AARP The Magazine - April/May 2012

ehold the dilemma of the Last
Car Guys, creatures of the early
21st century’s crash-up of mem-
ory, demography, and disposable
income. These are men slipping
past midlife with empty nests,
full wallets, and an almost pri-
meval urge to take another spin
in the icons of their past—logic
and garage space be damned.
Their desires lead them to
places like this: arid and affluent
Scottsdale, where the climate
is kind to old bones and rust-
prone machinery. For the past
41 years Scottsdale has hosted
the Barrett-Jackson auction.
Nominally a place to buy and
sell classic and collectible cars—more than 1,000 vehicles
will change hands over the course of this six-day phenom-
enon, the largest and gaudiest of half a dozen auto auctions
in the Phoenix area each January—Barrett-Jackson has
transformed itself into a “lifestyle event,” a curio-laden
celebration of American car culture. On my visit, I often
heard the phrase “the Super Bowl of car collecting.” Some
270,000 attendees came though the gates of Barrett-Jackson
in 2012, drawn by the promise of communing with their
automotive what-ifs and never-wases.
Some, like Andy Smith, 67, arrive with a mission. He
drove here with his wife, Judi, 66, from their home in Rocky
Mountain House, Alberta, to buy a Mustang like the one
they owned when they married half a century ago. That car
was sacrificed to family responsibilities and sold to a high
schooler, who promptly trashed it. But the loss never quite
healed. Earlier in the week, Andy found a tidy Arcadian-blue
1966 coupe and bid $24,000 for it. “Phoned the kid and said,
‘ We’ve spent your inheritance,’ ” he says merrily.
Thanks to buyers like Smith, American performance cars
of the late 1960s and early 1970s have enjoyed eye-popping
value inflation. (In 2007 a 1971 Plymouth Hemi ’Cuda
convertible, which stickered for $3,391 during the Nixon
administration, went for $2.2 million.) This is the niche that
Barrett-Jackson specializes in, juicing the muscle boom
with a television onslaught: Since 1996 the company has
broadcast its Scottsdale auction on cable TV’s Speed chan-
nel, where I stumbled upon it several years ago.

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