Turtle Garage contributor, friend, and master Mercedes-Benz refinisher/restorer Dean Laumbach shares his perspective and photographs of the various vehicles at the recent Keno auction in New York City.
Overall:
Nice auction, and loved the feel of an “Rolling Art Museum”.
Pros:
Nice eclectic collection of cars.
Everything from Lamborghini Aventedor (yawn) to a 1940 Avis (throw me the key!!!)
A little Lamborghini heavy, but I graduated high school in 1988, and if the Lamborghini Countach poster was not hanging over your bed it was Heather Thomas. LOL.
1965 Iso Grifo… STUNNING CAR !!! Who ever heard of one ?
1971 365 Ferrari GTB 4 Coupe. You would have to be blind not to notice.
1961 E-Type Roadster. No comments needed.
Ferrari 512 BB and F40… A little testosterone anyone? Nice examples.
1969 Ferrari N.A.R.T. Interesting documentation and history.
1934 Dusenberg SJ Continental Touring Berline … My absolute favorite car at the show regardless of the fact it had 4 doors. The car I would most likely want to take family and friends out to dinner with. I can’t explain why, and maybe I am getting old but this was one most exciting cars I have seen in the past year. Great story behind the history.
1940 Alvis…I simply want to drive that car.
2001 550 Barchetta prototype. Beautiful car in great color combination…
1965 DB5 Great car in nice color combination as well as DB6 minus color.
1967 Bizzarrini Strada 5300 . Had a conversation with a Ferrari enthusiast, and he explained to me the very interesting story about this beautiful cars development. The designer was a genius who got along with no one !!! Exemplifies the theme “Rolling Sculpture”
Lamborghini P400 Miura… As expected beautiful.
1963 Rolls Royce Silver Cloud II Drop-head… Best of the breed with flawless interior… Nice car.
Cons:
1955 Gullwing… Color change to Mercedes-Benz color !!! Presents like a survivor with Paul Russell maintenance. Sign on this car should say “RESTORATION NEEDED or BO”. Will sell to either a fool or someone with the means to make this car correct.
1997 Porsche Turbo 993S… rare car with low mileage… But its purple… Enough said
1968 Toyota 2000 GT. Nice car … Its a Toyota.
1972 300SEL 6.3… Nice $20-25k restoration project. valued at $480-680 because Steve McQueen owned it. What if Mahatma Gandhi owned it would it be worth $2 Million ???Rough car.
1939 BMW 327 Sports Cabriolet… This car should have been found by an investor, restored and presented at Pebble Beach. Instead we get a side show into the life of a rodent in NYC.
1972 Maserati Ghilbi … Spectacular example in Dukes of Hazard Orange… Beautiful car in God awful color.
Note to sellers:
Other than the preservation cars which are obvious excluded from this observation, a lot of the vehicles were not highly detailed!
A few of the Ferrari’s had spider webbing and wash scratches everywhere. In a harsh lighting indoor setting like yesterday’s environment every flaw on the vehicle shows. I notice 2 very large and extremely light scuffs on the F40 passenger side of it’s wing. If there was an extension cord present and a polisher I would had them removed 100% in under 10 minutes.
If you want to sell a million plus dollar car for top dollar spend the additional $500 to $1000 to have the car highly detailed at the very least.
I believe the Keno’s know cars, and put on a very nice presentation but little things like that can mean the difference between a sale or not especially in a highly charged and impulse sensitive environment like an auction.
One of the event “detailers” wiped down the dust covered Gullwing and proceeded to wipe down the silver Rolls Royce immediately afterwards…. With the same microfiber towel !!!!
I hope you enjoyed the preview as much as I did. I loved the presentation and the inscribed logo on each white washed vehicle display box. Great use of lighting and space.
The auction results can be viewed here.
-Dean Laumbach, Laumbach Restorations
About Dean:
Dean Laumbach
New Jersey based Laumbach Restorations specializes in post-war to 1990’s Mercedes-Benz restoration and re-conditioning services. Dean also offers collector car acquisition services, inspections in the Northeast, consignment services of collector cars, auction services, and extensive auto detailing and reconditioning services for show vehicles. An Ebay Power Seller at Laumbachauctions, Dean will buy any rust free and very low mileage Mercedes- Benz from post-war through the 1990’s. He is also a professionally trained certified live Auctioneer. His website is located at www.restoreyourbenz.com.
These are photographs of the Ferrari above courtesy of Scott Coleman at Contemporary Mercedes Benz. His uncle, Allan Sokol, had this car at LeMans and is sitting on the hood in the newspaper clipping below.
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