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Looks like the Tucker convertible from Benchmark Classics will be going to auction in January. It will be auctioned by Russ and Steele in Scottsdale January 20-24.
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I’m curious what this recreation will fetch…. especially in this economy. I thought at one time they wanted over a million for it?
We always love watching the auction, can’t wait!
Early on, I thought that the asking price was 5 million prior to and during the restoration. I checked Benchmark’s website several weeks back, and I believe that the asking price was 2.5 million, at that time.
I would agree with Amigo2K – in this economy $750,000 (if the car actually sells) is much more realistic.
according to the NADA guidelines a normal trucker would sell for 300-600k.
Now, 3 years ago we saw prototype cars that were displayed in the 1950’s going for a million plus. In the last 2 years these cars have been selling for under a million. The big issue with Benchmarks convertible is that it was never complete and was never shown. If it was complete, and was shown at automotive shows back in the day and if it was 3 years ago, then you might be able to get + a million on it.
… but who knows …. a couple of folks with deep pockets may bid it up…..
It will be interesting to see how much interest there is in it. That is the problem with not having iron-clad documentation behind a car. Kind of like a Mopar without the fender tag.
GTO Man wrote:
Quote:It will be interesting to see how much interest there is in it. That is the problem with not having iron-clad documentation behind a car. Kind of like a Mopar without the fender tag.You took the words right out of my mouth
The Tucker will go across the block at the Russo and Steele auction on Saturday night January 23rd. I think it will be the most interesting car auctioned this January along with being the most desire-able. I believe they have the documentation needed to prove the history of the car.
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We will be at a racing banquet on Saturday night and unable to see it come across… I may have to sneak away for a bit or have someone give us a call when it goes across. I’d be interested to see the documentation and can’t wait to see what it brings.
there is no iron clad documentation proving it either way. They have all their angles covered. I do have alot of inside info on it though. Even have a few behind the scene pics to prove it, Having been a part of the “restoration” in the early stages. To bad a few of their affidavits dont include the “whole story”.
This will be where a fool and his money parted..Wonder why this car didn’t go to the BJ auction? Could it be cause there is no reserve at that one. Or maybe the documentation is not there to have this car broadcasted all over the world?
That is what makes this interesting. Many opinions on both sides. I wouldn’t sell any car at a no reserve auction. No matter what people think it is a beautiful car.
Hmmmm,
A car said to have belonged to Buddy Holly has been pulled from a major auction company’s sales docket.
Barrett-Jackson Auction Co. of Scottsdale, Ariz., said Wednesday it has decided to remove the 1958 Chevrolet from its national auction block because it cannot resolve questions about the authenticity of the car.
The coral Chevy is owned by Bill Clement of Lubbock, who stopped in Clovis last week enroute to the auction in Scottsdale.
Bill Griggs of Lubbock, an author and Buddy Holly historian, questioned the car’s authenticity, sparking Barrett-Jackson’s investigation.
“While we were disappointed to have to pull such a high profile car from the auction,” said Steve Davis, president of Barrett-Jackson, “this was a decision we were willing to make in order to ensure all our customers are provided with a fair, trustworthy forum for buying or selling a collector car.”
Interesting article about the Tucker… it sounds like the family is even skeptical of the convertible..
In a week crowded with coveted automobiles at Valley auctions, a convertible linked to the nearly forgotten Tucker Corp. has collectors buzzing about the car’s mysterious past.
Is it a long-lost convertible prototype of the 1948 Tucker? Or is it a reproduction car, carefully assembled using salvaged Tucker parts?
Owner Justin Cole is presenting the car he restored as the only convertible built by Preston Tucker, the auto-company founder whose story was told in Francis Ford Coppola’s 1988 film “Tucker: The Man and His Dream.”
Cole calls the sleek, blue convertible the “Holy Grail of Tuckers” and hopes it will fetch up to $3.5 million at the storm-ravaged Russo and Steele auction in Scottsdale, which is set to resume on Sunday. Bidders may be wary. Critics, including Tucker’s daughter-in-law, Shirley Tucker, 82, of Scottsdale, are calling the open-top Tucker a fake.
“There never was a convertible,” she said. “All the cars were the same, just different colors.”
Tucker’s late husband, Preston Tucker Jr., worked with his father in producing 50 Tucker sedans in a Chicago auto plant before it was shuttered in 1949.
The disputed Tucker is the latest and perhaps loudest dustup over the provenance of classic cars at this week’s five auto auctions.
The Barrett-Jackson Auction Co. had its own authenticity and title issues with a 1958 Chevrolet Impala linked to the late musician Buddy Holly and a 1971 Plymouth Hemi ‘Cuda that Beach Boys guitarist Al Jardine is selling.
Holly’s Chevy is out. Jardine’s Hemi ‘Cuda is in.
With Tucker prices as high $1 million, the convertible’s authenticity and the integrity of the collector-car industry is at stake. But focus on the story has also been fueled by intrigue surrounding the Tucker Corp., which its founder claimed was the victim of political pressure unleashed by entrenched U.S. automakers.
Shirley Tucker said auto executives warned her husband in the steam room at the Detroit Athletic Club that they would not allow the Tucker Corp. to build cars.
Tuckers are streamlined, rear-engine cars with a third headlight that swivels with the steering. Praised for their innovative safety features, the cars were originally priced at $2,450.
Fifty pilot-production cars were built and 47 Tuckers still exist, said Jay Follis, Tucker Automobile Club of America president.
Historians are reviewing 60,000 blueprints and documents salvaged from the Tucker Corp. and no one has yet found any mention of a Tucker convertible, he said.
The club has gone back and forth with Cole over the authenticity of his car.
“We have never discovered nor been presented with sufficient evidence to prove such a car was planned for or started at the (Tucker) factory,” Follis said in a statement issued in advance of the Russo and Steele auction.
Cole said that the Tucker club’s newsletter acknowledged the existence of the convertible in the early 1990s but that the leadership has since shifted its position.
“I think it’s because they didn’t get along with the guy I bought the car from,” he said.
Cole, 28, said he traded cars and cash for the Tucker in December 2008 and restored it at his Benchmark Classics shop in Madison, Wis.
The seller was Allan Reinhart, whom Cole described as a Tucker historian who “would win in Tucker Jeopardy” against any Tucker club members.
The convertible’s reinforced steel frame, Cole said, is a clear indication it originated in the Tucker plant and was not fabricated in someone’s garage, as some critics have claimed.
The ongoing dispute will undoubtedly not be settled at the auction, but collectors will certainly weigh in on the Tucker’s authenticity when the bidding starts.
All the bidders are certainly aware of the lack of factory documentation on the Tucker, said Drew Alcazar, Russo and Steele owner.
“In the end, the marketplace makes the determination on the value of the car,” he said.
The controversy may not be an issue for some buyers.
“You will be the center of attention, the eye of the storm” wherever the Tucker is shown and regardless of whether it is the real deal, Alcazar said.
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