Autoblog

click above to view more high-res images of the #0001 Shelby GT500KR

The gavel will fall for a number of #0001 production vehicles this Saturday at the 2008 Barrett-Jackson Auction in Scottsdale, Arizona, including the first Corvette ZR1, Dodge Challenger and Ford Shelby GT500KR. Ford has announced a new addition to this particular Shelby GT500KR that's destined for the Barrett-Jackson stage, which we expect will add thousands of dollars to the bidding war that's guaranteed to ensue. The auction model will feature a fully glass roof, just like the new Glass Roof Mustang we showed you at the Detroit Auto Show. The giant, tinted transparent roof will let a little extra light in while keeping the UV rays out. The GT500KR's racing stripes have also been permanently etched into the glass roof so as not to break up the pair of lines that stretch from bumper to bumper.

Though the GT500KR is already considered a rare car due to its limited production volume, the fact that this particular one is the first production example and will be sporting an exclusive feature makes it as rare as rare can be. We'll eager to find out if it will sell for more at auction than the first Shelby GT500 and Shelby GT Mustang that were auctioned off at Barrett-Jackson the past two years, respectively, both of which went for around $600,000. We should also note that Ford and Carroll Shelby donate the auction money for these cars to the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation.

[Source: Ford]

Click on the image to view in our high-resolution image gallery

Monied fans of Monster Garage gathered this week in Scottsdale, Arizona for the opportunity to own a piece of their favorite television show when the Barrett-Jackson auction house put 42 of the hot rod program's creations under the hammer.

Among the vehicles put up for auction were a Ferrari fitted with a pasta-maker, a flying Panoz Esperante, a Mustang lawn mower, a Porsche modified to collect golf balls, and an assortment of dragsters and custom lowriders. All in all, 42 custom street rods went on the block. Most of them, as could be expected, were American iron, but a modified Rolls-Royce, a 1999 Champ Car open-wheeler and even a steam-powered speed boat, all modified towards various aesthetic and functional ends, were rolled out for the event.

We've got images of all 42 custom rides in our gallery with descriptions of what you're looking at; you can check the short press release after the jump, and the full list right here.

[Source: Barrett-Jackson]

Well, it's official. If it has wheels, Craig Jackson and Steve Davis will let you sell it at the Barrett-Jackson auction in Scottsdale, Arizona. The item in question is none other than Robosaurus, the forty-foot tall transforming robot dinosaur that breathes fire and enjoys snacking on Grand Ams. We don't doubt that it'll attract a flurry of attention during primetime, and that some deep-pocketed bidder will throw money at it. What would make it the best Barrett-Jackson auction ever is if Robosaurus went crazy and started eating some of the big-dollar garage queens on live television.

Video of Robosaurus doing his thing after the jump.

Thanks for the tip, Myk!

[Source: Barrett-Jackson]

click above image for more pics of the Concept 'Cuda

It appears that whoever took the trouble to have Metalcrafters build the one-off Concept 'Cuda got tired of it pretty quickly. Just a month after the 'Cuda made its first appearance at the SEMA show, Barrett-Jackson has announced that the car will be offered to the highest bidder come January. The winner will essentially be getting a modified Dodge Charger chassis with custom 2-door carbon fiber bodywork covered in Lamborghini Pearl Orange paint, a functional shaker hood feeding air to a 6.1-liter Hemi V8 and 22-inch Zenetti wheels wrapped with Pirelli P Zero tires. Before potential buyers plunk down hundreds of thousands of dollars for the car, they might want to see if Metalcrafters would build a second, and if so, how much it would cost.

[Source: Barrett-Jackson via Motortrend]

Click image to enlarge

It has come to this. A special edition of a special edition, named for the made-for-TV cash tsunami at which many of the first editions of the aforementioned special editions are auctioned off at eye-watering prices. It is the (we are not making any of this up, by the way) Barrett-Jackson Shelby GT. There will be 100 of them in total (coupes and convertibles), they will be black with (again, not making it up) "Barrett-Jackson Red" stripes, Barrett-Jackson sill plates, all the expected Shelby badging, and they'll start at a smidge under $39K, $250 of which goes to the Carroll Shelby Children's Foundation. Ironically, the first one of these will not be auctioned off at Barrett-Jackson. The B-J/GT is an Arizona-region Ford dealer exclusive, and it officially went on sale today. In addition to the car itself, buyers get an autographed family photo featuring Carroll Shelby and Amy Boylan from the Shelby Autos side, and Greg Jackson and Steve Davis from the B-J side. In a glaring omission, Ford mullet hero and perennial Barrett-Jackson special guest star, Mark Fields, is somehow not included in the photo. What a gyp.

[Source: Ford/Shelby/Barrett-Jackson]

click here to view more pics of John Schneider's General Lee

Actor John Schneider's second attempt to sell the one-of-a-kind 1969 Dodge Charger "General Lee" from his Dukes of Hazzard TV show and other acting roles has failed... again. The first attempt to sell the General Lee on eBay resulted in a winning bid of nearly $10 million, which later fell through. The winning bidder, William Fisher, claimed to CNN in an email that his eBay account had been hacked and the exhoribitant bid was placed without his knowledge, though eBay claims there is no evidence his account was illegally accessed.The second auction on eBay required that bidders be heavily screened before making a bid, which resulted in only one legitimate bid of $100,000 that failed meet Schneider's reserve price.

Perhaps realizing that eBay Motors isn't the most appropriate place to sell his iconic car, CNN is reporting that Schneider will now put the car up for auction on the biggest block in the world at the 2008 Barrett-Jackson auction in Scottsdale, Arizona next January. We'll be in Scottsdale like we were this year, though we're starting to wonder if the General Lee will ever find a new home.

Thanks for the tip, Peter!

[Source: CNN]

It's a given that the annual Barret-Jackson Collector Car Auction has gotten big. Huge, in fact. But, after several controversies from this year's auction, you might say it has even gotten too big for its own britches. Now comes word that it may have outgrown its tent-covered location as well.

Auction owner Craig Jackson was in Vegas recently talking with the city's mayor and tourism council about how his world-famous auction would fit in their world-famous town. From an Arizona Republic article, it sounds like Jackson rolled all sevens and elevens with city officials.

Why is the BJ auction even looking to leave its hometown of 20 years? Again, from what the newspaper story reports, the Scottsboro Scottsdale city council got greedy. Jackson says the city ditched its plans to erect a permanent multi-use building on the site of the auction, refused to sell him land at the site so he could build his own structure and then offered to lease land for 20 years to Jackson.

"It doesn't make any sense for me to build an auction house on leased land for only 20 years," Jackson says in the story.

Upon hearing of Jackson's Vegas visit, ScottsboroScottsdale's city manger tried to set up another meeting with the auction owner. But, "I don't need to waste any more time," Jackson said during a break between Vegas discussions. "I've got business to do and I'm getting business done here."

Going once! Twice....

[Souce: The Arizona Republic via Sports Car Market]

Well, we've been covering the story of Chip Foose's Foose Coupe since before SEMA, and it all finally culminated over the weekend at Barrett-Jackson Palm Beach, where the first customer car brought $300,000 when the gavel fell. That would ultimately be the top sale recorded over the weekend. The winning bidder gets to work directly with Foose to pick out the color schemes, wheel design, and in this particular case, even the motor -- either a Ford GT unit or the 392 HEMI crate engine as seen in the green prototype. Only 50 cars will be built, and the top bidder actually scored a little bit of a deal. You see, each Foose Coupe has a base price of $295,000 anyway, so the extra one-on-one personalization experience with Chip only added an additional $5,000 to the price for the first-ever customer car. Expectations were surely higher, so even though this was the top seller, dollarwise, the number it brought must have been a disappointment. You can watch the auction itself after the jump.

[Source: SPEED TV]

We described the scene to you earlier, and now you can see everything unfold as it happened. We are, of course, talking about the big reveal of the new Shelby GT-H Convertible down at Barrett-Jackson Palm Beach, along with the immediate sale of the rights to car #001. It's all here, from the covered car being driven onstage, to the extra salesmanship by Ford's Mark Fields, to the final gavel $250,000 later as the car went to collector Ron Pratte of Chandler, AZ. If you missed the original telecast and forgot to set your DVR, no worries -- you can watch it all go down after the jump.

[Source: SPEED TV]

Click image to enlarge

Ford chose the Barrett-Jackson Palm Beach auction as the venue at which to reveal the Shelby GT-H Convertible to the public. The car was driven onstage while draped in a blue, Ford-emblazoned cover and surrounded by a team of Ford and/or Shelby employees (including Shelby Automobiles president, Amy Boylan) dressed in matching bowling shirts. Ford's Mark Fields, a Barrett-Jackson fixture the last couple of years, orchestrated the formal unveiling from the auctioneer's stand, which culminated with Carroll Shelby popping out of the car's passenger door and ambling up to the stand to join Fields and the other B-J dignitaries for the auction of the car.

As for the car itself, it's basically the mechanical twin of the GT-H coupe, with 319 willing horses ready to go under its bulging, pinned-down hood. Changes for the convertible, aside from the obvious folding top, include a rollbar and black-painted "Bullitt"-style wheels, as first seen on the black Shelby GT customer cars. Other features are carried over from the GT-H coupe, such as the the black-and-gold paint/stripe scheme, Hertz badging on the front fenders, horizontally-slatted aluminum grille, and an automatic transmission. As was the case with the closed-roof GT-H, only 500 will be built. The 499 rental units will be auctioned away after their stints at Hertz outlets come to an end.

Car #001 ultimately sold to collector Ron Pratte for $250,000, the proceeds of which will go to the Carroll Shelby Children's Foundation and the Juvenile Diabetes Research Fund (JDRF). As is his wont, Mark Fields paused the auction so that he could sweeten the pot and add extra goodies to drive up the car's sale price. These included a one-off Shelby GT-H Fender Stratocaster from the Fender Custom Shop (see it in the gallery), vehicle delivery at Shelby's Las Vegas facility, and the shirt off his back (literally). We're hoping Ford brings the droptop Rent-A-Racer to New York with the GT500KR next week so that we can get a good look at it in person.

Press release after the jump.

[Source: Ford, SPEED TV]