A Second Chance At The Lambrecht Chevrolets
If the numbers truly don’t lie, then TTAC readers are extremely interested in the Lambrecht Chevrolet saga; it’s been one of our biggest stories of the year. And now, there’s a coda of sorts to the ultimate old-cars-in-the barn tale.
It’s no surprise that the hot stuff from the original auction didn’t get left on the table; unless you’ve been waiting your entire life for a burned-out ’53 Bel Air or a pre-crashed ’73 Malibu coupe, this won’t exactly feel like Barrett-Jackson to you. With that said, experienced restorers in search of a project or a VIN will find a few likely candidates among the detritus. Right now the bidding on most of them has stayed well under a grand. You can barely get a decent pair of shoes for that kind of money, you know!
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Two of the Lambrecht Chevrolets made it to my small town. One low-mile specimen went to my co-worker's father-in-law. I'm fine to live vicariously through him.
Is TTAC really so biased that it can only run nostalgia pieces on 50 and 60 year old Chevies? The C-7 Vette just stomped a new mud hole in a bunch of Porsche, AMG, and Ferraris in a Road and Track article. I am suspecting that were TTAC to eventually write the kind of article the new Vette deserves, it would still (TTAC has consistently had a zero tolerance policy regarding $50,000 American cars that outperforms $200,000 European cars) have to throw in a few gratuitously-derogatory lines about Eddy Money-lookalike mullet-wearing, gold chained, Big-haired bleached-blond accouterments, but STILL, c'mon here!
Most of the cars were at best donors. I've read elsewhere that people who specialize in certain parts like trim and chrome were stripping the cars on the spot, and then selling what was left to someone else who was there for other parts until nothing was left but the shell. Of the second chance cars only the older cars from the 40's and 50's look like they're worth the trouble to get back on the road. The Malibu and the 70's Impala will probably end up as demo derby cars. The 67 Chevy fast back has some potential even though it has some dents on the right rear quarter. The auction house that handled this really did a poor job, it hyped as a collector car auction, but it was treated more like a farm foreclosure auction. The boxes of NOS parts and memorabilia were stacked outside in the dirt and were rained on, even though they could have been left in a building and brought out when it was time to auction them.
Some sad old iron out there...