Friday, April 29, 2011

Nice day, nice cars at the April Adesa Corvette and Specialty Car Sale

One thing's for sure--when the temperature goes up, the crowds go up at events like the Adesa Corvette and Specialty Car Sale, which was held on Thursday and Friday in the sprawling Belton, Mo. location.

And the cars weren't bad, either. Thursday is the Corvette only sale, and there were plenty of nice examples of the featured marque on hand. The oldest one that I saw was a nice Fawn Beige '62, and my favorite was a pretty red '67, but all generations of America's Sorts Car were well represented.

Now Friday is when you got to see some variety. You name it; they had it. Everything from hot rods to Ferraris were there for you to climb in, dream about, and (if you're one of the lucky ones) drive home in.

Among my personal favorites were a slick white and red 1964 Buick Electra 225 Wildcat convertible, a very Craig-worthy black-on-black 1973 Monte Carlo, and a peachy all-red 1962 Chevy with a 327 and three-on-the-tree.

By the time we were finished looking at everything, the auction was just beginning, and I had to head back to work. So it's hard to tell if things were selling strong or not. It has been a bad time for collector cars lately dues to things like the economy and fuel prices, but if the number of people standing around the auction lanes is any indication, maybe things are making a turn for the better.

If you've never been to the Adesa facility in Belton, you are bound to be impressed. The paved lots are so big that they disappear from sight due to the curvature of the earth. There are ten, count 'em, ten auction lanes that can run at the same time. They have a massive detail shop, massive office space, even a massive lunch room. In other words, the whole place is massive.

They only do these specialty auctions a couple of times a year. Normally, they run dealer auctions for manufacturers like General Motors and Chrysler. If you bought a used car from your local new car dealer, there's an excellent chance that the dealer bought it at this auction. They also hold a regular dealer auction for repossessed Harley Davidsons.

So you wish you could have spent some time away from the office to check out the April Adesa Corvette and Specialty Car Sale, don't you? Well, it's obviously too late for that, but I have the next best thing. Check out the 200-picture slideshow below.


1 comment:

  1. Great pics! Tell that guy in the red shirt to get out of the way!

    ReplyDelete