"Car designers are just going to have to come up with an automobile that outlasts the payments." - Erma Bombeck

Lots on my mind, but I promised a report on my trip to the Barrett-Jackson auto auction yesterday so I’ll restrict this post and get to the other stuff over the next few days.

Scottsdale is about 30 minutes east of us but a world away demographically and culturally. That’s one of the interesting things about living in a metropolitan area, especially one as geographically spread out as Phoenix.

Parking is in lots some distance away from the auction grounds and Greyhound-type buses shuttle visitors to “Westworld.” I don’t completely understand what Westworld is, but it seems to be a big empty area of several hundred acres. For Barrett-Jackson they put up huge (!) tents with banks of porta-potties at various locations around the site (but always further away than you need them). (stock photo, not mine)

Right after the main entrance is the first tent which is full of vendors selling all kinds of weird stuff, everything from expensive jewelry to auto-related things to art to clothing.... I skipped that tent and went right out to the tents (sans sides) with the cars. Every car to be auctioned has to be on the grounds for the entire week, even after it’s been across the block. No ropes, just signs that say, “Please do not touch the cars.” I walked up and down the rows in each tent, sometimes just a glance and sometimes drooling.

I had a GREAT time. This is the first time I’ve gone by myself, and although I’ve thoroughly enjoyed the company of my brothers the first time and our good friends two years ago it was nice to have the freedom to go at my own pace and direction. I am a car guy and Barrett-Jackson almost counts as sensory overload; so many cars!

So understand the following in that context: I was disappointed in the cars.

I’m fascinated by the trends I’ve seen just over the four or five years I’ve attended (skipped a couple of years). This time I saw a total of three supercars, all Ferraris. No Lambo’s, no Alfas, no Bugattis.... I saw a handful of micro cars: an Isetta, a couple of Crosleys, only two Nash Metropolitans.

A nice Austin Healey "Bug Eye"

Maybe two dozen cars from the 20’s, and very few resto-mods compared to previous years.

At least 80% of the cars were muscle cars, and 80% of those were Chevys. I had a fairly long and pleasant conversation with a Barrett-Jackson employee, a man about my age, who said, “If it’s from 1955 to 1970, has a big engine and the word ‘Chevy’ on it, it’s very desirable right now.” That obviously includes Vettes; I must have seen 200 of them. Raise that number if we’re talking ’55-’57 Chevys. And Camaros, and Chevelles, and...

That employee asked me what I looked for in a car, what I wanted to see. Muscle cars of any make don’t do a thing for me. Those are the rows I just walked by (and didn't take any pics). I want to see cars with character and personality.

Fins! Chrome! Form over function! Or quirky, like the micro cars and Citroens.
I respect the skill and artistry of a great rod or resto-mod. A meticulously restored pre-WWII classic will get my attention. But muscle cars? Nope, no way.

Two years ago we saw dozens of mid-50’s T-birds, the car that introduced the porthole window. Nary a one this year. Four years ago it was Italian supercars and vintage automobiles. Fads change, including what’s hot in the car collector world. I’m hoping that by next year the muscle cars will be passe’ and we’ll be back to the kind of machine that made the auto industry so fascinating. Like ’67 VW Beetles.