STORY LINE:   ANNUAL LABOR DAY KRUSE AUCTION/ACD FESTIVAL-AUBURN INDIANA

Labor Day for the past 15 years or so, Auburn, Indiana has been that weekends getaway for me; with one of the largest-if not the largest-collector car auctions in the country, and the Auburn-Cord-Duesenberg Festival where most of the worlds remaining Duesenberg congregate. The 2000 plus vehicle auction is alive for the better part of five days-Thursday through Tuesday, with the ACD Festival held at the ACD Museum through Labor Day Monday.

The world is a good place when I am surrounded by my favorite kind of fabricated and contoured steel, the automobile-and for me that includes virtually any year make and/or model-and it IS rolling sculpture. Friday early AM we arrived at the KRUSE Auction Park just south of Auburn with a light rain following, that kept us indoors and attentive to the auction block, and in and under the multiple tents and buildings looking at the vehicles to be sold. Overall, Friday prices seemed to have been a fair buyers market place as 100 cars from the Mike Leith Collection crossed the block A car dealer holding 42 retail stores, during the last year had previously sold 200 of his 350 car collection-of the 100 cars crossing the block this weekend, over 80% sold. Most-if not all-were of mildly excellent condition. Two of the cars that caught my personal special interest were a ‘63 Ford Fordor and a ’65 Olds Starfire hardtop.

The Ford was a rare piece with a documented ‘revenuer service history as a bootlegger pursuit car. A pic-a-door 300 series ‘B’ code single four barrel solid lifter and dual exhaust 385HP/406CID with 4-speed on the floor, HD factory suspension components and 15-inch factory wheels with ‘dog dish’ caps, a spotlight on the ‘A’ pillar where it’s supposed to be. And hidden under the hood a siren mounted on the drivers side fender apron and flashing red lights between the grille and core support. Way cool in a Medium Metallic Blue color and original Blue vinyl bench seat trim, this dinosaur sold for $11,800.00. Had it been a tudor Ford it would have brought over 20K. Interesting that the only change to the Ford from original was a new set of Tiger Paw 15-inch radial black wall tires.

Sold at $10,000.00, the Starfire was a White two door hardtop/Blue bucket seat trim, with every factory option excepting autronic eye and cruise control. These 370HP/425CID dual exhaust behemoths were a pleasure to own and drive when new and will still fool todays unsuspecting ‘wear yer baseball cap backwords’ Mustang driver at any stoplight Gran Prix. Trick that they were with 470 ft. lbs. of torque and a standard ‘switch pitch’ stator Turbo 400 that was capable of an incredibly strong launch-only Olds and Buick had this feature, an engineering marvel from the original Dynaflow transmission that savvy drag racers use to this day.

Saturday was a dry day so the Vickster and I walked the swap meet and car corral area … in between the ruttted water filled and mud holes. Early afternoon was thee show to behold in the Auburn City Park,  with all the Duesenberg cars assembled for the parade. We drove in a million dollar Black and Orange 1934 Brunn bodied Riviera Phaeton Model J short wheelbase Duesenberg-one of three ever built, courtesy of Brian Joseph owner of Classic & Exotic Service, Inc.(Troy, MI)-Brian is highly regarded  as thee Duesenberg ‘mechanic’  … period. Driving ahead of us and also from the Brian Joseph stable was the most famous of all Duesenberg cars, the Morman Meteor-regarded as the most valuable Duesenberg built, $15 million-was piloted by Ab Jenkins to several land speed records at Bonneville. Only about 500 Duesenberg cars were ever built and in it’s day were considered the finest cars in the world.  

The parade ending in the Auburn Downtown city center at the Dekalb County Courthouse brought another highlight of the weekend … as I very much enjoy architecture, a personal tour and a step back in time of the aged and beautifully renewed courthouse building by Judge Paul R. Cherry of the Dekalb County Circuit Court, and one Clinton Stephens-over 32 years as the buildings caretaker.

History is beautiful … be it steel or concrete.

TOP HAT JOHN can be contacted for story leads, vehicle appraisals, or questions at: P.O. Box 46024, Mt. Clemens, MI., 48046-6024; or call 586-465-1933