Larry Edsall / Special to The Detroit News

A 1934 Packard Twelve Coupe takes its place on the turntable on the auction block at the RM Automobiles of Arizona event. The car sold for more than $2 million. Note that even though the auction was held inside a large tent, it was a high-tech affair with light fixtures that adjusted their colors to the vehicle's hue.

Classic cars at RM's Phoenix auction draw high bids and high drama

By Larry Edsall / Special to The Detroit News

January 20, 2008

Oh, yes, that 210 to which Bainbridge referred in his very British accent was 210 thousand dollars, an early bid on Lot 129, a 1931 Auburn 8-98 Speedster.

The next bid was $215,000. "Make it 220 now," said Bainbridge. "We have 225. Make it 230 now. Do we have 230 now?" We did.

"Do I hear 240 now?" Actually, he heard 245. "Do I have 250?" He did. "Do I hear 260 now?"

He didn't. The car's pre-auction estimated price range ranged from $180,000 to $240,000, and it already had exceeded even the highest of those figures.

"It's going to go at 250 then," Bainbridge suggested. "For the first time," he said as he lifted his gavel. "For the second time," he said, ready to strike the wooden block that signals a sale. "Are you all done?" he asked.

They were not. There was a bid of $255,000.

An unrestored 1929 Bentley 4-liter Tourer with coachwork by Vanden Plas greets bidders as they arrive at the RM Auction, where the entry tent houses the lobby and leads the way into the much larger auction tent.

"Do I hear 260 now? We're at two-hundred-sixty-thousand."

Someone bid 265. "Two-seventy now?" Bainbridge continued. "Let's progress, shall we?"

But it appeared that we shall not, so Bainbridge suggested "270 thousand for the first time... second time... third and last time..."

And there it was: A bid for $275,000, and there was an audible gasp from the audience.

"See, you don't have to have the world's largest tent to have the best drama," piped in Ian Kelleher, RM's managing director, who was introducing the cars and thus shared the podium with Bainbridge.

Even larger than the actual auction tent was the tent used as a preview garage area for the cars up for bidding. Here a couple stands next to a 1956 Lincoln Premier convertible as they study the huge, 280-page auction catalog. The Lincoln sold for $132,000.

The bidders laughed, enjoying the obvious reference to the often circus-like atmosphere at the big Barrett-Jackson auction taking place at the same time a few miles away under one of the world's largest tents in nearby Scottsdale. Barrett-Jackson had some 1,200 cars on its docket this year. RM goes for quality over quantity, offering fewer than 90 vehicles.

The '31 Auburn Speedster sold - "sold indeed!" as Bainbridge phrased it -- for a high bid of $285,000, which ends up costing its new owner $313,500 including the sale commission.

The cars at RM are of such quality that bidding opened on a couple of them at the one million dollar level. A 1929 Duesenberg Model J Dual Cowl Phaeton with bodywork by Le Baron eventually sold for $1.76 million and a 1963 Shelby AC Cobra, one of three factory racecars from that year, went for $1.73 million.

Neither, however, was the top-seller at RM, where a 1934 Packard Twelve coupe and a 1936 Mercedes-Benz 540K Special cabriolet each brought $2.035 million.

Also bringing more than a million dollars were a 1966 Ferrari 275 GTB 6C ($1.375 million), a 1941 Chrysler Thunderbolt concept car ($1.32 million) and a 1957 Maserati Tipo 54 racing car ($1.250 million, although the Maserati did not sell because the top bid did not meet the "reserve," the unannounced minimum figure at which the car would change ownership).

While the Thunderbolt exceeded a million dollars, its "companion" vehicle, a 1941 Chrysler Newport, a dual-cowl parade car used to pace the Indianapolis 500, sold at "only" $748,000.

RM, which is based in Blenheim, Ontario, has a showroom in Ypsilanti and stages two auctions each year in Michigan. This year they are scheduled April 26-27 in the Rock Financial ShowPlace at Novi and August 2 at Meadow Brook Hall in Rochester.

This 1931 Auburn 8-98 Speedster, shown here in the preview "garage," sold for $313,000.