Antique Car Auction tent fail - some may cry :(

story

coles notes: huge tent fails, destroys exotics and collector cars.. brutal!

wow, what a shame

And this is why you only house collectible cars in solid, permanent constructions, not tents or other temps.

On the bright side, most of the body work would be repairable. Trim bits and glass would be much more difficult, however.

The superbird they showed had very little damage. Pity.

Insurance.

Well who shive-a-git about the Z & TransAm ..........but that Chevelle looked really bad Hope that wasn't one of the LS6's.

VeeDubTDI said:

Insurance.

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Sadly...

event = lack of.

Interesting. I know that the venue's insurance won't cover the vehicles, but I figured that personal insurance should.

Kudos to Haggerty for stepping up to appraise the cars then and there even if they weren't the insurers.....
this time.
I'll wager that they get a bunch of new business from their actions, those that didn't have any and were spared, as well as those that can afford to repair their uninsured and damaged ones.

Makes me feel better that my Sonett's covered (for declared value) with Haggerty.

For a whole bunch of pictures (slideshow format), check out this link. Lots of really nice cars got damage ranging from minor to substantial. Some were original cars, and cars are only original once.

Really sad...keep the Kleenex handy.

That second picture looks like my old Vette!

K5ING said:

For a whole bunch of pictures (slideshow format), check out this link. Lots of really nice cars got damage ranging from minor to substantial. Some were original cars, and cars are only original once.

Really sad...keep the Kleenex handy.

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Impossible to tell from the tiny photos in the rain, but I doubt there was a single car there that was truly "original". All seem to be the same tacky, over-restorations, retro mod/rod stuff that has simply made the cost of old cars many times what they could/should be. IMHO the commercialization of the hobby is the worst thing that could have happened, and the mere fact that most of the cars were at auction simply because someone is trying to make a buck out of our hobby doesn't leave me any real compassion - unless there is a REAL survivor in the damage list.

Seriously? You can make the charge that you "doubt there was a single car there that was truly "original" ." So, how many "classics" or muscle-cars have you restored? So what's "original" then?

So, if one were to restore a classic car and then sold it then it would be commercializing? Or, merely selling would be fine. It's those rotten auctions - them people ought to be ashamed of themselves for auctioning off their "over-restored" cars. Making money... what's this world coming to?

I've got many friends and family that are into the hobby of restoring/collecting/enjoying classic cars. I'm not sure I've seen many over-restorations - whatever that is. In fact, many of these folks will sell or auction off a car just because they felt like it. Maybe they wanted to move on to the next challenge. Maybe another style caught their attention. Maybe they wanted to make some money - I doubt that there's much to be made on the restorations anyway. The costs of parts are high as they are getting rarer by the day. Junk yards aren't as a plenty as they used to be. Think of the man-hours alone that go into a restoration. Or just maybe.... Who cares why they're auctioning or selling their cars!

So, these rotten sell-outs got what they deserved? Auctions are the reason that classic cars cost so much? huh? for real?

It really is a shame that those cars were damaged like that. I consider many of them to be beautiful machines and in some cases a fine work of art.

I am sure there were some matching number originals in that lot. I read somewhere they were estimating 50million in damages.

Wait until the insurance companies tell them "ahh, you can buff that out"

Thunderstruck said:

Wait until the insurance companies tell them "ahh, you can buff that out"

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Buried somewhere in the fine print is likely legal language excluding the companies from claims if X number of covered classic cars are grouped together. I'm just assuming that the insurance policies are like Prego sauce - "It's In There!"

MrMopar,
How about those SuperBirds and E-body cars that were damaged? The replacement cost of some of those parts are insanely high.

Pat Dolan said:

Impossible to tell from the tiny photos in the rain, but I doubt there was a single car there that was truly "original". All seem to be the same tacky, over-restorations, retro mod/rod stuff that has simply made the cost of old cars many times what they could/should be. IMHO the commercialization of the hobby is the worst thing that could have happened, and the mere fact that most of the cars were at auction simply because someone is trying to make a buck out of our hobby doesn't leave me any real compassion - unless there is a REAL survivor in the damage list.

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Tiny pictures? Try looking at them on something other than a netbook, and sit through the entire series.

The comment about the original cars came from a number of sources and blogs from people who were there and saw the cars and the damage first hand. BTW, one of the cars damaged was the much disputed Tucker convertible "tribute car" (the quotes are mine).

Those Shelbys are my all time favorite cars, too bad for that one

ditto that... I grew up a Mopar guy but still like some of the other muscle cars and the Shelby is a beautiful machine.

No tears hear. I could never understand peoples love affair with poorly engineered, over marketed American cars.

Would shed a tear for the Tucker though......................

Ol'Rattler said:

No tears hear. I could never understand peoples love affair with poorly engineered, over marketed American cars.

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If you're not hung up about keeping cars original, lots can be done to modernize them. A Dodge Dart can be made to corner very well with proper suspension work, and a 318 LA engine with a good block casting can be bored and stroked to 402. For not that much of an investment you can convert to fuel injection with digital ignition, and forever end all the headaches that came with keeping cars in proper tune. End result is a flashy car that is "old iron" from Detroit. It turns heads, is fun to drive, and makes close to 500 horsepower on regular pump gas.

Ya, for pure fun factor a RWD car done right can be pretty cool.

My complaint with Detroit is that they have always been slow to adopt better technology. Disk brakes, R&P steering, 4 wheel independent suspension, fuel injection etc. are some of the things that come to mind.

What was so great about Tucker is that he tried to offer a car that was a better and safer car than anything offered by Detroit at the time.

Why did the tent fail?It look like some of thoes cars went throw a hail storm.

MonsterTDI09 said:

Why did the tent fail?It look like some of thoes cars went throw a hail storm.

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A very strong storm swept through the area the day before the auction. Yes, that's hail damage along with damage from the tents, supports, and other flying debris.

We had a severe storm, including a tornado touchdown, near that auction. It's extremely rare for the Phoenix area to get storms that severe in the winter, so I am sure the planners were pretty caught off guard. Most of our winter storms, when we get them, are light rains with little wind.

Some windy tent destroying video action (some NSFW langauge): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KqAnXEOSLHw&fmt=18

MonsterTDI09 said:

Why did the tent fail?It look like some of thoes cars went throw a hail storm.

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azbioguy said:

We had a severe storm, including a tornado touchdown, near that auction. It's extremely rare for the Phoenix area to get storms that severe in the winter, so I am sure the planners were pretty caught off guard. Most of our winter storms, when we get them, are light rains with little wind.

Some windy tent destroying video action (some NSFW langauge): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KqAnXEOSLHw&fmt=18

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I was at the Barrett-Jackson Auction in Scottsdale when the storm hit. Everything was swaying wildly and they had a crew take down a large flat screen TV that you could see from all over for fear it could come crashing down. As the storm worsened they put out an evacution order of all the tents housing vendors and exhibitors and asked anyone who wanted to remain to congregate in the main auction tent since it was the strongest structure there. There were several airplanes at the auction site that started to move dragging the sandbag weights attached to the wings and had to be secured. One of Barrett-Jacksons tent was reported to have developed a tear but I didn't notice it the following day as they must have repaired it during the night. Had quite the adventure after leaving when the evacuation order went out as the rental car I was in was parked more than 5 miles from the auction site with a shuttle bus running at 15 minute intervals. The parking area consisted of hundreds of acres of desert with no reference markers. I was with 2 cousins and we were dropped off in the dark with winds gusting to 60MPH and driving rain. It took us nearly 2 hours to find the Camry and we were soaked to the skin. To add to this amusing scenario the battery in the cars fob went dead so we could'nt use the panic button to locate the car. One of my cousins is quite athletic having run the boston marathon several times took the key and ran around the parking area looking for grey metalic Toyota Camry's to try the key in until he found it.

On our way back to the Marriot the freeway was closed due to the Russo-Steele auction tent having blown accross it. Blown down trees and toppled cactuses were also evident by the freeway.

Evidently there was also a large horse show taking place in Scottsdale at the same time and I was amused to hear the story the passenger on the flight home sitting beside me had. They had left Seattle with a trailer load of horses to take to the show and had been on the road for 55 hours due to winter storm road closures and delays when ironically they were 20 minutes from their destination when the highway was closed due to a #$@*^ tent blowing accross the highway forcing a closure.

You'd think that insurance for the event would have been cheap enough to be affordable if storms that severe are very rare in AZ that time of year.

I'm quite sure the tent was insured.

A bank's insurance does not cover the value in safe deposit boxes, because they don't know what's in them.
A hotel's insurance policy does not cover personal items because they don't know know what you bring into your room.
The container, the tent, is insured, but the contents, the cars, can't be because there is no known, nor agreed value, to determine the underwriter's exposure risk.