bob Golfen at
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