Each year, more than 1,200, sometimes rare and pristine bits of automotive history roll across the auction block. (SPEED Photo) » More Photos
September 1969. I remember it like it was yesterday. My family had just moved to Cincinnati and I was a typical 12-year-old, stuck in eighth grade at Anderson Junior High school, bored out of my mind and utterly confused by life's more complex mysteries, like the early onset of hormones and who was the better band, the Rolling Stones or the Who?
One afternoon, as I was sitting in Mr. Owings's science class after lunch, I looked out the second-floor window, across Beechmont Avenue and saw a car carrier pull up in front of Beechmont Ford. As it unloaded, I could just barely make out the hockey-stick shaped black stripe on the front fenders of a Ford Mustang � Holy cow! A Boss 302! I'd seen 'em in magazines before, but this was my first confirmed sighting in the flesh. There were also a couple of Mach I Mustangs on the truck and, if memory serves, a big-block Torino or Cobra of one sort or another. Serious muscle, all of it, and the way it was intended: eight cylinders of pavement-melting menace wrapped in American sheetmetal.
From then on, and for the rest of the school year, I kept rapt attention to what came rolling off the trucks at the Ford dealership. And I can promise you that by the end of the term, I knew a lot more about Boss 302s and 429s and 428 CJ and SCJ motors than I did about the periodic table, inert gasses or the atomic weight of barium. Sorry about that, Mr. Owings. Not your fault.
But when you're a young man and you haven't yet discovered girls, well, there's nothing that will hold your attention like a fast car. Looking was good by itself, but to actually experience one, let's just call it life-changing. One of our neighbors in Cincinnati was a dweeby, nerdy patent attorney who just happened to have a 427-cubic-inch, 435-horsepower 1968 Corvette convertible. He took me for a ride in his unholy red terror, a blisteringly fast cannon blast over a section of dangerous switchbacks that simultaneously scared the bejezus out of me and thrilled me beyond description, too.
Yep, by the ripe old age of 12, I already was hooked, a committed gear head. And the condition hasn't abated a whit since, thank goodness.
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Which brings me to the point of this week's missive.
As I write this, I'm sitting at home near Charlotte, getting set to take a busman's holiday away from my normal NASCAR duties to fly out to Arizona for a week in sunny Scottsdale attending and reporting on the Barrett-Jackson Auction Co.'s 37th Annual Collector Car Event. It is unquestionably one of the best weeks of the year for me and I suspect it's that way for the hundreds of thousands of car nuts who will visit the auction tent this year.
SPEED, of course, will provide 39 hours of live TV coverage of the event, beginning Jan. 15 at 7 p.m. EST. I will be on the grounds off camera, providing daily updates with words and photos here on SPEEDTV.com.
Buyers look over the lineup, moments before the first car hits the stage at Barrett-Jackson. (SPEED Photo) » More Photos
This year, as every year at Barrett-Jackson, there will be loads of primo classic, vintage, muscle and resto-mods to chose from, with more than 1,100 cars scheduled to cross the block.
Over the course of the week, there also will be many, many stories to tell. As a car guy with his roots in Detroit muscle, here's an early favorite of mine: General Motors, Ford and Chrysler will each auction off their respective top-of-the-line performance cars for good causes on Saturday, Jan. 19.
The first 2009 Corvette ZR-1, a 2008 Dodge Challenger and a one-off 2008 Ford Shelby GT500KR will be offered at no reserve to benefit worthwhile charities.
The proceeds from the sale of 2008 Dodge Challenger SRT8 badge No. 1 (Lot #1331) will benefit Not My Kid, Inc.; the "First Retail Order Produced" 2009 Chevrolet Corvette ZR-1 (Lot #1316) will go to United Way; and a special one-of-one 2008 Ford Shelby GT500KR will go to the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation. It's a great idea � the hottest cars helping provide funds for some of the best causes.
That's just one story we'll be telling this week, and I promise you there will be many, many more, both live on SPEED and here in words and photos on SPEEDTV.com.
And I'm every bit as excited about the muscle cars at Barrett-Jackson this week as I was about that Boss 302 at Beechmont Ford 38 years ago. See you in Scottsdale, everyone!
