10 replies to this topic

[MG Brown]

The collector car community was set abuzz back in March when Mecum Auctions announced that “Big Oly,” the custom-built Ford Bronco that Parnelli Jones drove to back-to-back victories in the Baja 1000 in the early 1970s, would be offered for bidding at Mecum’s 34th annual Original Spring Classic auction, scheduled for May 14-22 at the Indiana State Fairgrounds.

 

 

But the historic and innovative off-road racing machine isn’t the only consignment to the sale coming from the 1963 Indianapolis 500-mile race winner, who is considered not only one of the best but perhaps the most versatile of all American auto racers.

 

At the age of 87, Jones is parting with what the auction company labels as “The Personal Collection of Parnelli Jones,” a consignment that includes not just Big Oly, but the 1974 Parnelli VPJ-4 Formula 1 car; a reproduction of the “Ol’ Calhoun,” the 1960 Watson-Offenhauser roadster; a 1927 Ford T-Bucket track roadster; a trio of Ford Mustangs; and the 1979 Troyer Modified racer built and raced by Jones’ crew chief Jimmy Dilamarter.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Also up for bidding will be assorted Big Oly spare parts, a set of original Ol’ Calhoun tires, several Jones-worn racing helmets and fire suits, assorted autographed photographs, Baja and Pikes Peak hill climb trophies, Jones’ Trans Am series champion’s jacket, toy-size models of various Jones-raced vehicles, a drafting table (with blueprints) and other furniture, and even the hand-drawn “analog GPS” scroll map of the Baja 1,000 course.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The consignment is another major coup for Mecum Auctions, perhaps its most significant since the Bullitt Mustang. 

[Isaac S.]

I'll be there  . 

[Robert BG]

I'll be there  . 

 

Lucky, that is something that people wont have a chance to see together again.

 

Also I'd really like to know what the rolling map sells for. I have a old Russian system that uses films that are like what the old microfiche machines at libraries used to use and they are amazing.

 

My father in law was in the Bulgarian air force and they were in boxes of stuff that was going to be thrown out when they were closing down a base. A friend of his was able to get one of them working using original gyros and he has another that uses a micro controller to mimic the gyro outputs. 

[MG Brown]

If this auction is similar to others held by Mecum. There will be a live stream of the auction and the winning bids will be posted on their website.

[Dave Crevie]

Or it might be broadcast on NBCSportschannel.

[Dave Crevie]

Big Oly just went for 1,700,000, not including premiums. The rest of the collection sold for less than I expected.

[Isaac S.]

Very cool stuff, I really liked the backlit Bill Stroppe drawn map.

 

The car was just like it came out of the dirt, it's a piece of history and the owner will be proud. Words really can't describe it.

 

I thought everything went for reasonable prices, especially the Parnelli Jones edition mustangs, they are usually only 90-100 not 120-150. Also all of the Road Art lots sold very well. The Road Art lots are not shown on TV. 

[Tom Katsanis]

They got a good price for the Bronco.

It was disappointing the Buddy Baker Daytona only got up to 650000 considering the history & it being the first NASCAR to top 200mph.

[Isaac S.]

650,000 is very good for that car. People don't spend lots of money on race cars cause you can't drive them. Even the most famous 60's drag cars only go for a quarter to half a million at most. While it is very historical, all you can do is look at it sitting in your garage. If it isn't street legal it isn't going to be worth as much as it probably should. 

[Dave Crevie]

Collectors go for the history. You need to have a complete trail of provenance to get big dollars for the lot. Those cars that are sold "as is", the "driver quality" cars, are mostly being bought by flippers, for resale. If you peruse the internet you will see a lot of them posted with a boost in price over what the buyer payed at the auction. And often you see the car at another collector car auction at a later date. I always chuckle when I see a car that someone payed, say, $100 g's for at one auction, struggle to get to $75 g's at another. Serves the greedy bastard right. 

 

Before my health went south I attended as many collector car auctions as I could. Barrett-Jackson, Kruse, Mecum, RM, etc., etc. Even bought a couple cars that way. If you are buying for your own collection, and you know a lot about the car you are buying, you can do OK. The trouble starts when two bidders are trying to "one up" each other, and the sale price gets run up way over what the car would be worth on the market. 

 

It's the history you are buying when you buy an old race car. Without proof of that, the car is only going to bring what another example with no known history will bring. I have a Porsche race car that has really good history, verified verbally by many old-timers. But without that written provenance, it is just another old Porsche.    

[Tom Katsanis]

The car did'nt sell at 650000 in comparison what could have been the most expensive car there didn't sell at 4.8 million & that was 1 of 12 71 hemi cudas converts.

I don't know to much more about the Daytona except when I said first NASCAR I meant first race car to AVG 200 mph on a circuit & do it as a record by running both ways.