Team_Sprite
Jedi Trainee
Offline
What a remarkable experience! Lisa (my saintly wife) bailey, Gaurja, Leiya and I arrived in Phoenix Wednesday evening, and were in the auction room early the following morning. We brought tools to finish up a few little things, wax (the car was still just as it left the paint booth) and the windows I had finished up the night before we left. It turns out we really couldn’t do anything but clean and fluff. We discovered that the wiper gears were not in sink (one wiped the windshield, one the hood) and a few other small oddities, but the incredible attention that the car got made anything but wiping down and cleaning impossible. Upon arrival, we actually walked past our car without seeing it; it was so small in those surroundings. It sat between an enormous black 1939 Packard V12 and a black 1937 Cadillac Fleetwood Limo. We rolled it forward and set up a table with a laptop running a continuous slideshow (with Fiddlesticks music) people loved the story, and there were always people around the car. As you all know, it seems everyone has a bugeye story, it was wonderful.
The girls were interviewed by a radio station, filmed before the car came up, filmed (reaction shots) during the sale of the lot, and interviewed after by ESPN and the speed channel, as well as several very nice magazine writers. The nicest compliment of all however came during the preview party when two delightful people from the Pebble Beach Concours dropped in and (without knowing anything about the story) told us that our bugeye was in their “top five favorite cars in the auction.” With the all the fine cars (Duesenberg, Ferraris, Rolls, Delahaye and Bugattis) this was indeed a compliment. The actual sale was a real high, the two auctioneers spent an almost uncomfortable amount of time on the bugeye, at one point, when he didn’t think it had reached enough said: “Ladies and gentlemen, please (as in oooh, pla-eazzz)” and good naturedly harangued and cajoled the audience for a full five minutes. RM really did right by the ladies, even selling the car without taking a commission from us! People kept asking the girls if they were sad, they all replied, independently, that they were only concerned that the car went to a good home. They met the new owners and they were really wonderful people.
We were thrilled with the price; in fact, we were later told that it was a record price for a bugeye at auction. All the compliments and encouragement made the whole experience, all in all, a ten. They are truly remarkable kids. I will put up photos tomorrow, also, we have it all on video and I will post a link as soon as I can figure out how to put it up. Till tomorrow.
Brian
The girls were interviewed by a radio station, filmed before the car came up, filmed (reaction shots) during the sale of the lot, and interviewed after by ESPN and the speed channel, as well as several very nice magazine writers. The nicest compliment of all however came during the preview party when two delightful people from the Pebble Beach Concours dropped in and (without knowing anything about the story) told us that our bugeye was in their “top five favorite cars in the auction.” With the all the fine cars (Duesenberg, Ferraris, Rolls, Delahaye and Bugattis) this was indeed a compliment. The actual sale was a real high, the two auctioneers spent an almost uncomfortable amount of time on the bugeye, at one point, when he didn’t think it had reached enough said: “Ladies and gentlemen, please (as in oooh, pla-eazzz)” and good naturedly harangued and cajoled the audience for a full five minutes. RM really did right by the ladies, even selling the car without taking a commission from us! People kept asking the girls if they were sad, they all replied, independently, that they were only concerned that the car went to a good home. They met the new owners and they were really wonderful people.
We were thrilled with the price; in fact, we were later told that it was a record price for a bugeye at auction. All the compliments and encouragement made the whole experience, all in all, a ten. They are truly remarkable kids. I will put up photos tomorrow, also, we have it all on video and I will post a link as soon as I can figure out how to put it up. Till tomorrow.
Brian