There are a few things that can be divisive within our community and one of those things is definitely the Barrett Jackson auctions.  Held over a three days, from Thursday to Saturday, at different venues each year, the auction originally started out as the Barrett-Jackson Classic Car Auction, but as it gained more modern cars, customs and prototypes it changed its name to Barrett-Jackson Collector Car Auction.  That wasn't the first name change for this particular auction.  The Barrett-Jackson auctions in fact go as far back as 1971 so have a fair amount of history of their own.



The auction is really widely known for the star cars it turns out, high dollar customs, street rods and newer than new concept cars.  The event is so big now that television station Speed Channel cover the entire thing.  Checking out this year’s entries list sees some fantastic vehicles up for grabs, if you've got the money!  A number of the top items over the years have gone for over the $1,000,000 mark, with the top price paid for a car at Barrett Jackson being $5,000,000 for a 1966 Shelby Cobra 427 Super Snake, which was purchased by Ron Pratte a fascinating character in his own right.

People have a problem with Barrett-Jackson because it is perhaps a little soulless, sure it is amazing and sometimes thrilling to see the big bucks being spend on these cars, but it is also an exercise in showmanship as much as the cars value.  People will get high value street rods and customs built, take them to Barrett-Jackson and make money on their creations, which is kind of against the whole ethos of building a car you want.  As Jay Leno says "if you build a hot rod and you don't loose money on it, you've done it wrong".  The real big bucks vehicles would have made their top money collectors prices at any auction, but the spectacle of Barrett-Jackson makes these figures more entertaining somehow.  Another criticism that has been levelled at the auctions is cars being built specifically to sell at the auctions, often being fake recreations, as well as it artificially inflating the price of certain models.  The whole thing has become quite charged within the car community, particularly the muscle car community in the states.



That all having been said, I'm kind of glad it all exists, sure it sucks when cars disappear into collections only to be seen a few years later when they are moved on, but it is comforting to know that whilst my car will no doubt inevitably dissolve into a pile of oxidised metal, someone, somewhere has a nice heated carcoon in which they are keeping some very special cars.

The photos used in this entry have come from this Flickr photostream, from eliotgt, I hope they are cool with us using them.


Posted on: April 20, 2009 06:11