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Administrator
Join Date: Feb 2001
Location: The Hills of North Georgia,USA
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Ford Concept Car AuctionNow, as before: They're history
This article was written in September but wasn't posted on the web site until today. I had posted an article "same topic" from Car and Driver way back when but I had no pics, now we have pics.......
By Jack Keebler & Todd Lassa
Photography by David Freers
Motor Trend, September 2002
Some were dead on-target and Ford Motor Company sold millions inspired by them. Others were dead on arrival and spent most of their lives locked up tight and alone in a dark warehouse.
They're 51 different dream machines, conceived and most often constructed by the world's second-largest automaker, as well as Ford's Ghia studios. And they're gone: Christie's International Motor Cars auctioned them off at the Ford Product Development Center in Dearborn, Michigan, in June. All proceeds--more than $3.8 million--went to the Ford Motor Co. Fund, supporting non-profit education, community development, and environmental organizations.
Why sell off these irreplaceable pieces of the company's design history? To kick off its 2003 centennial celebration and to get the cars into the hands of collectors. "The alternative of putting these in a warehouse or, God forbid, crushing them--this is better," according to J Mays, Ford's vice president of global design. "At the end of the day, we'll find them very secure homes in a car lover's collection and return these concepts quickly to the show circuit."
Auction prices were all over the map as reserves (minimum bids) weren't imposed on any of the concepts. Christie's put catalog estimates on all these extraordinary Ford cars, trucks, and something-or-others, and, in most cases, they were significantly below the winning bids. "The values were based on which cars were the more interesting and recognizable," Miles Morris, senior vice president of International Motor Cars for Christie's explains. "And though they're not being sold as road legal at all, the ones that have a motor and can actually drive or move will intrinsically have more value to car collectors, obviously. We've been getting a lot of interest from Ford dealers, of course--they can put them in their showrooms and attract the public."
Multi-marque collectors were interested in the Ford and Ghia concepts as automotive sculpture, and Morris also saw some crossover from Christie's clients who collect 20th-century art and sculpture. "Some of the Ghia cars may have extra interest from Italy, and maybe a few will head back home." That old Ford populism extends far beyond the well-heeled individuals who can afford the concepts, though; the company figures the auction will give the cars much more exposure.
"I think J put it into perspective by saying these vehicles weren't being shown and displayed," Morris says. "They were literally sitting in a dusty, old warehouse. Actually, only one or two were in a dusty one. Many were in temperature- and climate-controlled facilities that cost a lot of money each month."
Morris adds that it's important to understand Ford isn't selling everything in its design study collection. Some concepts on the original list of those to be auctioned were donated to other people and to museums. Many are one of two or more versions built. The '99 Thunderbird concept, which yielded $88,000, is one example.
"They're keeping the Sport Roadster, which is being shown in the Living Legends studio," Morris says. "They've also got the other one, and we got the last one. So they had three. Do they need three? Another example is the Indigo. They have three. They're keeping the fully functioning one with the V-12 engine. The other two they're selling. One is a platform vehicle with no interior. The other is a full interior, a full suspension, but no motor or transaxle." The platform mockup without interior sold for $42,300. The Indigo model with steerable wheels, interior, and operating doors went for $88,125. A 40-percent-scale model was auctioned for $14,000.
Does Morris have a favorite concept? "The '92 Ghia Focus," he says without hesitation. "I think it's tremendous." Mays likes both the Ghia Focus and the '93 Mustang Mach III concept, the latter a true speedster with no top, with a 450-hp supercharged V-8 from John Coletti's Special Vehicle Team (it sold for $440,000).
The Ghia Focus was featured on the cover of Christie's catalog for the sale and is an extremely imaginative, almost surrealistic example of organic exterior and interior automotive design, rendered on the potent Escort RS Cosworth all-wheel-drive platform. Porsche's Boxster looks positively tame in comparison. Christie's estimated that this star of the collection would go for $100,000 to $200,000. On auction day, bidders pushed the price to an astounding $1,107,500.
The second-highest price was paid for a sleek four-door model called the Mercury MC4. That car, which features many nickel-plated interior and exterior pieces, appeared on the June 1997 cover of Motor Trend. We mentioned "attention to detail at championship street-rod levels." Built on the previous-generation T-Bird platform, the MC4 went for a cool $645,500, handily surpassing Christie's original $60,000-$120,000 estimate.
The cars and trucks sold at the auction were at widely disparate levels of function and condition. Some were driveable (though not street-legal), like the Mustang Bullitt with special show paint and handmade exterior and interior details that set it apart from production models. Others like the '89 Ghia Saguaro, which sold for $6463, are simple platform concepts rendered in fiberglass. The doors don't open, the wheel covers are plastic, and it's steered into position by kicking the tire sidewalls.
None is 100-point concoursthey all showed paint scratches from being dry-rubbed at hundreds of car shows. Some are missing windows and have cracked leather seats. The Ghia Megastar showed up sans its air-conditioner compressor, for example, and other cars have had careful, but obvious, body repairs. Still, every car found a home, and each new owner can take pride in owning a piece of Ford's product-development history, however minor a role it may have played.
Even when new, concept cars typically are held together with chewing gum and bailing wireno matter who builds them. Some are painted hours before they're unveiled on the car-show floor, and they're often kept alive by makeshift measures while on the circuit. Which leaves us with this question: Will concours' judges give extra points for perfectly restored underbody duct tape?
(Car in photo is a Ghia Focus)
__________________
Stacy94PGT
My first car was a 67 Mustang Coupe, 2nd one was a 67 Cougar XR-7, 3rd one was a 66 Mustang Coupe. Why did I get rid of these cars for ? I know why, because I'm stupid, stupid, stupid. 
My next Ford.....
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