Happy Sunday everyone, Big_Blocker here with some pretty interesting highlights/insight on some of the more recent things that have transpired at the Barrett-Jackson Collector Car Auction in the past few days. If you all recall my last post on the B-J auctions I had some not-too-nice things to say about some of the collectors that seem to snatch up rare cars for their own private collections. My feelings about the lack of driving of these gems are still present, however I have been somewhat humbled by the compassion some of these men have shown for a good cause.

As an avid watcher of SpikeTV shows like Horsepower and Muscle Car, I had already heard of the Richard Petty Superbird Tribute car that was being built by the likes of Year One and many other big names in performance to be auctioned off to charity. The charity chosen was the Darrell Gwynn Foundation, a non-profit organization created by former race car driver Darrell Gwynn, that helps raise money for spinal injury research. The car was transformed from a meager 1970 Plymouth Satellite (base Roadrunner) into what you see above, a 1970 Superbird NASCAR re-creation in honor of “The King” himself, Richard Petty. Former professional wrestler and avid car collector/enthusiast Bill Goldberg organized the construction and gathered the big names, such as Petty, and was on-hand to help sell the car.

As the car came up onto the block there were several stirring speeches given by Darrell Gywnn and other Barrett-Jackson staff that really moved some people. Remember that man Ron Pratte I was talking about? Well, he surprised me when he offered a $100,000 donation to the DGF and he wasn’t even bidding on the car! Other big spenders in the room felt humbled by the experience and also donated big money towards a good cause. The bidding commenced and as it approached the bigger numbers several perks were added by some of the big names in the house. Richard Petty had a signature hat to throw in and Bill Goldberg decided to allow the winning bidder to drive the Superbird on his Speed Channel show, Bullrun. On top of all of that, the winning bidder also gets to take the car for some hot laps at the Richard Petty Driving Experience! Sounds like a sweet deal to me. Well, the bidding went up to about $400,000 and as the auctioneer got more people pumped up, one gentleman decided to take it home and upped the current bid by $50,000 dollars to .5 million and then bid an extra 1 grand to beat a Barrett-Jackson record. I was pretty astounded by the compassion in the room and it made me feel better knowing that these rich guys weren’t there only to buy cars but to also help a noble organization to further research on an important issue.

Stay tuned for tomorrow when I wrap up the B-J with some of my favorite cars that were sold on the block. Big_Blocker out.