When I walked through the door of the auction house, a group of men had already taken their places around the two cars to my left.
The shiny blue Mustang and white Corvette Stingray had seductively drawn them into their spaces. I easily breezed my way past the cars – so much so that I barely noticed the lemon-yellow Ford Torino Cobra to my right. Out of my eye, I saw a yellow blur but my mind was focused on finding other goodies in the auction house.
I didn’t think much more about the cars until I was near the door again, on my way out. All of the men had moved on to other spots in the auction house, so the cars were alone. That’s when I saw what the men had seen.
These were beautiful cars.
As I stood there admiring the Torino, an auction-goer walked up to stand near me. The highest bid so far on the Torino was at $20,000, he’d heard. “I’d have to mortgage my house to buy it,” he said, something he wasn’t willing to do. It was a hour before the cars were scheduled to be sold.
Car sales are a staple at most of the auctions I attend. I’ve seen plenty that I’d love to have, from BMWs to Mercedes and others at the lower end.
I would have gladly taken either of these three home, but I was not about to mortgage my home, either.
As I stood looking at the bold yellow Cobra, another auction-goer walked up and started talking. He was convinced that this car was a GTO; it had a GT logo on the side. A MartiAutoWorks document accompanying the car described it as a 1970 Cobra 2-Door Sportsroof. He still wasn’t convinced, though, and sought the advice of another male auction-goer who assumed the auction house had gotten the description wrong.
The first auction-goer figured it was a Cobra built by the Shelby car company, but finally they both accepted that this was a Ford Torino Cobra. According to the documents, it was a 429 with an 8-cylinder engine, 17,000 miles, in original condition.
The Cobra, considered a muscle car because of its high performance, was among several updated Torino models in 1970. That year, the Torino was chosen as Motor Trend’s Car of the Year.
On the web, the car in great condition was selling for $21,000 up to $60,000. (I was not around when the cars sold at auction).
The Mustang brought back memories for one guy who remembered his girlfriend owning one in the 1960s. “Hers was a little different,” he recalled. This ’67 Mustang Hardtop (as identified on the documents) had 38,000 miles on it.
The ’67 hardtop came three years after the ’65 Mustang, the love of most any car enthusiast. First appearing in 1964 at the New York World’s Fair, the Mustang was named for a fighter plane but its emblem was a horse. The 1965 car was stupendously popular – with a style as sleek as a mustang (the horse) racing – and everyone wanted one. It broke sales records its first year, and remains one of the most collectible cars.
With competition nipping at its heels, Ford came out in ’67 with the hardtop that had a style to call its own.
Who doesn’t love a Corvette? A cousin of mine bought a red one during one of his mid-life crises, something he’d wanted for years. He loved that car.
The one at auction was a 1968 Chevrolet Corvette Stingray convertible, 427, V-8 engine, with 81,000 miles. This car was redesigned in 1968.
The clean red interior of the Corvette Stingray.
