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Quite a few Club members
had traveled to Scottsdale, AZ in the past several years to
take in and enjoy many of the car auctions that run during January
each year. The most famous of course is Barrett-Jackson, and has a
lot to offer the car fanatic.
These members would come back to Calgary with many stories and even more
photos.
The proverbial
"water-cooler" conversation led to talk of having a Club
gathering in Scottsdale,
as several members had been interested in going, talked about it, but never
seemed to make the trip. This last winter, some of us said "That's
it, we are finally going this time.!" Well, we planned it ...and it
happened.
A total of about 14
to 16 active Club members ended up in Scottsdale at various times
during the Jan 16-25 timeframe, from 3 days to 10 days stay. By all
accounts, a good time was had by all. There is already talk of doing
this again next year.
If you have not been
before, the sheer size of Barrett-Jackson is amazing; you cannot see it all in one day,
if you also want to see some of the "auction action". The cars, the products, the tools, the people,.. wow.!
Many of the "build
cars" from the various Car Shows on Speed and Spike for example are
being auctioned at one of the many auctions in town. Many low
production cars are here; in fact the most oft-used phrase heard
this week is "One of One" - seems nearly every car was described as
such...
The second biggest
auction this week is the Russo and Steele, which is a
"reserve" auction, and features many rare, numbers-matching cars,
such as Boss's, Shelby's, Corvettes and rare Mopars.
This January in
Phoenix, they experienced the worst rain storms in the area in the
past 20 years. Some of the worst devastation actually occurred on
the Thursday Jan 21, on the grounds of the Russo and Steele auction.
It had rained a good part of the day. Near supper-time, the Fire
Dept evacuated the two large 800' long tents that were sheltering
the cars. The storm ended up lifting these tents and dropping them
back down on the cars, causing several millions of dollars of
damage. Many of the cars we had enjoyed viewing hours earlier had
now been damaged; in some cases quite seriously. Some of the cars
pictured here no longer look the same. There are many other photos
on the Internet which reflect the damage done. Luckily nobody was
seriously injured.
There are many good
memories however, of this week. They include: the great Mexican
cuisine, the rental Red 2010 Mustang convertible (great for cruising
around the Phoenix area), Mango Margaritas, Roger Penske Racing
Museum, the plentiful cacti, Cave Creek, and the time spent with the
fellow Mustangers, from Calgary, Edmonton and Great Falls who we ran
into.
If you have been to
Scottsdale in January before; you will probably go again. If you are
a car fanatic and have not yet been there, regardless of your
favourite brand or model, you do need to go sometime.!
(click
on Page 2 for more photos).
