Barrett-Jackson, Scottsdale, Arizona

It was a Barrett-Jackson like you’d never seen it before. Groupings of two and three seats were clustered together but placed 6 feet apart. The tens of thousands of humanoids who normally swarm the event just to see the cars were nowhere to be found. The manufacturers’ midway was reduced to a couple of tents outside the main building, and there was no crowd to work through. We didn’t spy any stanchions to cordon off the cars, as there frequently are, and although there were signs up everywhere and frequent security sweeps, you could get much closer to the lots than you ever could before. Chances are you will never attend a Barrett-Jackson auction like this one that ran October 22-24 at Westworld in Scottsdale, Arizona. On hand at the sale were workers, bidders, consigners, lucky guests, and media grunts. For the first time ever, the public wasn’t invited to share in the fun.

It was Barrett-Jackson’s inaugural attempt at a live auction in the social-distancing age and it seemed to work. The total haul came up just short of $25 million in three days — including nearly $700,000 in neon signs and vintage petroliana. Barrett-Jackson’s no-reserve field meant that there was a mind-blowing 100-percent sell-through, so every car on display found a home. And, unusually (perhaps crucially?), every single one of them, from the beefiest muscle to the sketchiest