Team Speed Walks the Red Carpet at Mecum Louisville
We head to the Bluegrass State to check out some of the finest luxury and performance machines to cross the block.
We’ve all found ourselves watching the action on our flat screens from the biggest auction houses around, like Barrett-Jackson and Mecum Auctions. These two alone make every moment a wild one, and every car a star. And though we’re always busy here at the Team Speed offices in Los Angeles, we’ve always wanted to check one of these big extravaganzas for ourselves.
So, we headed down to Louisville, Kentucky, where Mecum Auctions was hosting its most recent auction inside the city’s Kentucky Exposition Center on September 20 and 21.
This 2020 Toyota GR Supra Launch Edition pictured above was likely the newest car up for bidding at Mecum Louisville. So new, in fact, that it was a one-owner with just 16 miles on the 3.0-liter turbo-six and eight-speed automatic. It even had its original window sticker, which was attached to the inside of the windshield. We were somewhat stunned to see a car like this go up so soon. It’s definitely an attention-getter, though.
Here’s another attention-getter, above, a stunning silver 1962 Jaguar Mk II. One of the last cars of Saturday’s card, the big cat had new black leather seats, accented by the finest woods to be carved and placed inside a Jaguar. There’s even a couple of wood trays for passengers to enjoy some tea or champagne when the car’s not moving.
This 1949 MG TC Roadster above was waiting in line to roll under the spotlight and TV cameras at Mecum Louisville, and it’s got quite a backstory. Turns out the car was owned by Hugh Lee Grundy, who ran the infamous Air America (covertly run by the Central Intelligence Agency) from the late Forties to the Sixties.
Grundy bought the car in Hong Kong, shipped it to Kentucky, then stored it away in a wooden box, covered in Vaseline to prevent rust. The MG was then restored by the seller, and it was featured in the book The Hemi in the Barn by Tom Cotter. The vehicle did find a new home, receiving a “Mecum Sold” sticker on its windshield upon the winning bid.
Before Studebaker collapsed in the mid-Sixties, it went out with a bang, in the form of the spectacular Avanti. Approximately 5,800 cars left South Bend, Indiana, between June 1962 and December 1963, including this ’63 model in white-on-tan. There have been replicas since then, but none can touch something as amazing as this Avanti, whose 4.7-liter V8 recorded some 68,000 miles in its lifetime.
We haven’t forgotten the Italians. We didn’t find any Ferraris or Lamborghinis hanging around, but we did spot this classy 2006 Maserati Quattroporte Executive GT in blue with fine tan leather.
The first generation of the Quattroporte sold in the United States since Maserati’s brief exit from the market at the end of the 1980s included 60 special editions sold directly through Neiman Marcus in the retailer’s 2004 Christmas catalog. This one may not be one of those special cars, but it does have massaging rear seats, retractable rear tables to work on contracts for the big deal, and the Ferrari-built 4.2-liter V8.
And of course, we found this black Teutonic terror above lurking in the wings. The 2004 Mercedes-AMG SL55 packs a retractable hardtop for keeping the wind and thieves at bay, and a 5.5-liter V8 with six-speed automatic to chase the sun down wherever it goes. And it lacks a rear “seat,” so the space can be used for some getaway bags without dealing with seat belts.
All of these rides are just a handful of examples we found while checking out the Mecum Auctions event. We’ll just have to buy a few tickets to the Vegas auction, happening Oct. 10-12, to experience the joy ourselves. Check out more of the auction-bound vehicles we came across in Louisville, below.
Photos for Team Speed by Cameron Aubernon
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