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$3,000,000 Oldsmobile at B-J

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MGA Steve

MGA Steve

Jedi Warrior
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For those who watched the Barrett-Jackson Auction on Speed and saw the rather annoying guy who won the bidding for the Harley Earl-designed Olds concept car, here is a story on his new museum:

https://www.denverpost.com/Stories/0,1413,36~53~2686735,00.html
 
From the news story:

"The deep-gold 1954 Oldsmobile F-88 is a one-of-a-kind concept car with a "rocket" V-8 engine and is considered the archetype of modern car design."

The archetype of meaningless hyperbole, more like! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/rolleyes.gif
 
[ QUOTE ]
The deep-gold 1954 Oldsmobile F-88 is a one-of-a-kind concept car with a "rocket" V-8 engine and is considered the archetype of modern car design.


[/ QUOTE ]\

How can they say that! The car was simply Oldsmobiles response to the Chevy Corvette. They make it sound like the car broke all kinds of bounds and started an entire genre. Don't get me wrong, I thought the car was gorgeous, but I think they're way overstating it's importance.
 
I think it is interesting that all of the cars on the "top ten most expensive" list all came from the 1930's or the 1960's with one exception. It's funny how some eras really do turn out to be better than others. I wonder what they'll think of the first decade of the 21st century. "the retro craze" they'll call it or something. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/rolleyes.gif
 
The seller of the Olds, Gordon Apker, lives here in the Puget Sound area (Des Moines, WA) and is in our region of the Classic Car Club. Everyone here is familiar with that Olds and we all think it's funny that someone would pay that kind of money for it.

While Gordon never disclosed what he paid for it in 1996, we believe it to be around $400,000.

And I agree Xracer, I'm more moved by the Cisitalia...although they also voted the '41 Lincoln Continental as one of the best automotive designs ever -- and despite my father-in-law owning a '48 Conti (slightly different lines and heavier grill,) the Conti MK I never did it for me...the MKII -- now that's a different story -- gorgeous!!!
 
/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/iagree.gif too, Sammy. The Cisitalia certainly shows where the XK-120 and early Ferraris got many of their styling cues. But even the Cisitalia has styling features taken from some pre-war Italian, French, and German cars.

The most interesting styling feature on the Olds was the long. pointed tail lights that are so similar to the C-1 Corvettes' that you wonder how it can be considered "unique" in any way. As I mentioned in another thread, I think the $3 mill price was just a man with too much money who was determined to have that car, no matter the cost. And, during the auction, it looked like the man bidding against him knew that and jacked up the price just for spite, knowing he was not going to win it! My wife and I even discussed that possibility when the bidding was nearing $1 million and the winner was getting in the other bidder's face and sitting down in the car's passenger seat.

Personally, I would not drive nearly as far out of my way to visit a museum literally in the middle of nowhere to view a '54 Oldsmobile as I would for a Mako Shark concept car, a mid-engined, two-seater Mustang concept car, or a Chrysler turbine car. Or, come to think of it, for a production 427 Cobra, Ferrari GTO, or D-Type Jag with a racing history. I guess I must be more a child of the '60s than the '50s, even though I grew up in the '50s and all my first cars were from the '50s.

Just imagine the car collections that each of us could acquire with $3,000,000! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif
 
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