Barrett-Jackson Mohegan Sun Northeast Held Another Exciting Car Auction close to Holliston
The cars and trucks were up for auction at no reserves. That means once the vehicle is consigned to Barrett-Jackson, they own it and it will be sold to the highest bidder. The consigners that I spoke to were nervous but they all felt that Barrett-Jackson's format brings the best prices. Having a press pass allowed me to get up close to the stage to take pictures. I had hoped to follow the bidding action of a Holliston consigner but there were none this year.
Down on the auction floor you can see and feel the excitement as the cars and trucks roll onto the floor while the auctionier calls out the latest bids and floor monitors look for bidders and signal another and higher bid.
Since Barrett-Jackson recognizes Holliston as a hot bed for car enthusiast I get access to press-only events and interviews. Above Steve Davis, President, left, and Craig Jackson, Chairman/CEO of Barrett-Jackson, spoke at the Ford Performance event on Friday morning. Both men have been car lovers since early childhood and have not lost their interest in the hobby. I asked Craig if by turning the hobby into a business makes it any less exciting. "Absolutely not. I love seeing all the different vehicles that come to our actions, talking with the consigners and bidders. Sometimes I wish I could buy one that crosses the block".
Barrett-Jackson is also world renowned for its support of charitable causes by waiving their fees for auctioned vehicles so that 100 % of the proceeds can go to the charity. This year they auctioned the very last 2019 Corvette which went for a high bid of over 2.3 million dollars.
While at the Ford event for the press, I was treated to a test run in three of Ford's high performance cars like the Ford GT above, driven by a professional driver from the Ford Performance Racing School in Utah. This light weight super car has an aluminum substructure while the body is made of carbon fiber. Power comes from a 647-horsepower 3.5L EcoBoost® V6 engine are the ultimate expressions of technological innovation.
The session was presented by Jim Owens, above right, of Ford's Performance Center in Utah, where anyone who buys one of Ford's line of performance cars can go and learn from professional drivers how to fully utilize the vehicles, including off road vehicles. Jim pointed out that students develop skills they never knew they had and the best thing is "you're learning on someone elses car", said Owens. Last year more than 4,000 buyers went through the performance school.
I was treated to several runs around the track set up at Mohegan Sun in two Mustangs fitted with Ford's Track Pack. Both drivers were from Ford Performance and drove the cars to their limit. The acceleration, cornering and braking was phenominal - and these cars will be doing rounds all day over the four day auction. The GT 500, above, develops 760 hp and 625 ft-lbs of torque. Zero - 60 mph in the low three second times and the quarter mile in the low 11 seconds.
Jim explained that the orange Mustang pictured below, performs exceptionally well considering it is powered by a four cyclinder engine producing 330 hp.
To the car nut, this was the place to be the last week in June, 2019.
