Las Vegas Weekly

October 16, 2008 · 2:20 PM

Art meets auto: Unique and extraordinary painted car expected to net thou$and$ in auction

By Robin Leach

More than 1,000 pre-cleared high-roller spenders have arrived in Vegas for the premiere debut year of the prized Barrett-Jackson auto-auction. “That number will swell by another three or four hundred come Saturday" owner Craig Jackson told me last night. “We’ve achieved in Vegas in one year what it took 10 years to build in Scottsdale and Palm Beach.”

Photo: Barrett-Jackson

Photo: Barrett-Jackson

Barrett-Jackson is known globally for hosting the world’s greatest collector car events – and this year has already sold 1,672 vehicles for a haul of $111 million. Even before today’s show opens the company has renewed for two additional years in Vegas at the end of September in 2009 and 2010!

Almost 700 collector cars will go on sale from a revolving stage in the Mandalay Bay Events Center – and include everything from former presidential limousines to star-cars and other exotics. CLICK HERE for our advance peak from a week ago.

Photo: Barrett-Jackson

Michael Godard's car.

Photo: Barrett-Jackson

Hummer

Elsewhere though in Mandalay Bay a literal village of automobilia has sprung up. The entire convention center parking lots are jammed with “everything cars” – dealers, parts suppliers, memorabilia, vintage gas pumps and neon signs, vintage enthusiasts, vendors, sponsors, and the list goes on. One half of the sprawling convention center is also filled with auto-exotica. In all 60-acres of automobile attractions – all covered live on Speed TV.

The unprecedented event runs for three days starting today but kicked off with a blowout beach bash last night at Mandalay Bay’s pool. Many rock stars are car-collectors and five even got together after talking autos and their collections to form a new ‘ All Star Garage Band’. Elliot Easton, appropriately from The Cars, Teddy Andreadis from Guns & Roses, Mark Hudson of the Hudson Brothers, Kip Winger from Winger and Mitch Marine from Smashmouth provided a beachfront rock-concert there last night. It's safe to predict that "Tonight Show" host Jay Leno, who is an avid car collector, will be attending as he’s headlining at the Mirage this weekend also.

Craig, who admits to owning 30 collector cars himself, continued: “So far the woes of the economy haven’t hit into our core buyers and audience. They’re pretty insulated from any downturn. We’re predicting a huge success here – and we’re doing it all with Vegas flash. We’ve got a revolving stage with showgirls to display every car for sale in the best possible glitzy glamorous way. Vegas has become far more of a car town in recent years but this isn’t about buying flashy new ones -- it's about holding onto some perfectly restored blasts from the past. One car that will be fought over by the free-spending high rollers will be the first car race driver Carroll Shelby ever raced in- a 1949 MG TC. He’ll be here for the auction! One of his other cars – the Shelby Cobra Super Snake, sold for an incredible $5.5 million. The owner of his Shelby bus wanted $600,000 for it at auction a few years back but we sold it for $4 million. It gets pretty heated when somebody in pure passion wants to buy it – and are determined to have it.”

Photo: Barrett-Jackson

Ford Thunderbird

Photo: Barrett-Jackson

Michael Godard and his car.

Photo: Barrett-Jackson

The interior of Michael Godard's car.

Saturday is the day bidders talk in millions and one car certain to shine under the spotlight is Lot 766, a 1961 Chevrolet Impala Custom two-door bubble top that features a hand-painted Vegas scene by avant-garde Vegas-based artist Michael Godard featuring his famous "olive." Built by Misha Munoz, owner of Divine 1 Customs right here in Sin City the car has a suede and leather interior, original chrome and glass, and powdercoated undercarriage. Under the hood is a 350 cid small block complete chrome engine with a hot-rod black painted engine bay. The Air Ride suspension bubble top has become a show stopping masterpiece, winning more than 50 trophies, as well as being featured in "Chevy Rumble" in June 2008. Godard and Munoz decided it was a perfect canvas for the extraordinary art -- and now the scene wraps all 360-degrees around!

After stripping the car of its candy-red paint and repainting it black, Godard really began. After a full week of dawn to dusk work, the Six Ace was completed with a fresh new creation displaying his famous olive character tied to the Wild West and our desert playground. The story of Mr. Olive starts on the trunk. He's ready for Vegas with a martini in one hand and a sack of money in the other. Then he makes his way around the passenger side, passing the world famous "Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas" sign. The cards are hot, so to speak, as the king and ace card imply with flames shooting off from them on the passenger side front wheel well. The olive appears on the hood playing Texas Hold 'Em -- thus the name of the vehicle, the "Hold 'em Mobile." The hood shows the olive holding an ace behind his back while winning big. On the driver's side, you'll find flaming dice just passing over the "passline," with again, the olive winning big. Like many a Vegas story, he loses it all, is left crying in the desert, and headed for the pawnshop. The spectacular hand-painted masterpiece features numerous reminders of the vehicle’s year with 6’s and Aces. Munoz even added six amps in the trunk, four speakers in each front kick panel plus three sub-woofers and two speakers across the back window -- all iPod connected.

It’s a true masterpiece of sound and auto-engineering let alone a work of art in its own right! It’s so unique it may well turnout to be one of the most expensive sales at the auction!

Share This