Mecum Orlando 2022 - WMCW Top Ten Preview
Mecum’s 2022 Orlando sale started Wednesday and features some notable cars on offer. We’ve gone through all the cars on the docket and picked out the Top Ten that we’re most excited to see cross the block.
We love the AMX here at WMCW. They’re great examples of a small manufacturer’s best efforts to join the muscle car game, albeit a bit late. This one appears to be in great condition and shouldn’t have any trouble reaching the median value of $30,000 for an AMX from 1968.
This is a particularly remarkable car in that it only shows 38 miles on its odometer and that seems to be the genuine mileage. Usually a Honda S2000 from the early production years will be seen with mileage well into five figures, if not six figures, but this example is being sold with its original MSO – the new owner can register it or continue the lifespan of the MSO.
Ferrari built a bit over 6,000 examples of the 328 GTS between 1986 and 1989, making this an early production model. We’ve seen prices on these trending upwards slightly in the past year and the median value currently sits at $84,500. As this will cross the block in Orlando later in the day on Friday, we expect it to perform pretty well – although we’re not predicting that it will sell for much above that median value. However, we don’t expect it to sell for too much below it either – this certainly won’t be the car that signifies the Ferrari market starting to drop!
This freshly restored 1970 Chevrolet Chevelle LS5 Convertible has covered fewer than 250 miles since the restoration was completed. It features power steerings and power brakes, not to mention the power convertible top! Powered by the 454 ci LS5 V8, with air conditioning this is about as nice an example of an LS5 convertible that could be found. The median value of a 1970 Chevelle LS5 Convertible is $72,500 and with the quality of the restoration, this one should easily reach that price if not exceed it.
This is an interesting example of the GT-350H, starting with the white paint and gold stripes – a rarity for this model as most were delivered in black with gold stripes. The most notable feature on this car is the supercharger – it wasn’t delivered from Shelby American with it, but some years later a period-correct supercharger was installed. It was converted from an automatic transmission to the four-speed manual it’s equipped with today and has loads of documentation that trace its ownership as far back as 1972. Obviously, the more desirable car would be one that was equipped with a four-speed manual at the factory, but this car has a lot going for it so it should land bids in the neighborhood of the median value, $157,000.
The E30 M3 has been going through the roof in the past few years. Hard to think that there was a time when a high-quality example could be purchased for less than a third of the median value of $99,000. But this specific M3 has a bit more going for it than most of the E30 M3s we see at auction. It’s a French-spec model, which means it is equipped with the yellow glass headlights and includes service records and other documentation dating back to when it was first sold in La Valette-du-Var. It’s in great condition, but it’s a driver and not a trailer queen – the odometer shows 139,000 km, roughly 86,000 miles. We expect this to break into the six-figure range when it hits the block on Saturday.
There’s nothing like a Porsche in Guards Red, it’s just an iconic color for any model built by Porsche, especially a 1988 930 Turbo such as this. It received a mechanical restoration of the motor and transmission that cost more than $50,000 to complete and has been owned by the same person for 19 years. The 5,000 miles it’s covered since its restoration is ample proof that it was done correctly. Really, the only thing we could complain about is the four-speed transmission – we’d prefer to see a five-speed in it, but there’s certainly nothing wrong with the gearbox it has. Porsches are outliers in that modifications, such as the 964 camshafts don’t generally hurt the value of the car so we expect to see this sell somewhere around $110,000.
This is yet another low mileage example of the 1987 Buick GNX, of which there were only 547 examples built. These have clearly been a huge draw at auctions in recent years and we saw two of them cross the block at Barrett-Jackson’s Scottsdale sale back in January, both selling for about $300,000. The median value of $107,500 just doesn’t reflect where the market is today for the GNX. This car should bring close to $280,000 by the time the bidding is done.
There were 2,399 examples of the 1970 Dodge Challenger T/A built and while we keep seeing them pop up at various auctions, we’ve yet to see the market grow bored of them. That’s understandable considering the classic Challenger look along with the graphics on each car. This is a recently restored example that features power steering and power brakes, along with a four-speed manual transmission so we expect to see this sell for at least $70,000.
The Lamborghini Jalpa is a car that we’ve been paying attention to whenever it comes across an auction block for the past five or so years. They were never as popular as something like the Countach, but they were never meant to compete with the Countach either. Only 410 Jalpa P350s were built between 1982 and 1988 and the median value for a Jalpa is $75,000. Considering the classic red exterior on this example, plus the even more limited production Targa roof, we’ll be shocked if this sells for anything below $70,000 on Saturday.