Barrett Jackson.....

[tom406]

That '66 Hemi Satellite is the real deal. I was walking through the big tent when I saw it, and I recognized it immediately. I then called my friend Gary (the Ford collector in Tacoma, WA, and previous owner) and said, "Hey, your Hemi Satellite is here!" He had no idea, and last he heard, one of the two guys who partnered to buy it decided to keep it for himself. Gary was watching the auction on TV, and was feeling a little sick, since after watching the '66 Coronet 4dr go for $600K, he was thinking that maybe this was the year for early Street Hemi cars to break the bank.

It was "predicted" to cross the block at 8pm on TV, but like many cars, it went much later in a largely vacant building, around 10:35 pm. I called Gary with the results of the auction, and he was both relieved (he did fine with his trade deal) and surprised (it is SO nice, you'd think it would do better).

I've spent hours looking at that car, and wrote up appraisals for it twice. It's so honest it hurts.

MacGruder owned it for a while-the original owner owned it and a Hemi Challenger with no miles as well, and MacGruder had both of them. When he liquidated, the Challenger sold quickly, but the Satellite was one of the last to go. Gary bought it, but had already bought a very nice 40K mile red/red '66 Hemi Satellite as his token Mopar. I guess the original owner put mags on it when new, but never drove/raced it. That's why the tires are repro, and the wheels and caps may not be original to the car. Otherwise, it is BRAND SPANKING NEW.

PM me if you'd like Gary's contact info, he'll be happy to know it went to a good home. He can be more specific with it's previous history as well. He's enjoying the GT, and still has around 30 vintage cars left, so he'll be fine.

I saw that Merc when I was in Minnesota a little while back. What a nice car. Knew his stuff, we talked about the history of the car, and about my 406 Galaxie, and the '64 Parklane Breezeway car I had bought from a friend in the same color combo.



TOM BRESKE
Seattle, WA

PS-Thanks to Denis for having the brunch, Tony (Mr.T) for shuttling me around while my family had the rental car, Mark Hassett and Budnate for the rum'n'cokes courtesy of the bidder's bar, and anyone else I ran into on my trip. I still can't believe it SNOWED on Sunday, but Monday was very nice, and we just came back today. Renting the house worked out really well, much better than hotel living.