Plymouth GTXDan Wells / Edmonton Sun A 1969 Plymouth GTX thought to be abandoned and offered up at auction might still be sold to the highest bidder even though its owner has now been located. Classic car insurance company Hagerty broke the news when it heard about the car, which’d been left in a storage facility in Michigan. Storage fees were piling up and the facility’s owner, who no longer knew the owner’s name, called the Leelanau County Sheriff. Neither the sheriff nor the Michigan Secretary of State could find any record of the car’s owner, even with a VIN check, and the police took possession of the car with the intent of selling it to recoup the fees. Since it’s a convertible with a 440-cubic-inch V8, one of 700 built and with such rare options as air conditioning, power windows and power top, it quickly drew attention. (Our photo up top is not of the car in question, but a similar example.) A Hagerty representative found a replacement carpet kit in the trunk, complete with a shipping label from 2002 that had been mailed to a Craig McIntosh in Traverse City, Michigan. A specialist with Hagerty estimated the car, which has had body work and paint done to it, at US$30,000 to $40,000 as-is. Not long after Hagerty posted Craig McIntosh’s name, he called the company. It turned out the car belonged to a friend of his, who was “dealing with some personal stuff back then.” McIntosh tried to help him by looking after the car and putting it into storage, but thought the car “was gone a long time ago.” McIntosh said he’d been contacted years ago by the police about the car and offered to pay the outstanding fees at that time, but since he didn’t have the ownership or proof that he’d been asked to look after the car, it couldn’t be released to him. He said he tried to contact his friend at the time, but didn’t get a response. They talk to each other now, and the car’s owner has since contacted the sheriff’s office to claim the Plymouth, but the online auction, which went live on June 6, 2019, is still on and will wrap up on June 18. Currently, the highest bid is US$58,600. The problem is that, even though the owner has identified himself to the sheriff’s office, the car will be sold unless he can prove it’s his, and he files a legal motion to stop the auction. Otherwise, someone else will be the new owner of this one-of-a-kind barn
Origin: 1969 Plymouth GTX thought abandoned being auctioned against owner’s wishes
auctioned
The final, brand-new Saab 9-3 ever built will be auctioned off
Saab may have folded in 2012, ending an era of vehicles that were quirky and safe, but now, the final brand-new 9-3 sedan will be going up for auction later this year. According to Autocar, the 9-3 in question is a 2013 model-year car powered by a 217-horsepower, 2.0-litre turbocharged gasoline engine. It was supposed to be crash-tested, but somehow survived the concrete wall before the tests were conducted — meaning it only has 3.1 miles on the odometer. When National Electric Vehicle Sweden (NEVS) acquired Saab’s assets after their collapse in 2012, this 9-3 came along with it. The vehicle will be on display at the annual Saab Car Museum Festival celebrations in Trollhattän. Production of the 9-3 ceased in 2011, and there were plans to build a new-generation 9-3, as well as a BMW-powered two-door coupe, but neither materialized due to the company folding. Final production of all Saab models under NEVS stopped in 2014 with 420 units having been built, leaving the crash-test model we see here hidden away. According to a NEVS spokesperson, discussions are being made to determine if the profit from the sales will go toward a
Origin: The final, brand-new Saab 9-3 ever built will be auctioned off
Oldest surviving Porsche prototype, from 1939, set to be auctioned off
Possibly the most significant Porsche sports car ever built, a 1939 race car known as the Type 64, built for the Berlin-Rome race, is set to go up for auction this August. Before the Second World War, while Ferdinand Porsche was tasked by the Nazis with building an economical people’s car, his son, Ferry Porsche, took it upon himself to design a race car Germany could use in competition. What he came up with was the Type 64, an aluminum-bodied sports car utilizing aircraft engineering and aerodynamics, but based on the KdF-Wagen, the prototype car that would become the Beetle. Powering the Type 64 was the same flat-four found in the KdF-Wagen, but with compression bumped up so it could make 32 horsepower; and with the rear axle ratios changed to allow for a top speed of 173.5 km/h. A trio of prototypes were built, and when then-Volkswagen boss Bodo Lafferentz damaged the first one (number 38/41) in an accident, it was rebuilt into the current vehicle you see here. For political reasons, the car was still called a KdF-Wagen, and this one specifically, Sports Car 3,’ is the only surviving original example of the three cars. After the war, some rotten Americans got hold of the second car (38/42), chopped the roof off, and drove it until it died, then threw it away. Eventually, the parts from that vehicle were built into a replica of the second vehicle. 38/41 was kept in the Porsche family all throughout the war, and when it re-established itself in 1946, Ferry Porsche himself installed the raised PORSCHE letters on the nose, making this the first ever car to wear the badge. Today it is presented in a preserved state, just as it was when Porsche put his name on the nose. RM Sotheby’s will auction this vehicle off at its Monterey Car Week auction, which runs August 15 to 17 in Monterey,
Origin: Oldest surviving Porsche prototype, from 1939, set to be auctioned off
All about car 