Save your nickles!! The Ralph Whitworth Collection heads to auction!

Just ordered my catalog, the Mickey Thompson mini bike did it for me. Aim low, right?

 

No '65 Landy AFX 65 dodge listed...maybe not all of the collection is being sold or it was sold privately...my dream car!

 

I drive by the Peterson Museum here in LA every week, if not several times a week, and that place is always a ghost town in the parking lot.

Everytime I've been there I've practically had the place to myself.

IIRC Petersen sold it to the city for $1 , and for good reason, it must cost a bundle to keep that place running.

Race Rock Cafe in Las Vegas went under, and if you ever saw that place they had an amazing assortment of memorabilia and whatnot.

Isn't the museum at the Pomona fairplex closing as well?

It's gotta be tough to keep the lights on at a car museum.

 

You have a good point there.

5 or 6 years ago I was in Reno, the wife and I decided to hit the National Auto Museum/Harrah Collection because Ed Roth's Beatnik Bandit was on display. It was a ghost town. A Saturday afternoon and the place was empty.

 

What i wouldnt give to have this car....Its amazing...I couldnt walk away from it in Detroit.

Now i'm confused by something....I see Rudy's old truck but didnt that get ruined/redone??

 

WOW man!!! Lottery, here I come!!

 

Anyone else get the catalogue? I'm a little biased since I worked with/on all of these cars but I really had to have it!

 

Checked out the link....awesome!!!!
if you click on the pics it also gives you an estimate as to what they think each car will sell for. Will be very interesting to see how close their estimates are to reality in a few weeks.

 

Those prices are wack..........3-5 thousand for the mini bike. I just will never understand any of it.

Whats even worse...50-70 thousand for the rat rod 35 pickup.

 

yea well thinking a rat rod is going to sell for 70k is far from it selling for that price

I wonder if they will publish the prices they sell for. The price of an air ticket is probably a bit much to just attend the auction for curiosity sake

 

That is the Truck responsible for the "bobber" truck craze. 50k doesn't seem too bad a price.

 

you think they do any trades ?

 

Lots on here did. To me it's just like a softcover book with tons of historical info in it.

Those are just guess-imates. OF course they are going to be high. There's no real way to put a realistic value on a one of a kind.

Quite a few of us are attending but for most it's to view the collection before it gets split up, some to private collections never to be seen again by the public.

 

Just leave Mooseman in charge Willy, and go !!

 

Take tons of pictures for us that can't make.Oh and I'd like the Boothill Express for Christmas if anyone was wondering what to get me.

 

Go to the RM Auctions web site, look for the results tab. A few days after the auction ends, the results will be posted.

 

You're in line for it right behind DOC.

 

Then it should be punished........

 

When it gets to your living room can I sit in it?

 

Now correct me if I'm wrong, but aren't there TWO Boothill Expresses? One is open, one is enclosed. The Petersen owns one but I don't believe that is the one in the auction, correct? From what I understand the open one, the one the Petersen owns, runs and drives and the other is more for show?

 

Here's the one in the Petersen vault. I don't have my catalog here at work to compare the two.....but I bet you do



Of course I forgot RM doesn't let you capture their photos. Here's a link to the one that's going on the auction block. Little bit of a difference, not much. Both are "open" cockpits though.

http://www.rmauctions.com/FeatureCars-RW.cfm?SaleCode=RW09&CarID=r089&fc=1


The one up for auction................Est. 450 hp, 426 cu. in. Chrysler Hemi V8 engine with Hilborn fuel injection, Chrysler A-727 TorqueFlite three-speed automatic transmission, CAE tubular straight front axle with transverse leaf spring, live rear axle with full-elliptic leaf springs, and two-wheel drum brakes.

To thousands of custom-car fans who grew up during the 1960s, Ray Fahrner created some of the most memorable and radical show rods of all time. Fahrner, who sadly passed away in 2005, first came to prominence in the late 1950s with his groundbreaking 1932 Ford Roadster Pickup dubbed the Eclipse, which somehow managed to bridge the rapidly growing divide between custom and hot rod vehicles. Once on the map, Fahrner’s Independence, Missouri-based custom shop continued to push the edge of the custom-car design envelope during the 1960s, with his work truly echoing the unbridled creativity and experimental nature of American society during the turbulent 1960s.

By 1967, Fahrner completed what many believe to be his signature creation, the outrageous “Boothill Express”. As a basis for this stunning vehicle he chose a circa-1850 horse-drawn funeral coach by Cunningham of New York, which reportedly carried James Gang member Bob Younger to his grave on “Boot Hill”. Featuring solid and stately construction, the exterior of the wooden hearse body displays ornate carved moldings as well as a set of brass lamps reportedly dating to late 18th-century India at the front and rear of the vehicle. Inside, the hearse is fitted with proper funeral equipment, including tasseled velvet curtains and a set of polished coffin rails.

The chrome-plated suspension features a gasser-style CAE tubular solid front axle and hairpins, along with a simple, yet effective steering system from a 1963 Volkswagen Beetle up front. At the rear, a pair of full-elliptic leaf springs, a 1948 Ford rear end and a pair of drum brakes round out the suspension features. The engine is completely outrageous – a 426 cubic inch Chrysler Hemi V8 topped by Hilborn fuel injection, with extra-tall velocity stacks jutting through the top of the hearse body, while eight individual pipes route the spent exhaust gases to the rear of the vehicle. A stout pushbutton-operated Chrysler A-727 TorqueFlite automatic transmission handles the engine’s output, while the car’s aggressive rake is provided by a pair of E-T 10-spoke spindle-mounted front wheels, along with taller and wider Cragar S/S wheels and Goodyear Blue Streak slicks at the rear. Other features include a Ford Model T steering wheel, a Moon hydraulic throttle and canister-style fuel tank as well as an instrument cluster fitted with Stewart-Warner gauges. The open bench-type front seat features black diamond-tufted upholstery.

Following its completion, the Boothill Express formed part of Fahrner’s “Boothill Caravan” travelling show, which toured dragstips and the auto show circuit nationwide during the late 1960s, thrilling countless spectators nationwide. And in the best 1960s show-rod tradition, the Boothill Express was immortalized with the 1967 release of a 1:24-scale plastic model kit by Monogram, complete with a skeleton packing a six-shooter and wearing a 10-gallon hat. In fact, due to strong public demand, the model kit was reissued in 1994.

Today, the Boothill Express benefits from an expert detailing and is offered in period correct, unrestored condition. It is ready to resume its show career, or to form the prized centerpiece of a carefully assembled collection of the most famous and iconic show rods ever created. The Boothill Express truly remains a lasting tribute to the wild genius of Ray Fahrner, a custom-car legend with an unbridled imagination.

 

I'll settle for tons of photos then

 

Cool fifty Mercury, La Jolla, Westergard Merc. Deora, and five or six others are my choice.

 

My Dad is thinking about that '49 Olds. Would be cool to be able to bid for him, win and drive the car home with my sidekick Thelma

 

When I said open, I meant the back. It would appear the one in the sale is open in the back, not enclosed by glass. Apparently I have them backwards, the one in the Petersen is enclosed and the one in the sale is open. A friend of mine used to own one, I think the open one.

Like Mark said, it is amazing how much interest this one car has generated. I think for the most part people don't know that two exist.

 

Sure they do, just gotta know how.





Lots of little differences when you get them side by side. different decorations on the roof (don't know what they are called). no lanterns on the one in the petersen vault, intake pipes are different, etc. maybe the lanterns and the decorations are removed for storage tho.