Classic Auto Mall - #077 - Stewart Howden with Steve Saffier

This is the Classic Automall Show.

Broadcast from the studios inside the Classic Automall in Morgantown, Pennsylvania, just one

hour west of Philadelphia at Pennsylvania Turnpike Exit 298, featuring nearly 1,000 classic

vintage and barred-fine vehicles for sale under one climate-controlled roof.

Now, here's your host, Classic Automall president and the man with all the toys,

Stuart Howden.

Good morning, Classic Automall listeners and good morning to Steve and Ethan's not with

us this morning.

He's under the weather.

That's right.

Over the weather, under the weather, beside the weather.

Yes.

He's beside himself.

I'm standing here beside myself.

Anyway, welcome to the show this morning.

We've got the, this is show number 77, which is, we're recording on February the 25th

and it's like 28 degrees outside and snowing and hopefully when it airs next week

when you actually hear this weather will be nicer and the events that I'm going to tell

you about will be long gone.

Is that right?

Yeah.

The Reading Fairgrounds Historical Society is here with all the dirt track cars and they're

all here today, February the 25th.

They're here every year and it's a tribute to all the cars that raced at the Reading

Fairgrounds back in the day and there's all kinds of interesting history and books

and magazines and pictures and articles and you name it.

It's really just an amazing amount of racing history and that has a lot to do with the success

of what happens here in Southeast Pennsylvania.

Oh, thank you.

Good.

Why it's such a car culture?

Because the racing was so prevalent back here back in the day between English town

up over in Jersey and Reading Fairground and Maple Grove with the drag racing.

Langhorn and Lebanon and all these places were really on the kind of the

cutting edge of racing back in the day and I think that's just carried over into this area

for many, many, many years.

So congrats to those guys for keeping that legacy alive at the Reading Fairground.

Also this weekend is the Detroit Autorama with the Riddler Award which is a guy who

spends a million dollars to build a 1936 or 44.

I think most of the winners had been, if you're not familiar with the Riddler

Award, it's like they pick eight cars out of this car show in Detroit and it's one of the

premier shows, if you will, for hot rod and custom-built cars.

So it's like the Boyd Cottington.

Yeah.

And last year before last was the 63 Chevy two-door station wagon that won which was

interesting because that's not typically what you'd see as a winner in here.

Normally you'd see a 39 Oldsmobile or a 44 Coupe or a 35 or 36 Ford and so to see something

kind of outside the box is interesting because it seems to be that a lot of these car event

shows, if you will, Riddler Award like the Detroit Autorama, the Grand National Roadster

Show out in Pomona or even Concord Elegance are starting to shift what wins and what's

important anymore.

And so used to be it would be a certain type of car, whether it be a Concord or it would

be a pre-war car, now you're starting to see that change a little bit and it's interesting

because some of the cars that you see that are not in the category of where you would

expect to win are so well done.

I mean, and it's amazing that the level that you have to go to in order to win

a Concord or to be invited to the Riddler Award, America's Most Beautiful Roadster

or AMBR, it is blood, sweat and tears and some pay for it and some do it themselves.

And either way is cool.

If you've got a hot rod builder who wants to build you something then have at it and

let him build it for you and you can take all the credit.

We've got some nice hot rods here, not to toot our own horn there, but there are

some nice open wheels, Ford Coupes and one beautiful one just came in this week.

We've gotten some amazing cars in, of course, and it's one of those things that we're up

to a thousand, what was the number I just saw?

It was crazy.

I couldn't even, not a thousand, I'm wrong.

929 vehicles.

Oh, just 929.

Yeah, so we're slacking a little bit.

But with the 200 barn finds in the building, that puts us well over 1,100 cars in the

facility and we're starting to slowly but surely gain a little more space with

regards to the barn find cars.

Some of the cars that are behind the curtains that nobody's ever seen that aren't going

to be missed but are here kind of from a storage standpoint are going to, we're going to pull

them out and gain us some room here, which we desperately need because if you've been

here lately, the halls are quite packed.

You know.

Watch your keys when you walk through this place.

Watch your keys, your belt buckle.

Right.

You know.

You leave eyes closed.

You're lanyard, you're lanyard for the show because we're running out of room

a little bit but it seems like every time I start to panic about running out of room,

we gain a little room somewhere else or a few cars sell or, you know, whatever happens

to be the case.

So, speaking of cars selling.

Look at that segue.

Beautiful.

Isn't that brilliant?

Yep.

I'm like a segue king.

How about Lauderdale, Mississippi, Princeton, West Virginia, Ridge, New York, Manchester,

Maryland, Riverside, California, McKinleyville, California, Medford, Oregon, Hamburg,

New York, Brookville, Maryland, Redding, Pennsylvania, Carbondale, Colorado, Willow Grove, Pennsylvania,

Morgantown, Morgantown.

No way.

Yeah.

York, Pennsylvania, and Willow Street, Pennsylvania.

And so a little bit lighter than the week before but it gets ebbs and flows.

Only eight states this week as close to 13 or 14 last week.

But it happens.

It's like the tide.

It ebbs and flows.

Yeah.

The cheapest car we sold was $3,500.

Wow.

It was actually a project Jeep.

Okay.

The most expensive was $57,000 in change and a little bit of everything in between.

So we, you know, we continued to prove that we've got something for everybody.

So whether it's a barn fund and a project or one that's kind of a daily driver or one

that needs a little bit of work that can be driven, that's my most favorite car.

If you're going to restore a car, I like to buy one that is running and driving,

not in boxes.

And you can enjoy it and get to kind of know the car a little bit before you restore it.

Because if you buy a car that's completely in boxes and you take it to some guy or you

do it yourself and three years later you still never driven the car, you might lose a little

interest in it.

It's easy to start thinking, well, you know, maybe, I don't know, this is maybe more

than I want to take on.

It's taken longer than I thought.

I can't find this particular part.

So what I say is buy something that runs and drives it.

For a couple months maybe or six months or for a season and then start the restoration.

Otherwise you end up like those guys on Barn Find Hunter who have 16 cars in a field somewhere

that they knew they were going to get to, lost interest.

That's why most cars are in a field because somebody was going to get to them, but they

didn't quite get to them.

And it's like my stack of books and magazines on my desk.

I'm going to get to them one of these days.

It's like the Wall Street Journal, my dad gave me a subscription one year and

they just stacked up.

It was like I had a whole room full of Wall Street journals.

I couldn't keep caught up and I felt guilty to throw them away.

Right.

So I feel about car magazines.

Right.

It's got to be an article in here that I'd want to keep.

Yeah.

Except everything is possibly everyone knows on the internet.

Although it isn't that completely true that everything that you ever want to

know is on the internet.

There's certain books that I have that decode cars that you can't find on the internet

and have some history on cars that you generally, you might find a little something,

but you're not quite sure of the accuracy.

The nice thing with some of these books that you have, it's a well-known author who is,

you know, their thoroughness of their research will allow them to, you know, they're more

correct or expected to be more correct than you would find probably on some blog or

something online.

Not to say there's anything wrong with that.

Right.

But it's the fact that, you know, just because it says it on the internet does

not make it so.

It's true.

You know.

Some of the new inventory we got in this week, we got a 74 Chevrolet Corvette Coupe.

Okay.

Let me say, okay.

Red over white, factory L82 car, leather interior, rally wheels.

Okay.

Owned, not previously owned, but currently owned by John Bon Jovi.

Currently owned by John Bon Jovi.

Yeah.

Bought it for his son.

And he had a friend of a friend is, you know, one of our good clients.

And so he brought it down for John and hopefully you're going to bring John down.

I tell him, we're not going to give him a check when it sells until John actually comes

and John, if you're listening, come be on the podcast and we'll give you your money.

Yeah.

But anyway, it would be cool.

Yeah.

How cool is that?

Very cool.

Yeah.

I'm going to have to videotape that car.

Yeah.

I think that's a good idea because I think that gives you a little bit of cash.

It does.

It's provenance.

Provenance.

And you know, it's funny because you could walk past that car and say, oh, 74

Corvette, okay, you know, that's kind of getting to the malaise area of, you know, time of cars

when the horsepower wasn't as high and, you know, things were starting to peter out if

you will.

Yeah.

And so you might overlook that car unless you knew of the provenance, you know.

And then we also got a, it's not on my list, but an SD455 Trans Am.

Oh, really?

Yeah.

Bucking-ear white.

Okay.

Yeah.

With the blue stripes and the honeycomb wheels and the engine turned dash, which

I'd forgotten about those.

That nice plastic sticker that they put on it.

Yeah, right.

It's not even metal.

No, it is not.

Of course it's not.

Why would it be metal?

The one in the cord is metal.

I looked at the cord.

It is metal.

And it has like a real metal turned dashboard.

And I think that's where the Trans Am.

Yeah.

They copied it from the cord.

They held it.

John DeLorean held that in his pocket, but for 30-something years before he, you

know, decided to copy the cord.

It's cool.

We have a cool cord Westchester here that we featured before.

And it's a beautiful car.

It's a non-factory color paint.

It's a icy, silvery, grayish-bluish, blah, blah, blah.

Miles deep.

Miles deep, as Peter likes to say.

You could dive into it.

It is.

And it really is.

And, you know, it's not easy to have Miles deep paint on a car.

And especially if it's a black car.

My new black car has a few paint swirls in it, I noticed.

Does it?

We're going to have to work on that.

You have a detailer somewhere.

We might have a detailer somewhere.

Our detailer comes in.

He comes to work before I go to bed at night.

Really?

He's like here at 5.15.

You know, I hear that alarm being turned off on my phone.

I get the notifications.

He's like, Lord.

Some people like to work that way.

I guess.

You're a little quiet.

Peace and quiet, I guess.

Yeah.

Not have to listen to me all day.

Or have people, looky-loose, looky-dove, like, hey, you missed a spot.

Yeah.

Oh, and you know, you want to do mine next year.

Yeah, right.

You have the jokes.

Yeah.

You never have heard that, right?

Right.

That's like a first.

Another car we got in was another Corvette, 69 Corvette Coupe, Daytona yellow over black,

numbers matching 427 390 horse V8, numbers matching Muncie M20 manual, frame off restoration, correct

coated rear end.

That may or may not be the original rear end.

And that's the thing when we say correct coated, meaning that the code number indicates

that it would have been built around the time that the car was built.

Right.

And I mean that it was the one that came with the car.

Sometimes those numbers are accessible and sometimes they aren't.

General Motors wasn't great at keeping records back then.

Ford did a great job, which is what Kevin Marty uses for the Marty report that you see

about cars.

And Jim Wagner for the Pontiac Historical Society.

That's not right.

Jim White.

What is his name?

I can't think of it now.

I'll have to look that up so I'll get it right.

Anyway, Jim from Pontiac Historical Society.

And one of the things that we talked about this in the past and we will continue to talk

about it is the fact that just because it has a Marty report, just because it has a Pontiac

Historical Society, PHS docs, doesn't mean that's what's in the car now.

It tells you what the car was born with.

And that's great.

And that's wonderful to know that and to know that the color originally came

and all the different things that you need to know, which are on a trim tag

on the Mustang as well.

Excuse me.

But it doesn't mean because you had that paperwork that your car is all original.

And we hear people say that all the time.

Well, it's got PHS docs, so it's all original.

No.

You have documentation that shows what came in the car.

That doesn't mean that's still in the car.

And so you have to be really, really careful with language within this hobby

because people will say things, you know, 22,000 believe to be original miles.

Believe to be means that they don't really know.

And listen, I get it.

I understand.

That's part of it.

You don't always know.

A lot of these states, cars that are 10 years older, older, they mark exempt on

the mileage.

So, you know, unfortunately, right, we should do a segment on TMU, which

you have along a lot of cars because there's different reasons for it, not

just a new engine, but yeah, well, and not only that TMU reconstructed titles

that you get with street rides that kind of throw people off a little bit.

We had a little bit of an issue with a gentleman a couple of weeks ago who bought

one and thought it was, you know, a salvage title and it wasn't.

So it is a great day to bring home a brand new car and put it in the garage

and get it prepped and ready.

You won't be tempted to take it out yet because the weather might be a little

inclement.

So you'll be tempted to do all the things you should do when you buy

a car and let's go through it a little bit and learn it and know it

and understand it.

These guys call all the time and want to take a car, you know, hey, will

that car make it to Florida?

Well, it probably will, but it's not a very good idea to get in a car you've

never driven, never spent any time with and go drive 900 miles or 800 miles

or whatever it is down to Florida.

It's not probably the most, it's just not a good idea because if something

goes wrong along the way, you're going to get first of all a bad taste

in your mouth for the car, which may be no fault of the car.

And finding parts might be difficult.

You're just better off to be in a comfortable environment at home where

you know where you can order parts and you don't have to have it and you don't

have to get home today.

And if the part doesn't get there for three or four days, that's okay too.

So it's one of those things that it's important for people to know that

because I think a lot of people just assume that, oh, it'll be no problem.

We'll make it.

And most of these cars haven't driven that far in a long, long time.

You know, you've got a 57-belly air convertible.

I don't think it's driven 900 miles in the last 20 years, most likely, you know.

So that's the problem you're running to.

Some more new inventory we got in this week, another Viper, a 2003 SRT10

convertible Viper red over black, 2651 actual miles.

It says garage cap.

You would pretty much just assume that.

That low miles, that well maintained.

It wasn't sitting out on the side of the road.

So this is different than the one we had at the Filiotto Show?

Yeah, the blue, we had the blue GTS at the Filiotto Show, didn't we?

No, we had a red and black convertible.

Yeah, that would be the same one.

Oh, same one.

I was less than 5,000 miles.

Yeah.

It's unbelievable.

Actually less than 3,000 miles.

Yeah.

It's a beautiful car.

Less than 2,700 miles.

It sounds good.

It does sound good.

Wow.

One owner, 8.3 liter V10, 505 horsepower, a six-speed manual.

It's like new.

It is.

It still smells no on the inside.

Yeah.

Well, it's that new car smell.

It's just plastics rotting your brain, clogging up your windshield, off-gassing, whatever that

means.

So another one we got in, which is kind of different for us, or not different, but different

from what we're talking about today, a 1931 Ford Model A, Huxter Woody.

It's red and black over black.

It's an AACA national senior winner, expertly restored.

It's got the 201 cubic inch four cylinder.

It's got, I won't say flawless, but since it's close to flawless steel and oak that you'll

ever see, better than new interior, owned by our dear friend, who we sold quite a few cars

for over the years, and he always brings us great and interesting stuff.

And this is one that you want to check out, the 31 Ford Model A, Huxter.

Plus it has some plastic fruit in the back, so it looks like it's being a Huxter.

Huxter was selling stuff out of your truck.

I was going to ask you.

Is that where it came from?

They sell stuff, right?

I think so.

I think you're right.

Hey, I'm getting Huxter.

It doesn't have to do with Huckleberry.

No.

What's his name?

Huckleberry Finn.

What's the cartoon?

Huckleberry Hound.

It has nothing to do with any of the Huckleberries.

It's Huxter.

It's selling.

In the movie Tombstone, which is one of my favorite Western movies, which you've

never seen in any movies, so you wouldn't know.

But one of the lines is Val Kilmer is Doc Holiday and he says, I'll be your

Huckleberry.

And there's some meaning to it and I don't know what it is and I wish I had

it brought it up because now you're going to ask me what it means and I don't

know.

Right.

The other car is Apropos to our event that's here this weekend and that's

the 1968 Silver Crown Champ Car.

Have you seen this thing?

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

It is black on black.

It's cool.

It's really cool.

Ward and Watson 1968 build, which were well known builders back in the

day for dirt track and champ cars.

That's got race history, you know, which is, which is important.

I mean, if you have a car that's a race car, and I know this sounds pretty

simplistic, but it's important to have the race history of it if it and so

it did have race history.

Because a lot of times, you know, if you don't have any kind of documentation

on the race history, that does affect the value of a car.

You know, if you can show that it was, you know, raced in a particular

race or driven at a certain track or for whatever, it's important because

some of these cars were built and not only not necessarily these dirt cars,

but more along the lines of some of these Indy cars and NASCAR cars that

were built for reasons other than to race.

So they were built as a mule to test parts or they were built as one

that went around and went to the local grand opening of the Piggly Wiggly.

Right.

You wondered how I was going to get that into the Piggly Wiggly.

I was.

That's going to remind me of a funny story.

Do you want me to tell a funny story?

All right, sure.

So my ex-father-in-law, we got 45 minutes, didn't we?

My ex-father-in-law was, if you don't know, was country singer Mel Tillis.

Mama Mel Tillis.

Mama Mel Tillis, and Mel was on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson

one night with Ella Fitzgerald and Tony Bennett.

And so at the end of the show, Johnny helping promote whoever the

comedian or the entertainer that was on the show would always ask

where you're going to be next week or where's your next gig.

And so Johnny first asked Ella Fitzgerald and she said, oh, thank you, Johnny.

She said, we're doing five nights at Carnegie Hall.

And oh, fantastic.

What a great venue.

And he said to Tony Bennett, and where will you be next week, Tony?

Tony says, well, we're doing three nights at Madison Square Garden

and here in New York.

And great.

And he turned to Mel.

He said, Mel, what are you doing next?

He says, I'm playing at the grand open of a Piggly Wiggly

in Spartanburg, South Carolina.

And of course, the whole crowd just loved it.

I mean, he was that down home, you know, could see.

The funny thing was, he probably wasn't going to play in the open

in a Piggly Wiggly Wiggly.

Yeah, absolutely.

It wasn't a joke.

He actually was.

But the way he said it, delivery and all that.

So anyway, sorry for the digression there.

The Silver Crown champ car that we have, 350 V8 alcohol fueled.

It's got an Edelbrock four barrel and a turbo hydromatic 350, which usually you see.

I thought you usually saw two speed power glides in these, but maybe I'm not wrong.

Winters quick change rear axle.

It's been all rebuilt and set up to run on gasoline, you know, regular gas.

So you don't have to, you know, make yourself crazy and trying to find alcohol.

And you could vintage race it if you want.

You could vintage race it.

I'm certain.

I don't know what the dirt track heritage thing is with racing and that kind of thing.

I'm sure that it's something.

So my, um, it was funny.

I got this weird thing from my insurance agency for my car insurance.

I actually have overextended too many cars.

We can't we can't you're costing us money.

Right.

So eight driving myths debunked.

Eight driving.

I get from my local.

Right.

Whoa, good stuff.

Um, so out of the blue, you know, this, this insurance company, because you have to have

one car in your name and you know what I mean by that.

You can't be a car dealer and have all your cars that you drive owned by the dealership

with a dealer tag on it.

Okay.

That's there's some law or some unspoken rule or something.

I don't know that you're supposed to have a car titled in your name insured in your

own name.

So I always do it.

I don't know if it's actually true or not, but I do it because I don't, you know, I

hate to get in trouble for something that of course would cause it any trouble.

But anyway, so my insurance company sends us this eight driving myths debunked.

Number one, there are more car accidents during a full moon.

Weird.

No, that's not true.

Oh, it's not true.

No.

Oh, it's a myth.

We're debunking.

We're debunking these things.

I never heard that.

Yeah.

You've never heard the word debunking.

No, I never heard the full moon myth.

Yeah.

Sunday drivers cause more accidents.

That's not true either.

Gosh, am I really putting you to sleep?

Well, it depends on what you define Sunday driver, but we have a lot of people out here.

That's absolutely right.

Red cars cost more to insure, but the color of your vehicle is not one of them.

But for some reason, some people think that red cars cost more to insure because

people get more tickets in red cars because they stand out more.

I don't know.

Is that true?

Probably not.

That's probably true, too.

I mean, it catches your eye and doesn't catch a, I mean, police use radar now, so it doesn't

really matter.

A charcoal gray car, but you might see something that you might turn your head and cause you

to point the radar at that car because it's red.

I guess so.

You know, so we'll see.

A lot of Ferraris and Corvettes are red.

How about this one?

You should change your oil every 3,000 miles.

Okay.

So.

Oh, I'm still doing it.

Of course you are because you're old school.

Right.

Well, except on the super modern stuff like the modern Minion stuff.

Yeah.

Now they're 5 to 5,000.

That's a 10.

Yeah, to 10.

And even then they say that it's not as, it's not as necessary as it used to be.

Right.

So, you know, it's one of those things that, but we all grew up, my dad, I can never hear

him today.

3,000 miles.

Get that oil change.

Have you had your oil change?

Just drive me crazy.

My dad, too.

He would change it.

Oh, my God.

Oh, my dad wouldn't do that.

He would make me do it.

Or make me get it done.

Or make me prove that I got it done.

But there's also a thing with cars sitting too long.

Sure.

I mean, if you don't use it and the oil is sitting there, it loses some viscosity over time.

Yeah.

And they say that that's why they put on your little oil change sticker that they put

in your upper window, 3,000 miles, or May the 5th, 2024 or whatever.

So that way you can, if you haven't driven it very often, then you know that what

time frame, that probably time to change the oil.

And of course, you know, it's like Ferraris, you have 15,000 mile service,

you do it 5,000 miles.

If the age of it is over, like some amount of years.

Synthetic oil probably has a lot to do with extending life.

I would say so.

I think the oil in a couple of my cars is recommended mobile one, which is arguably

still the greatest oil, or I mean, I don't know.

Still good.

And there's a lot of good synthetics out there.

Yeah.

I mean, it's not just them anymore.

And our gas station down the corner, did you see this?

I'm segueing to that.

That was a terrible segue, but I don't care.

It's changing from Exxon to Sonoco.

Oh, is that right?

Yeah.

Is Sonoco better gas?

I think they're both top tier.

I think they are.

I think there's a website where you can plug in a gas station to see if it's top tier.

Right.

I don't know what it's called.

Top tier gas.

I'll have nothing but the top tier, please.

You know, as opposed to like sheets.

No offense to sheets.

No offense.

We really like sheets.

Or Wawa.

Or Turkey Hill.

We do get gas.

Well, I like it down here at the Exxon station because they pump your gas for you.

They do.

That is nice.

I mean, now in Jersey, it's still a law.

Why is that?

It's still antiquated.

You can't get out of your car in Jersey.

No.

Literally, they'll yell at you when you get out of your car.

The first time I stopped for gas, we were going over to New York City and it was like,

get in your car.

I'm like, whoa.

And if you're lucky, they might do your windshield.

Yeah.

If you're lucky.

And I tip them.

And that's the whole idea?

Well, yeah.

That was the idea back in the day.

Do the windshield checks.

Three guys would come out.

Check your oil.

That's the whole thing.

We did a whole show on vintage gas station service.

And etiquette.

Yeah.

And back in the old days, they would do all those things.

They would check your oil.

And the guy came out with a little white hat and a white little jumpsuit on and I thought

about doing a retro vintage gas station like that where we did uncheck everything and went

through the car and tried to talk them into new PVC valves that they don't need because

they're covered in oil, ma'am.

Right.

And spray paint the batteries so we could say, here's a brand new battery.

And all these little tricks that you do.

Would be retro.

No.

We would have at old school where the guys would come out and service your car to whatever

degree your car could be serviced.

And again, checking the antifreeze, checking the oil level, checking the brake fluid, making

sure the air cleaner looks like it's not been through the Sahara Desert.

And all those things, it would be really cool.

So I think we're going to, we're on to something.

We could plug in their OBD port and see if they're throwing any code.

Oh, a code thrower.

I don't know.

They're going to need new oxygen sets right away.

Using Bluetooth while driving is safe.

I got to imagine that that is not the case.

I think it would, you know, obviously any distraction.

It's easy to get distracted with your phone, even just glancing at it.

You know, the problem with the cell phones are, is that when it, you have a tendency

to, if it's sitting on the dash or, you know, on a vent thing or whatever, sitting

there on your car and it dings like there's a message or something to come in, you invariably

look at it.

You can't help yourself, but to look at it.

So I think that that's one of those things that it causes distractions that way as well

too.

Airbags cause more harm than good.

That's a myth.

Okay.

That's true.

You should warm up your car in cold weather.

Ooh, we could go on about that one.

Porsche says, do not even warm up your car.

Just start it and go.

And premium gas makes your car run better.

I've got four of my cars are recommended premium gas, which is fun.

And if you have a turbocharger, you're supposed to run premium.

When we return, we might get through a little bit more of what we, oh, we can talk about

the Lamborghini movie too.

We'll be back just a minute with the Classic Automall Podcast.

Hey, classic and clunker lovers, Mark September 19th, 2025 on your calendar for the second

Classic Automall auction, a little egg for spring house cleaning.

But nonetheless, this very special auction will be as is, where is with no reserve?

That means highest bidder wins.

That's right.

No reserve means highest bidder takes it cars, trucks, military vehicles, running, not running

titles, no titles, arm finds and project and parts vehicles in in person by phone

or online.

Now's your chance to be the last one standing with no reserve on the second Classic

Automall Auto Auction.

This one as is, where is September 19th at 11 a.m. Eastern daylight time on the lot of

the Classic Automall Turnpike exit number 198, working town, Pennsylvania.

See the inventory and all applicable rules and conditions at classicautomall.com.

Mark your calendars, September 19th for the Classic Automall Auction.

And we're back with the Classic Automall Podcast from the Classic Automall Studio in

Morgantown, Pennsylvania on a beautiful cloudy day.

Got a crowd here today, February the 25th, the Reading Fairgrounds Historical Societies

here with their dirt cars and historical cars and and booths set up with

photographs from back in the day and die-cast models for sale and I have to

check that out.

I've already I've already bought a few things.

So they have a they have a couple of cars that I really want a Sonoko,

Penske Ferrari, not the Camaro, the Ferrari or the Porsche or the Porsche,

the Ferrari, the one that Kirk White and Roger Penske took over and ran

Lamar.

OK, you can't say Lamar unless you want to be a Hilburn, right?

Go say Lamar, Lamar, Lamar.

And anyway, so they're here this weekend.

The Detroit Auto Rama is going on this weekend.

Bill Bornham and our transportation manager is over there.

I think he's getting some kind of award to ask about that.

Yeah, so that's a car mover.

Yeah. Best Stringo operator on the planet. Best ponytail.

That's my stuff.

Best mustache and best ponytail.

You know, he stopped cutting his hair during covid.

Did he? He was short haired to get the job.

And then yeah, well, no, he was short haired and then covid came

and his barber kind of went out of business or something.

And so all of a sudden he decided he just wasn't going to get his haircut.

He wears it well. Yeah.

Also this weekend is the Greensboro Auto Auction,

GA classic sale down in Greensboro, North Carolina.

If you've never been to that sale, they are a dealer auction,

you know, a regular late model car auction.

And about three times a year, they put on a classic sale

and they have usually it's about three days,

but they built a building, a venue just for classic car auctions.

I mean, it's set up with skyboxes and food and it's just really, really well done.

And the guy Green is his name as his last name.

I can't think of his first name for some reason.

This anyway, he every year improves this facility

and just makes it better and better and better and better.

And it's just, just ideally suited for a classic car auction.

And I think he's added enough buildings

that all six or 700 cars that they've got for auction are under roof.

And, you know, just, just well done.

Just, you know, real customer or customer service centric.

And so excuse me, they, so if you get a chance, check them out.

They're on the web.

You can, you can buy cars from them either in person or online

or absentee bidding or any of that good stuff.

So, so did we talk about the Lamborghini movie?

Not have we? No, I don't, I can't remember.

Well, I don't mean not today.

No, I know we haven't talked about it today.

I don't wait a minute, maybe my long term loss of short term memory.

No, we have not talked about it.

So the Lamborghini, the man behind the legend.

So it looks to be an interesting movie.

It's about Fruccio Lamborghini and his snubbing from Enzo Ferrari

and he decided to go into business against Enzo Ferrari.

He was in the tractor business and truck business

and he decided to go into business against Ferrari.

And, you know, you would think with a movie like that with Lamborghinis.

I mean, that in of itself, it just adds an element that it ought to be

pretty easy to make a movie that had Lamborghinis in it, right?

Wouldn't be that difficult. Right. Well, apparently it was.

So as the guy from Car and Driver Magazine said,

the real story of Lamborghini is the stuff of legends.

And Sam. And sadly, this film is none of that.

It is, let's see, terrible script, poor acting, tragically bad set pieces,

laughable racing and almost zero adherence to history.

What year did it come out?

Just this year, like the brand new movie.

Yeah. And I mean, they had they had 1954 cars.

Cars that came out in 1954 in 1947 was when they were racing

and they had cars that hadn't even been invented yet or built or thought of or whatever.

And the race, some dream sequence between Enzo Ferrari and Lamborghini racing

has Enzo in a Countach and Ferrari in a Mondial.

I mean, weird. Yeah, it doesn't make any sense.

Not not the car that you would pick if you were looking to have

a dream sequence with Ferrari and Lamborghini racing.

And but there was a mirror in the in the movie, which is a beautiful car,

maybe one of the prettiest cars ever.

But when it pulled out, it looked like it was doing about nine miles an hour

when they were showing the sequences and the and the engine sounds were off.

Oh, really? Yeah, it was just a student film. No, it's a real film.

Yeah, I it was a real film.

You know, I don't even know what real film means anymore.

Because how do you even reference how successful, you know,

it used to be your reference to movies, success by its box office.

I think Ford versus Ferrari did two hundred and seventy five million dollars or something.

And that's how you referenced how well or how successful a movie was.

It wasn't. I mean, it is the winning of awards,

but there's a lot of award winning movies that did terrible at the box office.

That's true. That one, an Oscar or one, you know, whatever,

or Golden Globe or whatever, because but but some of these movies.

I mean, the only way to reference is how much money did they take in?

And I love it when they say it brought in twenty million dollars,

which is eighty million in today's dollars.

It's like, OK, no, it isn't.

It is. I get it, but I don't get it. You know, it's.

But no big stars in this movie.

No, the guy that was played Lamborghini was the guy who played

the painter on the on the series Billions.

And of course, I'm talking so far beyond what you even know.

And the series Billions was on Showtime and it was a brilliant show.

OK. And and really, really well done.

You know, for a guy lived in Hollywood and was trying to make it in the movie

business, you have a your lack of movie knowledge.

See, I wasn't. That's the thing.

I wasn't really passionate about the art of right moves.

I just wanted to be Elvis.

I just wanted to be famous and get the girls.

Yeah. And the sideburns.

And that won't cut it in Hollywood.

Not for very many.

There's good singers at Cracker Barrel.

You know, I always say that.

I mean, just because you have talent doesn't mean that.

And if you have talent and no real drive and desire, then you really.

That's true. You're really in trouble.

So. But anyway.

And of course, the Lamborghini movie back to that.

I knew it was I had all these bad reviews and I still want to watch it

because I'm a degenerate car guy.

And of course, I figured that, you know, how bad can it be

when car and driver causes a total mess?

Somebody said Lamborghini should sue for defamation of character.

Had to give some some thumbs up or nothing.

I don't know.

I mean, I would think I would imagine.

So but, you know, maybe not.

Yeah. So I finally drove the new Mercedes

and I found out it's got carbon ceramic brakes.

Oh, good. Yeah.

Because. Go easy on them.

Yeah. So. Well, they last longer.

But when you have to replace them, supposedly a hundred thousand miles.

OK. Oh. But they're forty six hundred dollars per rotor.

Do I have a change?

Change. Oh, we do.

Where is the chiching? Is there a change?

There was. Does it say change?

I don't know. So yeah.

Chiching. Yeah.

So we're driving up to Redding from here.

The first day we drive, I tell Kathy this, my wife on the way out.

And we're coming off the exit and I get on the brakes a little bit.

She says, stay off the brakes.

That's what you said.

Her exact same thoughts are the money.

Yeah.

Drainage. Press the brakes.

Well, you know, that's one of the things that the Ferraris have.

And that was one of the things that kind of scared me off

from the Ferrari. Oh, wow.

Was these carbon ceramic?

It just sounds expensive.

Anything carbon ceramic.

When I said that to my partner, I said, well, I said, yeah,

it's got carbon ceramic brakes.

And he goes, what does that mean?

I go exactly what it sounds like. Expensive.

Right. You know, carbon ceramic.

Yeah, that's a lightweight, long lasting.

So like I said, supposedly over a hundred thousand miles.

But somebody's buying them.

And not all these cars are getting over a hundred thousand miles.

So what's interesting about that car, too, is this is my new

S65 twin turbo V12 Mercedes is that when you let off the brake to go,

you know, most cars kind of go.

Yeah. This thing doesn't.

Really? You've got to actually give it gas in order for it to move.

You can let the brake off and it barely will even move.

It's just that it's geared almost as a manual transmission.

I would take it back.

And I think something's wrong.

No, there's nothing wrong with it.

It's supposed to coast.

Yeah, it's it's like a gator.

Have you ever driven a gator?

As they just slam on the brakes, it doesn't slam on the brakes,

but it just retards the engine or whatever it does.

And so anyway, so I've noticed.

Oh, and my new favorite series just came out today to drive to survive

the Netflix series on Formula One. OK.

And and if you haven't seen this, their season five has just started,

which would be talking about last year season.

And it's an inside look at Formula One racing.

And they did one for NASCAR, which I haven't seen.

And then I saw one last night.

They did for golf, which is kind of behind the scenes

and looking at these golfers and thinking, these guys got a cut.

Yeah, I have a sound effect of the crickets.

That was crickets, by the way, for those of you who didn't know.

And so this drive to survive is fascinating.

It's behind the scenes, look at Formula One, the circus that it is.

And they also, like I said, did it for NASCAR

and then they did it for golf and I watched a few of the golf ones.

And these poor guys, these golfers, you know, all they're doing

is flying around in private jets everywhere they go.

And same with the Formula One guys.

I mean, when you race in Australia one day and, you know,

America the next day and Europe, not the next day,

but next week or two weeks, it's a long way to get there.

You know, you can't be on, you know,

coach United Airlines trying to get there.

So but anyway, the first race of the season is coming up

March the 5th in Bahrain.

And then the first U.S. race this year, which will be three,

is going to be in Miami on May the 7th.

They're racing Miami, Austin and Vegas.

I'm not sure in that order, right?

Austin, Texas, they've been racing there for five years.

Where you been?

For six years.

Coda, circuit of the Americas.

OK, I got to get you some reading material.

I mean, learned.

I got to get you some kind of reading material.

So I noticed something the other day when I was somewhere

and I don't know where I was, but how about the fact

that every electric truck or SUV has extra electrical lights

on it to make like the whole nose

is like a headlight and the whole rear is a tail light.

Yeah, but this is an electric car that relies solely on things

that that is.

So wouldn't you have less electrical things on an electric car?

Well, this is a great point.

I noticed that, too, like they're lit up.

They're lit up.

They're really lit up over lit up.

But it's LEDs and I know and draw that much.

But it still draws more than not having it.

It's not nothing like it's like they should have less lights.

They should have less lights when you're on an electric car.

See, it is ironic.

And the irony is dripping here.

Yes.

So I would think that that would be the thing.

But we'll see.

Electric cars keep being the bane of whatever we keep talking about.

What's the pickup truck with oval?

It has oval headlights.

Rivian Rivian.

Yeah, strange looking strange looking truck.

But I tell you, the new Silverado looks good.

The electric Silverado looks good.

The Ford Lightning looks pretty much like an F-150.

But why mess with that, you know, really?

Yeah, the F-150 is only the number one selling vehicle.

Probably of all time.

Right.

Other than that little orange and yellow pedal thing that the kids had.

Oh, right.

What were those?

Orange and yellow.

A big wheel.

No, not the big wheel.

That was the three wheeled plastic wheel.

You said orange and yellow pedal thing.

No. To me, that's a big wheel.

I'm talking about the one that had the roof over it.

Oh, yeah, the kitty car.

The toy.

Yeah, that's like the one.

That's like the number one selling car.

Because they don't, you know, you're not specific about how or why

or what or when or so, you know, it was funny.

We're talking about the Riddler and how many hours

guys put into these cars and building these cars.

It always cracks me up when a car is advertised with 4,000

hours of labor to put this car together.

You think, that's a lot of time.

I mean, if you work 80 hours a week.

Yeah.

But it might be three guys working on it at the same time.

I don't mean it's one guy.

I know that.

It's a long time into these cars.

It takes a long time to get metalwork just right.

Well, especially if you're using an English wheel

or trying to build something that doesn't exist,

like the Ring Brothers do.

You've seen the stuff that these guys build.

Oh, my God.

They build these custom cars for SEMA and shows and things

like that, and they are just so well done.

They just did a blazer that if you get a chance,

ringbrothers.com or just Google Ring Brothers,

you'll find their website.

And this blazer they build, it has these leather straps

on the hood that are just really cool and industrial

looking, and they just build these things

to their own taste and their own colors.

And they're just like singer porches, right?

Singer porches are unbelievable.

Amazing.

Yeah.

And a lot of the purists hate the singer porches

because they say they disrupt the harmony of altered 911,

beautiful stuff, air cooled, whatever.

But they make amazing cars, and they're absolutely gorgeous.

You're right.

We got, we talked about this before,

but I don't know if you saw this.

The Barrett Jackson sale, I was going through their results

from almost now about three weeks ago in Scottsdale.

Did you see the 81 Camaro that sold there?

No.

$107,800 with Reserve.

Why?

I mean, with the commission.

It was just perfectly restored.

They're giving some love to the 81 Camaro.

Wow.

I mean, think about it.

That's all the money, and then some for an 81 Camaro,

unless it's rest-o-modded with some kind of craziness

and all that, but to a stock, back to a stock, 81 Camaro,

that's pretty darn amazing.

It was obviously freshly restored.

It had the 5.7 liter V8.

Would it have had the 5.7 and 81?

Yeah, it would.

It's a 350.

It wouldn't have been the 3.5 and 81.

81, still the same body style at late 70s?

Yeah, 81, 82 was the last year for that body style.

And then 83 was that new kind of wedge-nosed one.

Sort of like the Trans Am.

Yeah, which I didn't care for as much.

But three-speed automatic charcoal gray,

which is an interesting color on those, if it's kept up.

But yeah, to get that kind of money.

That's amazing.

It really is.

Who would have thought that you

could get those for 1,500 bucks about 30 years ago?

How about an iRoc?

Yeah, yeah, all day long.

An iRoc Z convertible, 102,000 with 557 actual miles.

Low mileage is king on these later model cars, 90s,

and people say, well, my car doesn't have 557 miles on it.

It's got 50,000.

So it ought to be worth, what, 50 grand?

Because that one's worth 100?

No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.

Your car is more than likely worth about 15,000.

So when stuff like this happens,

you'll get calls from people.

I got an 81 Camaro.

I'm thinking I'm going to raise my reserve

is what we get calls from.

A guy will say, I got that 81 Camaro there.

I think I'm going to have to raise the price a little

bit.

No, don't do that.

Because we've had it here for how long?

And it hasn't sold?

Right.

And that's not going to help it for selling.

Although I have raised prices on a car and then sold it.

Right.

Really?

Yeah.

You said right.

And then you thought, what the heck did he just say?

It's backwards.

That's irony.

We had a car one time.

70 and a half Z28.

Molsan blue, four-speed, 350, LT, blah, blah, blah,

everything on it.

We were asking like $37,000.

We weren't getting any activity at all.

And I said, just for S's and giggles,

we'll put it on the market at $49.

Got three calls that day.

Guy offered us $45 in one day.

Wow.

So how do you know?

How do it know?

Right.

Barrett also sold a, and these numbers

are starting to climb, too, a $69.

DZ302 Z28, complete nut and bolt restoration.

Jerry McNich certified, which is Jerry McNich

is the Camaro Chevelle guru.

He'll document what your car is and what it isn't.

He'll tell you things about your car

that you would have never known or never thought of.

Unfortunately, he didn't tell you that before you bought it

sometimes.

We had to have him certify an LS6 Chevelle convertible

that we sold.

That turned out not to be an LS6.

It had a protecto plate from a dealership in Indianapolis.

Yet, when we finally got in touch

with the original owner, he bought his car in Indianapolis,

but not at that dealership, at the one across town.

And it was a different color.

And it wasn't an LS6.

And it was a convertible, but it was the lowest

horsepower, two-speed automatic.

But Jerry McNich came out to certify what we did or didn't

have, because we wanted to make sure we knew what we were

doing before we gave a guy his money back,

because we had sold it based on matching numbers

and all that.

And so he came out and told us all kinds of things about it,

including the fact that it wasn't real.

And so we ended up.

It's rare that it happened.

It is rare, but it happens.

Do your homework, though.

If you're going to buy a high dollar matching numbers car,

you've got to really know what you're looking for.

And if you don't, you need to find somebody who does.

And you've got to see all the numbers

and make sure that they are original numbers

cast, stamped into the block and not restamped,

which we have seen from time to time.

Because when these cars start getting expensive like they are,

then all of a sudden, Tom Fulery checks in.

And people start doing things that maybe they wouldn't have

thought about doing before.

Another 67 Camaro Z28, 214,000.

And a Z28 and 67, that's a pretty,

you don't see many of those.

They didn't make many of those.

And that's McNich certified.

Certified.

And certified.

He's certified, it's hard to say.

Fork Speed Manual, lots of awards.

Sold new in Lebanon, PA, at William Chevrolet.

You know what's funny is lots of high performance Chevrolet

products were sold in Pennsylvania.

Yanko, Yanko, and this one obviously,

just because it happened to be in PA,

this is maybe just an anomaly.

But the fact that a lot of the high performance

race Chevrolet, that somehow people figured out

these copo Camaro's that you could order an engine

that you couldn't get just off the regular order form.

You had to have a central office production order

and you had to know somebody who knew somebody.

And boy, if you did, you were in good shape

because you could get a really cool car

that nobody else knew about or thought about.

See, I didn't think about that stuff back then.

I've said this before.

I wasn't thinking about that this one had

the better higher horsepower engine

or this would be collectible in the future

or is that the original motor in it?

Who cared?

I guess one of the cool looking trans-Am.

I mean, these cars that you're talking about

with Barry Jackson, some of them have super low miles.

So somebody tucked them away and just knew

that someday this, they would fetch some change.

Yeah, yeah, I guess or somebody, I mean,

it's like anything.

People collect things for odd reasons.

Not always the right reason, but you know,

that's okay for whatever reason it happened.

So we've got some interesting auctions coming up

in the next couple of weeks.

Amelia Island won.

Gooding and RM and Broad Arrow all have three,

have auctions in Amelia Island at the Concord

that is owned by Hagerty now.

And there's some pretty amazing cars

that they have coming up for the sale.

I know that RM has some really terrific cars

that are as collectible as the day is long.

A nice Ferrari Dino that's 650 to 750,000 estimate.

An ACR Voodoo Edition Viper, 275 to 325.

A Bugatti Chiron, 2.7 to 3 million dollars.

That's hard to even say.

They've got some really fantastic stuff.

And of course, Broad Arrow does too

and Gooding does too.

Gooding's got a Ferrari that's close to 20 million

and RM's got a 250 GT long wheelbase

California Spider that's eight to 11 million.

But they also have a 1934 Tatra T77.

You've ever seen one of those?

No.

Very bizarre looking.

So it's gonna be interesting.

The market is gonna be speaking

in the next couple of weeks down to me.

How about a 95 Ferrari F50?

Big money.

4.7 to 6 million is the estimate.

New, I think you could buy them for 400 or 500,000.

So, you know.

Good investment.

Yeah, if again, you had to buy it,

you had to insure it, you had to maintain it,

you had to hold on to it, you had to not get divorced,

you had to not have a fire,

had to not have a flood, not have a tornado,

not have a second divorce, not wreck it,

not have the barn cave.

I mean, there's a gazillion things.

Not a gazillion, I told you once,

I told you a million times, don't exaggerate.

There's a lot of things that can go wrong.

How about a 2010 Pagani Zonda Revolution specification?

That's the name of the car.

4.8 to 6.8 million.

Yeah, those are just insane Pagani.

Can you imagine raising your hand?

No.

Not yet.

Yeah, we'll see how the year goes.

So the podcast works out for us.

Yeah, you never know, maybe we'll become world famous

for this doubtful if we keep just blabbering on

like we do.

Speaking of which, I'm getting notices finally,

or not finally, but so early from Haggerty

saying, hey, the Greenwich Concourse coming up.

Here's your chance to get tickets and all that stuff.

So I'm excited about that this year.

Are we gonna, you think we'll have a presence there?

Well, we're still working on that on the year.

Thanks a lot, Steve.

No, I mean, we're looking to,

we're still in talks with them

about doing a bunch of different things,

and we just haven't finalized everything.

And the problem is that it's like anything.

You get busy.

It's just, you know, your day-to-day stuff

just takes up your whole day.

And then by the time you get to doing stuff like that

and thinking about the future,

you know, another day comes and goes.

So I think that, you know, it's one of those things

that we hope to do something with them.

And we hope that we'll figure it out sooner

rather than later and-

For people in the Philadelphia area,

we drove up there from Bucks County last year.

We were there in less than 90 minutes.

It's right up the street.

And we came back as a day trip.

We did the Sunday, I think it was.

And then came back and it was a fantastic day.

The weather was perfect.

Yeah, I mean, it's not always perfect

in that part of the world, unfortunately.

But boy, oh boy, oh boy, it was perfect then.

And, you know, it's nice.

Greenwich is a cool place to be.

It's worth driving up there just for the parking lot

outside of the Concord.

And then if you buy yourself in,

ever buy a ticket and go in,

and then you get two car shows

for the price of one.

Absolutely.

Broad Arrow, the other auction company

that's a million, has got a 1968 Porsche 907K,

4.5 to 5.5 million.

And then 1994 911 Turbo S,

the Flakbow, which is the slant nose,

1.1 to 1.3 million.

Man, now that's one not that long ago

you could have bought and put it away.

And, oh my God, they've also got,

this is funny, a 1991 AMG Mercedes 6.0 liter

wide body coupe.

Oh, I've seen those.

Almost like the hammer.

Would that have been the hammer?

Maybe, I don't know.

750 to $850,000.

Wow, that amazing.

We get one of those at Radwood sometimes.

Yeah.

Wide body.

Yeah, it's funny.

The prices of some of these later model cars

in Porsches and Ferraris and stuff

are really, really starting to go even more,

I think, than most people even predicted.

Well, it's like you said,

the economy doesn't affect the wealthy collector.

It doesn't seem to be.

And I always say that,

just like the Great Depression,

there was what, 30% unemployment,

but was there 70% employment?

I mean, if there's 30% unemployment,

then that would leave 70%.

People were working and then there were,

I mean, things were jumping out of window bed,

but, oh, here's a,

Broad Air has also got a 92 Porsche 928 GTS.

There you go.

There's your next car.

Ah, the last iteration of the 928.

What's the estimate on that?

175 to 225.

See, that's affordable.

No, it's not.

I mean, sort of.

Set your collection, get your dream 928.

I know, but then I wouldn't have the others.

So anyway, if you get a chance,

Amelia Island, if you've never been to that,

or Greenwich, two wonderful events that you don't want to miss,

and the one right in our backyard,

Radner, Radner, Radner, Radner Hunt Concorde, Allegance,

and that's right here in September, I believe it is,

and we'll participate in that as we have every year.

We will cross our fingers for good weather.

Oh, yeah, because you don't want to be

on a slippery slope of grass with wet grass,

with a high horsepower car that you're trying to,

that's got an manual transmission.

Yeah, they're basically pastures

for horses that they make into a car show.

And all of a sudden, oh, just put your car here.

Don't worry about it.

It'll be fine, you know.

Maserati MC-20 sinking.

Well, you know, it's not a pretty thing.

You know what is funny to me about these Concorde

elegances is that they are generally held on water.

Like there's a pond or water and coast.

Yeah, and so it leads you to wonder

what would happen if one of these cars

accidentally slipped out of the gear.

If you notice that all the guys are required

to have fire extinguishers and they use those

wheelchops with these Concorde elegances.

For sure, because it's just a,

but there was a guy, Wayne Corini's friend,

I can't remember his name, Ralph Morano, sorry,

and one of his Packards, I believe,

and Amelia got away and rolled into the water

and sunk and he had to restore it.

And you can only imagine a car

that's been totally submerged in water.

Flood vehicle.

It was easy to restore.

Right.

I can't imagine that it was.

Anyway, enough of this gibber jabber.

We will be back next week with,

I think we may have a guest next week.

So you and I won't have to just carry the whole show, Steve.

Remember that I know we're listening to old shows

on americaswebradio.com and Spotify and Apple,

Apple, iPod and all that.

Yeah, iPod.

iPodcast.

Wake up, wake up.

And also on YouTube too as well.

So go to our website, classicautomall.com,

and if you've got a question for the show,

podcast at classicautomall.com,

and we'll talk to you next week.

See you then.

You've been listening to The Classic Automall Show

with their host, Stuart Howden, executive producer,

Steve Sefair, produced and engineered

by yours truly, JR Russ, video editor, Randy Lamby.

Available on classicautomall.com, YouTube,

or wherever you get your podcasts.

Questions, answers or comments,

write us at classicautomall.com.

And if you wanna talk about buying a classic car

seen on our website,

you're looking for a particular vehicle

or wanna consign your classic for sale.

Write us at info at classicautomall.com

or call and talk to a real live classic car specialist

at 888-227-0914.

That's 888-227-0914.

Music, courtesy of the Pat Travers Band,

for tour dates, contact and stuff,

visit pattravers.com.

Music, courtesy of the Pat Travers Band,

for sale at www.patraversmart.com

Classic Auto Mall - #077 - Stewart Howden with Steve Saffier

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L82

1968 Silver Crown Champ Car

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