RM Ft. Lauderdale, February 9-11, 2007
RM Auctions held its Florida Collector Car Auction over the weekend in a new location, the Ft. Lauderdale Convention Center at Port Everglades. It was quite a change from the Polo Club in Boca Raton.
The venue was indoors, in a vast exhibition space. Air conditioned, essentially dustless (and wasn't that ever a change from the fine silica grit, a jagged pumice, that permeated, penetrated and coated every surface, space and cranny at Boca), dry and well lighted. Close to heaven? Yes, although some grumbles were heard about the loss of the Polo Club ambience.
Good riddance to ambience. Heck, the Convention Center even had $5 Subway subs and white-suited chefs slicing New York deli sandwiches for eight bucks. $3 sodas were a bit much, but there were $4 "venti" lattes and cappuccinos in the lobby. Brewed with Starbucks.
[What about Rick's standard measure of auction venues, the rest rooms? Superb, plentiful, convenient and frequently and thoroughly cleaned. The Ft. Lauderdale Convention Center rest rooms qualify for a "2" on the rest room rating scale. What's a "1", you ask? The Ritz Carlton Amelia Island; they're not as convenient to the auction venue, but they're an order of magnitude more posh.]
The access was convoluted, being located within the confines of Port Everglades and its cruise ship access (can anyone remember the Achille Lauro?) and therefore subject to nearly-TSA security. That meant long lines at the entrances to present your photo ID and answer "Where are you going" and "Do you have any weapons" questions from officious Broward County Sheriff's Department functionaries.
Then it was $8-10 to park in the giant garage (but at least it was just across the street from the Convention Center and connnected by covered bridges.)
The space was shared with the "Baby Faire" [showing strollers that were technically more sophisticated than most of the $60,000 cars being sold at the auction], the Cosmetic Surgery Expo (no, really -- this is South Florida) and the Bridal Expo (apparently not related to the Baby Faire).
Next year the auction promises to have all the ground floor (thus avoiding embarassing comparisons between the cars and the strollers) which also should serve to reduce the security checkpoint and parking garage congestion.
Details out of the way, it's time to give Donnie Gould full credit for this auction, which has grown like Topsy since it began a few years ago and which has (and this isn't just my opinion) one of the best, most diverse, intriguing consignments of very high quality cars of any auction in the country.
458 cars crossed the block and each of them warranted a serious look. It wasn't the Pony Parade of a few weeks ago in Arizona. The consignment tended to be American, and for South Florida it was surprisingly light on German cars, but no one was going to be disappointed with either the quality or the diversity of the cars. It was very nice stuff, and it was displayed with taste and style, even in the somewhat constricted square footage of this year's auction space.
This is Florida, not Arizona. It was 75 degrees and muggy (which is why "air conditioned" came first earlier). There's a tendency to pastels, and even a Jimmy Buffett Falcon Futura among the cars. If anything "showoff" is a bigger deal here than in Arizona. Canadian and Upper Midwest "ehs" were very much in evidence.
The auction report should be done some time (not "sometime" although that could be used, too) next week, after I get back from Retromobile. It's worth waiting for.
Rick Carey
February 12, 2007
RM Auctions held its Florida Collector Car Auction over the weekend in a new location, the Ft. Lauderdale Convention Center at Port Everglades. It was quite a change from the Polo Club in Boca Raton.
The venue was indoors, in a vast exhibition space. Air conditioned, essentially dustless (and wasn't that ever a change from the fine silica grit, a jagged pumice, that permeated, penetrated and coated every surface, space and cranny at Boca), dry and well lighted. Close to heaven? Yes, although some grumbles were heard about the loss of the Polo Club ambience.
Good riddance to ambience. Heck, the Convention Center even had $5 Subway subs and white-suited chefs slicing New York deli sandwiches for eight bucks. $3 sodas were a bit much, but there were $4 "venti" lattes and cappuccinos in the lobby. Brewed with Starbucks.
[What about Rick's standard measure of auction venues, the rest rooms? Superb, plentiful, convenient and frequently and thoroughly cleaned. The Ft. Lauderdale Convention Center rest rooms qualify for a "2" on the rest room rating scale. What's a "1", you ask? The Ritz Carlton Amelia Island; they're not as convenient to the auction venue, but they're an order of magnitude more posh.]
The access was convoluted, being located within the confines of Port Everglades and its cruise ship access (can anyone remember the Achille Lauro?) and therefore subject to nearly-TSA security. That meant long lines at the entrances to present your photo ID and answer "Where are you going" and "Do you have any weapons" questions from officious Broward County Sheriff's Department functionaries.
Then it was $8-10 to park in the giant garage (but at least it was just across the street from the Convention Center and connnected by covered bridges.)
The space was shared with the "Baby Faire" [showing strollers that were technically more sophisticated than most of the $60,000 cars being sold at the auction], the Cosmetic Surgery Expo (no, really -- this is South Florida) and the Bridal Expo (apparently not related to the Baby Faire).
Next year the auction promises to have all the ground floor (thus avoiding embarassing comparisons between the cars and the strollers) which also should serve to reduce the security checkpoint and parking garage congestion.
Details out of the way, it's time to give Donnie Gould full credit for this auction, which has grown like Topsy since it began a few years ago and which has (and this isn't just my opinion) one of the best, most diverse, intriguing consignments of very high quality cars of any auction in the country.
458 cars crossed the block and each of them warranted a serious look. It wasn't the Pony Parade of a few weeks ago in Arizona. The consignment tended to be American, and for South Florida it was surprisingly light on German cars, but no one was going to be disappointed with either the quality or the diversity of the cars. It was very nice stuff, and it was displayed with taste and style, even in the somewhat constricted square footage of this year's auction space.
This is Florida, not Arizona. It was 75 degrees and muggy (which is why "air conditioned" came first earlier). There's a tendency to pastels, and even a Jimmy Buffett Falcon Futura among the cars. If anything "showoff" is a bigger deal here than in Arizona. Canadian and Upper Midwest "ehs" were very much in evidence.
The auction report should be done some time (not "sometime" although that could be used, too) next week, after I get back from Retromobile. It's worth waiting for.
Rick Carey
February 12, 2007
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