K.C. still a friendly place for Mecum

KANSAS CITY, Mo. _ Mecum Auctions ended 2021 on a strong note at its last auction of the season in one of the company’s longest-tenured locations: Kansas City, Mo. Once again filling up the main level of Bartle Hall at the Kansas City Convention Center in the heart of downtown, the auction enjoyed a near-record high of 72 degrees on the first day of the auction, and the weather cooperated the subsequent two days.

Things were just as hot inside Bartle Hall on all three days; 525 of 622 vehicles offered were declared sold, with a 10-percent buyer’s premium for onsite bidders and 12-percent charge for off-site bidders. It added up to an overall sell-through rate of 84.4 percent, with generally strong sales on the cars that hammered sold.

This echoed the continuing trend in the collector car market at any type of collector car auction this year – be it live, online-only or, in the case of Mecum auctions, a blend of all of the above. The highest sale of all lots here was a LeMans Blue 1969 Chevy Camaro Z/28, fetching $135,000 on the hammer on Saturday afternoon. While not the record sale for an individual car here, it was good enough to help establish an overall sales record for this venue of $19.2 million, handily beating the previous overall best here of $13 million (note that these values are provided by Mecum, including all sales – including Automobilia – and buyer’s premiums).

Following are some of the more interesting individual sales from the event:

1971 Plymouth GTX

2d hardtop. . 1971 was the first year for the final generation of B-body muscle cars from Chrysler Corp. This one was restored in recent years, repainted and re-trimmed in the original True Blue Metallic with white vinyl roof plus replacement blue-and-white vinyl bucket seat interior. In addition to the new seat upholstery and carpet, the rest of the interior was obviously re-dyed – including the aftermarket speakers cut into the door panels and rear parcel shelves. Good base coat/clear coat repaint, with an odd combination of front fender hash stripe and pinstriping. However, it looks like the 440 decals on the power bulges were put over existing decals. The detuning of muscle cars began in earnest in 1971, with this GTX showing some of that with its 350-hp/440-cid engine (detuned from 375 horses in 1970). In this case, it’s a replacement engine for the original 440, and cleanly detailed to stock appearance. The front suspension was also recently refurbished. Until the last few years, the muscle car community didn’t take these final-generation B-bodies all that seriously, yet the 1971s