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Old 05-23-2012, 01:13 PM   #1
XDCX
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Smile Some great buys at Mecum's Spring Auction in Indianapolis

I've been watching part of the Mecum Spring Classic Auto Auction on Tivo and I'm amazed at some of the great buys. The auction was last week in Indianapolis and the Velocity Channel has been re-airing their 32 hours of coverage.

I was just watching a portion of the Thursday Auction and they sold a '70 Cuda with a 440 Magnum for $25K and they sold a '87 Buick Grand National for $12.5K. In my opinion, those are some great buys.

I've also watched them sell off a number of very low mileage Mustangs, Camaros, Firebirds and Corvettes that end up selling for less than half of their Monroney. In many cases the cars have less than 5,000 miles - they're like brand new.

Unlike Barrett-Jackson, Mecum's buyer and seller fees are pretty reasonable. I think a dealer could actually attend that auction and sell some of the cars for a profit - that's not always the case for an auction that's so widely attended by the general public.
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Old 05-23-2012, 02:26 PM   #2
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yeah I believe u can get more on ebay than some of these big name auctions now days
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Old 05-24-2012, 06:21 AM   #3
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been to Mecum at Indy and St. Charles. While a lot of their aupply is really nice units, a larger number should be classified as daily drivers or project units if you want to restore or do resto-mod. While I have never been to Barrett-Jackson, those that have said the average vehicle auctioned is a nicer/better unit. This in no way is meant to be a slam of Mecum...just for a different buyer than Barrett-Jackson.
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Old 05-24-2012, 11:33 AM   #4
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Originally Posted by chryslersrt8 View Post
been to Mecum at Indy and St. Charles. While a lot of their aupply is really nice units, a larger number should be classified as daily drivers or project units if you want to restore or do resto-mod. While I have never been to Barrett-Jackson, those that have said the average vehicle auctioned is a nicer/better unit. This in no way is meant to be a slam of Mecum...just for a different buyer than Barrett-Jackson.
Thanks for the comments. I've never been to a Mecum sale and I agree that the quality of vehicle can make a big difference when it comes to the selling price.

Additionally, most cars probably look a lot better on TV then they do in person.
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Old 05-24-2012, 11:39 AM   #5
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I was just watching a portion of the Thursday Auction and they sold a '70 Cuda with a 440 Magnum for $25K and they sold a '87 Buick Grand National for $12.5K. In my opinion, those are some great buys.
Oops, I lied about the selling price of the '87 Grand National. When I checked the post-auction results I noticed it sold for $14.5, not $12.5 - my mistake. (I still think it's a good deal - I've always liked the Buick Grand Nationals.)

The '70 Cuda wasn't numbers matching but it still looked pretty impressive for $25K.

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Unlike Barrett-Jackson, Mecum's buyer and seller fees are pretty reasonable.
I just checked and Mecum's Buy Fee is 6%. Barrett-Jackson's Buy Fee is 10%.
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Old 05-24-2012, 01:12 PM   #6
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Smile You can still bid on Stew Hansen's 1978 Dodge Lil Red Express

I was watching when this 1978 Dodge Lil Red Express crossed the block but I had no idea that Stew Hansen owned it for 25 years or that it only had 48K original miles.





For those who don't know, Stew Hansen is a large volume Dodge Dealer in the Midwest. I've never been to one of his stores but I get the impression he's like the Dave Smith Motors of the Midwest.

Concerning the Lil Red Express pictured above, the top bid was $15K but the vehicle didn't sell. According to Mecum's website there's still time to place a bid. Here's a link to the vehicle - click here

I've always been a fan of the Dodge LREs. In 1978 the LRE was the fastest production vehicle available - it was even faster than the Camaros, Mustangs and Corvettes.
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Old 05-24-2012, 01:55 PM   #7
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I was watching when this 1978 Dodge Lil Red Express crossed the block but I had no idea that Stew Hansen owned it for 25 years or that it only had 48K original miles.





For those who don't know, Stew Hansen is a large volume Dodge Dealer in the Midwest. I've never been to one of his stores but I get the impression he's like the Dave Smith Motors of the Midwest.

Concerning the Lil Red Express pictured above, the top bid was $15K but the vehicle didn't sell. According to Mecum's website there's still time to place a bid. Here's a link to the vehicle - click here

I've always been a fan of the Dodge LREs. In 1978 the LRE was the fastest production vehicle available - it was even faster than the Camaros, Mustangs and Corvettes.
X-Man... You're killing me... I've been wanting to put a '78 next to the '79...
A had a '78 that I sold, along with a few other toys, in 1999 in order to buy the Dealership.
The 78 Lil Red and Stealth Twin Turbo have been missed the most.
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Old 05-24-2012, 02:32 PM   #8
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X-Man... You're killing me... I've been wanting to put a '78 next to the '79...
A had a '78 that I sold, along with a few other toys, in 1999 in order to buy the Dealership.
The 78 Lil Red and Stealth Twin Turbo have been missed the most.
Did you click on the link? If you haven't that will really increase the pain. Stew Hansen's old 1978 LRE has to be one of the nicest ones I've seen. So many of the ones I see on Ebay are hacked up and replace the interior seats with non LRE parts.

Concerning the '78 LRE vs the '79 LRE, isn't the '78 a fair bit faster because it was the last year for leaded gas and no catalytic converters? I thought I read in the past that the '79 LREs are de-tuned but many people still see them as more desirable because the quad-headlights look so cool.

On a side note, why would Stew Hansen own a LRE without air conditioning - it's not like he couldn't afford to check the box.
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Old 05-24-2012, 03:23 PM   #9
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On a side note, why would Stew Hansen own a LRE without air conditioning - it's not like he couldn't afford to check the box.
Maybe he had a sales manager that forgot to check the box?
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Old 05-24-2012, 03:35 PM   #10
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Originally Posted by XDCX View Post
Did you click on the link? If you haven't that will really increase the pain. Stew Hansen's old 1978 LRE has to be one of the nicest ones I've seen. So many of the ones I see on Ebay are hacked up and replace the interior seats with non LRE parts.

Concerning the '78 LRE vs the '79 LRE, isn't the '78 a fair bit faster because it was the last year for leaded gas and no catalytic converters? I thought I read in the past that the '79 LREs are de-tuned but many people still see them as more desirable because the quad-headlights look so cool.

On a side note, why would Stew Hansen own a LRE without air conditioning - it's not like he couldn't afford to check the box.
Yes... I clicked the linked...
It seems perfect.
I noticed that it DOES have a/c, which is rare because most did not. Don't want to rob any horsepower...
Some of the really early '78's were also built with W-2 heads on that 360 4bbl.

This one also has the optional clock on the right side of the instrument panel.
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Old 05-24-2012, 04:20 PM   #11
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I noticed that it DOES have a/c, which is rare because most did not. Don't want to rob any horsepower...
I re-read the listing and saw that the seller indicates it has AC.

The reason I though the AC was missing was due to the idler pulley just to the left and above the alternator. I had a '90 Dodge Ram without AC and that's the same spot they put the idler pulley to fill the void of the missing AC compressor.

Here's the picture of the engine compartment:




Who knows, I could certainly be wrong. Hell, I thought I was looking at the World's first Right Hand Drive LRE (based on the brake master cylinder and steering shaft) until I figured out the picture was reversed.
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Old 05-24-2012, 04:25 PM   #12
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I re-read the listing and saw that the seller indicates it has AC.

Who knows, I could certainly be wrong. Hell, I thought I was looking at the World's first Right Hand Drive LRE (based on the brake master cylinder and steering shaft) until I figured out the picture was reversed.
Now that's funny...!
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Old 05-25-2012, 02:26 PM   #13
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Now that's funny...!
It was the "G" and the "E" on the Dodge grille that saved me, otherwise I was sure Stew Hansen's LRE was RHD.

Concerning the W2 heads on some of the '78s, I was always under the impression that was an urban legend. I remember reading an article that interviewed one of the Chrysler engineers responsible for the LRE and he commented that they tried to sneak the W2 heads into production but upper-management caught wind of the plan and killed it.

On a final note, I checked some LREs on Ebay and I stand by my original position - the vehicle in the picture above does not have an AC compressor installed.
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Old 05-25-2012, 06:27 PM   #14
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I don't remember the exact year but I definitely remember a customer who had a LRE with w-2 heads.
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Old 05-26-2012, 09:41 AM   #15
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I don't remember the exact year but I definitely remember a customer who had a LRE with w-2 heads.
I did some searching on the Internet last night and most articles I read indicated the W2 heads were on the prototype LRE but they never made it to the production units.

For those who may not be too familiar with the LRE, the W2 heads were cylinder heads that were available from Chrysler's Direct Connection (now Mopar Performance) program.

Concerning the de-turned '79 version, there's a report on Allpar that indicated the '78s had a special camshaft that came from the '69 340 but the '79s lost that distinction and just had the camshaft that was available on the police version of the 360.

Here's a link to the Allpar report on the LRE - click here
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