[Healeys] Auction car

Jean Caron vintage_roadster_restoration at hotmail.com
Tue Apr 17 18:57:56 MDT 2018


Steven,
You can go and look at several photos of the car on Barrett-Jackson’s website as well as a description of the car. The description is very vague so that the auctioneer avoids legal trouble, just in case. It claims to have been restored, with no expenses spared, to Austin-Healey standards, not to Concours standards as it is nowhere near current Concours standards.
I doubt very much that the car was purchased by someone that knew Austin-Healey s very well, not to say that these individuals do not go to B-J to purchase an A-H.
This car, from the photos shown, was build to excite the buyer that had rented himself an arm candy for the weekend and to show her he had the means to afford her and the car, for the weekend. As far as I am concerned if one wants to bid on cars with provenance and a history, Barrett-Jackson is not the place for that. Bonhams, RM/Sotheby’s and the likes are a far better option. Barrett-Jackson will sell you golf carts to Hummers and everything in between that has the word restomods in it.
The seller got an unbelievable price for this BJ8, no doubt about that. On the surface the car presented very well but with pop rivets holding the shroud at the trunk opening, where else did the seller cut corners? Ooops! That’s right, restored at no expenses spared.........

Jean

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________________________________
From: Healeys <healeys-bounces at autox.team.net> on behalf of Steven Kingsbury <airtightproductions at icloud.com>
Sent: Sunday, April 15, 2018 1:42:07 PM
To: healeys at autox.team.net
Subject: [Healeys] Auction car

I see the list has been fairly quiet lately and thought I'd take the time to see if anyone has any thoughts on the Barrett Jackson car auction. I saw the car, a Golden Beige BJ8, go for $143,000. With a 10% premium tacked on to that, a bit over $157,000! In the opinion of this group, was that just a case of bidders getting in to a pissing contest, or, was the car worth it? (And of course we don't know what condition the engines was in, was it a frame off, etc.) So for the sake of conversation, let's say it had really good bones, no rust and ran like a top. And was an original Golden Beige with red leather car.
   Personally, I was glad to see it go for such a large price. Was it worth it? In my opinion, yes, especially if the person buying it knows and loves A-H's. If I had the money, would I pay that much? No. If I had that kind of money, I'd buy a project and do most of the work myself.
Steven Kingsbury
BN1 #598 (currently on a boat)

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