Gumball Rally 3000 Stops in Toronto

Pictures and words by: Doug Nykanen

Gumball Rally Toronto-Niagara Falls May 6-7 2010

The Gumball Rally started as a movie from 1976. It had a hodgepodge of characters racing across America in a variety of exotic cars. Fast forward to 1999 when Maximillion Cooper founded the Gumball3000. A Rally that ran 3000 miles across a variety of countries on a different route each year. Yea, across countries! Here’s the type of cars you’ll find:

A couple of days ago I heard the Gumball was passing through Toronto. The 2010 Rally started in London England, then on to Amsterdam, Copenhagen, Stockholm, Boston, Quebec City, Montreal, Toronto with the final destination at Times Square in New York City. Never one to miss an automotive event I headed down to a very congested event in downtown Toronto.

By the time I got there it was getting dark, so the pictures were not great especially without a high powered flash and someone to clear people out of the way, there were thousands of people. The event was pretty low key, most drivers were already partying it up but some, like the Sheiks, had just arrived. There were also some participants dressed as clowns who were wrapping Xzibit’s right hand drive Cayenne with caution tape.

Many of the cars in the Rally I had only seen in new cars shows. Then there were cars like the Morgan I never knew existed!The one car I was hoping to see, the Bugatti Veyron was not to be found that night.

It was cool seeing all of these exotic cars on the street but I needed more. I read on a local forum that the cars would be in Niagara Falls Friday morning. After passing the most radar traps I’ve ever seen on the road, I arrived shortly after 10 am. Some participants were just leaving on their way to N.Y.C but most were still to arrive. Seeing and hearing these beasts arrive and depart was a quite amazing.

The cars on the tour ran the gamut of exotica: Bugatti, Lamborgini, Ferrari, Maserati, Porsche, Rolls Royce, Bentley, Morgan, Mercedes/Mclaren there were a number of American cars, Corvette, new Camaros/Challengers/Mustangs, a Baja Buggy and a classic Hemi Superbee. Surprisingly no GT40′s or Vipers.

There was plenty going on, a reported 400 people were in Niagara Falls in a very spacious parking lot so plenty of access to all these great cars. The competitors for the most part were very friendly with the crowd. It was hard to pick out the celebrities among the crowd as they weren’t necessarily A-listers whose faces appear daily in the papers. Pretty much just regular people driving $100,000 + cars, lol.
The one celeb I had hoped to see was Xzibit, better known among car fanatics for Pimp My Ride than his music. I just missed him, he pulled out shortly after I arrived.

We got a bit of a treat with one of the drivers showing his drifting/donut skills but unfortunately he got too close to the crowd. He was taken away in a police cruiser then released later in the afternoon to continue on after pleading guilty to dangerous driving.

The one thing that was surprising was the lack of info on the event. There is a website, www.gumball3000.com, Facebook and Myspace pages but unfortunately they are all running several days late on an event that only last 7 days. Maybe they need a better publicist for the 2011 Rally! I’ll free up my calendar and look for a suitable exotic to drive, one can dream can’t they ?

Creative Workshop Sport Speciale – No Sale!

Submitted by Jason Wenig from The Creative Workshop, a restoration and full service coach builder out in Florida.

An interesting turn of events transpired this past weekend.

As you are probably aware, last week was the “big auction week” out in Scottsdale, AZ (culminating on Saturday night), where all of the major car auction companies display and sell a dizzying array of vehicles. On top of the grandeur of these events, in many ways, it can be said that this past week sets the tone for values and trends for the coming year.

As a car builder, I walk a thin line. I personally am not a big fan of the auctions – I don’t sell cars – I build them, but it is hard not to at least be interested, and in many instances, it is important for me to understand where people’s money is going – what types of cars, what eras, etc are being sold… if not just for business, then certainly for my own love of cars!

Which brings me to my story: My Client, (Arizona’s own, car collector) Barry Smith, decided to get the Sport Speciale involved in this fray – consigning the car with Drew Alcazar of Russo & Steele (Drew is a personal friend of Barry’s). Now, as I said, I am not a vested fan of the auctions, and I was certainly not involved in this consignment, but Barry, being a shrewd businessman, wanted to see what the market for and value of his beloved car was. So he put the car up, set a very high reserve, and let the fates take a turn.

For me, I was admittedly a bit nervous – having a car that was completely designed and built in-house – being presented against venerable classics, and in a weak and teetering economy. As an artist, one can get tense when presenting their work in an open “shark like” forum such as this… as a business man, having a value placed on your product under these circumstances – can, well, be quite unnerving!!

Well, after the dust settled on Saturday night’s bidding (the Speciale was THE car of the event – it went off prime time on Saturday night), the car did not sell – Barry turned down a high bid of $630,000 (to the buyer, approximately $700K with premiums, etc)! To put this in perspective, the highest price paid for any car at R&S was $600K for a Mercedes Benz 300SL Gullwing! Needless to say, I am as much humbled as I am honored by this.

After the shock of this has settled a bit, I spent some time thinking about it all:

• Although all of the “number crunching” is not done yet, it seems the collector car market in general is showing softness (along with the rest of the economy) – down perhaps as much as 30%.
• Our car was bid up to $630,000. One of the highest priced cars of the weekend (of ANY of the auction houses!!). Barry, smartly, did not sell the car at this price – correctly reading the market – that the car is probably worth considerably more. Our car out priced Ferraris, Mercedes, prototype American cars, grand classics and even charity “celebrity” auction cars!!
• If someone was prepared to spend $700K in a market that is potentially 20% – 30% deflated, it could be theorized that our car, in a normal or strong market, could approach the $1MM mark. Indeed, I found out who the high bidder was, and he is known for owning and selling his cars for a profit. He too saw the potential of buying this car at an “undervalued” $700K price!!
• Our car was finished one year ago – and hit the road at the beginning of the recession we are now fully in. The car cost approximately $600K to build. During this period of time, the overall market declined – yet our car not only held its value, but it increased in value.
• The car, overnight, has become a liquid asset…meaning: Hard assets become illiquid if their values suffer during market fluctuations (go lower than acquisition cost) or have no buyers (especially in a bad market – and you need to sell). Well, our car was presented in a very unfavorable arena (car values down, economy down, etc), and not only attracted many potential purchasers, but attracted purchasers that were willing to buy the car at a premium to what it cost to build.

What all of this means to me: Creativity, automotive art, uniqueness – are all alive and well. Quality and soul are still rewarded. Our Creative Workshop brand continues to establish itself – even under unfavorable conditions.

I am proud of the work we did and continue to do and I am humbled that a great deal of blood, sweat and tears has been rewarded – in a medium that for better or worse, is an easier language for most to understand – monetary value.

Thanks for being a part of this.

JW
Jason Wenig
The Creative Workshop
www.TheCreativeWorkshop.com

Breakfast with Mr. Ferrari, Lamborghini & Rob Myers

It’s no wonder RM Auction is celebrating their 10th year in Arizona with “Automobiles of Arizona” at the Biltmore in Phoenix, Arizona. Accepting my invitation to their Media breakfast I arrived slightly more bright-eyed and bushy-tailed then the next writer and photographer because this was my first time to look behind the scenes. Tucked in a small ballroom with other friends from the Phoenix Automotive Press Association (PAPA) I got to meet the kind folks running RM and hear what Rob Myers founder and former president ( Ian Kelleher was recently promoted to President) had to say about the state of the Collector Car Market.

Mr. RM took the podium with a smooth stride and turned to show a friendly smile. Here’s a man that enjoys what he does. Reflecting back to 1976, Myers remembered his first trip to Barret Jackson. Back then, he says, “It was a hobby.” He remembered buying a Mustang for about $1000 and driving it back to the RM home base back in Canada.

Now, Meyers estimated that nearly a quarter billion dollars will exchange hands in Arizona this week. Sound crazy? He’s not speculating that RM, Barret Jackson and the other auctions he spoke well of would clear that kind of money, (although the auctions are a healthy $150M chunk of it) he was referring to all the peripheral money and side deals being made all over the valley.

Take a cruise down to the Scottsdale Pavilions on Saturday night during Auction Week and you’ll see a huge turnout of cars with bunches of them for sale. Then, how about the revenue from the hotels and bars? And don’t forget the local classifieds that are jam packed with classic cars for sale because everyone knows, the right people are in town: Buyers. If you can’t sell your car this week, you won’t.

Telling us of a $1M car deal done in the hotel bar, Meyers asks us, mostly rhetorically, “How’s the Collector Car Market? It’s great! Good cars always bring good prices. It’s a good investment too… at least if it’s in my garage, I can’t get Ponzi’d out of it!”

As I listened and took notes between laughs enjoying how well Rob Myers knows his business, he offered more proof of a strong collector car market by casually mentioning the 3 years of work booked for RM’s elite car restoration business in Canada.

RM’s got it all for their clients: Hospitality, a full range of services and of course, they get the cars. In this strong collector car market, I can’t wait to see what the Corvette Grand Sport goes for.